The general opinion of sword right now, is that it is bad for dps, despite being a dps weapon in SWL not a tanking one. Honestly what you really wanna do, is find the weapon mechanic that you like to work with. If heat management isnāt your thing then dont go elemental. On that note Blood use a similair mechanic, but instead of being locked out, you bleed, and lose the ability to be healed.
However very important to consider. All weapon mechanics become easier to control the more abilities you gain, and better gear you get. It is also important to note that the weapon mechanics only work optimally for the Main weapon, and less so for the Secondary weapon. Very simplified descriptions of mechanics.
Elemental:
Bar management. Use fire or lightning to gain heat = more damage. Use ice abilities at high heat, for a high hit, and cooling off. If you overheat, heat abilities get locked down. Downside, basic abilities can be locked out.
Blood: Bar management. Use damage abilities to do more damage. Use healing abilities to do more healing. They cancle eachother out on the bar. Both make you bleed. The higher the bar value, the less healing you recieve ending in 0 healing at max. Downside, not recieving heals and bleeding.
Chaos: Gain paradoxes based on chance. Gain random effect at 8 paradoxes. Early on you have no control over what you get. Later on you both generate Paradoxes faster, and can push chance to fall on a specific effect more often. Downside, little to no control.
Blade:
Gain Chi by chance. Fill Chi meter to enter Activate Chi Blade (needs ability to manually do so). Chi Blade adds additional damage to all blade attacks. If you donāt activate Chi Blade, you gain a Heal. Chi can be added while Chi Blade is active. Using a Blade attack spends Chi Blade charge. If it hits 0 charges, Chi Blade deactivates. Downside, the need of an Active ability for activation of Chi Blade.
Hammer:
Generate Rage by set values. Once you ahve enough Rage, certain abilities gain extra effects, spending said Rage. (Not familiar enough with Hammer to give a major downside)
Fist:
Generate Fury by set values. Once you have enough you can active one of two Fury modes (healing or dps). This flips your ability bar to a special bar with either Attacks or Healing abilities, non of which require Energy. Major downside, the need of an Active Ability to activate Fury mode.
Shotgun:
Spends shells whenever you use a shotgun ability. When you hit 0, your bar will flip, turning all shotgun abilities into 1 of 4 different ammo types. Use one to load that ammo and start over. The more shotgun abilities you have, the bigger the chance you get the ammo you want. Downsides, you might not get the ammo you want, and reloading does take a little time.
Pistol:
Chance to get a matching chamber. Chambers rotate with each use of a pistol ability, unless counting down a match. Matched chambers come as White, Blue, Red. They all add bonus damage to pistol attacks for a short time. Combat always start with a White match. Downside purly RNG early on, a bit more controlled later.
Rifle:
Chance to load a grenade when using rifle Power abilities. Countdown (default 6sec) first 3sec is regular damage, last 3sec is increased damage. Use a grenade ability to fire grenade in time, if you donāt it explodes in your face, dealing damage to you. Downside, you can take damage but this can be removed with passive. Needs grenade abilities to be able to fire, but not really a downside.
Worth to note the roles. Tanking is Chaos, Hammer, Shotgun ā¦ last ability line contain hate generating abilities, that should be avoided in group content unless tanking. Healing is Blood, Fist, Rifle ā¦ likewise last ability line contains healing abilities. DPS is Elemental, Blade, Pistol ā¦ They come with more attack options in all content. Any weapon is a viable dps weapon.
I would personally recommend finding two weapons you enjoy using, rather than the two weapons that is currently the best DPS. 1) what is best DPS can change, and 2) imho you should play a game to have fun. If your fun is max DPS then by all means go that way, but if you disagree with a weapon mechanic, then your DPS can suffer.
Early game it can be a bit brutal to go with a double healing weapon combo. They lack Hit Rating in their Passive pages. Using Healing or Tanking weapons as a DPS in dungeons, limits the amount of abilities viable for that content, but it can be done for sure =). Tanking Weapons lack Crit Rating and Crit Power in their passive pages (not as important as Hit Rating, but still lowers damage in early game).
