Swashbucklers. How do you compare to Fighters?

[winddra]

<DIV>Title says it all. My interpretation of swashbucklers have always been akin to more lightly armored and charming warrior types. How do they compare in EQII? I am just curious because I like the style but want to be a good swordsman and capable of taking a bit of a beating. Can you stand up and take a beating or are you like most common rogues, needing to stand in the back and do hit and runs?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Joe]

My Swashbuckler sure can take a beating. Though I've spend many a gold on only the best armour.So far my interpretation of the Swashbuckler is a dashing fortune hunter able to sneak through the shadows and inflict max pain upon the enemies from behind. Sneaky, crafty yet delightful. True fortune hunters.

[AricLokar]

Most of the swashbucklers damage comes from poison and positional damage. They can take some damage after upgrading to medium armor but we are not a tank. At 21 I can tank as good as any pre 20 fighter, problem is after 20 they get major bonuses to either evade/parry or armor. Monks, and the other brawler subclass, will have lighter armor than us but should (from everything I have been told) tank much better than we can.

[Erasm]

<DIV>I dunno, I think a swashbuckler could probably tank better than a monk. I dont know about now, but at the end of beta, monks couldnt tank for crap. But they got taunts, so they could still tank. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>From my experience, swashy evasion/riposte/parry ( especially buffed) is higher than a monks. Swashbucklers also have more AC. We do more dmg, and for holding hate vs. a single mob, we are unmatched ( with our taunts, gouge, and the art that makes the next hit get tons of agro + gouge). The ability that makes our next successful hit draw tons of hate, could work as an AoE taunt if coupled with Flambouyant swathe. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Monks on the other hand get a good bit more hp. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So the major difference is scouts have less hp, monks have less AC. Should pretty much balance out. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For group effiency, if there were a monk and a swashbucker in the same group, I would pick the monk to tank. Monks do the same dmg no matter where they are, but a swashbuckler needs to be behind/beside for any kind of major damage. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Comparing to a warrior or crusader subclass... its no contest. We are out tanked hands down. </DIV>

[Rai]

<DIV>It all depends what ur fighting whos in ur grp and so on, If your runing yellow -orange cons i really don't sugest you tanking. But if u got two healers and are chaining green to white ( at the very most) you can tank , then again major think here is we have no AoE taunt and for False Blade + AoE hit to work everyone would have to stop meleeing and to be honest not even sure it will work. We are not tanks , we can off tanks and were very good at peeling if the healer is getting hammered and the tank can't get ago back. The bottem line is for the grind i much rather have a real tank , but if ur questing or somthing like that and u can't find a tank we can to a certain amount . As for monks they need some tweaking cuz from what i have seen there some where in the middle of DPS / TANK and imo thats not a good place to be group wize.......</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>Wine Drinking wemen flirting money hustling Hero!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Raiff 33 Wood Elf Swashbuckler</DIV> <DIV>Antonia Bayle</DIV></DIV>

[rioi]

No scout can tank better then any fighter. I am lvl 26 swashbuckler and trust me....if you are fighting lvl 28-30 ++'s or even your own level ++'s. Unless you are lucky and parry or dodge.....you will get hit....and get hit hard. Most of the time it breaks AC and you get hit up into the 200-400's. I have about 1300 AC at lvl 26 when buffed up...and close to 1400 hp. I die very very very fast if I have to tank......I could die in a few hits if not healed fast or taunted off of. However, if it is a group of mobs you are fighting with no ++'s or +'s for that matter. I can hold my own for at least a minute if tank/healer needs help. Other then that.....SoE did a good job on keeping the tanking to the fighters. DOn't expect to be tanks in this game in any scout class.

[Erasm]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> rioisk wrote:<BR>No scout can tank better then any fighter. I am lvl 26 swashbuckler and trust me....if you are fighting lvl 28-30 ++'s or even your own level ++'s. Unless you are lucky and parry or dodge.....you will get hit....and get hit hard. Most of the time it breaks AC and you get hit up into the 200-400's. I have about 1300 AC at lvl 26 when buffed up...and close to 1400 hp. I die very very very fast if I have to tank......I could die in a few hits if not healed fast or taunted off of. However, if it is a group of mobs you are fighting with no ++'s or +'s for that matter. I can hold my own for at least a minute if tank/healer needs help. Other then that.....SoE did a good job on keeping the tanking to the fighters. DOn't expect to be tanks in this game in any scout class.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> Same goes for monks.

[Kaff]

You can set up a swashbuckler to take a beating well enough. Between armor, parry buffs (and traditions, sometimes -- I can crank my parry skill up 16 points higher than other folks my level, hehe), etc, you can dodge a lot of attacks. You won't beat a monk for avoidance, and you're best off leaving the taunting to a fighter if possible, but swashbucklers have good enough taunt between swarthy distraction (cast on yourself for a change), and the taunt attacks, that keeping one enemy's attention isn't much of a problem.Toss in a good round shield, and I find that I can either make odd groups work, or help out when things start to go south. Aside from the lack of a fighter's encounter taunt, my one complaint in the "ghetto tanking" department is that sometimes we're slow to peel. I've had things go wrong (fighter dies, mob on the healer) where I had to drop self-pres, backstab, sneak attack, distracting blade, quick flurry, bludgeon, strafe around to get a gouge in, and I STILL had to get back to do another flank attack or two to peel.But, we're better in that regard than, say, a predator, and I'd rather have me tanking than the priest or a mage.Toughness aside, I think swashbucklers really are the pinnacle of swordsmanship in EQ2. Flashy, fast, fierce, and fun.

[Naggyba]

I like my Swashbuckler. In beta, I played the Predator and while I got more opening damage at level 15 than I do with my Swashy at 24, my Swashy doesn't have to sneak (athough I do have one that requires it) to get a nice backshot off and it cycles faster than shadow blade.Everytime the fighter forgets to taunt, the mobs always turn on me, even with Predators/Rangers in the group. Swashbucklers can crank out some damage. Add poisons and they rock.Maybe one day I will try Assassin. I just don't care much for the Ranger, that's why I went Swashbuckler. Smuggle skill owns too. Really has helped the groups on many occassions avoid a lot of trash and helped us get out of bad places.I been looking for a log parser. I would be interested to see what my DPS, etc. is. Can't find one yet though, not for EQ2.