LOL. It's style-dependent; there is no such thing as "the best."

Like Tactician0 stated, best gear is really going to depend on how you play, what you are playing & the enemies that you are facing.

For PvE and nearing max (in MB and AQ), just having a couple extra Whale's Might, Shark's Fury & using an all Buccaneer crew is sufficient to completely overpower the enemy. I used Assassin's & had extra heals, extra shields & other attacking powers, but to tell you the truth I rarely needed to use any of them. In PvE & with an all Buccaneer crew, having that extra Strength boost, meant for extremely quick high-level battles. That huge boost in Strength is going to trigger so many Critical Hits & a boat load of Blade Storms from a Bucc's all Bucc crew that the battle will be over in a mere couple rounds-- even without using any high-damage attack powers...they're just an added bonus to ensure the job gets done. For me, just buffing the first couple rounds, again in PvE, resulted in no companions lost (pretty much throughout the last couple worlds) & even no need to use any heals or shields at all. The damage from all those Critical Hits, Blade Storms & a couple high-damage attacks, ended things extremely quickly.

I would often help out other near-maxed Buccaneers in Aquila & was quite surprised how much trouble they were having. And equally surprised when I saw that they never even used their Strength buffing powers at all & just rushed in, attacking right from the get go. So I guess when seeing that, it really wasn't that surprising that they had a tough time. Believe me those powers are there for a reason & they shouldn't be underestimated-- same goes for the Juju line of powers, when not going with a same class crew.

As my mom used to say before I went to bed....don't forget to buff your teeth...I mean team...I mean brush-- well you get the idea.

Thank you for taking the time to put together a great list of Buccaneer gear, by the way. Those are some really great pieces of equipment and in certain scenarios are very handy!

zuto4011a on May 21, 2015 wrote:

i'd argue a buck with treant could use the beast banner 3* and be even better, all those strength buffs making the treant critical could easily equal 4k in one round from him alone

I surely wouldn't argue that argument, Zuto-- it's a fine alternative indeed.

I merely was stating what worked extremely easy for me, in regards to PvE and this was before the Beast Banner came into play. Most of my Aquilan battles were over in 2 attacking rounds, with little-to-no health lost to my pirate or crew. With the strength buffs, each one of my Buck's could easily obtain that 4k (many cases more) in one round, as well, because of all of their standard critical strikes, 2-3 relentless and Bladestorms also going critical as well. Quint, Temujin and Holkun, on more than one occasion, each finished off 2, full health Aquilan enemies in one round-- while damaging a 3rd.

But I absolutely do see your point (it's a good one) and do agree that there are certainly alternate and equally effective ways to go-- the key is to have fun and use the crew(s) and powers that gets the job done and makes it entertaining for you. I did mix it up some and play with different crew combos, but the above was a breeze as well.