[Shadow Warrior] Is it viable now as Melee class?

[TenTonHammer]

Im assuming in daniils vision of the spec, assault stance is something like a mode you turn on that would somehow lock you out of your ranged abilities and it wouldnt be possible to stance swap between assault and skirmish like you can now. Or something lile that. It wouldnt be possible until client control.

If that was the case and it prevented stance swapping and the class/spec became pure melee then i see no problem with giving them access to snare breaker

[daniilpb]

Honestly, I would feel okay being snared while being assault SW, everything should have downsides BUT we should have something, just something and dev's gap closer is cool for me.
I think the problem is that SW still can't perform the concept of stance dancing. You have to be in one stance 80% of your time and use other stances just for some random occasions. Exactly this problem forces SW to be only assault oriented or only skirmish focused. There is almost no synergy between stances. And I need to think a bit more what should be done to fix this problem...

[Penril]

Im assuming in daniils vision of the spec, assault stance is something like a mode you turn on that would somehow lock you out of your ranged abilities and it wouldnt be possible to stance swap between assault and skirmish like you can now. Or something lile that. It wouldnt be possible until client control.

If that was the case and it prevented stance swapping and the class/spec became pure melee then i see no problem with giving them access to snare breaker

I would hate it if that happened-, I wasn't a fan of Dok/WP prayers/covenants being locked for a few minutes to prevent them from healing/doing mad DPS. Stance dancing is an integral part of SW/Mara design, and it should stay that way imho. Which is why I disagree with making them as viable as a mDPS when in melee; Assault is, imho, meant to be used defensively (after all, it increases your armor and has a KD, and remember SW skills used to have min-range back in the day) or maybe to quickly get in, deal some damage, and get out (VoN + UF + Whispering Winds + BA spam).

If they are gonna have a "true mDPS spec" then they should be forced to stance dance to make it viable (just like a Mara needs to start in Sav for the debuffs and then swap to Brut for Guillo). Maybe some of their Skirm/Scout-only skills could add a debuff that increases the SW's damage in melee by X%, so they would start on a non-Assault stance, pew pew, build the debuff and then get in for the kill. Then repeat the process on the next target.

Then again, maybe this is not possible atm and we just need to wait for client control...

[AxelF]

Give Slayers a bazooka.

Well thank f**k for a balance moderator and his thoughtful, considered posts.

[daniilpb]

Im assuming in daniils vision of the spec, assault stance is something like a mode you turn on that would somehow lock you out of your ranged abilities and it wouldnt be possible to stance swap between assault and skirmish like you can now. Or something lile that. It wouldnt be possible until client control.

If that was the case and it prevented stance swapping and the class/spec became pure melee then i see no problem with giving them access to snare breaker

... Maybe some of their Skirm/Scout-only skills could add a debuff that increases the SW's damage in melee by X%, so they would start on a non-Assault stance, pew pew, build the debuff and then get in for the kill. Then repeat the process on the next target.

Then again, maybe this is not possible atm and we just need to wait for client control...

Actually a good idea.
I was thinking about some kind of damage buff after activating the stance, then after it's duration ends, there will be a debuff of your defensive stats (or damage) until you switch the stance to another and reapply damage buff.
But it's quite radical, especially debuff part.

[Jaycub]

Give Slayers a bazooka.

Well thank f**k for a balance moderator and his thoughtful, considered posts.

This ain't the balance forums, everyone is free to shitpost.

Spoiler:

Even you

[NoRKaLKiLLa]

Gibbs SW ability to dual wield and bind the best abilities to dual wield only! Then they can have snare break.

[Nidwin]

The noob I am, dropped the bow because I thought I could dual sword wield on my little new SW Yesterday evening. Silly Nid, for sure.

I think it has potential, especially with the assault buff from the patch, but it's not going to be ez-mode five-six buttons gameplay with one win-win rotation. Good and dedicated players who are going to invest time and tears are going to shine, others will go on whining as usual.

[biotek]

I would say it's not in the lore for Shadow Warriors to go only bow or only blade... but we have things like Witch Hunters fighting in battles so the lore kind of goes out the window. The hybrid style available to SW currently makes sense in it's own way but the Assault mastery tree is basically irrelevant in RvR.
Whatever changes are made, it's going to be difficult to remain balanced.

[anarchypark]

about the full mdps thing.
SW's long range + mid range + melee range class. range changing is class mechanic.
SW are not meant to sit on 1 stance, same as mara.

yea mara is full mdps. don't lose their role by changing.
SW have option to go rdps+mdps.
they seem to losing other half role by changing.

but here is the missing point : flexibility.
for rdps : did u want melee attacks that could finish off melee?
for mdps : u need range attacks to kill kiting enemy?
rdps+mdps(ASW) have this advantage.
with price of not best at either.

not using this flexibility, sitting on 1 stance are player's fault.
u shouldn't reward 1 stance play.
so, no full mdps assault tree.