AA setting for mostly soloer

[Illine]

<p>I am a new bruiser. She's lvl 29 and I have 25 AAs</p><p>I was wondering what are the best lines to take to solo. I mostly solo.</p><p>First I was thinking of the Agi and res lines but someone told me that it was better to take the strength line if I had no fabled weapon.</p><p>Is it worth to losing 2 heapons, 2 procs, stats (T3 weapon stats I have are 10 str 10 agi and 7 str 7 agi 7 res)?</p><p>and if I take this line what would be the other one usefull (thinking right now of only using 50 AA of course <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />)</p><p>thanks</p>

[Beldin_]

INT Line for the crits and WIS Line for the AoE proc, +max life and the end-ability are nice. Also if you try to solo harder mobs the end-ability of the INT line may help.

[Pnaxx]

<p>Earar, the question you asked has been asked by us all at one point or another. You will find many discussions recently posted here in the Bruiser forums. Just take some time to look on the current forum page where your post is and then try the next page, you will see many good discussions pertaining to exactly what you are looking for.</p><p>But in general, there is nothing wrong with the STR Line to level with. It's not the end all though and oyu would be served just as welll with wweapons, but you will save plenty of plat going STR for a while. I used it up until 72, then traded out for Master Crafted...and soon Legendary. </p><p>I also love the AGI lIne and the INT Line for the Crits. Thje STR line has the great CHI as it's final ability which is fantastic! So go for it! Just max the whole thing out!</p>

[evilgamer]

<p>I took a slightly different path then most here and I am current using int to the end ability and stamina to the end ability for soloing purposes.</p><p>Now I know most take wis & str. </p><p>But I just didnt think saving the PP on weapons justified the str AA's, (since leather armor is generally pretty cheap) but its a good line none the less.</p><p>The reason I didnt take the wis line is that I built my solo bruiser for taking down the hardest single target mob possible.</p><p>What my strategy usually revolves around in multi mob encounter is killing them one at a time and then FD, regen up and repeat.  That is if the mob are so hard that it requires that strategy.  </p><p>I find that the heroic content I solo often requires this strategy as the mobs hit to hard and have to many hps I doubt the aoe wis thing would bring them all down at once anyway.</p><p>The end ability of both int and sta, with the maxed out crits really have helps burn that mob down fast so I can FD and get his buddies off me and then repeat.  It may be a bit slower this way but I found I have can take down heroic content that I doubt most other classes could.</p><p>Also 5 points in your FD and 5 points in your heal are  MUST for soloing to matter what other lines you take.  They are both complete lifesavers, the FD at lower levels, the Heal at higher.</p>

[Pnaxx]

<p>I have to go look at my AA set up, but I really think I found the a very good mix of things. </p><p>I maxed out the AGI Line pretty much as the increase in reuse timers is great as well as the all the defensive additions we get. I think it is a must have line for us. If we are "floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee" that would be the butterfly line. So I have it all pretty much maxed out except for the Batton Flury, I am not sure how many points I have in there. I have Altruism.</p><p>I then put 8 points, I think, into Stamina's first line and none in the rest of Stamina.</p><p>Nothing in Wisdom, though I had that before and had enjoyment with the AOE's, but soloing it didn't suit me too much.</p><p>Int line I put prolly 4 in the first line, 6 in the Eagle Spin, and  maxed Fury and Talon.</p><p>STR I put the remainder of points left over in the fist slot, I think it was like 3-4 points.</p><p>To me, this gives me the best balance I could want. I really like it and reguraly out DPS a simular equipt Monk on mini raids we do for Guild status. I come pretty close to a much better equipt Monk who is my guild leader. My survivabilty is maxed out and I am punching holes through everyones skulls. I like it.</p><p>The Bruiser AA's went into Healing first, then Max taunts. From there I went into the combat arts and maxed those. Have Drag as end line. I really wanted to up the DPS so thats why I went this rout. As I solo less now and group more, I amn thinking about doing some more Tanking AA's in the near furture. We shall see. Right now I am happy.</p>

[Rayche]

Evilgamer, without quite high end weapons (Better than Mastercrafted/Legendary) you would be far better suited to use CHI and 96% double attack (100% with a few pieces of gear) as well as the additional Riposte for taking down the toughest single target mobs possible.I do the same thing. I have Doomcoils Deactivated Control Baton and once I have my Epic I'll drop the open hand STR line, but until then I've not found any weapon combination that out parses my bare fists at 76.

