Swashbuckler AA FAQ or What we know about AAs so far...

CA's most definately suspend auto-attack. Your casting time interferes with normal autoattack in such a way that if while you're casting you were supposed to Auto-attack, you auto-attack will *wait* until the CA triggers, then it goes off and the Auto-attack timer restarts.

As such long CA's can interfere with DPS rates on fast weapons. In an ideal world, you'll want to marry the weapon speed of your weapon (plus any haste modifiers) to your average CA casting time. Inevitably for swashies post LU#13 (the combat upgrade) any weapon with a 1.6 or so delay or faster will most likely be "losing" some DPS once we're buffed and hasted due to our average CA time about about a second or so.

As such, you want a 1.6-1.8 delay weapon to get maximum value from it when buffed (especially raid buffed). Unless you use no haste at all, then go nuts

So, if I get this right, in a 30-second cycle, you might run 8 to 10 skills which cost you 8 to 10 seconds of your auto-attack (typically .5 seconds to cast and another .5 to recover). So Swiftwind would recover 2 or so seconds of this which might represent 2 - 4 attacks if you dual wield (I'm just doing estimates here). At 40-50 hits per attack, we might be talking about 100 - 200 hits per cycle (plus 2 - 4 more chances at procs / poisons). Not a lot, certainly, but perhaps worth noting since Swiftwind is an "always on" ability: the small increase in DPS (emphasis on small) is effectively a permanent one.
The effect would also be a bit more noticable when doing ID or Swathe. Personally, I tend to use ID in desparate situations and would love to see it's cast time shortened. And Swathe is just plain annoying to cast
The only reason I mention this at all is that the OP states that Swiftwind is only good for increasing your burst rate and I think that is not entirely accurate. I'd like to see a statement to the effect of "It also gives you a small increase to your overall DPS by allowing more auto-attacks to occur" added.
For myself, I am going to give Swiftwind a try. In part, it's because I like some of the other skills on the Agi line (Walk the Plank, particularly). But the other reason is that Swiftwind looks like one of the skills that, once acquired, you would never want to give up. Once used to the faster casting time, I should think going back to the standard timings would feel clumsy and doltish. I didn't become a swashbuckler to feel like a dolt!
By the same token, I'll probably go up the Int line after that. Once you have FD (my alt is a monk), you wonder how you functioned without it. The 30-second timer is no fun though and I'm not dying for the other skills on the Int line, so I'm still undecided there.
Lunette
Swashbuckler / Jeweler
Permafrost

This assumes you can't autoattack during the CA recovery period, which I'm pretty sure you can. If that's the case, you're actually only saving 0.1s on every CA in regard to autoattacks. 1.0s of extra autoattack DPS over the course of 10 stanrdard CAs is a pretty minimal damage proportion.
Also, any opportunities to proc on those autoattacks are probably counteracted by the reduced CA cast time, now that CA proc rates are normalised according to cast time.
I dunno... maybe it would pay off, but I'm definitely skeptical.

Look at it this way...
If you spam your arts during the start of battle and spamming them takes a combined time of 6 seconds now, it will take only 4 seconds with Sailwind. So, that's 2 more seconds of auto-attack between the last CA spam and the first refresh. While minimal, with double attack, it should translate into extra dps. Not much... but definately more.
On the FLIP side of that... it also means more possibility for ripostes, blocks, etc.

Actually, I think it would be even less than that.

Using a CA doesnt necessarily mean you lose 'autoattack time', chances are your swing will be on refresh during the whole cast time, meaning the CA didnt 'interrupt' your autoattack in any way. But then again,it could be the complete other way and your weapon was just about to hit when you start casting - and the whole cast time is added as a delay to your swing. So the time Sailwind can win you during a 0.5 sec cast CA should be between 0.0 and 0.1 seconds - on average likely in the middle of those (0.05s).

And since you normally spend a pretty small amount of your time actually casting CA's... this autoattack advantage gets even smaller.

