Return of Reckoning

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

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...)

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.

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

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)

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

2h ftw

Can't hold the line with a 2hander.

xanderous wrote:Can't hold the line with a 2hander.

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

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.

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