Lv 28 Swashy - I feel a jack of all trades master of none - as good as it gets?

[Rothgur]

<p>Hi Guys</p><p>I wanted to try the scout class and after reading the forums decided the swashy sounded good for me.  But now I've some some experience, albeit only lv 28 and a good few CA's to use, I feel that I'm not seeing the class shine in any distinctive way, sure we've got some frontal/side attacks, some aoe, some back attacks but in general I feel the class is somewhat lacking or maybe even underpowered?</p><p> So the reason I posted here, I'm looking for some feedback from high lv, experienced swashy's who can give me some feedback on the class, does it get better or at lv 28 the class and play style wont change much if I continued to level it?</p><p>Cheers</p>

[Epictetus]

I think you will find it very very hard to find anyone to agree with swashies being underpowered. Theres quite a lot of people who feel quite the oposite even (well, all the casters that actually are underpowered <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ). We are a DPS class. A good swashie will parse higher than most other classes in raid settings. If we spec for it we can also sort of tank even  though other classes do find that a lot easier. On top of this we have a bunch of debuffs to lower the DPS of our targets. A bit of utility in the form of evac and group stealth are also welcome additions although already closer to the fluff category. Im only lvl 31 swashie myself but so far its been one of the easiest classes i have tried (out of maybe 8-9 different i played up to lvl 20-25). We struggle with mobs that dont die from our initial onslaught (anything triple up) but on the other hand killing normal mobs is so easy the only limiting factor will be one or two cooldowns you want to wait for. And with positional attacks i find myself playing more actively and enjoying the gameplay more than soloing with other classes i tried. Its more engaging and requires at least a little bit of moving around. I also love my defiler and my warlock. But in the end defiler is only really fun in larger groups where healing becomes sort of challenging (soloing is easy but painfully slow and repetetive) and the warlock is nice but does less damage and gets more aggro issues than the swashie (and gets interrupted, has long casting times etc etc). And of course swashies got style. Which is actually the only reason i bothered wit betraying from the evil side of thigns where you can also have a lot of fun with more stuns n stuff.

[Dreadpatch]

You're probably doing something wrong or still learning. With proper gear, I basically murdered every parse until I got to T7, then occassionally some classes could beat me. I even had to do most of the tanking up until end game when I would go to a pick up group. Swashies pwn, and you may just need to gear and spell up. Check out casting orders as well, while you can spam CA's, you won't maximize damage. You also can't count out the impact of aa's especially down str and agi line if you decide to duel wield. IMHO duel wielding is the way to go.... Do some reading in the forums gthere are some nice tricks.

[riblete]

<cite>Valkos@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I feel that I'm not seeing the class shine in any distinctive way</p></blockquote>You are still missing a lot of key abilities for the upper-level style play. But even at your level, you should have more buttons to press than the mobs have health. This is where the class really shines: Nearly no downtime.  By patterning your attacks, you can chain kill solo mobs one after anohter for as long as you have targets to kills. Most classes have to wait on timers, or they need to recoup some power or health. Swashys do not use that much power, and they do not get hit much due to all the stuns, knockdowns, or walk the plank.Against more powerful solo mobs you can really standout with your mez, slows for kiting, and very good burst damage. Any yellow, named, single-up mob or weaker has not been a problem. The hardest one I ever had to fight is the final mob on the final solo quest line (dwarf hunters) in Jarsath Waste; a level 83 ^ named dinosuar with huge health and tremendously hard hits. Everything before that pales in comparison. So, you have something to look forward to. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />Another place where swashy's shine is against groups. You have two AOE's and Hurricane (52) to do good group damage. And against tougher groups of mobs, you can mez one and slow the second while you kill the third. In Riliss in Fens of Nathsar there is a quest where one step is heroic, to kill three linked single-up mobs at the areana (or someplace). No problem for a swashy, but most classes have trouble with three ^'s.

[OutcastBlade]

<p>We also have about four really good temp buffs: Perfect Finesse, On Guard, Insight, and Ruthless Cunning. If you are a Dark Elf, you get a really good dps buff, making that five. I dont think many classes can boast this, but then my experience with other classes is limited. You probably only have two of the four I mentioned, since Hurricane, and En Guard(On Guard) come later in levels.</p><p>We get Reach spec, increasing our AE damage considerably in certain situations.</p><p>We have the best hate transfer in the game.(With epic of course)</p><p>We can tank.</p><p>We turn hard hitting monsters into declawed kittens with our debuffs.</p><p>We're amazing in duels and pvp.(My only experience being dueling and arena battles, but actual pvpers speak volumes about his ez-mode class.)</p><p>I will admit in the early levels we're not that distinctive. But the rewards come with levels. Trust me.</p>

[Rothgur]

<p>Hi Guys</p><p> Thanks for the feedback, thats the type I was looking for.  It does seem the class is pretty awesome, I'm maybe stil to low a level and very posibly under geared (not a twink) so I'm going to carrry on leveling.  </p><p>I will say messing around with lv 10 ranger/assasin I did like the swashy much more, I just wanted to hear that it does get better, and it seems it does!</p>