SW feedback 2026/7/23 Patch Nite

[Orontes]

Without adequate defences, ASW will stay irrelevant for most part in its niche smalls scale role, you don't do any DPS when dead. An inferior version of WL with a little ''ranged'' utility (which after skirmish tree nerfs is quite weak indeed).

I predict RSW players will quit the class ''en masse'' since who wants to be a ''shadow''( no pun ) of their previous self. Some nerfs pure exaggerations against the class ( such as singletarget skirmish DPS who got gutted alongside the AOE nerfs).

I never subscribe to the “Sky is falling mentality”. It’s understandable if someone’s class gets a nerf, but this game is about adapting, and some players will make it work.

It’s like you see a lot of familiar WE names now playing rSH or Magus. Meta players are gonna play meta classes, as they need to be carried.

AOE skirmish may be less favourable on a WB, and order may be stacking WL + BW again. Hard to say. Most skirmish players will go Scout, I suspect, rather than nerd rage quit and reroll.

Why is the game about adapting? That is a stance that will only apply to a small set of players that stick to a class regardless the pain level. Most players want to play. They want to have fun. Other RDPS classes will rise. The post patch SW numbers will not. They will drop. This is not something to wave off. It reflects design failure by the Devs.

[lumpi33]

I think aSW has similarities with Maras. They are mechanical mirrors and they both have that damage boost buff.

Maras have dual wield, very nice stance bonuses, AOE and great utility while the aSW is a ranged/melee hybrid, obviously less powerful than a real Melee in close range or a real RDPs in ranged. That's the trade off.

That was most likely the reason that they got the armor buff in assault stance from the WAR devs. Maybe the SW had dual wield as well at first (like in the intro video) without armor buff but then they realized that such a squishy class cannot survive in the front so they gave them armor but took away damage (the off hand weapon). Could have happened.

In RoR the aSW melee damage/utility is mediocre at best and clunky to play so I don't think that the armor nerf makes sense. They got that armor for a reason in the initial design. They will melt in seconds without it. They pay with their clunky play, their missing offhand and lots of other things. Paying with armor as well is just too much.

[M0rw47h]

rDPS is op, thus they shouldn't be excited.

[lumpi33]

You know what's funny? The rSH is still getting a 800 armor buff in squig armor as well as kaboom! to get people off. And that's without them even playing in the front line.

The aSW is forced to go in and had all its armor bonuses removed.

That's such a classic Order vs Destro "balancing" again... Is it fair? No. Does it make sense? No.

[Orontes]

rDPS is op, thus they shouldn't be excited.

There is the rub. This is a position tied to a base hostility to an entire class type. Your view no longer requires any consideration.

[Nidhuk]

Scout got their damage backloaded and harder to execute or easier to avoid at best.
Assault got their defences gutted and will melt in seconds for a dubious dps increase if any at all.
Skirmish got their AOE reduced to a point where they would be a detriment to anything but a pug WB.

AP costs still an issue
Clunkiness of play same or worse than before.
Fun factor of class, dead? Maybe aSW can do some fun things for a few seconds lol.

And I get that we will have to see how it pans out on live. But on how many patches have changes like these actually turned out to be good? And why is it that no one on the dev team has any idea why making every build of a class worse isn't a major problem? Who actually was championing the SW?? And still there are people in this thread advocating that aSW is overturned when they at best have the same dmg as before and very bad defences? Worst of all this isn't even the first time we see something like this happening, RIP slayer. Diversity is a joke and no respect is given for the time people have put into their characters.

[Farrul]

The original mythic devs from Age of reckoning realized a melee mastery needs defences to function.

Assault stance is more than just ASW, it always worked as a defensive stance core utility for all Specs of the class. RSH will still have armor buff even though RSH already had better defensive utility than RSW. MSH will have further options improve it.

It is simply completely unfair to SW in general, and whoever approved this obviously did not have SW's best interests at heart? How else is one supposed to interpret this series of nerfs?

[lumpi33]

The original mythic devs from Age of reckoning realized a melee mastery needs defences to function.

Assault stance is more than just ASW, it always worked as a defensive stance core utility for all Specs of the class. RSH will still have armor buff even though RSH already had better defensive utility than RSW. MSH will have further options improve it.

It is simply completely unfair to SW in general, and whoever approved this obviously did not have SW's best interests at heart? How else is one supposed to interpret this series of nerfs?

some say it is hard to bite without teeths

[Orontes]

Scout got their damage backloaded and harder to execute or easier to avoid at best.
Assault got their defences gutted and will melt in seconds for a dubious dps increase if any at all.
Skirmish got their AOE reduced to a point where they would be a detriment to anything but a pug WB.

AP costs still an issue
Clunkiness of play same or worse than before.
Fun factor of class, dead? Maybe aSW can do some fun things for a few seconds lol.

And I get that we will have to see how it pans out on live. But on how many patches have changes like these actually turned out to be good? And why is it that no one on the dev team has any idea why making every build of a class worse isn't a major problem? Who actually was championing the SW?? And still there are people in this thread advocating that aSW is overturned when they at best have the same dmg as before and very bad defences? Worst of all this isn't even the first time we see something like this happening, RIP slayer. Diversity is a joke and no respect is given for the time people have put into their characters.

Well said.

[georgehabadasher]

Worst of all this isn't even the first time we see something like this happening, RIP slayer. Diversity is a joke and no respect is given for the time people have put into their characters.

For me this is the most egregious part of these changes. The balance team seems to be taking an approach similar to devs in league or dota, trying to shake up the “meta” instead of trying to find actual balance.

That works in other genres, but in a pvp mmo that’s so weighted toward geared players it’s toxic for casual players.