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Sword and Shield Skill Line Underused Morph Suggested Changes
MindOfTheSwarm
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There are some morphs in Sword and Shield that are just too good to not pick. As such I have some suggested changes to make the alternative morphs more appealing and choices harder for players.
Ultimate: Shield Wall: No change.
Spell Wall: Rename to Reflective Wall.
(Arrows are not spells).
Shield Discipline: No change.
Puncture: No change
Pierce Armor: No longer taunts.
(Controversial choice to remove the taunt and I thought about it long and hard, but having at least one morph not taunt is better. I chose this morph as it is the more 'damage' orientated of the two options).
Ransack: No longer grants Minor Protection. Instead inflicts Minor Maim on target hit.
(This morph granting a defensive buff makes no sense. It is an offensive move, 'thrust your weapon with disciplined precision'. Minor Maim makes more sense, you're taking the wind out of them. Furthermore, Minor Maim benefits the entire group, not just the tank).
Low Slash: No longer inflicts Minor Maim. Instead it applies Deep Slash slow baseline.
(Minor Maim removed because it is moved to Ransack. Slow bonus is so small it is not worth picking Deep Slash over Heroic Slash, moving it baseline gives the base ability more utility and frees up rework of Deep Slash).
Deep Slash: Also causes the target hit to Bleed for 5000 damage over 10 seconds. No longer affects multiple enemies.
(The picture literally has blood on the sword. Makes sense to make it have a Bleed effect and be the more offensive option.)
Heroic Slash: Now hits all enemies. The slow is increased to 40% for 5 seconds.
(Buffed the slow to compensate loss of Minor Maim. Minor Heroism remains untouched.)
Defensive Posture: The 10% block mitigation and block cost is now baseline.
(Buff to base skill, no reason this bonus should not be baseline.)
Defensive Stance: Now gives Minor Protection for 15 seconds and reflects 2 projectiles instead of one.
(Minor Protection is a defensive buff. Putting it here is a buff to an underused skill. 2 projectile reflects give it better utility and less spam requirement.)
Absorb Missile: Reworked into new morph. -- Aggressive Stance:
Become enraged, increasing your movement speed by 30% and gaining Minor Berserk for 20 seconds increasing your damage done by 5%. While this ability is slotted your bash attacks deal 10% more damage and cost 10% less.
Shielded Charge: No change
Shielded Assault: No change.
Invasion: Reworked into new morph. -- Battering Ram:
Knocks the enemy back. Damage increases the greater the distance travelled, up to 25%.
Power Bash: Damage increased. Becomes the Sword and Shield spammable.
(This skill is better served at focusing on raw damage with one morph helping tanks and the other helping more aggressive builds.)
Reverberating Bash: No longer stuns. Initial damage is drastically reduced. Enemy is afflicted with a small Physical DoT over 6 seconds. While this DoT is active, the enemy is afflicted with Major Maim reducing their damage done by 10%.
(Becomes a great tank tool and Major Maim is very useful once again benefitting the whole team, the time on the debuff is quite short however and the damage of the skill is reduced substantially for balance. Stun is unnecessary as Shielded Charge has it.)
Power Slam: Keeps the high base damage. No longer has resentment mechanic. Instead, after using Power Slam your next bash attack used within 1 second deals 20% more damage.
(This is the choice for players wanting raw damage and helps out bash builds by having bash attacks synergise with an ability while at the same time preventing bash spam as you will need to bash weave with this ability.)
Passives:
Fortress: No change
Sword and Board: Follow weapon bonus standard as in Dual Wield and Two Handed.
Equipping a sword increases your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 142.
Equipping a mace increases your Armor Penetration by 1650.
Equipping an axe increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing by 4%.
Equipping a dagger increases your Critical Chance rating by 812.
Equipping a shield increases the amount of damage you can block by 20%.
(This basically does the same thing, the only difference is that your weapon choice actually means something. Before anyone asks, no I am not suggesting equipping 2 shields should be allowed.)
