Return of Reckoning

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well compared to a stat steal, how will insert in the meta a spambale g-absorb?

Considering the role of a SM into a bomb party this will enforce even more the role of a sword master inside the wb and it will exclude even more the IB considered the kobs can aoe snare and the sword master will use that cd decrease;
At least the stat steal is random, unless the g-absorb have heavy restriction it will be better than chosen/kobs aura.
Spam absorb to the party + all heals that a sm can provide to the party would be a bit too much considering the CD decrease.

Perphaps scratching the absorb part completly and adding some sort of morale drain? Order lacks any form of it besides 2 M4s (SM + KotBS). Perphaps make it works like Nature's Blade, but a morale steal?

another problem of implementi it as an absorb: it will benefith from tough from kobs, in the case of stat steal, stealed stats do not stack wich chosen/kobs ones or any other self buff etc and this tralsate well because the only auras left are all mass engagement aura and not small skirmish ( heal debuff, cast time increase etc)This would make some classes im small scale hardly killable. LIke dok/Wp. It's in particual the toughness synergy which bother me. I think that most of ppl are open to discuss a change but not one which make the synergy with the kobs better. I'd say that one of these buff should be changed in a way to make the SM alternative to the kobs as much is or it try to be the da greenest buff of BO towards the chosen, maybe the absorb it's not the correct one, the spiritual resist debuff should be pick.

I think the phantoms blade as it is is a fantastic ability. It's generally the done thing that sword masters in groups are offensive tanks and they usually spec squishier because of it I see allot of decent sword master reaching for phantoms blade when people try and kill them because hey they might be squishy enough.

At the moment i would say that sm is on par with IB,BG and BO in terms of group mitigation and defence and i don't see a balance reason why you should be pushed ahead of those other 3.

I like the PB working for group play.
The BO Da toughest to keep balance with PB : X 2 heal increase and heal critt chance .

Da greenest bellow instead of resistance increase,(because of Chosen) Armor increase as is ,(if stacks with armor pots ,or no ap at all). and a 10% reduction being critically hit or
% ? armor reduced penetration .

Toldavf wrote:I think the phantoms blade as it is is a fantastic ability. It's generally the done thing that sword masters in groups are offensive tanks and they usually spec squishier because of it I see allot of decent sword master reaching for phantoms blade when people try and kill them because hey they might be squishy enough.

Let us assume SM is specced for knockdown and thus has a Phantom's blade of about level 34.

Phantom's Blade will give me a 25% chance to shield myself, and only myself, for 423.

Now let us consider that shield mechanics come after Toughness, only. Armor, resistance, Challenge, Guard, detaunts, critical damage bonus, any other damage modifiers come after the effect of shields. For SM in a selfish context, that's limited to the effect of armor and physical damage reduction from Dragon's Talon. That can easily wipe off 40-60% of the value of the absorb.

So, we can translate this skill as: 25% chance to heal yourself for 200-250 points whenever you strike an enemy in melee. If you have not suffered more than 200 damage within the last 10 seconds, this effect will not apply (because Phantom's Blade cannot refresh itself.)

I don't know about you, but I can't see any circumstance outside of very small scale where that's going to be a better choice than running something like Nature's Blade, especially if you have a free point to drop on Phoenix's Wing so you can spam to trigger it more. I'm more likely to reach for the likes of WODS than I am for Phantom's Blade, because for selfish mitigation Phantom's Blade doesn't even get close to +50% parry/dodge/disrupt, which becomes massive if you have renown defenses specced.

The factors I've listed above are also a reason why group buffing Phantom's Blade in its current form will accomplish much less than anyone would like. Effectiveness is immediately halved, again, on anyone who is detaunting or has Guard, and it's further reduced if Challenge is up.

Generally when i see these sm dropping aza they will reach for everything including at times the guard of the knight next to um.

Toldavf wrote:I think the phantoms blade as it is is a fantastic ability. It's generally the done thing that sword masters in groups are offensive tanks and they usually spec squishier because of it I see allot of decent sword master reaching for phantoms blade when people try and kill them because hey they might be squishy enough.

At the moment i would say that sm is on par with IB,BG and BO in terms of group mitigation and defence and i don't see a balance reason why you should be pushed ahead of those other 3.

If a SM is pressured adequatly it will either use WoDS, HtL or EF. I dont know who you regard the "better" SM's but I have never seen Cythe, Xiva, Kallah, Rememberme, Wingz or Kappapride SM switch to PB when getting pressured

Also I am curious to hear why you think SM is on par with IB/BO/BG in terms of group damage mitigation aside from the core abilities which all tanks have And the first person that mentions Dragon's Talon I will smack in the face.

OT: the group absorb was just an idea, tbh I dont care what it will turn out to be. All I know is that it should be a dedicated defensive blade enchant and should apply to the entire group.

Edit: Forgot Wingzy.