Questions from a relatively new and soloing Swashy

[Khallys]

<p>First of all let me say I did look through some searches and couldn't really find the info I was looking for (and I was afraid some of it was a little dated).  I appreciate any help with this.  Right now I'm lvl 28.  I also have a lvl 25 conjy.  The conjy can solo same lvl mobs with ease and no down time.  My swashy on the other hand will lose a fair amount of hps on same lvl mobs and 2 of those will be kinda close in terms of surviving.  </p><p> First, as it relates to aa's .....  I've gone down through agi in the 4,8,4,8,2 fashion (I'm working on the last 2 now).  My questions now revolve around what other aa's will help me solo better.  I really like the idea of FD, but that's a lot of points put in some fairly mediocre abilities with the possible exception of boot dagger.  Has anyone felt that fd is just a life changing soloing ability that they couldn't live without?  After that, I'm looking through sta and str.  A 4,4,8 run through sta would seem to be pretty cool for increased health and overall survivability.  How would this compare to going down str and getting extra defense + a new melee attack + increased crit? </p><p> Also, are there any other tips/tricks to increase survivability/solobility like pots or totems that are beneficial?  Again, thanks for any feedback.</p>

[Dreadpatch]

I went down the str and agi line to start off with. I wanted the boost to my melee crit, so that was the first thing I went for, the aa art that turns the mob is VERY VERY useful in soloing. The idea here is that your life bar is going to go down, you need to pump out dps fast. To start off with, always try to start off invis and with your rear attack. Then stun the mob and hit all of your rear attacks, the mob should turn and be facing you when you have finished. Start hitting it with your frontal attacks at this point. You can use your mob turning ability when your rear attacks reset. not sure when you get vitality breach (poison), but that is also extremely helpful as it damages/ heals. Try to get adept 3's if possible (make friends with a jeweler and harvest for loams). At least get adept 1's if nothing else. Hope this helps... If you have further questions, respond back and I can try to help.

[Faenril]

Well, first keep in mind your swashy will probably never outperform your conjy solo, at least on heroic content... That being said you should never have trouble against trash mobs, and should be able to solo named close to your level with the proper gear/poisons. Few advices: - Gear: get good weapons, the MC weapons are fine for levelling, go for the MC gear and jewelry if you can afford it too, as extra stats/HP/mitigation are welcome for soloing. - Upgrade your damage CAs to AD3. - Always make sure you use poisons. Caustic until you get vitality breach, and stupefying as soon as it is available. - go Agi AA line first, at least until Walk the plank (2nd AA). Sailwind is also great for soloing, as by casting faster you will land more positionnal CAs while in the back/side of the mob. Then probably Str for the crits. Wis is great for the extra defense it offers too, and Sta is a good alternative with extra mit and HPs plus the possibility to use a shield for hard hitting mobs. Regarding the strat Dreadpatch got it pretty clear so not much to add... For soloing named you can use our mez once your CAs are down to wait for them to refresh, if necessary, and go for another KB/stun/turn back burst DPS session.

[surepaw]