Deadly Bash: No change
Deflect Bolts: No change
Battlefield Mobility: No change
* With the above changes you have actually buffed the entire skill line, making tank options even better and alternative options appealing for builds that already gain these bonuses from class skills or from builds that want a more damage focused Sword and Shield play style while not taking away the flavor of the skill line as a whole.
Edited by MindOfTheSwarm on April 21, 2021 7:16AM Ultimate: Shield Wall: No change.
Spell Wall: Rename to Reflective Wall.
(Arrows are not spells).
Shield Discipline: No change.
Puncture: No change
Pierce Armor: No longer taunts.
(Controversial choice to remove the taunt and I thought about it long and hard, but having at least one morph not taunt is better. I chose this morph as it is the more 'damage' orientated of the two options).
Ransack: No longer grants Minor Protection. Instead inflicts Minor Maim on target hit.
(This morph granting a defensive buff makes no sense. It is an offensive move, 'thrust your weapon with disciplined precision'. Minor Maim makes more sense, you're taking the wind out of them. Furthermore, Minor Maim benefits the entire group, not just the tank).
Low Slash: No longer inflicts Minor Maim. Instead it applies Deep Slash slow baseline.
(Minor Maim removed because it is moved to Ransack. Slow bonus is so small it is not worth picking Deep Slash over Heroic Slash, moving it baseline gives the base ability more utility and frees up rework of Deep Slash).
Deep Slash: Also causes the target hit to Bleed for 5000 damage over 10 seconds. No longer affects multiple enemies.
(The picture literally has blood on the sword. Makes sense to make it have a Bleed effect and be the more offensive option.)
Heroic Slash: Now hits all enemies. The slow is increased to 40% for 5 seconds.
(Buffed the slow to compensate loss of Minor Maim. Minor Heroism remains untouched.)
Defensive Posture: The 10% block mitigation and block cost is now baseline.
(Buff to base skill, no reason this bonus should not be baseline.)
Defensive Stance: Now gives Minor Protection for 15 seconds and reflects 2 projectiles instead of one.
(Minor Protection is a defensive buff. Putting it here is a buff to an underused skill. 2 projectile reflects give it better utility and less spam requirement.)
Absorb Missile: Reworked into new morph. -- Aggressive Stance:
Become enraged, increasing your movement speed by 30% and gaining Minor Berserk for 20 seconds increasing your damage done by 5%. While this ability is slotted your bash attacks deal 10% more damage and cost 10% less.
Shielded Charge: No change
Shielded Assault: No change.
Invasion: Reworked into new morph. -- Battering Ram:
Knocks the enemy back. Damage increases the greater the distance travelled, up to 25%.
Power Bash: Damage increased. Becomes the Sword and Shield spammable.
(This skill is better served at focusing on raw damage with one morph helping tanks and the other helping more aggressive builds.)
Reverberating Bash: No longer stuns. Initial damage is drastically reduced. Enemy is afflicted with a small Physical DoT over 6 seconds. While this DoT is active, the enemy is afflicted with Major Maim reducing their damage done by 10%.
(Becomes a great tank tool and Major Maim is very useful once again benefitting the whole team, the time on the debuff is quite short however and the damage of the skill is reduced substantially for balance. Stun is unnecessary as Shielded Charge has it.)
Power Slam: Keeps the high base damage. No longer has resentment mechanic. Instead, after using Power Slam your next bash attack used within 1 second deals 20% more damage.
(This is the choice for players wanting raw damage and helps out bash builds by having bash attacks synergise with an ability while at the same time preventing bash spam as you will need to bash weave with this ability.)
Passives:
Fortress: No change
Sword and Board: Follow weapon bonus standard as in Dual Wield and Two Handed.
Equipping a sword increases your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 142.
Equipping a mace increases your Armor Penetration by 1650.
Equipping an axe increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing by 4%.
Equipping a dagger increases your Critical Chance rating by 812.
Equipping a shield increases the amount of damage you can block by 20%.
(This basically does the same thing, the only difference is that your weapon choice actually means something. Before anyone asks, no I am not suggesting equipping 2 shields should be allowed.)
