Ultima Online Fencing - every weapon, both special moves and the poison template

What the skill actually does

Fencing decides whether you hit and whether you are hit — it is the attacker’s and the defender’s Combat Ability term in the hit-chance formula [!] — and it gates each weapon’s two special moves. It contributes nothing at all to damage. That comes from Tactics (÷ 1.6, plus 6.25% at 100), Anatomy (÷ 2, plus 5% at 100) and Strength (× 0.3, plus 5% at 100), summed with item Damage Increase into Final Damage = Base Damage + ( Base Damage × Final Damage Bonus% ). Item Damage Increase caps at 100% and the total bonus at 300%.

Lumberjacking is in that pool too but does nothing for a fencer — its bonus applies to axes and hatchets only. It still counts towards the special-move mana discount, which is the one reason a fencer might carry it.

Two things a fencer has that an archer does not: Parry works normally, with a shield or through the Bushido weapon-block, and Use Best Weapon Skill applies — uo.com excludes only archery from it.

One-handed weapons

[!] uo.com does not publish a fencing weapon table — no damage or speed figures for fencing weapons appear on any of its skill pages. The damage and speed figures in both tables here are unpublished and are marked [!] in the column headings. The move pairings are corroborated by uo.com’s Special Moves page.

Weapon	Damage [!]	Speed [!]	Primary (70)	Secondary (90)	Crafted by
Assassin Spike	10–12	2s	Infectious Strike	Shadow Strike	Blacksmithy
Dagger	10–12	2s	Shadow Strike	Infectious Strike	Blacksmithy
Kryss	10–12	2s	Armor Ignore	Infectious Strike	Blacksmithy
Tanto	10–12	2s	Feint	Nerve Strike	Carpentry
Gargish Tanto	10–12	2s	Feint	Nerve Strike	Carpentry
War Fork	10–14	2.5s	Bleed Attack	Disarm	Blacksmithy
Leafblade	11–15	2.75s	Feint	Armor Ignore	Blacksmithy
Spiked Whip	13–17	3.25s	Armor Pierce	Whirlwind Attack	Blacksmithy
Lance	18–22	4.25s	Dismount	Concussion Blow	Blacksmithy

The Lance is the outlier and worth understanding: it hits harder than anything else a fencer can hold in one hand, and swings slower than most two-handed swords. It is carried for Dismount, not for damage over time.

Two-handed weapons

Weapon	Damage [!]	Speed [!]	Primary (70)	Secondary (90)	Crafted by
Kama	9–11	2s	Whirlwind Attack	Defense Mastery	Blacksmithy
Sai	9–11	2s	Dual Wield	Armor Pierce	Blacksmithy
Short Spear	10–13	2s	Shadow Strike	Mortal Strike	Blacksmithy
Tekagi	10–12	2s	Dual Wield	Talon Strike	Blacksmithy
War Cleaver	10–12	2s	Disarm	Bladeweave	Blacksmithy
Yari	16–19	2s	Feint	Nerve Strike	Carpentry
Double Bladed Staff	12–13	2.25s	Double Strike	Infectious Strike	Blacksmithy
Elven Spellblade	12–15	2.5s	Psychic Attack	Bleed Attack	Blacksmithy
Pitchfork	13–14	2.5s	Bleed Attack	Dismount	Tinkering
Spear	13–15	2.75s	Armor Ignore	Paralyzing Blow	Blacksmithy
Pike	14–16	3s	Paralyzing Blow	Infectious Strike	Blacksmithy
Lajatang	16–18	3.5s	Defense Mastery	Frenzied Whirlwind	Blacksmithy

uo.com’s Special Moves page lists five more fencing weapons that are absent from the tables above, with moves but no damage or speed figures: Bloodblade (Bleed Attack / Paralyzing Blow), Dual Pointed Spear (Double Strike / Concussion Blow), Shortblade (Armor Ignore / Mortal Strike), Skinning Knife (Bleed Attack / Shadow Strike) and Gargish Dagger (Infectious Strike). [!] No damage or speed is published for any of the five by uo.com, and none is given here.