Ouch, is that how it works? I always thought haste gives you more procs too (since you hit more often), that the weapons (or CA's in this case) still use their 'natural' (listed) delay to calculate procs? If this is true, guess I dont have to be jealous for how swashie haste might work with double attacks (and the increased proc rate that should come with them).

Wouldnt it be 4.8 vs 6.0 seconds? And while Sailwind in this situation would give you 1.2 seconds for 'pure' autoattack, it at the same time means you lost 0.6 seconds for autoattack while you spammed your CA's (shorter recovery times). So during these 6 seconds you would have gained 0.6 seconds for autoattack, which (if what I wrote above is true at all) might not even get utilized.

Just some info on the movements speed increase in the Agility line...
It does not stack with any other run speed buffs, like Pathfinding. So it is really only usefull when your are in combat mode and trying to run away from something. It does not work while stealthed, so it really isn't a base movement speed increase.

It would be a lot more desirable if it was actually applied to your base movement speed and thus stacked with all runspeed buffs and worked while stealth. As it is now, it's mostly worthless.

Tier 4 is a 5% increase, incase anyone wondered.

Why I'm going for Sailwind (25% reduction in cast times and cooldown timers):

1. Burst damage matters. In many fights, we need to kill off part of the encounter as fast as we can, or the combined dps of the mobs will outpace the ability of the healers to keep the tank alive
2. Landing our debuffs faster means the mob is fully debuffed faster, which means more group dps, and less damage taken
3. Using more skills means more dps. In many short fights, some skills are unused due to lack of time to use them. With Sailwind, we'll use more of our skills, so do more dps
4. Mez faster. Useful for saving healer from an add. Until end-game our mez takes 2 seconds, with this it is 1.5. And if in midst of another skill when add spotted, that skill will complete faster, as will its cool-down. This will often mean mezzing 0.7 seconds faster than before, which could be crucial
5. Stun faster (see mez above). In particular, the Swathe line takes 2 seconds to cast, and is a great skill if the healers are having trouble keeping the main tank alive. If we can cast faster, our AoE stun may save the group
6. Help tank get aggro faster, if using aggro transfer on the main tank (assuming we don't actually grab it ourselves)
7. Slight increase in autoattack dps. If using 2 second skills like Swathe, as well as all our single target skills, the total cast-time is significant, and a 25% saving means we have extra seconds for other things like auto-attack, or debuffing

But I'll need to be careful of a couple of things:

1. Spamming all my skills all the time will eat power in a fast pulling experience group. I may need to miss out the more power hungry skills
2. Spamming my skills faster means a greater risk of grabbing aggro
3. It does bring some benefit to raids (like debuffing faster), but other branches may bring more

But of course there's an opportunity cost. The other lines have very attractive features. Until the swashie community has tried them all out we won't know for sure if getting Sailwind is as good an option as it seems.
Message Edited by tawek21 on 03-14-200607:20 AM

The movement speed buff also does not stack with Journeyman boots. Had to take them off to see the speed 2% speed boost from it on Persona screen. With them on and no buffs, it was flat 10% from JBoots
.

Still in the agility line, the 4th ability, additional attacks while behind or flanking your target, appears to only have the % chance increase as you add points. I am at level 2 now and can see the stats for level 3 and the damage range is constant for all 3 levels so far

Do we have 100% clarity on whether blue quests count for AA purposes yet? I'm on PvP and getting any quests done in EL and Zek is nigh on impossible as the FPSum have taken over them. So I have combat xp off and am trying my best to get as many white/yellow con quests done without levelling up and needing to go into certain death. Therefore, I don't want to 'waste' xp by handing in blue quests if they aren't going to count.

Mentla,

Blue quests and higher give you AA exp, green quests don't.

This creates an interesting situation.

I am told by level 70 folk that to get just *one* AA point requires as much experience as to go from level 69 to level 70 ... if you've still got 30 points to get, that is a huge amount of grinding. You can use quests and named kills too, but, after a point, you'll probably run out of high level content.

