[Swordmaster] Builds, hints and tips.

[Kallah]

So... level 35, time to play again with the SM

Poised attack for Khaine spec and IB which is a nice tool. Nobody will use Forceful Shock.

Probably Khaine player will benefit the most. They can level Hoeth a bit and get AA. For Hoeth players... I think im gonna follow this build:

http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sm; ... 71:2881:0:

Sapping Strike with WW and duelist procs/taunt could work quite well against healers.

[peppex91]

Sapping Strike with WW and duelist procs/taunt could work quite well against healers.

Indeed, but i remember a old topic about converting it in a ap steal as SM is very easy to ap starve. Much easier than a healer.
Guess it will be reworked in t4.
That way could work even better xD

[Sigimund]

You're thinking of the 1.4.9 PTS patch: http://www.weritsblog.com/2013/04/149-hits-pts.html

[peppex91]

yeah, thx for the link

[TenTonHammer]

wooo never looked at IB before

a 5s cd morale drain is pretty dam strong considering that morale is one of destros strongest tools late game

[Rebuke]

In my opinion there arent many nice gadgets or builds that are made available for the SM with the recent level cap increase other than Intimidating Blow. You cant take any of the vaul goodies yet (crashing wave+Vaul buffer) without giving up on either WW or ED, which is unacceptable.

[peppex91]

Yeah, i agree with u.
Kallah build is the way to go i think for WW SMs; ED SMs should wait the r40 cap to get some more point to boost hoeth as it increase their dps a lot. Atm is almost pointless to just dump the remaining 4 pts there (u should want both BA and GWF).

[th3gatekeeper]

Among those things they'd aoe spiritutal debuffs and dealth spiritual dmg which was truly insane

SM still today can aoe debuff spiritual resistance and it's the only tank capable of deal a pure spir rotation (chosen just got some) making it have an advantage vs other heavy armored fellas.
Can also compete with BO as burst and get some nice utlity tools as NB, WW and Intimidating Blow (with tact slotted it get -25% crit chance and being 5 sec cd 10 sec duration u can use it for 2 targets).
The lack of ccs it's their major gimp this class suffer (talking for both BO/SM), but i don't think it makes such a problem when SM/BO is not the only tank.
Being such a weird tank give him something special another more reliable tank could not provide.
It's just that chosen and especially kotbs are very ez to master so it's easyer to spot a weak Sm...

SO I play both a Knight and SM. Have both @ lvl 35, geared etc.

I have come to the conclusion that Knight > SM at level 35.

The SM wont be REALLY "viable" until you can get BOTH Balanced Accuracy and WW. Ether Dance is good burst but 2 of the 5 hits usually get blocked/parried against melee and against casters who are unguarded it sure can be good burst, however requires ~ 7 moves to make it really viable:

E.B -> Quick Ins -> Blurring Shock - > E.B. -> Wrath -> E.D. (with a taunt thrown somewhere in there)

Sure you can skip the slow and go right for the debuff and finish with E.D. but you miss out on Blurring Shocks procs AND it becomes much easier for the target to run away without being slowed (I play from NA making a not-slowed target NOT a target I can hit)


Initially i was thinking the same thing here. Spirit Damage > regular damage. Normally this is true HOWEVER in reality hitting a tank for 500 Spirit damage instead of 350 physical damage isnt going to make a difference on their 6-7k life pool. When you transition to casters, their armor % is probably only around (or less than) their resistances, so it becomes a wash there...

Also since Knights have Rune Fang. @ 35 it gives ~210 weapon skill. Combined with ~ 200 base weapon skill a Knight will have ~45% armor penetration and therefore pierce through ALL a casters armor.

So what would make the class viable? (I have reformulated some thoughts on this)

1) Heaven's Blade - needs to BUFF your resistances by the same amount as well as debuff them. In a sense you are "stealing" their resistances

2) Nature's Blade - This needs to last 20 seconds instead of 10 to make this more viable. Also should be "based" on 100 stat value instead of 75 (Since Knights/Chosen auras are 75). So the value here to an SM would be its more stats but the "cons" versus a Knight would be the uptime of the stats (20seconds instead of perma for Knight) and you have no CHOICE in what stats you steal. You could steal willpower from a Chosen which is then worthless against that Chosen who is debuffing your str/Toughness/resistances all in 1... While you may have stolen his Intelligence, Willpower etc.

3) Quick Incision - I REALLY think this needs to be changed so it doesnt require improved stance. This can now be used as an opener BUT would require a 5 sec CD like other classes. This is crucial for many players with Ping and currently takes the VALUABLE place of the AoE debuff (Wrath). Now you COULD do:

Q.I. -> Wrath -> Finisher. And have a much shorter/more reliable combo. Or you can mix more things into the rotation by having this as an opener.

