Depends on what your goal is i guess. I still like to play my SW, Always have and always will. But then again i am not gunning to be super duper dps, i enjoy my hellbringer-temptation personalised build immensly.
Will that lock me out of content in the high end ? Perhaps so. I play for the entertainment and assisting others, i dont have to see every act of the show.
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adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
Well, SWs and TRs are that classes that really could use some attention and improvements. DCs got an overhaul not so long ago, with the final result that the class is decent in solo play, and both paragons have different, but equally viable end-game builds.
Changes for SWs have been announced, but they don't seem quite as extensive - still, they are not final, so there is room for improvement. I recommend participating in that discussion and try to convince them to do something similar to the SWs as they did for the DCs.
Until then, personally, I am leaving my SW at home.
Well, SWs and TRs are that classes that really could use some attention and improvements. DCs got an overhaul not so long ago, with the final result that the class is decent in solo play, and both paragons have different, but equally viable end-game builds.
Changes for SWs have been announced, but they don't seem quite as extensive - still, they are not final, so there is room for improvement. I recommend participating in that discussion and try to convince them to do something similar to the SWs as they did for the DCs.
Until then, personally, I am leaving my SW at home.
Problem with Cryptic, no offense, is that their module is scheduled and they have to create content, so they ignore most of the class balance and put a small rework from time to time just to say "we're here".
Not only SW and TR are in a huge need of reworks, but also GWF, and a very very big rework. Already hearing GWF haters yeah, but it's not because a class looks like is working well that it's fine.
SW when they came out were fairly well balanced and all paths were decent and had a viable role. But and it's a big BUTT, that's when life steal as a build was still functioning, while it kept the SW balanced, it unbalanced the other classes. Other classes were stacking life steal to the point they didn't need heals and left DC out of content, even so bad that they were building all melee groups 4 GWF/GF etc.
To "fix" this, Cryptic did what it usually does, pulled out the nerf bat, beat the offending thing to a bloody pulp, pushed it into a shallow grave, brushed hands together and says "we are monitoring it, will revisit it when needed", kicks one more bit of dust over it, moves on.
They don't monitor it, they kick a much dented and rusted can further down a dusty deserted path.
The only viable path after that for a SW was the pet buff path. A class intended to curse and leech and vampire it's way out of hell, to party with ghouls, give liche kings pause, have a cold refreshing drink with minions of hell.... now buff up a pet, stand behind it and throw limp-wristed ranged at-wills and more potent threats-to-steal-makeup-cases encounters, have snit fit dailies.
One path viable out of 3, life steal never fixed for a class DEPENDENT on it for the other 2. (read the skills on those paths....vampiric....leech.....curse....all LS triggered. LS is now a proc. You got to get real deep into LS to get it to proc near consistantly enough to be effective)
So as to your question, if you aren't on the pet path you are already behind the ball, respec. 12b-13? Its looking like a GWF/GW/DC fest this time, everyone else go home. If you don't have some GWF/GF friends to "carry" you then yes, I would advise you go into a holding pattern. Do weeklies and log, if you don't have the skirm/dungeon list all opened. If you do have them opened, do one random que and log.
The chult stuff isn't for squishies without a GWF/GW carry, SW without the pet is too squishy. The RQ over engineering is leaking like a seave, barring one "endurance" of it they leeched the fun out of it as well.
A lot of the SWs on the forums and reddit seem to think that by constantly complaining that they are so weak they couldn't pop a balloon that the devs will give them a heroic feat for 50/100/200/350/500% dps boost and another that puts them at the top of the paingiver chart
It seems that even if they got that they'd complain about having to put points in them
Don't let the noise influence your class decision
If you enjoy playing SW, play it... work on your build and refine up your gear while trying to be the best SW in the game
I don't know about "most" SW. I have all the classes to L70 and actually play them. I feel I play them fairly well. Not looking for leader board, just day to day competence. I played SW from intro. Until they nerfed LS, SW worked right and decent.
The few cosmetic tweeks since then, has never addressed that lack since. They have never had a overhaul to fix the problems with SW, the other class fixes have only made the lack in the SW even worse.
Don't know about the other SW wanting a 50-500% dps boost. I don't, I do want it to work right though. If you have 2 paths that don't work on a class because the game function they depend on to work don't, there is a problem.
A couple of the other classes have a path that is weak or under utilized, but not 2 broken as bad as SW.
Reading those skills and as how they were "intended " to work and how they "actually" don't, is depressing to me.
I play the other classes as well, yes they have some problems as well. Some pretty glaring lacks in fact. Some recently have at least a half hearted attempt to do something about it (true, some mere window dressing).
But the SW is the orphan child in the cellar, only let out at night to clean the shop and eat the table scraps.
