Just how good is Broad Sword?

I'm looking into making a Broad Sword/Shield Defense character, mostly for thematics (sort of like a Thanagarian, for those who know your DC) and I wanted to know how Broad Sword stood up against other sets. It appears to me to be slower and generally weaker (if only for the commonly resisted damage) than other melee sets. So, I'm asking for those who have played BS/SD, those who have played Broad Sword, or those who just know the set; How does Broad Sword stand up against other sets?

Its epic .. mines lvl 50 and 1 of my fav chars, heres a vid of it in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvzScG3kvCs

Essentially it's identical to Katana but slightly slower in animation and slightly higher in spike damage. The attacks are direct and lack the frills of most other scrapper primaries. However each attack will do serious and immediate damage when it hits, no waiting for dots, or multi-packet hits (see dual blade). For the most part it's just: Swing > Whack!
At 26 and 32 you get heavy hitting attacks that have an additional crowd control effect in Knock Up and Knock Back (Down if unbuffed), great for restricting incomming damage while handing out a load of hurt.

The def debuff inherent in the attacks means you can potentially mitigate some of the resistance issue with the Achilles Heel Proc IO, if it's included in one of the more frequently used attacks (e.g. Hack).

Parry will serve you well as an addition to the melee defence provided by Shield if you need to turtle through a brawl. With Parry slotted for defence rather than damage I can soft cap my BS/Regen scrapper's melee defence by using it every other attack. This is very handy when soloing melee based EBs.

My Broadsword/Shield scrapper is an excellent character. It was fairly easy and inexpensive to soft-cap because I didn't have to worry about melee Defense -- Perry takes care of that. Once I soft-capped AoE and Ranged damage, plus a few additions to general Defense like Weave and the Steadfast +3 Defense, and then it only takes one application of Perry to put me at softcap for Melee damage, too. And I have it slotted for Damage, not Defense.

Good single target and AoE damage -- pretty well balanced. My MA/SR is much more single targetted, while my Elec/Shield and Spines/Dark are both AoE focused . . . the BS/Shield is a nice middle of both AoE and single target. The AoE gets better if you learn to line up targets for the narrow cone of Headsplitter.

Granted, Lethal damage is often resisted. That's I problem I live with. Same problem on my Invul/Axe tank. So . . . it takes a few more hits to kill it, big deal. With Perry recharging so quickly, it is easy to put together an attack chain.

Besides, a character has to have a good name or concept for me to stick with it, and it is pretty easy to come up with a good one for a BS/Shield -- I went for a bit of a suggestive pun with the name "Bull Shield."

It's the slower and slightly weaker cousin of Katana. HOWEVER, Broad Sword/Shield Defense is frickin' AWESOME. Best ride I've had 1-50 on any character. Parry makes it easy, Against All Odds gives you the DPS you lack, and Shield Charge gives you the AoE you lack. Sword and board is also a good match thematically if that makes any difference to you. Also, if you believe like I do that the incarnate content is going to include more enemy to-hit buffs and defense debuffs, you're in good shape to be able to handle both of them fairly well, so it may be a good choice for upcoming end game content, even if that's only a guess. Also, my opinion has always been that lethal damage is less of an issue than most people make it out to be, even if it's really obvious when fighting, say, robots.

Broadsword quite simply....rocks.

Few sets in the game have the same feel of raw power Broadsword gives you when you attack something. The CRUNCH!, CRUNCH!, KA-CHUNK! sounds you get when you attack make the set for me.

Numerically, it is actually middle of the pack or so in DPS, and among the higher sets when it comes to burst damage (big numbers in one hit). Not great in the AoE department, but not as weak at AoE as Dark Melee.

Thematically it is the best fit for Shield (in my opinion at least), and is the only sword set you can even use with Shield. So, if your character is a sword and board wielder, it's really your only option.

The defense of Parry is nice, in that you don't have to chase defense bonuses for melee so much while you're leveling, leaving you free to chase ranged and AoE bonuses.

I've never experienced any fight in which Broadsword felt weak, even against highly resistant foes. I concur with Werner that "lethal damage is less of an issue than most people make it out to be."

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of the secondary effects -- knockdown and knockup, def debuff, and of course Parry's buff. I like to say Broadsword is a toolkit...and every tool is a can opener...and the can is labeled "Whoopass."

I have a level 42-43 BS/Shield Scrapper playing "hardcore," the voluntary playstyle in which you delete a character when he or she is defeated. The fact that this one is 42+ means that he's never been defeated. I do play him more cautiously than my regular (non-hardcore) Scrappers, but still, that's a long time to stay alive on a character without set bonuses (I don't spend big money on him because I might have to delete him at any moment).

I agree with Local Man that the AoE seems pretty well-balanced; the fast recharge and great area coverage of Slice makes it more effective than it looks on paper, and you can add Whirling Sword, Headsplitter, and Shield Charge. And single-target is great, because Hack is such a hard-hitting early-tier attack.

Broadsword also has very good-looking models available.

You can opener is ready. Open that can. You know which one.

my BS/SH scrapper is one of my favorites, especially after I figured out what I did wrong in the initial build (he was my first character), my only suggestion is to ignore slash and use the slot for something else

You'll be hooked for life the first time you crit a full-on Headsplitter with saturated AAO.

Yeah, you guys all just wait til we can pair Kat w/Shields.

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Please, devs?

Oh, and wouldn't a Thanagarian be more like a Mace/* brute?

I am going to echo the use of Broadsword with Shield Defense. Soincrediblyawesome!

Sword and board, also good for epic screenshots. Just an all around solid combo.



Not pictured: the Council Adjutant about to be cut in two.

I think when using Broadsword you are legally required to say cloven in twain, or possibly rent asunder.

Pictured here is the Cyclops that is about to be CRUNCH'd.

Ok, thanks all, now I just have to decide whether to start in praetoria (and then loyalist or resistance) or go straight to hero. Hmmmm...

Well, guess I need to make a sword and board toon myself. Durned altitis.

One thing that's funny about this game is that I've played medieval games with swords and bows that totally lacked the satisfying feeling those powersets have here. In good old Diablo 2, we used to obsess about better swords, but actually using the sword usually consisted of repeating the same single move over and over rapidly (no cooldown/recharge issues, you see) until the tiny flicking blade made the monster fall down.

Here, I select between powerful moves, and chain them together to knock foes down with powerful strikes or toss them like ragdolls. The sword swings like it's heavy and sounds like it hurts. My crits here are noticeable and usually mean immediate victory, not just a statistical increase in kills over time.

In some games, arrows are just little sticks that remove hit points. Here, BOOM, I hit him with a fire arrow, he shudders, and flame splashes everywhere and he continues to burn.

This game is about so much more than medieval weaponry (heck, we're routinely invaded by space ships, and can call down a Warburg rocket from orbit), but even so, it makes medieval combat cooler than most medieval games.

Ugh, now I want to level up my lowbie BS/DA and BS/Shield scrappers who have been like that since issue 8 and 15, haha.

I blame this thread!

I just wish Shield Charge actually looked like you were running towards the target.

I had a BS/SD toon that kicked alot of ***... When I didn't understand what exactly defence in this game means.

Oh, and he soloed Agent G's arc, even with all the EBs in it.

And to restate this was BEFORE I UNDERSTOOD EXACTLY WHAT DEFENCE meant.

He's epic. Particularly since I now know what defence is now and how to abuse it.

Bass Ackwards cool BS/SD costumes got me interested in making a male rip-off version:






Probably never play the guy, but I like the costume :P