Swordmaster GF

kaiuscormere

I have been using this since it came out on my GF, 18.3k GS, Conqueror style. The primary thing I miss from the Iron Vanguard is Frontline Surge. Also there's Trample the Fallen, but I didn't even always have that slotted. I didn't use Threatening Rush either, generally opting in favor of Cleave/Tide of Iron when I was Iron Vanguard.

The main value of Swordmaster is Steel Defense, a 5 second invulnerability on use of any daily. A secondary value in Swordmaster is Weapon Master Strike which is less damage than Cleave but buffs Cleave, and has a wider arc which is situationally nice.

At first it was hard to adapt to tanking without Frontline, but now that i've gotten used to playing without it, I can STILL keep aggro on everything, but I can't get over how amazing Steel Defense is. I can sometimes use a daily 3 times in 30 seconds, staying invulnerable during almost every period of heavy damage. Blocking builds your daily power FAST, and then you can go into Villain's Menace and get immune to all damage and crowd control, or go into Crescendo and...get immune to all damage and crowd control.

I feel tankier with Swordmaster path, ironically, although I had to adapt to having less CC to offer. Anyway, basically I made this thread to recommend to others to try it out, or to hear from anyone else who has tried it out.

laichin1979

Can you post your build. Am interested to see how you make this effective. I have been considering changing to swordmaster. But am warry of the lack of two of my main skills:

Threatening rush, and frontline.

I currently have a mainly dps focussed build and don't want to lower my dps really, how bad is the decrease in dps? I am wondering what skills you use and which feats you opted for. Frontline was also a big AP gain, so how do you manage to get 3 dailies per 30 sec?

kaiuscormere

I have max Con and Dex, Flaming enchant (although plaguefire would probably be optimal, the point of which is triggering Rampaging Madness boon extremely quickly. I get 30+ stacks from a single Enforced Threat).

I'm also using Thunderhead enchant for armor, and it's supposedly pretty high threat, although I can't really define it. I have the Dread Warrior and Rust Monster pet abilities, along with a Ioun Stone of Radiance, and a couple pets that really don't make much impact.

I use Q : Lunging Strike, E: Enforced Threat, and R: Anvil of Doom.
Left Click is Cleave, Right Click is Weapon Master.
Daily 1 is Villain's Menace, Daily 2 is Crescendo.
Passive are Steel Defence and Combat Superiority.
Artifact is the Waters.

I'm feated 21 Conqueror/10 Protector.

Stats:
8,697 Power
800 Critical
510 Armor Pen (this needs to go up)
2,497 Recovery
4,066 Defense
2,752 Deflect
1,023 Regeneration
557 Life Steal




The fastest way to build daily power is to block tons of damage - at the right time, you basically get an instantly full daily. You lose about half your block meter to get a full daily. When you do get your daily charged, you want to stop blocking because you don't really need your shield to be gone, and then either use the daily immediately if you are surrounded by nonstop damage, or wait until you charge into a fresh pack.

I just Q into the pack, press E, burn daily, right click for WMS buff, then cleave or keep right clicking, when immune wears off I block, mixing in R for executing enemies/single target damage. Tab on a boss or on something annoying like a Fomorion.

For PvP, i swap Bull Charge in for Enforced Threat. For some PvE boss fights where i'm just dealing with adds only I swap on Into the Fray for Anvil of Doom.

tiffairik

laichin1979 wrote: »

Can you post your build. Am interested to see how you make this effective. I have been considering changing to swordmaster. But am warry of the lack of two of my main skills:

Threatening rush, and frontline.

I currently have a mainly dps focussed build and don't want to lower my dps really, how bad is the decrease in dps? I am wondering what skills you use and which feats you opted for. Frontline was also a big AP gain, so how do you manage to get 3 dailies per 30 sec?

i have 2 gf one is IV tactician and SM conq.... so far i really enjoy playing with SM gf, dps loss? i dont think so, i like the steel defence passive but if you want to go full dps SM is a good choice too as you also have steel blitz (chance to atk twice the more mobs u hit ) to add with combat sup given the t2 dungeon design with weapon mster strike (large aoe at will that buffs other at will) plus cleave, dps is quite insane added also when u have a control wiz using arcane singularity lol, so far for me the only con is you lose 1cc(frontline surge) skill, i use lunging(nc aoe for more chance of steel blitz), enforced threat, and into the fray i usually get to top 1-3 paingiver pug party though lol and i use knightcapt armor(+60% ally power) c15k gs conq, ioun stone and lesser bronzewood

laichin1979

I currently follow a fairly similar build but then in IV. I soooo agree with your enchants. I currently still have soulforge but will be swapping to thunderhead too I think and I have a PF, still lesser for now, but it works a treat with madness.

I presume you use Action surge and Improved vigor feats for added AP? Do you try build up as much Guard as possible? Like shield talent or via boons?

kaiuscormere

Actually Laichin my feats were more oriented around damage, as I really only became used to this playstyle after playing with it for a while. But I do think that if I respec I will pick up Improved Vigor (I have the Temp HP one right now and it's not really doing anything for me). Action Surge is also good, I don't know if I could make room for all 5 points in it though