Savage Blade, Swift Blade, Or Vorpal Blade

Before anyone starts: I know, Atonement, Atonement, Atonement, but I'm not there yet. Pld 73, and as I'm bored in a computer lab (not gaming atm), I wanted to kill a little time by asking what experienced plds prefer. I have yet to pt since I've unlocked Savage Blade, so I'm not yet aware of what it can do damage wise. Anywho: plds, which of the three do you prefer?

PS. general question, inb4 "everything is situational"

I'd use swift blade if there are SAMs(Gekko) or other jobs that can close darkness in the party with. Skill chains are ftw.

Savage blade/vorpal blade i don't remember using much before atonement. 1s dmg is calc by stacking stats and the other is more acc orientated so would depend on your DD build I guess.

Yeah Swift blade for darkness.
Vorpal is meh.
Savage Blade looks cool and can do light.....but sucks.

Pretty much the above, Savage Blade has the highest "potential" with 300%TP and the right gear thanks to its much higher TP Mods and Stat mods, but is ultimately useless at 100%. Still seen my RDM brother do redonkulous dmg with this WS sometimes x.x;;

Swift Blade will be (should be) The most accurate for you and opens/closes darkness, making it the best candidate if you're looking to fire off TP in exp, or solo.

Vorpal is very meh, would recommend never using it over Swift... especially as a PLD where your Crit Rate (as it being a crit weap) will suck, thus making the WS suck harder.

Thanks for this, Swift over Vorpal has been my preference (although soloing I can usually get vorpal just a little over Swift, stacking acc and dex). Savage Blade I usually only see in campaign, so I haven't seen it do any particularly uber damage yet. Thanks again for this input ^^

300% TP = Spirits Within.. I know this isn't one of the three asked, but what the hell I'll throw that one in.

If you are Elvaan, stick with Swift Blade because you reap the biggest benefit with STR and MND modifiers.

Mithra/Humes tend to find Vorpal Blade more attractive.

Savage Blade is pure crap and should only be used for creating skillchains when you've run out of options.

Vorpal Blade is viable for Elvaan if you take the time to invest in an adequate WS gear setup, but tbh, Swift Blade will still be more useful. Even if you manage to catch up with Swift Blade's damage, chances are you aren't as compatable with cookie cutter DDs for skillchains *cough*SAMURAI*cough*

What everyone else has said is right... If you're in an exp pt and fighting ITs, or even VTs.

If messing around and soloing and doing EPs, DCs, or farming TW, Vorpal Blade's criticals can be greater than Swift blade dmg if you gear it right.

Forgot spirts w/in, I am taru so never used but if you are not taru its good.

As you said OP, situational.

300% and solo against EM or higher, use Spirits, if in party with SAMs or the mob is DC or lower do Savage.

If it's against a high evasion mob use Swift, even without acc+ gear most of your hits will land compared to Vorpal from my experiance making this one easy to use while tanking without having to blink.

Vorpal Blade is an interesting one. It's the more unrealiable but also one that can outdamage Swift and seem like a 200ish Savage if the right build is used. This is something to use when not created skillchains and with a high STR / ACC build.

If you do equipment swaps, go pure STR for Savage and Swift, in my honest opinion I don't really see a need for accuracy on Savage being a 2 hit.

For comparision using campaign mobs, eh I'll use the Quadav WHMs that attack Grauburg, a 300% Savage using a full STR build I can usually get 500-600, usually about what I get for Spirits if I go full HP+. Swift I can do about 200-300, Vorpal anywhere from 200-400 due to the crit.

*edit* Swift is my perfered, only because I have it geared to where I can do 1ks on anything at EP or below that won't resist.

Hell or you can go PLD/THF with a fellow PLD/THF and both of you use Sneak Attack + Spinning slash on each other.

PLD tanks w/ Great Swords ftw!

I usually go with:

Vorpal blade: EM or less, mainly solo.

Swift blade: T or higher, makes darkness. Sometimes good on PLD/DNC if you're solo'ing > DC. Sometimes you have to try both and see which does better.

Savage blade: for the lulz or in the rare case you have a DD to close light with.

Spirits Within: 300% EDIT: OR solo (weapon skill) HNMs Sky Gods, etc.

