Why bother with hedge knights at all when swordmasters are vastly superior. I find that melee dps builds either die easy or just don’t deal that much more damage then melee tanks, making them pretty useless.
Swordmasters are indeed “vastly superior” defensively, but Hedge Knights make better damage characters, mainly because you need high Fatigue to utilize Perfect Focus, and Hedge Knights have 20 more on average, allowing you to swing at least once more per turn (and one more hit with a two hander?; well, that’s one extra kill per turn in some situations). And while melee damage builds can be fragile, I’ve built them in a way that makes them quite sturdy without losing too much damage potential. That was the whole point of this thread, combining the Steel Cohort’s survivalist and Dialetheia’s massive burst damage approaches.