I was wondering what the general consensus from swashbucklers out there was regarding the usefulness of single target swashbuckler taunt skills. Currently, swashies get Gibe at 24, Reproach at 38 and Disarming Smirk at 40. These are described as single target taunt only on Scout's Sanctuary. Now, given these descriptions I think it's safe to assume that their intention was to allow the Swashbuckler to taunt an enemy, thus gaining the enemies' attention and giving the Swashbucker a tanking role against that enemy. Given the fact that SoE's description of a swashie is primarily DPS and not tank, I wonder how are these skills beneficial when all they do is get a swashie killed faster than normal, owing to their intrinsic weediness compared to role tanks? I ask myself whether a swashie is supposed to have the ability to sacrifice him/her self for the sake of other group members by, say, drawing agro away from the healer/caster/non-scout-non-tank in a multi-mob encounter when the tank loses agro for whatever reason? There are many possible scenarios which I can think up where I might use taunt. However they are all secondary to the swashbuckler's primary role. Now I can accept that life, in the game, is not all about your primary role every second of the day, but my question to everyone is, how often do you use these skills and in what situation(s)?
Well I can maybe pull off a rogue mob that has turned on the healer say, but not the main mob that is on the tank. Not that I'd want to do this, unless he was nearly dead. So I use it as an occassional group skill, to try and help out a busy tank. It has been effective now and again. It's not a skill I rely on or particularly plan on using. Seems like a bit of a waste to me.
I use gibe to pull sometimes, I don't use it to taunt because it's slow casting. I have successfully used gouge, feigned bravado, to pull mobs off the healers when the main tank is busy. I also duo a lot with a warden, so they are useful skills for me to have. I'm level 38, by the way, your milage may vary.
At level 40 I still use my taunt skills to pull mobs off healers regularly. Additionally, even post all this AGI businesses in the patch I was tanking last night. Granted it was against blue mobs or less but *shrug*. Very useful when you find yourself in a group of friends without a tank. The key to Swashbuckler tanking is not just using your single target taunt, it requires a serious change in group tactics and a good "feel" for aggro management. Especially on multi-mob encounters. Try to get all buffs on before the pull. I tend to pull with my single target taunt (Reproach atm). I immediately turn on Swarthy Distraction on myself. When the whole group is in range I fire off both my AoE attacks. If necessary I then charm the named or extra casters. Proceed to start killing mobs. This minimizes the number of mobs that run for the healers. However it doesn't garauntee aggro throughout the fight. Just helps. I don't advocate Swashy's tanking over a real tank, but life is not over for a group that finds itself without one if you have a swashbuckler. It does require a change in tactics, people have to watch their aggro big time. But it can be done, and quite succesfully. Our taunt skills work as described. They aren't garauntees. Now as to the greater philosophical question of whether or not Swashy's should even have taunt skills? I'm invaluable to my guild for my knowledge and ability to tank in a pinch, we go "real tank" less quite often on some nights due to having no guild tanks online. If they removed it and replaced it with something else I'd probably just adapt and move on. I enjoy the ability right now, think it is one of the few things that really singles out swashbucklers from the other scouts. If it's going to stay this way I wouldn't mind seeing us get a few more abilities that do decent damage from the front of the mob. If it's going to change they need to give us something to make up for it but not sure what that would be that would make us unique. Post patch I have yet to tank anything over yellow for any length of time. So I haven't formulated a final opinion on the recent changes. I haven't noticed a single ounce of real differenc eon mobs lower than that yet though.
I assume these are ^^ mobs you mention. It seems to me that we've been designed to be the best scout class at tanking, so I do think we should be able to tank up to blue group mobs fairly well with a healer. Whites should be pretty risky, and yellows should be a serious challenge. That way we wouldn't be an ideal tank, but we wouldn't get our ***** handed to us if we used our taunts to save a group mate. I haven't solo'd enough since the agi nerf to really have an opinion on how our defense has been affected. Some people are really screaming about it though, so it is a bit scary. If we're gonna get 2 or 3 hit killed like a mage, I would want them to replace our taunting skills and that counter attack skill we get at 50.
If you lay in alot of pick up groups, the taunt line can be useful. LAst night our tank died ( because of stupidity mainly). He pulled after the healer said he was goin afk like 10 times Anyway, the tank died so I had to grab agro or everyone else would die. About that time the healer comes back, keeps me alive, and then gets angry with the tank. I was tanking a yellow ^^ mob in RoV. It drained the healers power completely, but we lived. So yeah, its useful even if we arent decent tanks for anything over white anymore, but "useful" is about as far as it goes.
Personally I love the taunt. What could possibly be more 'swashbuckling' than tossing insults at your enemies with a smile on your face and distracting them to your advantage? Sure we do damage, but we have a heavy secondary focus in hate manipulation and utility that helps turn bad situations around for our groups. I loved Gibe ever since I got it. I'd love it even more if I could insult entire groups when things go bad. About the only thing I'd add to Gibe itself would be an accuracy debuff. (The idea being an enraged enemy is so mad he's just swinging wildly.)
I really like that idea. An attack debuff that dropped the mobs attack as if it was one level lower would rock We'd want to use it, but risk getting aggro in the process
Disarming Smirk is not a taunt, it is the uprade to disarming grin...therefore a mez. Scout's Sanctuary information (assuming you used that list) is wrong.
The taunts are useful. You really don't want to hold a mob's attention for too long, that isn't really our role in groups. But, they are handy if the tank(s) of the group have their hands full and a mob decides to pick on your poor healer/caster. Just use the taunt to pull the mob off. Then, switch to your anti-hate moves and let the tank draw it back off you. It is mostly useful for emergency mob management.
