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What Swashbucklers Need

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Jun 12, 2012
47
Triton's Song, Relentless, Bladestorm, and an extra 2 ranks of Dodge.

I'm sorry, but having the 2 extra ranks adds absolutely nothing since Swashbuckler already gets max Dodgy from training alone. Unlike some other talents, Dodgy's highest rank is 3, not 5. You're wasting a pet slot thanks to that.

Even though I don't do PvP, I agree with the others here. You can't always rely on stats alone as 1) Powers such as Assassin bypasses dodge, making the talent itself completely useless when a shield would have reduced its damage and helped you survive longer in the long run and 2) RNG.

I've known of cases where a player has higher dodge thanks to Elusive yet still fail to dodge the opponent's attacks even though the opponent didn't have accuracy buff. If Elusiveof all things (which is +50% dodge at rank 3 by the way) can't even help you reliably dodge against an opponent, how would the gear stats alone help? Especially when you take the full blunt of the force?

Now. I know that powers won't always show up when you need them, but there's a thing called Improvise. Stats can't help you much in that department. Bucklers are more dependent on powers because in the end, they're more reliable and work better than stats that you can't even control in battle thanks to RNG.


There's a reason why the so-called "Resource War" is such a huge deal. By having more powers in your hand you can control what you can and what you can't do, and when to use it. You can turn the entire battlefield on your side by playing the right cards. Sacrificing Dodge is worth it when you have defenses and heals to accommodate when you end up getting hurt.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
zuto4011a on Nov 16, 2017 wrote:
i want more diversity because everyone is pigeonholed into running near the same thing for the best results, if you are fine never being your best then your current set up is fine
Sorry, Robert, I was AFK when I received your message to test my gear. I was in the middle of my Scrip Event.
Next weekend will be better ( I may even have that head band, if I get lucky with Sand. )

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
I sort of agree
I agree in that swashbuckler is the most annoying class besides witch to play. When you don’t get fog with a good hand like all your forts and assassians there isn’t much you can do. With that in mind, swashbuckler can also be really good and fun to play in ranked pvp. The barricade “bug” as you call it isn’t really a bug, but a nerf. I think that swashbucklers shouldn’t be able to jump over them. Think about the power barricades. Barricades is pretty annoying and with a nice 100% old scratch buff and sitting behind them with your player on the far left, then Bonnie, a another support, and a tank it is pretty much unbeatable. The fix to this problem isn’t to allow buckler to jump over barricades, but to lower the health of the barricades. Besides where would we jump like on top of the other team? So(my 8th grade English teacher will hate me for this) in conclusion, buckler doesn’t need changes and all the champion bucklers you see in brawling hall is proof of it.

Reckless Jack Collins max
Brave Arther Davis max
Octavio max
Mycin max
Ignacio level 23

Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
54
Easy Ace on Jan 15, 2018 wrote:
I sort of agree
I agree in that swashbuckler is the most annoying class besides witch to play. When you don’t get fog with a good hand like all your forts and assassians there isn’t much you can do. With that in mind, swashbuckler can also be really good and fun to play in ranked pvp. The barricade “bug” as you call it isn’t really a bug, but a nerf. I think that swashbucklers shouldn’t be able to jump over them. Think about the power barricades. Barricades is pretty annoying and with a nice 100% old scratch buff and sitting behind them with your player on the far left, then Bonnie, a another support, and a tank it is pretty much unbeatable. The fix to this problem isn’t to allow buckler to jump over barricades, but to lower the health of the barricades. Besides where would we jump like on top of the other team? So(my 8th grade English teacher will hate me for this) in conclusion, buckler doesn’t need changes and all the champion bucklers you see in brawling hall is proof of it.

Reckless Jack Collins max
Brave Arther Davis max
Octavio max
Mycin max
Ignacio level 23
I disagree. Swashbucklers are by far the most versatile in terms of playstyle out of all of the classes. They change from playing offensive to defensive in an instant with their hides and even without taking fog into consideration, they still do massive amounts of damage and have the best dodge in the game.

Barricades aren't even an issue either since 1. you have the best running speed in the game (especially with buck talents in your arsenal) and 2. often times they're positioned where you shouldn't be able to jump even if you could. In some cases you can even trap the opposing team if you pressure them enough.