Cryptic: "NEVER discuss the SW! We don't have a filthy SW in our house! Why would you even think we have a SW? They are filthy disgusting things, we would NEVER allow such trash in OUR house! You must have imagined you saw one here, are you feeling well? Do we need your eyes looked after?"
Guest:"Well maybe I didn't see one, maybe you are right and I imagined one." *thinking* well this shop is awfully clean, no table scraps around,,,,do I smell a whiff of brimstone? why would I smell that here?
I am a SW and run multiple character slots, DSP - Hell Bringer Fury, Healing & buffing - Hell Bringer Temptation, Survivability - Hell Bringer Damnation (my Soul Puppet tanks for me taking all the aggro - quite fun) and finally DPS - Soul Binder Fury (while the DPS is strong it aint nowhere near HB at the moment but have it in case they fix this path).
The thing about SW is they are hella fun to play with many variant dimensions and ways to play, we can do massive DPS if played & specc'ed correctly and I comfortable doing the end-game content @ IL12.6k
The problem though is that to do DPS we sacrifice a ton of survivability but we have have a way to counter this - sheer speed in and out of danger, Shadow Slip is the answer here, you are immune for a brief period and can seriously move quickly out of danger (we can easily keep pace with a GWF when they are sprinting at pace).
Keep with it and learn which class features to switch before, during and after battle i.e. Dark One's Blessing helps keep you alive by boosting LS chance and severity, Prince of Darkness boosts your armpen and LS, No Pity No Mercy boost at will dps by 50% and the most important (always keep slotted) All Consuming Curse - curses everyone and everything as attacking a non-cursed target is pointless as I am sure you know by now.
I have a CW, GF & SW as my three "mains" and quite frankly find the SW the most fun and engaging to play - CW, basically standstill, freeze stun and watch everyone die = boring, GF - tank for the team, can be fun but ultimately dull and boring IMO - so essentially my main now is SW.
Remember you don't always need to top the pain giver charts - I have no problem coming 2nd or third in these ranks but out healing a DC by millions
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rifter1969Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 516Arc User
I too play a SW as my main... Hellbringer-Fury. Currently sitting at 12.6k TIL. Am I doing top damage? Depends.... on who I'm running content with. If I'm running content with my alliance, then no.. but I usually am in the top 3 for DPS.
If I'm solo'ing and doing dungeons, I can be top in paingiver. My alliance ran nDemo last weekend. And out of 10 alliance member I was #4 in total DPS.
As a few mentioned above, its all how you spec the character and how you play.
Mine is built for damage AND survivability. So, I do suffer a loss in DPS, but.. the way I look at it, if i dont have to keep being rez'ed or releasing and be using that time to do dmg... so much the better.
So as someone above said, play what you like how you like.
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,223Arc User
Cryptic is changing SW in mod 13. So, there will be something new to learn when that happens. Meanwhile, I will continue to play my toons (including SW). There are always room for improvement. I don't see a reason for me not to play it.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
Well - I would agree that they are a fun class to play, and I enjoyed playing my SW, but she has now with the recent changes been placed into retirement. The reasons 1) I have finished all the solo content in the game 2) The recent changes resulted in a drop of about 40% dps for my build, 3) At IL 15K plus with a full set of Rank 13 Bondings stones, and Full Rank 12 offence/defence stones, Full Archon companions set and siege master etc. other classes that only have Rank 9 to 10 will outperform my SW. For me the class is not viable for end game play - especially as a dps role. As an example my HR IL12K will out DPS my SW.
But they are fun to play - so its up to you
My opinion if you only play one toon, and you want to play a dps one; there are more reliable classes to play
From the what I have read so far the welcome improvements in mod 13 wont imo really fix the class. But that just my opinion
Comments
Will that lock me out of content in the high end ? Perhaps so. I play for the entertainment and assisting others, i dont have to see every act of the show.
Changes for SWs have been announced, but they don't seem quite as extensive - still, they are not final, so there is room for improvement. I recommend participating in that discussion and try to convince them to do something similar to the SWs as they did for the DCs.
Until then, personally, I am leaving my SW at home.
Not only SW and TR are in a huge need of reworks, but also GWF, and a very very big rework. Already hearing GWF haters yeah, but it's not because a class looks like is working well that it's fine.
To "fix" this, Cryptic did what it usually does, pulled out the nerf bat, beat the offending thing to a bloody pulp, pushed it into a shallow grave, brushed hands together and says "we are monitoring it, will revisit it when needed", kicks one more bit of dust over it, moves on.
They don't monitor it, they kick a much dented and rusted can further down a dusty deserted path.
