New raiding Swash seeks advice

[Laereneth]

<p>Due to guild/raiding needs, today I will begin the process of betraying from a Brig to a Swash.  And since I'm now sailing into somewhat unfamiliar waters, I'm seeking advice from some of you more experienced Swash's out there.  My questions are thus...</p><p>What is your standard CA combination on a raid?  I'm seeking what CA combinations/order yields some of the higher dps parses on raids?</p><p>What debuff poison do you use predominately?  I used to use warding ebb or gracelessness mostly as a Brig as I was amplifying my strengths (def debuffs).  But I see the Swash has offensive debuff poison AA.</p><p>I'm extremely familiar with the Rogue AA tree, and I've been traditionally STR/AGI.  But are there any mechanics in the Swash that lends itself more toward the WIS line over the AGI line?</p><p>Which Swash specific AAs are more useful or must haves for raiding?</p><p>And lastly, since I'm forced to change dieties, does one of the good dieties have a better bag of tricks than another for the Swash?  I've read that Bristlebane has some nice utility.  But just recently I've heard Qeullios has some nice raid assisting tools as well.</p><p>I know there have been threads on some/all of these topics at some point in history, but I'm trying to do research on a very limited time crunch.  I thank you so very much in advance for your time and indulgence on this and hope to have my new experience in the Swash community a good one!</p><p>Laer</p>

[Shackleton1]

<p>My standard order on raids:</p><p>Dazzling steelOpen Heroic opportunitySnare with magic mit debuffDirty trick line defence/wisdom debuffRazor arc parry debuffThat swipe with mitigation debuffGuile mitigation debuffLung puncture skill debuffPlunder high damage b-ack attackTraumatic Swipe if appropriateTriple attackThat attack that causes agro transfer to tankRepeat</p><p>Debuffs: Use what other rogues aren't using. Effects of debuff poisons should really be intended for the raid as a whole, rather than catered towards your own personal dps.</p><p>Swash+Wis line: One sword looks more dashing! Other than that, not really I think. Used to be that wisdom AA worked well with hurricane etc, but afaik that's not the case anymore. The only thing you might consider is if you're clearing mistmore, wis line lets you tank a bit better, and you might be made to tank one of the named there.</p><p>Swash AAs: Traumatic swipe is semi-must have, depending on other rogues (it's on STR line). Some raids also require the AE immunity which comes from... aaah... style perhaps? Other than that, you can actually be fairly free with what you pick. There isn't really a right answer (although many pick style), it's more to do with your own preference and the raids needs.</p><p>Deity: Bristlebane. Quellious, to be honest, isn't that great. There's one miracle which is an epic mez, very powerful, but people just don't expect it so it *always* gets broken and you can't recast it.</p>

[Cocytus]

<p>In regards to combat order:You want to open up with avoidance debuffs, so the rest are more likely to hit.</p><p> (you may want to start a heroic opportunity before this. I usually do.)DoublecrossRazor point</p><p>Then you want to knock their mitigation down, so use your mit debuffs, so as to maximize your damage while you work. No reason not to. </p><p>Which one you use first won't really make a big difference, but I personally like to keep my multi-hit attacks together, so I use guile first.</p><p>GuileWhirl of Blades</p><p>From there it's honestly a free for all in what ever order you prefer. I personally, after this, hit Uncanny Response, then Plunder, then go for offensive debuffs, and just hit combat arts till they're all down, and hit em again as they refresh.</p><p>I'm a slacker in regards to debuff poison. Aside from nameds where I'm going to be taking hits (which is in 80% of boss fights in EH), I don't really run debuff poisons. I spend enough money already. When I do run them though, I run the accuracy debuff. But yeah, Shack gave the best advice here - run what others aren't running.</p><p> Wisdom line is <b><u>still</u></b> the way to go. There's a bug atm that overpowers dual wield, but it will soon be fixed, and wisdom still outdps's dual wield.</p><p>For deities - Bristlebane's the way to go for the good side scouts. Especially rogues. You're not a real rogue if you don't follow Bristlebane, IMO. </p>

[Hamervelder]

It really depends on what your job is in the raid.  For instance, Shackleton is always, always (did I mention always) in our MT group, while I'm in the OT group.  I have two jobs:  1 -- keep the OT's target debuffed.  2 -- I'm the OT's hate transfer.  To that end, I open with any and every offensive debuff that I have, then hit defensive debuffs.  My order is typically:Lung Puncture:  Decreases offensive skillsDazzling Steel:  Decreases DPSGaudy Strike:  Decreases INTGuile:  Decreases MitWhirl of Blades:  Decreases MitDouble-Cross:  Decreases Wis and DefensePlunder:  Decreases AGIRazor Point:  Decreases ParryConstrain:  Decreases magical resistanceFollowing this, I use all my other CA's, in no particular order.  I have to be careful w/ Traumatic Swipe though.  You can really, really bork up the raid if you use it on some named mobs that have timed CA's.  For poisons, typically use Warding Ebb, since we're really caster-heavy.  I switch between caustic, mental breach, and vitality breach as is needed.

