[SW] Feedback: SW Stance Cooldown – The Case for 3 Seconds

[leechbg]

Hi Devs,

I wanted to post some feedback on the current Shadow Warrior stance mechanics. Leaning into a true stance-dance playstyle is a massive upgrade for the class, completely changing how we manage our utility, positioning, and burst windows.

Right now, we are locked behind a 4.5-second internal cooldown when swapping stances. Having the stance switch set to 4.5 seconds to balance against the 5-second stance buff window was a good baseline, but it can be much better. Tuning that stance cooldown down to 3 seconds would make the class much more fluid and fun, without making it overpowered.

How a 3-Second Cooldown Compliments Gorilla Training

The current Gorilla Training tactic works incredibly well because its 5-second buff window gives the SW exactly what it needs depending on the stance:

-Skirmish (+20% Move Speed): Perfect for breaking away and repositioning.
-Assault (+100 Initiative / +15% Physical Mitigation): A reliable defensive panic button when getting dove by high-crit melee classes.
-Scout (+25% Auto Attack Damage / -25% AP Cost): Completely fixes our AP starvation issues, letting us execute our Vengeance into Take Down, Festering Arrow, and Rapid Fire burst rotation.

Lessening Our Core Survivability Problems

The biggest benefit of a 3-second stance cooldown is how it directly addresses the Shadow Warrior's natural squishiness. Because the SW lacks heavy passive defensive panic buttons, our only real protection is our positioning and reaction times.

While we do have active tools like the Morale 2 (Ambush)—which grants a 10-second stealth, an 1,800 damage shield, and +1,200 damage on the next strike—and the Assault Stance Detaunt, which now detaunts everyone within 25 yards, these are highly situational and not entirely reliable as core defensive resets. Morale 2 requires you to build up a full bar of resource ahead of time, meaning it's rarely available the exact millisecond you get jumped out of nowhere. Meanwhile, a 25-yard area detaunt is a great utility tool in group friction, but it does nothing to stop incoming true damage or save you from a hard crowd-control chain.

Right now, if you switch to Scout stance to burst a target and suddenly get countered or flanked by a stealth class, you are completely stuck. A 4.5-second cooldown forces you to sit there and face-tank the damage in your squishiest stance. Tightening that switch timer to 3 seconds gives you a realistic lifeline. It allows you to immediately flip back to Skirmish for the 20% movement speed to kite out of danger, or shift to Assault for the immediate +100 Initiative and +15% physical mitigation buffer. It lessens our massive vulnerability to sudden ambushes by letting player reflexes actually save them.

The Case for More Dynamic Gameplay

Shifting the stance swap cooldown to 3 seconds cleans up the mechanical flow significantly while keeping the class perfectly balanced:

1. Cleaner Rotational Transitions: Our primary single-target burst takes about 4.5 to 5 seconds of the buff window. A 4.5-second cooldown forces you to drag out your time in that stance, leaving you stuck in a rigid stance layout for too long before you can react to changing battlefield conditions.

2.Better Operational Alignment: Since Take Down is a 2-second knockdown, a 3-second stance cooldown allows an active player to swap into Scout, drop their full damage channel while the target is face-down, and immediately pivot back into Skirmish for mobility or Assault for defense the exact moment the target stands up.

3.Higher Skill Ceiling Without Power Creep: A 3-second timer doesn't change our maximum damage output or increase the strength of our buffs. It simply removes the dead space where you are waiting on an arbitrary timer to access your basic kit. It heavily rewards high-APM gameplay, quick reaction times, and precise stance management.

Summary

The stance-dance identity for the Shadow Warrior is almost perfect. Dropping the stance switch cooldown to 3 seconds would elevate the playstyle, making the gameplay loop flow flawlessly while keeping the class highly engaging and fun to play.

Let me know what you guys think.

[F4llen4ngel]

While fully supporting the above, i would add a tiny adjustment.
Now that Festering Arrow is castable on the move, it should be instant cast and without stance requirement. As it now creates a 10 sec dmg window, with 3 sec stance cd it would make possible to squeeze in some assault and skirmish abilities into that 10 sec without making it more op. lol

[leechbg]

While fully supporting the above, i would add a tiny adjustment.
Now that Festering Arrow is castable on the move, it should be instant cast and without stance requirement. As it now creates a 10 sec dmg window, with 3 sec stance cd it would make possible to squeeze in some assault and skirmish abilities into that 10 sec without making it more op. lol

Removing the stance requirement and cast time on Festering Arrow might be a good or bad idea depending on how you look at it

On one hand, being locked into Scout Stance to cast FA means you currently have to interrupt your main stance flow just for a single ability. Making it instant and stance-free allows Festering Arrow to actually see play across different builds and non-Scout setups, letting players integrate the ability far more naturally.

