Is there any point rolling a Black Orc if I have a Swordmaster already?

[Rebuke]

SM Sov looks pretty decent?

Ontopic: A well played BO is a better tank than a well played SM. Especially for the long term towards rr80 itemization since SM damage will simply flat out plummit.

However you should play whichever realm and/or character you prefer (keep in mind that single faction lockout seems to be a very serious thing that is deemed to happen).

[CytheX]

Buf SM dps!

[Rebuke]

Id rather not see it buffed, but being able to provide comparable (relative) damage once people are wearing invader+ armor. That is if the community and devs even agree to keep the SM as an offensive tank when speccing deep into khaine or hoeth.

[CytheX]

Im not joking, to me the best way to improove sm and not hurt ib is to work under offensive tools of sm. Pardon my eng but is not my mother language

[peterthepan3]

BO and SM are pretty balanced, but the BO brings an AoE snare, awesome melee assist DMG and utility in the form of a CD increaser, WS buff and strong armor debuff, and of course the morale pump which is invaluable.

Also has a crit dmg modifier so has the highest burst of any tank (and more initial burst than several DPS classes later on)

[Collateral]

Everyday I'm aoe-snaring! TUC-TUC-TUC-TUC

[wpc56]

Yeah, I don't or didn't have high RR SM so I've heard their dmg drop off at higher gear level... so SM is at their strongest right now

Where as Borc will only get stronger with better gear, +crit dmg tactic = stack crit (which I'm sure future gear will have more of) and you will be default stronger than SM.

SM have a few dps dot tactic that don't scale with strength (only EA does) and that's it. There's is only so much you do when good player interrupt your ED (since the entire dps spec revolve around that)

[shaggyboomboom]

Black Orc. AoE snare. All the time.

WINGZZZZZ

[blaqwar]

Yeah, I don't or didn't have high RR SM so I've heard their dmg drop off at higher gear level... so SM is at their strongest right now

Where as Borc will only get stronger with better gear, +crit dmg tactic = stack crit (which I'm sure future gear will have more of) and you will be default stronger than SM.

SM have a few dps dot tactic that don't scale with strength (only EA does) and that's it. There's is only so much you do when good player interrupt your ED (since the entire dps spec revolve around that)

Don't count on future gear having an overabudance of crit, devs have stated that crit is one of the bigger factors contributing to powercreep, which they are trying to limit. Crit has already received a blanket nerf for that reason. Your experiences from live might differ from those on RoR down the line as well.

Something to note: Deep Incision also scales with Strength, a tactic some SMs use in a Khaine pressure dot spec. And while an interrupted ED might cut down on your damage it's not like you'll be standing around for a long time feeling useless. First of all the cooldown on ED is quite short, considering you need to get to perfect balance to activate it in the first place and secondly; there are plenty of things to do when ED is on cooldown (CW if you have it, snares, knockbacks, restablishing pressure with BS, debuffing with WoH).

One of the things SMs have going for them over BO is the fact that they have better survivability when using a 2h (mostly because of WODS but also because of the parry/disrupt tactics). And they can effectivelly bypass all mitigation barring toughness should they spec for it (Wrath of Hoeth and Heaven's Blade will reduce most non-tanks to 0 Spirit resist with a few points in Hoeth).

Not trying to argue which career makes a stronger DPS tank, just saw you selling SMs a bit short and figured I'd remedy that.

[wpc56]

True but deep incision is physical dot (as opposed to spirit dmg like EA)

I'm thinking from Economic / opportunity cost perspective... since you can only play one toon at a time, what do you gain/give up if you play one vs another class

Borc more than made up for it with shield (hello +10% block tactic) which serve both as parry/disrupt where as SM needs to spec for and take 2 tactic slots

The "ONLY" thing SM have better is WoDS... which means you delay your death slightly because you aren't doing active dmg (reflect dmg are minimum) where as Borc with shield have defense buff at 100% uptime at lower dmg (1h vs 2h)

SM also don't have "not in the face" equivalent.

1v1 Borc VS SM right now, SM wins easy (because of spirit dmg) but later on I'm not so sure

There is a reason few SM runs Heaven blade, it takes too long to set up and you have no control over when the blade enchantment will proc. Where as Nature's blade is much better in group setting for strength, toughness, initiative steal (that's +100 to your stat and -100 to theirs)

True SM and Borc is relatively equal... it's definitely not like SW/SH

People seem to judge SM vs Borc on 1v1... which is a minor part of the game