Swashbucklers are fine and they don't NEED any buffs, they have all the tools to survive in the meta.

Lieutenant
Mar 27, 2014
172
i'm no swashbuckler but try thinking outside the box. i myself a musketeer but lately i seem to have caught onto the privy tactic of shielding the daylight out of Nausica then sending her in. it works most of the time but only if one of my two absorbs shows up (currently farming for absorb ring and necklace to give me 4 instead of 2). my point is try thinking outside the box. what other companions and gear do you have that could work? my suggestion is use Scratch, Toro, Fan (in that order) and allot of poison/fog gear. fog up then use a Scratch buff to make your poison stronger then rush in before either buff runs out and poison (preferably heal block poison) as many targets as you can. then rush back to Scratch (or have Scratch move up with a Toro escort) then while you do that Fan rushes in with both Toro buff and Agility buff and wreck house on the enemy who are suffering from a strong poison. nothing can stop poison aside from an absorb but you can always purge that along with any other shields so they are soft enough for Fan to deal with. then after one Scratch buff wears out use another and run in again to poison them after the first poison wears out. a small Scratch buff will last long enough for 2 poison attacks or can start strong with the large Scratch buff and high tail it to use the heal block poison. then after Fan and the poisons do their job you and Toro can clean up what's left. (and depending on how he is built, Scratch can help too).

and before you go yammering about how Scratch is useless for buckler, do note that the poison damage is based on your spell power, not weapon power. (i know this cause my troggy shaman has weak poison and when he was buffed by Scratch the poison DoT was increased) so have Scratch buff up that spell power.....

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
Easy Ace on Jan 15, 2018 wrote:
I sort of agree
I agree in that swashbuckler is the most annoying class besides witch to play. When you don’t get fog with a good hand like all your forts and assassians there isn’t much you can do. With that in mind, swashbuckler can also be really good and fun to play in ranked pvp. The barricade “bug” as you call it isn’t really a bug, but a nerf. I think that swashbucklers shouldn’t be able to jump over them. Think about the power barricades. Barricades is pretty annoying and with a nice 100% old scratch buff and sitting behind them with your player on the far left, then Bonnie, a another support, and a tank it is pretty much unbeatable. The fix to this problem isn’t to allow buckler to jump over barricades, but to lower the health of the barricades. Besides where would we jump like on top of the other team? So(my 8th grade English teacher will hate me for this) in conclusion, buckler doesn’t need changes and all the champion bucklers you see in brawling hall is proof of it.

Reckless Jack Collins max
Brave Arther Davis max
Octavio max
Mycin max
Ignacio level 23
I believe that Jump is glitched because it affects me the same way in PVE situations. Prior to the first ranked PVP patch I could jump those barricades ( PVP or PVE ). Jump is a SB Talent and ought to work in any situation. If KI had changed Jump, then they would have informed us in the Up Date Notes ( as they did when they changed Blast of Discord ).
Proper placement of Barricade stops a SB without need of a nerf.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
the minutemen on Jan 25, 2018 wrote:
i'm no swashbuckler but try thinking outside the box. i myself a musketeer but lately i seem to have caught onto the privy tactic of shielding the daylight out of Nausica then sending her in. it works most of the time but only if one of my two absorbs shows up (currently farming for absorb ring and necklace to give me 4 instead of 2). my point is try thinking outside the box. what other companions and gear do you have that could work? my suggestion is use Scratch, Toro, Fan (in that order) and allot of poison/fog gear. fog up then use a Scratch buff to make your poison stronger then rush in before either buff runs out and poison (preferably heal block poison) as many targets as you can. then rush back to Scratch (or have Scratch move up with a Toro escort) then while you do that Fan rushes in with both Toro buff and Agility buff and wreck house on the enemy who are suffering from a strong poison. nothing can stop poison aside from an absorb but you can always purge that along with any other shields so they are soft enough for Fan to deal with. then after one Scratch buff wears out use another and run in again to poison them after the first poison wears out. a small Scratch buff will last long enough for 2 poison attacks or can start strong with the large Scratch buff and high tail it to use the heal block poison. then after Fan and the poisons do their job you and Toro can clean up what's left. (and depending on how he is built, Scratch can help too).

and before you go yammering about how Scratch is useless for buckler, do note that the poison damage is based on your spell power, not weapon power. (i know this cause my troggy shaman has weak poison and when he was buffed by Scratch the poison DoT was increased) so have Scratch buff up that spell power.....
I am thinking outside the box, as you can see from the majority of replies, most SB competitors are "boxed" into a rigid gear set ( ie, you must have this , that and the other to compete ).
Old Scratch is extremely squishy and I prefer to have a more powerful companion in play, my spell power is low, so he is not much use for me at all.

Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
54
the minutemen on Jan 25, 2018 wrote:
i'm no swashbuckler but try thinking outside the box. i myself a musketeer but lately i seem to have caught onto the privy tactic of shielding the daylight out of Nausica then sending her in. it works most of the time but only if one of my two absorbs shows up (currently farming for absorb ring and necklace to give me 4 instead of 2). my point is try thinking outside the box. what other companions and gear do you have that could work? my suggestion is use Scratch, Toro, Fan (in that order) and allot of poison/fog gear. fog up then use a Scratch buff to make your poison stronger then rush in before either buff runs out and poison (preferably heal block poison) as many targets as you can. then rush back to Scratch (or have Scratch move up with a Toro escort) then while you do that Fan rushes in with both Toro buff and Agility buff and wreck house on the enemy who are suffering from a strong poison. nothing can stop poison aside from an absorb but you can always purge that along with any other shields so they are soft enough for Fan to deal with. then after one Scratch buff wears out use another and run in again to poison them after the first poison wears out. a small Scratch buff will last long enough for 2 poison attacks or can start strong with the large Scratch buff and high tail it to use the heal block poison. then after Fan and the poisons do their job you and Toro can clean up what's left. (and depending on how he is built, Scratch can help too).

and before you go yammering about how Scratch is useless for buckler, do note that the poison damage is based on your spell power, not weapon power. (i know this cause my troggy shaman has weak poison and when he was buffed by Scratch the poison DoT was increased) so have Scratch buff up that spell power.....
Old Scratch isn't necessary for Swashbucklers at all because they do not need to use mojo since they're offensive melee class and the increase in damage is not significant enough for him to be worth using.

Not only that but Scratch is extremely frail and you have no ways of protecting him aside from having to sacrifice a fort. (and Black Fog of course)

Petty Officer
Jan 03, 2010
95
AllToonedUp on Jan 26, 2018 wrote:
Old Scratch isn't necessary for Swashbucklers at all because they do not need to use mojo since they're offensive melee class and the increase in damage is not significant enough for him to be worth using.

Not only that but Scratch is extremely frail and you have no ways of protecting him aside from having to sacrifice a fort. (and Black Fog of course)
I am about as seasoned a pvp player as they come and after having run him in ranked for almost the entirety of a season and champing with him, I have to disagree with you that scratch isn't worth using on swashbuckler.

Yes, he is super frail, but if you're able to use him optimally with big poisons and early game pressure, you'll also have his buff to more effeciently heal off any damage you took in the process. Add the threat of purge into the mix and you'll be at such an early game advantage that your opponent will often need to play perfectly just to make up the lost ground.

Granted though, there are many ways to mitigate his effectiveness like using a scent pet or simply spreading out units. Also you have to be next to him to receive the buff and he usually dies before he can use all of them. All of that aside though I just wanted to make a point that he is definitely worthwhile on swashbuckler and shouldn't be slept on.

Also if you're reading this, anecorbie, there are players out there like myself who know how to (and like to) deviate from the norms of the meta, but you need to understand that there is a difference between what works best and what can work. There's nothing wrong with (and I very much encourage) using and trying different setups, but there's a point where you have to realize and acknowledge that not every idea is practical.

Lieutenant
Mar 27, 2014
172
AllToonedUp on Jan 26, 2018 wrote:
Old Scratch isn't necessary for Swashbucklers at all because they do not need to use mojo since they're offensive melee class and the increase in damage is not significant enough for him to be worth using.

