Brigand Tank.

[GoatSlave]

<p>I have read on some Zerk and SK forums that a shield spec Brigand is actually a decent tank.</p><p>Can you please give me an idea what soloing would be like with a shield spec and how well I could expect to tank heroic dungeon content in a small group.</p><p>My Brigand is lvl 59 with 43 AAs in a Mastercrafted Chain.</p><p>TIA <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Axistio]

The Brigand tank is indeed a decent tank and a nice solo toon imo.  Mind you I'm only level 30 with 50 aa points but while I was mostly in 22 mc leather I could still hold agro and take my hits while in group with a dps specced warden and brigand in RoV.  On the solo side I can mostly solo FG at thirty (for the boss I had to use diety powers)  It really is a good way to go for small groups if a fighter is not available.

[Doriunn]

My brig is 80, that said, he can tank half way decent.  Nowhere near a guard, but things like group instances, it's possible.  Just have to spec for it correctly.

[machseven]

I am currently a level 52 Tank spec'd Brig and I tank in a trio of Brig (me) , Inquis & coercer. I only lose aggro when I want to and get it back straight away when I need to. I have around 56% Mit and about the same avoidance. I rarely group with tanks with more than me in either and nearly never with more than me in both. I can still solo triple up arrows but level 50 and up ones are hit & miss. The hardest part is getting the AA points which you already have so you should be fine just chuck your points into Stam line and the rest in strength and you will do fine.

[DwarvesR]

<cite>machseven wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am currently a level 52 Tank spec'd Brig and I tank in a trio of Brig (me) , Inquis & coercer. I only lose aggro when I want to and get it back straight away when I need to.I have around 56% Mit and about the same avoidance. I rarely group with tanks with more than me in either and nearly never with more than me in both. I can still solo triple up arrows but level 50 and up ones are hit & miss. The hardest part is getting the AA points which you already have so you should be fine just chuck your points into Stam line and the rest in strength and you will do fine.</blockquote>/thisMy brig is also 52, and if I'm in tank spec I'm STR to the end, AGI 4-1, and STA to the end.  In my MC gear, I haven't yet seen an actual tank that has more MIT or avoidance than me, and my HP are higher too.I don't have enough AA's for the tanking line on the Brig tree, but I don't think I really need them either, and I'm going down the left most tree there in order to make my debuffs last longer instead.I can still DW and go offense stance, and tbh usually do unless vs blue ^^^ mobs, in which case I'll whip out the shield, def stance, and do all the stunlock moves and such and it's not bad to take them out at all.In groups even without being in "pure dps spec" I can still get aggro even with de-hate poison and the "Befuddle" on, if I'm not careful, so dps is still just fine.Frankly, I just like the extra health and survivability of the line for my soloing -- it's really rare I actually use the shield, and while I've OT'd a group, I've never been MT, nor wanted to be.

[GoatSlave]

Thank you very much for all your responses. The reason I am interested in my Brigand becoming an MT for a small group of friends is because I love the utility of the Brigand and after reading that this class can actually do OK being a tank I was very curious as to what the experiences with this were. I do not expect to be on par with a Guardian or even a Zerker, nor do I ever expect to be a RAID MT, but if I can MT for friends then why not? I guess I will have to bite the bullet, respec and test to see how I do. Your positive responses have certainly made me more willing to give it a shot.

[Jida]

Currently, brigands are the scout tanks of choice due to high mit and resists given in the current trees.The only things you will have issues with as a brigand MT is, death prevention tricks (you have none), aggro tricks (You have only 1), and temporary mit/heal buffs.Other than that, you will be a solid tank.Depending on gear and spell quality, I rival most instance tanks in mitigation and avoidance with out 'speccing' as a tank. <a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/characters/character_profile.vm?characterId=614304105" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://eq2players.station.sony.com/...terId=614304105</a>Above is a link to my raid gear. ... I'm only missing the VP sholders for a full vp set (hope to get those this week for Sh*ts and giggles).Speccing as a tank, you will be able to tank every zone with ease other than the hardest... (RE2) and will have issues with the final boss of veskar.Hope this helps with you making your decision.All in all, my honest suggestion, if your going to roll a brig as a tank, dont... roll a bruiser.. their tanking utility is far superior to a brig.

[machseven]

Hey Guys Keep in mind that if you run the Stam line you get a second taunt and if you go the tanking line in sub class AA your primary taunt refreshes faster and is harder to resist. Like I said I never lose aggro unless I want to. ( if i miss time things and run out of stuns before I run out of backstabs.) Got to say that in direct contradiction to the other class forums I love the Brig and don't see another class with the same ability set that can do its job better, and it doesnt seem to matter which job you choose for it. DPS, tank, debuff... if we could port and heal you wouldn't need other classes.

