Anyone here with Brigand experience?

[Samjax]

I am currently a L53 Iksar Bruiser. I am pretty happy with this character overall...but still like to play alts on occasion. I have a L28 Inquisitor, 26 Necro and 24 Defiler. I'm wondering...is a Brigand similar to a Bruiser? I looked at the Brigand Guide thread and the guy compared Bruisers with Brigands. It appears that we are fairly similar, with the Brigand having perhaps a bit more utility. Does anyone here have enough experience with these two classes to post their observations? I primarily solo, small group and quest...no real raiding experience as of yet. Thanks!

[Korelen]

My main is a Brigand, but I do have a level 46 Monk ( I know not a Bruiser ). The biggest thing to understand about Brigands is that they have positional attacks, so you will use their stuns to get behind your target to unleash some massive carnage with debuffs and damage attacks.   To effectively play the class, you will be moving around a lot.   Once the target is close to death, they can finish them off with the Ruse line.  Being a chain armor class, their mitigation is decent.  If you want to be tankish, you could work on the STA AA line.  I never tried this, so I have no experience explaining it. I Duel Wield, so my AAs are STR/AGI.  If you are fortunate enough to get a decent one-hander, you might want to look at the WIS AA line. For multiple targets in an encounter, Brigands only have one AoE attack.  I usually have no issues with Blue Cons or less.  Whites are iffy, and I need to get lucky ( it wouldn't be that much of an issue once I upgrade my gear ). Similarities between the classes?  Brawlers are more frontal attack with very little movement, but both classes have a get out a jail free card.  Brigands can Escape every 15 mins, and if you spec down the INT AA line, you can FD once a min.  I feel that my Brigand is more durable than my Monk, but, if you need to make a fast getaway, a Brigand can snare.  Both are weak in AoEs. I love playing my Brigand, but I also love playing Monk.  Each with a different player experience I can enjoy.

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

Here's where the Monk diverge from Bruisers quite a bit. Bruisers ARE a lot like Brigands. We have a directional attack (backstab style), and we have a lot of stuns to chain when fighting tough mobs. I have a 50 Brigand and my main is a 70 Bruiser. I've soloed my Brigand to 50 doing quests mostly, however I DID pick the Stamina line (I found a few decent onehanders and a nice shield). Coming soon is a change to make all Dual Wield weapons onehanders and making dual wielding just alter delays... thus a lot more "good weapon" will become available for the Stamina or Wisdom lines. I've found that my Bruiser was more durable as a tank, but my Brigand can either do more damage, or seems to magnify damage more with his debuffs. Both seem to do just as well with the same duo partners.. although I far prefer the Stamina line's reactive taunt (taunt when you get hit). It makes up a lot for the dearth of AE control (one encounter taunt from the AA, and one AE attack.. although I haven't reduced the recast on it yet from EoF AA's, I guess there's still potential there). The things I really miss on my Brigand is the 40% heal every 90s (I need to get to a level that has reliable healing poisons), and the ability to FD. I know I can get the Int line's FD ability, but that's counter productive to the Stamina line (holding aggro vs shedding aggro). Even then, I couldn't use it to train through an area as effectively as when you have it on a 10s recast. It could be done... but fairly slowly. Evac is nice though (sorry, Escape), as well as stealth all the time (without charges or whatnot, somewhat makes up for lack of FD). Tracking is an extremely wonderful addition to your personal utility and in my experience has made doing quests solo much quicker and easier. In the end, the playstyle is not that far off, except in how you save yourself from danger. My Bruiser can risk taking the hits for longer, effectively has 30-40% more hp than he really has (self heal) and can go right down to the wire (I've succeeded at 2% health), or even FD and start over. I have to be a bit more careful with my Brigand, because if I'm not going to be able to overwhelm the target in solo, I better have an exit strategy... and without FD atm (maybe I can make him a tinkerer), using Escape means starting the zone all over again.

[Tomanak]

<p>Brigand parses 1200-2000</p><p>Bruiser parses 800-1000</p><p>Any questions? <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Im making my brigand a tinker so he gets FD..think thats about the only thing my Bruiser has going for him <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[ganjookie]

brigs get a 100% FD from teh INT line

[edyts]

I disagreee my bruiser parse much higher than what u post.  More like what u say a brig does. BRigs do more dmaage but ,   A good bruiser can keep u p with a good brig i do it.  IF u cant, dont flame me and get angry  go learn to play bruiser, cause ill proplly never be back to this thread and itts a waste oo time

[eyes007]

