Swordmaster GO!

[skutrug]

One of my old guildmates used to have Swordmaster videos and guides - some are still on the internet.
Search for Taugrim - http://taugrim.com/2009/08/11/war-sword ... cs-part-1/
Swordmasters are a lot of fun solo, and with the introduction of talisments are even more viable than before... don't let the stunties tell you that they are the only DPS worth playing... remember that you are an elf: Those smelly, hairy gimps are beneath contempt

[Greatwarden]

Sm pairs great with classes like wl who has lots of spirit dmg

Do you mean Lion's Fury, the ONE spirit damage ability that wl has that's on a 5 second cool-down and can (usually) only be cast on a cursed target?

Sure, IF the WL slots a tactic that it needs to spec for (Lion Hearted), the damage is increased and the target no longer needs to be curse, but the SM needs to spec for Whispering Winds too and the specs in question are not optimal specs when you try to run with any other class. AND you probably need Vent or TeamSpeak to coordinate Whispering Winds to any degree.

Sadly, the SM does almost nothing to help improve physical damage, which is about 85% or more of the WL's bread and butter and 100% of the poor lion's damage.

If anything, an SM has more synergy with DPS AMs, who have many spirit damage abilities (and we all know how popular THEY are).


I was a big fan of Tarelther, who spent a very considerable amount of time trying to squeeze some group utility out of the SMs. Here's a link to his five treatises on the matter: http://tarelther.blogspot.com.au/search ... %20utility

The main lesson I took home from his works is that it's DAMN hard for an SM to have decent group utility, to the point where you virtually need to organize premades with PARTICULAR classes and PARTICULAR specs and vent before SMs begin to shine.

Most importantly, you need to have the influence and ego to be able to get a full group of people to spec and play in a way that makes YOUR contribution approach that of a KotBS.

[xaphiero]

Here's a question. Having dragged a Swordmaster up to 11, I now face the conundrum of what to spec. I know that the SM cannot compete in the arena of DPS so should I go full defense and just try to be a pretty annoyance for as long as possible? Are there some builds that you can share. I am pretty fond of clicky builds but I know you largely get what you get. Is the Sm so irrelevant that I should just do whatever and who cares?

What are your thoughts?

If you don't have enough dps players maybe go 2H. Otherwise, stick to guard, debuffs, buffs, etc. If you really want to dps why not play a class designed to excel in that area?

[Wraithedge]

If you don't have enough dps players maybe go 2H. Otherwise, stick to guard, debuffs, buffs, etc. If you really want to dps why not play a class designed to excel in that area?

Its a good point, and I know I should be sitting behind a shield and annoying destro slightly.

I keep noticing (in SCs) that tanks score much more damage than mdps a lot of the time. Chosen and KotBS are usually above WL and Marauders. Rdps do all the damage and Engineers do all the damage ever. When I see a mdps I usually get a chance to blink and then they fall over dead. I think their dps is really hurt by all the running back to the fight they have to do. I am not sure I want to be a fragile tea cup even if I get a little more dps.

It does make me wonder why the Swordmaster would have a whole mastery area devoted to damage if their damage is awful and always will be. Not that I doubt the many, many posts of sworn testimony that tank should never, never, never dps ever. It just seems like a bit of a dirty trick to give the players a pathway to nothing at all like that.

Most importantly, you need to have the influence and ego to be able to get a full group of people to spec and play in a way that makes YOUR contribution approach that of a KotBS.

This is a bummer. I know that there are changes that are supposed to make the SM more of a team player but the above is a great big informative bummer.

[Coryphaus]

Ordo dosnt need to worry about dps with all the slayers they've got

And while id normally agree that if tank you should tank, snb etc etc

The entire sm class seems built around 2h, I don't know if that's cause of lore or bad game design but snb sm just seem really meh which is saying a bunch as the entire class is kinda meh

I mean like you can see snb sms in sc's and stuff like engir who like spam kb and are really tanky bit don't do much with all that durability

Now compare that to an ib who's also very durable but can also deal major dmg

I say if you want to play sm your better off 2h than snb


Furthermore the only reason your seeing 2h tanks do more dmg than true mdps is because of the stage of the game were in

Also you need to look at what they bring to the table like hdebuffs and stuff

Not dmg numbers

A 2h tank could beat on a healer the entire sc and have like 100k dmg but the healer never once got even close to dying cause the healed up all the dmg without batting an eye


Now same scenario but it's an mdps like a choppa, hdebuff and that healer is dead.

The mdps just accomplished more than the 2h tank did the entire sc

Engineers are acctully kinda weak late game b/c of how high armor gets and are strong now only because Los abuse, no rr points and the fact that they are a class that starts strong early and then starts to fall off

Mdps are fragile atm for the same reason, lvl 26, no rvr sets, no rr points, tanks arnt guarding and many don't have the abiltes that give them their durability