The SwordMaster Guide
An Overview of the Swordmaster
The Swordmaster is one possible tank class that Order players can choose to play in Warhammer Online. Originally designed as an anti-magic tank, the boundaries have since become fuzzy. The strengths of the Swordmaster stem from the ability to wear heavy armor, and the ability to deal large amounts of spirit damage instead of physical damage. (This checks against Spirit Mitigation instead of Physical Mitigation) Additionally, recent changes have provided the Swordmaster with the ability to mitigate vast amounts of damage through damage absorption shields as well as provide minor group and ally healing.
The Swordmaster Mechanic
Swordmasters use a mechanic called Balance. It’s a fairly straight forward system in which certain skills require either Normal Balance, Improved Balance, or Perfect Balance to use. When these skills are used, your balance level changes. This means that as a Swordmaster, you are always working through "cycles" when you're in combat.
The path of progression through balance is as follows:
Normal -> Improved -> Perfect -> Normal
It is important to note that skills used from Perfect Balance do not consume any AP by default. A tactic is available later that reduces the AP cost of skills that stem from the Improved Balance line. Because of this behavior, spamming a normal balance skill very rarely advisable and when done, can quickly drain AP.
Currently, the balance mechanic does not let you use improved balance skills while in perfect balance. You can use normal balance skills, but you're stance will be set to improved balance. This means it is impossible to stay in perfect balance for more than a single attack. However, it is possible to alternate between normal and improved skill - but you run the risk of using all your AP fairly quickly.
What can a Swordmaster do in PvE?
In PvE gameplay, the Swordmaster is first and foremost a tank. Their job is to gain agro on one or more mobs and hold it, ensuring that other players are not being attacked. To do this, a Swordmaster must be skilled at more than simply spamming high-threat skills such as Graceful Strike. They must also know how to position a mob and when to use their defensive skills to reduce incoming damage.
The Swordmaster excels at both multi-mob tanking, and tanking without a shield. However, just because a Swordmaster can tank without a shield does not mean that they should. Depending on Mastery spec, there are some options that will only be available when using a greatsword, and some options that will only be available when using a shield. Currently, however, the benefit of being able to block far outweighs those gained from using a greatsword; this is because in Warhammer, blocking defends against ALL attacks – ranged and magic as well as melee.
Swordmasters who do not enjoy tanking are not completely a lost cause. By specing heavily into the Khaine and Hoeth mastery lines, they gain the ability to do more damage than a traditional tank while still having viable debuffing and crowd control abilities.
It should be remembered though that the Swordmaster is a TANK class. Not a melee DPS class. Anyone thinking they’ll play a Swordmaster and be topping the damage charts at level 40 will be very disappointed. You can do enough damage to solo in PvE, but when it comes to RvR fights against non-healers will be long, and fights against healers are a nightmare. Do not be fooled by numbers in the scenario window, they’re horribly inaccurate of what a class can actually do.
What can a Swordmaster do in RvR?
There are two main schools of thought about a tanks job in RvR. Some players feel that tanks should stand in the back and try to protect healers, and other players feel that tanks are front line assault warriors who should charge into groups of other players and get beat on.
It is my personal view that standing in the back and trying to protect a healer is a waste. There is no mechanic to force a player to attack you (e.g. Taunt in EQ2) and you have no way to remove CC from another person. Nearly every class in WAR has ample methods of CC – if a healer gets attacked by a melee class, they’ll be snared, silenced, and debuffed before you can even blink. At best you can snare the attacker or if you’re an ironbreaker, knock them down for a short amout of time and hope the healer can get away. Although chances are the healer is being focus fired, so it probably won’t do much good anyway. If I was forced to pick a tank class to stand back and “defend” the healers though, it would be an ironbreaker. They have many more tools for this at their disposal than a swordmaster does. (knockbacks, knockdowns, snares, damage-on-move debuffs, and the all awesome oath-friend)
Let us say then, for the sake of argument, that a Swordmaster’s role in RvR is to act as a front line assault element. Their high mitigation, numerous debuffs and crowd control skills, and ability to spec for damage makes them very, VERY deadly in this role. With proper healing, a Swordmaster can charge into a full warband of destruction and cause enough chaos to create an opening that other Order players can exploit. The intention of the Swordmaster is not to try and kill players in an opposing army, but rather to create opportunities in which his teammates can.
