I'm having trouble deciding / second guessing myself on what to use my practice points on...I'm a lvl 47 swash in mooshu.

Currently using a stabby/slashy weapon, because I get weapon boost from training on privateer and being a swashy. But I have seen stabby/shooty weapons, so if I trained on muketeer I could get the weapon power boost from that too.

Currently training on privateer, minus one point cuz i used that one for mighty charge (extra movement ^-^) and I have everything the commodore lets u train on, except roost (never saw a reason for that) and calm the troops (don't need an upgrade in will), but recently I got a boss drop equipment that gave me a power, but I needed a shooty weapon to use. Now I'm wondering...was it the right choice to train on privateer? Should I reset and go for musketeer? I like what is available for privateer...but I also think that having shooty powers would be good too, so I could hit multiple targets at long range, combining that with the attack power of the swash. What do you guys think? Any feed back would be nice, good or bad. Thanks!

Careless Natalie Evans lvl 47

I agree with Esperanza that equipping gear with primary stat attribute boosts, goes a long way towards success, Critical Hit Chance, damage output & even Critical Hits taken & less damage taken against classes that share the same primary attribute of Agility.

Also as she noted, not all gear w/ powers are best suited for your class-- especially at higher levels. I will say this though, I recently started a SB & equipped him with a Stabby/Shooty weapon. My SB is only a level 10, but he has ranged, shooty weapon, power cards for every gear slot available to him. As well as some w/ sneak attacks, hiding & Agility buffing powers, via gear.

Early in the game, having ranged attacks that can do up to 2x damage & also reduce dodge (which some ranged Shooty powers do), really make an impact. Plus the majority of the SB ranged powers gear still possesses boosts to Agility & Dodge...& even Accuracy as well. An AoE with a Shooty weapon that reduces several enemies' dodge, makes sure you deliver the goods when attacking. And you still have access to your own SB potent, melee powers. As she stated, SB's have their own powerful AoE's but what they don't possess naturally, is a way to de-buff multiple enemies stats (excluding health) via an AoE. Ranged powers such as Snap Shot, Quick Shot & Uncanny Shot all come with a dodge reduction to, possibly, multiple enemies-- almost guaranteeing that any high power strike your SB delivers next, will land. So, early on you can get the best of both worlds. And since it takes a while for a SB to get those SB AoE's & to develop high dodge & accuracy, having some long distance powers that reduce your enemies dodge, can most certainly help. You will be able to do physical damage via your SB powers & magical, via your ranged, shooty powers-- all in the same battle. Magical is great against heavily armored enemies with melee shielding powers. Some players think that because a melee fighter equips a shooty power, it means they have to lose the blade...nope you just gain a gun.

Now as you level up & become super damaging, with much better powers at your disposal, the effectiveness of using a combined Stabby/Shooty weapon & both melee & ranged powers, may decrease quite a bit. But early on, I have discovered that it pretty much makes your Swashbuckler untouchable & by untouchable, I mean that they don't even attempt an attack period. And since it takes a while to build up that really impressive dodge stat- getting to the enemy first, & from a distance, before they can even step foot close enough to deal damage, really makes it smooth sailing for you.

But I wouldn't recommend trading in your practice points with a design to be more Musketeer like & to be able to use ranged, shooty powers. Because training sticks with you as you level & you'll want to get the most out of being a Swashbuckler first & then work to enhance that with some of the other classes' talents. And of course healing & shielding are always nice to have.

One other thing to add, is that equipping different "other style" weapons and powers for various weapons, has one other amazing benefit-- even if you just try them all a few times and then go back to your preferred weapon class.

That wondrous benefit is getting to enjoy all of the fantastic attack and critical hit animations that the KI artists and programmers spent so much time crafting. Each weapon class has it's own set of animations for each type of power and critical hit. So many of those animations are simply amazing and artistically done, and the artists surely deserve for their works to be displayed. So, for the sake of all of their hard work, I'd say we all owe it to them to at least give their art, of various forms, a proper viewing.

I've, even recently, seen some animations that I have never had the pleasure of seeing before, just by switching up the type of weapon I was using and trying out a power that I normally would not have given a thought to using-- and that's after over 1 1/2 years of playing. So, even if you have your heart set on a specific weapon type, I'd at least equip some different types throughout your travels, along with powers tailored towards that type, just for the neat factor-- especially if you are really into the graphics, artistic concepts and animations behind a game.