Deadpatch has some good points. I went down the str and agi lines as well, but then I decided to go with the agi and int line for the FD. It was an experiment. It did lower my DPS a little, but the FD was very helpful. I saved tons of money on repairs and if I was in a grp and we wiped, I was often the only one left alive to rez everyone else. The FD does not last long, only 30 seconds, and has a one min recast. So if you FD in the middle of some MoBs or in a bad area you are dead when you pop up unless you hit evac as soon as you pop up. But if you do go that route, just run to a safe corner and FD there. Also, FD helped a lot in getting to places that some mobs see invis. I was able to run past a see invis mob and FD in a safe corner, then continue on my way. And harvesting at higher levels it was a plus as well. It is all a matter of preference tho. I now have str/agi/int, and my DPS is great as well as my survivability. As Deadpatch said, use your stealth hit from behind first, the one that also stuns, this will give you enough time to use 2 more back attacks as well, which makes a huge difference. After the mob turns, hit him with your frontal attacks until your back attacks come back up, then spin him and hit him again, if you are fast enough you might be able to get in 2 more back attacks. You could also spin him then hit him with your stun, then 2 back attacks. Or, as I do, I spin him use one or 2 back attacks, then when my back attacks come back up, I stun him and hit him with another. I have a macro set that hits stun, then invis, then stealh back attack. The macro saves time on my casting and allows me to get in 2 more back attacks after I use the macro. I just have to be fast to get behind him after I hit it.Using poisons are a must, and as a swashy you can use up to 3 different types of poisons at a time. It can be costly, but worth it. Also, as a scout type, your weapons and equipment you use is more important then the adept quality of your CA's. This is not to say you shouldn't get adept 3 CA's, but when money is tight and you have a choice between better equipment or that adept 3, the upgraded equipment is probably worth more. Of course you want to either become a jeweler yourself and make your own adept 3's or make friends with one. Being an alchemist is also a good thing as you can make your own poisons and potions, this will save you a ton of cash. As Faerie said, using your mez is also good, I have a mez on a macro as well so I can also turn off auto-attack, this gives me the time I need to invis and hit with another stealth back attack, again giving me 2 more attacks. I also use mez when an add comes into play or I pull more then one mob, it can give you the time you need to kill them both before they kill you.All the AA's are good, just choose the one that meets your play style better, sta line is more for a swashy tank, Wis is more for the one handed attacking swashy, but does give additional defense, agi and str are more for DPS and soloing, and int is more for aggro control and survivability. And that is just on the rogue line, the swashy line is more complex and you can find a lot more about them on the forums.

[RingleToo]

<p>I'll make another plug for FD when you have enough AA to go down the Int line for all the reasons Surepaw gave. It's an overlooked, under appreciated CA for all of it's tactical uses. By way of example: when in my lvl 60's more then once I soloed down to the bottom of Sanctum of Scaleborn (avoiding combat) for quest updates using a combination of invis and trailing mobs then FD. And quite a few times I took guildies down to the forge to craft their wurmslayer doing the same thing. (They would wait for me to train mobs then run behind me). </p><p>Also, because you'll eventually have enough AA to go down 3 lines (instead of 2 like it used to be), you really don't lose much in the way of dps. As well, when I have the hate xfer CAs from the int line activated, I never have to worry about stealing aggro when in a group. It's a minor plus but it is a plus. </p><p>Later, if you decide to raid or you just want your parse to look better, you can always get an AA mirror so you can have 2 sets of AAs. (Not that FD isn't useful for raids, btw).</p>

[Khallys]

<p>Thanks very much for all the useful feedback.  I think, as I'm leveling, I'll go down the str line.  Then, when I get enough points for fd, I'll respec and play around with that for awhile and see which I like better.  </p><p> I haven't researched weapons all that much.  At 28 I'm using the best weapons off the broker that I could afford (I think they are mob dropped and around lvl 24).  Is there a good site that discusses weapon availabilty, or am I just gonna need to slog through Allakhazam and the Wiki to find what's good?  I have access to crafters through my guild, so I'll just need to come up with mats if crafted weapons are the way to go.  </p><p> 2 other questions I thought of .... As I get the various character trait abilities as I gain levels, is it usually best to go with str or sta?  Or is there not really enough difference that it's not a big deal either way?  Also, is there a best resist to raise or just try to maintain a balance of resists?</p><p> Thanks again for the help.</p>

[Serenade]