The special moves, and what they cost

Two per weapon, at 70 and 90 Fencing, with 30 and 60 Tactics alongside. Real skill points only — item bonuses do not satisfy the requirement.

[!] uo.com publishes the primary/secondary labels two different ways on two of its own pages. The Special Moves page puts the primary move at 70 and the secondary at 90; the Melee Fighting page states the opposite. The numbers 70/90 and 30/60 Tactics are not in dispute; only the labels are, and the tables above follow the Special Moves page.

Mana comes down with your combined total across Swordsmanship, Mace Fighting, Fencing, Archery, Throwing, Parry, Lumberjacking, Stealth, Poisoning, Bushido and Ninjitsu: −5 at 200–299, −10 at 300 or more. A special within 3 seconds of the last one costs double; a special that is parried costs nothing, unless it is a Bushido or Ninjitsu move.

Move	Mana	What uo.com says it does	Also needs
Bladeweave	15	“The Warrior becomes one with their weapon.”	—
Whirlwind Attack	15	Strikes at all nearby targets.	—
Infectious Strike	20	Enables level 5 poison from a poisoned weapon.	A poisoned weapon; Poisoning
Disarm	20	Disarms the foe for 5 seconds.	—
Concussion Blow	20	10–15 scaling direct damage, based on weapon speed.	—
Shadow Strike	20	Extra damage, and renders the attacker invisible.	80 Stealth
Defense Mastery	20	Raises your physical resistance.	Bushido or Ninjitsu
Dual Wield	20	Attack faster, on a 25% base proc.	Ninjitsu
Talon Strike	20	Increased damage with additional damage over time.	Ninjitsu
Frenzied Whirlwind	20	20–50 damage per attack, within two tiles.	Bushido or Ninjitsu
Dismount	25	Unseats a mounted opponent. 15–25 damage.	—
Psychic Attack	25	Reduces the target’s Spell Damage Increase by 4–16%.	—
Armor Ignore	30	Bypasses all of the target’s armour resistance, for one shot.	—
Armor Pierce	30	Increases damage by 50%.	Bushido or Ninjitsu
Bleed Attack	30	15–31 damage over 10 seconds.	—
Double Strike	30	Two quick swings, with a 10% penalty.	—
Feint	30	Reduces the attacker’s damage by 20–50%.	Bushido or Ninjitsu
Mortal Strike	30	The victim cannot heal — 8 seconds on a player, 14 on a monster.	—
Nerve Strike	30	Direct damage and paralysis.	Bushido, real skill only
Paralyzing Blow	30	Stunned, unable to move, attack or cast — 3 seconds on a player, 6 on a monster.	—

[!] Two of these are published without a mechanic. Bladeweave’s entire uo.com description is “The Warrior becomes one with their weapon” — no effect, no number. And Infectious Strike’s chance to apply poison on a hit is not published; only that it enables level 5 poison with a poisoned weapon.

The mastery: The Needle

Fencing has a Skill Mastery, titled The Needle. Masteries count real skill only, and the requirement is above 90 [!]. You need the Book of Masteries from Hawkwind’s quest near the Valley of Eodon, plus a mastery primer per tier, which drop from champion spawns, Scalis and Charybdis.

• Thrust (active toggle, 30 mana [!]) — increased physical attack damage, and decreases the target’s physical attack damage. It burns mana while it is on, it does not stack with the Feint special move, and it is capped at 35 damage in PvP.
• Pierce (active, 20 mana [!]) — a piercing move that applies a stamina debuff and a stamina drain, scaling with Fencing, Tactics and mastery level.
• Warrior’s Gifts — the shared weapon-skill passive: +5 Hit Chance Increase at level 1; +5 HCI and +5 Defense Chance Increase at level 2; +5 HCI, +5 DCI, +5 Strength Bonus and +5% Damage Bonus at level 3.

