Shadow Sabres Notes

Guild Location:

Continent: Rothikgen
World Location: Shadowkeep
Location of Guild: In the Imposing Conservatorium. Go down "stairway"

Guild Requirements:

Civilized Background

Map of Shadow Sabres and Bard Guilds:

Disclaimer:

There's a lot of things I still don't know about the guild and the official documentation is pretty sketchy. Take everything with a healthy degree of skepticism as a lot of it could be wrong.
That being said, I'm currently ranked #32 in the guild in style points, and have ran semi-repeatable tests, so I have tried to base my findings on logs/data vs. gut instinct when possible.
If you see something wrong, please let me know in the comments so I can correct it!

My Overview of the Guild:

I love this guild, but I have a hard time recommending it. It's a melee class, but as a civilized background you don't have the hitpoints of nomad guilds. Sabres feels like a guild for highbies to reincarnate into, as I could see it pairing well with other civilized guilds. As a starting guild though, it'll be rough.

Pros:

Lots of neat atmosphere:

Lounging vs. camping is cool. And you can buy snacks and smokes to make it more effective
I like the hat/scabbard
Getting rewarded for competing in world events is a nice bonus

The melee skills are very active and require a lot of manual inputs to get the most out of them. I find that more fun than just casting the same skill/spell whenever you are idle in battle
They have the potential to really boost their defensive posture to make up for the lack of hitpoints.
Gloveknock is an amazing newbie skill and hits for much harder than other skills at this level
Battle cadence gives you extra attacks with your regular weapons.

Cons:

You are a civilized fighter. Your hitpoints are not going to be anywhere near nomad fighters
Very little regen. Yes lounging is fun but it's really just an enhanced camping, and it requires you spending money to buy snacks/cigars if you want it to work well.
Can't contribute much when in the backrow of a party. In other words: No spells. This means if you are a newbie backrowing a more experienced party you can't contribute more than the occasional magic missile you learned with your Civ background.
Documentation on this guild is almost non-existent. That's part of the reason why I'm writing this blog entry. This guild has a lot of weird quirks. It's been a frustrating, but rewarding, experience trying to figure out how to play a Sabre
The melee skills are very active and require a lot of manual inputs to get the most out of them. Yes I put that in both lists :). But if you are in a party and lots of things are going on, it can be real hard to keep up with what tick your gloveknock skill is on...

Sabres Quick Start Guide:

Join another guild first to get a self heal spell

I'm not kidding. The biggest mistake I made when joining Shadow Sabres was not doing this. You really need a spell based regen option to get you back in the fight quicker.
You don't need to max out the other guild. You just need enough levels to gain access to their healing spell
Good option if you are staring out: Two levels in CivMage to get heal self

CivMage underperforms as a stand-alone guild, but it gets a few utility spells early, including "Heal Self" at level 2.
You don't want to max out CivMage. As you gain more experience my suggestion would be to eventually Reinc and choose one of the other spellcaster options long term. This is more Newbie focused where two levels are a big investment.

Long term options:

Bard is the favored option since they are so prized in groups due to the buffs they can cast. Requires 4 levels to get "Campfire Tune". Their heal isn't great... Also they don't get the skill "Fire Building" so a level of Squire can help as well..
Folklorist are also a great option, and have less annoying leveling requirements than Bards. Requires 10 levels to get their healing spell which is rough.
Runemages can be very powerful, but they have their own set of quicks. Not recommended for players who are starting out.

Join the Shadow Sabres guild in ShadowKeep

Initially all your training will be in the main room, but if you can go downstairs to the fencing training room to train fencing techniques.

The first 10 levels, focus on training Gloveknock.

This will be your primary damage skill until level 15
Even after level 15, this will have a spot in your attack combos.
Once you have it trained enough this skill never misses. Guarantied damage is amazing.

Top Priority: Earn enough Style points to purchase a scabbard

A sabre scabbard is critical for using the skill Gloveknock
DO NOT spend any style points on anything else until you get your scabbard
You start with 30 style points as a joining bonus. The basic scabbard costs 50 style points. So you need to earn at least 20 more points
Points spent on a scabbard are refunded when you upgrade your scabbard. So don't hesitate to start out buying the most basic scabbard

Get basic weapons

While Battle Cadence works with any short sword, Sabre Fence only works with the following weapons: [sabre, main gauche, rapier, cutlass, foil, short sword or scimitar]
You will want those weapons in each of your hands to make Gloveknock + Sabre Fencing easier.
Until you get a sabre scabbard, your second hand will need to be empty to support Gloveknock. This is why getting a scabbard is so important

Save up enough money to buy two Spider Sabres to be your primary weapons

Spider Sabres usually sell for 40k gold, so 80k total. Ask on the Wanted channel for players who are willing to sell them
These are very good weapons that are still affordable. You likely won't be able to do better until you have 500k+ gold to spend on a weapon.
Besides doing decent damage, they also give you +3% parry (so +6% total). This helps your survivability.