Hi,At your level I would suggest Agi/Str till your level 70 then if you still want to try FD Agi/Ing and the rest in Str for crits is a great solo dps spec.Also, at your level gear is everything. Mastercrafted gear is very powerful at your level, in fact it's better than most droped stuff till your in your 50s/60s. Your able to up grade to new mastercrafted gear in each tier at the 2's (so 22, 32,42, etc). The problem is that the gear requires a harvested rare which are usually out of the price range for most new players to get a full set. So with that being the case you should upgrade weapons first, then your BP and legs make sure they are imbued, than the rest of your slots as you can. For your weapons get a imbued mastercrafted slashing and a imbued mastercrafted piercing so you can keep your skills up.  On the rare occasion you see a better weapon for sell thats better than mastercrafted get it. Your weapons are everything.Upgrade your CAs as you can, ap4 are usually cheap and all you really need if you keep up with your gear till you're in your 50s where adept 1 and adept 3 will be needed.Poisons help increase your dps, but are costly so if you can't swing the bill thats fine, I didn't use them regularly till I was in my 50s. I always had a few on hand though just in case I needed the extra dps.for trait abilities go with str till your 80, once you go over the soft cap then you can always respec to stm or agiresists don't really matter that much unless you're on a pvp server or you start to raid. Focus mostly on Str, stm, agi gear.

[Sprin]

<p>I must say, as others have mentioned, FD is a vastly UNDER used art by the swashy's... If you plan on soloing, then FD is very very powerful.  Its 100 percent chance, so no matter how many mobs you have on you, no matter whats going on, the mobs will drop off.  This often gives you multiple chances to fight a named or a certain mob solo, where you would have died, and perhaps try a different technique... Also this is great for if your trying to solo and a roamer comes your way,  FD in a safe spot (as mentioned its only 30 seconds) and try again after roamer is gone.</p><p>As mentioned, once you hit 70, you can (almost) go down 3 lines, not quite to end, but full AGI line, 24 in INT line for FD etc, and 4-4-4-8 for Crit </p><p>What people often over look is that FD comes in GREAT handy when your in an instance or raid group, as teh INT line allows you to gain less hate, and if you do, lets say do an aoe and pull another mob, or your uber DPS pulls the whole encounter, hit FD and its back on whoever it was before.</p><p>Also in PVP, group VS group, or raid vs raid... you start dying... run to the outside of the group fight, hit FD, stealth out and move to another position, even if everyone in the PVP fight had you targeted, they dont anymore...  its 100 percent chance remember, so they all dropped your target, and you being a ninja Swashy, can stealth and relocate, hoping that the craziness of thei fight will allow you to target and destroy <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>As mentioned, Walk the Plank is probably THE best (apart from AGI end line) AA you can spend... as a positional fighter, turning someone around for your rear attacks is priceless... also, Walk the Plank has a longer range then your other Combat arts and is a root after all, so max that out the first chance you get... it works great for running freeps <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  they run, you hit em with walk the plank, they stop, then you mez em till the calvalry arrives (for credit that is, hehe, you can pwn em yourself after all, you are a swashy, but everyone wants credit <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )</p><p>Its great to be on vent in a PVP group and everyoen is yelling at you... "Go get em dude!!!, oh, and wait for us, dont kill him / them before we get there" Because they know you can <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[riblete]

