What is a bruiser? [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

Quicksilver74

04-22-2009, 10:07 AM

What are bruisers? This question has been asked a lot, and plenty of answers have been thrown around. Most people will tell you that bruisers are very fun to play. Here is an overall summary or what exactly the bruiser class is, and what our roles are. Bruisers are fighters, which mean we are tanks. We wear leather armor, which provides less mitigation than our plate tank counterparts. As a result, we take more damage from physical attacks. To counter our lighter armor, we rely on avoidance to avoid being hit. We also have a high level of melee damage output. We primarily use crushing weapons, and are capable of throwing up a lot of damage in a short amount of time, which is often referred to as “Burst Damage”. Of all the fighter classes, bruisers have one of the highest levels of damage output. Much of our damage abilities are single target abilities, but we do have a few Area of Effect abilities also, which damage multiple enemies. We are Hybrids. We mix elements of DPS (Damage per Second) classes and Tank classes. We rely on our DPS to give us hate on our targets. The balance of Tanking and DPS gives us some excellent ability for soloing. Some of our Class Defining abilities are: Feign Death – Pretending to be dead so monsters will leave you alone. Close Mind – Makes you immune to control based effects for 30 seconds. Knockout Combination – Extra Damage for every Combat Art you land. Ignore Pain – A large self-only heal. Devastation Fist – A powerful attack that can kill weaker enemies in 1 hit. What roles will you play as a bruiser? Well bruisers fit well into most groups as either the primary tank or a DPS class. Many people who play bruisers enjoy a little of both. If you enjoy raiding, you should know that there is generally more competition among fighters for a spot in a raid. Bruisers are rarely the main tank of a raid. This is because raid mobs hit extremely hard and even with our avoidance, any hit from a raid mob has the chance to be a fatal blow. At higher levels bruisers can gain temporary abilities to become immune to physical attacks and allow us greater survivability when tanking raids. This makes us good off-tanks. Generally we DPS, and are prepared to grab any mob who is attacking one of the “squishy” classes in the raid, like a healer or mage. If the main tank should die, it would be our job to try and grab agro on the mob until the main tank can be resurrected and take back over tanking again. Overall, bruisers are a very fun class to play and offer multiple play styles. Weather you like DPS, tanking, soloing, or running around hitting Feign Death, bruiser might be the class for you!

Lethe5683

04-22-2009, 11:05 AM

That's what bruisers are supposed to be, not what they currently are.

Quicksilver74

04-22-2009, 12:40 PM

There are some imbalances right now, but I'm sure they will be fixxed eventually. I had to say that we had "one of the highest levels of damage output" among fighters, when we really should have THE HIGHEST damage output, but I'm sure that will be fixxed. Overall this is still a pretty accurate representation of what we are and what we have been.

Aull

04-22-2009, 01:53 PM

Years ago I had a book that contained much better descriptions of the fighter classes. Just to save space it basically stated that bruisers "always opt for a powerful offense before a strong defense". Bruiser's also have defensive capabilities but are limited in the defensive department due to their powerful offensive capabilities.It is a great post Crabbok and thanks for doing it. Of all the fighters bruisers have the least defensive abilities and utility. Bruiser's should have the greatest dps potential of the fighters.

Quicksilver74

04-22-2009, 02:19 PM

Yeah I got some book when eq2 first launched, I think it was a Prima guide, but it's funny to compare the information in that guide with the game today, especially since that guilde was written pretty much entirely from the game's beta. If I had to sum up the idea of a bruiser in non-gameplay related terms, I'd say something like : "Bruisers are the crushing behemoths of battle! Smashing everything in their path, a bruiser knows no fear, and no equal in battle! A bruiser will literally knock down your living room wall, smashing bricks on the floor, and scream! Very similar to how the Kool Aid man would do it, only the bruiser will not server you a drink. Instead he will serve you a punch in the mouth. "

Aull

04-22-2009, 03:12 PM

LOL! Your the best or should I say beast!

Insayn31

04-22-2009, 08:42 PM

What I like best about playing a bruiser is there is always something we can be doing. We can Ninja Shards/Plats from chests or collect shineys. We can tank/DPS. Were more productive while we wait for a group. Where as most DPS classes have to wait in the guild hall until a proper grp gets put together to do anything substantial. Not to mention were solid in PVP as well.

Lethe5683

04-22-2009, 10:25 PM

<cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote> "Bruisers are the crushing behemoths of battle! Smashing everything in their path, a bruiser knows no fear, and no equal in battle! A bruiser will literally knock down your living room wall, smashing bricks on the floor, and scream! Very similar to how the Kool Aid man would do it, only the bruiser will not server you a drink. Instead he will serve you a punch in the mouth. "</blockquote>ooooooooh yeah!

