So, there are a ton of changes coming through for SwordMasters in the upcoming 1.2 patch. Some seem like buffs, others nerfs. No matter what happens I’m enjoying my SwordMaster and I will adapt, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Here are my thoughts on 1.2 for Swordmasters in no particular order:
--They moved our AoE finisher knockback to the second balance from the third. While this gives us access to the knockback faster, it seems like a very weird move to me. First off we knock everyone off of us, then we are in perfect balance with no one in range, that seems weird since perfect is our finishing moves. Second we have a massive amount of abilities in the second balance already, our snare, our dodge increase, our aoe debuff. There are too many competing abilities here. Moving another one down here sucks pretty bad to me, what we really need is a few of these moved to opening balance where we only have one move that everybody uses EB + EA. End verdict I don’t think I like this change.
--Ether Dance more damage, Balanced Accuracy working through the finishers are nice changes. I feel like I do massive damage already without these but ok. I think this tree is the damage tree for SM’s and should feel that way. I like these changes, don’t necessarily feel like we needed them (well the tactic fix we did) but they are good.
--Protection of hoeth bubble not moving our balance forward is a major bummer. I thought maybe it was intended though the tool tip didn’t say that. It made the move very useful in allowing for starting with different abilities. It was a nice side effect, especially since the bubbles are nerfed so hard it barely protects from one attack a lot of times. I’ll miss it but it probably wasn’t intended to work that way, oh well.
--Sounds like potent enchantments is getting nerfed while deep incision is getting buffed. Didn’t use these too often enough to comment but these seems like a bit of a nerf since again we have too many competing slots for that second hit already (deep incision buffs it) and potent enchantments was considered one of our few useful tactics.
--Dazzling strike change is interesting, I think it will require a lot more testing to see how it plays out. Probably will still be nice for casters and healers, now useless on melee or tanks. On the flip side I’m not sad at all because as a tank we will no longer have all our abilities have a timer on them when we get disorientated. Please note my SM is not yet 35 so I never got to use it as it used to be, I can fully understand those that loved this ability the way it was will be severely disappointed with the changes to it.
--Changes to the finishers in the talent trees (crushing wave and whispering wind). These changes IMO are awesome. It will give some definite group utility that will make SM’s a little more desired once groups learn what they do. Of course it depends on what “briefly immune to disabling effects” means and how long it lasts as well as how much whispering wind reduces cooldown times by, but those are some very cool additions I’m looking forward to testing out.
--Lastly not mentioned is the bubble increase. They flat out need to absorb more damage IMO. As of now they get blasted out pretty fast. Still they provide some real nice protection that I do enjoy, its just not near the protection of the heal our counter part black orcs get. They get to use their full arsenal of defenses to stop your incoming damage and get full heath back for it. I don’t know what a fair number is, I just feel they are a little underwhelming for the defensive specced SM.
That's it for now, can't wait to try these out for real, still loving my Sword Master but I'm reaching the dreaded tier 4 now so we shall see how I progress!
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