You said you are 73 will you unlock atone at 75 or still need climb/wpn?

Still need the climb ; ; Pld 73, nin 71 so no Nyzul love

Strange, I almost always use vorpal, but I also have an extensive WS gear set...

swift blade IS more reliable, but the dmg is lower than my average vorpals for sure


Savage blade is next to useless... its one of those things thats like 'holy ***, I did 300 dmg! O_O;;; WTF?! GLIIITCH!" least at 100% (which in any tp situation you'll use at 100% unless saving tp for spirits within, or for chivarly)

Spirits even... depends on mob, I only use it at start (and just for gods, can pump it up to about 830 dmg), after that... well I have atonement, so for defensive mobs thats good, else I'd just use vorpal/swift

but then again, I tend to dual wield with organics/joyeuse in full DD gear, so prefer vorpal in the end (for merit pts and stuff, atonement is useless because you cant get hate up enough, but vorpal will definitely outdo it)

If you are not wearing any kind of DD gear when you vorpal (Whether you full time hybrid builds or not we're talking strictly vorpal) then you might not be able to put out decent numbers. With vorpal, like raging rush, you need to focus on nailing all hits AND the crit. That means DEX is a big influence in your build. If geared properly vorpal will out do your other ws's (Other than atonement) constantly. A non-crit full hit vorpal can probably land for about 300-400. You nail the crit and it goes up to 600-700.

Swiftblade on the other hand is far more reliable if you're ws'ing in turtle gear. But wont do more than about 300 if all hits land.

Yeah like WS'ing in heca versus Koeing. Huge difference lol.

I'm not sure if anyone had thought about this before but if you don't break the sword for Salvage blade(Since it's almost useless.) you will have the only other fire resist sword in the game other than Hrotti. A decent option for people that doesn't do HNM. At least it's some use of the trial weapon.

I use Swift Blade or Spirits Within since I'm a nub and don't have Atonement yet. ; ;

Earth resist too iirc? Or maybe that's the club. I just remember I was looking into improving my fire/earth resist builds and was upset when I saw that.

Well you pretty much have only a few weapon choices when it comes to fire resist

Hrotti +15(With +1 shield = +30)
Trial sword +10(With shield = +25)
HQ water staff = +20
Then you have Kirin pole,NQ water staff that both gives +15

So at least you could get away with using the trial sword for somthing better than lolSavage Blade.

vorpal, given that you are willing to put some time and gil into making a good DEX/ACC/STR vorpal set.

If you just WS in whatever, swift will give better results

I don't have pld but I do very well with vorpal blade on blu and that's without really investing in time and figuring out dex stuff and mostly just loading in str and eating sushi of course

that the f*** with pld, we have shitty acc, we hit like a girl XD even myself i outclass pld VB anytime with my blu. n well spirit within only good if u have 300% tp which impossible to get when u pt on bird so only 2 option left: savage or swift blade: savage is weak but can open sum skillchain. swift not much better but darkness skillchain what make pld use it the mostthis^^

Lighttaru, you clearly have no clue what you're talking about.

Paladin has an A+ rating in sword. Shitty accuracy? lol

I don't know what OP has access to but if I was rich and wanted to maximize vorpal potential i'd probably gear like this:




Using pizza or swapping to Hauby+1 if its birds.
Even with some downgrades it would probably perform much better than Swift assuming you're not setting up skillchains.

With some merits you can easily break 280 sword skill and if you use acc gear pld acc isnt bad. The struggle for non-atonement pld isnt usualy tp acc but a solid ws build. PLD has to work a lot harder than other DD's but it is achievable.

Never ever seen an awesome Swift Blade, and it's TP modification is accuracy. This was my Vorpal set



Not the best my any means, but as /WAR I would usually spike 1k in campaign.

Vorpal has a higher damage potential, but is highly irregular. You need ACC to make it work and sub /NIN with an strong main sword for an extra swing + better damage on the first 4 wouldn't hurt either.

Swift is more consistent considering TP mod = ACC. Use this if you haven't FULLY fleshed out your DD set or you aren't eating acc food (spammable acc food in merit, like crab). I'm talkin the whole nine yards. Also, it provides an open / close to darkness. SAMs love you for this. It also gets the benefit from extra swing + strong main sword.

Savage is only good for open / close to light.