So I left for a while...

[Xannon]

<p>And I'm back now but I'm having troubles deciding on a few things. I always had this problem with EQ2. Too much choice lol.</p><p>I was a 40+ Shadowknight before I left. Now that I'm back it's gonna be really tough to build up all those AAs so I'm just starting over. He is a 50+ Armorer and I also have a 40+ Alchemist and 30+ Jeweler to work with. I am not against making a Tailor for leather armor or a Weaponsmith for weapons,  I like tradeskills. I made a Coercer when I came back but I quickly found cloth casters are really squishy and resists suck. I got to 20 and root nuke root nuke break dead is starting to feel like I'm choking since I solo alot.</p><p>So I'm looking at melee dps! So far I'm a bit torn between Shadowknight, Berserker, Bruiser, Assassin, or Brigand. I like the evil races/classes.</p><p>Shadowknight needs lots of different stats making gear choices difficult. I'm assuming Assassin has the highest burst damage and Brigand has the highest sustainable but require alot of moving around to get behind when soloing. How do Berserker and Bruiser stand up against each other? If they're both full out DPS mode in solo who is faster? How about in a group or a raid? Do people bring Berserkers/Bruisers/Shadowknights to strictly DPS or do they expect you to OT? Should I just go with the scout classes because their roles seem defined? Is there more "demand" for one of these classes over the others? Until I can decide my Shadowknight is running around collecting rare node drops. Having left for so long all of the people I knew who played are gone. So if anyone wants to let me know in game I'm Xannon on Mistmoore.</p>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

I haven't personally experienced Shadowknight or Assassin, so maybe someone else can help you with those... Brigands are fairly good solo with their debuffs creating high burst DPS, and their Kingdom of Sky achievements giving some nice soloing/tanking options (need to use a Round Shield). Poisons are expensive if you aren't an alchemist, but add a lot to your capabilities (healing poisons make soloing easier). Zerkers are some of the best AE damage (and thus aggro control). This parses higher, but on solo targets will be around the same or lower than a Bruiser (lower especially if you are leveling and don't have aa's yet). First aa point in KoS gives a big self heal for out of combat, so that helps some in soloing.. otherwise it's kind of tough to take on the harder content solo. Bruisers have really good burst DPS that only gets better with higher level abilities (lvl 65 Knockout Combination is the ultimate in burst DPS). With a huge self heal on a 90s recast, a few of "can't hurt me, can't stop me" abilities gained in the 50s, and the ability to FD pretty much whenever you want and repeatedly... well the only better soloers are mages. In a group setting, all but the assassin could potentially Tank or Offtank (a tank spec'd Brigand can tank very well actually), and all could be counted for DPS if you build your character around doing DPS (for the tanks). In a raid setting the only thing a Bruiser will be looked for at the moment is DPS and the occasional aggro grab with Drag (an EoF AA). Maybe a FD or two. Depending on the power of the raid, your DPS might be stellar.. or you might be outclassed, so it's not like people are clamoring after Bruisers. Zerkers can MT or OT raids with no trouble. They are just as much considered DPS as a Bruiser. Brigands are in high demand on a raid due to massive and all-encompassing debuffs makes everyone do more damage. DPS isn't half bad either. Assassins are pure DPS on raids, not much else to say there... they are DPS whereever they go. I've seen Shadowknights MT or OT raids, with the right AA"s they can do some fairly good aggro control. DPSing isn't half bad either if not in MT position, but not replacement DPS for a scout or mage... along the Bruiser/Zerker line of raid DPS. As for getting AA's with your level 40 character... you can always look at mentoring (set yourself on LFG and willing to mentor), and do a bunch of quests and named runs for achievement experience. Lastly, I'm on Mistmoore as well, so you can give me a shout if you have any Bruiser specific questions (my main is Kaisoku).

[Xannon]

<p>Thanks for the reply. Sounds like Brigand is a good choice for raids. My schedule doesn't allow me to raid much though so maybe it doesn't matter much.  But that big self heal and FD for the Bruiser sounds great. When it comes to soloing, which is mostly one mob, no arrows or one arrow up or down, bruisers might have it better than zerkers just for those 2 things. Less downtime running back to my corpse or waiting to heal anyway.</p><p>As my shadowknight I found it hard to get alot of good +Str +Int +Sta gear. It was mostly +StaWisInt or +StrAgiSta so I was wearing alot of multicolor gear. He looks ok now with full Ebon Vanguard but man did he look goofy for a while. I was one of the few High Elf Shadowknights on the server for a long time lol. I'm keeping him because he's a high level armorer for now and can harvest into tier 6.</p><p>I was looking at a website and all the assassin spells seem to do great damage but have massive cooldowns. Seems like I'll be fighting one mob, kill in 10 seconds, then wait 50s for cooldowns. </p><p>I guess it's gonna come down to who solos better with the fastest kills and least downtime. And party friendly but doesn't have to be raid friendly.</p><p>Maybe my choices are down to Bruiser, Berserker and Brigand. BBB :P</p>

[Madmoon]

<p>If soloing is up your alley, then Bruiser is it.  We are in some ways the best soloers, not so much from a DPS stand point, but from sheer survivability and speed.  We can survive setbacks (adds, resisted attacks, sequence mistakes, etc.) better than mages, and our ability to take on monster agfter monster with little or no down-time is unparalleled.  And we can do it <i>without</i> having to be Fabled or Mastered to the tune of dozens of plat per Tier.  Take the STR AA line, and you have your Fabled weapons, anyway.  A conjuror or necromancer, or superbly equipped wizard or warlock, can probably point to this or that monster, and taking it down where a bruiser might not, but that's with a lot of important Masters and usually Power gear.  You can level a Tier and buy what you need at the broker without going broke, and do very well.  A Bruiser in his 30s with all App4 CAs can do most everything for his Tier that he or she wants, but a Conjuror with an App4 pet is only so much roadkill.</p><p>I also have a Shadowknight, and that guy is more of a gear-fest than my bruiser ever was.</p><p>Groups and solo, I would recommend the Bruiser, hands down.  In Raids, some of the other classes are sought after, to a certain extent, and we are not but I've never had problems getting into Raids.  We don't bring anything unique, but then, neither does the second guardian or paladin, etc.  Only the scouts you mention will always be sought after simply by being DPS.  But if you are going to be 50-40-10 (solo, group, raid,) then Bruiser is definitely the best.</p>