Not only that but Scratch is extremely frail and you have no ways of protecting him aside from having to sacrifice a fort. (and Black Fog of course)
perhaps you did not read the bottom part. i said "before you yammer on how Scratch is useless for buckler....." don't automatically assume something wont work all because it doesn't seem like the obvious choice at first. if you meant to say "Old Scratch isn't necessary for Buccaneers" then i would have agreed with you since Bucks have nothing that use spell power and are the only class to do so. Musketeers use spell power for traps and bombs. Privy use it for heals and bombs. witch use it for everything basically. and Buckler use it for poison.

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
the minutemen on Jan 25, 2018 wrote:
i'm no swashbuckler but try thinking outside the box. i myself a musketeer but lately i seem to have caught onto the privy tactic of shielding the daylight out of Nausica then sending her in. it works most of the time but only if one of my two absorbs shows up (currently farming for absorb ring and necklace to give me 4 instead of 2). my point is try thinking outside the box. what other companions and gear do you have that could work? my suggestion is use Scratch, Toro, Fan (in that order) and allot of poison/fog gear. fog up then use a Scratch buff to make your poison stronger then rush in before either buff runs out and poison (preferably heal block poison) as many targets as you can. then rush back to Scratch (or have Scratch move up with a Toro escort) then while you do that Fan rushes in with both Toro buff and Agility buff and wreck house on the enemy who are suffering from a strong poison. nothing can stop poison aside from an absorb but you can always purge that along with any other shields so they are soft enough for Fan to deal with. then after one Scratch buff wears out use another and run in again to poison them after the first poison wears out. a small Scratch buff will last long enough for 2 poison attacks or can start strong with the large Scratch buff and high tail it to use the heal block poison. then after Fan and the poisons do their job you and Toro can clean up what's left. (and depending on how he is built, Scratch can help too).

and before you go yammering about how Scratch is useless for buckler, do note that the poison damage is based on your spell power, not weapon power. (i know this cause my troggy shaman has weak poison and when he was buffed by Scratch the poison DoT was increased) so have Scratch buff up that spell power.....
I don’t know what rank you are, but you are wrong for higher ranks. From hero and above literally everyone runs armors and forts. With that in mind, a 100% buff in spell power should make your damage per turn around 500. 500 is a solid amount of damage, but scratch is basically useless after using his 100% since poisons can’t stack. If poisons could stack scratch would be even better than fan for buckler, but the fact is they can’t. If I was against a buckler using scratch I would just spread out my companions and kill scratch with my pirate. Scratch also has no use for agility buffs and is worthless with fog. Using nausica, fan and toro is a much better option than old scratch. In your strategy you said to keep running back and forth spamming poisons and purging armors away. The fact is people run more than one armor and there is also fort. Only buck and buckler are limited to one armor, and scratch is a joke for both those classes. Literally everyone runs witch hunter in ranked and scratch is completely useless against witch hunter.

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
AllToonedUp on Jan 15, 2018 wrote:
I disagree. Swashbucklers are by far the most versatile in terms of playstyle out of all of the classes. They change from playing offensive to defensive in an instant with their hides and even without taking fog into consideration, they still do massive amounts of damage and have the best dodge in the game.

Barricades aren't even an issue either since 1. you have the best running speed in the game (especially with buck talents in your arsenal) and 2. often times they're positioned where you shouldn't be able to jump even if you could. In some cases you can even trap the opposing team if you pressure them enough.

Swashbucklers are fine and they don't NEED any buffs, they have all the tools to survive in the meta.
I never said swashbucklers aren’t versatile. Buckler may have the highest dodge in the game, but only buck and other bucklers are vulnerable to being dodged. Privy can buff accuracy and dodge with espirit to the point where every nefarious scorpion they have summoned has higher dodge than bucklers, muskets accuracy is insanely high, and witch you can just slow and spam to death with mournsongs and mojo storms. I PROMISE you that I don’t think buckler needs significant change. It’s just certain aspects about buckler that are annoying to play. I have discarded 3 entire hands and haven’t gotten fog before and let me tell you, it’s not a fun experience. When you don’t get powers you need to win the game every other game, people assume that buckler needs a buff.