Abilities, Tactics, and Morals
The Swordmaster is unique among most other classes in that nearly every skill has a well defined purpose in either PvE or RvR. Due to the Balance mechanic that a Swordmaster employs there is no one set skill that is best spammed until your target dies.
Exact descriptions of all the abilities, tactics, and morals that you can get as a Swordmaster have been done by other players to a much better degree than I am able in a guild. For example, the WarDB database has a very nice listing of all the skills and how they change with level. I will therefore not repeat their work. Instead, I will give a few short notes on the various skills and their uses.
A list of our skills that work off the balance mechanic is as follows:
Requires Normal Balance and leads to Improved Balance:
Graceful Strike – A physical based DD+DoT attack that also increases hate
Ensorcelled Blow – A spirit based DD attack
Gryphon’s Lash – A physical DD attack that cannot be blocked or parried
Sapping Strike (Khaine Master) – A physical based DD attack that also drains 50 AP over 5 seconds
Requires Improved Balance and leads to Perfect Balance:
Quick Incision – A physical based DoT attack that also snares your target
Eagle’s Flight – A physical based DD attack that increases your chance to parry
Intimidating Blow – A physical based DD attack that also reduces your target’s morale
Gusting Wind – A spirit based AoE DD attack with a 10 foot range
Dazzling Strike – A physical based DD that increases your target’s build times by 1 second for 5 seconds
Phoenix’s Wing (Khaine Mastery) – A physical based frontal AoE DD attack that also increases hate
Crushing Advance (Vaul Mastery) – A physical based DD attack that increases your Armor and chance to Block as well as interrupts your target
Requires Perfect Balance and leads to Normal Balance:
Bluring Shock – A physical based DD attack
Wrath of Hoeth – A spirit based AoE DD attack with a 30 foot range that also reduces spiritual resistance
Dragon’s Talon – A physical based DD attack that hits twice and reduces your target’s damage by 20%
Ether Dance (Khaine Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits 5 times
Whispering Wind (Hoeth Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits twice and silence your target
Crashing Wave (Vaul Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits twice and knocks down your target
Protection of Hoeth (Hoeth Mastery) – Creates an shield around you that absorbs damage
In addition to skills which work on the Balance mechanic, we also have a number of useful buffs:
Taunt – Interrupts your target and increases damage you deal to them by 30%
Guard – Your target’s damage taken is split 50/50 with you and you gain 35% of the hate they generate
Juggernaut – Removes most CC from you, but does NOT make you immune to further CC
Aethyric Grasp – PBAoE root
Heaven’s Blade – Buff that adds a resistance debuff proc to all melee attacks
Nature’s Blade – Buff that adds a stat drain proc to all melee attacks
Phantom’s Blade – Buff that adds an absorption shield proc to all melee attacks
Aethyric Armor (Hoeth Mastery)– 30 minute buff that increases armor and disrupt chance
We also have a number of passive buffs, called tactics, that we can use. The number of tactics you can have depends on your level, capping at 4 class tactics at level 40. I’ll describe the more interesting ones that I typically use here:
Focused Offence – Increases all damage you do by 15%, but decreases your armor value by 33%
Rugged – Increases your toughness by 160 at level 40
Menace – Increases all threat generated by your attacks by 100%
Centuries of Training – 25% chance to proc a DoT lasting for 5 seconds
Ensorcelled Agony – Ensorcelled Blow now adds a DoT lasting for 5 seconds
Potent Enchantments – Each time your enchantment procs, a DoT is applied for 9 seconds
Gryphon’s Precision (Khain Mastery) – 25% chance to stun your target for 1 seconds when you use Gryphon’s Lash
Perfect Defences (Vaul Mastery) – Increases your chance to Block and Parry based on your Balance level
Bolstering Enchantments (Hoeth Mastery) – When your enchantment procs, your group receives a small Heal Over Time effect for 10 seconds
Blessing of Heaven (Hoeth Mastery) – 25% to add a reverse damage shield to your target when you use a Hoeth attack
Deep Incision (Khaine Mastery) – Increases the DoT component of Quick Incision
Vaul’s Buffer (Vaul Mastery) – On a successful block, dodge, parry, or disrupt you become surrounded by a small absorption shield for 10 seconds
Balanced Accuracy (Khaine Mastery) – Increases your crit chance based on balance stance
Common Cycles
When in combat, the Swordmaster functions by cycling through the various stances of his balance mechanic. If one looks at the skills above, a few of them seem to have an obvious synergy - this is not unintentional. Many skills have been designed to work together. Below I have listed some of the more common cycles.
