[SW] Assault stance, survivability, versatility - through tactic changes

[Vandoles]

When the SW was released in live, it was intended to be a hybrid of range/melee dps with the option of being a long range nuker, a quick, versatile ranged dps or a very versatile ranged + melee dps class.

The problem with SWs, as they are right now, is that your options are very limited. I won't discuss scout, as I don't think many changes are needed there. As skirmrish, the idea of a quick, versatile ranged dps, your problem is that you need to manage your range and can't be much into versatility. Basically, if you have someone close on you, you don't have many options besides pray and run away somehow. This doesn't fit with the general idea of the SW, who should have melee options (hence the MANY skills SWs are given such as a melee disarm, interrupt and so on - which don't work well enough). Assault, the versatile option of being able to fluidly switch from ranged to melee has one very major problem that just completely kills the idea - you have NO defensive options in melee, your only hope is that the enemy dies before you do. And you just cannot close distance to a ranged target, so you'll die before you can even press the advantage that you can also melee. The KD (exploit weakness) is very low on duration and you then cannot use the disarm. Meanwhile if you spec into assault your ranged damage is heavily underwhelming.

On the other hand, assault SWs have very little good tactic options. Merciless soldier is completely useless, as you'll die long before you're starved of AP in assault. Sure, replenishing strikes is great for adding a boost to your skirmrish damage, but it's still underwhelming.

So, after my long justification is presented, I'd like to give my actual suggestions:

Rework merciless soldier.

Option 1

Assault stance will now grant a % bonus of toughness. Assault stance has an armor bonus that helps a lot with survivability, but it will not do any real change in case a SW is caught by a mdps. A little bit of toughness would allow versatile SWs to get into a solid toughness percentage that lets you survive melee attacks. It will also allow you to close distance as you will be able to survive ranged attacks a little longer

Option 2

VoN will also free you of movement impairing effects and/or grant you bonus speed (of the sort of 15%/30%, nothing too crazy.) This will give the SW the versatility to either escape OR close distance. As it stands, a SW getting caught with slows is pretty much screwed and ALSO a SW can never close distance if you choose to in a fight, because a tank will always snare you and you can't get past. VoN is a 60 second cooldown, so this will ensure things don't get crazy. A speed bonus would be similar, possible even better, because Charge already exists for mdps. The only issue here would be that it makes kiting even easier - but there's also the argument that kiting is already pretty straightforward and WE can now slow you down with throw dagger.

Option 3

Opportunistic strike will now stagger the target and last 5 seconds. There's very little need for explanation here - in every mmo a ranged class has a long duration CC to allow them room to control the fight a little. The problem here is that this might go overboard in giving a SW kiting/ranged options (even if it's a deep tactic in the assault tree) and not really do much about the closing distance option

Option 4

Whirling pin will now jump you to the target instead of the opposite. The brutish, vulgar option for a distance closer. Still doesn't solve the fact that SWs cannot effectively play versatile, due to being too squishy in melee, but it will allow you to time your entrance into melee and it will require the opponent to react - giving you a few seconds.

Option 5

VoN will also increase your dodge or parry by 50% for its duration. 50% is still not enough to make you unkillable, to reach a good percentage you'd have to go assault and use renown points for dodge, in addition to gearing - effectively making it not overpowered for skirmrish. This is by far my favorite option, because it feels very right for the SW to be able to close in melee and survive through dodging. Remember the age of reckoning trailer? The only problem is VoN has a 10 second duration. That is too much for such a change. Perhaps it could also reduce the duration?

Rework a different tactic

Pierce defenses

Instead of lowering an enemies parry/dodge/block chance after they do one of the three, it could increase your parry/dodge/block chance after you do one.

Anyway, I'm sure there's quite a few other options. I'd really love to see this topic up for discussion, because I really feel like the Assault/Skirmrish hybrid could use some love. It's not a coincidence the trailer for this game had a SW who shot a marauder with arrows, before closing in range. And it would give the SW a unique playstyle.

[Penril]

There will probably be an .ab ex for SW, so we should wait until then for any proposals regarding these classes.

(source: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=18310)