How do you choose low level mastercrafted weapons?

[d24e]

There are so many different weapons, each with one slight difference from the other. Some stat changes, slashing vs piercing, short or longer delays.What do you recommend for leveling up? (duo with a buff specced dirge 90% of the time)

[Skywarrior]

<p>I like dual wielding stilettos.  The 4.0 delay is perfect for brigands, they have nice stats with str and int, and good damage.  Get the mastercrafted imbued set and put a nice damage proc adorn on them.  Use poisons.  You might want to keep a pair of handcrafted slashers around (imbued and adorned) just to raise slashing skill occasionally.  No need to go MC on them though.</p><p>You can find essentially the same setup with MC slashing weapons as your main weapons if you prefer that route and back them up with the handcrafted piercers for raising skill.  But if your brigand is a DE or ratonga you will likely want to take advantage of the plus to piercing they get as racial.</p><p>Don't forget to use those poisons.  Use the caustic, cause you will be killing too fast for DOT poisons to help you much.</p>

[d24e]

So both piercing or slashing is better than one of each?I do have a ratonga so guess it'll be piercing then.I'm leveling up an alchemist as well so I won't run out of poisons any time soon. I'll keep in mind to grind on the ones with higher dmg. str/int is more important than str/agi or str/sta? I'm not sure what the exact stats are on MC, think they have combinations of 3 stats on them.With MC armor, should I also be looking at str/int? I think I'll go chain for the extra mitigation, I read that really helps when tanking/soloing heroics. Leather for extra dps when someone else is tanking.

[Skywarrior]

<p>I prioritize stats thusly - str/sta/int.  The rest come as they come.</p><p>STR for melee damage.  This is your primary stat.  Love it.  Build it.</p><p>STA is for hit points.  As a brigand, you will get aggro a lot, even if you aren't soloing or tanking in your group.  Survivability.  Because I solo and duo mostly, my armor reflects this and I choose the MC Chainmail with the better STR/STA, even though it doesn't have INT.  If you group a lot and are concentrating more on dps than defense, then the MC Melodic chain might be a better selection, with more of a STR/INT combo.</p><p>INT is for poison procs.  I wouldn't go overboard with it but you shouldn't neglect it either.</p><p>These are my opinions, of course, and there are a lot of factors that could change the setup for more optimal dps.  But I've found it works very well for me and my brigand is very survivable and has very nice dps ... very fun to play.  I'm sure that as I approach closer to end game that some of my gear priorities will shift but from level 10 - 70, this setup works very well in most situations.</p>

[Dareena]

<p>For your sanity later on, please just dual wield both types of weapons.  One piercing and one slashing.  When a real jerk told me that truth (in an insulting manner), I ignored them out of pig headedness.  But in hind sight, they were trying to convey a simple truth.</p><p>If you don't work on both skills now, then you'll be forced to work on them later on,  And so I sat in my mid 60's in Sinking Sands, wielding my poor skill weapon in my off hand while auto attacking away on gray heroic spiders.  Talk about boring!  But since I was using a 1.6 delay weapon, it only took me around 3-4 hours to get my skill up to where it should be.</p><p>My point being, please prevent yourself from having to repeat the same experience.  Some top end mobs are immune to a specific type of damage.  Also many high end weapons are a mixture of slashing and piercing.  (Our Epic is slashing.)  For the best selection in top end weapons, please don't paint yourself into a corner.</p>