Recommended Option: Pause before you advance past level 30 to earn enough Style points to buy follow up equipment.

Up to level 30 you can participate in the Rat Catcher event, which can net you 100 style points each time this even is run.
Since the Rat Catcher event is level limited, you often don't need to compete with other players. This is the best/fastest way to earn Style points.

Once you have 15 levels in the Shadow Sabres guild, start training Sabre Fence, Sabre Lunge, Sabre Parry, and Sabre Remise.

Set your Sabre Fencing combo to be:

Sabre Lunge
Sabre Parry
Sabre Remise

I'd recommend only training these to around 50%. After that you can learn the rest through free skill points you earn though using the fencing techniques
Your primary attack skill usage will look like:

Initiate fights with Sabre Fence
Use Gloveknock as Sabre Fence is executing. Since Gloveknock always lasts two rounds, it will fire right after your Sabre Parry activates
After Gloveknock, start using Sabre Fence again
Repeat

Buy a Sabre Hat with Style points

The points you spend on a Sabre Hat are wasted when you upgrade your hat. So I'd recommend initially getting a basic one, and essentially writing off the cost when you upgrade to a real good hat.
The hat will help prevent your skills from getting interrupted when performing Sabre Fence. So even having a basic hat will help your damage

Enjoy being one of the most stylish characters in Batmud!!!

Sabres "Things to Avoid" Tips:

As tempting as it may be, don't buy lounging equipment with Style points

Ok, admittedly having lounging equipment provides serious bragging rights, looks cools, and is a major flex in parties. So if you want to be cool, go ahead and buy it.
Spending your points on scabbards, hats, and feathers will help you more long term though. Since Style points are so hard to get, I'd recommend focusing on those instead
Hopefully you joined a secondary guild to get healing. This means you won't be as dependent on lounging as much for healing.

Don't study any of the skills ("Call Pigeon", and "Cantrip"). They are pretty much useless
Don't train any Sabre fencing techniques besides Saber lunge, Sabre parry, and Sabre remise

Eventually once you max out the guild and have 50mil+ EXP you can train those, but for the most part more advanced techniques are worse than the basic ones.
I'm not happy with this, but that's what the data shows.

Guild Help:

When in doubt, look at your sabres hat. It'll remind you about the command 'shelp'
'shelp' lists the main Shadow Sabres specific commands

Sabre Specific Attack Skills:

Gloveknock:

Overview:

This is your main attack skill between level 4 and 15 in the guild
You can use this when using sabre fence. So at level 22 I'm initiating fights with sabre fence, using a gloveknock next, and then refreshing sabre fence to restart the combo.
If you have the right gloves, it hits like a ton of bricks. It is also a very reliable attack, so it is consistent and significant damage every 3 rounds (2 round tick, and hits on the 3rd).
Also, once you train it up enough, Gloveknock will never miss.

This is amazing. It's the only damaging skill/spell that I know of that is a guarantied hit as long as you don't get stunned/interrupted.
Having guarantied damage, (and a guarantied number of rounds to launch the attack) makes it much easier to pop into a room with a monster, fire off an attack, and then leave before they cast nuke spells your way.

Mechanics:

Gloveknock is highly dependent on the "sturdiness" of the material making your gloves

By "gloves" this simply means whatever is covering your hands. So if you have a full battlesuit, that material is what matters.
You can look up a material's sturdiness here
Adamantium seems to be the best material I've found. I've had another player say they tested it and found diamond was the best. My experiences though point to Adamantium doing more damage.
Diamond weighs a lot less than Adamantium, so that is a point in its favor.
I can't stress this enough: As a newbie you need to get sturdy gloves. This is the most important piece of equipment you can get.
I've found in the "recycle" world event you can make some really amazing gloves.

You need to have your RIGHT hand free when gloveknock executes

Aka after you "use/cast" gloveknock, count two rounds of combat. After that second round, you need to free up your right hand.
If your right hand is not free, then the skill will fail and do no damage.

