Swash Tanking AA build ?

[Wintersborn]

Hello me and my GF just betrayed my Brigand and her Defiler.

She loves the Melee Mystic build but I am not yet impressed with the Swashy options so far.

Maybe I am missing something or just need to try a few AA builds before I spend the plat to buy skills or re betray to Brigand again.

I Duo with my GF Mystic and play tank in most other small groups with other friends so I figured more AOE's would help keep aggro better than the Brig. Well from what I can tell Swashy (lvl 77) only has 2 AOE's (Swathe & Lucky Ploy) ? That is only one more than the Brig and about the same damage so no real help with aggro. The swash seems to only have 2 Taunt/aggro adding skills (Blame blade and Tease) which both seem underpowered compaired to the Brigs taunts if I remember right ?

Skill wise things are not looking better as a chain tank Swash so maybe a AA build will make up for it : (

So far I am 4,5,8,8,1 in STR and 4,8,8,8,1 in WIS and 4,8 in AGI for WTP but may change AGI to STA 4,8 for the extra taunt.

I am at a loss when it come to the Swashbuckler AA lines. The Reach line would be nice if I WANTED to pull the whole level or kite with a blade but not real usefull for chain tanking. The Style line makes you spend way to many points in De arrgo skills which is the opposite of what I want. The Debuffs line just adds stat reductions and that still makes for poor debuffs compaired to a Brigs non AA debuff abillity.

So am I missing something or reading the skill descriptions wrong or should I just go back to Brigand ?

Any AA help or tips would be appreciated.

[TygerMeow]

I can't help you a whole lot on swash tanking (I'm pretty darn bad at it). However, I did initially skip the reach line this time and maxed out base tree with 70 AA (I'm 80 currently and have about 130 AA). My DPS was low and I felt like Hurricane was nerfed. After asking for some help in the Swash global channel, Coelson told me I had to get Reach again.

Wow, what a difference. I do have to watch myself, not just with Swathe, but in general with overpulling, solo and in groups. There are times when I face the mob, rather than backstab, or purposely face the wall or even turn off Hurricance, just to avoid getting too much aggro for me or my group. However, the difference in DPS, and for you the ability to hold aggro through DPS, rather than taunt, has been substantial. I no longer have to sit right on top of a mob, and I can handle groups much better since having the reach line. I think it will make it much easier for you to hold aggro from your mystic if you have the extra DPS from reach when in a group situation. Against a solo mob, you should already not be having a problem, since we have a single mob taunt and it comes up pretty often and also you should be out-DPSing her by a substantial margin.

Secondly, you should probably look strongly at the STR AGI lines for DPS, again to hold aggro. Skip the STR end ability and go for the second STA ability to get your taunt.

[Antas22]

First, I'll say that 4/8 STA is a horrible idea. You'll generate more agro from a single hurricane proc auto-attack than that AE taunt ever will. By and large, our taunts are useless, except in Palace, on Varsoon, but that's only because of the interrupt. Using CA's will more effectively generate agro 100% of the time. As for AA, I'd go as far as to say that a very slightly modified cookie-cutter Swash spec will work just fine:

STR 4/4/8/8 (Swipe is superfluous if you aren't raiding, the added defense will help)

AGI 4/8/4/6/2 (Sailwind is a godsend, I can't imagine any rogue living without it, even if Pirate Stab won't be doing you much good)

STA 4/4/8 (shield effectiveness and HP, obvious reasons)

4/1 INT (Boot Dagger, still effective when tanking, just WTP > Kidney Stab > Boot Dagger > Stealthy Charge > Sack > Lung Bleed and you just got off every back attack in one flurry)

Just hotbar a good roundshield, and a macro to swap back in your offhand weapon. Most of the time, you should be fine dual wielding, but if things get hairy, it's easy enough to swap in the shield to give your healer a little break.

For the Swash tree, Reach is highly effective, don't write it off so soon. The increase in AoE radius really isn't a big deal, it's not going to start pulling stuff you don't want; however, the increase weapon range is huge in any situation. Imagine you're fighting a 4 mob encounter, and someone pulls agro from one. Without reach, they've moved out of range to beat on the person, with it, a hurricane proc hits them with an autoattack which potentially is enough to pull them back to you.

Style has some extremely useful AA's in it to decrease reuse / increase duration on temp buffs, but it's true that you won't get much use out of the endline from the sounds of it, but it still doesn't hurt to have it for some situations. Potency is far greater than the Debuffs line, just make sure you pop 5 points into the top ability in Debuffs, as it is by far our best class debuff.

[TygerMeow]

The other thing I thought about after I posted this is that you need to read Blame Blade carefully. You aren't automatically guaranteed to get the hate, especially since she is melee DPS. You might want to both have your Persona windows up (I think it will show up there) and either fight a few battles or use a training dummy and see who is getting the hate most often from Blame Blade. You might have to alter your tactics a bit and have her come into melee only after you have used BB and hit the mob again.

Even without being in the same room, this easy enough to macro. Just put two CAs, BB first, in one macro, then "/g Mystic enter melee" and your second round of CAs in a second macro and she will know.

If you put BB, a second CA and the tell into one macro, the tell will fire at the same time BB hits and the second CA is queued, so it will be too early.