I have already tried it twice and never felt satisfied with the choice.
1. I used it on a minotaur sword/mace. the sword I didn't like it with. The mace changed to a tank weapon. But I picked it to boost sword/parry/riposte which I failed it.
2. I used it on a felar h2h/staff. I wanted to be a better tank with staff, but I didn't see much difference. But the h2h was much better parrying.

I have a feeling about it, and I have a build to try it again and almost confirm it. But on the other hand, I cannot find enough motivation to waste some 50hr just to do so.

Could someone with access to codes (Or maybe good experience with it) answer either or both of the following questions? (Answer the 2nd if you don't like to answer the first.)

1. What does the ward legacy exactly do?
2. Is what I think right or wrong:
Ward boosts your parry up to parry-dagger-with-staff for your char. So, you don't get much better for sword or staff, but get a huge boots for dagger.So no sword build, even a human-con-sword shouldn't get this legacy to boost the parry, because they have low parry, but ward won't help them anyway.

See, for example, these posts:

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=49772&mesg_id=49773&page=

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=34073&mesg_id=34073&page=


Ward of Blades will generally improve a human sword spec chances to parry (I tried it a few times, for example, on Argivo). However, size/strength differences will still dominate -- it is not that huge a boost.

I can't do a forum search for a link at the moment though. I just remember nep saying it is a much better legacy for non tanking weapons than inherently tanky weapons.

The imms explained this a while ago and here is a short summary.

Both ward and dance give you a second chance to get a parry/dodge if you fail the check. That chance is based on str for ward and dodge for dance and is relatively small.

As a result someone who fails a lot of parries will see more chances to get the legacy to kick in and grant a parry. Or the same way for dodge.

For a spear/polearm user remember that spin and distance are checked before parry. So you need to fail spin/distance, then fail parry for the legacy to even have a chance to come into play. For dance you need to fail spin/distance, parry, shield block, and finally dodge before dance comes into play.


I think you have anecdotally experienced it by noticing a bigger difference with mace over sword (sword naturally lands more parries so less opportunity for legacy to come into play and therefore less visible impact).


I have had ward with axes and hands and it made a good difference for both of them.

I didn't have the feeling that it's a 2nd parry chance.

I knew the parry is going to be checked after spin, but still, I didn't see much better parry with my staff, which I should have seen, as felar cannot parry well anyway.
And also, then end result of sword parry should still be better than mace parry, but I had the feeling that my mace parry was almost as good as sword parry with ward.

But this all was just based upon my feelings, not exact calculations, so I might be wrong.

considering it to be true, I should get a good milage out of the ward with a low dex/str/sword, which I would like to try at a time.

You get more use out of it if you're crappy at parrying.

So, basically, you're right. Sword spec isn't going to get much use out of it. To which I say thank you, because sword spec already parries better then anything AND has riposte.

As a human-con-sword, your parry is already useless (20str 20dex).
Will you get a great boost now? Or you won't?
In other words, will the legacy push you toward giant/staff parry or toward yourself/staff parry?

Editted to add: I think it pushes you toward yourself/staff parry. As I didn't see much better in my felar/staff, which I should have seen if it was going to push me to giant/staff.

As a human con sword, the legacy would add more to your parry then it would an arial sword spec, but less then it would a giant dagger spec.