Here is the situation of my brother.
Closed mail coif + heraldic mail + greatsword = remaining max fatigue 103
103 – 42 (focus cost 40 + take one step forward 2) = 61 = 2h hits x4
Benefit of Battle Flow (assume we can kill an enemy on 4th hit) = 60×0.33 = -20 current fatigue
Benefit of Brawny = [closed mail coif -2 max fatigue penalty] + [heraldic mail -21 max fatigue penalty] = -23 max fatigue penalty
You can kill orc young in merely 2 hits, making Battle Flow provide higher benefit than the previous calculation. Also, the calculation doesn’t include the 5th hit enabled by Battle Flow at all.
If you use Full Force + Heraldic mail, you can kill orc young in only 1 hit, making Battle Flow provide even higher benefit than Brawny.
I thought you use Woven Tunics on all your melees?
I actually thought of switching all my Hedge Knight “workhorses” into Swordmasters. Basically, I thought I’d get more survivality AND DPS this way. In the first place, Swordmasters essentially get a huge Melee Defense advantage over the Hedge Knight that is tantamount to activating a Shieldwall (and Melee Defense is more important than raw HP). In fact, I’d be walking around at 70 Melee Defense or so with just a Shield; and another five or so with Inspiring Presence. This means I am hitting that near untouchable 90 with Shieldwall. So these guys will be unhittable without having to go a pure defense Nimble build. Second, as for offense, since their non Shieldwall defense is so darn high, I can take that 2nd swing instead of activating Shieldwall when surrounded. So I’d have higher DPS. And perhaps with Battle Flow even more DPS?
What do you think?
EDIT:
I reread your post, and you are actually describing Perfect Focus DPS melees, not tanks or hybrids. In that context, yes, I agree Battle Flow is better, since you are almost guaranteed a kill per turn; but I was talking about tank/hybrids who swing 2 handers twice per turn! For them, I think Brawny is still better. And most folks run more tank/hybrid melees than DPS melees.