On the other hand, making FA instant drastically changes how viable your setup becomes under real combat conditions—both against casters and melee:

Against casters, a 4-second silence window looks great on paper, but in reality, silences don't prevent them from moving. If a caster breaks line-of-sight behind terrain, pillars, or objects during that silence, your full combo gets completely shut down before you can lock them down or finish the sequence. Removing FA's cast time gives you the mobility needed to stay on top of them before they break LOS.

Against melee, even with an instant FA, fitting the entire sequence inside a 2-second Takedown stun is still technically impossible since Acid Arrow alone eats up a 1.5-second cast time. However, dropping FA's cast time is still a massive improvement. Trimming that extra second off FA lets you get Acid Arrow off during the stun, instantly weave Vengeance and FA on the run as they recover, and immediately start channeling Rapid Fire.

Making that whole Acid Arrow > Vengeance > FA > Rapid Fire line that much more fluid, mobile, and achievable against both LOS-kiting casters and aggressive melee is something that definitely needs to be carefully examined!

[ShadowWar]

Stance requirements should be removed completely for SW and Mara, and all abilities should gain benefits based on what stance you're in, similar to how aura tanks have abilities modified by type of auras. Retune both classes after. The dynamic clearly doesn't work for one of the members of this slanted mirror.

It will never happen, but a boy can dream.

[Demonito]

A bit related to this, would love to get back instant Shadowstep

[rorswar]

A bit related to this, would love to get back instant Shadowstep

I prefer the current version. 1s cast while on the move, followed by near instant teleport onto the target, is superior to instant cast followed by a teleport with travel time so you end up behind a moving target.

[Demonito]

A bit related to this, would love to get back instant Shadowstep

I prefer the current version. 1s cast while on the move, followed by near instant teleport onto the target, is superior to instant cast followed by a teleport with travel time so you end up behind a moving target.

Yeah that was an issue but 1s cast is enough to lose los (and can be interrupted ?)
I should have say old version + new instant travel, just add a fancy ninja smoke animation

[rorswar]

A bit related to this, would love to get back instant Shadowstep

I prefer the current version. 1s cast while on the move, followed by near instant teleport onto the target, is superior to instant cast followed by a teleport with travel time so you end up behind a moving target.

Yeah that was an issue but 1s cast is enough to lose los (and can be interrupted ?)
I should have say old version + new instant travel, just add a fancy ninja smoke animation

It now also does damage, so it should have a downside. A 1s castable on the move is that. I rarely have had LoS been an issue.

I think we should be reasonable in what ask for. It’s class BALANCING after all.

[Lescargo]

Personally, I don't even use Guerrilla Training; I feel like it's a waste of a tactic slot for something that just boosts DPS.
And the more I think about it, the more I feel like that tactic is a noob trap. You don't really need it to kite and survive.

[leechbg]

Personally, I don't even use Guerrilla Training; I feel like it's a waste of a tactic slot for something that just boosts DPS.
And the more I think about it, the more I feel like that tactic is a noob trap. You don't really need it to kite and survive.

Look, in PvP, saying "you don't need to kite or survive" only works if your opponent is basically AFK. Against a real player, that logic completely falls apart:

Real players kite you: A good player isn't going to stand there and take your full combo. They’re going to line-of-sight you, pop defensives, and waste your cooldowns. If you can't kite, you can't chase them down or stick to them to actually land your damage.

PvP is all about the reset: High-level fights aren't a face-tanking DPS race; they're about burst windows. If you get caught out with zero defensive or mobility tools, an opponent will bait your burst, disengage, and come right back to delete you while you're helpless.

Whoever controls space wins: Kiting isn't just running away—it's controlling the fight. Mobility lets you dictate when a trade happens. Without it, your enemy decides when you fight, when you heal, and when you die.

Mitigation is offensive pressure: Calling Guerrilla Training "just a tactic that boosts damage" ignores how versatility wins fights. That 15% flat damage reduction in Assault stance isn't just a stat—it gives a full Assault build the mitigation to trade in close quarters and out-pressure melee, while giving a ranged spec a critical emergency button to quick-swap into Assault, eat a heavy burst combo, and survive an unwanted jump.

It changes the pace and keeps the gameplay engaging: Running a tactic like this unlocks a completely different playstyle. Instead of playing Shadow like a stationary glass cannon, sitting in one spot trying to ranged one-shot people, it actually encourages you to shift gears, get mobile, and play a far more active, high-tempo game.

At a 3.0-second stance cooldown, Guerrilla Training isn't a trap—it's a high-uptime engine. Swapping every 3 seconds lets you chain on-switch buffs constantly while staying hyper-mobile.

Ultimately, holding onto a tactic just for raw numbers misses what actually determines success in RvR and Scenarios: adaptability, target pressure, and surviving the assist train. Paired with a 3-second swap cycle, Guerrilla Training isn't about padding stats—it’s the key that breaks you out of the stationary glass-cannon trap and lets you play an aggressive, fluid game without constantly getting punished.