[SW] Bombing

[lefze]

I believe the time is right for a proposal to make SW relevant again. SW wasn't exactly great before the recent tweaks to other classes, and at this point it's completely in the dark.

It suffers not only from poor damage overall as it only has a single instance of damage going out every GCD, with the exception of bursts with Barrage to attempt killing blows. And getting that damage out every GCD is in itself nearly impossible due in part to recent changes increasing the amount of CC being put out drastically. AP starvation is also a big issue, Lileath's Arrow isn't exactly a cheap spell.

At the same time the previous state of the class wasn't in line either. For one, only having a single spell to cast was rather horrible. 1 second cast time Lileaths Arrows from 65ft range could be rather devastating, especially pugs melted from the pressure put out by a handful of SWs. As such I believe the solution is to find a middle ground, and instead increase the mid-range damage the class can put out, while also introducing more buttons to press.

The class has two rather useless buffs. Hunters Fervor and Steady Aim. I would completely remake these, and using them for the purpose of improving the bomb potential of SW makes sense to me.

Solutions

Expert Skirmisher

Range increased to 45ft.


Steady Aim

Remove the 6 second crit buff. New effect: The next Lileath's Arrow or Barrage cast deals double damage. Adds a 1.5 second cast time. Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds.

This lets you either supplement your sustained damage with double damage Barrage, or set up some decent burst with double damage Lileaths Arrow+instant Barrage. It's still a long way off from the power Unshakable Focus brought, but still a nice nudge in the right direction.


Hunters Fervor

Completely remade. Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds. 9 second physical damage AoE DoT, 40ft range. Any partymember that deals direct damage to the target gains 1 AP.

The class lacks a good, or even usable AoE dot. The class also lacks utility and AP, and hunters fervor simply has no value as party utility or to get AP when bombing. The proposed effect grants the class all three as long as the damage is significant enough.


Barrage

Add a +0.5% damage modifier for every 1% of health the target is missing when below 50% health.

It recently got an AoE snare. It's nice enough, but means absolutely nothing for the overall viability of the class. This change can either replace the snare, or simply be slapped on in addition to it. The damage modifier slightly buffs SWs finishing power, which more or less is it's niche, as the outright damage it deals is some way off from being awesome.


Conclusion

All in all I believe the changes will allow SW to perform well enough, with an effective bomb range of 40ft. Some leeway is given in that Expert Skirmisher and No Respite grant their effects out to 45ft, but it's not gonna be the 65ft range bomb of olden days.

The class gets more involved with some actual choices and more timing, and of course slightly better sustained damage and burst <40ft range.