Deadly Bash: No change
Deflect Bolts: No change
Battlefield Mobility: No change
* With the above changes you have actually buffed the entire skill line, making tank options even better and alternative options appealing for builds that already gain these bonuses from class skills or from builds that want a more damage focused Sword and Shield play style while not taking away the flavor of the skill line as a whole.
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ealdwin✭✭✭✭✭
✭I have thought it a pity that S&B was reworked a while ago to have a significant part of its offensive capability removed from it. It shouldn't be as competitive dps-wise as 2H or DW, but the skill line should be able to do some dps. (Viable vs. optimal perhaps?). So in that regard, any change that helps provide offensive options for S&B is welcome in my mind.
I'm not entirely sold on Shield Bash being the spammable for the skill line. Might just be personal preference, but hitting someone with a shield seems an odd choice when the character is holding a perfectly good weapon in their other hand. Since you're suggesting the removal of the taunt from Pierce Armor, perhaps that could be reworked into the spammable for the skill line, freeing up Power Slam and its morphs to provide more utility?0 -
Draevik✭✭✭At first read, I didn't like your ideas,
but after seeing you just shuffled around some bonuses to other underutilized skills I like it.
I like the ideas on increased damage in the line to make it a viable option. You still wouldn't compete with specialized DPS builds but you would not be a wet noodle.
Although one more important change I would like to see.
Shields should have double the armor they currently have. With this new Heartland Conqueror set being released a defensive off-hand will have twice the armor... 2 defensive weapons or a 2h will have quadruple the amount! That is just plain silly.0 -
MindOfTheSwarm✭✭✭✭✭
✭At first read, I didn't like your ideas,
but after seeing you just shuffled around some bonuses to other underutilized skills I like it.
I like the ideas on increased damage in the line to make it a viable option. You still wouldn't compete with specialized DPS builds but you would not be a wet noodle.
Although one more important change I would like to see.
Shields should have double the armor they currently have. With this new Heartland Conqueror set being released a defensive off-hand will have twice the armor... 2 defensive weapons or a 2h will have quadruple the amount! That is just plain silly.
Shields having double the armor is a good idea. Another idea would be to have the Enchantments be worth more on a shield than a large body piece. Maybe 30% more. Would help out Prismatic Enchantment and be a boon to tanks.0 -
MindOfTheSwarm✭✭✭✭✭
✭I have thought it a pity that S&B was reworked a while ago to have a significant part of its offensive capability removed from it. It shouldn't be as competitive dps-wise as 2H or DW, but the skill line should be able to do some dps. (Viable vs. optimal perhaps?). So in that regard, any change that helps provide offensive options for S&B is welcome in my mind.
I'm not entirely sold on Shield Bash being the spammable for the skill line. Might just be personal preference, but hitting someone with a shield seems an odd choice when the character is holding a perfectly good weapon in their other hand. Since you're suggesting the removal of the taunt from Pierce Armor, perhaps that could be reworked into the spammable for the skill line, freeing up Power Slam and its morphs to provide more utility?
The reason I want Power Slam as the spammable is purely personal preference. I really enjoyed playing on my Templar shield maiden. Something very satisfying about smacking someone in the face with a mini wall.1 -
MindOfTheSwarm✭✭✭✭✭
✭At first read, I didn't like your ideas,
but after seeing you just shuffled around some bonuses to other underutilized skills I like it.
I like the ideas on increased damage in the line to make it a viable option. You still wouldn't compete with specialized DPS builds but you would not be a wet noodle.
Although one more important change I would like to see.
Shields should have double the armor they currently have. With this new Heartland Conqueror set being released a defensive off-hand will have twice the armor... 2 defensive weapons or a 2h will have quadruple the amount! That is just plain silly.
That being said, the line does need at least one DPS spammable. If a Templar, Warden, Sorc or Necro want to run Sword and Board, then they need to use a clunky class spammable if one is bash weaving. Nightblade is about the only class that can successfully bash weave with their class spammable without it being really finicky. Pierce Armor could work for sure, I just chose Power Slam for the reason above alongside it promoting a bash centric hyper aggressive build.0