Mace Fighting

Mace Fighting is the weapon skill for blunt weapons — maces, hammers, war axes and the wooden staves. Its trademark: every mace hit drains the target's stamina, slowing their swings in return. Whether your own swings land is decided by this skill; damage comes from Tactics, Anatomy and Strength.

What the skill does ↑ top

Hit chance is a contest between your Mace Fighting and the defender's skill:

chance to hit = (your skill + 50) ÷ ((their skill + 50) × 2)

Equal fighters hit each other 50% of the time; a Grandmaster never misses a completely unskilled target and hits a half-trained one about 75% of the time. The full damage, swing speed and hit mechanics are on the Weapon Damage page; the stat table of every mace-class weapon is on Weapons.

What makes maces special:

• Stamina drain — every hit with a mace-class weapon drains 3–5 Stamina from the target. Since swing speed depends on stamina, a mace fighter literally slows the enemy down with every blow. Against players this also eats into their ability to run.
• Trade-skill bonuses — the wooden staves (club, quarterstaff, gnarled staff, black staff) get a damage bonus from Carpentry, while the war axe and hammer pick get one from Mining — up to +20% at 100 in the trade skill.

Crushing blow (PvP only) ↑ top

Against other players, two-handed mace weapons can land a crushing blow:

It never triggers against monsters — see PvP.

Insta hit and Deep Wound (PvP) ↑ top

Two shard-wide PvP rules matter to every mace fighter — both are covered in full on the PvP overview:

• Insta hit — arming a weapon lets you swing immediately, interrupting whatever your opponent is casting. A pure warrior pays nothing for it; a fighter with 80+ Magery and 80+ Evaluating Intelligence lands that first instant strike at half damage — one swing, then full power.
• Deep Wound — a swing that rolls near the top of the weapon's own damage range tears a wound that cuts all healing the target receives, and it stacks (see Healing). The war hammer's huge top end makes it the game's premier wound-tearer, and even the wooden staves qualify on their best rolls — the light one-handers barely ever do. Combined with the stamina drain, a heavy mace is the classic answer to an opponent who out-heals you.

Skill cap ↑ top

Mace Fighting caps at 100.0 — there are no Skill Scrolls for weapon skills, so it cannot be raised to 120.

Training 0 → 100 ↑ top

You gain with every swing at a valid target, hit or miss:

1. 0–50: buy the first ~30 points from an NPC weaponsmith, then batter easy creatures (mongbats, small animals) or spar with a friend.
2. 50–100: fight mid-tier monsters (earth elementals, ogres) so the checks stay challenging. Faster weapons like the war axe or club mean more swings — and more gain rolls — per minute.
3. Train in dungeons for 20% faster gains; guarded towns and houses are slower. On the newbie island Adena gains are doubled but capped at 70.0. All gain modifiers are listed under Skills Overview.

Tactics and Anatomy rise passively while you fight — keep their arrows up.

Related ↑ top

• Weapon Damage — how damage, swing speed and hit chance work
• Weapons — the full Mace Fighting weapon table
• Mace Fighting Mastery — the Macing mastery (armor crush, knockdown, Seismic Shock)
• Skill Masteries — how the mastery system works
• Tactics · Anatomy · Parrying
• PvP