While you can use "switch weapon" to unwield your weapon, what you really need is a Sabres scabbard.

This is a vital piece of equipment. The problem is you start with 30 initial "style" points, and the cheapest scabbard costs 50 points. If Sabers is your first guild, and you are leveling up (vs. reincarnating into it), don't buy anything with style points until you can afford your first scabbard.
With a scabbard you can use the command "ssheath" to sheath your primary weapon. There is no skill-check to do this and it automatically works. I'd recommend making a command to do this quickly.
What's even better, with a scabbard you will automatically re-wield your weapon after performing a gloveknock.
Another advantage is that you have a chance of performing a "bonus" attack when wielding your weapon after a gloveknock from you scabbard. Therefore you won't loose much damage by having your main weapon unequipped. The chance of this working improves with the quality of your scabbard.

Damage Messages (roughly from worst to best):

You slam [[Monster]] on the jaw very hard making him cry out in pain!
With a swift and precise punch you strike [[Monster]] on face, knocking him off balance for a moment. A nice hit!
Your fist is a blur as you deliver a shattering strike at [[Monster's]] head with tremendous force.

Sabre Fence:

Overview:

This is the signature offensive skill of the Shadow Sabres
It pairs really well with other skills and spells
It is a lot of fun!
Don't even think about using it until level 15 in the guild. Even then, it's pretty limited and is a toss up between it and gloveknock until you get more levels.
I'm not kidding. Most of the mechanics of sabre fence don't come into play until level 15 at the earliest. Before that you should only use it if you are killing easy things and don't want to mess with gloveknock. Even then, you probably should be using "push" for that instead.

Mechanics:

Sabre fence will let you specify three different "fencing" skills that it will cycle through after you execute the sabre fence skill.
These three skills will always execute in the order you specified
Note: If one of your fencing styles fails, your sabre fence combo ends.

For example, if you start with 'sabre remise' and you get a "Your Sabre remise is skillfully avoided by your enemy, an elegant move!", then your follow up moves will not execute

You can cast spells and use other skills while the sabre fence combos are executing.

Note: You have to complete the initial sabre fence skill first. You can't multitask while "using sabre fence". This only applies after sabre fence has started.
Your sabre hat quality helps prevent your follow-up skills from being interrupted when performing sabre fence. There is an enhanced chance they will be interrupted so your hat becomes more important the more advanced you get in the guild
Your sabre "feather" quality helps prevent your follow-up spells from being interrupted. This is important if you are dual-classed as a mage-like guild

You can also "use sabre fence" while the sabre fence combos are executing to remove downtime where it is not active.

The one challenge is the new sabre fence will not interrupt the current one. So if you start it too soon, your follow-up skill will fail.
This is problematic, since you don't know exactly ho long it will take to execute your next Sabre Fence. Unlike Gloveknock, Sabre Fence have a variable cast/use time.
Because of this, I'd recommend using a skill like Gloveknock after your first Sabre Fence goes off, and then following up Gloveknock with the next instance of Sabre Fence.

Sabre fence combos will continue even after you move.

This is helpful if a monster flees and you are chasing it.

You can specify the three fencing skills you are using by using the command: sfence set <#> <#> <#>

You can see the number of the skills by using the command 'sfence show'
You MUST specify three skills. This is annoying since you can only train two skills until level 15. This is why you can't really use sabre fence until you have fifteen levels in the guild.
If you don't set this, you can still use Sabre Fence, but it'll only do a single hit and is worse than Gloveknock is just about every way.

Sabre fencing is used against a specific target and does not translate to other monsters you may be fighting in the same room.

If your target dies or runs away (and you don't follow it) you will stop your fencing combo progression
Your defensive fencing combos will only trigger against your main target.

Training Sabre Fence:

This is complicated/weird enough that it deserves its own section.
You train sabre fence skills in the room "down" from the main training room.
You can't use train <skill> to:max. You have to specify a number.
The reason for this is because you can't train fencing styles to your skill of (prerequisite - 5). For example, sabre fence is a prerequisite to sabre lunge. So if you have sabre fence trained to "50", you can only train sabre lunge to "45".
This is really annoying since you may have a skillmax of sabre lunge of 100, but only be able to train it to "45"....
This also means you can't ever train fencing combo skills above 95

I've heard you have to advance it the last 5 levels though learning the skills when you use it in combat.
The good news is I've found I usually get a free level of the first fencing skill in my combo roughly once every couple of days.
The second/third skill in the combo can get free skillpoints as well, but at a slower rate since you aren't always landing those as often.

