I've started playing again after a year or so of being away, and I'm wondering how much has changed.

How viable is an Orclach Pureblade, with Crow specialization, in combat? I don't mind if it'll be a lot of work, in fact, I'd prefer the challenge.

Before I left, I was using a Katana, with fairly decent precision, is this still the best way to go? Or would a Greatsword be a better option?

Lastly, will I need much more than tri-trans with Discipline and Planar?

Good enough. Orclach make a good warrior race.

I can't comment on it, as it goes good both ways. Greatswords are more power-efficient when you use Assault - it still costs 4 power, but you deal more wounds. Katanas are good for PvE, but I think you already know that.


Combat to fight other warriors.

Lots has changed. There's actually a new monk guild coming out. I'd say go night or tracker. Most depends how serious you want to fight. since you want a challenge it looks like you don't really care to go top tier, you just wanna fight every so often. in that case, tri-trans, discipline and planar is pretty good. I'd also get trans resilience and weapon parry which is like adept in combat so not much more. you could settle for fabled planar too since that gets you focus mind. As for weapon stats, I think katana is the hunting one, get a max speed one for that, then for combat everyone goes max precision weapons. I think that's a great sword with 500+ precision if you can.

If Weapon Parry was only at Adept combat, my non-warrior alts (I had a few) would be so much happier.

Was it changed recently too? I don't think so. But I certainly do hope so.

one of the parries is there. could be shield parry

This says ShieldParry is at Gifted, WeaponParry is at 50% expert. At Capable you get Trueshield, which... I'm not even sure what it does.

As a pureblade orclach, Alef wouldn't need combat to parry anyway. WeaponParry is included in the Knighthood skill. He'd need Combat to have good stances.

Thanks for the help so far.

Would Focus Spirit be worth learning? Or would the lessons be better of elsewhere?

I slso have Weapon Parry in Knighthood already, unless you were referring to the Stances I would gain from learning Combat? Or do the two stack in some way? Edit - Seems I'm a little slow and this was answered already.

Focus Spirit isn't worth it in my opinion. But with additional lessons in Discipline, you focus your body faster, which is always a plus.

You don't really need additional stances, but lessons in Combat affect the stances' effectiveness. At trans, it is very difficult to hit a bodypart you're stancing (if it's a single one - Stance Head for example, but not Stance Lower, as it protects legs AND gut), almost like if you have been parrying it. So with trans Combat, you can have TWO bodyparts protected against warriors, one with parrying and other with stancing.

I'd really suggest Night over Crow for fighting, but Crow is workable. And cool-flavoured.

Transcendent Discipline, just for the one second focus body, is worth it.