[!] Thrust’s damage increase, its debuff magnitude and its mana upkeep rate are not published — the PvP cap of 35 is the only figure given. Pierce’s stamina debuff and drain amounts are not published either, only that they scale.

[!] The mastery switching cooldown is not settled: uo.com says 10 minutes; there is also an unpublished figure of 15 minutes [!].

In PvP

• Speed. Several fencing weapons sit at a 2-second base swing, the fastest in the game. More swings means more chances to land a special, more procs from hit-effect properties, and more poison applications.
• The poison template. Infectious Strike costs only 20 mana and enables level 5 poison from a poisoned weapon, with Poisoning as the support skill. Nothing else in melee does this as cheaply. Note that Poisoning has no Power Scroll — it stops at 100.
• Disarm (War Cleaver, 20 mana) strips the foe’s weapon for 5 seconds.
• Paralyzing Blow (Pike, Spear, 30 mana) holds a player 3 seconds, unable to move, attack or cast.
• Dismount (Lance, Pitchfork, 25 mana) unseats a rider.
• Mortal Strike (Short Spear, 30 mana) blocks healing for 8 seconds — including bandages.
• Shadow Strike (Dagger, Short Spear, 20 mana, 80 Stealth) damages and vanishes you.
• Feint (Leafblade, Tanto, 30 mana) cuts the incoming attacker’s damage by 20–50% — but does not stack with the Thrust mastery.
• Pierce drains and debuffs stamina, and stamina is a term in the swing-speed formula: every 30 points of stamina lost costs a quarter-second of swing speed. Draining an opponent slows his attacks directly.

Against monsters

• Armor Ignore (Kryss, Spear, 30 mana) bypasses the target’s armour resistance for one shot — the answer to anything heavily resistant.
• Whirlwind Attack (Kama, 15 mana) and Frenzied Whirlwind (Lajatang, 20 mana, 20–50 per attack within two tiles) deal with a crowd.
• The disables run roughly double. Mortal Strike is 14 seconds on an NPC against 8 on a player; Paralyzing Blow is 6 against 3.
• Bleed Attack (War Fork, Pitchfork, Elven Spellblade, 30 mana) is 15–31 damage over 10 seconds, which a fast weapon can keep running indefinitely.
• Fast weapons and per-hit properties go together — leeches and hit effects trigger on a swing, and a 2-second weapon swings a great deal. [!] uo.com does not publish leech rates, so no figure for that is given here.

Caps, stats and training

Fencing is on the Power Scroll list: base cap 100, raised to 105, 110, 115 or 120 by a Wondrous, Exalted, Mythical or Legendary Scroll of Power. It counts against the 720 total. Primary stat Dexterity, secondary Strength.

From 0 to 30, buy it from an NPC Warrior Guildmaster. Above that it follows uo.com’s shared melee ladder: New Haven trainers and accelerated-gain quests to 50; Makoto Jima orcs and deathwatch beetles, the eastern desert or Solen hive workers to 70; New Haven Mine earth elementals, dazzled harpies on Covetous level one or Solen Infiltrators near Wind to 90; then Shame level 1, Homare Jima’s Tsuki Wolves, Bushido Dojo ronin, the Fan Dancer Dojo on Isamu Jima, the Arctic Ogre Lord in the Ice Dungeon and Shame level 2’s mud elementals.

Weapons come from Blacksmithy for most of the list, Carpentry for the tantos and the Yari, and Tinkering for the Pitchfork. And while you are in combat with another player, a newly equipped +skill item takes 15 seconds to count.

Where these come from

uo.com Melee Fighting · uo.com Melee Damage Increase · uo.com Special Moves · uo.com Skill Masteries · uo.com Archery · uo.com Skills, Stats & Attributes. Everything here is from uo.com or the game itself; anything uo.com does not publish is marked [!] as unpublished where it appears.