Swashie For Life even with One Arm Hangin' by the Shoulder!!! (SOE please read.)

[Trollf]

<DIV> <DIV>Hi fellow EQ2 Players and SOE management,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have been a swashbuckler since Oct 2004 and have loved it since then. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Even when we had like almost 9-10 skills broken (didnt do exactly what the description text said) and our Dps (including our defining AoEs) was rather non-existent when compared to other Dps classes. We were quite a horrible raiding class as well, restricted to mostly ferrying players over to the raid mobs instead.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We were supposed to be quite a utility class so as to make up for the lack of Dps but our group sneaks were never the best(changed now to be kinda equal with the other invising classes since no more speed buff in stealth) and we lacked an identity unless we made it up and dream of a wonderful bio to put into our profile.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I didnt care. We were Swashbucklers... the name said it all... we were Cool <IMG height=16 src="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/i/smilies/16x16_smiley-happy.gif" width=16 border=0> Like pirates!! Like Threepwood!! Like whatever floats your boat..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For a year, we were propping up the rest of EQ2. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Then came the combat rebalance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Inspired Daring was made from a trashbin spell into an amazing "burst" Dps spell that proved to be class-defining in my opinion.</DIV> <DIV>Our AoEs went from doing paltry damage to actually doing decent damage in the later hundreds. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Our DoF Ancient skills were not bad besides Lung Puncture.. which paled in comparison to Hurricane and the class-changing Hail Of Steel (HoS) which made us into not such a bad raiding class after all <IMG height=16 src="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/i/smilies/16x16_smiley-happy.gif" width=16 border=0></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Finally we were getting some love after being shafted since the start of EQ2. Complained we did about the lack of balance of our thrown weapons blah blah blah... but deep down inside, we were still greatly improved I felt... If we could survive 1 year of the Original Nightmare Swashie (tm) Class, we could survive anything. We finally had an identity.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A few weeks later, Hurricane was nerfed by half and Hail Of Steel got its Hate generation increased. This was to compensate for the new DW damage rating and its new improved proc rate as well. Fair enough, we bit the bullet and took it. (even though it stunk of the lack of pre-DoF playtesting about how strong Hurricane was)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Then LU 18 hit. The poison nerf i could understand. There were times i just auto-attacked and waited for the mob to die due to the increased procs and the poison ticking. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But WHY were our other melee skill "procs" counted as "applied" effects? Our ID, Bravado, Avoid and Offensive Proc line were all HALVED in ONE fell swoop. My fellow swashies will understand how I feel. It was devastating.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It is like literally chopping an arm off a swashbuckler. We were like nerfed FIVE times in that single Update. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>No class gets nerfed FIVE times in an Update. Not the Swashie class. We were not top of the Dps chart. Just nicely there in the top 1 1/2 tier.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We Swashies are a patient bunch. Maybe SOE made an honest mistake and will stop the additional damage it unknowingly incurred on us. Maybe they are working on it. Maybe we can get our arm back soon?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Then came the news... the Expansion was coming out in Febuary. So much DoF stuff have not been resolved yet (Loot tables, borked items, Guild rewards)  and now they churn out a new Expansion. Amazing. Looks like we are going to be a footnote again.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I LOVE my swashbuckler. I REALLY do.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>That is why i take valuable time off my playing and rest schedule to type this article.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Please at least listen to what we have to say and not just turn a deaf ear to our comments or suggestions. We are still a  character class in your EQ2 game afterall.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>So much for loving our game SOE.  I am disappointed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Littlebee Loup'Garou</DIV> <DIV>60 Swashie</DIV> <DIV>Bandit Lords Of Baubbleshire (Level 40 Guild -LDL)</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>

[Teaff]

I hear ya man, but i dont care about anyother proc other than ID, i mean i made rangers look like lvl 3 scouts for 13 sec before the update....13 secs.......and they took it away to making it only hitting off the primary hand but when we do flurries you can clearly see that the swashy is hitting with both and ID lands just when your auto atkiing it doesnt. Before Lu18 the perfect combo was Haste> ID > FLurries > and auto atk. Now i have to do all my CA's to try to make up for it....I see that hurricane is procing more often than beofre cool....but it doesnt make up for that ID nerf. I love my class and always will. I mean i wish that either ID can be back to its normal format or it can be instant cast either one....please PLEASE give it back... <div></div>

