Hi, i am new coming over from WoW. I am patching atm and not sure if i want to play a berserker or a Swashbuckler. I know a lot say try and see what you like, but i would like to try to get more of a understanding so i can create the toon i think i will like the first time. As a Duo can a Swash tank well enough, and with a Fury be able to lvl up as a team pretty well. In endgame, what is more desired swash vs berskerer? Are swash's seeked out for groups or struggle at times to get one? What advantages would i have over a berserker duo'd with a fury. Can Swash's duel wield or is it sword and board only? Thanks again for taking the time to help i appreciate it!
I find it that it is pretty easy to find a group as a swashbuckler. Swashbucklers with the right gear (try to max mitigation, agi and stamina) can even tank pretty decently. The limitation is that we can not use anything bigger than a round shield. Swashbucklers can dual-wield and use poisons on top of that so our damage output when using our speed and dps buff is very respectable, swashies also shine when AE damage is concerend. We have evac, stealth, and a single target 30 second mezz. The swashbuckler is overall very fun to play. My understanding is that a a berzeker that puts points into the Stamina line (buckler and sword) can dish out amazing DPS as well. Also, as a berzerker you can take a lot more high damage hits than you could as a swashbuckler. You can dual-wield with a zerker as well and dish out very good AE damge as well. A thing to consider is this - if you team up with a fury you will get group invisibility later on anyway. The fury can do a pretty good dps output as well. The swashy has no agro reducing buffs for other group members than himself whereas the zerker does. Agro holding for group encounters will be easier on the Zerker than on the swashy for the swashy has not group taunt and will rely on damage only to hold agro. HTH - Canute/Antedeluvian - 70 Swash/70 Guard - Unrest
Well the swashy could go AA STA line and get some good taking skills, including a group taunt and mit/hp bonuses. I don't think a fury would pull aggro off a swashtank.
Made it to lvl 10 tonight, made a half elf. We are going to try out duo, question is should i go 1 hand slashing with a shield, or stay duel wield for the dps? Game is fun so far just a lot different =).
Try to keep both in your inventory if you have room, then you can take out shield and 1H for more challenging situations. One thing still (though comes late since you already decided lol) is that in the end game there's far too many tanks and it's hard to get a spot in raid groups unless you start up your own, but then it becomes a problem to find enough healers/dps since they are needed in all the raids possibly going on at the same time. So as dps/healer combo you have guaranteed spot in any group/raid :smileyvery-happy:
Cool thanks for the advice, the game is a bit overwhelming at first =). What trade skill works well, have not looked at them to much. Should i waste time doing some AA at 20 or just lvl? Any other swashy advice is appreciated =).
AAs are important, but if you keep doing quests when they are blue(or white, yellow) and don't discover too many places before level 20 and kill some names, you won't have to worry about aas since they will come fast. Tradeskills that work well if you want to be auto-sufficient are jeweler(spells, jewelry) or alchemist(poisons, potions) I would tend to go with alchy since they are consumables and there are a lot of jewelers out there for your adept 3 spells and jewelry. Swashy/Fury is a great duo. And your tanking skills are very good too if you keep your equipement and your spells upgraded. But don't waste too much money at lower levels for that since you will get up to level 20-30 in no time. Then you can start getting better equipement - mastercrafted armor/weapons are not so expensive and are very good stat wise.
Having played both characters to at least 58 I would have to say both are fun to play. It just depends if ya want more damage or more tankage. The zerker tanks better can wield pretty much any weapon. The swash can tank some and can outdamage the zerker in most situations. The zerker is better in aggro control with a true ae taunt. Having a zerker and a swash is really good for ae aggro control with the ae damage of the zerker and the transfer and ae damage of the swash. I have 2 boxed both my zerker and my swash with my inquis and the swash kills the mobs faster. Course i usually just take green heroics with the swash cause blue and whites hit too hard to keep the healing up long enough.
I am level 14 now and having fun so far. At 14 i choose viscerate as my master II choice or whatever. Since i will be 20 this weekend i think i will pick up the expansion for AA's so i can get them at the same time, do they go up some at least just in your normal adventuring without turning off exp? Can i stay duel wield in our fury/swash combo? I like the dps over when i tried one hand slash and a shield. With our combo should i go stam/str AA build? With that build is it one slash build or can you stay duel wield in it? And last thing is it worth it upgrading low lvl skills since you seem to get the new version of it fairly quickly? Sorry for all the questions, thanks for the help.
Now that you're in your teens, skills will start being replaced on a 14 level cycle. I would definitely recommend upgrading the ones you're getting now, as they'll be with you through the mid/late 20's. With a fury, you should be fine dual weilding. Just watch the situation and judge from there - if you're getting hit too much then switch to defensive stance mid-fight, or have your shield hotkeyed and pop that on. As a rule though you should have no problems with green, maybe even some blue, heroics with your duo. Also, as the fury grows, they get more damage spells, so between the two of you you'll be able to deal out some nice damage. You will definitely want to upgrade your taunt so that you can get aggro back onto you when the fury pulls it - nothing worse than a healer who can't heal due to interrupts! Kriki
