Hullo there. I'm new to the Serenguard and am rapidly approaching the end to my novicehood, and I'm having some trouble deciding upon my totem and knighthood specializations. I've read through all of the help files and whatnot for them, so I know what they basically are; what I want to know is which are any good when it comes to bashing, PvP, and general utility. I don't have the resources to easily swap between them, so I want to get it right on my first try.

So: for a Tae'dae Serenguard, what skills would you suggest taking and why? Or just point me towards another topic discussing it, of which I'm sure there's a few.

You don't have a native racial weapon bonus, so that's not a factor. The general opinion of the people would suggest you go with Bonecrusher because it's the most powerful, but there are always other things to consider. If you'd rather have just one weapon to swing, give Axelord a try.

Moon is the more popular of the Totems specializations, but don't take that to mean that Stag isn't worthwhile. I see Moon as better for the more social types because of the coven abilities, though enough people seem to take it just to get Drawdown (which doesn't come until Transcendent). Stag is good for the lone wanderer type, not relying on others as much, and it doesn't require a certain time of day or phase of the moon to use the abilities. The medicine bag is very good for PvE and PvP healing.

Weapon wise, I'll only add, don't take pureblade. I'm not going to get preachy about it here, that's for me to whine at Shuyin with, but basically, for combat, it's not great. You can kill people with it, but it's probably going to be an attrition kill, and with the way most combat happens now, that's unlikely to serve you particularly well.

Totems wise, moon and stag both have their merits. Mostly, people take moon for the weapon aura from drawdown. As a tae'dae, your sip bonus plus medicinebag (which works on health vial balance), on top of your innate toughness would be pretty effective as well at keeping you not dead.

Life as a Tae'dae will be difficult at first, usually they require a Life Rune to pull off really well. However, that's not saying you won't do good. Bonecrusher/Blademaster might be better for you since your attacks will be slow, and you'll probably rely on criticals to do your bashing as time goes on. If you're going to focus on PvP, then go with Bonecrusher or Axelord. Axelord can be particularly vicious in the hands of someone extremely capable.

I'm going to recommend Moon to you. Mostly because the extra +1 Int you'll get eventually with Drawdown will be worth it since you have very few with Tae'dae. Plus, Weapon aura will help sate your slowness. If you take Stag, you'll do well too. Medicine bag will be worth it, and Swiftstripes will also help you a fair bit.

But take Akui's advice, Pureblade isn't worth it right now.

Gah. I just decided to have one of my alts go Pureblade.

Well, for bashing it won't matter at all, except perhaps for the popular distinction that using two weapons works better in the long run because you don't "waste" as much critical damage.

So that really leaves combat. The entry cost for combat is a whole slew of trans skills, which unless you really fund your alts well, probably aren't going to happen for a while anyway.

On the chance that this is exactly your intent, well, look at it this way- if you kill someone as a pureblade, they can't complain about stuns, or crazy-fast-hammers, or most of the other complaints about knights.

I always thought stag gore would be pretty awesome for a damage-weapon wielding knight. I could be totally wrong, it just seems like it would be awesome.

Drop them down to 25% health, then 2 power insta kill.

Hrm. It seems to come down to deciding between augmenting my weaknesses with moon and a two-weapon spec, or fully embracing a tae'dae's strengths. I guess I'll do the latter - if I really wanted to be a PvP powerhouse I would've picked a less oddball race to begin with.

Curses. I just choose Pureblade (and got a really cool weapon at that)! Granted, I only put 30 lessons in so far and, while it won't happen until I can afford it, I want to venture into PvP. Should I just keep PB and wait until it gets better, or go for AL? I'm an elf, by the way.

(I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but it seemed like a waste to make a different one.)

Look, the investment to get into combat to where you would feel the difference between pureblade and anything else is high enough that you really, really shouldn't be worried about it if you've already invested time/effort in it.

For hunting, which is really what you'll be doing much of the time anyway, it won't matter in any meaningful way, ever, at all.

On top of that, while it is the trailing spec, it's not like you can't do anything useful with it. It's just not as good as the alternatives.

Besides, with pureblade, you can collect scalps, ears, heads, arms, and legs. You can make a little Mr. Potato head.

This should be taken with a grain of salt. Pureblade is by no means lacking, it is just not as "easy" as the other specs. It does, however, have the best lineup for a prolonged encounter and also the power for one hit throatlocks. It does not stun, so it does not get the magical auto-attrition to wounds that everything else does. It does not have a gimmick like pinleg, but it does have a very solid set of afflictions. Tendons are at heavy wounds so disabling your opponent comes somewhat easily.

I killed people (demigods included) as an unruned PB at level 76 with wounds, it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

Just replying to say that you should take the word of people like Desi and Shuyin and such over me, regardless of my own opinions. At least, in terms of potential. They're more accurate, skilled and knowledgable about game mechanics by a fair margin!

Also, whether you use one-handed or two-handed weapons makes a -huge- difference in bashing at higher levels, because one-handers will be getting twice as many criticals, and thus kill faster.

One handers get twice as many criticals but at half damage. Critical damage is wasted, at times, as a 2-hander, but really, it's negligible enough to not really matter.

If you want to join pvp but can't go all out on credit cost do not be a warrior. Be a monk if you have to have a melee skill, if not be a bard. or priest class.

Hrm, I always heard Guardian and Wiccan combat was pretty expensive, since you need to be trans in multiple skills to even stand a chance.

While monk is with out a doubt the cheapest Guardian is only really 3 trans skills sence if your good enough you completely shut down their offence 100% of the time. It doesn't really need the other skillsets as much as other classes do I would say.

Discernment is needed for the mana kills. Discipline for Celestines to be able to use inquisition, trans influence might be needed so you don't tear them apart with disloyalty. Monks need trans kata and maybe trans tertiary. Bards really only need trans music to be useful and devestating.

yep and thats why I listed those two first..

Warriors still have the funnest kills.