Brigand, Swashbuckler, Monk or Bruiser? (returning player)

[d24e]

Howdy, I finally resubbed (played a warlock around the time DoF and KoS came out) and am ready to start all over on a new server, new main, new crafting alts. But can't decide on a class so I thought I'd play all of those to lvl 20 and ask some more experienced players on the forums here.Basically what I want is a class with good survivability (no more warlock cloth armor!), and one that can solo named heroic greens for legendary/master chests. I love loot! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I also really like fast travel so scout's evac, safefall and fd is cool. What classes have nice run buffs in this game?I hope to do some raiding endgame but mostly I just like finishing all the quests, getting all the special item rewards, mentoring people and going through lower lvl content to kill all the nameds for legendary/master chests. I thought about collecting all legendary items and putting them on my crafting alts, maybe use them to twink some alts later. I really like the crafting in this game so I think I'll harvest a lot and get rares from legendary chests so I don't have to grind too much (just make all the different normal+advanced recipes with rest xp).Which class do you think suits my playstyle the most?I read some other threads and so far this is what I've gathered:monk: aoe, more popular in groups/raidsbruiser: good self heal and burst dpsswashy: excellent dps when in a group/raid, fd from rogue aabrigand: lots of stuns so good at soloing, fd from rogue aa

[Doodar]

brigand: lots of stuns so good at soloing, fd from rogue aa You answered your own question rite there

[evilgamer]

<p>From a purely named busting toon when leveling up.</p><p>Bruiser all the way, the burst dps and fast feign will allow you to flop anywhere you want and solo named mobs.</p><p>However once you get to T8 all that changes, only the most high end brawlers can regularly solo named dungeon mobs in RoK.  Bruisers are great soloers until tier 8, after that they are take a backseat to chanters and other root and nukers.</p><p>If you want to raid, then brig all the way, every raid needs at least 1 brig, some use 2.</p>

[Junaru]

Up to T8 all 4 classes can solo very well. After T8 they all have they issues. Mainly cause RoK mobs just hit like trucks.As for raiding. Most raids will run with at least 1 Monk. At least 1 Swashy but often will take more then one Brigand. BUT by the time you are raid ready who knows what will be what. SOE makes changes all the time.

[asmiro]

<p>frome a purely heroic named perspective, i have found that a wizzy has everything i need, and then some. plus, with the right gear choices, they survive pretty decently while still able to burn down mobs extremely quickly.</p><p>for a wizzy, i would recommend getting the early sol ro diety quests out of the way to unlock "Wrath of the Burning Prince". this costs a little over 800 diety faction (or whatever it is called) each time you renew the charges of it. what this spell does is make your next nuke cast ALWAYS critical (i.e., you cast Wrath of the Burning Prince (WotBP for short), then cast your next actuall nuke damage spell). ideally, you want to use this with a heat-based nuke, mostly ball of <fill in the blank for your level>, because if the next nuke cast after WotBP is heat based it does EXTREME damage. as an example, my adept 1 of ball of incineration on my lvl 53 wizzy does at MOST 2100+change damage. with WotBP cast before ball of incineration, it will hit for around 20k damage PLUS crit an extra nearly 20k. usually most heroic ^^^ named that con yellow or under are soloable with this. body pull any and all adds that might come with the named that are NOT linked with the named, then, when the area is clear of adds, first root the named, then cast WotBP, then ball of <fill in the blank>. this usually = the named being around 10-20% hp, and provided your root hasnt fallen, you can usually burn him down the rest of the way. especially if you have manaburn for levels under 50. 50+, you dont need manaburn, because you have ice comet.</p><p>granted, a wizzy is not for everyone, but for named farming, the are very nearly the undisputed kings of it.</p><p>now, for straight up leveling, using the classes you were considering, it would depend on what you hunt, and where. brigand is more single target DPS, where swash is more multi-mob DPS (though not by much). i have never played them, but from what i have heard, monks are more defensive oriented, where bruisers are more offensive orriented, which would come down to your playstyle.</p><p>if you decide on brigand, the one AA you want to get maxed out ASAP imo, is "Walk the Plank". this aa turns the mob to face the same direction you are, thus providing you with it's backside for your back attacks. couple this with a few judiciously placed stuns, means you can keep the mob facing away from you nearly indeffinately, and do some MAJOR dps on its backside while taking relatively little damage of your own. swash may get this aa too, i am unsure on that. for single targets, brigand is king over the swash, and vice versa for the swash on multi-mob (linked) encounters. </p><p>either way, brigand or swash, you will have to learn to run back behind the mob after stuns when walk the plank is down to use your back attacks. this is where that option in the game options that automatically makes you turn to face what you are attacking comes in handy.</p><p>hope this helps your decision some.</p>

