A good tanking build is generally Heavy Armour with a high parry. Sometimes you can achieve this with a 1H weapon and a shield, sometimes it's better with a 2H weapon with high parry. You're looking for damage mitigation and avoidance, and not so much damage itself, as long as you can hold aggro.
Different skills match up with different weapons. I don't remember where to find it, but information is out there. Basically, Pierce weapons use Ignore Armour, Blunt Weapons use Slow Attack, and Slash weapons use Bleed. The "Opening after..." stanzas only work with melee weapons, not ranged weapons.
The Duelist Blade is a very good weapon, and it can be difficult to match its stats without using hard-to-get ingredients. That, plus the mission-reward shield are a great set for Silan. Same with the Fire and Wrath.
More important than the actual level of the item are the stats it has. If you look at the spear you crafted vs the Duelist Blade, you'll probably see that the damage is higher, hits per minute is higher, dodge/parry is higher, and adv dodge/parry is lower (lower is better).
This is where the beauty of Ryzom's crafting system comes in. You have to find what materials produce the results you're looking for. Sometimes these are hard-to-get materials that you might even need to trade with others to get. All kinds of Points and Shafts and Grips are not created equally. =)
Different skills match up with different weapons. I don't remember where to find it, but information is out there. Basically, Pierce weapons use Ignore Armour, Blunt Weapons use Slow Attack, and Slash weapons use Bleed. The "Opening after..." stanzas only work with melee weapons, not ranged weapons.
The Duelist Blade is a very good weapon, and it can be difficult to match its stats without using hard-to-get ingredients. That, plus the mission-reward shield are a great set for Silan. Same with the Fire and Wrath.
More important than the actual level of the item are the stats it has. If you look at the spear you crafted vs the Duelist Blade, you'll probably see that the damage is higher, hits per minute is higher, dodge/parry is higher, and adv dodge/parry is lower (lower is better).
This is where the beauty of Ryzom's crafting system comes in. You have to find what materials produce the results you're looking for. Sometimes these are hard-to-get materials that you might even need to trade with others to get. All kinds of Points and Shafts and Grips are not created equally. =)