<cite>edyts wrote:</cite><blockquote>I disagreee my bruiser parse much higher than what u post.  More like what u say a brig does. BRigs do more dmaage but ,   A good bruiser can keep u p with a good brig i do it.  IF u cant, dont flame me and get angry  go learn to play bruiser, cause ill proplly never be back to this thread and itts a waste oo time </blockquote><p> Ironic considering you will ONLY parse higher than that at the good graces of your brigands.</p><p>I have a 70 bruiser and a 70 brigand, my bruiser has yet to hit a high of 2.9k dps, now I consider myself a fairly good brigand but only KoS fabled/legendary so your version of "good" is a great deal different than mine. My Bruiser is fully KoS fabled and he can do alright, but a fight with a white heroic using my brig that takes 11 seconds is a great deal more effective than a 30sec or longer fight with my bruiser.</p><p>I forgot to add advice, Bruisers > Brigands when it comes to soloing 1-69, the class is way more effective and solo-friendly, the soloing of a brig is much more exciting and dangerous but both descriptions can be summed up as fun. I wouldn't necessarily negate one for the other although raid-wise a brigand is more "in demand".</p>

[Cornbread Muffin]

<cite>edyts wrote:</cite><blockquote>I disagreee my bruiser parse much higher than what u post.  More like what u say a brig does. BRigs do more dmaage but ,   A good bruiser can keep u p with a good brig i do it.  IF u cant, dont flame me and get angry  go learn to play bruiser, cause ill proplly never be back to this thread and itts a waste oo time </blockquote> If you parse along side your Brigs it sounds like your Brigs are the ones that need to learn how to play. Bruiser 800-1k Brig 1200-2k sounds like it is about the right spread between the two classes on the same raid. If your Bruiser is hitting 50% or 75% higher I would expect your Brig to be doing the same. If your Bruiser can parse 1200-2k and your Brig can only parse 1200-2k then your Brig is the one sucking.

[Bladewind]

<p>I play a 70/100 monk in full fabled and a 70/90 brigand in half fabled/half legendary.  </p><p>The short answer to your question is yes, the playstyle is very similar between the two.  As a brigand, you will be much more active due to having both frontal and back-only attacks.  Through stuns and other special attacks, you can force an opponent to not face you for about 15 seconds straight if need be as a brigand.  This is wonderful for letting loose a full volley of debuffs and back attacks while the opponent just sits there unable to strike back.  I did the str and wisdom lines to be a defense-oriented fencer with solid dps capability.  In addition to wearing chain, brigs get a +mit self-buff that gives 600ish at the master level in t7.  The boost in mit from that plus all of the extra avoidance really makes my brig feel like a tank.  I can fairly easily tank instances and dungeons as needed on the brigand.  Aggro control is much easier with the monk, but survivability is comparable.  The brig has no real emergency defense buffs, so a true fighter will still end up being more survivable, but their basic stats are comaprable to a true tank when the proper AAs are taken (monk is 8400 health, 3200 mit and 67% avoid solo in defensive and brig is 6500 health, 4100 mit and 45% avoid plus 8% riposte solo in defensive).  I'd imagine going sta-line on a brig would be like doing a full tank conversion since you gain extra block%, extra mitigation, extra health, an area taunt, and a reactive hate buff.  The massive debuffs and solid dps offered by a brigand make it much easier to get spots in both groups and raids.</p><p>The two things I really miss on the brig relative to the monk are FD and the heal.  I can live without FD so far - stealth and being able to solo higher level heroics means i usually only miss fd if I am in a hurry to get deep into a zone or am about to be chewed up by a nasty mob during a raid encoutner gone south.  As others have said, you could tinker or go down the int line to get an FD on a rogue if you really wanted one.  Using good vitality tap poisons is a decent substitute for having a heal.  Brigands also get a class AA to increase both the damage and heal of their life tap poisons by up to 25%.  If you take that, mastercrafted t7 vitality breaches deal about 600 damage and heal you for about 500 points per proc.  With a proc rate of ~25%, this adds up quite a bit over the course of a fight.  Throw in a stun proc poison and an a melee debuff poison (-str and offense skills), and you can slap things silly while giving them little or no chance to hit you back.  Of course, loading up on poisons all the time gets expensive.</p><p>I still really enjoy playing both classes.  Generally speaking, I feel like the brigand solos better (ie, can win more difficult fights) and offers more to a raid/group (massive debuffs and decent dps) while the monk has the edge tanking and can get out of sticky situations easier.</p>

[Raca]

We're talking about bruisers vs brigands. Monks dont hold a candle to a bruiser when it comes to soloing named. I can burst for 1500+ dps on my mastercrafted bruiser using knockouts, quite a bit higher if I can dev fist the named. You wont see that from a monk.

[Dorieon]

<cite>Raca wrote:</cite><blockquote>We're talking about bruisers vs brigands. Monks dont hold a candle to a bruiser when it comes to soloing named. I can burst for 1500+ dps on my mastercrafted bruiser using knockouts, quite a bit higher if I can dev fist the named. You wont see that from a monk.</blockquote><p>I'll concede that bruisers may solo named easier (and it is a slight edge imo), but a mastercrafted monk will have no problem "burst" dpsing  1500+ on a named. That said, yes the one bruiser rear attack makes you more comparable to brigs than monks. </p><p>To the OP- both are fun. And while there may be some things similar, the classes are very different overall. Play both and figure out which is more enjoyable for you. I prefer brawlers but I have fun on my brig. It really depends on what you like. </p>