evena wrote:
Dulrik has stated that swashbucklers are a fighter class, not an adventuring class. They get light armor and cannot stand toe-to-toe with others in their same classification. Large weapons are a death sentence for swashies. They have very few skills compared to nearly any other class, especially active ones. While other fighters are dependent on consumables, the swash needs more than others, particularly healing.
I play a swash and I like it: It's a good class for learning PvP, in my opinion. However, there are considerable drawbacks. I would never go against someone 1v1 on a swash unless I knew before I started that I could beat them. They're squishy in PvE as well.
Don't get me started on how insanely necessary consumables are! Proper combat took way too long to get ready for when I played, and I imagine that hasn't changed much!
The problem seems to be that swashbucklers are very much a 'passive skill' class, where the actual class and equipment selection are supposed to do the vast majority of the work, but it is not. I guess what it comes down to is asking the following question: what is expected of the swashbuckler? Is he supposed to deal high amounts of damage? Is he supposed to be notoriously difficult to kill? Is he supposed to be good at both? What's the goal of each character, and what are they supposed to do? We know the Mercenary's supposed to be a tank mixed with a bit of leadership capability, and we know the Barbarian is supposed to be primarily about cranking out copious amounts of damage. Where does that leave the Swashbuckler?
If we want a swashbuckler to be able to be better at tanking,
Solution 1: pageantry (not learned) (AKA, the complicated option)
Code:
[Skills help] pageantry
Automatic
The swashbuckler's fighting style belies a need for mobility, reflected in the
selection of weapons and armor that they favor. Relying on this highly mobile
style of combat for years has honed the swashbuckler's instincts beyond those
of their peers, adding onto the style's flair and tendency for the dramatic.
Those trained in pageantry have ways of dealing with weapons that would put any
other fighter at a disadvantage when it comes to parrying. Additionally, a
swashbuckler receives a bonus to parrying and dodging when fighting multiple
enemies at once.
Those trained in pageantry can only use their abilities when they are wearing
light armor and wielding a finesse weapon in either (or both) hands.
See also: parry disarm weapon finesse
What it actually does:
- Increased chance of parry working against massive weapons. Swashbucklers should essentially feel that, once pageantry is mastered, they are parrying massive weapons just as easily as any other weapon. This is to mitigate the fact that they are wearing light armor, and it is a solution geared towards making swashbucklers better at tanking.
Example Success: Jerin masterfully pulls Vedic's strike aside with a flick of his weapon!
- Additional bonus to parry and dodge when fighting multiple enemies that are targeting the swashbuckler. If a swashbuckler is considered to be in melee against more than one enemy, this means that it can get a little zany.
Example Success: Jerin slips aside as Vedic and Iori's weapons crash into each other!
- For every other weapon, pageantry is functionally similar to having a worse version of shield block. It provides a second potential block against incoming enemy attacks (that is checked before any other kind of block). It is much rarer than shield block (about 1/10 chance mastered). However, when multiple people are targeting the swashbuckler, when pageantry successfully blocks an attack, the attack will instead deal damage to one of the other people targeting the swashbuckler.
Example Success: Orius ducks out of the way of Krog's swing, leaving Falgos to get hit by it instead!
This likely does not fix the fact that swashbucklers will be reliant on "active" defenses. It tries to mitigate their poor armor by giving them a fourth option (pageantry, dodge, parry 1, parry 2), and it makes for a clever extra option. However, you run into the whole "well, what if four dudes attack him" scenario?
You turn it into a kung fu movie I guess. Swashbucklers are now Bruce Lee. Is that so bad?
...
If you just want swashbucklers to be scary, though, here's an easy way to fix that that will turn heads:
Solution 2: Expert - third attack (not learned)
Yes, I went there. I mean, you might as well. They don't seem to crank out a huge amount of damage, and it seems to me that you want to emphasize the fact that swashbucklers do their job quicker than other classes. So the quick solution is to give them a pair of extra swings a turn.
Before you freak out and tell me how awful an idea this is, why not just find a swashbuckler willing to test it out, give them third attack at mastered and throw him against a few classes and see what happens? If it's overpowering, cap dual wield extra attacks at two when unhasted so that you are only giving a swashbuckler five attacks instead of six. Seems reasonable considering you're looking for ways for the swashbuckler to be more effective at his job, and to me his job has always been "dismantle them faster in raw combat than any other class".
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