For convention, when a skill name appears in [brackets] it means that the skill should be alternated into the chain at that step. The arrow -> represents movement to the next balance state.
(1) Graceful Strike -> Eagle’s Flight -> Dragon’s Talon
This chain is your bread and butter tank chain. You open with a high hate attack, then follow it up with a blow that increases your chance to avoid damage, and finish it with an attack that reduces any damage you fail to mitigate. This chain can be used with a sword and board or a greatsword.
If you have chosen to put points into the Path of Vaul and taken Crushing Advance, then the following complex chain becomes available:
(1.1) Graceful Strike -> [Crushing Advance] / Eagle's Flight -> Dragon's Talon
In this chain, you use Crushing Advance initially and wait until wears off to use it again. This allows you to increase your armor well as your block value; the results are both an increase to physical mitigation, and a higher chance to outright avoid all types of damage. If you've gone even further up the Vaul path and taken Crashing Wave, it can also be alternated in the chain and replace Dragon’s Talon every time it's available in order to knock your target down, thereby preventing them from doing anything for the duration.
(2) Ensorcelled Blow -> [Dazzling Strike] / Intimidating Blow -> [Wrath of Hoeth] / Dragon's Talon (or Ether Dance)
This chain is your basic spirit attack chain that you can use against heavily armored opponents (such as destruction tanks). By alternating Dazzling Strike and Intimidating Blow you ensure that you're opponent is able to deal less damage because of increased build up time, and has less opportunities to use morale abilities. Wrath of Hoeth is an AoE attack that also reduces your targets spiritual resist, allowing most of the attacks in this chain to do increased damage.
(3) Graceful Strike -> [Gusting Wind] / Eagle's Flight (or Phoenix's Wind) -> Wrath of Hoeth
This is the chain you should use for AoE tanking. As long as your party members are attacking your main target, graceful strike will build enough hate to ensure you keep agro. The damage from Gusting Wind and Wrath of Hoeth will ensure that healers will not accidently pull agro. This chain can also be used to multitank when other classes are AoEing. The cravat is that they need to wait a few moments so that you can build initial agro. Additionally, the knockback (or knockdown) from Gusting Wind and alternating with Eagle's Flight helps to reduce damage taken tanking.
If you are tanking with a greatsword and have gone down the Path of Khaine and picked up Phoenix’s Wing, then you should alternate it with Gusting Wind due to the increased hate it generates in addition to the frontal AoE damage.
(4) Sapping Strike -> Dazzling Strike
If you've taken the Khaine Path, this partial chain can be weaved into other chains for RvR battles. The 10 second cooldown on each skill prevents them from being used in the same manner as other Normal and Improved balance sills, but their impact can be enough to turn the tide of battle in your favor.
