Wonder why Swordmasters rarely S@B?

[Osred]

This is why. No idea how mythic QA team missed this rigging **** up.

[Amidala]

So my main was a sm SnB,I left him rr 43 so i am waiting rr wipe to play him another time ^_^ (I just remember I was the first SM with full ruin in the damn hard PQ in Eataine T_T such a nightmare!)
We can't tank like a knight/ib.I felt so small when I saw knight with a lot of buff for the team....or see an immortal IB.At the end it's better 2h in game.Sm can do spiritual damage and be not so squishy.
But i am still SnB (and without problem I was main tank for BL lairs) because in the order side find a tank is still a miracle(and yes a lot of ppl rerolled knights but...but...they don't know how to play...)

[Luth]

Wonder why Swordmasters rarely S&B?

Because, despite mastering many weapons, the 2H sword is their preferred weapon in the lore. 1 2
"Wall of darting steel" gives them also the best avoidance chances of all 2H tanks and their shield-only ability (crushing advance) is not as good as the 2H-only ones.

[Glorian]

Give them a 1h sword bop item that looks like a spear and you will get plenty of SnB SMs.

[peterthepan3]

Literally no reason to go snb with access to wods. You can be very tanky in conq as 2h ( i have 0% chance to be crit)

[Aurandilaz]

Shields being either boring or useless is also perfectly within Warhammer lore.
I mean, who needs defences when you hit people?

2h ftw

[xanderous]

Can't hold the line with a 2hander.

[Glorian]

Can't hold the line with a 2hander.

Elgi never hold the line. Like they never hold their Beer.

[Danielle]

SnB Swordmaster would still probably be the second tank of choice for an Order optimized 24-man warband over an IB together with a Knight. It actually provides more useful large-scale utility than the IB and they can both Hold the Line all the same.

[Thamor]

As everyone knows, the SM doesn't get enough utility to make it worthwhile going too much S&B tanky tank. No aoe snare, no good single KB (Tactic gives single KB (Medium range)), very low amount of buffs that affect your allies. There is only 4 things (WW, NB, heal tactics) that affect allies when IB & Kotbs have 10+ skills that help group. So to conclude this is the main reason that full tank SM is worse than IB & Kotbs going this way. Most utility stuff that SM brings is more dps to single target in the form of Heaven's blade, Wrath of hoeth & Shocking blur. Whispering winds bringing most utility to your allies and being the only real buff to a premade that uses that advantage in their setup.

S&B Hybrid staying defensive but not ignoring dps is the way to go and is most of the time much better mode for a good mdps like slayer to have (Impending doom with whispering winds easy combo) and another which is one of the best damage combos WL&SM (Whispering winds with Lion's fury w/tactic).

In the end SM is made for being offensive tank more than IB & Kotbs were ever made. But if you want full tank that does 0 damage, better to always go with IB & Kotbs buff bot tank than SM. If you want tank that increases dps on targets and brings more damage too by itself bring SM