Re: [SW] Quick fixes to noticeably improve the Quality of Shadow Warriors
Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 4:36 am
I dont think a comparison like that makse sense honestly.mryay wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 9:23 pm 1. In a normal Festershima build, with BiS gear, the Festering Arrow is part of the S tiers hardest hitting ability of the game. On par with Doombolt (Sorc), Fireball (BW), and Bolt of Change (Magus). For all of these abilities I have been hit, and I have hit beyond the 3k mark.
Now let's compare what is comparable because it's important to tell the full story:
- SW: 3K+ undefendable Festering Arrow need: Top Sout tree + 1 skill point in FA + Enchanted Arrow Tactic + No Quarter Tactic + Steady Aim buff on + VoN buff on (10s window each 30s, undefendable only apply during this timeframe) + Critical Hit. || FA is 2s cast, 5 sec cooldown, 37.5 AP
- BW: 3K+ undefendable Fireball you need: Top Incineration tree + Full combustion + Burn Trough tactic + Critical Hit || 3s cast (or instant on disrupt with Flashfire), no CD, 30 AP, chance to lose 750 HP
Then,
- if I want to chain FA on the SW: +group play with Swordmaster + Winspering wind skill point (14 Hoeth) + Whispering Wind buff on (10s every 20s)
- If I want to chain Fireball on the BW: just do it.
Also:
Steady Aim buff increase AP cost (hence FA go from 30 to 37.5). Then the other skills, mainly Eagle Eye goes to 50 AP, Fell the weak ~43.8 ==> you run quickly out of AP. And most of the time you run out of it. You have options, like sloting "replenishing strikes" tactic (+40AP on crit, with internal CD), but then you have choices to make like having bulls'eye or not, etc.
- When a SW run out of AP: Hunter Fervor -> spend 25AP to receive +9 AP/s during 9s. And again, this is from a BiS RR80+ SW
- When BW needs AP: use Burn Out (+160 AP, lose 40 combustion) -> chain with Nova (+40 combustion, you're back on 100% combustion + damage dealt ~1300).
This is why I am insisting on Quality of Life. I am fine that BW/Sorc do most of the time better DPS/burst damage than SW. But during the VoN window, and with the support of a Swordmaster/WW, the SW would normally do better than any other DPS (10s hero). Otherwise, what's the point of Scout?
Fireball/Doombolt are 3s hardcasts with no ways to reduce cast time unless you're using M2 offensively. Chain-casting them doesn't give you any serious dps advantage and of course BW/Sorc excel at timestaming so little reason to chaincast Fireballs anyway.
FA on the other hand has cast time reduction tactic which results in a straight direct DPS increase when chaincasting it on top of making it easier to do so due to shorter casttime (also FA base damage is fairly high on its own)
In addition to that we have resistance situation. FA deals corporeal which can be debuffed by any Engi and has an option to bypass all of it with a tactic, whereas both Fireball and Doombolt use niche damage types: Doombolt is Corporeal which requires Zealot (m1 and tactic) to get good debuff, Fireball is Elemental, which has no debuff option on Order side at all, other than Knight aura which is fairly weak.
All of this tells me chaincasting FA with WW is already a viable tactic as it is, whereas for Fireball/Doombolt it is a waste of time.
If you further reduce FA's base cast time to 2s you'd make chaincasting with WW even stronger and the DPS gain from No Quarter will become even stronger, unless you want to also reduce FA's base damage & DPS bonus scaling accordingly.