Sabre Lunge can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Fence
Sabre Remise can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Lunge
Sabre Trompement can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Remise
Sabre Ripsose can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Trompement
Sabre Parry can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Fence
Sabre Feint can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Parry
Sabre Derobement can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Feint
Sabre Invito can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Derobement
Sabre Tension Parry can only be trained 5 less than Sabre Invito

Newbie Strategies For Training Sabre Fence:

One of the pros/cons of how training Sabre Fence works is that the prerequisites are essentially an "exp tax" on the skills you want to advance. But if you are willing to train it with usage vs. exp then it can be much more affordable
Through using the skills, you can get a higher skill level for a sabre fencing technique than you have the prerequisite trained for. For example, I currently have "sabre parry" at 51% but "sabre feint" at 52%.
You are essentially trading time for exp
As a newbie, I trained the base skills to around 50% and then advanced the skills I wanted through automatic skill-ups via use
I also don't think that the base skill "Sabre fence" matters once you start using combos. I haven't verified that though since I've been training it to max just in case I was wrong.
Also, I'm still struggling to see the value of any of the fencing techniques beyond lunge, remise, and parry. So unless you have exp to burn, I'd recommend only training those three.

The one exception is Sabre Tension Parry, which is better than the standard Sabre Parry. But Tension Parry is really a Highbie skill to train when you have EXP to burn.

Offensive Fencing Skills:

The following fencing skills are offensive in that they directly cause damage to your target.

Sabre Lunge
Sabre Remise
Sabre Trompement
Sabre Ripstose

Sabre Lunge: The most basic attack

It is one attack that is executed immediately when it hits the point of progression in your Sabre Fence.
For early levels, I'd recommend starting out your Sabre Fence with this. You'll have it trained the most so it'll have the highest chance of executing allowing the next combo to go off
When it was in the middle of my combo I occasionally get the following message after scoring a normal critical hit:

You quickly follow your critical hit with an elegant lunge!
This does additional damage!!! It is roughly equivalent to an extra weapon hit.
This will not trigger if you have it at the beginning of your combo.

Sabre Remise: The second most basic attack

It does the same amount of damage when it hits as Sabre Lunge

In fact, it probably does lower damage in practice since you probably have Sabre lunge trained more.

When Sabre remise is the 2nd or 3rd skill in your combo though, you will occasionally get the following message after one of your attacks misses, is dodged, or parried: "You perform a quick remise after your failed attack!"

This does a little less damage than the final Sabre Remise hit
I've seen this message pop up two times in a single Sabre Fence combo a couple of times, but it is rare
This WILL NOT trigger if you have Sabre remise as the first item in your combo.

What this means is if you are making a lot of attacks (and therefore missing a lot of attacks) it can do more damage than Sabre Lunge if you have it in the second or third combo position.

Sabre Trompement: The third attack skill you can train

It also seems to do the same amount of damage when it hits as Sabre Lunge and Remise
I have not seen any "special" moves based on it. So I'm still researching this skill.
No other Shadow Sabre I've talked to has been able to identify any bonuses it gives you either. I'd recommend skipping this skill.

Sabre Riposte: The fouth attack skill you can train

It also seems to do the same amount of damage when it hits as Sabre Lunge and Remise, and Trompement
I have not seen any "special" moves based on it. Skip this skill as well.

Despite its name, I have not seen Sabre Riposte trigger after I parry an attack (and I have Parry set to 51% and trained to 91% with the bonuses from my Spider Sabre weapons).

Support/Defensive Fencing Skills:

The following fencing skills are support/defensive in that they try and prevent the attacker from causing you damage and they enhance your other attacks

Sabre Parry
Sabre Feint
Sabre Derobement
Sabre Invito
Sabre Tension Parry

Defensive skill attack enhancement:

Defensive techniques have two components.

The first aspect varies between the different techniques
Defensive skills will also massively enhance the next Sabre fencing attack that follows it.

The real reason to use Sabre fencing defensive techniques is the "enhancement" aspect of them. They will massively boost the damage of your next Sabre fencing skill. This boost seems to roughly multiply the damage of the next attack by a factor of x2 to x3.
If you have a defensive move as your first technique, followed by another defensive move, followed by an offensive move, it will still enhance the offensive move
This enhancement will only impact one offensive technique. So if you have 1:feint, 2:Lunge, 3:Remise, then feint will only enhance the "2:Lunge" technique.
As far as I can tell, this enhancement is the same across all defensive techniques.
The defensive sabre fencing "enhancement" feature does not carry over to future sabre fencing combos.

