Does the swordmage marking power suck?

[yesnomu]

One other thing that just occurred to me... The -2 mark penalty is a bit perverse when it comes to the aegis of assault; I'd gladly trade the -2 critter penalty for a +2 bonus on my aegis basic attack. That helps the trigger and fits the punishment theme much better, but violates the universal base marking mechanic.

...Why? If a monster doesn't trigger your mark, it means it missed. Monsters missing is a good thing, it wastes their turn. If they hit, whether or not you punish them they still hurt someone who isn't you, and they might well inflict a nasty status effect or even drop them.

 

[Destil]

IME, Shielding Swordmages are almost ridiculously good defenders. The Aegis of Shielding is basically the meanest thing you can do to a monster that doesn't require attack rolls or saving throws.

(Or paragon paths: hospitaller paladin is pretty obscene. It's like the shielding swordmage, only it's ALSO damage AND on misses you ally actually heals)

 

[Mr. Wilson]

The Swordmages Aegis of Shielding is my favorite mark. It just screams "I'm a defender, hear me roar!"

 

[Gimby]

Yeah, I'll have to agree with others that the swordmage is certainly not weak. The epic level one I'm running now, between Wandering Swordmage and Total Aegis marks everyone within close burst 5 and knocks 27 damage off any one hit on an ally a turn. Its almost overpowered.

 

[Prism]

In fact, wandering swordmage is the only way I can see of making an ensnaring swordmage work well. You need to be able to mark artillery, skirmishers and ranged controllers and pull them into the melee. Having said that my shielding swordmage benefits from taking a couple of ranged marking powers too

 

[Kurtomatic]

...Why? If a monster doesn't trigger your mark, it means it missed. Monsters missing is a good thing, it wastes their turn. If they hit, whether or not you punish them they still hurt someone who isn't you, and they might well inflict a nasty status effect or even drop them.

True enough; I should never post anything after 10:00 PM...

 

[Obryn]

(Or paragon paths: hospitaller paladin is pretty obscene. It's like the shielding swordmage, only it's ALSO damage AND on misses you ally actually heals)

Is it still obscene after the errata? I haven't been keeping up, since I don't have a Paladin in my group.

-O

 

[renau1g]

True enough; I should never post anything after 10:00 PM...

You're like a gremlin

 

[Zinovia]

Our group has an assault swordmage along with a sword (well, flail actually) and board fighter. Because the Aegis was proving a little tricky to use, and I wanted it to be triggered more, I increased the range to 5 squares. So now the SM can mark a bad guy 5 squares away, then engage a different foe. The mark gets triggered more often, but not in an unbalanced way.

The SM player is not one of these master tactician types who can wring every last iota of power out of a game rule, so this works well in my game. In the hands of that kind of player, the increased range could prove to be too powerful, although I'm not sure of that. Maybe it would be fine.

My other thought had been to make the mark go off when the marked enemy attacked (but not necessarily hit) an ally. That would have been instead of increasing the range of the mark. I like the flavor provided by the swordmage teleporting across the field more, so went with the increased range.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

You're like a gremlin

As opposed to a daemon, who usually post at midnight.