No. As Catar Stroke lv increase. It cast time also increases which is detrimental. You only need lv3 for its attribute. The skill is always a 4-hits skill
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Cross guardâs stagger debuff allows + 100% pierce damage so thrust, embowel and punish. Also take a quick look as zuckens sp cost (as well as the jump between levels) ⌠now look at the rest of your skills sp cost⌠. Mordschlag (+ attribute) will always crit cloth enemies which is always nice. Punish is gonna get buffed to be an aoe skill if you saw the swordsman rank 8 announcement. Embowel, vertical slash and stomping kick recently got a damage buff in kToS which weâll probably get at a later date. Finally wagon wheel is another cc for just 1 point but it has a much better than swordman 1 bash.
Just some food for thought.
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wtf is that sp cost o.o is not worth lvl Zucken?
is better up Punish and Mordschlag then Zornhau, Zucken and Redel?
point to note is that in ktos casting time is reduced by 50%, iâd still not get cartor stroke to lvl 15 though because cross cut and skyliner are still much better. i wouldnât lvl cross guard more than 5 as well for pve purposes, its more of a pvp thing combined with other classes.
do not skip zornhau zucken and redel, they are very strong, so is cyclone and DoV, i would put 1-2 points into punish just because doppel 3 is getting an aoe attribute to punish looks really cool
replace the point from double pay earn for punish, double pay earn really isnât worth imo especially not at lvl 1.
DoV is really worth?
This, plus we donât need more Barbarians, iâm enough. 
I donât think Barbarian is terrible. Theyâre okay for the rank(s) you get them at. I just think that they deserve better buff abilities than they currently have.
I mean, the buffs should increase based on a % of physical attack or damage increase, not be flat or get the Concentrate treatment. The flat increase is good for skills that may have low base but hit a lot, but it would hardly be impactful on a future skill that has high base damage and low or no multiplier/multihit.
If the defense of mobs goes up exponentially by level 600 (presumably R10-R12 territory) to the point where the average mob defense is 2000-2500 and boss defense can be upwards to 3000-4000, its pretty clear the Highlander C3 will eventually be the best investment whereas Barb C3 will just continue to lose effectiveness by comparison.
If Warcry and Frenzy were %damage increase or appropriate %physical damage increase as opposed to a weird, small scaling of STR, Barb C3 would very likely remain relevant at higher levels.
IMC seems really scared of doing that, though⌠even though Swordsman suffer from the worst opportunity to attack enemies compared to other classes.
yes, this skill at rank 10 is amazing, iâd suggest building up to 20-25k hp for that.
They canât. That would make barbarian C3 TOO relevant, and a must pick n any swordsman build, effectively killing variety.
Barbarian is alright were it is. A Solo DPS class that by itself boost damage by a massive amount. If you want to make a offtank, barbarian is the way to go for damage that donât really depends on stats, same if you want to make a class that has bad base damage.
Itâs not that they canât.
If you look at Archer, of the DPS trees, it has the most variety.
You can choose to go Ranger C1-C3 for Steady Aim (which is % based), Archer C2 for Kneeling, C3 for improved Kneeling QS C3 for Running Shot (which is %-based), Sapper for Broom Trap AoE, Hunter for dropping flying units to the ground, etc.
Barbarian C3 is relevant now, but later on when higher ranks are available, its going to be common to simply pick Highlander C3 for stronger Cross Guard, Skull Swing and Vertical Slash.
Archerâs Ranger C1-C3 remain relevant at higher levels, but you still have choices like what was already mentioned. Itâs because the % increases and uptime from Ranger do make a difference, but not in such a way that make other picks seem completely sub-par.
They could do the same with Barbarian, along with buffing/rebalancing other trees in Swordsman⌠but IMC is afraid of doing that for some odd reason ^o.o^
Sharing my exp since Iâve both tried High3 and Barb3. Currently my main is Sw-High-Barb3-Doppel2
Highlander is more of a party class, and Barbarian is more of a solo class. Highlander is known for its utility since it has many debuffs, while Barbarian is more of an AOE class that can boost its own damage. IMO, Barbarian will outdps Highlander most of the time since not all bosses can bleed. Pouncing alone is a beast. Only time a Highlander will outdps a Barb is when bosses can bleed, because Skyliner is a beast as well. But Highlander skills will scale much more later in the game when higher levels are released thus will stay much more relevant than Barbarianâs skill. Highlander skills will support later ranks much better than Barbarian. But itâs really up to your preference which style you like best since you canât go wrong with both, both are great choices for a Doppel focused build.
Oh btw, Frenzy just got buffed with STR scaling. though stacking with AA is a chore, it will boost your damage significantly, specially at later levels when you are planning to build a High STR Doppel.
So, this is the thing, itâs not about which one is better but whatâs your main purpose with that class. Highlander3 as iâve seen, has low to no chance on PvP, but itâs a beast on PvE, and as @xinronyr said, H3 just gets stronger later on.
On the other hand, we have Barbarian3, which grants 2 almost â90% stunsâ for PvP + Pouncingâs knockdown which helps alot not just on Battle league but GvG. FPS drop is a THING, and sometimes Pouncing is a better choice to use than Cyclone, since you can dash at a faster speed than cyclone specially if you fight wiz,archers and some noob clerics.
But thatâs it, youâre not gonna be GOD MLG420 with frenzy10 and warcry10, itâs a nice boost if you lack of damage but most of it comes from attributes at the end of the day.
TL;DR:
Highlander3 = PvE Beast
Barbarian3 = PvP Beast
still waiting for -50% casting time for catar stroke from ktos patch 
Even with -50% casting time I think that skill is not that great, scale really poorly by level 
Swordman is pretty bad on pvp , only Cata and Rodel does something , other classes are useless.
level 1-3 Cartar already does the thing. They should fix the damage scale on that skill.
DoV will be usefull if I have âlowâ str? I intend to put 150-200 DEX 50-100 CON and the rest in STR.
yes itâll still be useful but youâll have harder time to stack it since youâll be dodging more often, unless you plan to use lapasapes.
Dov scale with your P.attack, imo for raw dmg str will always be better with 2handers, dex bring you more survavility and critical rate.
Pd: how come cleave debuff will not âworkâ with the upcoming doppel debuff?.