Do not put a defensive technique at the end of your combo (unless you have less than 20 Sabre levels, don't have a third attack technique, and want to front-load your damage)

The non-enhancement portion of a defensive technique will also not trigger if you killed your first target and are switching to a new target.

This really only applies to Sabre parry when fighting multiple monsters.

The non-enhancement portion of a defensive technique will also not trigger if you have it in the first spot of your combo.
General recommendation: Only use a Sabre fencing defensive technique in the 2nd slot of your combo.

The second combo slot is the only position where both components of the defensive technique will activate.

Sabre parry: Works like a scaled down regular parry

It only works against your target of sabre fence
It has the ability to execute up to two times, but only in its spot in the combo
The higher you have this trained, the more likely a parry is to occur. At 50% trained it seems to parry one blow every 2-3 times I use it. I've been told the closer to 100% you get the more reliable it becomes.
Like regular parry, it adds some minor survivability. The real reason to use this though is for the enhancement aspect of it.
The advantage of sabre parry compared to regular parry is that it doesn't impact your attack speed, which is really nice!
Parries with this skill show up as a parry when you use the command "show summary"

Sabre Feint: It can occasionally do a bit of damage

Sabre feint's damage component only occasionally happens if it is the 2nd or 3rd technique in your combo. It won't always trigger, and it will never trigger if you have feint as your first technique.
If you want to add more attack vs. defense, go with Sabre Feint vs. Sabre Parry
I personally go with Sabre Parry. Shadow Sabres need all the defensive help they can get.

Sabre Derobement: It can occasionally do a bit of damage

The damage message is: "You follow up your superior derobement with a decent hit!"

This damage only occasionally triggers

I don't know how this damage compares to sabre feint

My gut says it does more damage than feint but that is only because it's a more advanced skill. I don't have any real data to back that up.
My limited data says it does the same damage as Sabre feint

I'm also not sure if there are any other bonuses this skill does
I often get a message: "You avoid a disarming attempt, but get hit in the process!", but I have no idea what it means/does beyond adding some flavor.
The final success message is: "You swing around in an [[success percentage]] derobement to evade a blow and to get ready for your own.

Despite the text, I've still gotten hit by all the attacks surrounding when that message triggers, so it doesn't seem to cause a dodge/parry like Sabre parry does.

Needs more testing

Sabre Invito: No idea what primary effect it does.

To be fair, I only trained it to 20%, but I have yet to see any impact of using this skill besides the secondary damage enhancement aspect of it.
Needs more testing

Sabre Tension Parry: Provides more parry opportunities than normal Sabre Parry

This can parry up to three attacks vs. the normal Sabre Parry's two attacks.
Otherwise, this is exactly the same as Sabre Parry
Parrying extra attacks is always nice, but don't worry about this skill until you get really advanced.

Recommended Skill Combo:

For people with 15-20 levels in Sabres:

Sabre Lunge, Sabre Parry, Sabre Remise

For people with 20-30 levels in Sabres:

Sabre Lunge, Sabre Parry, Sabre Remise
Not a typo. In my testing I really haven't seen value in switching to more advanced fencing techniques yet, so this is my current setup.
You can also do (Sabre Trompement, Sabre Remise, Sabre Lunge) if you are killing smaller creatures and your 3rd technique doesn't have time to fire consistently. Sabre Lunge is the 3rd technique due to the bonus hits it can cause if you score a Critical hit.

Fencing Skill Success Messages:

All the fencing skills will have a success percentage and a damage indicator which hint at how effective they were.

For example with attack skills it might be: You leap at [[Monster]] with an [[Success Percentage]] lunge, [[Damage Indicator]].
Defensive techniques also have a success percentage for their enhancement portion. In this case I believe the success percentage indicates how much it will enhance the next fencing attack skill.
The higher damage indicators only occur if the attack has been enhanced

Success Indicators (From worst to best):

(FAILED) skillfully avoided by your enemy, an elegant move!
Incompetent
Inferior
Adequate
Average
Decent
Excellent
Masterful
Perfect

Attack Skill Damage Indicators (From worst to best): *Note: Some of ordering is based on guesses

bruising its neck and drawing some blood
slashing a deep wound into its flank, blood gushes out
tearing its flesh, scraping against bone!
dismembering limbs and inflicting serious internal bleeding
carving bone while the softer material slices away in a fountain of blood!
TEARING apart muscles and cracking smaller bones into splinter
RENDING and MUTILATING the screaming flesh
causing the organic tissue to simply DISINTEGRATE

