Light Weapons
It is assumed you have already read through the Gear and Arena sections on this site before reading this guide. If not, you should do so first as there are concepts there that need to be understood first.
Skill points and Races in this build section should also be read first.
It is also assumed you have read both the Mage and Warrior sections before this guide, as many of the concepts and principles around gear and spells apply here as well.
Overview
Light weapons are the least-intuitive weapon style in the game, and as a result tend to be overlooked by newer players. But if you know how to make them work for you, they are a force to be reckoned with.
Despite their small damage per hit, they have the highest Damage Per Second (DPS) rating of all weapons.
Let's start with the obvious pros and cons:
Pros: They are FAST. If you stun your opponent on a high block, you have time to line up three combo criticals (two if your target has the Shorten Stun secondary on their necklace). A high-level Ice Spike gives you time for four (or three vs Shorten Stun), and a high-level Paralyze spell lets you hit for five (and Shorten Stun doesn't help at all against Paralyse).
Cons: They just do not do that much damage on their own. A level 5 Resist Elements spell + turtle style armour (heavy armour with two physical resistance secondaries that match your weapon) will almost completely neutralize all the base damage of an elemental light weapon.
So why does anyone ever use them, and how in the world do people win fights with a dinky dagger? To answer that, we need to get into the mechanics of how all of this works.
First off, every single weapon--heavy, versatile, light; with or without Warlock's Ring; Celerity-enchanted versa--swings at the same speed. The "speed" comes from how long it takes for the game to allow you to perform another action after you finish swinging. This means that a heavy weapon with Warlock's Ring speeding it up by 24% will still be just a tiny bit slower than a versatile weapon with no WR, and versa + WR will be slightly slower than a light weapon. You can go faster than a light weapon by using light + WR or Celerity versa + WR, but at that point the arena lag means the game can't really keep up with your speed any more, and weirdness ensues. So basically, a light weapon will get you reacting and performing new actions as fast as the game can handle. This means you can complete a swing and have your shield up in a high block faster than most opponents can react--if they swing twice, you can absolutely get a stun (and three free hits). You can also go from swinging to casting a spell or using an ability a little faster - it's a small advantage, but it adds up.
So, what does that matter if you can't do any damage?
What you need is a total build that supports the light weapon. Most damage modifiers are additive (or subtractive), except what's called the critical hit multiplier. One exception is the increased Physical Damage on Condition (PDOC) which does gets included in the the critical multiplier calculation, unlike increased Elemental Damage on Condition (EDOC) or Physical Damage Ignores Armor (PDIA), which do not.
As St Nick put it, think of light weapons as a PDOC delivery system. Without any offensive secondary enchantments, you'll be hitting for 50-ish damage. PDIA can add another 60 to that. However, 2 x PDOC gets you another 200-300 per hit, and 4 x gets you upwards of 500! If you've ever had a mage land a strong Paralyse on you and sat there watching your health drop from 95% to 15% before you could move again, that's what happened.
So, does that mean that only mages should use light weapons? After all, RE-5 neutralizes all of the incoming elemental damage from a light weapon, so do we have to use strong spells to put the OC in PDOC?
Nope! That's where Elemental Damage Ignores Resistance (EDIR) and the fortify conditions secondaries on your weapon and shield come in serious handy. The great thing about EDIR and fortify condition (e.g. Frost Damage is 17 points more likely to cause Freezing) is that they completely ignore resistance. An opponent can show up wearing 3 pieces of frost-resistant armour, cast
RE 5, drink a strong frost resistance potion, and you can still freeze them in 2 or 3 hits! That is one of the reasons wearing elemental resist armour is not recommended in the arena.
Have you tried light weapons and didn’t like them?
The additional gear is essential to make light weapons work, try again with at least 3 x EDIR, 1 x fortify conditions on weapon or shield, and 3 x PDOC. They're a freakin’ blast, and with the incomparably high DPS it means you have a fair shot at beating one of those super-aggro heavy weapons users who kill you in 3/4 hits, assuming you have comparable armour.
Where do I get these weapons?
Unfortunately, there is no range of light weapons in the Sigil store like there are with versatile and heavy weapons, except for Witsplinter. Most people seem to regard that as a poor weapon, however, that opinion has likely come from early adopters who did not have the right secondaries on their support gear. The first small weapons user to top the table and become a grand champion, Dagon, has indicated they quite liked Witsplinter. But like all small weapons, it is the combined secondaries on the rest of your offensive gear that makes the difference, not the just the weapon.
Because light weapons must be made, either by crafting and enchanting or buying double imbuement (DI) weapons from the Sigil store and enchanting, you don’t see many new players using light weapons, as it takes time to acquire a range of small weapons.
Combined with the demands of the specific high level gear needed and the requirement to make your own weapons, this means it takes quite some time to get a set light weapon builds together, so you mostly see experienced players in the arena with light weapons.
If you want to pursue the light weapons option, you should focus initially on a mage/warrior structure, buying Sigil weapons and keeping any suitable jewelry. After you have those set up, focus on making your small weapons. Or if you have the patience, use your Sigils on Double Imbuement light weapons. Just remember, the guarantee of 2 secondaries, does not guarantee 2 good secondaries, so you will need to buy a lot of DI weapons to enchant.
In Summary
To make your light weapons build work you have 2 basic strategies. You need a lot of PDOC and the 2 different strategies revolve around how you condition your opponent to get the PDOC enabled. You can use a mage style with powerful spells (like Ice Spike, Paralyse, Fireball, lightning bolt) stacked with ring bonuses; or a warrior style with lots of EDIR and your weapon (and/or lower level spells). Most likely it will be a combination of these, based on the gear you make. The key is enabling the PDOC, because if you don’t you could be attacking a giant with a toothpick and you will get squashed. However, if you turn that toothpick into the equivalent of a super razor (enable the PDOC), then it can slice through the giant’s arteries and bring them down!
Light weapons require a different thinking to the usual weapons in Blades. Versatile and Heavy weapons can be relied on to deliver significant physical and elemental damage on their own and the extra damage from jewelry and gauntlets is seen as bonus damage but is not always essential for winning a round. However, for light weapons, their primary damage can be almost completely negated by turtle armour and RE, so the ‘bonus damage’ is in fact their primary attack. Remember light weapons are basically a PDOC delivery system.
Their strength is not in the physical and elemental damage, but in their damage per second (DPS). Light weapons delivery the highest DPS of all weapons, and when you stack 3-4 PDOC they can become the most powerful weapons in the game, delivering the most damage in the shortest amount of time.
light weapons do not need to be as perfect as Versatile and Heavy weapons, what is more important is the total offensive package.
Experiment and enjoy!