Swordsman Archive

As was stated earlier I would like the whole range issue looked into. Right now what I see both with doctor and swordsman (their ranges are similar) is even when the target shows as being in range, I get the out of range message. This is related to attacking or healing while running. Basically it coes down to these cases:

* If I am moving and my target is stationary, the range works fine

* If my target is moving and I am stationary, range sometimes works

* If we are both moving, the range almost never works, even when moving the same direction.

I could equate this to lag, but when both of us have less than 100ms ping, and no packet loss, I have to attribute it to programming error. From what I have found however, the longer range actions work better than the short range ones. Therefore if I use 2handLunge1, I have a much better chance of getting a hit in than any other attack. This could be due to a larger area of influence, or it could be that short range attacks and skills are simply broken.

If and when you test this on TC, please try to test both on flat ground and on hilly terrain. Pay close attention to the distance your target is (next to his HAM bars) if you get the out of range message.

What I'd like to see are a few changes.

Since we will be given an immunity timer on 6 of our 16 attacks (about 1/3) they should reconfigure the effects of 4 of those 6 attacks in my opinion.

Make area attack 3 still do the posture lower and dizzy (reduce the resist rate on the dizzy to make it more effective) and of course keep the range and effect of the Two Hand Lunge.

However the rest of the area attacks and both sweep attacks should have different effects.

I think that the sweeps should be changed to knockdowns, one single and one AE (with the immunity timers in place this won't be overbalancing at all).

Area Attack 1 could be a stun, Area Attack 2 could be a blind. Other stat effects like that. Or maybe Area Attack 2 could be the posture lower/dizzy and Area Attack 3 could be an area head hit.

There's a lot that they could do to make all our skills more fun to use and give us some variety to our playstyles instead of how it is right now where you're limited to mind damage or unspecific pool damage posture change styles.

Just my input.

-Shi

Regardless of the fact that it will hurt me in PvE, I agree that posturechanges need a little nerfing, but I really think we should push for something other than the 30 second timer. What about just reducing the chance to posture down?

But, we can probably assume that the change will be as planned, so we need to figure out how to best approach rebalancing.

I assume that the dizzy effect of Area Attack 3 will not be affected, but dizzy is most effective when followed by a posture down. This would suggest that maybe the sweeps should be changed to state changes like dizzy, stun or blind, and leave the posture downs to the offense line. This seems logical and practical.

However, I think we need to be very careful that we don't ask for or receive too much. Honestly, I think swordsman are very powerfull, and border-line overpowered. When teamed with a TK or ranged fighter, I usually suck up two-thirds of the xp, and I'm not even a master. Our profession may have some problems, but we need to realize that overall we are rather lucky. If we push our luck and end up with too many types of specials, you can bet that we will eventually be hit with the nerf battle-axe. I would rather just get a little bit more variety, and make sure we at least maintain status quo. To this end, I would suggest that we only ask for dizzy to be moved to the defense line, and have no other state changes added.

We also obviously need to have something added for finesse 3, but not something big!

Any thoughts?

In my experience the changes to posture down have nothing to do with swordsman. It's pistoleer they are nerfing. Pistoleer can spam supression fire with a 1.2 speed weapon, effectively reducing a swordsman to a crawling wimpering slug on the ground. You cannot stand, you cannot hit, you cannot even run away. You are forced repeatedly into a lower posture and even spamming stand will not change this.

While potentially we could do the same thing at master swordsman with a fast sword at close range and area attack 2 or 3, a pistoleer can do this at tier 1 or 2. They can do this from medium range so that we never even get a chance to hit them. The posture change mod is purely for the PVP aspects of the game, believe me in this regard it is not a nerf to us but a bonus against pistoleer.

The problem I am seeing with PVP in this game, is that most of the professions don't have counters to the moves of other professions. This means that the first to successfully attack wins. There is no strategy to it. You just use your most disabling special and hope you go first, and hope it hits. Because when it hits, the fight is probably over, even with the 75% reduction in damage.

Based on the design of combat in this game, I am not sure it can get any better. And since the PVPers whine incessantly about not being equal to another profession, the nerfs keep rolling in. These nerfs then affect the PVEers who might not understand the change and feel cheated.

What is the solution?

Maybe we an we put better defenses to special moves in to PVP? That way we don't need to keep nerfing the attacks. Instead of continually making players weaker, why not make them stronger by adding good defenses against specials like posture change and knockdown? This would have the effect of making the use of specials in PVP a risky proposition since they might fail more often than not and cause wasted HAM. This in turn would cause players to take new strategies in fighting others and use more than just their BEST, MOST DISABLING special. Instead they would think of using some of the lower HAM cost specials that give other affects to their targets.

I wonder if this argument should be floated in a separate thread. Or maybe I will just cross post it.

I agree with IdrisTycho, defenses need to be increased, a novice pistoleer should not be able to knock a heavy swordsman down 5 straight times,(had it happen). The profession of swordsman itself suggests a person skilled at staying on their feet, dodging, and certainly a person excellent at close quarter combat. Anyone with a ranged weapon already has the advantage of running away doing head shots, they don't need to be able to dominate in close quarter combat as well.

Geminus Dominicus <ISS>

Novice Heavy Swordsman/ Advanced Doctor

Chalistra

No love for us ...

Surrender your correspondent status Goreki ... cos this devs are only incompetent "balls of lies".

Hehe how bout some lubbin for Wookie Swordsman?
No armor, blech, HAM costs or no hehe

Still having fun, though...