Sword Masters: halfway home for middling DPS'ers and tanks?

[Polemides]

I noticed that the next patch for Warhammer is affecting SM's. Again. Seems that the tactic "Potent Enchantments" will not stack anymore, in accordance with Mythic's guidelines. This, alongside CoT, and other DoTs that the SM has, means, in mathmatical terms, about a 35% reduction in damage output for any SM that runs with a S&B, and were previously relying on those tactics to help boost his dmg output.

Well.
All gone now. If you want damage, pull out the ol' 2H, and prepare to /faceplant

What this has brought to my mind, is again, the middle-of-nowhere that is the Sword Master. Not the greatest tank, and not the greatest DPS'er. and they seem to get lost somewhere in between. They have little or no beneficial party skills, and have seem to be losing their lustre for some time now.

In the first six months, several of their tactics, even admitted by Mythic, did not even function (Ether Dance) correctly. A rank 3 Morale skill, Bladeshield, did not even work until that last patch. That's over a year broken.

Maybe I'm saying Snowy might take a wee nap after the next patch. I played the SM as I liked (and still do!) the look, the lore and the mechanic of the class, it's just too bad that it just doesn't work. So maybe this might be my "Dear John" letter to the SM class.

I've snuck on and played around with the IB, Slayer, and White Lion (another class left out in the cold imho), and I might try my hand with the Iron Breaker.

A tank class that actually worked. Now that would be something.

[Peavey]

Snowy? A dwarf? NO. :P At least play your Warrior Priest!

Your SM will be ok. Pull out the great sword and let's clear Vulture Lord!

[konfuzfanten]

Hey snow, you should give the WL a try, especially if hes in tier 1-3. In keep defences or the chaotic orvr in tier 1-3 you will slaughter destro healers like nothing. Got 71 DB and 6 death last night on my WL(lvl 20), 12 shamans, 22 Zeolots and 5 doks (I don’t go after doks, only if they are low on heath or over lvl 20). You are a beast as a WL, your burst dmg is insane in tier 1-3 you can burn down most healers in 10-15 sec. Another thing: your not a high priority target for the lvl 40 alts. You don’t need a pocket healer because of your cc, high wounds and armour. And a final thing: You one of the best gankers in tier 2-3 because of the combination of high burst, speeds skills(flee+AP pot, charge, pounce) and cc(lion has a 10 sec snare with 10 sec CD, and you have a 10 sec snare skill, so you can keep your target constant snared).

Ganking:
You jump the target and hit it with your first burst rotation, that should take the target down to 70-50% HPs, if it’s a range or healer just burn her/him down. If it’s a tanks/mdps, kite a little as the AP/morals builds and your lion keeps the target snared, when you AP is maxed move in for the kill. Rinse and repeat.

Important:
Remember that the lions(yes your kittys, not your elfs) skills needs to be on CD before coordinated strike will fire all 4 attacks!

You can gank ppl that are higher level then you because of your kittys snare and the AP building/hit and run tactic.

A warning the Doks can be a pain, if you meet one that’s stacked with amour talis you just cant touch them. Was fighting a lvl 12 dok last night and I could’nt scratch him with my top geared WL (lvl 20 - 2 set items, crit boots, blue shoulders(with+3% crit)/belt/helm, blue and purple str/AP jewellery. All gear slotted with +19 str and my inf elite rewards axe slotted with +19str and +15 ws talis and poped a +50 str pot.).

[Peavey]

If I could I would change Konfuz board title to "White Lion Advocate!" or how about "Staggered White Lion Pet!" :D

Snowy, I guess it's time for you to level up Siouxie .. Last I saw her, she was in Gunbad with a noobie Peavey last year :D

[konfuzfanten]

I love my white lion :-D

[Polemides]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, food for thought, maybe I'll toy around with Siouxsie in T3 again!

[Harlgrim]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, food for thought, maybe I'll toy around with Siouxsie in T3 again!

I've been thinkin' of starting up again and making an alt, just dunno what to go for. Restart my slayer maybe? When I made him the dwarf zones were still the starting point

[konfuzfanten]

A few more things about my beloved WL:

Get the loyalpet addon, it will help a lot on the pet control.

Spec: stay away from the guardian mastery, its pretty much crap right now.

Most WLs runs this:
http://www.wardb.com/career.aspx?id=19#7:160:13:8736:0:0:25:521:523:921 0:9198::::9224:628:9226:630

Tactics:
Brute force(more str), Pack Hunting(faster attack speed) and Flanking(more dmg at the side or rear) are "must have" right now. If you have 2 tactic slots you go Brute force and Pack Hunting, when you hit lvl 30 slot Flanking. Some slot Speed training(50% more speed to the pet lion), Lion heart (more dmg to our spirit attack) or Tearing blade(adds dot dmg to our main attack - sundering chop) but the problem is that you lose out on burst dmg and that’s the thing that the WLs lives and dies by.

Speed training:
Speed training makes it easier to capture targets but with pounce, flee+AP pot and charge you should have enough speed to capture your target.
A single point: speed training is great with Fetch (a lvl 40 pull skill).

Lion heart:
Makes it easier to kill tanks and doks. Now thats a good thing, the only problem is thats not your job! The WL kill-list goes like this: zealot/shaman, sorceress, herder(also know as freenown or greenown by WLs), WE, doks, mdps and tanks, scratching your ass/your kitty for a job well done THEN kill the magus because hes obstruction your view and you have nothing better to do. So we really don’t need to waste a tactic to make our spirit attack better.

Tearing blade
A good tactic especially in PvE, where dmg over time is king, but the other tactics will add more burst dmg to each attack, so this one loses to better tactics.

Gear:
The WL are one of the most gear depended classes in the game because we don’t have any class mechanics we can tweak and we cant stack wounds/tgh because it will gimp our dmg. Like witch hunters the WL operates outside the healers range/view so positioning and patience is everything for a kill. But when you get good at it you will be able to dominate a scenario and kill rows of destro.

A few words on the stack str/ws VS wounds/tgh: we are the most AP using class in the game so you need as much dmg out of each attack as you can get. Yes you will survive longer with wounds/tgh but it doesn’t matter as you will be dead in the water because of the lack of AP. Go with the glass cannon build and pick your target with care.

Sub lvl 32 kill rotation:
Primal fury+pounce+pack assault+coordinated strike+lions fury (now your target should be trying to run) +blind sided+sundering chop for the win. Ofc fire Pack assault+Coordinated strike if they are not on CD. When the target is dead Pounce back to the order healers and kill the destro dps there or go for the next destro healer.

If your target gets outside your attack range Charge+Cleave limb will take care of that.

If there is dps/tanks in the vicinity of your target just go:
primal fury+pounce+Submission(our aoe detaunt) and then go kill rotation.

You do need to be top notch in gear to be any good, and yes if you a good WL you will properly be a great player if you play another class...BUT you have a big mean kitty that eats ppl you don’t like! :clap:




And to Halgrim: the slayer is a good character, a little to easy mode for my taste, but he owns in rvr. As it is now the slayers does anything the WL does better, except CC! People that know my playing style knows that I kite lot both as a healer/rdps and mdps so I prefer my WL.

[Peavey]

Can you dye your lion pink like the guild color? So that could also be like pink panther err pink lion... I think there is a herder or even a shammy called pink .. Me wants to keel it!

[pbaz]

If I could I would change Konfuz board title to "White Lion Advocate!" or how about "Staggered White Lion Pet!"

This wish has been granted.

;)

[Peavey]

Hahahah! Excellent Baz!

[konfuzfanten]

we will do anything to make you happy Poly! :)