The only viable path after that for a SW was the pet buff path. A class intended to curse and leech and vampire it's way out of hell, to party with ghouls, give liche kings pause, have a cold refreshing drink with minions of hell.... now buff up a pet, stand behind it and throw limp-wristed ranged at-wills and more potent threats-to-steal-makeup-cases encounters, have snit fit dailies.
One path viable out of 3, life steal never fixed for a class DEPENDENT on it for the other 2. (read the skills on those paths....vampiric....leech.....curse....all LS triggered. LS is now a proc. You got to get real deep into LS to get it to proc near consistantly enough to be effective)
So as to your question, if you aren't on the pet path you are already behind the ball, respec. 12b-13? Its looking like a GWF/GW/DC fest this time, everyone else go home. If you don't have some GWF/GF friends to "carry" you then yes, I would advise you go into a holding pattern. Do weeklies and log, if you don't have the skirm/dungeon list all opened. If you do have them opened, do one random que and log.
The chult stuff isn't for squishies without a GWF/GW carry, SW without the pet is too squishy. The RQ over engineering is leaking like a seave, barring one "endurance" of it they leeched the fun out of it as well.
My 2 copper pieces.
It seems that even if they got that they'd complain about having to put points in them
Don't let the noise influence your class decision
If you enjoy playing SW, play it... work on your build and refine up your gear while trying to be the best SW in the game
The few cosmetic tweeks since then, has never addressed that lack since. They have never had a overhaul to fix the problems with SW, the other class fixes have only made the lack in the SW even worse.
Don't know about the other SW wanting a 50-500% dps boost. I don't, I do want it to work right though. If you have 2 paths that don't work on a class because the game function they depend on to work don't, there is a problem.
A couple of the other classes have a path that is weak or under utilized, but not 2 broken as bad as SW.
Reading those skills and as how they were "intended " to work and how they "actually" don't, is depressing to me.
I play the other classes as well, yes they have some problems as well. Some pretty glaring lacks in fact. Some recently have at least a half hearted attempt to do something about it (true, some mere window dressing).
But the SW is the orphan child in the cellar, only let out at night to clean the shop and eat the table scraps.
Cryptic: "NEVER discuss the SW! We don't have a filthy SW in our house! Why would you even think we have a SW? They are filthy disgusting things, we would NEVER allow such trash in OUR house! You must have imagined you saw one here, are you feeling well? Do we need your eyes looked after?"
Guest:"Well maybe I didn't see one, maybe you are right and I imagined one." *thinking* well this shop is awfully clean, no table scraps around,,,,do I smell a whiff of brimstone? why would I smell that here?
The thing about SW is they are hella fun to play with many variant dimensions and ways to play, we can do massive DPS if played & specc'ed correctly and I comfortable doing the end-game content @ IL12.6k
The problem though is that to do DPS we sacrifice a ton of survivability but we have have a way to counter this - sheer speed in and out of danger, Shadow Slip is the answer here, you are immune for a brief period and can seriously move quickly out of danger (we can easily keep pace with a GWF when they are sprinting at pace).
Keep with it and learn which class features to switch before, during and after battle i.e. Dark One's Blessing helps keep you alive by boosting LS chance and severity, Prince of Darkness boosts your armpen and LS, No Pity No Mercy boost at will dps by 50% and the most important (always keep slotted) All Consuming Curse - curses everyone and everything as attacking a non-cursed target is pointless as I am sure you know by now.
I have a CW, GF & SW as my three "mains" and quite frankly find the SW the most fun and engaging to play - CW, basically standstill, freeze stun and watch everyone die = boring, GF - tank for the team, can be fun but ultimately dull and boring IMO - so essentially my main now is SW.
Remember you don't always need to top the pain giver charts - I have no problem coming 2nd or third in these ranks but out healing a DC by millions
Am I doing top damage? Depends.... on who I'm running content with.
If I'm running content with my alliance, then no.. but I usually am in the top 3 for DPS.
If I'm solo'ing and doing dungeons, I can be top in paingiver.
My alliance ran nDemo last weekend. And out of 10 alliance member I was #4 in total DPS.
As a few mentioned above, its all how you spec the character and how you play.
Mine is built for damage AND survivability. So, I do suffer a loss in DPS, but.. the way I look at it, if i dont have to keep being rez'ed or releasing and be using that time to do dmg... so much the better.
So as someone above said, play what you like how you like.
Meanwhile, I will continue to play my toons (including SW). There are always room for improvement. I don't see a reason for me not to play it.
But they are fun to play - so its up to you
My opinion if you only play one toon, and you want to play a dps one; there are more reliable classes to play
From the what I have read so far the welcome improvements in mod 13 wont imo really fix the class. But that just my opinion
Have fun playing whatever toon you decided upon
All the best