Lieutenant
Mar 27, 2014
172
Easy Ace on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
I don’t know what rank you are, but you are wrong for higher ranks. From hero and above literally everyone runs armors and forts. With that in mind, a 100% buff in spell power should make your damage per turn around 500. 500 is a solid amount of damage, but scratch is basically useless after using his 100% since poisons can’t stack. If poisons could stack scratch would be even better than fan for buckler, but the fact is they can’t. If I was against a buckler using scratch I would just spread out my companions and kill scratch with my pirate. Scratch also has no use for agility buffs and is worthless with fog. Using nausica, fan and toro is a much better option than old scratch. In your strategy you said to keep running back and forth spamming poisons and purging armors away. The fact is people run more than one armor and there is also fort. Only buck and buckler are limited to one armor, and scratch is a joke for both those classes. Literally everyone runs witch hunter in ranked and scratch is completely useless against witch hunter.
which is why you conserve the scratch buffs and only use one when you are ready to use a poison. i've seen a handful of players use each buff after another, wasting them. and when one poison wears out you can go use another. dont try and stack them. you'd just waste them. also almost no one runs Witch Hunter anymore after it was nerfed. of all 100 matches i did in rank only a 1/10 of them ran Witch Hunter and that was mainly to counter Soul Shroud. and you only purge after they have all the shields up. dont waste on a single absorb which can most likely break from a hidden Strike.

Petty Officer
Jan 03, 2010
95
Easy Ace on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
I never said swashbucklers aren’t versatile. Buckler may have the highest dodge in the game, but only buck and other bucklers are vulnerable to being dodged. Privy can buff accuracy and dodge with espirit to the point where every nefarious scorpion they have summoned has higher dodge than bucklers, muskets accuracy is insanely high, and witch you can just slow and spam to death with mournsongs and mojo storms. I PROMISE you that I don’t think buckler needs significant change. It’s just certain aspects about buckler that are annoying to play. I have discarded 3 entire hands and haven’t gotten fog before and let me tell you, it’s not a fun experience. When you don’t get powers you need to win the game every other game, people assume that buckler needs a buff.
Discarding 3 entire hands just to pull black fog is honestly just a laughable mistake. Contrary to what many people think and believe, black fog is not needed to win matches on swashbuckler. Not getting certain powers when it would be ideal to use them speaks nothing about the fitness of a class to succeed, it's just bad luck, rng happens, improvise. I think swashbuckler is the class that can adapt the most easily in those scenarios actually. The class doesn't need to be changed at all. This is all coming from a (legitimate) champion swashbuckler mind you, I can assure you I'd vouch for my class if we genuinely needed a buff. Don't shift the blame on the class when you're the one to be blamed for your own shortcomings.

Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
54
the minutemen on Jan 26, 2018 wrote:
perhaps you did not read the bottom part. i said "before you yammer on how Scratch is useless for buckler....." don't automatically assume something wont work all because it doesn't seem like the obvious choice at first. if you meant to say "Old Scratch isn't necessary for Buccaneers" then i would have agreed with you since Bucks have nothing that use spell power and are the only class to do so. Musketeers use spell power for traps and bombs. Privy use it for heals and bombs. witch use it for everything basically. and Buckler use it for poison.
First off, I never said Old Scratch was useless for Swashbucklers, I just said he wasn't necessary as in you don't NEED to rely on him. Witchdoctors/Musketeers/Privateers need him because their magic is much weaker without him and they're all classes that are RELIANT on magic. Swashbucklers can function fine with just El Toro/Fan/whoever.

My point isn't that Old Scratch is absolutely garbage for Swashbuckler, what i'm saying is that scratch isn't the most OPTIMAL choice. I agree with everything else though.

Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
54
Easy Ace on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
I never said swashbucklers aren’t versatile. Buckler may have the highest dodge in the game, but only buck and other bucklers are vulnerable to being dodged. Privy can buff accuracy and dodge with espirit to the point where every nefarious scorpion they have summoned has higher dodge than bucklers, muskets accuracy is insanely high, and witch you can just slow and spam to death with mournsongs and mojo storms. I PROMISE you that I don’t think buckler needs significant change. It’s just certain aspects about buckler that are annoying to play. I have discarded 3 entire hands and haven’t gotten fog before and let me tell you, it’s not a fun experience. When you don’t get powers you need to win the game every other game, people assume that buckler needs a buff.
I can agree with buffing Swashbucklers, but also keep in mind that it's pretty easy to break a class that has the highest damage and dodge without taking their flaws in consideration as well.