Testing Methodology

Many chessboard pawns died to bring you this information...
Ideally I'd have another player help me out, but without any other training dummies, I set my parry to 51% (to limit non-fencing damage), targeted pawns, and then spammed "scan all" to estimate how much damage they took from the various moves
During most of this testing, my character had a size of Big (65), Str (75), and Dex (89), and wielded a spider sabre as my primary weapon
Un-enhanced sabre fencing attacks usually did around 10% to 30% damage against a pawn's total hit points depending on how successful the attack was
Enhanced sabre fencing attacks usually did around 20% to 60% of damage against a pawn's total hit points.

They almost certainly can do more, as many of those attacks ending up killing the pawns.

Long story short, there's a lot of avenues where error can creep in with the above analysis, so if you notice anything wrong please reach out to me so I can fix it.

Non-Attack Skills:

Lounging:

Overview:

This is the Sabre "camping" skill

In fact, this shares a cooldown with camping

You still benefit from other regen skills like Fire-Building
There are a number of items you can buy to make it more effective. Basically you can spend money and style points to get better regen, which is a very "Civilized Background" type of thing to do.

Mechanics:

"slounge" is the top-level command to use to configure your lounging preferences.

In general you want to use this command to turn on/off options that cost either money or style points.
You can save a small amount of time turning off other items, but it probably isn't worth it.
Items to always leave enabled:

Umbrella (unless you are really trying to speed up a dungeon run)
Pillow
Gramophone
Blanket

Items to only turn on when you want to maximize your lounging

Dining (Costs money to use)
Toothpicks (Costs style points to use. Only enable if you have maxed out all your equipment)
Handkerchiefs (Same a Toothpicks. Costs style points to use)

In general, I use this command to turn on/off dining, without having to modify my dining menu.

You might want to create a command alias to do this for you. This way you can quickly switch between "lounging to top off your hp" and "lounging to get back into the fight" situations.

"sdine" is the command to manage your dining menu

You can have one food item, one drink, and one cigar, selected for when you are lounging.
To see your food/drinks/cigars you can use the commands:

"check icebox"
"check humidor"

The numbers next to items is what you use with the "sdine choose <#>" command.
Yes, food/drink items are differentiated, but food items are earlier in the list, followed by drinks, followed by cigars.
The higher the number of the item, the more expensive it is.
You can clear out your menu by using "sdine clear"

As far as equipment goes, see the below Style Equipment section, but in general don't bother with improving lounging until you have a basic scabbard and hat.

Healing Results (All Lounging Equipment):

Lounging Skill Level: 86

No food/drinks/smokes
Char: 44 (Eyesore)
Results:

92 hp restored
94 hp restored
101 hp restored
103 hp restored
108 hp restored
111 hp restored
120 hp restored

No food/drinks/smokes
Char: 100 (Gorgeous)
Results:

137 hp restored
155 hp restored

Pandemayne Eats/Clarry Drinks/No Smokes
Char: 44 (Eyesore)
Results:

105 hp restored
112 hp restored
117 hp restored
117 hp restored
118 hp restored
130 hp restored

Parry:

Overview:

Parry allows you to trade attack speed for enhanced defense
This is a common skill for melee guilds

Mechanics:

Turning parry on/off

Parry has a weird mechanic where you can turn it on or off vs. "use" it
Typing "parry 0" will turn parry off.
Typing "parry 51" will turn it to the max value
There are very few situations where you would pick a value in between. Either you want the defense, or you want the attack.

Parry's impact on attack speed

Parry will slow down your normal melee attacks. So at parry 51% you will essentially attack every other round since you are likely wielding short blades. Other weapons have different attack speeds.
Parry also reduces your battle cadence extra attacks since they won't trigger until you launch a normal attack.
Parry DOES NOT impact spell/skill speed. Your gloveknock will still take two rounds to trigger if your parry is 51%

Impact of having a shield

Wielding a shield will drastically lower your melee damage. Shadow Sabres don't have shield damage skills, and wielding a shield disables battle cadence. I don't recommend using one
Also, a shield only helps parry if you have a low short blades skill. You are a Shadow Sabre. You really should have a short blade skill of 100 by the time you are training parry.
Note: The biggest impact a shield does have is on lessoning the amount of damages you take from critical hits. This is where Shadow Sabres really miss out on not being able to use shields without massive downsides.

