Swordsman Archive

Hi, I'm putting this up to you guys for review. I'll be playing "tourist" in Chicago this weekend so I won't be around to comment until Monday or so. But please post all comments, concerns and questions. What did I leave out, as well as what I might skip over.

This is design or vision document intended to convey what we want the Swordsman profession to be. Note that brevity is important here. The goal is to be concise and to capture the essentials of how Swordsmen see themselves. That means that I can't mention every single problem with the profession or every single wish that we might have. Also I'm sticking to a proscribed format. I've gotten these thoughts from the In Concept thread as well as my old "vision" thread.

Finally let me say that this is definitely not the final version. I'm not happy with everything here but I wanted to get something out as quickly as possible to solicit comments. I'm also not sure what exactly is being asked of me so I might have to change as I find out more about what the devs want. I've included a list of various special and defense ideas that I've collected over time (some my own ideas based on what Swordsman want and some based on ideas posted by others on the forums). These may be controversial so feel free to tell me what looks good and what doesn't.

---

Profession: Swordsman

Progression

• The Swordsman profession is an elite profession that branches off from the brawler novice profession. It has 29 points in prerequisit skills (2 handed weapons I-IV) and of course requires 63 points for mastery.

Abilities

• The Swordsman profession provides a slew of offense and defensive abilities and skills related to the use of two-handed weaponry. Swordsmen see strongly weigh themselves the offensive side of combat however (a poll of Swordsmen concluded that Swordsman should be roughly 75% offense and 25% defense). Choosing swordsman as part of one's character should then reflect a comittment to strong offensive abilities accompanied by a measure of useful but not exceptional defensive abilities.
  
  Offense: Swordsmen wish to excel, above all else, in offensive abilities. The primary attributes of this should be:
  
  • High rates of damage. While utilizing slower and less versatile attacks, Swordsmen should have overall very high damage per second.
    
  • The ability to impart lasting, crippling effects to their opponents such as bleeding, wounds, stuns, snares, and other such effects.
  • Heavy armor-piercing abilities. Swordsmen should be able to overcome both heavy armor ratings and high resists.
  
  In terms of skill modifiers, Swordsmen seek modifiers that improve their damage output primarily. These abilities come at the expense of finesse and versatility. Swordsmen are limited by the usage of melee weapons (very short range) and overall lower accuracy and speed.
  
  Swordsmen of course wish to have strong damage output but their offensive abilities hsould not be limited to pure damage. Swordsman wish to be able to impart strong crippling effects on their opponents. A list of possible ideas for Swordsmen damage effects or other special abilities:
  • Maiming: Specials that deal heavy wounds.
  • Bleeds: Specials that slowly stack up bleeds, requiring continued attacks to develop in time dealing heavy bleeds.
  • Stuns: specials that have a chance to delay an opponent for a short time
  • Concussions: pecials that prevent a target from using specials for a limited time.
  • Bone breaking: Specials that slow a targets movement or attack rate.
  • Armor piercing shots: specials that increase the armor-piercing attribute of an attack.
  • Rage: a greatly improved berserk that temporarily lowers defenses and prevents a Swordsman from watching his HAM bars but greatly increases damage.
  • Brain damage: imparts a small % chance that any action undertaken by the target is "fumbled" causing a delay but not actually having an effect.
  • Shock: a special that prevents an opponent from applying medicine for a short duration.
  
  
  Defense: As a melee profession, Swordsmen seek to provide adequate if not exceptional tanking abilities. As a shock troop, Swordsmen should be tough and able to absorb a decent amount of damage, but offense should come first. Characteristics of Swordsman defense should include:
  • An emphasis on toughness modifiers and mitigation over the ability to dodge or otherwise be missed.
  • Counterattack should provide an actual counterattack and some modicum of damage absorption instead of acting as another dodge.
  • Changes to Center Of Being should be considered giving Swordsmen a unique ability instead of the current Center Of Being which is more "finesse" oriented. This should give swordsman a more distinct role and more distincit abilities and should be more oriented to short-term damage absorption. Some possibilities:
    • damage reduction for a short duration or a certain amount of damage
    • increased resistances to status effects
    • increased regeneration rate
    • a large heal that operates on a long-term timer

Combat Role

• Swordsmen see themselves as shock troops. They provide strong offensive capabilities with enough toughness to get to the front lines and start dealing damage. They are not finesse-oriented which means that they are slower, less accurate and have weaker defenses (for a melee profession). In combat their job is to get to the opponent and deal large amounts of damage quickly as well as to penetrate heavily armored and resistant targets. While vulnerable to ranged weapons, upon closing to close range their damage should be unparalleled. Against other melee professions they will have to leverage strong attacks and crippling effects against the greater defenses, accuracy and finesse moves that these professions bring to bear.