(5) Gryphon’s Lash -> [Quick Incision] / Intimidating Blow -> Ether Dance
If you have gone down the Path of Khaine and plan to DPS as a swordmaster, this is the main chain you need to know. The ability of Gryphon’s Lash to bypass block and parry makes a huge difference in the DPS dealt compared to other attacks. Quick incision not only adds a large DoT, but it also ensures that your target stays nice and close. Intimidating Blow is swapped in every other cycle to allow Quick Incision to finish ticking while letting you keep up the damage.
As mentioned, these are only a few cycle. In actual practice, your tactics and mastery choices dictate what skills you are most likely to use. For instance, picking up Ensorcelled Agony makes Ensorcelled Blow much more attractive for general damage if you aren’t Khaine spec. And if you’re full Khaine spec, then you would want to use Ether Dance over Wrath of Hoeth in chain (2).
The ability to chain attacks is made infinitely easy if you use a mod that changes your hotbars based on your stance. (Personally, I modified the PlanB mod and use that)
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.)
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’s spec needs to be different if you plan to get the most out of RvR – 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, there are various ways to do this… 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… and that’s just if you want to DPS.
Swordmasters are also able to tank, even better than they can DPS. But again the question arises – 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 sword 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’ve chosen for maximum efficiency. That isn’t to say you won’t be able to do it, just that if you were speced differently it’d probably be easier.
I was asked to give a list of templates for swordmasters, however this game is designed to have you switch tactics between encounters, so there really is no static set of tactics you’ll be using all the time. Additionally, if you're anything like me you'll be respecing a lot - and not always to a template. Finally, I'm not here to tell you how to play. I'm here to tell you what the Swordmaster is capable of. Plenty of other people will try to tell you what buttons to push and what works best under ideal circumstances that never happen in real gameplay.
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’s Blade and use Gusting Wind (or Phoenix's Wing) and Wrath of Hoeth. Because you’re being hit by a large number of mobs (I normally pull 10-20 at a time) it’s a good idea to make sure you have Rugged equipped and Bolstering Enchantments. If you’re 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; or alternatively Blessing of Heaven for the extra healing to make sure you stay alive.
Recommended tactics for AoEing: Rugged, Menace, Bolstering Enchantments, Centuries of Training, Potent enchantments, Blessing of Heaven
Single Target DPSing:
If you’re 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’s Blade is in use and Taunt is kept up on your target. You also want to mix around the following tactics: Focused Offence, Centuries of Training, Balanced Accuracy, Deep Incision, Potent Enchantments, and Ensorcelled Agony.
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’s 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’re mastery path has a very large impact over what skills will be available to you. If you don’t go down Khain, then Ensorcelled Blow with Ensorcelled Agony slotted is the best opening attack you can have; and one possible tactic setup for Hoeth spec might be: Potent Enchantments, Focused Offense, Ensorcelled Agony, Centuries of Training.
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’re 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’s Protection is also nice since it makes healing a lot easier. Additionally, Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven from the Hoeth line can really increase our survivabiltiy when combined with Phantom's Blade.
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’s Buffer bring a lot to the table. If you find yourself being crit a lot, Lingering Intimidation might be worth looking into.
Typically, when I go Vaul without Hoeth to tank, I slot: Rugged, Perfect Defenses, Vaul’s Buffer, and Menace. If I'm Hoeth spec, then I'll use Rugged, Bolstering Enchantments, Blessing of Heaven, and Vaul's Buffer - but I'm still toying with the idea of dropping Rugged for Perfect Defenses.
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.
Is tanking with a greatweapon viable?
Yes.
There has been much debate on this topic, and while it is true that a shield does increase you're survivability, especially if you're Vaul, it does not mean that tanking with a two hander is silly, stupid, or impossible.
Every fight I've done, I've tanked with a two hander and a sword and board. Both work. With the ability of Phantom's Blade to give you an absorption shield, and Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven to heal you, it's even more viable now than it was in beta. Tanking with a shield will always be better, but it is not a requirement or even a recommendation. But I would offer a piece of advise... shields are your friend when you have 10+ mobs on you.
