HD123

I am coming to EQ2 after trying out the whole vanguard thing...

I have decided to make a swashbuckler and have read posts on these forums but I had a few questions.

1. While leveling and if going to be solo mostly - what tactic is the best?
- DW until later in-game and go with STR/AGI trees to start off AA's
- or 1-hand and go down WIS first?

2. Also - I notice several people have WIS AA's but dual-wield in the eq2 profiles. Is this just an EQ2 profile thing or is there a specific reason?

3. Being that I will mostly be solo at least at the start - is doing alchemy for poisons a better way to start off or should I go with making my own CA's instead?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Runaf

In my opinion, your best bet is to dual wield through all the lower levels. There are very few slow delay weapons with good spreads before T7, so the whole 1-hand concept doesn't benefit your DPS that much, not to mention the AAs in the STR and AGI lines will do you more good when exping solo.

People might be maxing the WIS line for the Coule AA, or maybe just using it as a third tree to switch back and forth between 1H and DW.

Poison will always be a significant part of your DPS, but so will weapons, armor, jewelery and combat arts. Depending on the level you should be able to find handcrafted or even master crafted poisons relatively cheap. I would just choose a tradeskill based on what you prefer, not out of necessity.

HD123

Great! Thanks for the response.

In turns of Combat Abilities - are there specific lines of abilities you would suggest as a priority to upgrade when leveling solo?

Obviously later in-game I will be going for all masters - but for now I don't want to dump a large amount of coin on Adepts if they aren't going to increase my overall solo ability by much.

Runaf

The Gut Slice, Flurry of Arms, Gaudy Strike, Spine Attack, Offensive Stances, Feigned Bravado, Swipe and Artful Finesse lines are all solid CAs to upgrade as you level. Inspired Daring, Lung Puncture, and Hurricane come later down the line, but they are also going to be important.

Leithe

Defensive stance helps as well, though the difference is more noticeable in ROK as opposed to pre-ROK. In soloing, your most important attacks (IMO) are your offensive debuffs. Pre-58, this is only the "steel swipe" line (though reading again I think that's what Runaf referred to, for some reason I read that as traumatic swipe :P), that's a basic attack with a -dps debuff on it. So keep that one updated. Then at 58, make sure you adept III lung puncture. Makes a big difference.

Try keeping your defense debuff (I forget the lower level name, but it does no damage, can't be resisted, and debuffs defense and wisdom) at at least adept I. It's not necessary to go all-out-twinkage on it, but adept I is good. More accuracy is always better in solo fights.

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saintau

Showing off uber loots :P. You will find some with Shields too. I had shield equiped for a while :P I found DW best to start then switch to Wis once i had many AA, and was raiding (KoS days). There are lots of threads on DW v's 1handed.. So ill leave that one alone but most are from Max AA, Max lvl, Raiding perspective

Tiggin

Everything runaf said was spot on in my opinion. On the alchemist question - i highly recommend taking that as a tradeskill. The other tradeskills you wont end up finding usefull once your at level cap but you will always need poisons and potions. Its a tradeskill that keeps on giving. (also works out a lot cheaper if you end up raiding as you can spend a small fortune on pots)