Advice for a new Swashbuckler?

[Blackgold]

<DIV>After trying what seemed like just about every combo in the game during our first few weeks playing EQ2, my wife and I have settled on swashy/dirge duo (with me playing the swash). We're used to her playing a healer type in games though so the strategy has taken some getting used to and I have a few questions.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Note: We will mostly duo and will likely never raid (due to family/time restrictions) so our gear will be just what we can get from quests/broker:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. Since we don't have a healer, we've had trouble on occasion keeping ourselves alive against multiple mob encounters. Would a str/stam build [Removed for Content] me too much? It seems like it would add some survivability but I worry about losing out on dps while using a shield. Any stamina users out there that could comment on this?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2. This is a general EQ2 question, is there a link that provides an Achievement tree that you can access offline to play around with (similar to the talent tree calculators in WoW for lack of a better description)?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3. Any strategy tips or general swashbuckler tips for a duo?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for any thoughts you might have.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Turb]

You need to decide who will tank and who will dps behind the mob. Or you may choose to toggle that. The swash has the good aggro tools - a hate skill and hate transfer to help there. As a STR-STA spec you have good survivability, and the dirge can boost your dps nicely, so if you want to hold aggro I think you'll do so easily. The bulk of a swashies attacks are also frontal, but you can stun as can the dirge for you to land your three positional attacks/debuffs. As a swash prior to betrayal, I could tank and solo well with STR-STA, and I went the last 8-point STA for extra mit/HP and the reactive hate proc. You'll have 2 escapes available, so can get out of trouble twice every 15 mins. The dirge gets ressurect later, and a useable heal. As a swash, you can use poison so consider vitality poison, that procs poison but also heals you - less poison damage but the heals add up since they proc 4 or 5 times a minute.Good luck!

[Krontak]

Like the guy above said, the power (I meant life) sap poisons are your bread and butter to survival.  Also, the poisons that debuff an npcs slash, pierce etc are a huge help plus keep the turgur poisons up at all times that debuff and npcs attack speed.   With those three up at all times, duoing with a dirge would be pretty sweet I'd imagine.<BR> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And in response to the below, check out the Achievement analysis stuff stickied.   And as far as an analysis of the new AA's, not a whole lot has been done yet.  I'm not a heavy player, I've only got like 15 or so AA's from EOF so I'm far from a wealth of information there.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll start getting some good feedback as players reach 100AA and get a chance to play around with different combos.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Krontak on <span class=date_text>12-13-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:32 PM</span>

[Blackgold]

<P>Thanks for the responses, some great info!</P> <P>1. I think I'll end up tanking (although she's doing it now).</P> <P>2. Thanks a bunch for the poision information. I had no idea what poisions to buy.</P> <P>3. Any ideas about an AA calculator? Seems odd to me that we can't look at our AA trees outside of the game (or at least I haven't found them yet).</P>

[adamflanagan]

I have never heard of any AA calculators like they have in WoW, its a shame really as they are really nice.