If there is any missing information, please email: [email protected]
<-Go Back
The Swordmaster is one possible tank class that Order players can choose to play in Warhammer Online. Originally designed as an anti-magic tank, the boundaries have since become fuzzy. The strengths of the Swordmaster stem from the ability to wear heavy armor, and the ability to deal large amounts of spirit damage instead of physical damage. (This checks against Spirit Mitigation instead of Physical Mitigation) Additionally, recent changes have provided the Swordmaster with the ability to mitigate vast amounts of damage through damage absorption shields as well as provide minor group and ally healing.
The Swordmaster Mechanic
Swordmasters use a mechanic called Balance. It’s a fairly straight forward system in which certain skills require either Normal Balance, Improved Balance, or Perfect Balance to use. When these skills are used, your balance level changes. This means that as a Swordmaster, you are always working through "cycles" when you're in combat.
The path of progression through balance is as follows:
Normal -> Improved -> Perfect -> Normal
It is important to note that skills used from Perfect Balance do not consume any AP by default. A tactic is available later that reduces the AP cost of skills that stem from the Improved Balance line. Because of this behavior, spamming a normal balance skill very rarely advisable and when done, can quickly drain AP.
Currently, the balance mechanic does not let you use improved balance skills while in perfect balance. You can use normal balance skills, but you're stance will be set to improved balance. This means it is impossible to stay in perfect balance for more than a single attack. However, it is possible to alternate between normal and improved skill - but you run the risk of using all your AP fairly quickly.
What can a Swordmaster do in PvE?
In PvE gameplay, the Swordmaster is first and foremost a tank. Their job is to gain agro on one or more mobs and hold it, ensuring that other players are not being attacked. To do this, a Swordmaster must be skilled at more than simply spamming high-threat skills such as Graceful Strike. They must also know how to position a mob and when to use their defensive skills to reduce incoming damage.
The Swordmaster excels at both multi-mob tanking, and tanking without a shield. However, just because a Swordmaster can tank without a shield does not mean that they should. Depending on Mastery spec, there are some options that will only be available when using a greatsword, and some options that will only be available when using a shield. Currently, however, the benefit of being able to block far outweighs those gained from using a greatsword; this is because in Warhammer, blocking defends against ALL attacks – ranged and magic as well as melee.
Swordmasters who do not enjoy tanking are not completely a lost cause. By specing heavily into the Khaine and Hoeth mastery lines, they gain the ability to do more damage than a traditional tank while still having viable debuffing and crowd control abilities.
It should be remembered though that the Swordmaster is a TANK class. Not a melee DPS class. Anyone thinking they’ll play a Swordmaster and be topping the damage charts at level 40 will be very disappointed. You can do enough damage to solo in PvE, but when it comes to RvR fights against non-healers will be long, and fights against healers are a nightmare. Do not be fooled by numbers in the scenario window, they’re horribly inaccurate of what a class can actually do.
What can a Swordmaster do in RvR?
There are two main schools of thought about a tanks job in RvR. Some players feel that tanks should stand in the back and try to protect healers, and other players feel that tanks are front line assault warriors who should charge into groups of other players and get beat on.
It is my personal view that standing in the back and trying to protect a healer is a waste. There is no mechanic to force a player to attack you (e.g. Taunt in EQ2) and you have no way to remove CC from another person. Nearly every class in WAR has ample methods of CC – if a healer gets attacked by a melee class, they’ll be snared, silenced, and debuffed before you can even blink. At best you can snare the attacker or if you’re an ironbreaker, knock them down for a short amout of time and hope the healer can get away. Although chances are the healer is being focus fired, so it probably won’t do much good anyway. If I was forced to pick a tank class to stand back and “defend” the healers though, it would be an ironbreaker. They have many more tools for this at their disposal than a swordmaster does. (knockbacks, knockdowns, snares, damage-on-move debuffs, and the all awesome oath-friend)
Let us say then, for the sake of argument, that a Swordmaster’s role in RvR is to act as a front line assault element. Their high mitigation, numerous debuffs and crowd control skills, and ability to spec for damage makes them very, VERY deadly in this role. With proper healing, a Swordmaster can charge into a full warband of destruction and cause enough chaos to create an opening that other Order players can exploit. The intention of the Swordmaster is not to try and kill players in an opposing army, but rather to create opportunities in which his teammates can.
