Some reflections on melee SW

[Scrilian]

Wait, what? Make up?...Looks like cerebral commotion. Must be a work-related disease...
Visit best elven healer asap!

And beware: too much Bugman's is not good for you.

If an elf even suggests putting his "healing" hand on me - he would lose it.
And there is no such thing as too much Bugman's, girly pants!

[Aquilon]

Wait, what? Make up?...Looks like cerebral commotion. Must be a work-related disease...
Visit best elven healer asap!

And beware: too much Bugman's is not good for you.

If an elf even suggests putting his "healing" hand on me - he would lose it.
And there is no such thing as too much Bugman's, girly pants!

Accurate dwarf's perspective on the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhOnX8qt3I

Spoiler:

I'm deeply sorry. Blame Scrilian for this offtopic.

Waaaaagh!

[Deadpoet]

Sorry to interrupt this romantic conversation but.... The problem with 2handed weapon with 2h dmg BUT 1handed swats is?.....*

[Deadpoet]

Stats lol

[Aquilon]

That's the question for the devs.
Obvious one could be: creating new set of items.

[Gobtar]

I would like the Melee specs for both SWs and SHs to be more viable. In design the SW was never meant to be pure dedicated Melee but pre-dot then go into the fray, this is possible with stance dancing, and even more so with the removal of minimum range.

I don't care if SWs are good in 'decent' 1v1, the game is not balanced around 1v1. The "super good 1v1" stance has been used to keep classes from getting fixes (i.e DPS AMs and shamans) Like wise, a classes strength in their optimal build should not limit buffs to playstyles that should be viable.

Armour debuffs and potions should NOT have a doubling effect, this was patched in live and should reflect that. I haven't tested it but this would fall under the category of bug.

[daniilpb]

Melee gobos are okay with great weapons

[Gobtar]

Melee gobos are okay with great weapons

Are you proposing SHs get great weapons and SWs get dual wielding?
Just curious (SH can't currently use Great Spears)

[daniilpb]

Melee gobos are okay with great weapons

Are you proposing SHs get great weapons and SWs get dual wielding?
Just curious (SH can't currently use Great Spears)

Honestly, i don`t know. Just found this one in game. Who can use it? BO doesn`t use spears, only gobbos can as i remember. But this is Great spear.
Mystery...

Click here to watch on YouTube

[Thorondir]

Well the assualt sw isn't really effective till about rr 60 - so keep that in mind; you need as many points as possible to get EW and SA in Assault Tree and enough points for SS and KA in Skirmisher to really be effective. The Assualt SW is also balanced around more of 1v1's out in ORvR or putting out mediocre DPS form afar with healers and then taking down any MDPS who come to try to **** with your healers.

Assault spec isn't for anything other than the lol's. Skirm/scout does everything better - and at range.

1) Sweeping strikes is terrible and isn't worth trying to fix - SW have 4 AoE abilities (one of which is a tactic spec) and will never be AoE based.

It really is out of place. Skirm is really the AOE tree. Compare Sweeping strikes to barrage? Less damage, lower range. Wast of a cooldown.

2) Swift Strike's place is really only useful if you are ganking Sorcs/Healers in the back of SC's and while its a decent skill like Sweeping Strikes isn't really worth picking up and will needa complete rework to be totally useful.

It is useless, even with the bonus cast damage the damage is low. Pretty much better off spamming the grim slash. (Also, does this still break on movement?)

3) No Respite could use a little buff but what tactic are you gonna give up to use it? (Keen Arrowheads, Sinister Assault, Wrist Slash, Bullseye/Replenishing Strikes/Leading Shots (very rare to use honestly unless you are in a premade that really relies on it)). If anything it would buff Skirmisher for people who want to be as close as possible.

Leading shots is ranged crits only. Doesn't proc off of melee. (not asking for a change to this to be clear). No Respite should be a bigger buff but only apply to melee abilities. This was nerfed from (35%?) back with the big AOE nerf. If this is buffed back and works with ranged, SW AOE will be broken and I promise to abuse it.

4) In Live i know it worked with VoN on; so far i haven't seen it work as intended but there will be bugs. And if it bypasses all armor and crits does it really need more base damage? It would be nice but maybe too strong.

VoN worked to allow brutal assault from any position at launch but was changed when the VoN interactions were removed across the board. I think a better option for Brutal Assualt is to have it be a mirror of Sundering Chop with Sinister assault removing the cooldown. Sure, I would love to torment spam on my SW but that would be broken.

5) People talked about that a lot for Live but you already Dual Wield with the bow and sword stat wise (which is a lot more important than the extra weapon adds to other classes) so just remember to always get the Sword thats better for range, and it will translate to being greatfor melee without gimping your ranged dps. If they got greatswords they would have to completely recode a lot of items and that would be only a minor buff which imo isn't worth the time.

The lack of "white damage" on the assault SW is a serious problem. Assault stance should really mirror the offhand weapon (not for stats) and add the benefits of dual wield.

Honestly the only change Assault SW's need to be effective is to make Takedown not require a stance; this would give Assault SW's a nice gap closer that they need for T2/T3. I also think you're focusing too much on the "melee" aspect of Assault; the main strength is the burst damage, equal ranged/melee strength and the bonus survivability from the double armor.

This is a good insight to the problem with the spec. You have all the tools but the stance interation (with a 5 second cooldown) means that you are not really able to stick to a target in melee when you have to resnare. It kills your burst when you are specced melee and get locked into skirmish for 5 seconds.

This is all just my opinion but I mained an Assault SW on Live for about 1.5 years, and this was before all the SW buffs. I would honestly say Assault SW is the most skill intensive class to play just based on all the mechanics.

The SW buffs were really Scout/skirm buffs. before those changes Assault was about on par with the other trees. Those trees are great now. Assault was left behind as everything in assault you can do better in a ranged spec.

One other point, Exploit weakness, the 13 point ability, is a melee KD on a class (now) with a core ranged KD. WTF? Make it a finisher like Cull the weak.