Petty Officer
Jan 03, 2010
95
the minutemen on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
which is why you conserve the scratch buffs and only use one when you are ready to use a poison. i've seen a handful of players use each buff after another, wasting them. and when one poison wears out you can go use another. dont try and stack them. you'd just waste them. also almost no one runs Witch Hunter anymore after it was nerfed. of all 100 matches i did in rank only a 1/10 of them ran Witch Hunter and that was mainly to counter Soul Shroud. and you only purge after they have all the shields up. dont waste on a single absorb which can most likely break from a hidden Strike.
What queue have you been in? Every single experienced player I've fought in ranked has had witch hunter. Also, a max scratch buff absorb doesn't break to a hidden assassin strike unless it's a mega or super hit.

Ando uh, witch hunter was nerfed? If anything it was buffed (it was buffed) the last change it had.

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
Wolf SkullRider on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
Discarding 3 entire hands just to pull black fog is honestly just a laughable mistake. Contrary to what many people think and believe, black fog is not needed to win matches on swashbuckler. Not getting certain powers when it would be ideal to use them speaks nothing about the fitness of a class to succeed, it's just bad luck, rng happens, improvise. I think swashbuckler is the class that can adapt the most easily in those scenarios actually. The class doesn't need to be changed at all. This is all coming from a (legitimate) champion swashbuckler mind you, I can assure you I'd vouch for my class if we genuinely needed a buff. Don't shift the blame on the class when you're the one to be blamed for your own shortcomings.
I would absolutely love if you pointed out where I said buckler needs a buff. I don’t know what makes you think I’m a non legitimate champion, but whatever floats your boat. I was just stating how buckler, like any class, can be annoying to play which makes people think they need a buff while in reality, they don’t. I feel you just want to disagree which is fine, be entitled.

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
Wolf SkullRider on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
Discarding 3 entire hands just to pull black fog is honestly just a laughable mistake. Contrary to what many people think and believe, black fog is not needed to win matches on swashbuckler. Not getting certain powers when it would be ideal to use them speaks nothing about the fitness of a class to succeed, it's just bad luck, rng happens, improvise. I think swashbuckler is the class that can adapt the most easily in those scenarios actually. The class doesn't need to be changed at all. This is all coming from a (legitimate) champion swashbuckler mind you, I can assure you I'd vouch for my class if we genuinely needed a buff. Don't shift the blame on the class when you're the one to be blamed for your own shortcomings.
Also, it is funny you’d say that buckler doesn’t need to be changed as that is extremely hypocrical. Allow me to quote “The only point I somewhat agree with you on is lack of team buffs, our only real ones lying in Toro and Fan. I definitely see room for improvement for the class in that regard, though imo it's still unreasonable to say it's a necessity”

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
the minutemen on Jan 27, 2018 wrote:
which is why you conserve the scratch buffs and only use one when you are ready to use a poison. i've seen a handful of players use each buff after another, wasting them. and when one poison wears out you can go use another. dont try and stack them. you'd just waste them. also almost no one runs Witch Hunter anymore after it was nerfed. of all 100 matches i did in rank only a 1/10 of them ran Witch Hunter and that was mainly to counter Soul Shroud. and you only purge after they have all the shields up. dont waste on a single absorb which can most likely break from a hidden Strike.
Good points, I might even try using scratch in ranked!

Petty Officer
Jan 03, 2010
95
Easy Ace on Jan 28, 2018 wrote:
I would absolutely love if you pointed out where I said buckler needs a buff. I don’t know what makes you think I’m a non legitimate champion, but whatever floats your boat. I was just stating how buckler, like any class, can be annoying to play which makes people think they need a buff while in reality, they don’t. I feel you just want to disagree which is fine, be entitled.
Unless you didn't reach champion legitimately, I can assure you that this was not directed at you. Also for what it's worth, no legitimate champion I know, would discard 3 entire hands just to pull black fog (and I do know all of them btw, perks of being regular in the pvp scene). The disgustingly vast majority of players with a champion weapon got their rank from boosting, it's an unfortunate fact. On top of that I've never heard of you before, which makes that even harder to believe for me.