[Shackleton1]

<p>Dammit, I thought your role was to debuff the main tanks mob so I could slack off?! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[RaunII]

<p>well, this is what works for me...i raid in the mt group for the hate xfer to help the gaurdian with aggro control on multiple mobs. I open with debuffs to reduce how hard the tank gets hit right on pull...after that the gaurdian decreases mobs parry ect, I get CoB and one of the brigands hits dispatch, i launch defence debuff and guile, then follow with backstab and master strike and multi swing attacks. if its a group mob, prior to pull i hit dps buff and as soon as dps is called, i hit inspiration and enguarde and launch my AOE's...at that point i sometimes have to tab through to mobs to ditch aggro.</p><p>my advice is wait for multiswings and heavy hitters till you see a mit debuff of some kind up, like SK or brig mit debuff, debuff from gaurdians, ect...if you wait till its parry and mit are down you will do alot more damage and be less likely to miss, use your debuffs and lower damage single swing attacks untill some debuffs are on the mob.</p><p>also watch for hurricane master 1...group DPS goes up alot from that spell...and i suggest STR and WIS on rogue tree and Reach and Style on the swash tree...and of course maxing the AA for reuse one en guarde,inspiration,ect to get their reuse timers down...and hurricane. you might not be able to beat the sassys on singles (if they are good) but you can make them blush on group mobs at least.</p><p>oh...and deaggro poisons and grandmasters elixer of tactics FTW!</p>

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Shackleton1 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Dammit, I thought your role was to debuff the main tanks mob so I could slack off?! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /></p></blockquote>Hahaha!  So <i>that's</i> why Beaf went down like a sack of potatoes against Mayong last night!

[Laereneth]

<p>I had an additional question on the WIS line..</p><p>Does the WIS line only come into its own if you can obtain absolute top end 1H?  Can you realize the WIS line with the soulfire?</p><p>Does the WIS line scale with the level of the weapons?  As the level cap goes up, so will the stat/hp/mana given by an offhand weapon.  As the game progresses, you'll have to give up more and more to keep that offhand empty. </p><p>And you don't get the benefits of Lunge Reversal unless you're the mobs target?  Does the full strength of the WIS line come from Freehand Reversal and Unecumberence alone?</p><p>Thanks a ton for the feedback!! </p><p>Laer</p>

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Laereneth wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had an additional question on the WIS line..</p><p>Does the WIS line only come into its own if you can obtain absolute top end 1H?  Can you realize the WIS line with the soulfire?</p><p>Does the WIS line scale with the level of the weapons?  As the level cap goes up, so will the stat/hp/mana given by an offhand weapon.  As the game progresses, you'll have to give up more and more to keep that offhand empty. </p><p>And you don't get the benefits of Lunge Reversal unless you're the mobs target?  Does the full strength of the WIS line come from Freehand Reversal and Unecumberence alone?</p><p>Thanks a ton for the feedback!! </p><p>Laer</p></blockquote>The Wisdom line works well, without the need for the best weapons.  That said, the better the weapon, the better you'll perform.The Wisdom line does not scale.  Yes, if you go Wisdom spec at lvl 70, you're going to be giving up quite a bit of stats and bonuses.I don't really see Lunge Reversal as being one of the greater aspects of the Wisdom line.  It only refreshes every 30 seconds.  Don't forget Coule though.  It ups your offensive and defensive skills by about 15.5.  This is an obvious (and unfortunately often overlooked) benefit of the Wisdom line.

[Laereneth]

<p>Does Coule offset the str that you'll give up from the secondary weapon?  Usually around 20 - 25 str.</p><p>And does the performance of the double attacking match the extra dps you receive from Avast Ye in the AGI line?</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Laer</p>

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Laereneth wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Does Coule offset the str that you'll give up from the secondary weapon?  Usually around 20 - 25 str.</p><p>And does the performance of the double attacking match the extra dps you receive from Avast Ye in the AGI line?</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Laer</p></blockquote>No.  Coule provides a bonus to your offensive and defensive skills, not your stats.

[Laereneth]

<p>Yes, I know that Coule does not add to stats.   What I was trying to inquire is if the added performance (dps via hits or whatever) of Coule compensate for the loss of stats on your off hand (such as strength adding dmg to your CA's etc)?</p><p>Thanks!</p>

[Weizen Heimer]

<p>The DPS boost from WIS (and STR for that matter) scales with the quality of weapon and the DPS boost from AGI does not. Double attacks and crit chance boosts are always better than a static dmg proc once you have good weapons. So, if you are using mastercrafted AGI may be the way to go. Once you have a decent fabled weapon, and especially if you get one with a very high upper dmg number, WIS will be better.</p><p>As far as raiding goes another tip you can use is to always try to time your burns with COB if you are grouped with a Dirge, and stick mostly to autoattack while it is up. Some people also like to switch to a fast weapon like Right Hand of the Priestess during that time to get more En Guarde and Inspiration hits in. This may not be as desirable if you have one of those large upper dmg range weapons though. Make sure your dirges have a macro to tell the group when they are casting COB.</p>

[Laereneth]

<p>Weiz, would the soulfire count as a high enough weapon to start realizing the WIS line?</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Laer</p>

[Weizen Heimer]

The Soulfire is far better than good enough as far as the top end dmg range goes. This may no be exact, but I think if the listed top dmg is in the 90s or higher, then WIS will be better. I know another good one that you may be able to get if you are in a half decent raid guild would be the sword from Chel'Drak

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Weizen Heimer wrote:</cite><blockquote>The Soulfire is far better than good enough as far as the top end dmg range goes. This may no be exact, but I think if the listed top dmg is in the 90s or higher, then WIS will be better. I know another good one that you may be able to get if you are in a half decent raid guild would be the sword from Chel'Drak</blockquote>Dirk of Negativity outperforms the Serrated Sword of Retribution for me.  Or were you talking about Chel'Drak's shard?

[Weizen Heimer]

yes

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Weizen Heimer wrote:</cite><blockquote>yes</blockquote>Aah, okie dokie.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Laereneth]

<p>Thanks for the feedback!  I've been trying to get a grasp on how the WIS line could compare to DWing with the AGI line.  That additional hit from your single primary would have to equal or be greater than the combined dmg yielded from that second weapon when DWing + the proc from Avast Ye.  That's a good bit of dmg to add up to, not to mention the loss of the stats off that secondary.  But, if the net dps was greater, I'd sacrifice the stats.</p><p>Laer</p>