[Shadow Warrior] Revamping Stances

[dansari]

1. Identify the issue.
The age old problem for Shadow Warriors: making other stances strong enough to move away from the cookie-cutter Skirmish stance. Shadow Warriors have three stances, and Scout and Assault see very little play time in groups (although Assault SWs can be strong in 1v1s now).

2. Explain why it's an issue.
The simple issue is that this makes playing Shadow Warriors very linear. In warband, it means you equip Instinctive Aim, Expert Skirmisher, and Bullseye, and spam Lileath's Arrow. In a perfect world, Shadow Warriors would have a higher skill ceiling and be encouraged to swap stances when the situation calls for it.

3. Propose a viable solution to the problem.
My proposed solution is to revamp the buffs you gain from the stances themselves:

1. Update Scout Stance
Scout Stance no longer grants you 80 Ballistic and 80 Initiative. Instead, it gives you a buff to your armor penetration based on how long you've been standing still (something like +10% armor pen every 3s standing still for a max of 30%). Additionally, Path of the Skirmish abilities now gain a 25% range increase, over the regular 10% you get for all other bow attacks. This increases the damage you can provide in Scout stance, as well as allows you to apply your main dots (Broadhead Arrow and Shadow Sting) at 80feet instead of 70feet. The latter allows you to move away from Powerful Draw being necessary in a Scout-centric spec. The snare, Takedown, would also be affected by this buff.

2. Update Assault Stance
Assault Stance no longer grants 120 Weapon Skill (keeps the 120 Strength). Instead, it gives you a buff that mirrors Marauder's Gift of Monstrosity: 25% chance to regain 1032 hp over 5 seconds on (caveat here would be that they would be linked to Assault abilities only) and "shrug off your enemy's armor penetration." Additionally, remove the 10% Dodge debuff. The reasoning here is that it allows SWs to have much more survivability while in melee range for extended periods of time; and if the 10% parry increase is supposed to mimic having dual-wield, the Dodge debuff doesn't fit into the spec.

[Penril]

Declining. 25% range increase + Powerful Draw = 121ft snare and heal debuff.