SW or BW for Ranged AOE?

[georgehabadasher]

I’ve played lion, choppa, slayer, mSH and SW extensively in warbands (tanks and healers too, but we’re comparing dps). In my experience SW is by far the easiest to pug farm on, but the hardest to play vs organized competition. It’s trivially easy to get top kill damage on SW because your range gives 100% uptime on your damage—you’re never running between targets—so SW cleans up better than any other class.

The problems arise because you just don’t have the burst options of other classes like channel-> m2, or ID/FS into channel. The sustained damage is good, and the burst is good vs pugs with Ww and LA->barrage, but the burst just isn’t there vs orgs. You also don’t have the ability to sustain during fights that the mdps classes do because your parry and armor are so low.

[gersy]

I’ve played lion, choppa, slayer, mSH and SW extensively in warbands (tanks and healers too, but we’re comparing dps). In my experience SW is by far the easiest to pug farm on, but the hardest to play vs organized competition. It’s trivially easy to get top kill damage on SW because your range gives 100% uptime on your damage—you’re never running between targets—so SW cleans up better than any other class.

The problems arise because you just don’t have the burst options of other classes like channel-> m2, or ID/FS into channel. The sustained damage is good, and the burst is good vs pugs with Ww and LA->barrage, but the burst just isn’t there vs orgs. You also don’t have the ability to sustain during fights that the mdps classes do because your parry and armor are so low.

for me i think the 'burst' is fine, against org wbs or otherwise, providing you have winds in the channel/morale drop window of your allies which you should if you are playing in a competent setting.

your 1-2 dots + ambush on the push + VoN LA (or barrage) spam is dealing quite substantial damage for 5-10 seconds and isn't realistically interruptible provided you have good positioning. unlike if a conventional "aoe dps" who loses a massive portion of their damage if they are CC'd or interrupted during their burst. especially SL for example, who gets hit by 1 of the gorillion aoe interrupts the millisecond his retribution channel begins and loses almost all of his damage. skirm SW is out of range of any of that and pounding huge LAs away 1 after another, taking next to 0 damage in the process.

the only trouble you face is in equal number skirmishes against hyper competent enemies, like in city siege or a closed zone GvG, where a ST party can more easily victimize you by taking advantage of your squishiness. however this skill level and type of content is almost entirely gone from the game so i think it's a moot point.

[georgehabadasher]

I’ve played lion, choppa, slayer, mSH and SW extensively in warbands (tanks and healers too, but we’re comparing dps). In my experience SW is by far the easiest to pug farm on, but the hardest to play vs organized competition. It’s trivially easy to get top kill damage on SW because your range gives 100% uptime on your damage—you’re never running between targets—so SW cleans up better than any other class.

The problems arise because you just don’t have the burst options of other classes like channel-> m2, or ID/FS into channel. The sustained damage is good, and the burst is good vs pugs with Ww and LA->barrage, but the burst just isn’t there vs orgs. You also don’t have the ability to sustain during fights that the mdps classes do because your parry and armor are so low.

for me i think the 'burst' is fine, against org wbs or otherwise, providing you have winds in the channel/morale drop window of your allies which you should if you are playing in a competent setting.

your 1-2 dots + ambush on the push + VoN LA (or barrage) spam is dealing quite substantial damage for 5-10 seconds and isn't realistically interruptible provided you have good positioning. unlike if a conventional "aoe dps" who loses a massive portion of their damage if they are CC'd or interrupted during their burst. especially SL for example, who gets hit by 1 of the gorillion aoe interrupts the millisecond his retribution channel begins and loses almost all of his damage. skirm SW is out of range of any of that and pounding huge LAs away 1 after another, taking next to 0 damage in the process.

the only trouble you face is in equal number skirmishes against hyper competent enemies, like in city siege or a closed zone GvG, where a ST party can more easily victimize you by taking advantage of your squishiness. however this skill level and type of content is almost entirely gone from the game so i think it's a moot point.

Yeah, agreed. It can do quite substantial sustained damage, but lacks the burst of true mdps and excels as a pug farmer. "Excels as a pug farmer" is why some members of the community view it so highly.

[lumpi33]

No matter if it is SW/choppa/mara/slayer/mSH, they all do very well with their AOE damage and when you are stacking enough of them in a competent 2/2/2 warband and you coordinate moral drops they destroy pretty much everything.

It's all about the "critical mass". If you don't have enough punching power you won't kill anything and if you do have it you cut through the enemy lines like a hot knife through butter. That's what you can see the try-hard premades do to "farm" people and it is pretty toxic to be honest. Fall back, wait for morals, roll over them, rinse repeat. They end up with hundreds of kills and barely any deaths. It's mostly because of their coordinated punching power, overwhelming their enemies quickly.

That being said, a solo or pug group SW is barely noticable, but in a coordinated setup it is a hell of a good damage dealer. So are choppa/mara/slayer/mSH. Everything that can dish out good AOE damage.

That's the big issue. When you nerf down one class, it becomes unplayable for the pug players and small groups and the pro-players just move to the next best class.

So yeah, in the right setup and warband SWs can be very strong. In the wrong one the destro melee train will destroy you.

Regarding SW or BW: SW all day, any day. Not even close atm.