What is this post?
For those of you who are new to playing a swashbuckler or have questions about our class in general, this post is for you. For whatever reason people prefer to make new threads asking the same old question again and again, so as an easy point of reference, I give you this thread. Make sure whatever it is you want to know isn’t posted here first before you repeat someone else and dirty up our outstanding forum.
Disclaimer: This idea has been shamelessly stolen from Lord Pantz.
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The Newbie Yard
Deities
Valor, Storm and Mischief are three of the better choices for a DPS-oriented swashbuckler. While neither of them is really impressive, we unfortunately do not have access to Rallos Zek, who is much more melee-oriented, unless you exile yourself to get it.
Raiding swashbucklers who regularly practice or kill Avatars will ruin their factions quickly enough to make all deities meaningless over time.
Rogue Achievements
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lord Pantz
I believe there are 2 acceptable ways to go here. One gives you HP and the other maximizes the damage output of your AA CA's. INT is not a viable option unless you solo and like the FD. WIS line 1h specced is also not very viable with all the double attack options that are out there for us in terms of gear or groups. Going to the end of the STA line is also not a viable option because if you want to tank you should have rolled one.
Option A (HP Spec)
Pick Pocket 1
STR 4-6-4-8-1
AGI 4-6-4-8-1
STA 4-4-8
INT 4-1
Option B (Max Dps Spec)
Pick Pocket 1
STR 8-8-4-8-1
AGI 4-8-4-8-1
INT 5-8
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Swashbuckler Achievements
Most players I personally know spec Potency-Style-Reach with all three end abilities, while some choose to go Debuffs-Style-Reach. Here is a quick rundown of the individual lines and what advantages they offer
Reach: The only two choices in this line that are significant enough to put points in are the Hurricane percentage boost and the end-line Reach ability. Increased range on our two AOE Cas and Boosts to our weak ranged abilities are really of marginal benefit to a raiding swashbuckler, but many argue it’s worth maxing out for the reach ability to debuff from afar.
Potency: This line really does not have much to offer the raiding, DPS-oriented Swashbuckler with the exception of the Debuff boosts and the Potency end-line. Guile, Whirl and Turger are all decent choices to throw some points into when trying to reach the final ability, which is nice for a little damage boost via our trigger rate.
Style: Style is probably the best line out there between the Finesse, Insight, On Garde and Censure recast reductions. This is the most direct effect you are going to get on your overall sustained DPS. Advance Warning, while it’s duration is short, does not ward out like the bard ability and can be useful when well-timed during some nastier AOEs.
Debuffs: The debuff line is, well, Debuffs. Boosts for most of our offensive abilities can be found here and can have their effectiveness boosted, however many of our debuffs will have little effect beyond the current amount. Nothing in this line will do anything for your DPS.
Here's a thread discussing different RoK AA specs.
Adornments
DPS adornments are pretty obvious, you want to go for whatever can improve your DPS first and survivability second. These would include DPS mod, attack speed, +STR/INT, +CA damage, and related choices.
As far as weapons go, nothing is really a phenomenal boost, but Phantom and Vampiric handles can come in handy when looking for some small power or health procs.
Group Builds
Autoattack is the single most important facet of your DPS. When seeking ideal groups, you must keep this in mind.
Look for doubleattack, melee crit, and DPS mod first. Haste and +CA damage are also important but attack speed is easy to come by via Bravado and most of our CAs have a very low cap.
Here is some more discussion on stats
Combat Art Upgrades
Hurricane, Spurious Bravado, Ruthless Cunning, Perfect Finesse, Swarthy Disorder and Hideaway are not upgraded past level 70. You will need to look into earlier tier zones to get these at master I. Also Swarthy Disorder is available as a master II choice that does not get upgraded.
Ranged Damage
Despite the fact that our two ranged combat arts require a pouch, you do
not have to use a pouch at the high-end as a Swashbuckler. DPS will always be higher with a fabled bow because of the slower delays and better spreads. That being said, there are a couple decent pouches in VP.
Other Helpful Links:
For the Epic Walkthrough:
Epic Walkthrough
To view some High-End Swashbuckler Gear:
Weapons
Gear
Looking to see what other Swashbucklers look like?
Appearance Slots
Casting Order for CAs:
Casting Order
Swashbuckling 101
