Can anyone tell me which sword, Brandish or Calibur they prefer and why. I think that both series are very good and I am not sure which one to choose.
Edit (28/11/2011): As of now this thread is used to help new players deciding which weapon to choose since I already got 2 Brandishes (and I want to get the Shock one soon) and Ascended Calibur.
Get both.
Brandish does extra damage to Constructs and Undead, and slightly better damage to Fiends and Slimes.
Calibur does good damage all around, with a strong 360 knock-back charge attack.
If you can only get one, go with a Calibur for more reliable damage.
Is Brandish's upgrade better or Calibur's? I really want a good sword that I can upgrade to. Which ones do you prefer?
And which of the upgrade paths do you prefer and why?
I don't really like status effect swords unless it's poison...... shock is kinda ok too I suppose.
One thing with fire sword is that..... it's a sword that inflect fire, I know it sounds awesome but when something that depends on raw dmg out put gets a dot effect it just isn't all that practical...... It is a nice bonus to do the double swing > shield cancel and see the mob(s) you just wacked gets set on fire but you'll most likely finish them off before fire does any serious damage.
Ice is even more huh-worthy, it's not gonna do that much unless it happens on the end of you combo. You'll be much better off with a freezing bomb because it can make mob stuck in one place thanks to the aoe and continues effects.
Calibur's spin attack has potential for more sheer damage.
The charge can hit up to 3 times if you cornered an enemy.
Status effects on Brandishes can only be executed using a charge attack (which I don't think is too good), but having dual damage types is really effective.
I prefer having the status effects for the Brandish line happen on charge. You can control when they happen, rather than it happening randomly as you plow through, thus avoiding the faux pas of setting oilers on fire or breaking a freeze you set yourself.
The dual damage type comes in handy. It minimizes the downgrade of damage you would normally get on a resistant monster with an all-elemental- or all-shadow-damage sword.
I prefer the calibur, since, although I have many improvements Brandish great elemental power, the calibur is normal, ie neither good nor bad against anything, and therefore does not have any problems with the victory enemigo.dandole anywhere.
PD: sorry if my English is bad, I'm not very good...
You just bumped a thread that's almost 7 months old. :x Make sure you look at the date next time you post in a thread, especially if you're using the search function.
Brandish for sure. Calibur is just used to help you adapt to this game. From then on, and esp. if you are a swordsman most of the time, you will be having at least 2-3 swords of different speed and dmg type. Calibur with normal dmg would be kinda useless as you will have different swords for shadow, elemental and piercing.
Grab 2 brandishes, one shadow, other elemental... bye bye calibur.
Bad english is not an excuse for revives in this thread.
EDIT: 3 minutes difference? why my internet is so slow
I personally use a Nightblade (and its later versions) when doing JK runs. I dislike the 2-hit combo of the Faust and I really don't like the risk of cursing myself.
I like the Calibur.
Brandish upgrades are good and all, but if you end up solo, against a whole mob or even the JK or RT, Calibur will get you out of there.
Like it was mentioned before, it has the highest potential for damage. It can hit up to 3 times, landing more damage than if a Brandish charge hit lands. Provided all hits land of course.
Plus, its pure normal damage. So no worries about strength and weaknesses.
Knockback is good too. When soloing an arena or something, the charge attack can decimate the crowd if you use it properly. Sends them flying away, giving you the opportunity to get away and get set for another hit and run.
I think you should get a Calibur, but after that, feel free to get specialised brandishes for whenever. I think Iceburst should be good.
Reason: Nightblade is shadow. Not elemental, so that can be for later.
Other Elemental Brandishes: Fireburst, Shockburst.
Cons of these weapons. Oilers will be set on fire by the fireburst, then you'll have some trouble.
Shockburst will supercharge the Quicksilvers, then you'll be screwed.
The Iceburst will be good, even for Ice cubes. The ice effect will just refreeze them if they melt, and there's no big drawback.
Tip: When you freeze an enemy (preferably with the charge attack) DON'T hit them. When the ice breaks on it's own, it does some damage, THEN hit them with another charge attack.
It seems as if a few people here think that the one of the three regular strikes on a Brandish's upgrade (i.e. Glacius, Combuster, Voltedge) cause it's status on hit like it was a Vile Striker or Gran Faust. Those people are wrong. The charge attack is the only attack that can cause a status for the Brandish. Because of this, you can control when the status occurs and not worry about those pesky Quiksilvers and Oilers getting supercharged.
