With the changes around the corner and the spam fest yesterday ( very hard to communicate with so many asking questions in general chat plus the usual idiots spam ) and the focus on Sorcerers DPS ( very warranted ) please take the time to look at ways to bring Swashbucklers DPS potential to the level of Brigands with everything else being equal or do something amazing with their utility to make them wanted ( epic 2 abilities raid wide!) I fear when the changes to Tithe and Epic2 alt bauble arrive the class will dissapear, Gnoma' I realise other classes also need focus at this time to remain relevant and this post is not intended to distract from their issues.
Swashbucklers should get more Blue AoEs with Triple Threat (That do damage, Buffs the Swash and the party, and Debuffs the enemies), all in one sweep. Maybe even make the Swashbuckler the sturdiest scout of them all and THE Scout you'd use to tank something (a skilltree dedicated to it in the expansion (60 % tanky branches, 40 % damage branches) maybe, if more AA was to be added)
IOW, returned to what we were 10 years ago. Hey, maybe they could even give us our freekin' threat transfer back, so we'd once again be considered important for MT groups.
I'm completely appalled by the current state of swashies. They definitely need some kind of fix in both dps and utility to be on par with their counter sub-class, brigand, as well as making them more desirable to be accepted back in the raid. Rogues in general need some love, so please don't take this as "such and such class needs a nerf", because i realize a lot of of classes have become increasingly unbalanced since the release of KA. Besides nerfs never help anyone. There are several ways to balance out a class without nerfing every other class. If they want swashies to be more of an offtank type scout in exchange for dps than fine at least give us the necessary utility to make them more desirable and even still i think the DPS really needs to be adjusted(swashies are extremely lacking in this category atm). possible fixes: Attach debuffs to their dmg-only aoes or give them another aoe with a decent debuff attached. Give them something to turn their aoes into stronger version ST atks (similar to warlocks epic 1.0 myth clicky) to help them out with ST dps Another idea, just tossing this out there, they could give them either a temporary or an until canceled defensive buff of some kind that is either group or raid-wide depending on the specifics of the buff to make their utility more attractive for groups and raids. it could be for DR, defense, parry, riposte etc. I don't know those are just a few ideas. above all else there dps needs to be looked at imo.
If you're going to give them a viable tank option, in addition to providing the tools to mitigate damage more like an actual tank also consider making Swarthy Deception work as a hate xfer to the swash when in defensive stance.
Swashbucklers are in a position that is almost as good as brig. Both classes should get some love like 15% extra damage to all CAs and 20% for swashbucklers.
