This is Part 2 of the guide. Part 1 of the guide covered the Balance Mechanic, Damage Mechanics, and Blade Enchant Mechanics.

Please post comments / feedback / tips, contributors will be credited as the guide is updated (e.g. contributed by Gumby).

4. DoT Tactic Mechanics

Each of the DoT (Damage over Time) tactics is listed below, with associated pros and cons:

• each “+” is a pro
• each “-” is a con
• italics are subjective comments

Centuries of Training

+ Spirit damage
– damage is not increased with Strength and Melee Power
– damage is not increased with mastery points
– ticks can’t crit
– 1st tick @ 1 sec, 2 more @ 1 sec intervals
+ not tied to a single ability
+ can proc on multiple targets via AOEs
– seems to have a lower proc rate than PE, for whatever reason, even though both should be 25% from the tooltips

Deep Incision (DI)

– physical damage
+ damage is increased with Strength and Melee Power
+ damage is increased with mastery points in Khaine tree
+ ticks can crit
– 1st tick @ 2.5 sec, 3 more @ 2.5 sec intervals
– tied to a single ability (QI)
– single target only
– requires mastery point investment in Khaine tree

Ensorcelled Agony (EA)

+ Spirit damage
+ damage is increased with Strength and Melee Power
– damage is not increased with mastery points
+ ticks can crit
– 1st tick @ 1 sec, 4 more @ 1 sec intervals
– tied to a single ability (EB)
– single target only

Potent Enchantments (PE)

+ Spirit damage
– damage is not increased with Strength and Melee Power
– damage is not increased with mastery points
– ticks can’t crit
+ 1st tick immediately, 3 more @ 3 sec intervals
+ not tied to a single ability
+ can proc on multiple targets via AOEs
+ can re-proc on the same target prior to DoT expiration, resulting in immediate damage and refreshing of the 9s DoT duration

PE and CoT do not scale with stats (Strength and Melee Power), so a low-Strength SM will see a significant DPS boost by using DoT tactics, esp PE. On the flipside, EA and DI do scale with stats, so a high-Strength SM will get more bang from those tactics.

Multi-hit abilities, such as Ether Dance, Dragon’s Talon, Crashing Wave, and Whispering Wind, synergize well with PE, because each hit of the ability can re-proc PE, which causes an immediate DoT tick. In particular, ED and PE synergize superbly together because ED is a 5-hit ability, which means you can get up to 5 immediate PE ticks.

DI and EA can crit, so they synergize with the Balanced Accuracy tactic, which increases the SM’s crit rate.

Editor’s comment: I’ve performed damage testing with Tortall’s DPS Meter, and in a nutshell, PE and EA are very good, CoT sucks (typically accounts for half what PE or EA do), and while DI can offer some nice burst, it’s still 3rd fiddle.

5. Bubble and Healing Mechanics

SMs have several “damage absorption”abilities (aka bubble) available to them

• Phantom’s Blade Enchant: as discussed in the Blade Enchant Mechanics section, this enchant has a 25% chance of proc’ing a bubble
• Vaul’s Buffer (VB): Vaul mastery tactic. Points in the Vaul tree improve how much damage is absorbed. This bubble procs when an SM avoids an attack (block / parry / disrupt / evade). Therefore, VB synergizes with gear, abilities, and tactics that improve an SM’s avoidance, such as the Vaul mastery tactic Perfect Defenses and the base Khaine ability Wall of Darting Steel. VB can not re-proc while it is up, and after the bubble expires, VB will not re-proc for at least 3 seconds
• Protection of Hoeth (PoH): Hoeth mastery ability with a 10 second cooldown. Points in the Hoeth tree improve how much damage is absorbed. This ability is popular with SMs not only for the bubble, but because it enables an SM to progress to Improved Balance without a target
• Bladeshield:  Rank 3 morale ability that absorbs up to 3600 damage and reflects 600 damage per attack while the bubble is up
• Shield of Valor: Rank 4 Vaul mastery ability that provides a group bubble

SMs have 2 Hoeth mastery tactics that provide self-healing ability:

• Blessing of Heaven: adds a debuff on the target that causes attackers to gain a mild 3-second HoT (heal over time)
• Bolstering Enchantments: provides a weak HoT on the group

6. Crowd Control Mechanics

WAR’s crowd control (CC) includes interrupts, silences, snares (movement debuffs), roots, knockbacks (aka punts), and knockdowns.

