Soloing - Bruiser vs. Shadowknight

[Polyphem]

<p>I am considering creating a fighter alt for my Necro (only 46) just to taste a different playstyle.</p><p>Most of the time I solo, with occasional grouping. I will never raid, so I don't care that Bruisers and Shadowknights are among the least wanted classes for raids.</p><p>Which of these two classes is better suited for soloing, which one progresses faster and can handle tougher mobs ? From what I've read both classes are pretty good when it comes to soloing, but which class has the edge ?</p><p>I don't have much money to twink my alt (my main is only 46). Which of these two classes suffers less from mediocre equipment ?</p>

[Moongloom]

<p>Both classes are excellent soloers but are a comlpetely different style from each other.  Bruiser is more straight melee oriented while an SK is more spell oriented.  </p><p>They both can FD and heal themselves (lifetaps from SK and mend from bruiser) to a degree.  </p><p>Another big difference is armor.  Bruisers wear leather which always seem to be a bit cheaper on broker for me.  Plate is usually a bit more expensive.  The hardest thing for SK though is the need for Int gear.  Int bonuses on plate is getting a bit better but still not as plentiful as strength/stam.  </p><p>So for paying less on gear and such I would have to give the edge to bruiser.</p>

[Polyphem]

<p>Thanks for your answers. </p><p>Still got a few more ...</p><p>How compares a bruiser to a shadowknight when I comes to soloing nameds for loot and AA? </p><p>How compare the speed of soloing quests for AA ?</p><p> I read a few posts about soloing SKs and bruisers, some of them were contradictory, so I am a bit confused.</p>

[Madmoon]

<p>There will always controversy.  So much comes down to play style, gear/CA levels, and just plain dumb luck.</p><p>I don't know who has an edge on Nameds.  I would say a slight edge to us, as sometimes getting to the Named is a big deal.  Our Feign Death is superior to anyones, but especially the Shadowknight's.  If a Shadowknight's fails, the recast is unforgiving, to say the least.  The one big advantage Shadowknights have is in close fights.  They can Harm Touch their way to victory, where we can only feign and try again.</p><p>Quests, I feel similarly.  If the monster you need is deep inside a zone, it is far faster to get there as a bruiser.  Plus, I think bruisers are just faster than shadowknights in fights, excepting, again, that Harm Touch.</p><p>But, hey, I'm biased.  Bruisers are terrific <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Redmouser Bruiser AB</p>

[Agaxiq]

An SK with reaver is an amazing sight to see.  I would say with our FD, we can clear more named in less time, but we will have a harder time since: 1) We will get hit harder 2) Assuming kiting is not always an option in dungeons, we won't be able to take on tougher targets 3) We'll get one heal off at most, two if we can kite and use all of our control abilities. Now that mez and fear are back on the same timer, it really limits us. However, an SK will only be able to FD once every 5 min or whatever, so they will have to deal with more trash in a dungeon than we will. Our FD is everything.  It really has become the defining skill of our class.  I've seen SK's out heal real healers in a group.  They might whine about a lot of things like their slight reaver nerf but when it comes to soloing named I feel they have a clear advantage. Wizzy might have an advantage soloing named in general, but I've never seen a class be able to go brute force a named like an SK can.  Bruisers can only maybe do that to green con named, or blue con if you are decked out in fabled.  Otherwise, we have to really be careful and time all control abilities and immune spells for maximum effectiveness. agressiv

[Kaedi]

<p>I have both at level 70, both have a mix of masters and ad3 ... the bruiser has a few more aa points and an edge in fabled gear armorwise (both have multiple kos fabled weapons) ...</p><p>That said, at this point the bruiser performs better vs named mobs, but I can't truly compare them until both are at 100 aa and more equally geared.  The bruiser is a beast in burst damage yet the sk can go grab the temple full of gazers in TT and splat them, harvest the nodes and do it all over again with ease.</p><p>I have seen an sk soloing named mobs deep in PoA for what that's worth.  Reaver was nerfed recently and the loss of the str portion of our group buff hurt in many ways (melee dmg + power pool) but it is what it is.</p>