4) Wrath of Hoeth - I think this also needs to debuff ALL resistances, not just Spirit. It can lower the base value from 236 to be more on par with Knights OR another option could be that it again "steals" their spirit resist so it would STAY at 236 and just Spirit but also buff your allies. - Idea being more group utility as not everyone (hardly anyone) on your team actually deals spirit damage....

[Idrinth]

1) not sure I'd agree with stealing, the group-path enchantment might add something else useful. Personal preference would be a tiny group heal(at around level*2) on proc or a group ap-buff(1-5 maybe?)
2) I disagree with the duration, since it's usually easy to get the buffing part up - try standing in a crowd. Increasing the base and growth a bit would help, but I'd say, that would need to be applied to most buffs and debuffs, that are not permanent and/or group affecting to balance it with other classes.
3) that is something I'd highly disagree with, since it would weaken out mechnic even further. I would prefer some passive rewards for proper rotations instead. The catching in turn should just be handled by another person.
4) WL and AM do, it's actually a very dangerous combination if it's set up well. Most utility I see in WoH is actually provinding blade enchantment procs, so "fixing" or scaling up all of those would make it more valuable anyway

[shaggyboomboom]

Among those things they'd aoe spiritutal debuffs and dealth spiritual dmg which was truly insane

SM still today can aoe debuff spiritual resistance and it's the only tank capable of deal a pure spir rotation (chosen just got some) making it have an advantage vs other heavy armored fellas.
Can also compete with BO as burst and get some nice utlity tools as NB, WW and Intimidating Blow (with tact slotted it get -25% crit chance and being 5 sec cd 10 sec duration u can use it for 2 targets).
The lack of ccs it's their major gimp this class suffer (talking for both BO/SM), but i don't think it makes such a problem when SM/BO is not the only tank.
Being such a weird tank give him something special another more reliable tank could not provide.
It's just that chosen and especially kotbs are very ez to master so it's easyer to spot a weak Sm...

SO I play both a Knight and SM. Have both @ lvl 35, geared etc.



I have come to the conclusion that Knight > SM at level 35.

The SM wont be REALLY "viable" until you can get BOTH Balanced Accuracy and WW. Ether Dance is good burst but 2 of the 5 hits usually get blocked/parried against melee and against casters who are unguarded it sure can be good burst, however requires ~ 7 moves to make it really viable:

E.B -> Quick Ins -> Blurring Shock - > E.B. -> Wrath -> E.D. (with a taunt thrown somewhere in there)

Sure you can skip the slow and go right for the debuff and finish with E.D. but you miss out on Blurring Shocks procs AND it becomes much easier for the target to run away without being slowed (I play from NA making a not-slowed target NOT a target I can hit)


Initially i was thinking the same thing here. Spirit Damage > regular damage. Normally this is true HOWEVER in reality hitting a tank for 500 Spirit damage instead of 350 physical damage isnt going to make a difference on their 6-7k life pool. When you transition to casters, their armor % is probably only around (or less than) their resistances, so it becomes a wash there...

Also since Knights have Rune Fang. @ 35 it gives ~210 weapon skill. Combined with ~ 200 base weapon skill a Knight will have ~45% armor penetration and therefore pierce through ALL a casters armor.

So what would make the class viable? (I have reformulated some thoughts on this)

1) Heaven's Blade - needs to BUFF your resistances by the same amount as well as debuff them. In a sense you are "stealing" their resistances

2) Nature's Blade - This needs to last 20 seconds instead of 10 to make this more viable. Also should be "based" on 100 stat value instead of 75 (Since Knights/Chosen auras are 75). So the value here to an SM would be its more stats but the "cons" versus a Knight would be the uptime of the stats (20seconds instead of perma for Knight) and you have no CHOICE in what stats you steal. You could steal willpower from a Chosen which is then worthless against that Chosen who is debuffing your str/Toughness/resistances all in 1... While you may have stolen his Intelligence, Willpower etc.

3) Quick Incision - I REALLY think this needs to be changed so it doesnt require improved stance. This can now be used as an opener BUT would require a 5 sec CD like other classes. This is crucial for many players with Ping and currently takes the VALUABLE place of the AoE debuff (Wrath). Now you COULD do:

Q.I. -> Wrath -> Finisher. And have a much shorter/more reliable combo. Or you can mix more things into the rotation by having this as an opener.

4) Wrath of Hoeth - I think this also needs to debuff ALL resistances, not just Spirit. It can lower the base value from 236 to be more on par with Knights OR another option could be that it again "steals" their spirit resist so it would STAY at 236 and just Spirit but also buff your allies. - Idea being more group utility as not everyone (hardly anyone) on your team actually deals spirit damage....

YES!