Conwitty423 on Jul 2, 2017 wrote:

I'm a swash and I'm starting to get into PvP, I've been asking the question most PvP'ers probably ask themselves: what is the best crew. Right now I have: Fan, Contessa, and Zeena. I want Fan or Contessa, Dragoon, and Nascua. Here is a link to the Fan vs. Contessa debate:

www.pirate101.com/forum/the-tavern/whos-better-fan-or-contessa-8ad6a42b5cedc3de015cefa323294933?reset=1#getPostLikeHistory_8ad6a42b5cedc3de015cefa3232b4934

If you posted this in the Spar Chamber section of the message boards, you would be more likely to attract the attention of the major PVP players.
However, from my limited experience, I can tell you that keeping Fan is best for you because of her agility buff ( we swashbucklers need some buffs when facing classes who have many of these. )
If you go with Nausica, please note that you need to use Valor's armor or fortress on her. I would use Bonnie Anne instead as she's just the superior musketeer.

anecorbie on Jul 2, 2017 wrote:

If you posted this in the Spar Chamber section of the message boards, you would be more likely to attract the attention of the major PVP players.
However, from my limited experience, I can tell you that keeping Fan is best for you because of her agility buff ( we swashbucklers need some buffs when facing classes who have many of these. )
If you go with Nausica, please note that you need to use Valor's armor or fortress on her. I would use Bonnie Anne instead as she's just the superior musketeer.

Your point about Fan and her agility buff is definitely accurate, but your arguments about Nausica/Bonnie are flawed imo. First of all, bucklers as a class lack team buffs (Fan and Toro offer the 2 most useful buffs), meaning that in general, we cannot buff our companions' crit chance, primary stat, accuracy/dodge, etc, like the other 4 classes can. When our very limited buffs and our companions' guaranteed attacks run out, their value goes down immensely. Other classes have a multitude of 3-10 round buffs to make companions extremely effective well in to the mid/late game. Thus, wasting our limited amount of protection buffs on a companion that will quickly become ineffective once Fan/Toro's buff is spent, isn't a smart play. Even if we did have team buffs, I feel that protecting Nausica with anything other than a Valor's shield is a waste. Nausica's dodge is too low to reliably dodge anything, and any strength based unit will chain on her like crazy, even through a fort, as strength is musket's lowest stat. As a buckler, we have to get the most value out of our companions before they die, while saving any protection for ourselves.

As for the Bonnie/Nausica debate, I feel that Nausica fits with a buckler's aggressive playstyle much better than Bonnie. Nausica has significantly higher movement range (not to mention as 2x movement attack) than Bonnie, which bodes well for an early rush. Bonnie's Overwatch 3 can ruin her hidden as well, forcing you to decide whether it'd be better to sacrifice her and get more time to set up the rest of your companions' attack, or whether you should attack immediately. Finally, Bonnie lacks a critical strike (Nausica has 3). Scaterblast is a nice combo move, but not a heavy hitting attack.

Tldr for the original poster: Never use forts or absorbs on companions as a buckler, Nausica is arguably a more effective unit for buckler