[liveja]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Trollfie wrote:<BR> <DIV> <DIV>I LOVE my swashbuckler<BR> <HR> </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I still love mine. At 51st level, I'm not having any trouble, either soloing or in groups, & I don't believe that the recent "nerf" hurt us anywhere near as bad as people want to claim.</P> <P>I've said it before, I'll say it again: we went from thoroughly gimped, prior to September '05, to moderately over-powered prior to the LU18, to about where I think we should be now. I do not mind at all being brought a little closer to Earth.<BR></P>

[Dr. Unk]

<P>Same feeling here, I still love my swashie, but like the OP said, I feel like I have one arm now.  Many swashies are turning to the ol' sword and board.  I don't know about everyone else, but I don't feel very swashie'ish without my two weapons whirliing around me.  Can I have my 2nd arm back?  You can keep off-hand posion procs, but I need the other half of my offensive and hate ruducing procs back.</P> <P>This is a subject for all melee classes that duel wield, not just us.  You have noticed the differance from the lack off off-hand procs too huh?</P>

[Success]

Being only 51, it's hard to see the changes that were made as it mostly effects the 52, 55 and other higher level skills that you don't have yet. The one of us that are 60 are seeing these negative changes that others are not.<p>Message Edited by Successer on <span class=date_text>01-05-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:31 PM</span>

[Zygwen]

I'm Level 60 and agree with Livejazz. Just because he is not max level does not invalidate his opinion.<div></div>

[liveja]

<div></div><p>Well I just made 53 last night. My opinion remains what it was as stated earlier: I do not see that we Swashies have had one arm cut off.</p><p>I'm willing to believe that 60th level Swashies using 60th level skills are having problems in T6 60th level raids. As I've said to other people privately, that tells me the problems are confined to a relatively small set of the Swashie class.</p>

[Ookami-san]

<div></div><p>Having played a swashy since day one I can tell you this... the nerf DID affect us severly.  To say otherwise simply shows a lack of any real logging.</p><p>I won't bore you with the statistical data, but after the update... parsing the same mobs before and after (I saved logs so I COULD compare once I heard what they were going to do).... there is a 18.5% reduction in dps over short term fights (60 seconds or less) and a 21.8% decrease with longer fights.  Basically, we were dropped to the bottom of the scout dps teir, sad to say.  Where before we were slightly behind rangers/assassins... now we are FAR below.</p><p>Now, this will REALLY vary based on the type of poison you use.  If you use the heavier DOT poison, you will more than likely see a smaller decline in the dps %, because high DoTs do more damage long term.  I normally use alot of high DD poison (influence of hate).</p><p>This is at level 60, against mostly green and blue mobs.  I was using two imbued spathas for the test, even though I normally use a rapier and dagger.</p><p>Personally, I think it's a complete lack of any credible testing on the part of SoE, that "fixes" like this go into effect, without seeing the effects on all classes... but let's be honest... it's a 2nd teir game... no where near the big boys... so the development teams are already stretched thin... and QA is non-existant. </p><p> </p><p> </p>

[liveja]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Ookami-san wrote:<div></div><p>Basically, we were dropped to the bottom of the scout dps teir, sad to say. </p><hr></blockquote><p>I'd like to see the actual DPS number crunching that indisputably proves Swashies now do, on average, less DPS than Bards. As for Rangers & Assassins, it's always been my understanding that both classes should do substantially more DPS than a Swashie.</p><p>Merely asserting -- even if accurately -- that Swashies have lost 18.5%-21.8% DPS does not prove anything, if the counter-argument is made that we shouldn't have had that extra DPS in the first place.</p><p>In short, I'd very much like to be bored with real statistical data, that goes far beyond what I've been seeing on these forums.</p>