Perhaps I misinterpreted the tone of your message so for that I apologize, though nothing I've stated previously can really be refuted by an experienced player (again, not implying that you did, and not directed at any one person in particular).

Petty Officer
Jan 03, 2010
95
Easy Ace on Jan 28, 2018 wrote:
Also, it is funny you’d say that buckler doesn’t need to be changed as that is extremely hypocrical. Allow me to quote “The only point I somewhat agree with you on is lack of team buffs, our only real ones lying in Toro and Fan. I definitely see room for improvement for the class in that regard, though imo it's still unreasonable to say it's a necessity”
"Seeing room for improvement" does not mean I think the class needs to be changed. It doesn't, and I strongly believe that anyone who thinks it does is just not an experienced enough player to realize that (hence this thread existing). I was simply acknowledging a point made in the original post, please don't take it out of context.

Ensign
Sep 03, 2010
14
If any class has to rely on a single companion to win, then it's the fault of the player. I know people from every class who have gotten to champion rank legitimately without using scratch. Witchdoctors benefit from scratch the most, that part is true and most of them do use scratch but when it comes to ranked, most of the people who use scratch use him completely incorrectly. I see countless times people using his flow mojo, flow, and not taking out the middle boxes. Point is, everybody thinks scratch is needed on these spell based classes but he's really not, he's a playstyle type companion.. if he suits yours then you'd use him. I for one am I privateer, and I've been doing ranked for quite some time but have never used scratch just due to the fact he doesn't suit my playstyle. In spar chamber I typically lose whenever I attempt to use him. On the point of swashbucklers though, if you're a swashbuckler who absolutely needs fog to win.. you've got to practice more. This is a reoccurring problem I'm seeing with the pvp community now, the skill gap is constantly dropping ever since the first rotation of seasons ended. Fog used to not be such a crutch, there used to be quite a few really good musketeers, used to be A LOT less people reliant on being a buccaneer and used to be a lot more privateers who didn't even want to use scratch. Anyways this is just my point of view on the whole thing. Swashbucklers are fine how they are. Recently watched a no rules match where a swashbuckler beat a witchdoctors who was using summons galore, banner, scratch etc and he only had the standard set of 3 forts, purge and spring champ weapon. It was in spar chamber as well so the witch had plenty of time to setup and buff himself unlike ranked.

Lieutenant
Mar 27, 2014
172
Wolf SkullRider on Jan 28, 2018 wrote:
What queue have you been in? Every single experienced player I've fought in ranked has had witch hunter. Also, a max scratch buff absorb doesn't break to a hidden assassin strike unless it's a mega or super hit.

Ando uh, witch hunter was nerfed? If anything it was buffed (it was buffed) the last change it had.
it was in fact nerfed. before the change WH would cut the attackers damage stat in half for that round. now it only does half damage to he person using WH. not any of the surrounding targets. this was what September 2016 said about WH when they added rank 4 and 5 to talents.

"This power has been revised. Its previous function reduced magic attacker's damage STAT by 50%. Its new function is to reduce the damage of the next incoming magical attack by 50%."

as for the queue, i always did 1v1. royales are a pain cause of so many players. so maybe that was why you sa WH so often.

Ensign
Jul 27, 2013
22
Wolf SkullRider on Jan 28, 2018 wrote:
Unless you didn't reach champion legitimately, I can assure you that this was not directed at you. Also for what it's worth, no legitimate champion I know, would discard 3 entire hands just to pull black fog (and I do know all of them btw, perks of being regular in the pvp scene). The disgustingly vast majority of players with a champion weapon got their rank from boosting, it's an unfortunate fact. On top of that I've never heard of you before, which makes that even harder to believe for me.

Perhaps I misinterpreted the tone of your message so for that I apologize, though nothing I've stated previously can really be refuted by an experienced player (again, not implying that you did, and not directed at any one person in particular).
I haven’t discarded entire hands for fog since warrior, but I’m just stating that fog can be impossible to get sometimes. I don’t know why you haven’t heard of me, but I’ll try to become more well known I guess.