Ratbeard, I like how since this update, Swashbucklers are finally operating exactly how they should in theory, with high damage, hidden powers, and damage over time powers. That said, I was thinking about all the abilities swashbucklers have and I realized that there are still two things that don't seem right with swashbucklers.

1) The throwing knives line - The AoE knives have the benefit of, well, AoE, but neither of the abilities deal any significant amount of damage and the only additional effect they have is to slow units down. As a result, I have literally never seen throwing knives used in maxed level PvP play (or even maxed PvE play for that matter).

Suggestion: Give the swashbucklers some sort of power that compares their speed to the speed of their attacker. Give other classes abilities to convert speed into something else, kind of how tower of iron will works with armor, or do something to make speed more important relative to the other stats. Perhaps in the future there could even be gear that increases base speed or something like that. Hopefully, reducing speed would become enough of a factor to melee vs melee fights that knives would actually be useful.

2) Galiant Defense - This power has always puzzled me. In theory, swashbucklers are supposed to be quiet, hidden, sneaky, etc, so why give them a power that focuses attacks on them? I understand that the idea was probably for the buckler to get mega dodge and dodge the attacks meant for his/her companions, but this doesn't work out in practice, especially in PvP with so many guaranteed hit cards. As a result, I have yet to see a max buckler use this power for either PvP or PvE

Suggestion: Give this power to the buccaneer class. It would fit perfectly! Buccaneers train loud, they put shields on and have high armor, what better way to make use of those powers than to direct enemy attacks to the bucc character? This is a perfect way to make buccaneers more tank-like the way they were designed, and I for one would use this frequently as a bucc.

Also, think of how many powers a buccaneer has to work with without cards: eleven. The fewest of any of the classes. Swashbucklers get at least sixteen right now. I think the bucc needs that extra power to work with.

If you won't consider moving the power to another class, could you at least make a drop that gives that power? Perhaps change Metal Guardian's boots to give galiant defense instead of dance of steel? Or maybe add that power to one of the many aquila no trade items that only give stats?