The History of The Rapier

Announcement and Intro

I said I would have something on monday and today it is thursday I am very sorry for the delay so I will release two segments in two days. The Second one will be live by friday roughly around 10am Eastern Standard Time. I did some research on the Bastard Sword but it is essentially the same as the longsword (as I realize now that I mentioned on my long sword review)so I had no idea what weapon to research and review until I fought an interesting match in PVP.

It was a naked guy carrying a Ricard's Rapier. He buffed and attacked me. I was farming for titanite chunks in New Londo so I was wearing heavier armor that day. He ran towards and did a really quick multiple thrusting attacks that knocked all but maybe 2% of my HP I parried him and killed him with my Bastard Sword. Because of that match I decided to research the Rapier and review it and of course I am also reviewing the bastard Sword in this segment.

The History of the Rapier

The Rapier is a light thrusting sword used during the Renaissance period. It was intended as a light civilian defense weapon. It gained popularity with the Nobles as a status symbol and a dueling weapon. Rapier is a German Word applied to these thrusting weapons. They were called spadas, espadas, or epees (by the italians, spanish and french respectively). Rapiers are impressive weapons capable of both offense and defense so you wouldn't need weapons like shields or side swords for defense.

Rapiers generally have these characteristics.

1. A sweeping and complex hilt meant to protect the hand during combat
2. A pommel used to provide weight to the sword so that it will be balanced.
3. The the cross of the rapier should be level with your navel. (the cross near the hilt should be level with your belly button so in my case it should be about 3 feet long.)
4. The Blade has two parts to it the forte (strong part of blade) which is the piece of the blade closest to the hilt and debole (weak part of blade) should be closer to the point.
5. The sword may or may not have sharp edges on it's side


Techniques and Combat

Generally when fighting with Rapiers the fighter tend to fence. As you already may know fencing is a sport usually with the fighters using epees(rapiers), foils, and sabres. (topics for future segments maybe?) The sport of fencing now has a lot of rules a few of which include.

1. At the beginning of the match the fencers must salute each other and the referee
2. Upon a hit and a score the players have to stop fighting
3. who ever reaches the score requirement first wins

Now in real combat with Rapier involve less standing at arms distance and poking at each other and more grappling. In combat with another opponent carrying a Rapier the fighters have been known to firmly grab each other's rapiers and stab each other directly. Because Rapiers had poor cutting edges or otherwise didn't have any the fighter could grip the swords rather easily or they would use their coats or capes.

Lastly despite video games saying the contrary Rapiers are meant for unarmored combat and when you against armor it is only effective against softer armors and thing hard like mail or plating will be ineffective.

The Review

The Rapier is in my opinion an excellent weapon. It is light with only 1.5 units of equip burden. It only requires 12 dex and seven strength to use so for most classes it requires little to investment to use. It is also a fast weapon and as it's thrust in my experience is fairly difficult to parry. It has a critical of 110 so it does extra damage with back stabs and ripostes. It is buffable which when combined with it's high speed can be used effectively in a buff build. If it means anything to you it can also be used to parry. You can also attack behind a shield which works for noobs and turtles. It does however have a few down sides. It's attack types are limited with only thrusting attacks. It has relatively low damage. The scaling is average for dex but bad for strength although I can't imagine many strength builds using a rapier anyway. The weapon is overall useful and it can be used through out the entire game although there are better option for thrusting swords *cough* Ricard's Rapier *cough*. Given it's many pros and few cons this weapon gets my highest rating yet. 8.25/10. Now onto the Bastard Sword Review.

Thanks to ENB for the Buff Build Idea (I stole it from him)



Bastard Sword Review

The Bastard Sword is classified as a Great Sword with the requirements being 16 strength and 10 dexterity. It starts with high damage at 105 it can be buffed it attacks with wide swooping motion which is great in an open area but not so great in close quarters. It scales with Cs in both Strength and Dexterity so it is fairly useful for both build types (I can't imagine a dex build using this). The weapon has a few pros but just as many cons. It is slow making it impractical for PVP, it only does swinging attacks so no attack type variety, Truthfully the Claymore is a better option with more attack types. There are little PVP tricks you can use to make this weapon more practical but I wouldn't use it. The Weapon when upgraded correctly can be effective for a very long time and can very well be useful forever possibly. But there are better option considering all of this I give the Bastard Sword a 7/10. Overall it is a good and decent weapon but I would not use for very long.