“
Enlightenment is achieved by mastering not only the body, but the soul. Only then can a warrior truly understand the value of life, and why it should be protected at all costs.”
- Belannaer of Hoeth, Bladelord of the White Tower
Coming from WHFB, I had no idea about tanks, dps or healers! All I knew was that in WHFB Swordmasters kick ass, so there was no other choice for me! Over time I learnt a lot about the WAR Swordmaster but always tried to play in the spirit of the background, i.e. as an off-tank! My motto (which I've now redacted in RoR!
) was that a "proper Swordmaster should NEVER carry a shield!" I based this on three facts:
(1) SM's in my opinion are/were arguably the weakest defensive spec tank in WAR, but they have/had the potential to be the best 2H offensive tank. So I'd try to play to my strengths and maximise my offensive potential; I never tried to make a turtle tank out of the wrong starting blocks, I thought I'd leave that to KotBS and IB, who arguably do it much better.
(2) In Warhammer, SM's carry Elven Longswords, NEVER shields, that's just wrong!
(3) Big swords look cooler.
Build Principle
My basic build principle was founded on having a good, high strength value to break through blocks and parries (800-1100 in T4 was about right): remembering that SM's do most of their damage through the SD route, which by-passes armour and is only mitigated by Spirit Resistance, which is/was (to all intents and purposes) capped at ~40%. In order to increase my strength characteristic I'd stack renown abilities, talismans and potions in whatever combination was best.
Tactics
Typically, I'd run with the Tactics, Ensorcelled Agony (for more SD), Discerning Offence (to get through those blocks and parries), Great Weapon Mastery (for more damage and a bit of parry- stacking with Wall Of Darting Steel when I ran into trouble) and Rugged (to help keep me alive).
Renown Spec
First of all, the no brainer, everyone had to have some defence against critical hits; so I always went for full Trivial Blows, the most reliable way to reduce burst damage done to you. Next I upped my Strength, although I never tended to buy all of the strength levels available, I'd leave it one short; I didn't think the returns out weighed the potential gain from spending points in other areas.
A couple of levels into Fortitude to increase my toughness and then the rest into deft defender and reflexes.
Career Mastery
For a big chunk of the time I ran with a simple Career Mastery of
Khaine: Ether Dance, Great Weapon Mastery
Vaul: Crashing Wave
Ability Cycle
My favourite cycle was always:
(1) Ensorcelled Blow - Wrath of Heaven - Crashing Wave
(2) Ensorcelled Blow - Eagles Flight/Quick Incision - Ether Dance
Repeat
First I'd hit with EB (+ EA) dealing SD (hence ignoring armour) and hitting my targets weaker SR defence (which a SM can reduce), thus giving better net DPS. Also the EA DoT can crit on every tick, giving great opportunity to deal maximum damage to the target.
Next striking with WoH. WoH does three great things for the SM: a) It is AoE, so you hit multiple enemies in one action (although for very little damage); besides the obvious benefits, this gives multiple chances to get a blade enchantment proc. b) If I'd manage to land a strike, WoH reduced the targets' SR by a whopping ~ 250 for 20s, perfect for all the up coming SD dealing abilities. c) Finally, WoH allows the SM to get into Perfect Balance without the need for a target.
Cycle one finished with CW. If it landed, CW knocked my opponent down and made the group unstoppable for a short time (awesome no more Rooting and Knock Backs
). The major benefit here (as well as the 2 x SD strikes of course) was that if my opponent was down, he/she couldn't defend my subsequent attacks (and EA would be next in the cycle which could do a pre-mitigated 1000+ SD!) and he/she couldn't attack me, heal or cast spells. Also, I always thought that immobilising your target gives you that crucial psychological edge too
On the second cycle, I'd use either Eagles Flight or Quick Incision after first strike with EB. In melee I'd use EF, because it increased parry and thus helped me stay alive.
Finally I'd finish on the main event, Ether Dance! This ability is arguably the SM's best and most characterful ability, comprising 5 free ~500+ SD attacks over 5 second- this is AWESOME and effectively an offensive Swordmasters main weapon.
For defence, I'd use WoDS, it gave a massive + 50% bonus to parry, dodge and disrupt. Combining it with EF and other stuff, I could get my parry to 70+%. The negative side here was that WoDS ate AP!
I'd often charge into a packed melee with Gusting Wind, because generally you'd find ~ 50% of your targets fielding some kind of "unstoppable" buff, so hitting with GW could reduce my/my groups number of opponents, knock back guards and healers and disrupt the enemy battle line, favouring my group.
With 2 x attacks from CW and 5 x attacks from ED, that was a huge 7 attacks over 7+ seconds that cost no AP; as a result I found this spec very AP efficient, which was good for defence too, as it gave free AP for WoDS whenever it was needed.
Blade Enchantments
For full attack I used to use Heavens Blade just in case WoH got defended against, it give a second opportunity to reduce SR and maximise SD. I always found this pretty good when guarding a DPS that deals a substantial amount of SD, elemental or corporeal damage.
Towards the end of the official server, I'd grown a bit more cautious and I swapped out CW for stuff like Aethyric Armour and Protection of Hoeth (always good to help keep you on your feet and it got you into improved balance without having to have a target).
I really enjoyed playing my SM and had an awesome time tinkering with the build and discovering how it worked, would love to hear your thoughts on your old builds
. I'm really looking forward to playing on Val again on RoR, bring on the Wwwaaaaggghhh!
)