Swordsman Archive

Let me begin this with a little bit about my background (with Swordsman and Melee in general). Swordsman was the first Elite profession that I mastered, followed by Doctor, so for a time I could do just about anything in PvE, and could hold my own in PvP. As a lot of people I got caught up in the Holo-craze and with the click of a Holo I was down the road of Holo-grinders. After 3 professions I was left to my own choosing of a career and, since I had thoroughly enjoyed Swordsman, I decided to try the 3 remaining melee elite professions. My first choices were Teras Kasi and Fencer. I was supremely disappointed to find that Teras Kasi was not challenging in anyway, I believe it is one of the easiest professions in the game, while towering over other melee classes with unparalled attacks and dmg/spd. Fencer was helped along by the nifty Dodge mods, but also the health bleed played a big part in my ability to take down tough kills, also the Center of Being seemed to be more potent than other melee classes. At Blademaster I believe it reached the same effectiveness as Teras Kasi, but only with other factors thrown in (i.e. buffs, armor, foods, etc.). The bleed was still a crucial attack, but scatter hit 2 is very devastating. After these two I made my way into Pikeman, I was a bit skeptical as everyone says Pikeman is a tough prof and not too rewarding. With this profession I was pleasantly surprised. While it doesn't sit equal with the others in most cases, the attacks are nice and the damage numbers superb. The main problem I had, as most I assume, was the accuracy which forced me to constantly keep Center of Being. These 3 were all helped by having Master Brawler throughout each one, the lunge2 and warcry2 attacks help tremendously when first gaining experience toward novice and beginning levels. Fast forward to the future....

A guildmate of mine started down the Swordsman path a few days before the recent Publish (6). By patch time she had achieved master and the patch came down. A lot fo you from the Kettemoor galaxy know our former Swordsman, Keelala. We3 were in the cantina shortly after the patch and he and our current master Swordsman, Oitrechi, decide to show me how the Swordsman profession has suffered from the changes to bleeds. They begin to duel, she does the bleed attack, and they end duel so that I can see the difference in the tick. Needless to say I was disgusted. Bleed went from being the premiere highlight of Swordsman, to barely a useful secondary attack. As a fellow Pikeman present at the time said, "My Pike bleeds are better than your Sword bleeds now". I fail to see how this change blances aspect of combat. Perhaps a slight lowering of damage done by the bleeds was in order, but this seems to be a debilatating change, as far as the Swordsman profession is concerned. I think a solution to this problem might be to separate changes to the types of combat classes (melee&ranged). Because problems in one aren't always problems in the other, but it seems they are dealt with as a whole. As someone who has done all of these professions I can say that I did not experience a balance of power in each, rather they all have unique aspects about them which are beneficial, with Teras Kasi you have unmatched speed/damage with a kd/dizzy (and meditation doesn't hurt either), with Fencer you have a potent CoB, coupled with a very nice attack in scatter hit2, with Pikeman you have area kd and damaging area attacks, but you suffer from high ham costs and low accuracy, with Swordsman you have the advantage of mind attacks, but the highlight here was the bleeds, which is no more. If this is not altered in anyway then I hope the next thing you are looking at is the Combat Medic profession. While Swordsman mind bleeds were high powered lets not forget that with a few Medic skills you can heal those bleeds, in combat or on the run as opposed to Teras Kasi meditation which requires a peaced, unaltered state. With Combat Medics the only cure requires Doctor skills, I ask you, is this balance?

Let me end by saying I am excited to see the combat professions evolving into, hopefully, a more balanced state of affairs. I hope with all sincerity that this bleed issue is given thought and altered in some way to make bleeds something like they once were. I am saddened because I wished to return to Swordsman in the future, and had been looking forward to the Scythe for months, with these new changes though I have begun my search for a new profession of choice. Thank you to all who post here and to any developers that put effort into correcting/altering this change.

Cheers!