Development Cycle Archive

Another idea for special abilities:

AoE mind hit with possibility of blind or AoE mind bleed, i dont think the bleed will be over powered at all with the upcomming dot changes.

A disadvantage of swordsman should be poor ranged defense ( like now)and medium to lowmelee defense

Besides the proposals which have been already made so far there is one thing the irritates me a bit.

The class is called "Sword"-man but the special weapon granted to the novice swordman is a power "Hammer". They should wield a sword and not a hammer imho.

What defines theSwordsmanrole in combat?

We are effective, metal bashing tanks! We are the heavy hitters who favor slow heavy attacks over multiple weaker attacks. We are at the front line with any melee profession as we do alot of damage quite quickly and can penetrate armour more effectivly.

What basic combat elements should they possess?

We are the Masters of heavy weapons, which means that our mind and weapons have forged to become one. In combat we should be feared as the damage dealers, who can rip through armour and instalations with ease!

What offensive abilities?

Offensive abilties should be bleeds, posture changes and state changes. We want to feel that if we hit someone, its gonna hurt, and not just in health, but in their mind. Swordsmen have the ability to effectivly deal damage to multiple opponents and strike fear into our opponents.

What defensive abilities?

The heavy swordsman style favors damage over defence, so we should be able to withstand a good amount of damage since it can be expected and reduced using swordsmen techniques, but overall, maybe a little less than the other melee professions

What unique abilities?

Heavy swordsmen have the ability to strike the head with extream accuracy as it is a known weakness. Although swordsmen can hit any part of the body dealing great damage, the ability to hit the head / mind is unqiue to us.

Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?

Swordsmen would be carry the huge advantage of being able to deal huge damage to their opponents effectivly. The ability to target the mind also gives them a tactical advantage if the group also contains mind targeting professions (Rifleman / CM etc) Also, the armour penetration swordsmen have makes them very effective at destorying vehicles / installations / armoured foes

How could/should they interact with other professions?

At the moment, any assistnace in defence to the swordsmen is a god send, so Doctor buffs, drugs and food are all excellent compliements to the swordsmans abilities. Also swordsmen should be dependent on weaponsmiths and armoursmithsfor high quality items which help in combat. Secondary items such as pets etc may not be as important as many swordsmen are self sufficient in combat.

What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?

In combat, swordsmen should be seen as the main damage dealer, and so other professions may look to help them defencivly or in healing while they attack. Other professions should look to assist the swordsmen by using 'secondary' attacks, such as state / posture changes or poisens to assist the swordsmen while they concentrate on dealing damage

What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?

I would second "Ideas"comments earlier.

I also want to stress that ranged attackers have a huge advantage over melee types right now. This can and should be balanced by adding a single realistic factor: Melee fighters should hit at least twice as accurately as Ranged fighters. Anyone who has studied modern combat knows that hit percentages with guns are piss poor. Melee hit percentages should be far better. If we can get to them before they peg us that is.

another thing: If a ranged fighter is running full speed, he should have almost zero chance of hitting anything. If he is retreating ( holding down shift key) he would have a better chance, but then the brawler could catch him.

Just some ideas

What defines theSwordsmanrole in combat?

Swordsman, wielding large weapons with the potential of doing great harm as quickly as possible, thus eliminating the need for a large amount of defense. Since we engage in close combat, with moderately large weapons, we should be able to hit fairly accurately, but not as fast as as some of our melee brothers. And I enjoy being what could be called the King of PvE.

What basic combat elements should they possess?

Since the goal of a swordsman would be to dispatch an enemy as quickly as possible, and is representedthrough the ability to attack the most vital HAM pool....the Mind

What offensive abilities?

I always felt that Area Attacks should be the domain of the Pikeman, able to sweep their large polearms about them. Swordsman should be able to dispatch a SINGLE target as quickly as possible. And since our attacks are designed to attack the head/mind, perhaps a dizzy attack would make sense.

What defensive abilities?

A swordsman should rely entirely on offense, and defending themselves until they are in range to attack a foe. I would recommend a large ranged defense, and a small melee defense.

What unique abilities?

Ways to attack the mind would be the best way. Perhaps a knockdown or dizzy attack that would attack the mind pool.

Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?

As Swordsman is now, I am perfectly content with my ability in group combat. I am able to outdamage nearly any other class in PvE, and am largely underestimated in PvP, and thus am able to reak havok when I pull out my mind attacks, and start smashing medics.

How could/should they interact with other professions?

I would like to see us as tanking for others, just as was originally intended. I like to charge a creature, and let the more frail ranged attackers continue there barage without worrying about the creature attempting to destroy them.

What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?

We should be able to do more damage per second than a TKA, but they should have a better defense. Against a ranged opponent, I would like to have a way to attack them, other than running into a building and hoping they will follow me.

What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?

Shock Troops. As soon as a battle occurs, we should charge the enemies position. We should attack their riflemen as they fire, use an area attack to cause confusion, and elimate specific targets with our devestating attacks. While we are doing this, our riflemen should be helping to snipe these priority targets, and pistoleers should take up a position nearby to attack while the Swordsman draw enemy fire.

/agree with wookie05

I'm playing a SWORDSman, please add more weapons for me to pick from. Also, I've done a lot of the statics quests and was very upset to see everytime areward given to me was a 'marksman' item. Would be nice to get a rare/new swordsman type weapon off a quest.

I think swordsmen shouldn't really have that many status effects. Right now we don't have many anyways, but we need something. So our specials should boost ourselves. We are weilding giant weapons, which means we are not that hard to hit. We should have lower melee and ranged defense, but we should have a decent amount of toughness. Our counterattack should be about of average use. So overall we have a below average defense. Our attacks however should be very powerful. We shouldn't have so many AoE attacks as we do now, that is for the pikemen. We should still retain a few.

Well anyways our status effects should be replaced with offensive boosts. An example would be a charge state where we are immune to status effects, say for 20 or however long it would be balancing seconds, and our first attack in that state does extra damage. During these 20 seconds we are easily hit, so that means out ranged/melee defense is lowered, and our counterattack is lowered. Our attacks themselves should be varied in reguards to speed, accuracy, and damage. We should have a few status effects, but shouldn't be dependent on them like other professions. We are here to do one thing and bash in the heads of the enemy. Some specails should decrease our speed delays, some increase our accuracy, and other increase our damage. Not all of them should increase these mods like they do now. In this way weaker attacks might be better to use in some situations.

I concur that the Swordsman should be much more focused on raw damage than on state effect attacks. The Swordsman method of blinding an opponent is to chop off his head.

This is true, but if I hit you with a 25 lb hammer that discharges a serious blast into your head, how are you never stunned ?

I loved heavy swordsman for it's raw damage output, but the attacks are all a little samey, make some of them more interesting

Oh and for the love of God, fix the accuracy please, if I'm standing 2 feet from a Tortur, it isn't physically possible for me NOT to hit it if I swing the hammer.

How about allowing armoursmiths to craft Shields for swordsman only. They could have different attributes like mind defense or a really highly polished shield could reflect mind attacks. The swordsman are heavy fighters, less mobile than fencers but can take a hard shot. Where a fencer would be able to dodge out of the way with speed the swordsman would take the hit but be able to deflect some of the damage with the shield. All knds of new a cool shields could be devised with colors and guild logos. let the artisans make flag banners designed by the various guilds to mark there territory and it could be transferd to the shields as their battle crest. And give them more different types of swords that are usable. Some of the swords are never used because of the high ham costs. Also they should have an edge against all polearm opponents.


Zardoz