Abilities, Tactics, and Morals
The Swordmaster is unique among most other classes in that nearly every skill has a well defined purpose in either PvE or RvR. Due to the Balance mechanic that a Swordmaster employs there is no one set skill that is best spammed until your target dies.
Exact descriptions of all the abilities, tactics, and morals that you can get as a Swordmaster have been done by other players to a much better degree than I am able in a guild. For example, the WarDB database has a very nice listing of all the skills and how they change with level. I will therefore not repeat their work. Instead, I will give a few short notes on the various skills and their uses.
A list of our skills that work off the balance mechanic is as follows:
Requires Normal Balance and leads to Improved Balance:
Graceful Strike – A physical based DD+DoT attack that also increases hate
Ensorcelled Blow – A spirit based DD attack
Gryphon’s Lash – A physical DD attack that cannot be blocked or parried
Sapping Strike (Khaine Master) – A physical based DD attack that also drains 50 AP over 5 seconds
Requires Improved Balance and leads to Perfect Balance:
Quick Incision – A physical based DoT attack that also snares your target
Eagle’s Flight – A physical based DD attack that increases your chance to parry
Intimidating Blow – A physical based DD attack that also reduces your target’s morale
Gusting Wind – A spirit based AoE DD attack with a 10 foot range
Dazzling Strike – A physical based DD that increases your target’s build times by 1 second for 5 seconds
Phoenix’s Wing (Khaine Mastery) – A physical based frontal AoE DD attack that also increases hate
Crushing Advance (Vaul Mastery) – A physical based DD attack that increases your Armor and chance to Block as well as interrupts your target
Requires Perfect Balance and leads to Normal Balance:
Bluring Shock – A physical based DD attack
Wrath of Hoeth – A spirit based AoE DD attack with a 30 foot range that also reduces spiritual resistance
Dragon’s Talon – A physical based DD attack that hits twice and reduces your target’s damage by 20%
Ether Dance (Khaine Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits 5 times
Whispering Wind (Hoeth Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits twice and silence your target
Crashing Wave (Vaul Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits twice and knocks down your target
Protection of Hoeth (Hoeth Mastery) – Creates an shield around you that absorbs damage
In addition to skills which work on the Balance mechanic, we also have a number of useful buffs:
Taunt – Interrupts your target and increases damage you deal to them by 30%
Guard – Your target’s damage taken is split 50/50 with you and you gain 35% of the hate they generate
Juggernaut – Removes most CC from you, but does NOT make you immune to further CC
Aethyric Grasp – PBAoE root
Heaven’s Blade – Buff that adds a resistance debuff proc to all melee attacks
Nature’s Blade – Buff that adds a stat drain proc to all melee attacks
Phantom’s Blade – Buff that adds an absorption shield proc to all melee attacks
Aethyric Armor (Hoeth Mastery)– 30 minute buff that increases armor and disrupt chance
We also have a number of passive buffs, called tactics, that we can use. The number of tactics you can have depends on your level, capping at 4 class tactics at level 40. I’ll describe the more interesting ones that I typically use here:
Focused Offence – Increases all damage you do by 15%, but decreases your armor value by 33%
Rugged – Increases your toughness by 160 at level 40
Menace – Increases all threat generated by your attacks by 100%
Centuries of Training – 25% chance to proc a DoT lasting for 5 seconds
Ensorcelled Agony – Ensorcelled Blow now adds a DoT lasting for 5 seconds
Potent Enchantments – Each time your enchantment procs, a DoT is applied for 9 seconds
Gryphon’s Precision (Khain Mastery) – 25% chance to stun your target for 1 seconds when you use Gryphon’s Lash
Perfect Defences (Vaul Mastery) – Increases your chance to Block and Parry based on your Balance level
Bolstering Enchantments (Hoeth Mastery) – When your enchantment procs, your group receives a small Heal Over Time effect for 10 seconds
Blessing of Heaven (Hoeth Mastery) – 25% to add a reverse damage shield to your target when you use a Hoeth attack
Deep Incision (Khaine Mastery) – Increases the DoT component of Quick Incision
Vaul’s Buffer (Vaul Mastery) – On a successful block, dodge, parry, or disrupt you become surrounded by a small absorption shield for 10 seconds
Balanced Accuracy (Khaine Mastery) – Increases your crit chance based on balance stance
Common Cycles
When in combat, the Swordmaster functions by cycling through the various stances of his balance mechanic. If one looks at the skills above, a few of them seem to have an obvious synergy - this is not unintentional. Many skills have been designed to work together. Below I have listed some of the more common cycles.
