The most important part of multiplayer games is strategizing and theorycrafting with other players, especially ones who are better than you.
Early on in my esports journey, I wanted to be a lone wolf. I figured I could work harder and out-grind most other people in my quest to rise to the top. I was half right -- my grind ethic was fantastic, but I found myself hard stuck well below the top ranks of my chosen games.
No matter how hard I worked, I couldn't break through.
That's why nowadays I really focus on taking advice from better players. There's no substitute for game knowledge from the best players, its just the best possible thing.
All of that to say -- I got an interesting tip from the top Lost Relics player the other day.
One Handed Swords are Underrated?
Most players who I talk to about Lost Relics agree that two-handed swords are the best weapons. They do way more DPS than the one-handers, allowing you to face-tank monsters and swing repeatedly until everything dies.
I mentioned that one-handed swords could maybe use a buff in chat, and got this in response from top player howlingmad:
Interesting!
If you look at the marketplace, two-handed swords command a much higher price than one-handers.
Look at this one-handed epic sword. The Cavalier Crusader is worth less than 700 shadowstones -- about 7 ENJ.
Compare that to the Obsidian Defender and the Scarcarver -- both 2-handed swords, commanding a price of over 2000 shadowstones aka 20 ENJ!
The same thing is true for rare weapons. The Lost Crusader, 2-hander, is more expensive than the Firelight Falchion, a one-hander.
Falchion = 108 shadowstones
The Lost Stampeder = 301 shadowstones
Learning One-Handed Sword Strategies
I've spent about two days working on running the Shallow Swamps with the firelight falchion. It's pretty good! The sword is much faster and allows me to be more flexible and/or reactive as I fight different enemies.
Aggroing enemies is a key aspect of using the one-hander. I must avoid getting too many enemies on me at once. With a two-handed sword, I can charge into the heat of battle and swing wildly at a crowd of enemies to destroy them. The one-handed sword is too slow at killing groups of enemies with its lower DPS.
Thus, it is really important to only aggro one or two enemies at a time. It's also crucial to think quickly in lock-in rooms, where you can't leave the room until killing all the enemies.
Since enemies spawn one-by-one, you must kill the first few enemies as soon as you enter the room.
No time to delay -- if you wait, more enemies will spawn and the crowd of mobs can overwhelm your one-handed sword's DPS capabilities.
Overall there is a lot more exploring to be done with one handed swords. I am enjoying the different loadout and will probably continue using the Falchion as my sword of choice for the swamps from now on.
What do you think? Do you prefer one-handed swords or two-handed swords in Lost Relics?
