Tarelther's Proposed SM Revamp.

After reading many of the complaints about the SM class on the forums, I came up with a set of improvements to the SM that would help give the class more identity.

First, I decided each path should have a new theme. Khaine would be focused on offense and debuffing opponents. Vaul would be focused on defense and disabling opponents. Hoeth would be focused on bolstering allies and neutralizing enemy magic.


Core changes.

Eagle's Flight mirrored to Suppression. Improves chance to parry by 25% for 15s and has a 10s recast.
Dragon's Talon effect increased to match Crippling Strikes. Reduces target's damage by 25% for 10s.
Dampening Talon effect duration increased to 10s to match new duration of Dragon's Talon.

Forceful Shock. The damage added from Blurring Shock whenever a target is critically hit is doubled.

Khaine changes.

Sapping Strike. Now drains 15 AP per second for 5 seconds. You will gain any AP your target lost.
Phoenix's Wing. Your blade enchant now will trigger 100% of the time when using this ability.

Vaul changes.

Redirected Force. Requires Block. Knocks back your opponent a long distance. 20s recast.
Crashing Wave. This ability is now available 9 points up Vaul. Secondary effect removed to compensate.

Crushing Advance. Now 13 points up Vaul. Requires Block or Parry. Increases armor for 20s, interrupts the target, and increases block and parry chance by 5%.

Hoeth changes.

Heaven's Blade. Will now increase resists of group members within 100 feet as well.
Dazzling Strike. This effect will disorient the target for 10s.
Bolstering enchantments. When your blade enchants trigger, they will also restore 50 AP over 10 seconds to your group members, but you will gain no benefit from this and the effect will not refresh itself while it is active.
Blessing of Heaven. Path of Hoeth abilities place an effect on your target for 10 seconds. During this time, any allies who strike the target have a 25% chance to restore 50 AP. A player may only benefit from this once every 3 seconds and you will gain no benefit from this effect.

The Sapping Strike change idea was give the SM an AP restoration tool that it lacks compared to all other tanks. The idea behind the Phoenix's Wing change was to give it some utility like the Black Orc's Big Swing. The Vaul changes were to balance out the disparity between the amount of investment in mastery points required for the SM to obtain hard CC compared to other tanks. I liked Keedo's idea about changing the Hoeth tactics to affect AP regen. I believe this will create great synergy with Whispering Winds, since AP usage can be a big problem with players being able to spam their higher damage abilities while under the effect. This also gives the SM a unique way to increase the strength of his group.

Let me know what you think.