Hello Everyone! Since there is currently nothing going on in Pirate, I decided to beat a dead horse and talk about swashbucklers. So, time to pretend like I have played witchdoctor and buccaneer and start the funness! Fun-ness?
Musketeer- My near and dear musketeer is one of the best counters for swashbucklers, because somebody at KI decided that musketeers should be able to stack bombs. So, you know, just Scratch buff and throw out bombs like this is your last pvp match ever. Don't forget to buff yourself with an absorb/fort everyonce in a while. Companions: Chantal, Nausica, Old Scratch
Privateers- Old Scratch buff, big guns, big guns, absorb. After that is done, and the buckler is smashing you in the face, use zeal, and proceed to use your 789,000,001 forts. *Whisper* Privy is REALLY op. Companions I recommend: Temujin, Old Scratch, and Wild Bill/Nausica. See my privy post to see why
Buck- I have never played a buck, and I'm not going to lie and say I have. So, go watch the Fiesty Orange.
Witch- Back from Jeremy's channel? Good. So, the witch I haven't played either, but I have a pretty good idea. Destroy the boxes in the middle asap, scratching buffing round 1 too. Then, if no fog, mournsong. Absorb your character regularly and make good use of mojo storms and and if you have it, Big guns. Companions: Scratch, Nausica, Goro.
Buckler- Fog, fog, fog, fog, fog, fog, fog, fog, fog.
Now, I have never played a buckler, so I have no clue what power to use(sarcasm). Just fog, buff, Rush.
Wishing you all have better luck thank Oklahoma in the Final Four,
Matthew

witchdoctor daruis on Apr 4, 2016 wrote:

I'll give a strategy to how I beat swashbucklers, as a matter of fact I find swashbucklers the easiest class to beat
Ever heard of barricade strategy?
I barricade myself using barricades and use old scratch, Ratbeard and El Toro in that order, Ratbeards first strike 3 demolishes the class and then they can't hit me through my 2000 health barricades

Why, oh why, is my Jump Talent now useless, wails the poor, defenseless swashie

witchdoctor daruis on Apr 4, 2016 wrote:

I'll give a strategy to how I beat swashbucklers, as a matter of fact I find swashbucklers the easiest class to beat
Ever heard of barricade strategy?
I barricade myself using barricades and use old scratch, Ratbeard and El Toro in that order, Ratbeards first strike 3 demolishes the class and then they can't hit me through my 2000 health barricades

That strategy is out dated. Any top tier buckler knows how to avoid this strategy. You simply avoid fogging until you're in range, kill the barricades then regroup away, fog->one turn a unit. It's quiet effective and makes scent pets useless as the buckler is given time to kill them. By playing openly into fog you increase the chances of your pet being useful which is some cases will just win you the match out right, pressure them after they use fog if they fail to pressure you enough, etc.

Also with the barricade strategy you need a Musket because right now with your team you have ratty sitting in front, then toro, scratch, pirate. But what is toro doing for the most part? Jack. Exactly. If you're going to use this strategy you NEED Nausica/Bonnie in your line up to abuse it to its fullest potential.

TechnomagePvP on Apr 4, 2016 wrote:

That strategy is out dated. Any top tier buckler knows how to avoid this strategy. You simply avoid fogging until you're in range, kill the barricades then regroup away, fog->one turn a unit. It's quiet effective and makes scent pets useless as the buckler is given time to kill them. By playing openly into fog you increase the chances of your pet being useful which is some cases will just win you the match out right, pressure them after they use fog if they fail to pressure you enough, etc.

Also with the barricade strategy you need a Musket because right now with your team you have ratty sitting in front, then toro, scratch, pirate. But what is toro doing for the most part? Jack. Exactly. If you're going to use this strategy you NEED Nausica/Bonnie in your line up to abuse it to its fullest potential.