Grouping Role

• In a PvE context, Swordsmen see themselves as damage dealers first and tanks second. In a pinch they can tank, but they should not do so as well as other melee professions. In exchange for this and the limitations of being a melee combatant, they provide strong and versatile damage. Ideally a Swordsman will be able to stand up to an opponent when necessary but will defer aggro to the other more capable melee professions. While an ally tanks the Swordsman will step up to deal strong single target and multitarget damage. Furthermore, through the use of crippling attacks a Swordsman may have opportunities to cripple or otherwise hamper PvE content (see ideas for such specials in the "Abilities" section).

Message Edited by StGabriel on 06-04-2004 12:52 AM

Message Edited by StGabriel on 06-04-2004 01:01 AM

Message Edited by StGabriel on 06-04-2004 01:02 AM

Looks nice mr. leprechaun.

Honestly, I do like it. It is a pretty accurace representation of what I believe swordsman is.

---

StGabriel wrote:
Changes to Center Of Being should be considered giving Swordsmen a unique ability instead of the current Center Of Being which is more "finesse" oriented.

---

What about the "Center of Agression" or "Berserk3" idea that was discussed before? Kinda like the Rage idea you mentioned - An advanced state of berserk where damage would be raised for a short period of time, but you would'nt be restricted to default attack. That would definately be more focused towards offense.

What about going back to that really old Specials thread that Gorecki started? there were pages and pages of ideas for abilities on that one.

Actually that old specials thread was part of the inspiration for the specials listed. I carved those out of an old post I made on the Correspondent's Forum where I used the In Concept post, Gorecki's post and my own random ideas. I'll give that guy another look.

One thing I realize I haven't mentioned: mind damage. This is tricky as we don't know what is happening to mind damage in the future (i.e. will it be healable?). If mind damage is healable then I see it as a liability more than anything as mind attacks stack poorly with the attacks from other professions. If mind cannot be healed it is of course a strong advantage in PvP to be able to deal mind damage.

StGabe.

Hi Gabe

i really think that the main state delivered from us must be stun... all of our attacks must give stun, specially the headhits... i mean 100% chance... if you hit headhit, you make the opponent stunned. This gives the advantage toreduce theopponent's defense and makes us more damage deliverers.

For me the counterattack must imply damage delivered to the opponent instead to us and maybe, to compensate, reduce the chance of happening. Or maybe keep the chance as it is and make it work only against melee. I will also reccomend to reduce defenses... we are slow and heavy... rely on the armors and toughness.

Also would be interesting to add some positive/negative modifiers when fighting big/small creatures, or npcs... i would like to have some of the redundant specials removed and changed to reflect the fact that we fight better and more efficiently against bigger opponents and humanoids (cutting throats...)

Definetly add a third kind of damage type, hopefully in the Hack, that, from my point of view should do energy, acid or cold damage.

A new Sword, more tecnological than a katana (add a lightning cripple to a claymore or a two handed broadsword+energy or electricity damage and we all will be pleased!!)

maintain the speed, increase the damage or the AP and reduce the defenses and the swordman will be true heavy melee

cheers

StGabriel, I believe your post hit it dead on. The 'shock troops' of melee is, in my opinion, the perfect doctrine to follow here. My one concern is the defense, I wonder how viable will be fair as soloing goes after composite armour is 'fixed'. I am primarily a solo'er in PVE, from what I have seen in the past SOE may like to force us into groups but it's something I will never go along with ( being forced that is ). If added offensive capabilities makes up for this lack then I am all for it. I hope that when you mention 'crippling' effects on our attacks it will provide a greatyVARIETY of attacks, not three of the same exact area attack with a greater damage multiplier ( and area 2 still outdoes 3 it would seem ). Those are the only comments/questions I have.

Again, a simply outstanding post and vision on your behalf. This far outdoes what I have seen in the past, you have concentrated on our profession and its integration rather than the usual we should be uber in all.

I love the ideas being passed around.
However, I would rather see the existing specials fixed rather than create new ones.

Ok, I'm leaving soon but I thought I'd mention that I see the following things I'd like to work in:

• Discussion of mind targetting
• Discussion of existing statuses (blind, dizzy, stun, kd)
• Critical strike, a popular sort of ability that I missed
• A more fleshed out proposal for berserk/rage/etc.

Although if possible I'd like to keep it as short as possible. Also, I'm trying to stay away from specifid requests (as I feel that they will be read as demands which won't go over well). My goal is more to layout a very clear picture of where Swordsmen want to go and then harp on the devs about the details when I get the opportunity to do so. Kind of a top-down approach.

StGabe.