Intelligent Blademaster Feat confused :)

[SadisticFishing]

Almost everything that uses strength adds a tiny bit of damage to things that AREN'T your main target. Not good. Not good at all. If there are any that are good, correct me, but most can be EASILY ignored.

Shielding Swordmages don't make very many basic attacks at all, so Intelligent Blademaster is pretty... meh. No better than other feats you could take instead.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Almost everything that uses strength adds a tiny bit of damage to things that AREN'T your main target. Not good. Not good at all. If there are any that are good, correct me, but most can be EASILY ignored.

The entire point is to do damage to targets other than your main one. The swordmage is a combination Defender/Controler. They don't do the huge damage of a Striker, but they do AoE damage. They may only do 1d8+4 damage with Greenflame Blade, but they might also do 3 damage to 3 other targets. Thus, doing a total of 1d8+13. As an at will, that's not too bad at all. But the point is that you do a good total damage rather than good damage to a single target. Plus you eliminate minions like crazy.

This is what makes Swordmages different from Fighters. Otherwise, based on my experience, Assault Swordmages are just Fighters who do less damage. For instance, the 1st level Encounter power that I can't remember the name of. It does 1d8+Int+Str to a Blast 3. Doing just 1d8+4 damage to the area is kind of weak as an encounter. Doing 1d8+7 is a lot more respectable. Especially if you catch 3-4 enemies in the area of effect, you are doing 9-12 extra damage.

Every point of damage helps kill an enemy. Even if it is spread out amongst multiple enemies.

Shielding Swordmages don't make very many basic attacks at all, so Intelligent Blademaster is pretty... meh. No better than other feats you could take instead.

I'd say they make basic attacks about as often as Assault Swordmages. My experience is that the Aegis of Assault goes off about once every 3 combats. Which is also adding to my decision to switch to a Shielding Swordmage.

 

[Wish]

My experience is that the Aegis of Assault goes off about once every 3 combats.

I've seen it going off a lot more often than that - like multiple times a combat. May depend on your party composition though. Aegis of Assault swordmage seems to make a pretty hot second defender, or with melee strikers. May be less useful as the only defender in front of, for example, a ranger archer, a wizard, a warlock and a laser cleric.

 

[Danceofmasks]

But ... aren't ranger archers best when attempting to gain flanking & prime shot bonuses (shooting at point blank) with the defender?

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I've seen it going off a lot more often than that - like multiple times a combat. May depend on your party composition though. Aegis of Assault swordmage seems to make a pretty hot second defender, or with melee strikers. May be less useful as the only defender in front of, for example, a ranger archer, a wizard, a warlock and a laser cleric.

So far almost every DM I've played with has said "The enemy is marked to you, right? And they know the effects of any power used on them? So they know you get to teleport and get a free attack if they hit anyone but you? Well, you are only 2 squares away from them, so they shift one and attack you."

If it had longer range so they couldn't just shift and attack me, it might go off more often. But most enemies have a paranoid fear of getting free attacks against them(so far in the games I've played). And the couple of times that I've marked someone and then moved far enough away that they couldn't shift and attack me or managed to put the fighter or paladin between me and them, they'd simply attack the fighter or paladin with the -2...and miss because they had heavy armor, thus not triggering my Aegis.

 

[MonkeyMage]

Something that was bothering me was since the feat says you use Int for your basic attack instead of Str, does that mean you add Int instead of Str to the damage too?

 

[inkmonkeys]

Something that was bothering me was since the feat says you use Int for your basic attack instead of Str, does that mean you add Int instead of Str to the damage too?

I believe it does.

 

[Nifft]

Intelligent Swordmage + Tactical Warlord = we can kill you with our brains.

The extra attacks handed out by the Tac'lord often get a bonus to damage, so really all you need to be able to do is hit with your Melee Basic attack.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Joshua Randall]

You'd have to multi-class as a Swordmage since the feat has Prereq: Swordmage, but that's also get you the Shielding to AC, which would be good.

Right.

I'm not saying that Wizard + Blade Initiate [multiclass swordmage] + Intelligent Blademaster + Wizard of the Spiral Tower (paragon path) = teh awesome, but if you were going to enter that paragon path anyway and you have the feats to spare, why not?

 

[IanArgent]

You get a benefit out of an adjacent enemy triggering Aegis of Assault. Many times when teleporting adjacent to an enemy you can come out flanking wiht the ally that triggered the aegis...

Remember, the point of a defender's mark (excluding the fighter, it seems) is to make sure the effect is never triggered. So threatening to flank up if the enemy engages the rogue or ranger standing next to you is pretty cool.