[jaguarjp]

<p><cite>Jonna@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>...My brig is also 52, and if I'm in tank spec I'm STR to the end, AGI 4-1, and STA to the end...</blockquote><p>Just out of curiosity, how can a level 52 character have 2 lines "to the end" (24 points minimum), *plus* another line 4-1? Wouldn't that be at least 54 points? Aren't we still capped at 50 AP's per tab till 70, or did I miss a memo?</p>

[bboyhalfstep]

<p>Brigs suck as tanks.  Maybe in 50s it was do-able.  But the more I see it in even t7 zones, brigs don't tank well.  Especially with multiple mob encounters, its hard for them to keep agro.  I have a 72 brigand.  You can tank decently on trash ^^^ heroics, but once you get to the boss, it ain't pretty.  I'm sure it's doable, just be ready for wipes. </p><p>Even spec'd for dps I can tank blue/green heroics.  But if you want to do instances better to roll a fighter. </p><p>I hate that soe thinks scouts should be tanks, it really cuts into our real role as dps/debuff when they waste our aa's into tanking abilities that 2% of the population will ever use.  I'm sure its nice for those who want to 2 box, but for people grouping/raiding its not helpful.</p>

[Anfauglith]

<p>don't listen to a word bboyhaflstep says.</p><p>When specced correctly and with decent gears (fighters need decent gears to tank too) . Brigands loose some dps, they gain gain quite a bit of mit, shield effectivness, HP, and ae aggro. The result is like a lesser fighter, HP and mit of a crusader, no save trick (like crusader), avoidance and ae aggro of a guardian. (this is approximate but comparing with friends that's pretty much where I end up.</p><p>So overall you're a bit weaker than any fighter...but definitly close enough to any of them to tank any group instance pretty well...that is IF you learn how to play a tank correctly.</p><p>And for those who don't take the sta line to tank, you get stuff just as good as any other scout to improve your dps.</p>

[Efour EQ2]

<p>just roll a tank... seriously</p>

[Anfauglith]

<p><cite>Efour@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>just roll a tank... seriously</p></blockquote><p>I don't see why he should really...for the exact same reason there's 6 fighter classes, tanking with a brigand is a totaly different experience. Not any less enjoyable as tanking with any other class...and with a mirror you are able to fill the spot of dps just aswell as the tank one which can help a lot to find a group. Of course if you plan tank in raid,Brigand becomes WAY less interesting.</p>

[sokil]

<p>Server = Naggy</p><p>Had a brig tank Veksars all the way through. Was a cake walk. fewer deaths then with a gaurd.</p><p>Group: Warden, Templar, Dirge, and I think assasian and mage but don't remember exactly.</p>

[DwarvesR]

<p><cite>jaguarjp wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Jonna@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>...My brig is also 52, and if I'm in tank spec I'm STR to the end, AGI 4-1, and STA to the end...</blockquote><p>Just out of curiosity, how can a level 52 character have 2 lines "to the end" (24 points minimum), *plus* another line 4-1? Wouldn't that be at least 54 points? Aren't we still capped at 50 AP's per tab till 70, or did I miss a memo?</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/characters/character_achivements_g.vm?characterId=756828201" target="_blank">My AA's</a></p><p>It's STR 4-4-4-8 (so far) so you're right, it's not "all the way" to the end.  I won't be able to add more until after 70, as you say.</p><p>I did the STA line 1st, then the AGI 4-1, then put all the rest of my points in STR until I hit the 50 point cap, so in my mind it was "to the end" in spite of not having the endline ability yet <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Keyh]

<p>I went tank spec for my Brigand because I mostly played with 2 of my friends and I was the leader of the group, so decided to tank.</p><p>Right now I'm at 54% mit and 58% (was 61% before the shield block change) avoidance with the following AAs:</p><p>STA: 6-8-8-0-2</p><p>STR: 4-4-8-5</p><p>WIS: 4-6-4-8-2 (don't judge me <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" />. Might actually alter this to put 8 in the +wis for more resists. Coule helps alot whenever tanking in defensive stance and adds a bit of avoidance but, yes, the rest is wasted and mainly used for soloing or whenever I'm asked to DPS.)</p><p>Brigand Tree I have the +dam +heal on Vitality poisons maxed and used to have the defending line maxxed, but I respecced and took some out of that to put in the new tree.</p><p>New tree I have max health/max power and the defensive buff on the scout line. Turns out to be about 9k health self buffed. This is with relatively crappy equipment too, the lvl 77 MC with the ethernauts shield (despite being crappy, the entire setup looks pretty awesome, I wish they had weapon/shield appearance slots).</p><p>Most of the groups I've been in, I've had more mit and avoidance than the tank, but the tank had me beaten on health usually for about 500-700. The only real problem I've had is keeping aggro on multiple targets (especially non-encounter ones), which requires target dancing, and doubling up barroom negotiation even with the encounter taunt maxxed.</p>

[MaNiaGG84]

<p>So your saying tanks in your grps got 9500-9700 health? A tank in a group setup that hasn't like 14k+ health, isnt a real tank anyways.</p><p>No wonder you guys can 'decently tank' when you got grps like this, seriously <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" /></p>

[whitesilverwolf]

<p>Brig tank is completely feasible.  I regularly tank anathema and/or crucible.  The former is offensive spec/gear/stance and the later in offense spec/defensive stance.  DPS only falters slightly and survivability is just as good as a plate tank.  Same amount of healers as for a plate tank or fighter.  It just takes practice and the know how of how many you can pull at once, plus the right group makeup.</p>