Strategy:

With a parry of 69% (spider sabres give +4 parry) and parry set to 51% I block around 30-40% of hits that would have normally hit me.

This provides a huge survivability bonus since it dramatically increases my effective hitpoints against monsters that don't use spells/skills.

Since parry doesn't impact skill speed, turning it on against monsters that are primarily melee damage dealers makes a lot of sense since so much of your damage is done via skills (such as sabre fence and gloveknock).
You will want to turn it parry off against monsters that cast offensive spells though, since parry doesn't protect you against spells/skills
When partying, I usually turn parry on to enhance my survivability when in the front row. Sabres are squishier than other tanks.

Style Equipment:

Scabbards:

If you upgrade your scabbard you will get credited/refunded the cost of any previous scabbard you had
A better scabbard increases your chances of getting an extra attack when performing a gloveknock
Scabbards can have other bonuses as well

A black darksteel scabbard emits darkness
A shining silver scabbard emits light
The top tier dual scabbard will let you sheath both your weapons and pull off a dual-Gloveknock (two Gloveknock attacks at once), which is crazy damage.

Admittedly the top tier scabbard also costs a ton of Style points so only a handful of members have been able to buy it.

Hats:

These help prevent your skills from being interrupted during sabre fence.
Tested: If you upgrade your hat you WILL LOSE all points from previous hats

This is really annoying.

A basic hat seemed to do pretty good at preventing my skills from being interrupted when using sabre fence
I just purchased a "smooth" hat and it helps a bit more preventing interrupts, but isn't that big of a difference.

Feathers:

These help prevent your spells from being interrupted during sabre fence.
I suspect like hats that points spent on previous feathers will not be refunded

Lounging Equipment:

Toothpicks:

Avoid these. They are a way for people who have maxed everything else out to spend style points. You buy these in packs of 100.

Handkerchiefs:

Avoid these. They are also a way for people who have maxed everything else out to spend style points. You buy these in packs of 100.

Umbrella:

Only used outside if it is raining. It's very helpful then, but I'd recommend waiting to get this until you have gotten some of the other items.

Pillow:

Very useful. Works better with a blanket so you might want to get that first

Blanket:

Very useful.

Icebox:

Allows you to eat food and drink alcohol while lounging. Adds a lot but all of those things cost money. So don't get this if you are starting out.
Food ranges from 24 gold to 622 gold
Drinks range from 21 gold to 989 gold

Humidor:

Allows you to smoke cigars while lounging. Like the Icebox, don't get this if you are worried about money.
Cigars range from 103 gold to 912 gold

Gramophone:

Adds a big bonus to your lounging. It costs the most though, but it's nice if you can afford it.

Random:

There is a painting for sale in the Style Equipment storeroom.

It costs 5k style points
It is "off-label". It's not listed for sale but you can ask about it
No idea what this painting does for you.

You can buy custom moustache cuts for style points.

Besides their description and emote, these moustaches are exactly like the default moustaches you can buy. They cost the same, the last the same amount of time, and they provide the same benefits.

Style Points:

Overview:

Style points are the main "currency/reputation" of the Shadow Sabres guild
You earn points by participating on Batmud world events
Some events will only award full points if you have 30 levels in the Sabres guide

If you only get 1 point for a super difficult world event, this is probably why

Style points will preserve across reincarnations. So you can still see player's point totals on the leaderboard that are no longer Shadow Sabres.
Sabres have one of the most brutal reputation systems. It's hard to be stylish. Most players don't earn more than a couple hundred points.

This means you need to be real focused on what you spend points on

Tips for Earning Style Points:

Each of the major cities on each content have an event board which can let you know what events are currently running

For example in Arelium in the Church of All Gods there is an event board in the main starting location.

If you purchase a moustache and have it active, it will twitch when an event starts on the content you are on. This lets you get a jump on events as they happen.
Listen in on the "Event" channel to see announcements about world events.
If you are under level 30, the Arelium rat catcher event is an amazing way to get Style points

Style Point Rewards:

Bank Robbers:

Bank robbers rob a bank and run around town. Kill them.
6 style points per kill

Biff Swift:

2 style points per round

Clones:

Kill clones of players
1 to 4 points per kill

Contraption Event:

1 point per item given to Wobble the Magician.

Dragon Attack:

50 points for killing the boss dragon
Only 1 point if not a full Sabre

EP Eater:

Kill the monster that is eating everyone's endurance points across batmud
7 points for killing the monster
25 points for killing the monster if you have 30 levels in the Sabres guild.

