Gnomes and light picks

[dbik]

So I was looking at gnomes today, as I have to play them for 3 lives coming up here soon, and I noticed thier +1 to threat range for light picks.

I also noticed that Swashbuckling only provides the same bonus, once again, +1 to light picks.

My question is not if they stack, I know they wont. But is there any other advantage to swashbuckling OTHER than the increase in threat range and/or multiplier?

cuz right about now I'm thinking about a TWF KtA gnome using light picks and thinking that might be even more DPS than a swash...unless I'm missing something?

[unbongwah]

But is there any other advantage to swashbuckling OTHER than the increase in threat range and/or multiplier?

Other DPS benefits of Swashbuckling: doublestrike bonuses from the cores + Shield Mastery feats, Resonant Arms, Exploit Weakness, Thread the Needle. Coup de Grace is still one of the most reliable instakills in DDO; technically it doesn't require Swashbuckling to be active, but you'd be spending a lot of APs on filler to add CdG to a non-Swashbuckling build.

Then there are the survivability / QoL benefits: extra Dodge, Elegant Footwork, Evasion if pure bard.

cuz right about now I'm thinking about a TWF KtA gnome using light picks and thinking that might be even more DPS than a swash...unless I'm missing something?

Well, now it gets more complicated, b/c TWF is obviously better suited to ranger than bard and DWS already provides +1 crit range bonus which also doesn't stack with gnome racial bonus. Swashbucklers haven't been max-DPS toons for years now, so saying "I can out-DPS a bard!" isn't saying much anymore.

I suppose you could do a gnome Assassin who used lt picks instead of daggers / kukris, though apart from flavor I don't know why you would. Knife Spec doesn't work with lt picks but Lethality should. That only makes lt picks into 18-20/x5 weapons while daggers or kukris would be 15-20/x4. A gnome rogue using lt repeaters makes more sense, since Mechanic provides +1 crit multiplier but not any crit range bonuses to repeaters.

[dbik]

Other DPS benefits of Swashbuckling: doublestrike bonuses from the cores + Shield Mastery feats, Resonant Arms, Exploit Weakness, Thread the Needle. Coup de Grace is still one of the most reliable instakills in DDO; technically it doesn't require Swashbuckling to be active, but you'd be spending a lot of APs on filler to add CdG to a non-Swashbuckling build.

Then there are the survivability / QoL benefits: extra Dodge, Elegant Footwork, Evasion if pure bard.

Well, now it gets more complicated, b/c TWF is obviously better suited to ranger than bard and DWS already provides +1 crit range bonus which also doesn't stack with gnome racial bonus. Swashbucklers haven't been max-DPS toons for years now, so saying "I can out-DPS a bard!" isn't saying much anymore.

I suppose you could do a gnome Assassin who used lt picks instead of daggers / kukris, though apart from flavor I don't know why you would. Knife Spec doesn't work with lt picks but Lethality should. That only makes lt picks into 18-20/x5 weapons while daggers or kukris would be 15-20/x4. A gnome rogue using lt repeaters makes more sense, since Mechanic provides +1 crit multiplier but not any crit range bonuses to repeaters.

I guess I should have been more clear. Im comparing apples to apples here. Im not trying to judge tier 5 enhancements against a racial. Im wanting to know if the swashbuckling STANCE provides any more benefite than the gnome racial. To my reading, I think only 1% doublestrike.

As to the rest. I like playing CC/utility characters more than straight dps. As long as Im middle of the pack dps wise, CCing, and throwing spot heals...Im happy.