I was thinking about buying one of these for the melee damage it does, but I find it odd that it is uncommon, not very rare. The description has a purple in paranthesis, so perhaps it is mislabled and will be corrected at some point?

purple refers to the colour of the plasma edge 'blade'

Its to differentiate the nanopulse of 2012 to the nanopluses of 2010

Red batleth/Blue Lirpa for 2010
Purple batleth/lirpa for 2012

Note: think it was 2010, maybe 2011 ^^'

Thanks! From a damage perspective, is it better than very rare Bat'leth's?

i compared it to one of my purple mkxi crticalDx3 lirpas, the purple lirpa would hit harder

On borg the nanopulse required remodulation if memory serves,

But the nanopulse looks cooler, and i think has some kind of deflection ability? either way, it is a nice cosmetic item, and heck that's what melee is mostly for in a game with space guns ^^

The Red and Blue Naopulse weapons were added to STO during the Winter Wonderland of 2011. STO didn't have a December holiday event in 2010.

As a further point of interest, the nanopulse weapons were added on Dec 20, 2011 as a nod of recognition by the Cryptic Team to the launch of the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Game. Not only are the weapons reminiscent of the red/blue lightsabers of Star Wars fame, but they were "sold" (for free, at the time, to all players) by a Ferengi Special Weapons Dealer that looked and spoke very much like Star Wars' Jedi Master Yoda (pictured here).

I found mine very handy in some recent groundforce missions and it does a good deal of damage. I generally don't use Bat'leths though, but I was pleased with how well it put the bad guys down.

I've been using the 2012 nano-bat'leth on my fed at Defera and I haven't once had to remodulate. The nanopulse batleth (from Q's WWL) has nearly the same damage specs as the Shard of Kahless my KDF toon's carry so I didn't see a need to buy one for them.

I'm very happy with this weapon regardless of rarity or color of icon, well worth the investment.

i have both 2012 variants and love 'em! i use the lirpa more than the battleth, but they do come in really handy in ground scenarios

Hmm find that kinda odd :p

I mean if borg can somehow adapt to cold.. gorn bite's toxins, radiation..

But i digress, my bad on the adapt point, apparently i was wrong :p

People like to make stupid comments anytime I use one even on enemies that just stand there, so I don't even bother anymore tired of ignoring people.