Later on in the game you should be worrying about maximising damage, and that trusty Levi of your's won't match the abilities of one of the Brandish upgrades can do. Sure, an Elemental Brandish will have problems with Wolvers and Gremlins, but a smart person would bring a weapon to cover the Brandish's weakness.
So, like someone else said, the Calibur line is for people who want to get a good feel for Swords or get straight into T2. But, after that people should get a Brandish and another weapon to cover eachother's weakness.
Manage to corner an opponent or hit a turret and you'll see just how much damage sword of the Calibur line can do. Especially if you have the armour from the wolver line
My equips were a Wolver set, a Twisted Targe and my Tempered calibur, no-uvs to make a difference. In a charge assault on JK where all three hits landed, I saw at least the first hit from the charge attack do 203 damage.
Even without that, it's still 300+ damage if all three hits land. The Brandish probably has stronger damage per hit, I'll admit. But when you're fighting a large crowd, its harder to single out each opponent. I just spam charge attacks at them, taking care to get into the centre of the group to deal the highest damage.
My fighting style is that I use charge attacks a lot. So fighting a mob with quicksilvers/oilers with a brandish will cause complications for me. :/
But hey, take your pick and stick with it. Find what's good for you and use it, because no-one can tell you how to play a game. Well, not entirely successfully.
Just pick a sword and whack stuff.
You know which of the two doesn't knock around monsters everywhere when an idiot is doing a bad job of charge spamming? The Brandishes.
Good point.
But I control my angle/timing of attack, so when I do play in a party, it's never a problem. And I usually solo.
But still, valid point.
Once you get swords that cover elemental, shadow, and piercing, you're probably not going to take a Calibur anywhere.
Though the Calibur's charge can do good damage, a sword that's strong against the monsters of a specific family does even more damage.
So... I guess I vote Brandish?
I only play with two weapon slots, and one of them is pretty much always the shivermist buster. As a result, I would prefer to carry a normal damage weapon. I find the calibur series charge attacks works great on frozen enemies too.
Brandish is way better. When you upgrade it it has a huge variety of statuses you can upgrade it to, all of which are STRONG, so they have a lot better effect than the haze bombs. It also has a nice AoE charge attack. Plus, it can become either shadow or elemental, so its actually GOOD against something, especially in tier 3.
The only thing good about calibur besides being totally mediocre against all enemy types is its charge attack, which only really gives the full benefit on stationary enemies. You have two weapon slots by default, it's easy to take two weapon types and not have to worry about anything resisting you.
EDIT: one Weapon Slot Upgrade is EASILY worth the CE if you plan on making any progress in the long run.
To sum it up:
Leviathan:
Good- Best normal damaging sword there is, Powerful yet annoying charge, decent range
Bad- Not much, except that it is the 2nd most average used sword. But who cares about that?
Cold Iron Vanquisher:
Good- Looks awesome, decent range, strong charge (WAY less annoying than Levi because if low KB)
Bad- 10-20% less damage than Levi, and it is very hard to hit all 3 charge hits for some reason.
Brandishes:
Combuster/Glacius/Voltedge:
Good- Excellent sword against everything except ash tails/Frostifurs/voltails (common sense should tell which sword corresponds to which version of wolves), Charge attack is very powerful, Makes graveyards and arenas a breeze. (Which brandish for which boss (This is if you don't have a shadow (JK) or piercing (Snarby) sword yet): Snarby + Snarby with Rabies: Combuster; Jelly king + Ice Queen- Combuster; Roarmulus- Combuster; Flame Twins; Voltedge; Vana + Ultimate Vana- Glacius (freeze is best for mobs, though shock is a close second)
Bad- You will find deconstruction zones very annoying, as well as PvP
Acheron:
Good- Great second-choice sword for PvP, good for menders, great for JK.
Bad- Fiends and Undead will demolish you with office equipment/decapitation by mouth
These are just stats. The final decision is up to the crafter
Hopefully this bump will be useful to new players since I am way beyond the point of deciding which one of these to choose.
A caliber/ levi blade are a good extra/ backup weapon for pure gunners (w/ all slots open, of course) providing a good way to get out of a crowd of monsters, especially since it works on everything.
