Swordmaster and White Lion Changes in 1.3.6

[Peavey]

Taken from (Dev Discussions Forum (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=dev_discussions&thread.id=10493))


Swordmaster:
A new ability, "Sudden Shift", is now trainable at Rank 3. This ability will instantly shift you from No Balance into Improved Balance, or from Improved Balance into Perfect Balance, or from Perfect Balance into Improved Balance. It is off of the global cooldown, and has a 5 second cooldown of its own.

White Lion:
Force Opportunity is moving to be available at 9 points in the Path of the Hunter, and its effect has been changed. It is now an undefendable attack which reduces the victim's armor.
Echoing Roar is moving to be available at 5 points in the Path of the Guardian.


Heh, I knew the SM would be getting something at least in this patch.. perhaps a few more later :D

Slowly and hopefully surely!

And btw I'm beginning to really really appreciate Whispering Winds from the point of view of a healer/WP and a Knight!
Spammable Purify with the cleanse tactic, makes huge difference in Warband survivability! Spammable ALL Auras up from a Knight gives a nice great group buffs! Beautiful!

[konfuzfanten]

And btw I'm beginning to really really appreciate Whispering Winds from the point of view of a healer/WP and a Knight!
Spammable Purify with the cleanse tactic, makes huge difference in Warband survivability! Spammable ALL Auras up from a Knight gives a nice great group buffs! Beautiful!
Sadly i have never tried it on order side, but one of the most OPed combinations in the game, when i played destro, was 2 SM with Whispering Winds + 2 WL with lions fury = pouncing melee train of death.

ON the WL
So they move a single target ability into our aoe tree? :eek2:
At least we will have an armour debuff...now we just need a overall reduction of AP cost(5 AP pr ability should do it) or higher base dmg(20-25 dmg on each ability) and WL could once again be useful. ohh ofc FIX THE DAMN PET!

[Polemides]

maybe a step in the right direction, but still "Sudden Shift" is pointless imho when it's basically what POH does, with the exception that POH actually does something.

Extremely underwhelmed by the change. About the only thing I can see is spamming ED, but with the cooldown on ED(8s)/CW(20s)/WW(20s), even that's silly.

Plus, why would I want to skip EF (+25% parry, which only lasts a paltry 5s)?

As usual, I'm grumbling. I mean after all this time, suddenly they look at the SM and go.... "yep, a class that lacks group ability, let's give them an "ability" that basically gives them nothing except quicker access to a still limited number of useful abilties"

when was the last time a SM used "Sapping Strike", "Graceful Strike", "Intimidating Blow", or "Dazzling Strike"?

Here's hoping for the future.

PS: WW and CW are still only useful to those who spec high in Vaul and Hoeth. In the report from the Class Rep recently, he specifically addressed this issue which basically says you can choose ED, or CW, or WW, but never any combination of the two due to their high cost.... this was ignored.

I'll be impressed when SMs get a crowd control that affects more than three people (root 50% chance), and for gods sake change Nature's Blade to actually provide something useful, because at the moment I'm still at a loss why I get buffed for INT, Ballistics, and WP. There should be a choice to set what pair you can steal. So you could purposely steal INT and WP for casters, or STR and WOUNDS for tanks....

Regardless, I love my little gimped SM and will never part with with her :p

[Peavey]

Sadly i have never tried it on order side, but one of the most OPed combinations in the game, when i played destro, was 2 SM with Whispering Winds + 2 WL with lions fury = pouncing melee train of death.

ON the WL
So they move a single target ability into our aoe tree? :eek2:
At least we will have an armour debuff...now we just need a overall reduction of AP cost(5 AP pr ability should do it) or higher base dmg(20-25 dmg on each ability) and WL could once again be useful. ohh ofc FIX THE DAMN PET!

Certainly the right idea, it's nice in small scale stuff :D

The other day with the Knight, I was just toying in scenario, the extent of WW pre/post moral dump on a clump. Seeing ALL my auras are up plus BW able to use annihilate more often, makes some awesome bump to firepower and buffs.

[Polemides]

From WHA, Crimson's own token SM Finreal, scoffs at what he and Delolith term "lol-bots":

SMs specc'd in
1) WW and
2) Guard and
3) zerg

[Peavey]

Yeap which in fact I have read and posted the related thread on one of Ice's post. It's lol bot that are used in a warband setup still. And in fact we'll be using an SM this time for the upcoming 6v6 :D

Here's a funny SM video made by Rev:
http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/movie-uk-bfe1145a2aa6b2e2ecf8493c4aed7c0a.html

And btw Crimson Leader was an SM and his main is now a knight :P

But nevertheless, still find uses for a couple of SM in WB / SC setup. Just check out one or two of the latest Crimson videos. Still strive to embed SM for tactical purposes. It's not like the class is completely thrown away out of use ;)

Edit: To further intensify what admittedly often a parade of negativity/critics over the SM state of 'gimpiness'.. Crimson also just recently recruited an extra SM btw... so there must be some valid uses that really works well :P

[Ostalic]

any news on the bw wp or squigy? :D

[Aelahin]

It's a start. Not enough, but it's a start.

being off the gct I hope very much it will be lag-immune so even when things are shitty we can advance our balance (I have tried beijg stuck in the same balance for 10 secs).

Too bad I respec'ed to take PoH to do the same thing. So the improvement is of limited use. Here is to hoping this isn't the only change SM get in 1.3.6. That would make it...about 3 changes over the last 3 patches...plus this will take up even more of my almost non-existing hotbar spaces...

and just for info...Sapping strike is my opening move in all RvR fights with anyone who I know or suspect needs AP to fight.

Sapping strike, and Kamenra proccing means shit AP after 5 secs, then firing Wrath of Hoeth using the resist drain Blade Enhancment. Couple that with me now using the Winds Impervious jewelry set it means that, in accordance with the law of averages, I can pretty much in any wb fight that last more than 5 secs steal 100+ AP from someone, nerf their Spirit resist by 715, take morale from them and then smack Ether Dance on them...I have when this works managed to drain someone like a sorc for 50% health in one balance round and then not get hit by as many nasty things in return...

Give me any one else using Spirit dam as backup and we make one nasty combo...