Level 35 and newly returned [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

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MrJekylls

05-16-2007, 04:26 PM

It's been a while since I played my bruiser. I quit EQ2 for about a year and a half, only returning last month. In that time, I've mainly (ie. only) been playing my necromancer, and have gotten from level 27 to 43 in the past 3 weeks. Having quite a bit of fun, actually, and thanks to the economy, I've been able to make a pretty penny since I've returned. My necro has all major spells at Adept 3 or Master 1 level, and is quite a bit of fun to play.However, I'm looking to mix things up a bit, and have started to consider what alt to play. Originally I was going to start from scratch. It seems easier to get AA points as you level up, and I thought it would be fun to re-level up. So I started thinking about which class I would want to play. I don't want to go for another caster, because the point of this is to do something different. I don't want to play a healer, because it just doesn't appeal to me. So that has left me considering a fighter or a scout.Now obviously play style matters when choosing a character. And I like that in EQ2, different characters really do play differently. Some have stuns and positional attacks, some have high damage high recast abilities, and some have short damage short recast ones.<ul><li>For myself, I want a character with survivability beyond RUN AWAY.</li><li>I prefer sustainability over pure dps. In other words, I would prefer a character that takes on 15 mobs in 10 minutes, non stop, over one that takes on 20 mobs in 10 minutes, but has to rest for 30 seconds after each fight because they are ooe or ooh.</li><li>I prefer a class with flair and style.</li><li>I prefer a class that isn't completely gear dependant, and is only effective when decked out in the latest styles.</li></ul>Imagine my surprise when, after realizing what I want from a class, it appears that the bruiser best suits the bill?So I come to you now, wondering if you can point me in the right direction.First off, I only have 1 AA point (discovery bonus <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />). I want to get this number up to 10 or 15 as soon as possible. Is there a website that shows the location of all the 'discovery bonus' points in Norrath? I'll quickly zipzip through the zones and pick up the first few easier AA points before continuing my bruiser career.Second, what weapons should I use? Is barefist really the way to go? I have a decent 'legendary' 2 hand staff with good stats, would I be killing myself to go this way? Is there a commonly accepted 'breakdown' of what each type of weapon is used for? ie. 1 hand is > dps then dual wield is > dps then bare hand is > dps then 2 hand. That sorta thing.Third, when soloing, should I go offensive or defensive, in general? I'd also like to interject here that one thing I enjoyed about the bruiser class before I left was that they seemed to be 'caster killers'. With all abilities ready, it just felt like I could destroy a caster in under 10 seconds by cycling each attack. It was great fun. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Fourth, is it possible to take on blue heroics, or should I just avoid them? Do you straight up tank, in defensive or offensive, or do other tricky chicanery?Fifth, is there a post or website that explains what abilities should be upgraded to adept 3 / master 1 as a priority? As mentioned, I have some plat saved up from my necro that I will spend on my bruiser (if I decide to go that route), so I should be able to upgrade quite a few abilities to adept 3 / master 1. Which should I go for?Finally, how important is equipment? Waht stats should I look for, or do I concentrate exclusively on mitigation? Or effects? Or anything else?Anyhoo, any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Madmoon

05-16-2007, 11:19 PM

1) Try EQ2 Maps. Generally have most Discovery sites in orange, I believe.2) Until you reach the end-game, try to get double attack in the strength AA maxed (8 points.) Unless you are plat rich, nothing compares to having constantly upgrading Fabled Weapons, as your bare fists will be.3) It really depends on the monster. Yes, casters you will go offensive, fighters defensive. I often go with the middle stance when soloing, unless I get into trouble, and thenI switch. But some bruisers never leave offensive, while others swear by the defensive bonus. I have found heroic encounters are easier in defensive stance.4) All Fabled and Mastered, you might be able to take a Blue that is going to be Green next level. But the days of us grabbing White Heroic Nameds with nothing more than a loin cloth and a pair of old brass knuckles are several GU nerfs behind us. Now.. if you are 35th and have Devastation Fist, you can take out blue heroic encounters if they are a mob group with at least one no-up-arrow. DF the no-up-arrow, and the rest follows.5) No site that I know, but obviously, any CAs that deal with damage are a priority. We are not just DPS, but you will want to as much damage as soon as possible. The heal and the Feign are also nice, Mastered.Finally) As to gear, you should zoom through the levels so fast as not to matter much until the 50s or 60s. So, mastercrafted if you can buy it, and I would concentrate on the stuff that boosts STA as opposed to just AGI and STR. We self buff those so high, and STA is vital to a fighter. After that +haste and +DPS is nice.