Compared to the other 5 WAR tank classes, SM has fewer built-in CC abilities.

All tanks have the following CC abilities

• Taunt: this acts as an interrupt, which means it cancels any abilities that are being cast or channeled
• 30 foot radius AOE root: the SMs version of this is called Aethyric Grasp
• single-target snare: the SMs version is called Quick Incision, which reduces the target’s movement for 10 seconds
• Champion’s Challenge: rank 1 morale ability that roots the SM and target for 10 seconds

All SMs have the following class-specific CC:

• Gusting Wind (GW): this is an AOE knockback with a 10 second cooldown. The ability has tremendous utility in terms of offense and defense. Offensively, it can be used to punt opponents back into friendly lines, off cliffs / walls, or out of line-of-sight of their healers. Defensively, GW can be used to punt enemy meleers off an ally, to create a gap between the SM and enemies, or to interrupt opponents

SMs can opt for the following class-specific CC:

• Whispering Wind (WW): Hoeth mastery ability that silences the target for 5 seconds
• Crushing Advance (CA): Vaul mastery ability that interrupts the target. Requires a shield to be equipped
• Crashing Wave (CW): Vaul mastery ability that knocks down the target for 3 seconds
• Whirling Geyser (WG): Khaine mastery rank 4 morale ability that is an AOE knockback
• Forceful Shock: trainable tactic that adds a knockback effect to Blurring Shock (BS). Note that many SMs feel this is a poorly-designed effect, as the point of applying the BS debuff to a target is for focus-firing the target

That concludes Part 2 of the guide. Part 3 of the guide covers Avoidance and Mitigation Mechanics, PVP Tanking Mechanics, and PVE Tanking Mechanics.

Please post feedback / comments / questions.

This guide discusses the class mechanics for the Warhammer Online (WAR) Swordmaster (SM) class. If you want to understand how the class functions and its strengths and limitations, this is the guide for you.

This guide is broken up into several posts.

Please post comments / feedback / tips, contributors will be credited as the guide is updated (e.g. contributed by Gumby).

1. Balance Mechanic

The class mechanic for SM is Balance, and it affects which abilities are available for use at a given time.

As we use abilities, we “cycle” from Normal to Improved to Perfect Balance, and at each new balance, we have access to different abilities. Perfect Balance abilities tend to be powerful: they deliver high damage, trigger strong effects, and cost 0 Action Points (AP). For maximum AP efficiency, it’s important to use Perfect Balance abilities as often as possible. So you typically want to cycle through your balances:

Normal -> Improved -> Perfect -> Normal -> Improved -> Perfect

The balance mechanic (Career Resource) icon changes color based on balance, so you should see:

Blue -> Green -> Yellow -> Blue -> Green -> Yellow

Tip: move the balance mechanic to the middle of the screen, so you can see what balance you are currently in.

You can use a Normal balance ability at any time, and sometimes it is wise to do so, e.g. to get into Improved Balance to snare an opponent with Quick Incision. Some abilities can be used at any time and do not progress the Balance mechanic. E.g. Shatter Enhancement, Hold the Line, etc.

