Best Sword/No Shield Combination...

[Zenemas]

...in your opinion, which sword type is best - just overall damage-per-second ratio - for a defensive combat style? I'm just starting out a new character in Mabi (Zenemas), so I decided to figure out my combat-style's best weapon, then build upon and toward that. Any suggestions?

[Soluna]

First, if you are not using a shield, there's only one defensive style and that is mana shield. Swords are categorized into 1 hand swords and 2 hand swords.

1 hand swords have the ability to equip with a shield or be dual-wielded(Human-Only) and therefore more flexible.
2hand sword cannot be equipped with a shield(Unless you are a Giant) but receive bonus for smashing attack and critical rate.

In general, humans tend to go dual wield swords, giants tend to use 2hand + shield.

In terms of combat, the game community like to divide the melee combat style into 2 general category: windmill vs smash. Although that is a very bad way to categorize.
The base for this theory is founded on several factors:
1. Mutliple Targets
2. Ignoring Target Protection for Critical Hits

For Windmill is an area attack that can hit Multiple enemies and Ignores Target Protection (Enemy protection reduce your chance to do critical hits on them), so in general this style favorites dual wield because by wielding 2-swords you can increase your damage output and at the same time have more enchant slots. In general people who use this style will argue that critical hit just need to be 30%+

For Smash, it is a single attack that will receive 1.2% damage bonus and 5% critical hit bonus when using 2hand swords, therefore smash will output more damage with 2hand swords. In general people who use this style will argue you more critical % than dmg.

The actual situation however, is that you don't really just use windmill only or smash only but both since melee is built on chaining attacks together, and in most cases, smash + windmill is often used (also with assault-slash attack now aka. leap attack).

Back to the original question, in terms of which sword type is best, it really depend on your character and the monster/dungeon/mission you will be running. I would say, in general dual wield is better for situation with more monsters and that you are soloing and 2hand swords will serve better in parties and mission with less monsters, and of course there are exceptions to this. I say this because in a situation where you are soloing 4 enemies versus 4 party member taking on 4 enemies the prior situation windmill might be better where the latter is easier with smash (of course still depend enemy hp, target type etc.)

In terms of which sword you should use, this mainly depend on your character. For example a Warsword is very powerful weapon with 0~90 attack after upgrade, but for a low level character with low balance stats wielding it, the chances of you actually dish 90/90 attack is very low.

In general, Gladius/Broadsword are common choice for swords, although Gladius repair can be slightly expensive for beginners. As for 2hand swords, my personal favorite is the Claymore, despite its high repair fee, it has high critical rates and decent damage.

My personal setup is using 2hand swords with mana shield as defensive. I recommend getting mana shield as defensive style because it protect you from being wounded from enemies.

This is really only a tiny bit of the vast things to consider for combats, but for starting out it should be enough, as you get more experienced you will start to think into more technical aspects, but I hope this helps.

[Zenemas]

So... What is the best one handed sword, then?

[shadofrak]

the "best" one handed sword will depend based on your character's stats and how you yourself fight

one important thing to consider is the speed rating and number of hits
the speed rating is how fast your normal attack combo will be and also defines enemy stun time; the slower the weapon, the longer the stun
the hit count is, well, how many hits your normal attack combo is
generally, slow weapons will be 2hit and fast weapons are 3hit (however there are many exceptions to this rule)

as soluna said, balance is also an important factor
balance is partially defined by your DEX stat and by your weapon's balance rating, so if you have a low DEX stat, it may be a good idea to get a weapon with a high balance

while im at it, since we've been having a few beginner questions in here, you think maybe the forums should have a beginner section?

[Armelle]

or if you want a more direct answer
probably a francesca or whatever it was called
i mean its an axe but it is one handed and it is pretty...strong @_@
you are just starting out though,so it'd be pretty hard to get...
http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/index.php?title=Francisca
though you should keep in mind you will need dex to use this thing,i was just being more direct about the "best one handed weapon" thing.
...why no shield though,if i may ask?

[Zenemas]

You may. The answer is simple; I just don't really like the way that shields look. I know it's extremely dumb of me and my DEF rating takes a GIANT plunge, but that is the price to pay I guess. The only time I'd wear a shield was if I was fighting something strong, like a Succubus, or that dragon in TNN.

[Dunan]

For windmill or smash with dual weild.

For one hand sword for windmill use, sword with str bonus like Battlesword +70str, since the str add dmg and dont split in half like pure dmg . so with 2 sword you get +140 str (in a perfect situation) against like say 90 with the beholder. You gonna gain 90 dmg with the dual beholder but 140 str with the Battle sword. so dmg +56 max and +46 min and + the average dmg of both weapon wich is 54 . so + 104max in total and + 76 min . And you want enchant str enchant on it too =D so if you add like + 10 str on this with enchant you get +20 total wich is +8 max + 6min . With that the dmg is more Constant than 0-90. Is good for low and high level and it can be upgraded with red/blue stone while beholder and war sword cant. The only problem with that would be crit for smash if you gear up other part of armor to raise crits it can be better to use sword with more crit and keep dmg with your other set/parts ... But dual weilding for smash isnt really the best way to go.

The dmg ratio. If you fight against one mob high crit daggers can be really good if you dont have to deal with more than one ennemie, you have to be able to crit, so if you do something like hard mode you still have to have a nice crit/rate and some dmg buffed by your gear or lifeskills.

For giant i dont know but it stay the same idea. for dps. I dont know if shield are good, good looking or not, you always look better alive but shield doesnt help me as much at one hit/kill =D specialy against multi mobs if i can kill them faster ill save ap in the end and against one mob their usualy one loop to make to not get hit!

[Soluna]

For one hand sword for windmill use, sword with str bonus like Battlesword +70str, since the str add dmg and dont split in half like pure dmg.

Just to be clear on this aspect, pure damage increase only split when you are using normal attacks and not with skills:

Comparing Dmg vs Str using Normal Attack:
Sword A Dmg + 140 Str
Sword X Dmg

Comparing when using smash/assault slash/wind mill:
Sword A Dmg + Sword B Dmg + 140 Str
Sword X Dmg + Sword Y Dmg

Now assume Sword A/B to be the battle sword, which should have mac dmg around 5x and Sword X/Y to be beholder/war sword such that its max dmg is 9x and put it into the equation converting str to max dmg (which is 1 max dmg for every 2.5 Str):

Comparing Dmg vs Str using Normal Attack:
Sword A Dmg + 140 Str => 56 + 56 = 112
Sword X Dmg => 90

Comparing when using smash/assault slash/wind mill:
Sword A Dmg + Sword B Dmg + 140 Str => 56 + 56 + 56 = 168
Sword X Dmg + Sword Y Dmg => 90 + 90 = 180

it can be upgraded with red/blue stone while beholder and war sword cant.

This is probably the only reason people would have choose battle sword anyway, it is because beholder and war swords cannot use S/R upgrade. If the upgrade were to released later, there will be a shift of the weapon usage again. Which is the point I want to make, that there is no "best" swords because it depends on situations and the change of game contents. As long as you have suffice damage for the level of dungeon/mission/monster you are fighting at, is all just preference mostly. The swords Dunan suggested are valid choices for good dual wield combination though.