jbear
First Post
A shielding swordmage can easily 'engage' two opponents VERY effectively. I guess the Assault version can as well but it's power selection is inferior (imo).I'm wondering if my problem is understanding the role of a Defender. With my Warden on L4W, my goal was to make myself the only viable target leaving my party free to manuever around them and get the drop on my opponents... and that pretty much never worked out as I wanted(I either got dropped quick or they ignored my mark and rolled well and hit anyway).
With the Swordmage, I basically mark them and (if Assault) 'port over and slap them for doing that... then disengage, or (If Shielding) just mark and leave, ignoring them pretty much indefinitely?
It does this with some pretty cool at will powers. Booming Blade or Frigid Blade are two pretty good examples. Mark enemy (ideally 2 away from you so you can move away without an OA) and then move to engage a second enemy landing something like Booming Blade (if they move away Boom, extra damage) or Frigid Blade (severly reducing their movement). The second enemy isn't marked but it has some strong reasons to stay where it is. If your team positions themselves correctly then you'll become its only viable target. And if they are real smart they'll get between you and your Aegis Mark, as his attacks against them will be reduced to gentle wrist slaps, and if he comes after you then hopefully he'll provoke a few OAs and get cut down before he can even reach you.
When you start picking up some White Lotus Feats, well, you effectively give your targets a Lose lose situation. Attack someone else and suffer, attack me and suffer as well. That is why I'd go human, basically to get the extra at will and an extra feat. You lose 2 points to your CON (which sucks) but I think it's a fair trade.
You can still effectively multiclass into Wizard and pick up an At Will wizards power ... and with the Essentials Powers coming out there are some pretty interesting options!