A little bit more to offer on how each toon plays during the fight . . . with the Swashie you will find yourself totally engaged if you want to maximize DPS. And - if you are - you WILL be rewarded with envious DPS numbers.
In any encounter you will need to switch from front to back of the mob (ideally while firing a CA) - and perhaps to the front and back again depending on how long the fight is - to use all your CA's.
In a multi-mob encounter, you will need to do the same thing while switching to the MA's next target. You might even jump out to ranged and back once in a great while. Oh, and to maximize your AE proc, you will need to position behind Mob_1 but keep Mob_2 and Mob_3 in the frontal cone in which Hurricane is effective.
This is quite a bit more demanding of attention than the average (eg) mage who stands at range and clicks a few buttons.
It is a bit tougher than the monk (as a DPSer) who benefits a bit by standing behind each mob, but doesn't lose too much regardless of his position.
So, if you want to be totally engaged in combat and combat movement, and never bored, Swashie is the class. If you want a little less demanding melee character - who btw is a tank that a Swashie will NEVER be - monk might be a bit better.
If you won't fall asleep clicking a few buttons at range, play a Mage 
One other thought . . . a lot of the so-called Tier 1 DPSers can rarely achieve their true potential without drawing aggro. So they often wind up as tier 2 in practice. The Swashy's aggro management abilities are without equal, allowing you to go all-out or nearly all out without getting yourself killed.
With 34 AA's, I stopped putting them into hate reduction/avoidance, and am now at maximum crit percentage, hardly ever drawing aggro while always near the top in DPS.
Note: I'm a veteran EQ1 caster-player who started life here in EQ2 as an Illusionist. Then I found my alt Swashie, and I have never looked back.
Swift - 70 Swashbuckler
Hesper - 68 Fury
Hawke - 60 Illusionist
Cambren - 56 Guardian