[Illine]

I tried the STR line and it's fun. I do more dps barehanded than with 2 mastercrafted weapons. Now I'm lvl 32 so I have a whole new set and still, better barehanded.I took the Str line and now I'm going into the Int line.  thanks for the answers <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Pnaxx]

<cite>Earar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I tried the STR line and it's fun. I do more dps barehanded than with 2 mastercrafted weapons. Now I'm lvl 32 so I have a whole new set and still, better barehanded.I took the Str line and now I'm going into the Int line.  thanks for the answers <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote>Wise move.<img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[evilgamer]

<cite>Cometus@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Evilgamer, without quite high end weapons (Better than Mastercrafted/Legendary) you would be far better suited to use CHI and 96% double attack (100% with a few pieces of gear) as well as the additional Riposte for taking down the toughest single target mobs possible.I do the same thing. I have Doomcoils Deactivated Control Baton and once I have my Epic I'll drop the open hand STR line, but until then I've not found any weapon combination that out parses my bare fists at 76.</blockquote>How many points in the STR line do you have to have before you start outparing the new MC weapons?

[Rayche]

Hmm, that's a good question.I'd say enough to get Chi, so 22?Parsing higher isn't the only consideration however, as you also get a crushing mitigation debuff and increased riposte for tanking. (Which adds DPS if you are going towards the Stoneskin proc in the EoF tree.)

[evilgamer]

<cite>Cometus@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hmm, that's a good question.I'd say enough to get Chi, so 22?Parsing higher isn't the only consideration however, as you also get a crushing mitigation debuff and increased riposte for tanking. (Which adds DPS if you are going towards the Stoneskin proc in the EoF tree.)</blockquote><p>Ok so here is my next question which would parse higher?</p><p>48 points in Int & Stamina (22 points + 2 in the end ability) with imbued MC/legendary weapons or 48 points in Int and Str with no weapon?</p><p>I always just assumed that str line was more about convience of not using weapons and doing respectable dps then anything.  Of course it would help if they told you that your fist were labled fabled with it.</p>

[Pnaxx]

<cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cometus@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hmm, that's a good question.I'd say enough to get Chi, so 22?Parsing higher isn't the only consideration however, as you also get a crushing mitigation debuff and increased riposte for tanking. (Which adds DPS if you are going towards the Stoneskin proc in the EoF tree.)</blockquote><p>Ok so here is my next question which would parse higher?</p><p>48 points in Int & Stamina (22 points + 2 in the end ability) with imbued MC/legendary weapons or 48 points in Int and Str with no weapon?</p><p>I always just assumed that str line was more about convience of not using weapons and doing respectable dps then anything.  Of course it would help if they told you that your fist were labled fabled with it.</p></blockquote><p>Your fists are considered ONE fabled weapon. So even though the animation looks like both are doing dmg, it's only like one is. But, given that, until you get into T-7 fabled/T-8 Legendary, stick with STR LIne.</p><p>I would also say that with the STR Line, to get the most out of it, put at least 6 into the second skill which is a nice debuff/CA. Pretty much max it all out. The INT Line is great to have with it.....the AGI Line isn't too bad either. </p>

[delbranson]

<p>If you're soloing, the first thing I would do is put 5 points into your self heal.  Boost that to max first, then go down the Str line.  At 21 points, you can get max heal and and max unarmed double attack, using future points to finish out the line to get Chi.  Chi is practically the best thing around for powerful soloing, even if you have fabled weapons and get no benefit from the line at all except for the end ability Chi.  While Chi is up, all abilities have their reuse times cut in half... so twice as much self-healing if used first during its duration and twice as much stunning.  At level 65, Chi becomes even more useful to you, significantly increasing the number of combat arts you can use during KO Combo, and so dramatically improving your spike damage and the reliability of your chain stunning.</p><p>A lot of bruisers also don't use their mezz so much, but it can really help you when soloing ^^^ heroics.  The time you can buy yourself by mezzing your enemy and then fearing him afterwards, it can mean life or death when you are waiting for your heal to come back up.  Extending the duration of your mezz with bruiser AA's by even a few seconds can be useful for this.</p><p>Lastly, the end of the int line is excellent for soloing... below 33%, with so much more mitigation and near 100% melee crit, you get real mean.  Lots of named soloing I've done where I'm scraping by at the end, near death and unleashing serious kung fu, big crit numbers flying over their heads madly.  Its the only thing that has made many tough fights doable for me.</p><p>So yah, heal first, then str line to chi... afterwards int line is great, and no build should be without the improved combat arts of the bruiser tree.  Wis line... eh, not so much, that's really better suited to just improving your damage.  If using it at all, I'd say just to get the area stun combat art.  Even against a single target, extra stunning is welcome.</p><p>In the end though, your soloing performance is most improved by your armor, upgrades, tools and tactics, less from any specific achievement build.  Big health pool, healing and stunning procs from gear, potions, upgraded combat arts and knowledge of how they work - those will help you most.  Even then, results are variable, so if its not going well, feign and repeat until you get lucky <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Illine]