For convention, when a skill name appears in [brackets] it means that the skill should be alternated into the chain at that step. The arrow -> represents movement to the next balance state.
(1) Graceful Strike -> Eagle’s Flight -> Dragon’s Talon
This chain is your bread and butter tank chain. You open with a high hate attack, then follow it up with a blow that increases your chance to avoid damage, and finish it with an attack that reduces any damage you fail to mitigate. This chain can be used with a sword and board or a greatsword.
If you have chosen to put points into the Path of Vaul and taken Crushing Advance, then the following complex chain becomes available:
(1.1) Graceful Strike -> [Crushing Advance] / Eagle's Flight -> Dragon's Talon
In this chain, you use Crushing Advance initially and wait until wears off to use it again. This allows you to increase your armor well as your block value; the results are both an increase to physical mitigation, and a higher chance to outright avoid all types of damage. If you've gone even further up the Vaul path and taken Crashing Wave, it can also be alternated in the chain and replace Dragon’s Talon every time it's available in order to knock your target down, thereby preventing them from doing anything for the duration.
(2) Ensorcelled Blow -> [Dazzling Strike] / Intimidating Blow -> [Wrath of Hoeth] / Dragon's Talon (or Ether Dance)
This chain is your basic spirit attack chain that you can use against heavily armored opponents (such as destruction tanks). By alternating Dazzling Strike and Intimidating Blow you ensure that you're opponent is able to deal less damage because of increased build up time, and has less opportunities to use morale abilities. Wrath of Hoeth is an AoE attack that also reduces your targets spiritual resist, allowing most of the attacks in this chain to do increased damage.
(3) Graceful Strike -> [Gusting Wind] / Eagle's Flight (or Phoenix's Wind) -> Wrath of Hoeth
This is the chain you should use for AoE tanking. As long as your party members are attacking your main target, graceful strike will build enough hate to ensure you keep agro. The damage from Gusting Wind and Wrath of Hoeth will ensure that healers will not accidently pull agro. This chain can also be used to multitank when other classes are AoEing. The cravat is that they need to wait a few moments so that you can build initial agro. Additionally, the knockback (or knockdown) from Gusting Wind and alternating with Eagle's Flight helps to reduce damage taken tanking.
If you are tanking with a greatsword and have gone down the Path of Khaine and picked up Phoenix’s Wing, then you should alternate it with Gusting Wind due to the increased hate it generates in addition to the frontal AoE damage.
(4) Sapping Strike -> Dazzling Strike
If you've taken the Khaine Path, this partial chain can be weaved into other chains for RvR battles. The 10 second cooldown on each skill prevents them from being used in the same manner as other Normal and Improved balance sills, but their impact can be enough to turn the tide of battle in your favor.
