How well does a swash bucky tank?

[FluffyGoat]

I plan on two boxing a swashbuckler and a fury. I currently am doing Zerker and a warden and yes I can kill ^^^ our level but it takes fooorrrevvver. There just is not enough damage. Now I know that a swashy couldn't take the abuse of a heroic but I have had enough of hunting heroics I want to kill solo stuff and easy stuff so I can cut through it all like butter.Do you think a swashy could do a decent job at being a tank of non-stop solo group encounters? Or do you think I should do bruiser / fury?Or heck Bruiser / Wizard really could be interesting heh...ahh so many choices.

[SageGaspar]

If you're looking for a big damage tank, I'd suggest trying one of the brawler classes.Swashies can get the job done if they have the right backup and the mob's not too strong, but I can't think of many situations where I'd rather have my swashie than my bruiser when I'm tanking, even if I'm also the only group DPS. It would be an interesting setup, though, so if you want to try it, more power to you.<div></div>

[Runaf]

<div align="left">It can probably be done if you really want to. Obviously when your tanking your going to be sacrificing a little bit of DPS from stances and maybe using a shield, but with the upcoming AA's and class changes it sounds like Sony wants to make us into little Mini-Tanks as it is. So especially on something like solo mobs with a healer you should be capable of tanking and dps without a problem.</div><div></div>

[Wildfury77]

A well equiped swashie can tank as well as a monk/bruiser imho. You will have the same avoidance with higher mitigation with the right setup. The key to tanking is however holding agro......  U need1) Good armor2) Shield+1 handed weapon (keep duel wield in inventory for your main style though)3) adept III/Master 1 - defensive stance, "taunt", "self-buff", & devious blade line (for agro control and staying alive)4) Turn off hate transfer and our evasion procIf you have the above you can tank well, I have been the maintank in Clefts when grouped with a similar lvl monk, basically cos I could do the job better than him - it was a group request, and opened a few eyes!! Personally though we are more useful to group in offensive stance,duel wield with poison dripping from our weapons.........<div></div>

[Wildfury77]

However if u r duoing I would monk/fury any day!!!<div></div>

[Luk]

<div></div>defiler/bruiser also works very well, wards = when you actually get hit you take little to no damage.

[Lochr]

<div></div><div>>>A well equiped swashie can tank as well as a monk/bruiser imho. You will have the same avoidance with higher mitigation with the right setup.</div><div> </div><div>I disagree with this, unless you are talking about a full-fabled swash vs. a naked monk. Round shields don't come anywhere near the avoidance of deflection, and that's what makes monks such great DPS for fighters: they can dual wield for DPS while still maintaining respectable avoidance (other fighter classes have to use a shield, reducing their DPS). My guess is that the player was just a very poor monk, or someone borrowing the character. I can't see how any monk not using their defensive stance would take less damage then a swash in defensive stance. The higher mitigation from chain doesn't make up for how much more often a swash will get hit then a monk would.</div><div> </div><div>Monks also have encounter taunts, which swashbucklers don't have. Doesn't mean the monk in your group was USING them, of course...</div><div> </div><div>Like most of the rest of the responders, I'd recommend a mystic/monk combination, or defiler/bruiser. The mystic/monk might have a slight edge in survivability.</div><p>Message Edited by Lochr on <span class="date_text">02-20-2006</span><span class="time_text">08:42 AM</span></p>

[De]

<div></div><p>Comparing apples to apples, I also have to disagree with the Monk/Swash comparison. I know, because I took both a Monk and a Swash up to 27 together. They had equal gear the whole time and the Monk could out tank the Swash at every level, and it really made a big difference at 25+.</p><p>Swashy's are cool and useful, but not as effective as tanks compared to any fighter with similar equipment.</p>

[Ookami-san]

<div></div><div>WHACK!</div><div> </div><div>WHACK!</div><div> </div><div>SPLAT!</div><div> </div><div>Any questions?</div><div> </div><div>Of course... my groups are usually fighting orange mobs... or the poor mitigation REALLY shows.</div>

[Mortal]

<div></div>With the right gear and healers you can trust, a swashy can tank any heroic mobs, keeping aggro is the hard part.  =)

[Cuz]

<div></div>The stamina line of acheivements will certainly help too.

[SageGaspar]

In my experience, turn off your deaggros and there's not going to be an aggro problem. I bet with whirlwind up and using our AEs, swashes have better AE aggro than monks or bruisers. Without Swarthy, I can pull aggro off of pretty much every tank I've grouped with, save a pally with amends on me.As for squishiness, I've successfully tanked yellow nameds a couple levels above me with just me and two healers, so it's not terrible. It would probably be better to get two healers just in case, though, as the spikes will be even bigger than on brawler tanks.

[Astaer]

<div></div>I group very often with a templar and an illusionist. Now, the three of us have been able to pull off some very difficult encounters. I remember taking down emperor Fyst at lvl 51. Granted, that was the toughest encounter yet, even though he was green con at the time (still epic though) and I survived with 1% hp left. Must have had a lot of luck there. Nonetheless, with this trio I am a fair tank. But yeah, good equipment sure is a prerequisite if you want to play this way. Scouts weren't meant to be tanks, and that does have its reasonable implications. It can be done, but never as good an actual tank.