New Bruiser, help on AA lines :)

[Judo13]

<p>Hey guys.  Was just gonna run some ideas by you guys to see what you thought of em... Bruiser is only lvl 24 so not that experienced yet.  </p><p>I'm gonna go all the way down the STR line first just because it's better than mastercrafted and saves money, but was wondering (post-patch) what would be the best line to go down second??  Or is sta/wis/int about all equal for DPS, and it's pretty much whatever I want??</p><p>And secondly, once I get some good weapons (or a quaterstaff.. quaterstaffs look so badass!!), I was thinking about going all the way down STA and WIS.  True I wouldn't have the crits from the INT tree, but 100% crit chance for 10 seconds every 45 seconds is great for really good burst damage... plus if you combine that with Crane Flock, your AE would be ridiculous right?  What do you guys think??</p><p>Thanks!</p>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

That's 10s to make another attack that will autocrit. It's only for one attack though, so no.. crane flock would not magnify the Sta final at all. In fact, you'd probably want to use it with a Combat Art that has a high damage chance.. either Kidney Punch, or Callous Stomp after you've knocked them down. Basically, I would make a macro that would do a knockdown attack first (like Haymaker or Steelfist, whichever has a higher chance of landing for you), followed by Mantis Leap (which has a 0 cast and recovery time, meaning it can be done without needing to queue), then immediately turning off autoattack (so you don't waste your crit on a melee attack) and then Callous Stomp. Honestly though, it's not that great a PvE ability. I'd seriously go with the Int line for crits and parry. You will notice a larger overall bonus from going that route (serious DPS increase and with diminished returns, parry gets a LOT out of the few points increased compared to the others). I would go Str/Int for leveling, followed by Wis/Int once you have decent weapons. Wisdom will net a Bruiser more than the Agi line, and give you much needed AE damage. Agi will be good for a Monk because their Haste means their autoattack could be reduced by Chaining CA's... so a recovery reduction benefits them more. Faster recast CA's also means they'll get more damage in on a 30 second fight too, catching up on the parses. Bruisers though... 90s recast means you won't be seeing it in the same fight unless you had more than 100% recast speed (more than 50% reduced)... so it's really not as valued for us. You could go with Sta/Wis/Int 4,4,8 for pure DPS... but honestly, the dps increase from the Stamina proc is debatable, and it means you've given up Parry, +HP% and Crane Flock and Eagle Shriek. That's a lot to give up for a measly 30-40 DPS proc. Crane flock alone might give that much.. I haven't really checked the difference in my zonewide parses.

[Judo13]

<p>Wow, guess I didn't read that Mantis Leap was only for one attack.  That really blows.  Oh well, thanks so much.  Guess I'll go str/int and then wis/int like you said <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Was wondering something about Crane Flock though... is it better to just auto-attack if you have 3 or 4+ enemies in front of you rather than use one target CA's??</p>

[Agaxiq]

I use crane flock in a few situations: 1) When my CA's are down, and I'm still fighting 3+ enemies 2) Again, with a lot of enemies (more than likely adds who went after healer/mage, and I'm tanking), I'll pop it on to start getting agro.  I'll then start AE'ing once it's worn off. 3) When not tanking, and I do not envision a tough encounter in the next 15 minutes, I'll put it on just for the extra burst of DPS, regardless of how many mobs are there. Still, #1 and #2 are the most important.  Its free AE dps, and a lot of it.  If you aren't fighting a lot of mobs you won't get nearly as much value out of it, considering the long recast.  Don't pop it on and start spamming CA's though, the timer is too short and you'll be wasting a lot of its effectiveness. agressiv