Looking at doing something different, would blinkhunter (swiftblade, auromancy, archery) or Avatar (swiftblade, shadowplay, archery) be viable l? Or is it bad news going hybrid range/melee

I believe Archeage has something called Range attack and Melee attack and those stats are upgraded with gear, which means you should pick just one and go with it or you won't be effective enough.

Swiftblade - Shadowplay - Songcraft seems like a decent combination to try for someone who does not want to go Battlerage.

Shadowplay gives access to bleed which boosts the damage of a number of Swiftblade skills, with Poisoned Weapons it also gives some control - with Pin Down it silences the target, with Shadowsmite it inflicts Shackle - which dmg is also boosted if in stealth which should work with Swiftblades' stealth. Wallop is also an interesting skill, as it is a burst skill which also increases the damage received on the target, and Swiftblade doesn't really have hard-hitting skills on its own unless all conditions are met.

You also gain access to more stealth, teleport - but I do not think these are really needed for Swiftblade, more important skill is Freerunner cuz Swiftblade lacks IMS skill.

That's why Songcraft also seems a great tree to combine with Swiftblade, at it improves things Swiftblade lacks - movement speed increase (Double Time/Quickstep), boosts to the damage/ debuffing the defense of the target (Bloody Chantey/Critical Discord/Dissonance), as well as even giving some defense (Dissonance again/Sonic Wave).

But the beauty of Archeage is the freedom of swapping tree skills, so I do not really get people who are stuck with just one class combination instead of using different combinations for different purposes - for 1vs1 PvP it is X class, for open world pvp it is Y class, for raid it is Z class, for solo pve it is XX class, for dungeons it is XYZ class.

Keep 1-2 combinations all the time, but change third skill tree depending on the situation.

For example, start Battlerage instead of Swiftblade while leveling because Swiftblade lacks the dmg needed before more skills are unlocked. Then ditch Battlerage at later levels if you really do not want to use it (but mobility, teleports, trips, AoE, stable damage are really nice to have).

/r/archeage Thread