A breakdown of pros and cons for Merc/SM

[剑 圣]

Sorry about making multiple accounts, didn't know you can have asian characters, much prefer this way. You may delete that other thread and account with it, I'm not going to use anymore. Once again my apologies.





Since most of you people don't seem well informed. This is coming from a 10 month Warrior player so I think I shouldn't be that far off from truth.

This is pre-second job change, I haven't played that since.


PvE:

Swordmaster isn't actually consistent DPS, but burst, for the Physical path. Reason of that being most Physical tree moves are very low in attack power, long cooldown, and the fact that Swords have extremely low attack, would make Swordmaster do little damage in PvE. But it says deadly combos in the game description? They also said it's hard to use a paladin and easy to use a warrior. rolleyes:

But Linedrive and Infinity Edge more than covers up for it, this combination (Plus the 1.3x multiplier our debuff gives) becomes the most powerful burst in the whole game period (well until 2nd class change at least, which I'm quite sure about), if you debuff the enemy and get 6 hits off Linedrive and 5 hits off Infinity Edge finisher, with 4000 attack and 10000 critical you should take out one whole bar of hp on Apocalypse.

Hacking stance output is mediocre, but it's good for when you're out of skills to use, which can happen a good deal when you're on physical tree.


Wave Swordmaster is... still decent but I would say slightly more gimped than Physical. Moonlight Splitter is extremely powerful, but everything else isn't, one is situational (with the coming of moonlord it would change though, since you have Moon blade dance). Crescent Cleave is an amazing on Nest sized bosses, Especially if you have a FU to do Time Accel. with you. Just a reminder, you will have the lowest attack growth out of all the classes for Wave Swordmaster.





Swordmaster is more like jack of all trades. You can parry, have fast run speed, ranged/melee attacks for support(no matter which path you choose, the other path will be useful support skill still), have a very good debuff.


Mercenary there are not Magic/Physical/Hybrid so it will be short and simple: Mercenary have less DPS, but are better of a support class. This means that Mercenaries will have more of a easier time getting into sea dragon parties, but is generally less favoured in Manticore and Apocalypse. They are have more skills to use (unless SM is hybrid), especially since that their more powerful skills have only 30 seconds of cooldown time(Whirlwind/Circle bomber/Rolling Attack), where as Swordmaster only have one for each respective path(Unless you want to include hacking stance, which isn't as good DPS for 6 seconds).




PvP wise:

Swordmaster isn't the combo master at all. Acrobats, Mercenary, and arguably even Paladin have easier combos than Swordmasters. One big fact that makes Swordmasters less comboable is that we lack launchers and normal attack isn't knockdown attack, so it requires more work, less mistakes, and a better connection to combo as well. However, after you become good enough you can combo like other classes, it just takes more work and learning.

Mercenaries are not slow at all. Stomp is fairly fast, and most moves have superarmor at startup which makes them excellent at Clashing attacks with others. One example is circle swing, which gives you a considerable amount of it, and covers a wide area, useful for dodge roll punishes.

Personally, I believe that Swordmasters have a slightly less favoured matchup against Mercenaries (and melee classes in general), since it is a very lag depend class, and much more difficult to start up a combo than mercenaries.

For example Dashing Combo cannot link to any attack. Unlike what the description says, it only gives normal hitstun, but it is so short that the enemy can counterattack before you your animation finishes. Triple slash Sometimes doesn't link at all, the hitstun is terrible. On the other hand, any mercenary attack that hit you will make you stagger and turn into a deadly combo.

Some would say that swordmaster can roll cancel skills, that is true, but roll have cooldown and is easily punishable (typical case being that you circle swing when you see a swordmaster roll)and swordmaster may not be able to start up a combo every time due to his limited options.

I could go on really long compare Swordmasters and Mercenaries but I'll stop for now.



Swordmaster fairs better against ranged classes, like bowmaster, with the use of moonlight and eclipse as interrupt and generally faster startups. Most Swordmaster moves are in sweeping motion too, which makes it much easier for chasing.









TL;DR:

PvE: Swordmaster
PvP: Mercenary


...Or take a better class, generally speaking you can't go wrong with anything but warriors.

[Fiol]

Very interesting.

But what ya mean by 6 hits from Line Drive?

[剑 圣]

Originally Posted by Fiol

Very interesting.
But what ya mean by 6 hits from Line Drive?

On small humanoids it's usually 1~3 hits, on nest bosses like Manticore/Apocalypse you can score 6 hits. On normal bosses such as minotaurs (which are smaller than nests) , you CAN score 6 hits with the proper distance+angle. Same applies to the finisher for Infinity Edge.


As for pvp you can actually get 6 hits in if you do it on a corner, though I never pulled it off after they made some changes to it, which made 6 hits even on normal bosses kind of difficult(and you go through nest bosses...).

[Fiol]

Very interesting. I'll have few more questions to ya about class and game over all but don't have time now. Little treasure of this forum. <3

[Smasher]

Originally Posted by 剑 圣

Sorry about making multiple accounts, didn't know you can have asian characters, much prefer this way. You may delete that other thread and account with it, I'm not going to use anymore. Once again my apologies.

Swordmaster do little damage in PvE. But it says deadly combos in the game description?

Indeed, I guess someone should correct them too. Had it not been for that, I probably wouldn't have got so messed up in the head when trying to write my character introduction.

Though, I still don't understand the need to go over pvp when that isn't an option yet. None the less it gave the information I needed.
-Thanks.

[Vora]

Very detailed and thought out plus very informative, Thanks! =]

[Lil'Tortilla]

Originally Posted by 剑 圣

Swordmaster fairs better against ranged classes, like bowmaster, with the use of moonlight and eclipse as interrupt and generally faster startups. Most Swordmaster moves are in sweeping motion too, which makes it much easier for chasing.

This is what happens to me. As a bowmaster I prefer fighting a merc or paladin over a swordmaster. I just cant get far enough!! Their atks are so fast and those sweeping motion skills always get me when trying to get away from them. When I finaly get far enough (by using ankle shot or another skills) they start using line drive or moonlight and they interupt my atk. That new moonlord skill doesnt help eighter (that skill where they jump and start slashing). It's like fighting an acrobat, you just cant get them off you.

so... any tips on how I should fight a Swordmaster as a Bowmaster?

[Kiyoshirou]

Paladin is always been a victim to every ranged characters. Sad story, but true.

[Vora]

A good Paladin tho, can fend off armies. And, a good SM can destroy them lol.

[剑 圣]

Originally Posted by Lil'Tortilla

This is what happens to me. As a bowmaster I prefer fighting a merc or paladin over a swordmaster. I just cant get far enough!! Their atks are so fast and those sweeping motion skills always get me when trying to get away from them. When I finaly get far enough (by using ankle shot or another skills) they start using line drive or moonlight and they interupt my atk. That new moonlord skill doesnt help eighter (that skill where they jump and start slashing). It's like fighting an acrobat, you just cant get them off you.

so... any tips on how I should fight a Swordmaster as a Bowmaster?

On the brighter side none of Swordmaster moves have any decent superamor or invul (other than deepstright which is really short), as long as you don't get hit by eclipse you'd be fine.