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 Will Power

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

Wounds really isn鈥檛 very important, as long as you鈥檙e 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.

However, we have the ability to鈥?Snare (quick incision, wings of heaven), Root (aethyric grasp, grappling blow), Silence (whispering wind), Stun (gryphon鈥檚 precision), Knockback (forceful shock, whirling geyser), Knockdown (crashing wave), Reduce Armor (demolishing strike), Reduce Spiritual and Corporeal Resistance (wrath of hoeth and bolstering enchantments), Spell Interruption (crushing advance), Increase build up (dazzling strike), Drain AP (sapping strike), Drain stats (Nature鈥檚 Blade), Reduce damage (dragon鈥檚 talon, dampening talon, distracting blow)

And then of course we have all of our damage absorption and damage reduction buffs.



What is the best single target DPS spec?

First make sure that you鈥檙e using Heaven鈥檚 Blade and keeping Taunt up.

This is your spec: http://war.mmoguildsites.com/career_...00000000110000

Your tactic choices are Focused Offence (25% extra damage), Bolstering Enchantments (reduce spirit resistance when your enchantments proc), Deep Incision, and Rugged

Alternatively, you can use Centuries of Training instead of Deep Incision and put the extra point into Khaine. If Centuries of Training is nearly always up, you should do more damage than with Deep Incision. The advantage of Deep Incision is that it will always be on your target.

Your attack chain is: Gryphon鈥檚 Lash -> Quick Incision -> Ether Dance

In the event that Ether Dance isn鈥檛 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.

Now I鈥檓 sure at least one of you is saying 鈥測ou鈥檙e an idiot, you can do more damage if you change out rugged or put more points into Khaine instead of taking Aethyric Armor!鈥?And you鈥檇 be right; you can do more damage that way鈥?until you die. The first rule of DPS is that dead players have a DPS of 0.

At level 40, Rugged gives you 160 extra toughness. The extra armor granted by Aethyric Armor goes a long way in increasing your physical mitigation, and the increased chance to disrupt added to the increased spiritual and corporeal mitigation gained from Bolstering Enchantments means you take a lot less magic damage. This means that you live longer, which in turn increases the amount of damage you鈥檙e actually able to do.



What are some different ways to spec a swordmaster?

One of the best things about this game is that there is no one great spec. Everyone鈥檚 spec needs to be different if you plan to get the most out of RvR 鈥?unlike other games, you are not a hammer and every problem is not a nail.

Having said that of course, there are some generally cookie-cutter ways to play a swordmaster. First off, you can spec for DPS as mentioned in the tip above. However, as also mentioned above, there are various ways to do this鈥?Do you want to be a pure DPS class with no regard for how fast you die? Do you want to be burst damage or sustained damage? Do you want to be single target or AoE oriented? The Swordmaster can fill all these roles鈥?and that鈥檚 just if you want to DPS.

Swordmasters are also able to tank, even better than they can DPS. But again the quest arises 鈥?what type of tank do you want to be? Do you want to be a mitigation tank? An avoidance tank? Do you want to use a greatsword or a longsword and shield? Do you want to build yourself to absorb maximum damage, or would you like to be able to do decent damage at the same time? Do you want to tank single target encounters or multi-target encounters?

As you can see, there is no one way to play a Swordmaster, every encounter has a chance to require a different setup than the one you鈥檝e chosen for maximum efficiency. That isn鈥檛 to say you won鈥檛 be able to do it, just that if you were speced differently it鈥檇 probably be easier.

I was asked to give a list of specs, however I don鈥檛 know of a career builder that also lets you select mastery points, your equipped tactics, your equipped morale, and your renown abilities all on the same page to share with others. The other issue is that this game is designed to have you switch tactics between encounters, so there really is no static set of tactics you鈥檒l be using all the time.



Under what conditions should I use my blade enchants?

Swordmasters get three blade enchants 鈥?Heaven鈥檚 Blade, Nature鈥檚 Blade, and Phantom鈥檚 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鈥?this means both autoattacks and skill attacks. At first this doesn鈥檛 sound so great, and it isn鈥檛鈥?until you remember that we have a lot of multi-hit attacks. Dragon鈥檚 Talon, Whispering Wind, and Crashing Wave all hit twice鈥?and ether dance can hit 5 times. Needless to say, these proc a lot in real play.

If you鈥檙e planning to be in a situation where you鈥檒l be doing single target damage 鈥?grinding, leveling, RvRing 鈥?then you probably want to use Heaven鈥檚 Blade. The other common condition is AoEing mobs that are fairly below your level 鈥?the extra damage can make them die pretty fast.

