Swords talents¶
A per-weapon, offensive-only tree for anything that swings on Swordsmanship - katana, longsword, broadsword, war axe, polearm, the lot. It all feeds Lacerate, the PvM special baked into every sword strike: a flat 10% chance on hit to open a bleed against creatures.
No defensive lane
Swords, Macing, and Fencing are all offensive-only. The defensive nodes - Iron Skin, Vigilance, Last Stand - live in the shared Melee Defensive tree that every melee discipline draws from.
The Lacerate baseline¶
Every sword hit against a creature rolls a flat 10% to proc Lacerate:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Proc chance (baseline) | 10% per hit |
| Stack duration | swing_delay × 4, clamped to [8 s, 16 s] |
| Max stacks on target | 3 |
| Per-stack effect | +8% to ALL proc-chance rolls against this defender (cross-special - boosts Macing Crush and Fencing Cripple too) |
| Bleed total damage | 175% of the proc swing's damage |
| Bleed duration | 15 s, 5 ticks of 3 s each |
| Bleed per-tick | 35% of proc swing damage |
At 3 stacks, any incoming proc roll - yours or an ally's - gets +24% chance on top of its baseline. A 10% proc effectively becomes 34%.
Offensive path¶
T1 - Keen Edge¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
| Max ranks | 5 |
| Cost / rank | 1 pt |
| Effect / rank | +5% sword-family damage vs creatures |
| Rank | Total bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | +5% |
| 2 | +10% |
| 3 | +15% |
| 4 | +20% |
| 5 | +25% |
T2 - Open Wound¶
Prereq: Keen Edge.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
| Max ranks | 5 |
| Cost / rank | 1 pt |
| Effect / rank | +4% Lacerate proc chance AND +2% flat sword damage |
| Rank | Lacerate proc | Flat damage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14% | +2% |
| 2 | 18% | +4% |
| 3 | 22% | +6% |
| 4 | 26% | +8% |
| 5 | 30% | +10% |
At 5/5, Lacerate procs on roughly 1 in 3 swings.
T3 - Cleave¶
Prereq: Open Wound.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive (on-hit) |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 2 pt |
| Effect | Each sword hit splashes 30% of damage to EVERY creature within 2 tiles of the primary target, AND adds +5% flat damage to the direct hit. |
Cleave hits read "Your Cleave hits X for N" in the combat log. The splash is PvM-gated - it won't hit players.
T4A - Riposte¶
Prereq: Cleave. Branch-exclusive with Headsman.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Active (defensive window) |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 2 pt |
| Cooldown | 45 s |
| Duration | 8 s |
| Effect | For 8 s, every melee strike landing on you triggers a free counter-swing with your equipped sword. PvM-gated. |
| Hotbar verb | riposte |
T4B - Headsman¶
Prereq: Cleave. Branch-exclusive with Riposte.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 2 pt |
| Effect | Your sword strikes deal +30% damage against creatures below 25% HP. |
T5 - Bladestorm¶
Prereq: Riposte OR Headsman. Capstone.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Active |
| Max ranks | 1 |
| Cost | 3 pt |
| Cooldown | 90 s |
| Duration | 8 s |
| Effect | For 8 s, sword swing speed +60% AND Lacerate procs are guaranteed on every strike. |
| Hotbar verb | bladestorm |
During Bladestorm the Lacerate baseline 10% roll is force-replaced by a guaranteed proc, so every swing lands a fresh stack and a fresh bleed.
Build notes¶
- Keen Edge + Open Wound 5/5 + Cleave is the canonical 10-point opener: +35% direct damage, +30% splash, +30% Lacerate proc.
- Bladestorm is the only sword talent that fires while another active is on cooldown. It doesn't fight Macing or Fencing actives for the hotbar if you multi-weapon.
- Lacerate's stack bonus to other procs is why a sword/mace hybrid hits so hard: open with a few sword swings to land 2-3 Lacerate stacks, then swap to a mace and ride the +16-24% Crush proc chance.