<cite>Pnaxx wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cometus@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hmm, that's a good question.I'd say enough to get Chi, so 22?Parsing higher isn't the only consideration however, as you also get a crushing mitigation debuff and increased riposte for tanking. (Which adds DPS if you are going towards the Stoneskin proc in the EoF tree.)</blockquote><p>Ok so here is my next question which would parse higher?</p><p>48 points in Int & Stamina (22 points + 2 in the end ability) with imbued MC/legendary weapons or 48 points in Int and Str with no weapon?</p><p>I always just assumed that str line was more about convience of not using weapons and doing respectable dps then anything.  Of course it would help if they told you that your fist were labled fabled with it.</p></blockquote><p>Your fists are considered ONE fabled weapon. So even though the animation looks like both are doing dmg, it's only like one is. But, given that, until you get into T-7 fabled/T-8 Legendary, stick with STR LIne.</p><p>I would also say that with the STR Line, to get the most out of it, put at least 6 into the second skill which is a nice debuff/CA. Pretty much max it all out. The INT Line is great to have with it.....the AGI Line isn't too bad either. </p></blockquote><p>when I look in the character sheet at my weapons damage what I see is</p><p><b>When one weapon :</b></p><p>main weapon damage 74 - 99 (exemple, don't have the exact numbers) delay 1.6    second weapon none</p><p><b>When two weapons :</b></p><p>main weapon damage 75 - 100 delay 2.1     second weapon damage 75 - 100 delay 2.1</p><p><b>when bare handed :</b></p><p>main weapon damage 80 - 150 delay 2.5     second weapon damage 80 - 150 delay 2.5</p><p>I'm not at home so can't be sure of the damage but I'm sure of the delay. And I'm sure bare handed, the damage are better.</p><p>so why do I see 2 weapons damage if it's only one weapon?</p>

[Pnaxx]

<p>If you do "/weapon" you will see only one weapon mentioned for Bare Handed. I know it sounds freaky, but it is only one weapon. There have been several threads on this before. If you go through this page and maybe the next, you will see a detailed analysis of this fact.</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=405686" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=405686</a></p><p>Good discussion on this topic there.</p>

[evilgamer]

<cite>Pnaxx wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cometus@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hmm, that's a good question.I'd say enough to get Chi, so 22?Parsing higher isn't the only consideration however, as you also get a crushing mitigation debuff and increased riposte for tanking. (Which adds DPS if you are going towards the Stoneskin proc in the EoF tree.)</blockquote><p>Ok so here is my next question which would parse higher?</p><p>48 points in Int & Stamina (22 points + 2 in the end ability) with imbued MC/legendary weapons or 48 points in Int and Str with no weapon?</p><p>I always just assumed that str line was more about convience of not using weapons and doing respectable dps then anything.  Of course it would help if they told you that your fist were labled fabled with it.</p></blockquote><p>Your fists are considered ONE fabled weapon. So even though the animation looks like both are doing dmg, it's only like one is. But, given that, until you get into T-7 fabled/T-8 Legendary, stick with STR LIne.</p><p>I would also say that with the STR Line, to get the most out of it, put at least 6 into the second skill which is a nice debuff/CA. Pretty much max it all out. The INT Line is great to have with it.....the AGI Line isn't too bad either. </p></blockquote><p>What does the specific damage rating on the weapon  have to be to better off using weapons and another AA line (sta, wis, int)</p>

[delbranson]

<p>Damage rating isn't necessarily a cut and dry value that you can use to compare weapons or bare fists.  One thing to consider for comparing weapons and barefists is the degree to which either benefits from melee crits.</p><p>Melee crits on autoattacks do max possible damage plus a bonus amount of damage.  That being the case, the min/max ratio of your damage range on your weapons becomes a strong affector on your damage output with melee crits.  In a melee crit, it doesn't matter how low the damage range can go, even though that would lower the overall average as it contributes to the damage rating as examined.</p><p>Your bare fists are a 1:2 damage ratio.</p><p>Most weapons are 1:3 damage ratio.</p><p>Some weapons are much wider damage ratio, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6...  I've seen some weapons with a 1:10 even for priests.  I'm less familiar with many weapons than many would be here, but you can certainly find them.  Its been my experience also that brawler specific 2-handers tend to be among the widest damage ranges.</p><p>You bare fists get less benefit from melee crits than do most any weapons in the game.  The higher your crit rate and the wider the damage ratio over 1:2 you could get through weapons, the more benefit you would get out of weapons over bare fists.</p><p>Really best off considering it less by the damage rating, instead looking specifically at the weapon stats in your persona screen or by typing /weap.  Identify the damage amounts and range its hitting within and the actual delay as hasted, factor in how often you would crit and what the resulting max damage would be.</p><p>Also for that matter... its REALLY hard to find weapons with a damage range wider than 1:3 until you get to Tier 7.</p>

