[SW] Quick fixes to noticeably improve the Quality of Shadow Warriors

[mryay]

- Something needs to be done for the totally underpowered flame arrow ; it's like the weakest DoT of the entire game right now, even with the 25% damage... I think even Spellbinding Rune is doing more base damage... Smoldering arrow Tactic is lame too.
- Enchanted Arrow tactic would need to buff at least 2 or 3 skills, and/or or make them undefendable or something (while undefendable is worth fewer with Pierce Defense). Otherwise it's a dead tactic.
- Sweeping slash need something like a group buff to be useful, very much agree on that. Or just make 5 or 10s cd, it's the only available AoE in assault stance (saving Split Arrow and SFA), and it's not doing much damage anyway.

1. Flame arrow is more or less ok. it could be buffed a bit, but not that much. The change I would though is 1 add a duration buff included either in the tactic "Keen Arrow", or to add it to tactic "Smoldering Arrow" to turn it actually worthwhile (for example, increase damage on impact, +50% blast radius, and increased duration).

2. Undefendable FA on Enchanted Arrow is also an idea to consider. It works well with "Burn Through" on the Bright Wizard. But Vengeance of Nagarythe already give this buff. So maybe Glass Arrow is a better fit with better synergies?

3. I also made a suggestion back in the day to have Sweeping Slash a directed long Punt. The reason was, if you consider the number of omnidirectional punts that SH's has, the state of SW isn't a match at all. So, in Assault stance you could, as core skill, have the self-punt (whirling pin), or "sweep" (push back) several opponents at once.

[Fenris78]

1. Flame arrow is more or less ok. it could be buffed a bit, but not that much. The change I would though is 1 add a duration buff included either in the tactic "Keen Arrow", or to add it to tactic "Smoldering Arrow" to turn it actually worthwhile (for example, increase damage on impact, +50% blast radius, and increased duration).

2. Undefendable FA on Enchanted Arrow is also an idea to consider. It works well with "Burn Through" on the Bright Wizard. But Vengeance of Nagarythe already give this buff. So maybe Glass Arrow is a better fit with better synergies?

3. I also made a suggestion back in the day to have Sweeping Slash a directed long Punt. The reason was, if you consider the number of omnidirectional punts that SH's has, the state of SW isn't a match at all. So, in Assault stance you could, as core skill, have the self-punt (whirling pin), or "sweep" (push back) several opponents at once.

1. I think Flame arrow damage was scaled accounting the "ignore resistance" tactic, when both magical arrows were in scout tree ; now that tactic is wonky (scout mastery buffing a now skirmish skill), I dont see any use for it anymore.
Even before, flame arrow damage was pathetic, with or without tactic slotted.

Imagine every other DoT is doing twice as much damage in the same timeframe ; ok, the other ones are ST while flame arrow is base AoE, but either it needs further buff from Vengeful state (increased range and AoE radius), or be switched to another type of damage, like Spirit, to synergize better with strong debuffs (elemental debuff is at best 165 Order side, while Exploding Arrer can synergize with Magus elem debuf of 400 or so).

Actually Flame arrow is never picked ; max utility you can squish out from it is to be able to hit Oil when non-scout specced.
Otherwise make it a small AoE elem resistance, I dunno, but bring some utility to this lame skill, at least to make it worth spending 1 point more in skirm tree...
---------

2. Smoldering arrow better be uber good to be worth any slot, otherwise it will be subpar to every other tactic choice. Floating tactic slot on SW is about zero to one, depending on build...
---------

3. I like the directional punt idea, wich is clearly lacking Order side, and can add a little tool for kiting. If this skill is going to stay at 20s cd, at least bring more utility into it, and to match a squig directional kb will be a small victory anyway. It also would allow ranged specs to create a bit more space when fighting against multiple enemies, and ultimately should need to switch to assault stance to hit better (getting str from it will bypass more parry ofc).

[Moert]

One idea I had was allowing Shadow Warriors to have different tactics saved for each stance, that would swap automatically when you change stance. Many of the best tactics are only useful for one stance, which takes away from the versatility I think the class should have with different stances.

[Panzer80]

I agree SW is cumbersome to play, but this seems like asking for easy mode. I think SW scout range needs to be increased, and they need to be able to become a shrub/grass clump/ something that blends with the foliage, that breaks on movement.

[Grock]

Somehow i dont feel like an ability that hits like this needs a 33% baseline reduction to its cast time (which will also result in No Quarter further reducing the remaining casttime by half)

Its likely the heaviest hitting ability in the entire game. With resist ignore it hits harder than BoC and Fireballs/Doombolts (Snipe isn't even close since its damage was nerfed a while ago and it goes against armor anyway).

Eye Shot being castable on the move is a bold suggestion considering SH's counterpart, which is castable on the move, has shorter range, shorter KD duration, lacks Initiative debuff and doesn't have CD reduction mechanic I definitely don't think this game needs more castable-on-the-move ranged CC abilities on ranged classes, kiting is already a bit too strong, sorry.

Counterstrike having 5s CD would mean you'll have an interrupt ability that has shorter CD than cast time of Resurrect Which has rather gamebreaking implications in 6v6 play and probably even beyond that
Definitely "No" to that, even 10s wouldn't be appropriate coz it'll be 5s with WW.

Shadow Sting and SH counterparts are already strong (or OP ) enough being a ranged heal debuff with no cooldown

Sweeping Strike probably just needs to lose its cooldown and serve as spammable melee AoE, since im pretty sure the experiment with making Skirmish a WB spec has failed, correct me if im wrong...

[Morradin]

If I remember correctly, the SW reduction in range was because BHA was stackable. BUt now it no longer is, but the range reduction on AoE is still active.

[Noh]

SW really need buff

[Sulorie]

SW really need buff

Imagine the people here asking to do this without even having to use M2 cast-time reduction, just whenever SM whispering wind is up.

[messerjockel]

SW really need buff

You should open a ticket.
Festering arrow has a 5 seconds cd and it hit you between 22:36:08 until 22:36:12, in 4 seconds 4 times which should be impossible

BR
Messerjockel.

[Sofong]

cant tell if trolling