Ronin is the only character that has exclusively items I want to start with. For assassin: sword is great and curse is borderline useless. For wanderer: I wouldn't go with bow or swirl unless I had to. Bow is okay, but not as good as: smoke bomb, spear, sword, grappling hook, or fan. Swirl is my favorite move, but only when my opponent has it. The 10 health is pretty nuts though.
I think this is really reflected in hard mode, having smoke bomb is even more important when opponents do more damage and have more health. But even just late game in normal this is true, without smoke bomb and a 4-5 damage spear, those grapple sword guys are way harder. I prefer to get 2 smoke bombs honestly, one that I reduce cooldown and one with poison.