Can’t argue with you on that. Barbarian c3 is a much, much easier route to work with. I needed a lot of practice to get the hang of swapping and dealing the damage. I play with 180~300 ping, but somehow my weapon swapping is working kinda fast.
It’s just a personal opinion on the build though, when i first got to fencer and went into the weapon swap thing i thought the build was not for me, but after playing for some more hours, i could feel it getting more and more fluid and i simply love it to death now.
Also hoplite helps a little into the pvp aspect, as i got a rank in corsair, so i can hook > long stride > continue with my fencer combo ( i really like this hahahaha)
To OP: if you think weapon swap might not be your thing, don’t touch the hoplite route. I tried to imply the personal opinion in my comment but as razm said, it might no be so clear.