So level 70 players may ask low levels to let them mentor: to kill low level nameds, and complete low level quests. In my opinion, this is a welcome development. At last high levels, instead of being asked to help lowbies complete difficult quests, will also need lowbies to do them favors

I hope SoE don't change this. For people who bought KoS when only level 20, this won't be a problem. By the time they get to level 70, they may have maxed their AA points already, but those who were level 60 when they got it ... probably have a long road ahead.

And by allowing all this mentoring, SoE reward players for enjoying low level content they may have missed the first time round, and create a more integrated community of lowbies and highbies who often group together

As previously stated only blue or higher quests that are non-repeatable give you AA experience. Blue quests that are repeatable will never give AA exp, and I've found that alot of quests are considered repeatable some of which I had no idea were repeatable. Unfortunately, its often impossible to tell until you turn em 'in. Maybe a guide out there that accurately represents whether a quest is repeatable, but I've never noticed it,
Message Edited by dagoo7 on 03-16-200610:47 AM

I've wasted a few solid days (only get a few hours a night online) grinding quests I had no idea were repeatable.

Little thing I find is helping is turning combat xp off so you dont level so quick. Getting about 1 AA per lvl since I hit 20. Only problem is PvP kills don't seem to count like this but deaths do. Was back down to Hunter and no amount of slaughter seems to redress it (this is with my baby Swashy).

I really don't think it makes much sense to turn off the combat xp. By doing this you can probably eke out a few more % of AA an per level by doing this, but you are putting yourself in a position where you will have to grind for normal exp later. AAs are great but they aren't so great that you should cripple your normal progression for them.
I think its best and sanest just to progress as normally and get AA exp as you go. Only difference I would suggest would be to focus on lowest level blue quests first as you progress. Exploration and item exp you get regardless of your level and you will progress quite fine.
I was already 24 when KOS came out and just hit 43 yesterday and already have 12 AA levels without doing anything other than what I stated above (keep in mind the first AA levels are easy no matter what you do), And I have yet to venture into Everfrost, Lavastorm, or DOF for the massive exploration exp or tier 5 item exp. I guarantee that if you worked your **** off with combat exp off, you would not be in a much better place in terms of AAs, you would just increase your /played time dramatically to make it to a similar level.
Just relax, play with AAs in mind, but don't make it an obsession.

just for curious sake how do you turn off combat xp?

I wasn't even aware you could (or why you would possibly want to) til I saw the post above. However, last night, I right clicked on exp bar and there was an option to "disable combat exp". Now I'm afraid that I'll click on it accidentally.
Would seem to have very limited uses and only be worthwhile in an extremely rare instance, where you needed loot or credit from a named mob that was about to grey out to you. I would still never use as if it was about to grey out to me, that quest or item could likely be written off as no longer valuable (except maybe in an instance of a unique heritage item like FBSS).

I wouldn't worry too much about doing it accidently and not noticing.
When you turn it off you get a massive message on the screen about not earning combat for this encounter. It's so annoying that I never turn off combat xp anymore just cause I hate that message.

Nalvest - Permafrost
70 Swashbuckler / 70 Weaponsmith
Robur et Decus

Why I'm going for Sailwind (25% reduction in cast times and cooldown timers):

Important note: Sailwind does NOT reduce recast anymore, as it did in BETA. It reduces cast time, and recovery time.
Cast time ( from the time you click until it happens) is usually 1-3 sec, so reducing it by 25% will make some difference in how quickly you can get a spell off, but not much.
Recovery time( from the time it happens until you can click again) is usually only 1 sec, so reducing it by 25% will not make much of a difference at all, IMHO.

Inspired by your faq, I've created a set of threads for more detailed discussion of the Agility line:

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=33&message.id=10192&jump=true#M10192

If folk add their comments about individual skills in the relevant thread, then those thinking about a particular skill know exactly where to look.
If anyone likes the idea, and would like to create a similar set for one of the other branches, please go ahead. If I have time, and no one has done it, sometime I may do so myself, but I won't have first-hand experience of those branches.

I got my first AA option at level 6