We talk about this a little bit in-game but I just wanted to give some tips to those that are considering their initial weapon choice.

Stamina is the key element in DFO when you are out of stamina you are done.

I have had a couple of one-on-one pvp fights with 2H (either sword or polearm) and generally those fights end with them running with me at full life and half or more stam. They quickly run out of stam and I beat them down. Sword and Board beats 2H.

Last night we were in Epic's town on Cairn and only one guy was active and 3-4 were afk getting Willie's faction up (I haven't seen Willie blue since we started day 1 of launch).

Donk and the Epic guy chat a bit and we decide to 1v1 instead of everyone chasing the guy around. Our biggest problem was that his euro ping of 20 versus our 250 made for an interesting fight with him moving quickly doing figure 8's at sprint speed and some of us not keeping up very well.

His 2H vs our 2H (2 of ours 1v1) was not much of a fight after he started the sprinting. Even though our best pvpers were involved he finished them off fairly easily.

I was the only Sword and Board, and I am not saying I am our best pvper, and our fight ended as a no decision. He couldn't kill me and I regenned as fast as he was hitting me. He backed off alot when I wasn't taking damage, I expect to conserve his stam. I never went below 85-90% hp or 80-90% stam and I did not press him much on the attack, I did press a little to test him when he backed off and he backed further which I think meant he had burned some stam.

So while it was an UGLY fight my defense was close to equal to his attack and I feel like my survivability is very high 1v1 or more importantly when sieging starts. If someone is attacking me in a siege they are going to want to switch to a softer target who they can take down faster. The longer I can keep standing the more I am distracting or attacking them. It's a battle of attrition and this style is one that can help you stay in the battle.

I am going to work up my 2H sword but I am very happy with the Sword and Board start. Parry is king right now in DFO.

As I said it was a very boring ugly fight with him having difficulty with my defense and me staying defensive mostly, but there were 4-5 guys watching the fight, however dissapointing it was for action, maybe they can give their take on it.

My parry was only 44.8 at the time. It goes up slow but it's powerful.

You may have talked me into going sword and board hare

I would love to hear other people take on this - either way I am going bow #1 but swords is still low enough that I can switch

Vyse - I'm also primarily an archer, which makes sword and board pretty awesome. With my primary DPS being ranged, I love the ability to parry and burn my enemy's stamina when they come into melee range. Shields tend to keep enemies at distance, which is exactly how we archers like them!

Got the same kind of experience : some pk jumped on me while I was resting. I was like 20% health, 50% stam when I got on my feet with my equipment unsheathed.

The 2h user (and not a shitty one) had to use stam pots and food before I got to 5% stam. The moment a mob chose to backstab me.

Right now, Archery + Sword & Board + Magery = Teh King.

Hell, even removing either Archery or Magery plus Sword and Board is still freaking tuff to beat with someone playing like they know what there doing.

Personally I view it in effects. Sword and Board = Defence, while 2-H = Attack. I rotate between sword and board to drive down their stamina and then switch to 2-h for the ass beating. When I need to regen stam, out comes the board. Your right people are wary of attacking the shield because of how strong it is right now. And I usually start and end with magic when they decided to run in or away.

Do Polearms drain the same amount of stam as 2H?

one thing I did notice on that fight... and many fights with boards is a lot of people will stop attacking you while you hold shield up. The trick is to take it down and rush them but at last second pull shield back up for a block. You'll catch them mid swing against you and draw the stam.

The fight last night was slow because he was not willing to engage you with your shield up. Just gotta get good at tricking them and get inside their head.

I try my best with axe and shield, but I really get owned every time by 2 handers with greater strength. Yes, I drain their stam faster, but they always get a few hits in and I am usually at lower health due to damage discrepancy. If I go in swinging at that point, they will probably regen enough stam to kill me before I can take them down. If they have mana to stam, it's even worse.

It only seems to work against people who don't manage their stam well, don't have food or pots, and totally run out of stam.

I'm open to suggestions.

I have a hard time recommending this for anyone who doesn't feel skilled in twitch fighting.

It's totally uber for group PvE though.

rhaikh : you can also use food, pots and mana to stam spell. Even worse : pack some health pot.

Food is always on.

I don't need the mana to stam, since I usually have half a bar when they're out. Problem is I have half a bar of health too, and they have 3/4 or more.

Heal self is horribly slow and heals less than I'm gonna lose than when the 2h'er realizes I switched to staff and starts beating on me. I feel like lesser pots would be about the same. Major pots are out of my price range atm.

You NEED mana to stam...Done

You need to rank parry to solve the rest of your problems. Once it's over 50, the stam cost of it goes down.

You should take little to no dmg while parrying....I never heal myself...unless it's an incredibly long fight or I'm running

I have mana to stam, but at that point in the fight I don't need it because I still have plenty. My parry is like 30, I take very little damage when I time it correctly and my stam drain is low. The problem is that I take damage while doing this, if I mistime parry, or when I decide to swing and they do too. I could just stand there like a brick, I guess, but they would just wait for my stam to drain if I held my shield up all the time.

So a few hits get in, and I have half health, and I can't survive the few hits they would get in due to stam regen while I try to kill them.

Sounds like you need to get your vitality up a bit.

Base stats> all

ans as said above, higher parry skill will reduce your stam cost