As befitting a group buffer, grouping is the way to go for a SWS to get XP. After level 49 (Song of Hunter) there are few groups to turn you down, if any.
You may find that you usually get by by doing just Song of Hunter and Song of Earth in PvE, especially if you have a BD in party too.Timing for minimizing MP consumption is essential here.
I`d suggest to leave the first two dances to the BD and singin in a mix afterwards...our dark elvin cousins usually need more mp because they buff more and can hex/power break/life drain too if need be.
Unfortunatly partying with a BD also takes away any mental work that you might do otherwise (which defense is best against which mob) because of the Song/Dance nerf...so the usual routine will be "Sing Hunter", "Síng Earth", Autofollow main tank, Attack, Wait 2 min, "Sing Hunter"......
Most of your defensive songs are quite valuable in PvP (especially after 62!), but arguable so in a standard hunting group.
As for Weapons and Armor I might say the following:
You can sing with any weapon (in contrast to the BD who has to use duals), so its basically your sense of style that comes into play during PvE here, although there`s little use in joing a DVC group armed with a melee weapon.
There is no discussion about using a bow during PvP - slow the enemy using Entangle, hit them with the bow and sing as long as you can; works quite well especially with your high critical chance.
As for ordinary work there are two main fractions in the SWS community: One-handed weapon+shield and Two-handed swords users.
The later brings a higher average damage due to the increased pAtt, the former increase your standing power because of the high shield block rate (high dex + two levels of shield mastery)´and hits slightly faster with more chances to crit.
While I use a greatsword in PvE parties, sword and shield is my favorite - just a matter of style here ;)
You should go for SA`s on your weapons with Focus and Critical damage being the most often used; especially once you got Song of the Hunter you may find yourself pulling aggro from the tanks if set up as Semi-DD ;)
There are some SWS`s using Daggers or Polearms too, maybe one of them will comment about this aspect later....
If you want to look up the "effectiveness" part of each choice take a look under
www.l2blah.com (
http://www.l2blah.com) ...someone surely has spliced that up there in detail :/
As far as armor is concerned, I`d settle with heavy armor until 61 and take the set boni into account.
Plate armor during c-grade and Doom after 52 worked good for me, although I have been using a Blue Wolf heavy lately (arh....) to maximize damage during PvE.
Robes are out of the question imo, but light armor might be ok if the set bonus is right (after all you only get 12 levels of heavy armor mastery...)
As for Tatoos:
+Str/-Con is quite useful, but be prepared to fare worse against stunning mobs then ever before.
Increasing Con is not a good choice imo, neither is Dex, although some SWS`s I have talked to use either: + Con to increase your standing time during PvP ("A dead SWS is of no use to his clan"), +Dex and + Str to maximize PvE damage.
Don`t touch the mental stat till after C5, they seem to be changing something there.
Skills and Songs:
Don`t forget that your songs create aggro...an effect that in combo with a higher damage output and Aggression can be used to your advantage if you want to pull mobs off your nukers/healers.
Spare the SP`s on Charm...easily the most useless skill in the game as it is now (there is a threat here covering that in detail already).
Once they make it much cheaper and faster castable it might be your lifesaver...untill then UD is a very fine skill often forgotten.
Sword Symphony is not as usefull or even graphically interesting as it sounds.
Song of Life....well, it has some merrits on a resting party with high average Con and Regeneration running to minimize downtimes - little to no use once you have Bishops or Elders in your party.
Remember that Holy Blade (Lvl 43)is now a toggle skill, so don`t forget to turn it off against mobs that are strong against sacred attacks ;)
After 43 soloing against mobs with a sacred weakness makes sense.
In your late 40`s you may find the Cemetery a good hunting ground because of that too; there are also a lot of buffers around as well.
Song of water only adds +3 to evasion since C3 (some sources still have the +10 in there)...no evasion tank status for us anymore :(
Still, with an Elven Elder and Warcyrer a +9 bonus can be reached, which is good for the light armored classes out there.
Don`t forget that due to Dex, Sprint Skill and Song of the wind you are easily one of the fastest moving classes in the game (and the fastest self-buffed type in heavy armor after level 46) - usually you get by just walking in a party enviroment while the others are running - that way makes sure you don`t arrive at a mob before your main tank/DD does by using assist attack and pull him unto yourself; MP regeneration is better that way too...also I heard it that Orcs are easily p.... off by fast moving party members ;)
Role:
Although many people miss that fact, the SWS is intended mainly as a end-game PvP character...although not in 1 vs 1 scenarios.
You play a group buffer with fighter qualities and your true strength lies in your party members - keep them maxed and reap the rewards.
Take a sneak peek at you skills beyond level 62 and you will get the idea. There are some very good defensive songs like Flame Guard and Storm Guard available that are nice to have during PvE if you have the MP to spare but usually tailored to counter enemy nukers.
Also Song of the Wind makes for frightenly fast Tyrants....
In PvE you may ditch the routine and go tanking for a group of lower leveled characters...just keep in mind that you have limited crowd-control skills and keeping aggro can be difficult without the proper gear.
I also enjoy playing the watch-dog especially if our DD`s/Tanks seem to be sleepy or sloppy - if a mob goes for your healer/nuker and sleep won`t sit you can easily pull them firing Aggression and going into close combat until the rest of the party is available.
Hope I could help
Pathwarden
Swordsinger of the Knights of Sigmar
Bartz Server
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