The Swordmaster Guide (Part3)

Advice and Tips on Playstyle

What stats should be stacked?

It depends on how you want to play. If you want to DPS, stack Strength and Weapon Skill, then Toughness, then Wounds.

If you want to mitigation tank, stack Toughness and Initiative first, and then worry about Wounds, Weapon Skill, and Willpower

If you want to avoidance tank, stack Weapon Skill, Willpower, Initiative, and then worry about Toughness and Wounds.

Wounds really isn’t very important, as long as you’re getting healed. No player can burst out enough damage to kill you in a couple of hits (bugs excluded). The only way for you to get one shotted in this game is though being focus fired. (E.g. You get hit by 10 doombolt spells at exactly the same time)


What type of crowd control/debuffs can I use?

Swordmasters have a large number of crowd control skills, though not all of them are available on demand and some require tactics to use.

We have the ability to…

Snare (quick incision, wings of heaven),
Root (aethyric grasp, champion's challenge),
Silence (whispering wind),
Stun (gryphon’s precision),
Knockback (forceful shock, whirling geyser, gusting wind),
Knockdown (crashing wave)
Increase build up (dazzling strike),

Reduce Armor (demolishing strike),
Reduce Spiritual and Corporeal Resistance (wrath of hoeth and heaven's blade),
Reduce Elemental Resistance (heaven's blade),
Spell Interruption (crushing advance),
Drain AP (sapping strike),
Drain and Leach stats (Nature’s Blade),
Reduce damage (dragon’s talon, distracting blow),
Reduce mitigation (dampening talon)


What sort of group utility does a swordmaster bring?

Swordmasters are very group friendly. In addition to the wide range of CC and debuff options we bring to a fight, we also have various ways to reduce the damage done to our party and furthermore, if speced Khaine we have the ability to heal not only our group members, but anyone attacking our target.


Under what conditions should I use my blade enchants?

Swordmasters get three blade enchants – Heaven’s Blade, Nature’s Blade, and Phantom’s Blade. Each one of these has its own uses. One important thing to mention is that these enchantments have a chance to proc (base 25%) on each attack… this means both autoattacks and skill attacks. At first this doesn’t sound so great, and it isn’t… until you remember that we have a lot of multi-hit attacks. Dragon’s Talon, Whispering Wind, and Crashing Wave all hit twice… and ether dance can hit 5 times. Needless to say, these proc a lot in real play.

If you’re planning to be in a situation where you’ll be doing single target damage – grinding, leveling, RvRing – and you don't plan to take a lot of damage, then you probably want to use Heaven’s Blade. The other common condition is AoEing mobs that are fairly below your level – the extra damage from reduced spirtual resistence can make them die pretty fast. On the other hand, Nature's Blade can reduce your targets toughness, strength and weapon skill, while buffing your toughness, strength and weapon skill; this means that you'll do more damage and take less. The enchant to use depends on the type of damage you're doing. Heaven's Blade for spirtual, Nature's Blade for physical.

For AoEing mobs at or above your level, or tanking, Nature’s Blade is one good choice. On each proc, Nature’s Blade reduces one of your target's stats at random and gives you the amount drained for a few seconds. Often times you end up with something that won’t benefit you, like intelligence or ballistic skill – but after a while you begin to notice that you’ve drained toughness, strength, and weapon skill. Not only is this nice because it increases your damage, but it also decreases the damage your enemy is doing. For AoEing this can mean the difference between life and death. Additionally, since Nature's Blade is an AoE proc, the amount of threat it builds is simply remarkable. This makes it the ideal enchant for tanking multiple mobs.

Phantom's Blade is a good all-around choice for a blade enchant. Each time it procs it gives you a damage absorption shield that soaks up a good bit of damage. However, it can only proc when it isn't already applied, so the timer won't get refreshed and yield a shield that can potentially last forever.Using this blade enchant in combination with Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven for the heals can yield incredible results in both RvR and PvE.


What is the best method to deal damage?

If you intend to deal damage (or DPS as it's often erraneously called) as a swordmaster, you are strongly advised to go down the Path of Khaine until at least Ether Dance. Additionally, you want to make sure you're using Heaven's Blade and keeping Taunt up everytime it comes off cooldown. Nature's Blade is a viable alternative to Heaven's Blade because it has a chance to reduce your targets mitigation stats as well as increase your strength and weapon skill. So far there is no conclusive evidence for which enchant is superior.

The ideal mastery spec and tactic selection for maximizing DPS is still being researched. However, a good place to start is by taking Centuries of Training, Focused Offense, Balanced Accuracy, and Adept Movements. This randomly adds a fairly decent DoT to your target, increases your damage by 15%, gives you a higher chance to crit depending on your stance, and reduces the AP you spend allowing you to get more damage out of each AP point.

Your attack chain is: Gryphon’s Lash -> Quick Incision -> [Wrath of Hoeth] / Ether Dance

In the event that Ether Dance isn’t off cooldown, wait until it is and then use it. DO NOT start trying to do a difference chain or use another finisher. You lose DPS because you increase the time before you can use Ether Dance again. Only use Wrath of Hoeth when the effect has worn off. Currently it lasts for 20 seconds.

(As a historical note, in beta Wrath of Hoeth only lasted a few seconds, hence you had to use it every other cycle. The result was lower overall DPS, but increased burst damage. Due to TTK issues in this game, it was ineffective. However the 4.1 patch saw an increased duration to 20 seconds, meaning you can get off two ether dance attacks before having to refresh it. This increases the viability of using it in the chain, but there is still no conclusive evidence as to if it really allows you to maximize your DPS.)
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