Soloing to 70 or 80..Dual Wield or Sword and (small) board?

[Larsenex]

<p>I am lvl 42 and just cruising in lvls. I am stopping every 12 or so to get AA (32), (42) & (52). I have the Agility arm filled out to Sailwinds and I am working on the Strength arm of the Scout tree.</p><p>A fellow guildie said I am doing it all wrong..Ok, I can accept this as long as he really knows what he is doing. He says to go down the Stam line and get the shield defense and I should solo with a Sword & Board, that dual wielding does not make up a noticeable DPS increase to make up for the great Defense I would get with a shield equipped.</p><p>At this point I am thoroughly confused and would like some advice.</p><p>I have Master crafted gear and my combat arts are Expert or Master. I am approaching lvl 42. Should I re-spec and get out of the Agility line and go down the 'tanking' stam line for ease and quickness of soloing?</p><p>Are his claims valid?</p><p>What does the forum suggest? This is my first DPS/melee class. I have a 63 Berserker and Templar. I returned and wanted to try a stealth class.</p><p>Any advice is most welcome!</p>

[Delow]

<p>It really doesnt matter, you can use either setup to solo at lower levels it just comes down to personal preference. Your choices are either</p><p>A) Use STR/AGI and dual wield thus killing the mobs faster</p><p>B) Use STR/STA and use a 1h weapon + round shield and kill the mobs slower.</p><p>Either one you will probably take around the same amount of damage, but in groups your better off using A. We are a DPS class and the more DPS you can manage the more useful you are.</p><p>If you keep your gear/AAs/CAs current and also wield 2 equal delay weapons you will be able to solo just fine. Try to get 2 faster delay weapons and get some kind of haste item at lower levels (Wasteband of Haste is droppable and will give 20 haste). The reason for the faster delay is the .33% delay DW penalty (so a 2.0 second delay weapon is actually 2.66 seconds when dual wielding, you would need around 50 standing haste to get it back to 2 seconds). A 2 second delay (with haste factored in) is optimal, it lets you cast 2 CAs between your autoattacks generally. You will get more into Autoattack/CA cast timing at higher levels and with access to more haste at higher levels you will end up with 4 second delay weapons.</p>

[Larsenex]

<p>Thanks for the response. This was the information I was looking for.</p>

[Blu]

<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;"><div><p>I've just been going through this actually. My Swashbuckler is now 72 or 73.</p><p>I'm specced Agi and Int for FD. (My main is a monk, so FD was something I *had* to have for soloing.) I'm starting back on Str now since hitting 71.</p><p>I've also had my AA slider set to at least 50% since level 22. So, I've mostly been soloing yellow and orange-cons on the way up with no problems (always been DW in offensive, MC gear, and mostly Expert CAs). The only time I remember a rough spot soloing was on an extremely orange undercon one-up named. That was because I had my slider set too high and had under-leveled the content by a good margin, not due to spec. I've soloed some select white and yellow heroics along the way too, though I've mostly avoided heroic quests.</p><p>Str and Agi is a good spec, and you should have no problem soloing with it with MC gear, experts, and poisons.</p></div></span></p>