Swordman

The Swordman is a stubborn front-line fighter trained in Izlude, the port town next to Prontera. Its teachers at the local academy taught that a strong offense is the best defense and that protecting others comes first. This page follows the current International Ragnarok Online (Renewal) data.

High STR gives the class a lot of ATK, and many of its skills boost one-handed and two-handed swords. It can also wield spears, axes, maces and daggers, wear heavy armor and shields, and its VIT-based HP lets it hold monsters off the party.

Reach job level 10 as a Novice, go to Izlude and enter the Swordman Guild on the west side of town. The Swordman behind the desk in the center room changes your job and gives you a Novice Falchion [3]. Changing here also teaches Berserk, Fatal Blow and HP Recovery While Moving for free.

Older test (Pre-Renewal / Classic): the guild once sent new Swordmen through three obstacle maps of narrow paths and bridges; falling off sent you back to the start. irowiki marks this test as no longer used on iRO Renewal. See Job Change Quests for the other classes.

A Swordman has 10 skills and 70 skill points to spend (Renewal values below). Skills can be reset at any time.

Icon	Skill	What it does	Max level
	Bash	Hits one target for 130–400% ATK with 5–50% extra accuracy.	10
	Magnum Break	Fire blast on every enemy in a 5×5 area around you for 120–300% ATK, pushing them back 2 cells.	10
	Provoke	Raises a target's ATK by 5–32% and lowers its DEF by 10–55%; success 53–80%.	10
	Endure	No flinching for up to 7 hits for 10–37 seconds, plus 1–10 MDEF.	10
	Sword Mastery	+4 to +40 ATK with swords and daggers.	10
	Two-Handed Sword Mastery	+4 to +40 ATK with two-handed swords.	10
	Increase HP Recovery	More HP regeneration while standing still, and HP items heal 10–100% more.	10

These three passives come from skill quests, or for free when you change job at the Izlude guild.

Icon	Skill	What it does	Job level
	Berserk	Below 25% HP: ATK +32% but DEF −55%.	30
	Fatal Blow	Bash at level 6–10 can stun the target.	30
	HP Recovery While Moving	HP keeps regenerating while you walk.	35

irowiki suggests two early builds. Magnum Break: gather groups of monsters (Provoke pulls passive ones) and blow them up, with a one-handed sword, shield and maxed Sword Mastery for safety. Bash: kill passive targets such as Willow or Bigfoot one at a time with a two-handed sword; cheap for new players but not a long-term plan.

Weapon type decides how much damage you deal to each monster size (see Weapons and Ammunition):

With the Catherina Von Blood [1] weapon you can level in the Sunken Ship from base level 3 up to 56: pay Fisk in Alberta 250 Zeny for the trip and use Magnum Break.

Without that weapon: kill Willows for the Payon Bounty Board until level 21 and Bigfoots until 41, then Orcs, Orc Ladies and Orc Babies for the Eden Group quests until 55 and for the Geffen board until 60. The Orc and Orc Lady kill counts of both quests can run at the same time.

• Eden Group equipment quests start at level 12 and give free gear for your class that is good enough up to level 99.
• In Izlude, the Enchanter Mounds quest adds Max HP +100 and Max SP +50 to the Cotton Shirt every new Novice gets, which stays useful after the job change.
• Stat and skill resets are available, so a build can be fixed later; see Stats for what each stat does.