[d24e]

Follow up question:If I were to get a second account and play both chars with the second char on autofollow so my main (one of those 4 classes, haven't decided yet) would get the buffs but he'd still have to do all the killing by himself. What would be a great complementary class? I was thinking Troubadour so I get a speedbuff/extra dps. I think a healer would be too much work, even with reactive heals I'd still need to refresh them every minute or so. Do buffs work zone wide in this game? So eg: I put the secondary char at the entrance of a zone while I run around with my main killing stuff while getting buffed. Or is there a maximum range you have to be within for the buffs to work?Oh and would you recommend one of those 4 main classes over the others based on the class I have backing me up or does that not really matter?I plan on doing as many quests as I can so it doesn't matter if one class is good and the other is evil, I'll be going through every zone anyway.

[Arcueid]

<p>For the bard route, I'd would say a Dirge to compliment your scout or monk class. The Dirge's abilities are set towards melee bonuses and Troub is for casters.</p><p>Can't go wrong with a healer either! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[d24e]

Cool I never really knew what the difference between troub and dirge was, I'm glad I read up on that.Male ratonga brigand + Female ratonga dirge is probably going to be my ultimate EQ2 experience. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Lethe5683]

What server were you planning to play on?  Our guild can always use more members, especially Ratongas. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Kram337]

I'll throw in my insight since I've played 2 of the class you have in question.Bruiser: This was my main for many years. There really shouldn't be anything about the bruiser that you have issues with up till the point where you want to raid. Bruisers are one of least needed classes for raids. If you get in with a guild and they like your company then even a bruiser gets invites. But the other classes all have a higher chance. Bruiser is great for solo and group play. They're great for killing green heroics and names. Swashbuckler:This class is amazing too. It takes some of my favorite parts of the bruiser class and adds to it. The additions are more dps, track, stealth, evac, and a much higher desire for raiding. The downside compared to bruiser is survivability. Now a well geared swash can do amazing things when it comes to tanking, but an equally geared bruiser will still do better. When I go from playing my bruiser to playing my swash I notice a significant difference in the damage I take while soloing.  Though I also notice that mobs die considerably faster.Brigand and Monk are fairly similar to their counter parts so this may stand for them to some extent as well.Hope that helps! Glad you're having a good time!

[d24e]

Yeah I'm going with Brigand+Dirge. I do plan on raiding again at high lvl (like I said, I love loot) and it's nice to feel wanted instead of "oh we got another slot open if you want it". <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />And I'm loving this faster run on the dirge I'm testing with. Plus stealth, evac, tracking is just incredibly useful.Lethe: Splitpaw EU, sorry.

[Lethe5683]

Haves fun. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Junaru]

<cite>d24e wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yeah I'm going with Brigand+Dirge. I do plan on raiding again at high lvl (like I said, I love loot) and it's nice to feel wanted instead of "oh we got another slot open if you want it". <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />And I'm loving this faster run on the dirge I'm testing with. Plus stealth, evac, tracking is just incredibly useful.Lethe: Splitpaw EU, sorry.</blockquote>Hope you like your Dirge a lot. Hehe cause if your server is anything like mine there will be a lack of them and your raid is going to want it 99% of the time. BTW good choice. A healer duo would be better but thats only if you can/will heal yourself. As buff bots go Bards rock.

[d24e]

So far it's going great. Level 15 on both. My gear sucks (just quest rewards for now) so I can't take too much hits yet but this constant fast running is just so much fun because travel is no longer an issue really. Soon I'll level up some crafting alts, then I can really start killing some heroic mobs more easily.And harvesting on two chars at once is just way more fun. No more getting bored to tears from watching a progress bar 99% of the time. While one's harvesting a node, you move the other to the next spot so you're constantly paying attention.