Frog of War

15 points

Fungus Event (Arelium):

Funguses sprout around the town. They drop mushrooms which provide bonuses if you eat them.
1 point per fungus killed

Gazgo

Gazgo plays a game of tag where you need to find them in random rooms based on the description they give you.
2 points per tag
40 points for winning the event (most tags)

Groke:

50 style points to all sabres in the party

Hot Potato:

Pass a hot potato to other players. Be the last one who doesn't have it blow up on them.
12 points for winning the event

Hunt:

Hunt and kill the fox
7 style points for killing the fox and turning in the tail
12 style points if you have 30 levels in the guild

Joining (Shadowkeep):

One time grant of 30 style points when you join the guild
This is the only non-event way to get points.

Magic Eater:

Kill the magic eater that is eating player's spell points across Batmud
25 points for killing the Magic Eater if you have max levels in Sabres
Only 1 point if you have less than 30 Sabre levels.

Meteor Shower:

There's some 'towers' that the event bosses live in, you have to kill like a 300k+ golem to access them and kill the boss behind it. The boss is around 100k+ and much easier to kill than the golem.
There are four towers and the tower you need to enter is based on the type of meteors being thrown around.
Everyone else in Batmud just gets randomly hit by meteors which do a lot of damage.
17 points for completing this event and destroying the towers.
30 points if you are a full Shadow Sabre

Mosquito

Kill mosquitos in the main city (Arelium) (Shadowkeep)
1 point per mosquito killed

Orc Invasion:

Kill orcs that are invading Arelium
Note: If there are multiple Shadow Sabres in your party the points are randomly distributed to one player per kill.
You get 1 point per orc kill, and 6 points for stopping the invasion by using "fill hole with boulder".
You can find the boulder somewhere in the city that is being invaded, and the hole will also be in the city
Note: At some point you will stop receiving style points for killing orcs so you can't just farm them all day long.

Rats (Arelium):

Must be under level 30 to participate
Kill rats in the main city (Arelium), and "toss corpse" in the ratcatcher's room.
1 point per corpse (up to 100 total if nobody else is participating)
50 points if you killed the most rats

Rainbow Event:

Find the end of rainbow and the pot of gold in the outerworld
12 style points for winning this event

Rustmonster:

Kill the rustmonster that is destroying people's equipment
7 style points for killing the monster
12 style points if you have 30 levels in Shadow Sabres

Shapshifters:

4 points per kill

Snowball:

Hit players with a snowball
I have 12 points for this. Probably 1 point per player hit

Vikings:

Kill Vikings when they invade Arelium
Note: If there are multiple Shadow Sabres in your party the points are randomly distributed to one player per kill.
2 points for killing a Viking.
I suspect there is a bigger bonus if you "win" the event

To win the event, collect items dropped by the Vikings and take the items to a box located in the north part of the church graveyard. Use the items to complete the box.
The syntax is "put necklace in depression"

Zhentorian Invasion:

Kill invaders
7 points per kill if you solo them
3 points per kill if you are in a party
The Zhentorian sergeant provides 6 style points if you are in a party
The Zhentorian captain provides 20 style points if you are in a party

Zonni Statues:

Put the Zonni statue back together. This is also a level quest.
9 points for putting the last piece of the statue together
16 points for being in a party when killing the statue
Note: If you have less than 30 Sabre levels you will only get 1 point.

Moustaches:

To get to the secret Shadow Sabres barber, go to the Guild Delicatessen and "ask Coriale about moustache".

They will open a secret trapdoor and lead you to the barber shop
Once there, you will have a choice of three different moustaches (seen below)
Ask barber about moustache for a little bit more information:
It appears the more money you pay the longer you'll keep your moustache. But you will lose it over time.
The command to buy a moustache is "pay barber [amount] for [type]

For example you can use the command: "pay barber 1000 for english"
When paying 1000 gold for a mustache, the mustache seems to last for around 2-3 days.

The command "stache show" will create an ascii art moustache that everyone in the room will see.
If you ask the barber about "cuts" they will present a list of off-label moustaches you can purchase for sabre points. They will just make that cut available to you. You will still need to get it refreshed with money.

Side note: Who has free style points just laying around to spend 800 on an imperial cut?

What the moustache actually does for you

It will "twitch" when a world event starts that awards style points
It "might" let you earn more style points for events

English Moustache:

Lampshade Moustache:

Handlebar Moustache:

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