This is in reply to both Hoodoo Nerd and Technomage so let me begin with Hoodoo Nerd
Reason1: True, this strategy is also effective against Buccanners too as I have found it,it can be effective against an aggressive witch who rushed their companions but against passive witch and musk and privy I don't barricade my self in, I place the barricades in front of them, they have no line of sight so I can approach with buffs and about 8/10 I will win using scrtach buff and mojo blast etc I wouldn't call the companions I use useless, play a PvP match with me and see how I use my companions(I'll explain this a bit more in reply Technomage)
Reason2:I summon the barricades during one of scratches buffs (the 50% spell power buff) so the barricades have 1800 health each, now even if they do destroy it I just summon some spare minions to blockade the entrance broken through and if I can't do that that's why I have toro, I use his buff when they are close to breaking through or they have killed my ratbeard

Technomage:
"That strategy is outdated" well fogging and rushing is outdated, you don't see swashbucklers stopping it though
"Kill the Barricades and regroup" my team will be buffed while they are hitting the barricades and then I will do what I said I do to hoodoo nerd when they break it anyway,
Also I don't use a scent pet I use a pet with grant elusive for elusive 3 with el toro's esprit de corps, I can dodge reckless frenzy and basic attacks even from musketeers(as long as the musketeers don't invest in too much accuracy) Well I use Scratch as a sort of musket who is right behind ratbeard dealing extra damage.
I don't think I need Nausica in my line up, I don't always play aggressive she isn't my play style, Altough I do agree I wish I could make more use of my toro when they go for my ratbeard, if I were to replace him for Bonnie she couldn't hold up broken barricades for me, and then everyone would break the barricades like you and Hoodoo Nerd said

witchdoctor daruis on Apr 5, 2016 wrote:

This is in reply to both Hoodoo Nerd and Technomage so let me begin with Hoodoo Nerd
Reason1: True, this strategy is also effective against Buccanners too as I have found it,it can be effective against an aggressive witch who rushed their companions but against passive witch and musk and privy I don't barricade my self in, I place the barricades in front of them, they have no line of sight so I can approach with buffs and about 8/10 I will win using scrtach buff and mojo blast etc I wouldn't call the companions I use useless, play a PvP match with me and see how I use my companions(I'll explain this a bit more in reply Technomage)
Reason2:I summon the barricades during one of scratches buffs (the 50% spell power buff) so the barricades have 1800 health each, now even if they do destroy it I just summon some spare minions to blockade the entrance broken through and if I can't do that that's why I have toro, I use his buff when they are close to breaking through or they have killed my ratbeard

Technomage:
"That strategy is outdated" well fogging and rushing is outdated, you don't see swashbucklers stopping it though
"Kill the Barricades and regroup" my team will be buffed while they are hitting the barricades and then I will do what I said I do to hoodoo nerd when they break it anyway,
Also I don't use a scent pet I use a pet with grant elusive for elusive 3 with el toro's esprit de corps, I can dodge reckless frenzy and basic attacks even from musketeers(as long as the musketeers don't invest in too much accuracy) Well I use Scratch as a sort of musket who is right behind ratbeard dealing extra damage.
I don't think I need Nausica in my line up, I don't always play aggressive she isn't my play style, Altough I do agree I wish I could make more use of my toro when they go for my ratbeard, if I were to replace him for Bonnie she couldn't hold up broken barricades for me, and then everyone would break the barricades like you and Hoodoo Nerd said

I'm just saying this from a perspective that used this strategy back in it's prime. The strategy only really works for Spar. In ranked it has too many flaws. You're a Witch so unless you use all your resource on one unit which you won't be able to see unless you break your barricade ordering you will quickly lose. a good Buckler could use this chance to use up there throwing knives (Yes they're carrying these higher now because of the Buckler vs Buckler mirrors where they're insane) and since the most common team atm is a variation always carrying Fan and Nausica in there build you can just have nausica kill the barrier from a distance. What are you going to do while you wait? No one's buffing you're just letting them get close so even if you do lets say get that 1 turn to hit before they hide it's just there time to Fog and kill Toro if he moves into the open square or ratty then you have to move scratch. Better hope you had time to use all your buffs cause if not he's dead. So at this point you're sacrificing your companions which isn't so bad. But are you getting the most value out of them? Most likely not. That's why I believe this strategy is 'out dated' because there are so many more that get value from there use instead of using them as pawns. That doesn't work well for witch even with scratch's buffs. This strategy probably does work, but only 'ok'. It could prob get you through the Bucklers who are ranked 0-100 maybe 150 but any buckler after that would just abuse this and in sense 'farm you' because it would be easy rank. Big Bad Wolfy for example made a lot of these counters quiet popular to the pvpers community. A lot of bucklers have learnt they're better off waiting to check for the pet vs Witch/Privy because of me. As well as a lot of Bucklers have changed there set up because of Wolfy/Lucas' buckler 1v1's making some AoE's for buckler actually quiet effective and starting to see more play which is what shuts down this strat.

Thank you, I am not very good at PVP and lose every time to s