User blog comment:Lord Loss/Discussion of the Week: Sword and Shields/@comment-219.89.189.12-20120512225417

ah yes. the sword and shield. a quick and flexible weapon. this is the weapon i use the most in tri, due to its speed.

what they lack in power and range, they make up for it in elemental and status power. some of them have high elemental and status power. and because they strike fast, they can deal more elemental/status damage in a short amount of time, unlike the greatswords where i mentioned before they are somewhat unhelpful in status inflicting. this makes the weapon perfect for monsters with elemental weaknesses and inflicting them with status effects for methods like sleep bombing or inflicting poison. of course they have a shield, but they aren't very ideal for really powerful monster attacks. but it is useful in tri, for the shield bash move. plus, they allow you to use items while the weapon is drawn. this is the only weapon capable of doing this.

the problem with sword and shields is, as i stated, their power and range. it is one of the weakest of the melee weapons in terms of raw power. and due to its short range, you need to go up close in order to hit anything. also, the sharpness isn't all that good. it deteriorates fast and you'll be sharpening it a lot.

now for the questions:

1) they are good against any type of monster. but for me, it's good for the fast monsters like tigrex, narga, etc.

2) i think they won't work on heavily armored monsters like gravios, unless you have a high powered sword and shield. they also don't do to well against the giant monsters (lao-shan lung, ceadeus, etc.). and if you're planning on doing a tail run, this isn't a weapon you'd use because some tails are so high up that the sword and shield's range is too short to reach.

3) as i said, this is my main weapon in tri. unite is ok, but i prefer the other weapons.

4) the narga sword and shield, high sharpness and it looks cool.

5) i'm not too sure what sword and shield looks the best.

6) they are most definitely faster than most other weapons, save for one but i'll get to that when it is the topic of discussion. and as status inflicting weapons, they're very useful.

7) sword and shield. emphasis on "shield".

so yeah. that's my thought on the sword and shield. great elemental and status weapons that's pretty flexible with a unique ability to use items while drawn and quick attacks. i'd use them more often than the greatswords, but still not my main hunting weapon. (the name is WolfRaid btw.)