I just recently leveled a Swashy up to mid 60's. I had not played since KoS came out, so I pre-dated the AP system. Instead of playing my old characters, I created a brand new swashy and played as if I had just started, with no twinking at all. I was in no guild, had nothing crafted, and bought everything I needed straight off the broker. I paid full price for items, never going to someone's room to save on broker fees. So I think my recent case is very applicable to your situation.My goals were to level fast, and to hit 100 APs about the time I hit level 70. In leveling fast, I planned on most spells being replaced every 14 levels. Most gear is replaced every 10 levels. Some gear slots have limited upgrades until you get to the 60+ gear. Some gear slots have nice upgrades every tier.  But I was going to have limited money, so I needed to get the most bang for the buck at every turn.I always kept the highest DPS weapon I could no matter what... starting at level 24. Going from level 1 to level 20-something only took a couple days, so I just used what was cheap until I felt like things died to slow. At level 24 you can get one of the T4 feysteel weapons, I can not remember which one... a dagger? Just query on feysteel, and sort by level. Most of them are level 28+, but one of them goes down to level 24. Same thing for armor: nice T4 armor can be had starting at around level 26 through 32. The best of the treasured armors is usually not that much worse than the mastercrafted armor, and can be had in the 4-8 gold range. Concentrate on maximum mitigation early, stats secondary. Look for the everling, feysteel, blackened xxxx, etc lines of armor. They all have a poor/ok/better/best ranking to them.You also only need one good weapon if you go through the Wisdom line since your off hand must be free. In order to get your skill ups in slashing and piercing, you can use the old weapon for the 5 points. You gain weapon skills very fast as a swashy anyways. Just alternate each weapon you buy as to weather it is slashing or piercing. I have done this all the way through my current upper-60's. I have already bought my level 72 master-crafted though, and bought one of each since I will only be replacing with the uber-weapons.To get good deals on armor/weapons, always be looking ahead 5 levels or so on what you are going to need in the future. Check the broker at the end of each day you play for the good deals. Figure out what the best items are by key word (such as "feysteel&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> so you can very quickly go through all the good items very quickly.Next up is to always buy your spells ahead of time, by 5-10 levels. Query using advanced search on swashy, spells, and min-max level. If you see a cheap adept 1, buy it. Buy it even if it is for 10 levels away. If the App4 is much cheaper, get that instead. you can always re-sale it if a cheap adept comes available. By checking the broker every day before finishing play (only takes 10 minutes), you can save many plat on the way up.For jewelery, concentrate on +STR, +SGL, +STA items. Player-made hand-crafted provide the most bang for the buck. I would not invest in any master-crafted jewelery until you get to 52+, and then only for the two rings. The rings are available as imbued / stat. The Strength and the Agility versions are the most useful for a swashy, as both have nice procs for increasing damage. A note on player made chest armor. If it is imbued, it has a self-heal proc that is very nice for sustained solo play. The master-crafted version is better than the hand-crafted version, but also costs 1 plat + versus 10 gold. IMO, the legs are not worth it since the better mitigation from the treasured items trumps the faster killing from the imbued proc. But, once you get to level 52, the master crafter armor is almost always worth the extra money for the stat bonus's.Tips on play:You can always hunt for the biggest mobs, if you chose. I quested most of the way up, so was told what to kill instead. But if you can target what mob to hunt, kill the ones you can mow through the fastest. You will take less damage on average from mobs you kill fast, even the hard hitting ones. Your offensive stance will tend to interrupt caster types, so those are a good target. And keep them stunned while fighting. Your stun is on a 10 second timer, so use it every 10 seconds. Use the the agility attack (walk the plank) near the begining of each fight... 2.5 seconds of stun. Start the fight with the from stealth attack, another 2 seconds or so of stun. Also look through your CAs. The order you use these in can make a large difference. Note that some debuff the mob's ability to deal damage to you, some debuf the mob's ability to avoid damage, some debuff the mob's mitigation. If you are killing fast, but taking too much damage... use the CA's first that debuff the mob's attack capability, and stun as often in the early fight as possible.On the other hand, if you are getting damaged because your fights take too long, debuff the mob's mitigation first, then use your big attacks. Solo mobs generally do not do much in the way of avoidance, especially if you are in offensive stance. I always do those last when solo, except for damage only attacks.Use poison, no matter the expense, once you are around level 20+. Handcrafted poison is not always that much cheaper than the master-crafted poison, and the master crafted hits *MUCH* harder. Until I was in my 40's, I only used damage poison... saves some money. Also, the caustic poison is a single-hit version. That is better against quick-dieing mobs. The hemotoxin type is a DOT, but it takes two procs before it does more damage than the caustic. Most mobs would be dead by then. If you are fighting mobs where hemotoxin is better, you are going to be taking a ton of damage.