(5) Gryphon’s Lash -> [Quick Incision] / Intimidating Blow -> Ether Dance
If you have gone down the Path of Khaine and plan to DPS as a swordmaster, this is the main chain you need to know. The ability of Gryphon’s Lash to bypass block and parry makes a huge difference in the DPS dealt compared to other attacks. Quick incision not only adds a large DoT, but it also ensures that your target stays nice and close. Intimidating Blow is swapped in every other cycle to allow Quick Incision to finish ticking while letting you keep up the damage.
As mentioned, these are only a few cycle. In actual practice, your tactics and mastery choices dictate what skills you are most likely to use. For instance, picking up Ensorcelled Agony makes Ensorcelled Blow much more attractive for general damage if you aren’t Khaine spec. And if you’re full Khaine spec, then you would want to use Ether Dance over Wrath of Hoeth in chain (2).
The ability to chain attacks is made infinitely easy if you use a mod that changes your hotbars based on your stance. (Personally, I modified the PlanB mod and use that)
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.)
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’s spec needs to be different if you plan to get the most out of RvR – 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, there are various ways to do this… 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… and that’s just if you want to DPS.
Swordmasters are also able to tank, even better than they can DPS. But again the question arises – 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 sword 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’ve chosen for maximum efficiency. That isn’t to say you won’t be able to do it, just that if you were speced differently it’d probably be easier.
I was asked to give a list of templates for swordmasters, however this game is designed to have you switch tactics between encounters, so there really is no static set of tactics you’ll be using all the time. Additionally, if you're anything like me you'll be respecing a lot - and not always to a template. Finally, I'm not here to tell you how to play. I'm here to tell you what the Swordmaster is capable of. Plenty of other people will try to tell you what buttons to push and what works best under ideal circumstances that never happen in real gameplay.
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’s Blade and use Gusting Wind (or Phoenix's Wing) and Wrath of Hoeth. Because you’re being hit by a large number of mobs (I normally pull 10-20 at a time) it’s a good idea to make sure you have Rugged equipped and Bolstering Enchantments. If you’re 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; or alternatively Blessing of Heaven for the extra healing to make sure you stay alive.
Recommended tactics for AoEing: Rugged, Menace, Bolstering Enchantments, Centuries of Training, Potent enchantments, Blessing of Heaven
Single Target DPSing:
If you’re 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’s Blade is in use and Taunt is kept up on your target. You also want to mix around the following tactics: Focused Offence, Centuries of Training, Balanced Accuracy, Deep Incision, Potent Enchantments, and Ensorcelled Agony.
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’s 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’re mastery path has a very large impact over what skills will be available to you. If you don’t go down Khain, then Ensorcelled Blow with Ensorcelled Agony slotted is the best opening attack you can have; and one possible tactic setup for Hoeth spec might be: Potent Enchantments, Focused Offense, Ensorcelled Agony, Centuries of Training.
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’re 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’s Protection is also nice since it makes healing a lot easier. Additionally, Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven from the Hoeth line can really increase our survivabiltiy when combined with Phantom's Blade.
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’s Buffer bring a lot to the table. If you find yourself being crit a lot, Lingering Intimidation might be worth looking into.
Typically, when I go Vaul without Hoeth to tank, I slot: Rugged, Perfect Defenses, Vaul’s Buffer, and Menace. If I'm Hoeth spec, then I'll use Rugged, Bolstering Enchantments, Blessing of Heaven, and Vaul's Buffer - but I'm still toying with the idea of dropping Rugged for Perfect Defenses.
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.
Is tanking with a greatweapon viable?
Yes.
There has been much debate on this topic, and while it is true that a shield does increase you're survivability, especially if you're Vaul, it does not mean that tanking with a two hander is silly, stupid, or impossible.
Every fight I've done, I've tanked with a two hander and a sword and board. Both work. With the ability of Phantom's Blade to give you an absorption shield, and Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven to heal you, it's even more viable now than it was in beta. Tanking with a shield will always be better, but it is not a requirement or even a recommendation. But I would offer a piece of advise... shields are your friend when you have 10+ mobs on you.
If there is any missing information, please email: [email protected]
<-Go Back
