Slust

Ok, it's easy to down something so to put a little perspective on this. The Dual Wield (DW) patch came out back in EoF (T7) days. My guild at the time was a casual raiding guild (never beat Rumbler or could clear MMIS) so all of my gear was instance gear. My only raid piece of gear was Qeynos Claymore.

When the DW patch came out we were raiding Emerald Halls that day. With the WIS spec on I was parsing in the 900s consistently. During the raid I used my Free Respecs and spec'd to a DW DPS spec. After that (the very next mob and beyond) I was parsing 2700 - with Claymore and that legendary Bloodspiller from Unrest. I went from the bottom of (or not on) the parse to the top of the parse. Assassin respec'd immediately after the raid.


You don't lose any soloability dumping the WIS build and going with the DW DPS build. When I solo, I don't take breaks between mobs - not even to wait for CAs. (even if all are down) Each fight is 10s or less. The more dps you do, the easier it is to solo. Not to mention Walk the Plank is HEAVENLY!

Start off with this and work up:

First 5 AA
..............4pts into AGI, 1pt into Walk the Plank (WTP)

Next 5 AA
..............4pts into INT, 1pt into Boot Dagger

Now max out WTP and proceed down the AGI line till you finish it. Then work on the STR line. When this tree is complete than you can start the weak sauce Swashy Tree.

Solo Combo:
Brazen (sneak attack + Stun), 2 back attacks, Cheap Shot (mob should still have his back turned), your triple attack, double attack, (mob is probably facing you now) so Eye Pokey thing, nuke the snot out of it till Brazen is back. When Brazen (ur sneak attack + Stun) is back, hit your WTP to turn mob, Boot Dagger to go invis, Brazen to stun his ass, back attacks if they're up and finish the stupid thing off.

If the mob still has health after all that you must be going after a Triple Up.

Do it right and you'll barely get touched. Stun lock FTMFW! Screw that wimpy WIS spec.

Keyh

Eh, in my experience the difference isn't that noticeable.

With WIS spec and the Fabled Charm's way, I usually parse 3.4k-4k in instances. After finally getting a decent offhand (Finger Boneguard Rapier) I switched to dual wielding, and saw an increase of ~10% in most of my zonewides.

Sure, there's a difference in damage, but I still stand by the WIS spec for soloing, especially if you don't have a decent sword to offhand.

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Keyh - lvl 80 Swashbuckler
Self-proclaimed best, worst Swashbuckler on AB.

Stray

Dude..

it IS possible to make a point without doing the rate-a-retard thingie again.

Was merely pointing out that until you hit the seventies, you can at least do something that used to set us apart from other classes: Fence. And you know whats cool: Till you hit 80, it doesnt matter.

PS Slust - Tripling DPS by going from fencing to DW? You did know that fencing required using at least ONE weapon right

Coel

umm yeah it set us apart till they made it suck. please if your going to be an avid supporter of being mediocre go use eq2players forums

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Slust

So you get offended by someone rating (generically) intelligence and then you attempt to slam mine... riiiiiiiiiiiiiight

Of course I knew you nub. I am capable of reading and the AA window is pretty clear on that part. Don't forget dual wield weapons were drastically revamped at that time and changed into 1-handers.

With fabled epic & carrotidcutter, RoK instance armor, and DW spec - 4.5 to 7.5k with a good group.

If your group sucks, perma stuck in the 4k-5k range (many 3ks) with a ZW somewhere in the 3k range ...or even high 2k if your group REALLY sucks (as in you're doing 40-80% of the damage).


WIS spec is ok for soloing but I don't like relying on my ripostes to do the job, and when you do get behind the mob you don't have the same bonuses as a DWer does. With the DW spec, you make it happen yourself.

Not to mention that if you grow up with the DW spec you're preparing yourself better for later levels to strafe around the mob so you're always attacking it's back. Easy to learn, longer to master. A second is an enternity in the swashy world so every second is critical. The more you work on it the faster you get. This is another reason why I always recommend new swashys just start off with the DW spec.

Coel

why do you keep trying to be an advocate for wisdom spec, it died the day the dual wield revamp went in. i say we play the current eq2 instead of the one from circa 2 years ago

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Keyh

Probably because there are people that use the Wis spec and do fine with it and like it. That's probably what it is.

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Keyh - lvl 80 Swashbuckler
Self-proclaimed best, worst Swashbuckler on AB.

Coel

you cant do fine with wisdom spec, its down right terrible. stop trying to confuse the noobs.

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Keyh

lol OK whatever you say.

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Keyh - lvl 80 Swashbuckler
Self-proclaimed best, worst Swashbuckler on AB.

Tadas

I can't believe people still think Wis spec is viable, it died the day the DW changes went live.