[Prrasha]

<cite>delbranson wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Also for that matter... its REALLY hard to find weapons with a damage range wider than 1:3 until you get to Tier 7.</p></blockquote>...with the exception of the tradeskiller-created weapons which are, as of last update, all 1:4.

[delbranson]

Oh rockin! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Pnaxx]

For another wrinkle......the STR line has a debuff for the crushing damage you will be dealing out, and that would add a benny to your dmg. Not sure how to calculate that..but it must figure in somewhere. I always reccomend putting about 6-8 points in that debuff CA.

[Rayche]

Good breakdown Delbranson. Absolutely spot on for soloers. That's precisely my build (Working towards stoneskin now)Pnaxx, if you are STR line and have 96% dbl attack, you essentially have two Fabled weapons. (I've parsed Monk friends with weapons versus STR line in XP group, using things like the Deklium Battering Cudgel and such... our parses showed his bare fists beating out all weapon combos until he got Doomcoil and Epic.

[Pnaxx]

<cite>Cometus@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Good breakdown Delbranson. Absolutely spot on for soloers. That's precisely my build (Working towards stoneskin now)Pnaxx, if you are STR line and have 96% dbl attack, you essentially have two Fabled weapons. (I've parsed Monk friends with weapons versus STR line in XP group, using things like the Deklium Battering Cudgel and such... our parses showed his bare fists beating out all weapon combos until he got Doomcoil and Epic.</blockquote>I can't dispute the parse. But I can say that if you do "/weapon" you will only see one weapon mentioned for your barefists. I did this after several members here swore it was so. It seems they were correct. But as far as dmg, parses seems to show different things. Some people have sworn up and down their parses show STR Line not equal to high end Legendary T-8 weapons. Like I said, I dun parse so can't speak to that. I am one of those that say use whatever you like. But my weapons, with adornments and StunIV seem to kick somw serious booty!

[Ildarus]

<p>Has anyone parsed the new mastercrafted weapons versus the strength line and bare fists?</p><p>I think some people may be living in the past when they say the Strength line is equivelent to having a pair of fabled weapons. I am at work now so I can't remember the exact numbers, but the new master crafted batons and bo's beat the crap out of bare fists and the strength line. With the new delays and damage spreads most mastercrafted weapons are way better than the fabled weapons of the lower tiers. This may not be the case in RoK or high end raid gear from EoF, but in the lower tiers you can't hardly find a fabled weapon that comes close to the mastercrafted ones for stats, delays, and damage spread. I did the "/weapon" for bare fisted and then I also equipped a pair of batons and then also did the same with a bo staff. From what I was seeing I think the new mastercrafted will out parse the "old standard" of using strength line and bare fists. </p><p>This is one of those things that keeps cropping up with itemization and RoK. We have all these tiers in the middle that have not been re-itemized under the new item creation rules that they made with the release of RoK. They just revamped all the Mastercrafted weapons under these new rules in each tier, but not the other Fabled and treasured gear. So it only makes sense, based on the fact most gear coming out of Timorous Deep is good till the 30's, that now that they revamped Mastercrafted it is going to be superior to <b><span style="color: #ff0000;">most</span></b> existing gear for non RoK zones.</p>

[Aragmar123]

I have a 26 monk with a MC 2hb and 2 MC fist wraps.Stats for the Fist Wraps:10-42 dmg (20.9) 2.5 dly7 str/sta/agi20 health/powerProcs 84-156 and the threat/dethreat thingPlus I have vampiric adorn for extra healing/dmgActualy dmg at 202 str: 32-127Stats for the Imbued Fir Greatstaff25-140 (27.5) 6.0 dly20 str/sta45 health/powerProcs 84-156 + threat/dethreatI have a +2 DEF adorn (shrug was cheapest)Actual dmg at 208 str: 76-430 (and I'm hasted down to 4.5 speed)