Swashbuckler's Tutorial - In-depth look at the abilities

[Nymeria]

An in-depth look to the abilities

One thing I did not mention in the earlier parts, is that Swashbuckler is pretty much a teamfight oriented class (at least if you chose cast for fights).
Just like any other it has some pros and cons but in this part we’ll go through the swash abilities, the things she’s good for.

Swash's tutorial table

[Nymeria]

An overall look at the swash's abilities, and what they do

Swash can be lethal by itself and excels in pure 1 v 1 fights, but it’s also a very good teamfight class.

She has some very interesting party & guild buffs that give :
Damage, Elemental & Dimensional damage, Defense, Block, Skillblock, Stamina/Wisdom/Strength, Heroic defense & Movement speed
We will get back to those buffs to have in a later part.

Her buffs are bringing a lot of versatility to her, because beyond the party buffs and the masks (which give : HP / Melee Dodge / Block & Skill Block / Elemental damage & resistance), she is immune to slows & stun, has some critical hit resistance, some dimensional resistance and some extra damage/cast/attack speed (which also reinforces the hybrid side.. Attack speed is important for crit stance, cast is important for cast stance).
Besides all those buffs, she also have a very interesting “tank” passive, Dodge Form

The swashbuckler, just like her sister the ranger, has the possibility to go invisible. Either for a while, using Unseeable or very shortly with Hide in sight .
Any of them will cancel any buff you have, and the main difference is that you can use Hide in sight while fighting, unlike Unseeable .

Another detail about the swashbuckler, is that she can heal herself and her party members with Restoration

I mentioned earlier she is very good for teamfights, and talked so far only about the buffs she has (which as you can think, make her pretty tanky & consistent)
But the main reason beside that, is the fact she has some very interesting debuffs.
Let’s go through them.

If you’re looking for a resistance debuff, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Swashbuckler doesn’t have it.
But hey, we have some very interesting ones too, such as :

- Skill Block debuffs: Insightful X   / Close Fin Air
- Cooldown Time: Lightning Rush
- Block: Close Fin Air   / Soul of the impossible weapon  
- Dodge Rate : Explosion Image   / Myriad Crescent Slashing
- Movement Speed: Lightning Rush   / Acrobatic Charge   / Precise Assault

Those are the most interesting debuffs. But you can also debuff :
- Attack speed: Breaking Arms
- Skill Cast time: Blue Dire   /  Barrage Strike / Close Skirmish
- Damage: Water Dream
- Stats: Invisible Blade X (Strength & Agility) / Fierce Blow (Intelligence / Wisdom)

Finally you can apply damage over time with Wounding Critical & Recite of breeze

I did not mention stats because according to the buff/debuff level the stats go different.
If needed, I will go through them (feel free to ask me later about them).

Also, unlike other classes, Swashbuckler works with combos. I’ll explain briefly before we get into it.
Just like the masquerade mechanic leveling up the other skills, some offensive attacks reinforce the debuffing side of each other if applied in the right order. In the next section I'll go through that and help you understand how to optimize your swashbuckler’s sequencing.


Swash's tutorial table

[Nymeria]

Sequencing the skills to make the most out of them

Just like the masquerade mechanic of boosting some other buffs/attacks, the swashbuckler has this specificity of having a possibility (unlike other classes) of boosting her own abilities if sequenced right.
It is without any doubt the hardest thing about the class itself.

In a pure teamfight, it is crucial for you to be able to apply boosted debuffs for your team to have a more enjoyable time.
For example, to reinforce Insightful X’s skillblock debuff, you need to have Blue Dire applied.
To apply Close Fin Air’s boosted skillblock & block debuff, you need to have invisible blade X  applied on your target. Those two are the most important to apply as a Swash, but let’s have a look at all the combos:

- While being invisible : Acrobatic Charge   / Precise Assault   / Blue Dire   / Explosion Image / Wounding Critical (To be perfectly honest, no swash would do that. When you come out of invisibility you have no buffs at all, it makes you too easy to kill. And those debuffs are not important ones to boost).
Wounding Critical  boosts up Barrage Strike (Cast debuff) and Invisible Blade X

- Invisible Blade X reinforces Fierce Blow’s Wisdom & Intelligence debuff.

- Fierce Blow allows you to stun enemies with Lightning Rush

- Acrobatic Charge reinforces Breaking Arms’ attack speed debuff

- Breaking Arms reinforces Close Skirmish’s cast debuff

- Precise Assault reinforces Recite of Breeze’s damage over time

- Insightful X boosts the damage debuff from Water Dream

Here is a short video example of boosted debuffing:



Now that you know the specificities of the swashbuckler class and the way her debuff work, we can dig into another part, the itemization and building of a swash.



Swash's tutorial table