Disclaimer
This is entirely my point of view and in no way represent IMC’s point of view (although I wish it does)
You may or may not agree with my point of view, but keep the discussion civil
The analysis
So far on many threads in the forums, this is the main debate point of people: whether swordmen are tank or DPS. After spending thoughts on this I would say that both are … wrong.
Swordmen are frontline fighters by default, if anything, I would call them VANGUARDS.
Let’s begin with the core identities of all classes to see what I mean:
Archer
From the first circle of archer you can see that this is the class that deal range DPS, with some CC and utilities. Why? Look at these skills:
- Swift step: offensive utility buff --> further expanded by later classes such as scout and falconer
- Multishot: heavy AoE nuke --> further expanded by classes such as ranger, sapper, fletcher and cannonneer
- Full draw: minor CC and debuff --> further expanded by classes such as wugushi, hunter, scout and rogue
- Oblique shot: spammable DPS nuke --> further expanded by classes such as ranger, fletcher and cannonneer
Cleric
Cleric can heal by default, but unlike other games, heal can be used to attack too. From the first circle we can already see that cleric offers a wide range of utility from defensive buffs and spells to offensive buffs, debuffs and damaging attack.
- Heal: defensive utility --> expanded by classes such as priest and plague doctor. Can be used as offensive as well --> expanded by krivis, druid, paladin etc
- Cure: same as heal
- Safety zone: defensive utility --> needed by all classes, but favor static fighting classes such as monk, dievdirby and krivis
- Deprotected zone: offensive debuff --> expanded by plague doctor, monk, bokor and sadhu etc.
Wizard
From first circle of wizard we can see that this is the AoE magic class with supportive buffs/debuffs and magic CC
- Energy bolt: single target DPS. But this is not expanded by any other classes except further circles of wizard.
- Lethargy: offensive debuff and support --> expanded by linker, chronomancer, thaumaturge etc
- Sleep: AoE magic CC --> expanded by cryomancer, psychokino and linker
- Earth quake: AoE nuke --> expanded by almost all wizard tree, except thaumaturge.
Swordman
Looking at first circle of swordmen, you can say that the identity of swordmen is to deal out constant DPS, couple with physical CC, and most importantly: the ability to withstand CC in battle (aka, vanguard)
- Thrust: spammable DPS --> expanded by highlander, barbarian, doppel, corsair and fencer
- Bash: melee physical CC --> expanded by rodelero and cataphract
- Gungho: offensive utility buff, with trade off --> expanded by doppel, shinobi and fencer
- Concentrate: offensive DPS buff --> expanded by all spammable DPS classes as above
- Pain barrier: this is what I think the identity of swordmen right here, resistant buff --> expanded and used by all swordman classes.
Now if you look at all those skills, NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING says that swordman is a tank.
After playing many classes in this game, I conclude that anyone can tank. Only peltasta have an edge over other because of swashbuckling.
If you don’t believe me, go to roxona construction east building and watch some archers faceroll on 5-6 black colifly. They dodge all the attacks. And as long as you can live, you can call that a tank.
The problem
Now back to the swordmen problem. So if swordmen is not designed to tank, but only to frontline, and all aspects of swordmen seem to be expanded out nicely, why do swordmen receive so much difficulties?
Well, let just blame it on the game design.
- First, with pain barrier, you can either build swordmen into frontline DPS that goes in, take damage and cause rampage on frontline (let just call this the JUGGERNAUT path) or you build swordman in to a tank that can shield damage for party (the commonly called TANK path)
- However, the problem is that pain barrier only helps against physical CC such as knock back, knock down and stagger. It leaves the majority of strong magical CC unchecked, such as sleep, freeze, lift, stun etc.
- To the next point, where end game mobs and players largely throw out magical CC, it renders swordmen impossible to build the JUGGERNAUT path, because when you get CC’ed, you don’t deal damage, you are just a meat bag. Thus swordmen are pigeon holed into building a tank
If you crunch enough number, swordmen DPS are actually not that bad, but they don’t get to deal it, they are busy dodging the magic CC thrown at them all day long.
The solutions and suggestions
The easy part
- Add attribute to pain barrier to allow resisting/nullifying/reduce magic CC duration and effect. It might not need to be 100% resistance, but should be at least reliable to allow swordmen to be a fearful force when charge toward enemies, not laughing stock.
- Add more range CC to mobs/bosses, AND make them throw the CC at range so that swordmen is more desired at higher levels to front line
The hard part
- Rework all maps mechanic so that it does not punish melee so harshly (I mean all mobs throw CC at melee range, wtf?)
- Rework mobs AI so that they should prioritize melee lure better, and don’t run away at max speed making melee classes unable to follow
- Add more resistant gears into the game.
And swordmen classes skills still need some balance tweaks, but I won’t go into those details as they are already cried out enough.
That is all