Several mastery tactics scale as we progress our balance:

• Balanced Accuracy (BA): adds +10% to critical hit chance in Improved Balance, +20% in Perfect Balance
• Perfect Defense (PD)s: add 5% to block and parry chance in Improved Balance, +10% in Perfect Balance
• Calming Winds (CW): adds +10% to disrupt chance in Improved Balance, +20% in Perfect Balance

Therefore, remaining in Perfect Balance for extended periods of time can be beneficial due to the way the above tactics work. E.g. an SM with PD or CW slotted can stay in Perfect Balance while closing the gap to enemies and have an avoidance buff. Sometimes it is worth waiting to use Shatter Enchantment until you are in Perfect Balance as BA affects it (contributed by: CorumSM).

The SM Balance is what it is. You either like it or you don’t. Some SMs (and Black Orcs, who have the same mechanic) feel it is too limiting. It feels natural to me now, and I have a Hoeth mastery ability Protection of Hoeth (PoH), which enables me to get into Improved Balance without a target. The Balance mechanic allows me to get into a rhythm, and I plan out the next full cycle before even executing it.

2. Damage Mechanics

To play SM effectively, it’s critical to understand our Spirit damage mechanics.

SMs deal 2 types of damage:

• Spirit damage
• Physical damage: from auto attacks, some Khaine abilities, and some Vaul abilities

SMs have no way to debuff armor (aside from the Rank 1 morale ability Demolishing Strike).  Therefore, the damage from our physical attacks varies based on the armor of the opponent. That’s not a good thing.

The advantages of Spirit damage are:

• Destruction players do not typically stack Spirit resistance
• Resistances have a diminishing returns (DR) cap at 40%, after which resistance tails off
• We have 2 abilities that debuff Spirit resistance, which enables our Spirit damage abilities to hit harder

Those 3 points combined enable an SM to hit a target hard, without a lot of damage being mitigated.

To debuff a target’s Spirit resistance, we have 2 abilities:

• the Hoeth base ability Wrath of Hoeth (WoH), which is an AOE Spirit debuff
• the blade enchant Heaven’s Blade, which debuffs all resistances

WoH is an on-demand Improved Balance ability. The ability has a high AP cost (55) and doesn’t deal much damage, but the Spirit debuff lasts 20 seconds. Heaven’s Blade is discussed in the next section.

As a side effect of SM class mechanics favoring Spirit damage, most SMs do not bother stacking the stat Weapon Skill (WS). We don’t benefit as much from the armor penetration aspect of WS as other classes that deal primarily physical damage (e.g. White Lions, Ironbreakers, etc).

3. Blade Enchant Mechanics

SMs can use 1 of 3 blade enchants on their weapon, each with different capabilities:

• Nature’s Blade (NB): this is an AOE stat stealer. When it procs, you reduce a random stat (Str, WS, Tou, Init, Int, or WP) on an opponent and buff yourself with it for 10 seconds. The buff also applies to your group mates. You can have multiple stat steal buffs up concurrently
• Phantom’s Blade (PB): this is a bubble enchant. When it procs, you have a bubble that lasts up to 10 seconds and absorbs a moderate amount of damage
• Heaven’s Blade (HB): this is a resistances debuffer. When it procs, all resistances of your target are reduced for 10 seconds. This is very helpful for focus-firing targets

A blade enchant has a 25% chance of proc’ing from auto attack or any ability, with the exception of Throw. Both single- and multi-target abilities can proc this.

Therefore, if you want to maximize the number of blade enchant procs, you can:

• AOE multiple targets
• use multi-hit Perfect Balance abilities
• use a sword with a faster speed, to get more auto attacks in

You can “re-proc” a blade enchant when it it’s effect is already up. What effect re-proc’ing has depends on which enchant you are using:

• if NB re-procs, you steal a different stat. If you have every stat stolen, nothing happens
• if PB re-procs, the existing bubble is unchanged (i.e. you don’t get a new bubble for a full 10 seconds)
• if HB re-procs, the existing resistances debuff is unchanged (i.e. you don’t reset the timer to 10 seconds)

That concludes Part 1 of the guide. Part 2 of the guide covers DoT Tactic Mechanics, Bubble and Healing Mechanics,  and Crowd Control Mechanics.

Please post feedback / comments / questions.