Well, this is my standard swordsman gear.
Main loadout-
Helm: Angelic, Dusker, and Solid Cobalt helm
Armor: Ash tail/Solid Cobalt armor
Weapons: usually i use my Darkthorn blade and Tempered Cali. However, i sometimes switch it out with my nightblade, striker, or
Fireburst brandish
Shield: great Defender
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thats all for now. I will post more of my loadouts later.
You seem to be a sworder, so you may find my sword guide useful.
Among your piercing helmets/suits, you have one armor line (Cobalt/Azure) with essentially no advantages, and another (Dusker/Vog Cub/Skolver) with an important sword bonus. There is no contest; Dusker wins. You also have a shadow helmet, which can be upgraded to a couple of different useful items; keep it, but don't upgrade it right away. Similarly, you have a piercing shield (Defender/Aegis) with no great advantages; you should trade it in for Barbarous Thorn Shield, which offers an important sword bonus.
You have two normal swords, one piercing sword, one elemental sword, and one shadow sword. Stop using and upgrading the normal swords; just focus on the non-normal swords. Carry any two of them, and deploy them against the correct monsters, to do huge damage to 4/6 of monsters and moderate damage to the other 2/6. Or carry all three, to do huge damage against 6/6 of monsters.
Some things you might want to consider obtaining:
A shadow defence set
Some things you really should get:
Snarby shield, the bristling buckler into barbarous thorn shield line. Gives a healthy amount of piercing defence and a sword damage bonus
A shadow shield, skelly is a good choice
An elemental shield, owlite is great.