However, for a pure swordsman (w/ only 2 slots) Brandish is much better, since it's elemental and normal + a status effect. It doesnt matter if the sword and the monster are the same element, the status just wont happen, so damage (w/o status damage) is the same. So, if you combine a brandish w/ a piercing weapon ( flourish or snarble barb) you are all set against all monster types (Strong against all except gremlins and jellies, which you do nuetral damage to)
Brandish all the way.
The brandish lines do more damage per hit than the calabur lines, the amount is very small (negligiable even) for the first 2 hits in the combo, but the brandish 3rd hit is signifigantly stronger than the caliburs. (that is of course for neutral targets, brandish does much more damage always against week targets and less agaisnt resitant targets)
In most cases the brandish charge attack is better also. The calabur is only getting all three hits against turrets and cornered enemies (and maybe frozen/being shocked enemies too). A perfect leviathan charge at the level before the core is about 1050 damage. A pefect brandish charge hit is about 880 (riding all 3 explosions). Of course the normal for a calabur is one (rarely two) hits before throwing the target gets thrown out of range for about 350 damage, the normal brandish charge is closer to 650 (one explosion hit). The explosions also give a longer reach, which can be quite usefull for knocking out a silkwing or rarely a mender, thats hiding in a blob of monsters out of reach. (DA does that better but thats a completely diferent comparision). this is still vs neutral targets and without considering the applied status ailments.
Moreover its always fairly easy to controll your knockback with a brandish, it goes in the way you are facing, with the calabur it simply goes away from you, if there is only one or two monsters thats easy, but more than that and they will not all be going in the same direction making it difficult even for people who DO pay attention to not throw enemies at teamates. When going solo of course that doesnt mater as away from you is never toword an ally.
As a final note, the nightblade line, though laking a status, instead provides no movement speed penalty for charging, I find this particularly usefull in dealing with the mechaknight blobs in stage 3 of areanas were you can run full speed wile charging, turn around release teh charge and turn back around full speed. Just as safe, and much faster than gun kiting them. Also nice when dealing with wolvers, who are pretty incapable of hiting a target moving at full speed.
Brandish, no question at all. Especially combined with an electron vortex, you can round up huge clusters of enemies, unleash a charge, and, well, the status often doesn't matter, because everything dies. I like to use volt edge because the shock does a bit of extra damage, and generally keeps the enemies from moving when the bomb explodes, letting me get a second charge in to finish off anything that isn't already dead.
Brandishes do more damage, are more reliable, give you better control, won't accidentally hit your teammates with flying enemies, and are far more useful in a team setting, because of the statuses and lack of severe knockback. I have a CTR med volt edge (up to max with a trinket,) that I love run around charge spamming with. Very safe and effective. Then grab an acheron and you do more damage to everything you'll ever see than leviathan could ever hope to.
Slight tweak on your post, the other brandish charge's don't reduce your walking speed. (I spam my Combuster's so i know =D)
the brandish`s special status are good when using it to fight a specific kind of enemy, the problem is: you need to have various brandishes to be capable of fighting with a good damage in the clockworks, in other words: if you want to do your best, get one of each 5 star elemental brandish upgrades if you want to deal great damage, that means: the brandish is far more expensive than the calibur, since the calibur line can deal an all-around damage, you can go in the clockworks with it without getting worried about certain enemies. I personaly prefer the calibur over the brandish, still both are really good weapons, its all a matter of opinion.
edit: upgrade your ascended calibur into a leviathan blade, and upgrade both of your brandishes.
they both have their uses but when it comes down to it the brandish is better because the charge is condition causing which is a good way to gain the upper hand and it has a "decent" attack combo
on the other hand there is th calibur why is this sword useless? the charge lets start out with thje levi's line way WAY to powerful when knocking back and the vanquishers is well decent i guess the combo what ya know more knock back i mean if u plan on soloing every thing in the game this weapon is for you or if ur the troll that loves ruining ur teammates
so long story shot Brandish line > crapibur line
Caliburs will do x3 damage to:
- Cornered enemies
- Turrets
- Big Enemies who cant be pushed by the carge (JK, Trojans,..)
- ICED Enemies (think on a Shivermist Buster bomber and 3 swordmen with Levis doing 3x damage everywhere... )
Its all in the wiki. Those are my two cents.
Calibur - Best all around sword