For AoEing mobs at or above your level, or tanking, Nature鈥檚 Blade is the only choice. On each proc, Nature鈥檚 Blade removes over 100 stat points (at level 40) of a random stat and gives you the amount drained for a few seconds. Often times you end up with something that won鈥檛 benefit you, like intelligence or ballistic skill 鈥?but after a while you begin to notice that you鈥檝e 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.

Phantom鈥檚 Blade is something I鈥檝e never actually used. The amount of moral that it removes is very, very small, and at the time of writing it doesn鈥檛 scale with mastery points. If this reached the level where it had a chance on proc to remove 100 morale, it might be worth using in RvR. The biggest strike against it though is that most people use Morale 1 or 2 in combat, it simply takes too long to get to 3 or 4 and oftentimes you鈥檙e dead before you get there. Additionally, there鈥檚 a 60 second cooldown between morale uses, so there鈥檚 a high chance you can be draining your targets morale when they can鈥檛 use it anyway. Wouldn鈥檛 decreasing their toughness and ability to do damage be a better use of time?



What are some common tactic setups?

As I mentioned elsewhere, tactics are meant to be switched around depending on the situation. So what are some common situations one might run across?

AoEing:

When AoEing mobs, you typically have up Nature鈥檚 Blade and use Gusting Wind and Wrath of Hoeth as your last two attacks. Because you鈥檙e being hit by a large number of mobs (I normally pull 10-20 at a time) it鈥檚 a good idea to make sure you have Rugged equipped. Because you鈥檙e doing spirit damage, Bolstering Enchantments is good to have if you鈥檙e Hoeth Spec. If you鈥檙e trying to hold agro on all the mobs, then Menace is a good idea to have as well. For any remaining slots, use Centuries of Training or Potent Enchantments to help bring the mobs down a little faster.

Recommended tactics for AoEing: Rugged, Menace, Bolstering Enchantments, Centuries of Training, Volatile Enchantments, Potent enchantments


Single Target DPSing:

If you鈥檙e trying to kill single targets, you want to dish out as much damage as possible while maintaining as little risk. This can be accomplished by making sure that Heaven鈥檚 Blade is in use and Taunt is kept up on your target. You also want to mix around the following tactics: Focused Offence, Rugged, Centuries of Training, Bolstering Enchantments, Deep Incision, Potent Enchantments, Ensorcelled Agony and Volatile Enchantments.

The exact tactics to use depends on the length of the fight and your gear. In terms of maximum damage per second, Centuries of Training does more than Deep Incision or Potent Enchantments, but there鈥檚 no guarantee that it will be up as often. With Deep Incision you have absolute control on when it gets applied, and with Potent Enchantments you can have a higher probability of application by also slotting Volatile enchantments. However, Potent Enchantments is currently ticking every 3 seconds, which leaves open the possibility that it can be reapplied before a single tick goes off and hence you lose the damage.

Additionally, you鈥檙e mastery path has a very large impact over what skills will be available to you. If you don鈥檛 go down Khain, then Ensorcelled Blow with Ensorcelled Agony slotted is the best opening attack you can have; and one possible tactic setup might be: Rugged, Focused Offence, Ensorcelled Agony, Centuries of Training. And if you happen to be Hoeth, replace Centuries of Training with Bolstering Enchantments.

Until the game goes live and all skills are finalized and working, there鈥檚 no way to get accurate numbers on how to maximize single target DPS under different conditions.


Tanking:

Tanking is all about holding agro and not dying. As a Swordmaster, you can tank one mob, or if you prefer, all the mobs. Tactic selection for this goal is more straight-forward than other roles. If you鈥檙e not speced into Vaul, you want to at least have Rugged and Menace. If you plan to be taking damage from elemental sources, it might be wise to think about using Bend the Winds since we have no other way to buff this stat by ourselves. Isha鈥檚 Protection is also nice since it makes healing a lot easier, and the additional reduction from Dampening Talon stacks with our initial 20% - this changes Dragon鈥檚 Talon to reduce damage by 30% for 5 seconds.

If, however, you have chosen to spec into Vaul, the tactics that you can use become much more interesting. Rugged is still a must, but the addition of Perfect Defenses and Vaul鈥檚 Buffer bring a lot to the table. Volatile Enchantment鈥檚 also works well with Nature鈥檚 Blade to ensure that your target is nearly always missing multiple stats, and you鈥檙e buffed a good deal of the time. If you find yourself being crit a lot, Lingering Intimidation might be worth looking into.

Typically, when I go Vaul to tank, I slot: Rugged, Perfect Defenses, Vaul鈥檚 Buffer, and Menace.



There are of course many other combinations than the ones I listed here, and I doubt I could cover every single situation in which they might be used. As the game advances so will the strategies that are used to slot tactics.