Hey all, I’m just here trying to pass some time on the forums while the servers are down. So there’s no better time to talk about the current class imbalance within the Swordsmen class. The gist of the problem is that right now Highlander and Barbarian are so powerful that playing any other swordsman subclass is pointless. In this thread I’m going to outline what the problem is and hopefully suggest some good ways to balance the class. I’ll also talk about the normal-powered Swordsman classes, since some of them have weird build paths or are forced to waste SP.
Part 1: Why are Highlander/Barb OP?
The short answer is their damage output. The most problematic skills are Cartar Stroke, Helm Chopper and Seism. Lets talk for a minute about Cartar Stroke. It’s a charge-up strike-type skill, similar to Cataphract’s Earth Wave. Except the former hits four times instead of one, has a lower CD and the ability to be used twice per CD. So why is a Circle 4 skill being completely outclassed by a Circle 2 one?
Helm Chopper is another example. Not only is it’s base damage very high, it hits twice per cast, and also has Overheat. Meaning the damage you do is essentially multiplied by four. None of the current C3, C4 or C5 skills compare to it, except Seism. Seism is another low-CD, high-damage skill with overheat. The only skill with similar power is Hoplite’s Stabbing, but it’s single use on a 40s cooldown, and can be interrupted.
The long and short of it is that these classes can be constantly spamming crazy-damage skills while the other classes either have long CD’s, charge times or lower damage (often all three!)
Part 2: Cataphracts
Cataphract is a class with some problems. Firstly, it is not explained at all that certain skills can’t be used while riding. You can use Wagon Wheel, but not Cartar Stroke. And you can use Helm Chopper, but not Cleave. And since you can’t use Shield attacks + taunt without a Shield, it leaves very limited build paths when creating a Cataphract, particularly in C2. And the damage of most of your skills is invalidated by Cartar Stroke. Finally, the HP buff you receive from mounting is removed every time you rest (to recover health) and when changing maps. Right now a Cataphract player has no idea what classes to pick because who knows if they are even usable on a mount?
Part 4: What can we do?
So what can we do to nerf their damage output? The most obvious answer is to remove the overheat from the aforementioned skills. But in truth, that isn’t really enough. Lv 5 Cartar Stroke shouldn’t hit harder than all the skills in the next 3 circles. It should really only need to hit once. Finally, the skills of rival classes could have some CD’s lowered or chargeups removed. That would help to balance everything out! Finally, some classes have very awkward build paths, so we should make some changes to give those classes real choices at lower levels.
Part 5: Practical Solutions
Ok, here is where I try and suggest practical changes to skills.
Swordsman
- Remove Concentrate’s max number of hits. (This is a quality of life change, making the skill a lot more usable and also indirectly buffs Corsairs. Could be a C2 attribute.)
- (C2) New Attribute, Shieldless Fighting: Adds 10% damage when fighting without a shield. (Makes Swordsman C2 actually an attractive option and gives classes like Cataphract, Corsair and Duelist a useful DPS C2 option.)
Highlander
- Two Handed Sword Mastery -> Two Handed Weapon Mastery, now affects all 2H weapons. (Once again gives Cataphracts a nice C2 option.)
- Cartar Stroke: Hits 1 time. (A big fat, needed nerf)
- Crossguard usable with all weapons (Gives another reason for Catas, Corsairs and Duelists to pick up Highlander.)
Barbarian
- Remove overheat on Helm Chopper + Seism. (Explained above. Cleave is left unchanged to give Barbarians a niche for good Slashing DPS, similar to Hoplite’s niche in Pierce)
Hoplite
- Stabbing CD reduced to 30s. (Hoplite’s Signature skill is barely useable compared to others.)
- Finestra buff timer set to max from Lv1. (Quality of life change, makes C1 Hoplite more attractive for Cataphracts and Rodeleros.)
- Finestra INT attribute changed to CON. (now attractive for CON Swordsmen as there are no INT Swordsmen. Also synergises with Finestra’s block rate increase.)
Cataphract
- All skills usable while riding (There could be some exceptions, but this makes skill builds infinitely easier for Cataphracts and doesn’t overpower them in the slightest)
- Charge-up removed from Steed Charge. (Why on earth does a skill like this have a chargeup, especially when Catas have Earth Wave which is nearly identical in function. Could potentially use a nerf to damage to compensate.)
Mounted Pet HP buff moved to a C2 attribute (Quality of life, now the extra HP is on all the time. Also making it C2 means people can’t take Cata just for the buff.)
So that’s the long and short of it. IMC, I hope you are inspired by this to make some positive changes! If anyone else has good suggestions I’ll edit them in. Everyone wants a balanced game, right?