Shattered Kingdoms

Gilgon wins.

The really nice thing about swashies is that they are a n00bie friendly PK class. It's not hard to learn PK with a swash, because there is little to do. While it would be nice to see them tweaked, my only request is that they not loose some of that class-that-n00bies-play-to-learn-PK-mechanics feel. I do agree with Gilgon. Swashies are not an amazing class, and even with buffs to finesse and riposte, dodge and/or parry, they still wouldn't be amazing.

I'll piggy-back off Gilgon's suggestions unless I can think of anything else.

sleeper

There is a "detail" that not many care about but it is really annoying when playing a swashbuckler. There are too many barbs in the game. And on top of this the best NPCs of some tribunals or some cool charms or tamed pets pets or bounty hunters are high level barbs. Air elementals, the trio, giant legionnaire, that taslamaran guard, the towering guard, the enforcers who sometimes remove their pike wean facing a swashbuckler, the golden griffons and so many more. With the use of some of the old imba subtypes you could deal with them. Now it's a nightmare. It's not even funny that no swasie in the game can solo kill a single golden griffon anymore without using at least a dozen of vials, be it stone skin or heal.

I know taunt will eventually change. I like focus aim. I also liked Rial's suggestion about better parrying/dodging when many target the swasie. This way without the current taunt the swashbuckler will be ready for the change and not just a meat shield for the ones behind him. You can also combine these with a skill which is something between tumble and kick. The swashbuckler can tumble and kick/stun even people in second row behind their pets. It would work like bash (put the victim into prone stance) only with slight less chances to land. This way the class gets one more active skill and the swasie can still hold someone in the room for a little while. You can make it more interesting by making the swasie to be able to start hitting the second row target with his swords (due to his great agility) after the skill has landed. It is still less powerful than current taunt since anyone can order a pet to rescue him and just leave or recall once he is up. But it will give the class more tactical choices in many vs many situations.

Why do swashbucklers need anything to make them more exciting? If you're finding yourself exceedingly bored while playing SK then you should probably log off and find something else to do.

The last swashbuckler I played I had a blast, and why was that? Because of the roleplay involved with the characters that surrounded my character. It had nothing to do with the skillset of the class.

No amount of code is going to stave off the problem of someone being bored while playing any particular class, let alone the swashbuckler class. I'm just going to say it: if you find yourself bored, then you need to get out and socialise with the rest of the players in the game.

Now the only legitimate reason I can see that swashbucklers might be boring is because there is not a single piece of "eyepatch" or "pegleg" equipment in the game.

Awe, <3, you're talking about me!

how about disarm armor. With finesse with your weapons your can find chinks in the armor and disarm parts of their armor making them easier to hit.

Give swashies specialize! If they choose a subtype not a sword/dagger, allow them to have that weapon type!

Shut up Peso. ;D

That would dramatically OP swashies.

I still think swashies should get staff - also, if a weapon is considered "balanced", which is to say it weighs and handles evenly on both sides, swashes should be able to use it for purposes of dual wielding.

As far as active commands go, I'd suggest the following:

Bind - With the swashes offhand weapon, he engages his opponent's weapon in a lock for a round, cancelling out any physical attacks from the main hand of his opponent. Swash would still receive offhand attacks, and this would still let through brawling/wildfighting.

Flair - For duration of the fight (or 10 rounds), swashie applies a 1.5x modifier to the speed of his weapons, sacrificing a bit of accuracy.

Fence - For duration of the fight (or 10 rounds), swashie applies a 1.5x modifier to the accuracy of his weapons, sacrificing a bit of speed.