Raidi Sovin'faile

05-17-2007, 05:00 AM

Well gear is important no matter what class you pick... especially if you are soloing. The better you can get your gear, the better you will be able to solo things...However, since Brawlers can eschew weapon entirely and still remain effective, they would be the single "best" class to choose in this area. A breakdown of what to expect out of a Bruiser:Survivability: While Feign Death is effectively "run away" style, as a Bruiser you have other things on your side. As a melee class, you have a Defensive stance option that you can switch to in a heartbeat (click defensive once to toggle the offensive or mid off, then click again to turn defensive on in instant cast). You have a self heal that's faster than even Monks, and a LARGE percentage of your health. Self cures, and at later levels (50+) you'll get immunities to being controlled (stunned, stifled, dazed, etc), as well as the ability to absord magical damage.Also, between both having a Fear and a Mez, we can give ourselves a mini "breather" or handle an add while we finish off the first mob... or simply handle a group far easier. A mob that is running around or mez'd won't be hitting you.. which is the best way to "survive". And while Feigning basically ends the combat, you don't have to run off to break combat. This means you can get places very quickly compared to most other classes too. Others might get Feign Death, but not on a 10 second recast.DPS: Even when spamming all combat arts, ~40% of your DPS will be from non-power using autoattack damage. This means even if you get low, or if you reduce the number of combat arts used to save power, you will maintain a high amount of damage. However, even better for soloing, Bruiser can manage extremely high Burst damage. What this means is you can lay down a large portion of your damage capability within the first few seconds of combat, hopefully overwhelming your target before you even need to worry about being hurt. This really comes into play when you hit 65 and Knockout Combination, which adds extra damage on every combat art cast for a short duration.AAs: If you are starting your character at level 1, head to commonlands (or whatever tier 2+ zone) and do every single quest you can find... even turn off combat experience (xp from killing mobs) so you can keep the quests green for turning in. I did this with a recent character I made, and ended up with more AA's than levels when I hit my mid 30s. Quests will skyrocket your AA's far more than location xp alone... although adding those in would definately help. Collection quests will do it as well, but leveling your adventure level extremely fast is a bad idea considering if you have more than 10 skill below your cap you are going to be doing very poorly against anything your level. And fighting greys to skill up is about as boring as crafting. Honestly, I did every single solo quest from Commonlands, Nek Forest/some of TS, Zek (tons there)/EL (couple), and Steamfont... and reached my 40s in both adventure and achievement in a very short amount of time.Find the solo quest lines for the zone you'll be in over at <a href="http://www.eq2i.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.eq2i.com</a> and go to town.Unarmed vs Weapons: All parsing done by myself and others has determined that only Fabled weapons would start to outstrip unarmed with the Strength line's Double Attack and +DPS bonus. When we say that, we mean even with the stats and adornments possible on a Legendary weapon, it won't be as much damage as unarmed anyways... or barely reaching it. Get 17 points, get 8 ranks into the double attack AA ability for unarmed, and forget about weapons until you hit 70 and are raiding or getting weapons from Unrest or something.Offense or Defense: Due to our Burst ability, it's best to at least start a soloing fight in Offensive. If you get to know the creatures in the area and know that they can hurt, then switching to Mid or Defensive after your initial blast to finish the fight is a good idea. Without any +attack skill bonuses in the lower levels (and even the higher level depending on your gear), Defensive stance can be a pain in the [Removed for Content] to kill things. Mid stance (you get it in your 40s i think), will probably become your "defense" when soloing just so you can still manage to kill things while slowing down the pain. Alternatively, you could also try sitting in defensive and only autoattack and wait the minute for all your combat arts to come back, switch back to offensive and unload again.Heroics: While leveling, it may be harder. You will be leveling quite quick, so you'll not want to waste money and too much time on the gear necessary for the really tough heroics. When you hit the higher levels though, and decent gear (better than mastercrafted), you should be able to start handling some pretty powerful stuff. Then again, it still depends on what you are fighting. Bursting down a mage seems like a good idea... until they have a triple up heroic's level of hitpoints. Our cures, absorption, and self heal can only withstand so much beating. Something else to note... tier 7 has a two stage power range. KoS stage, and EoF stage. What I mean by this is that if you find Legendary or Fabled equipment from EoF, you will be able to handle better KoS stuff than if you have just KoS equipment. Kingdom of Sky expansion and Echoes of Faydwer expansion is what I'm talking about here.As a personal example... I was able to get my Legendary Set bonus, found in EoF (gives the chance to proc stoneskin on melee attack), fill out my high end adornments, and fill out my damage AA's for my EoF tree. Then I went back to Palace of Awakened (a zone in KoS) and proceeded to solo through most of the floors... all blue and white heroic encounters at 70. Some were 71 even I think (the dragons? can't remember now).Stats: Mitigation will come with quality equipement. Mastercrafted for leveling, then Legendary or Fabled at the higher levels. One thing to note is that the level of the armor will also be a factor as much as the mitigation. A lvl 60 armor that gives 250 mitigation will be less mit % than the lvl 70 armor with 250 mitigation. So even if you see a lvl 69 or 70 armor piece that has a few points less mitigation than the lvl 65 armor, it will probably at least equal, if even do better.Stats wise, you will want Stamina first, like madmoon said. Stamina is our hardest stat to buff, while we already boost Strength and Agility by a lot. Good news is, anything player made has Stamina on it anyways, and there's plenty of adornments out there for stamina too. In the end though, base hitpoints will probably benefit you more. If the choice is between 14 Stamina or 100 hitpoints (for t7 adornements for example), you will likely only get about 40-50 hitpoints from the stamina boost so you might as well go for the +100 hp anyways. With this in mind, when choosing Traits (that green + when you level), choose +max hp%. In-combat regen is too small to benefit you enough in combat (and you have self heal or priests healing you), whereas surviving that large hit is what end combat is all about for a tank. Plus, it something you can influence the most... stack on the hitpoints and that % increase gets better and better.