Sprin

04-23-2009, 08:44 PM

<cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote> Bruisers are rarely the main tank of a raid. This is because raid mobs hit extremely hard and even with our avoidance, any hit from a raid mob has the chance to be a fatal blow. At higher levels bruisers can gain temporary abilities to become immune to physical attacks and allow us greater survivability when tanking raids. This makes us good off-tanks. Generally we DPS, and are prepared to grab any mob who is attacking one of the “squishy” classes in the raid, like a healer or mage. If the main tank should die, it would be our job to try and grab agro on the mob until the main tank can be resurrected and take back over tanking again. </blockquote>With mythical and 172 AA's with the shadow tree abilities i can stand up solo to a lvl 80 epic x 4 melee mob for about a minute...damage absorb the first 2 hits, then pop your endline shadow tree for anotehr 10 seconds of parring all attacks, then depending on how many HP's you have and how hard the epic is, you can take one hit, then pop your mythical and anotehr 12 seconds of dodging all attacks plus healing up to 100 percent from the last attack, then take another hit from him and use your heal.... and thats solo... you have healers and you know what yoru doing, you can take an epic mob like a mad man... since there are mostly scrub bruisers out there in the world, hardly anyone does it, so people think we cant tank epic mobs...one of the big problems is that if your warded heavily when you pop your mythical or end line shadow abilities, the wards and heals will go to waste.... so probably using them at the beginning and telling the shaman to wait for 22 seconds would be better, then they can time it and have a full temps / wards up for when they run out... and your cleric / druid can patch heal you between temps... by that time 30+ seconds has passed and the mob should be close to dead..

Lethe5683

04-24-2009, 10:53 AM

<cite>Sprinng@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote> Bruisers are rarely the main tank of a raid. This is because raid mobs hit extremely hard and even with our avoidance, any hit from a raid mob has the chance to be a fatal blow. At higher levels bruisers can gain temporary abilities to become immune to physical attacks and allow us greater survivability when tanking raids. This makes us good off-tanks. Generally we DPS, and are prepared to grab any mob who is attacking one of the “squishy” classes in the raid, like a healer or mage. If the main tank should die, it would be our job to try and grab agro on the mob until the main tank can be resurrected and take back over tanking again. </blockquote>With mythical and 172 AA's with the shadow tree abilities i can stand up solo to a lvl 80 epic x 4 melee mob for about a minute...damage absorb the first 2 hits, then pop your endline shadow tree for anotehr 10 seconds of parring all attacks, then depending on how many HP's you have and how hard the epic is, you can take one hit, then pop your mythical and anotehr 12 seconds of dodging all attacks plus healing up to 100 percent from the last attack, then take another hit from him and use your heal.... and thats solo... you have healers and you know what yoru doing, you can take an epic mob like a mad man... since there are mostly scrub bruisers out there in the world, hardly anyone does it, so people think we cant tank epic mobs...one of the big problems is that if your warded heavily when you pop your mythical or end line shadow abilities, the wards and heals will go to waste.... so probably using them at the beginning and telling the shaman to wait for 22 seconds would be better, then they can time it and have a full temps / wards up for when they run out... and your cleric / druid can patch heal you between temps... by that time 30+ seconds has passed and the mob should be close to dead..</blockquote>That's not the point. The thing is we are not as good at tanking as plate tanks reguardless of what you might think and we don't have any real DPS or utility advantage either.

Quicksilver74

04-24-2009, 01:52 PM

<cite>Sprinng@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote> Bruisers are rarely the main tank of a raid. This is because raid mobs hit extremely hard and even with our avoidance, any hit from a raid mob has the chance to be a fatal blow. At higher levels bruisers can gain temporary abilities to become immune to physical attacks and allow us greater survivability when tanking raids. This makes us good off-tanks. Generally we DPS, and are prepared to grab any mob who is attacking one of the “squishy” classes in the raid, like a healer or mage. If the main tank should die, it would be our job to try and grab agro on the mob until the main tank can be resurrected and take back over tanking again. </blockquote>With mythical and 172 AA's with the shadow tree abilities i can stand up solo to a lvl 80 epic x 4 melee mob for about a minute...damage absorb the first 2 hits, then pop your endline shadow tree for anotehr 10 seconds of parring all attacks, then depending on how many HP's you have and how hard the epic is, you can take one hit, then pop your mythical and anotehr 12 seconds of dodging all attacks plus healing up to 100 percent from the last attack, then take another hit from him and use your heal.... and thats solo... you have healers and you know what yoru doing, you can take an epic mob like a mad man... since there are mostly scrub bruisers out there in the world, hardly anyone does it, so people think we cant tank epic mobs...one of the big problems is that if your warded heavily when you pop your mythical or end line shadow abilities, the wards and heals will go to waste.... so probably using them at the beginning and telling the shaman to wait for 22 seconds would be better, then they can time it and have a full temps / wards up for when they run out... and your cleric / druid can patch heal you between temps... by that time 30+ seconds has passed and the mob should be close to dead..</blockquote>Of course bruisers CAN tank epic mobs, but so can Warlocks for that matter. The point is we are not the optimal tank for raiding. In every single case, a guardian of equal gear and skill is the best choice for a raid guild's Main Tank. Sure you can fight a lvl 80 epicx4... remind me again what mob in the game is lvl 80 x4, because I honetsly can't even think of a single one. Not one. But back on track here, the real raid targets in the game are 85 and up, up to 88, and even higher in the new zone. These mobs strikethrough, so your 100% deflection doesn't really work. Plate tanks now have almost triple the mitigation that we have, while having close to the same avoidance. When they DO get hit it's for much less than us, and that is why we wre best suited for group tanks and raid off-tanks, or just a DPS class.

Arimish

04-24-2009, 02:28 PM

WHat i would love to see is a limitation on chain and plate wearers for avoidance so that they can undo the change they did back when RoK came out and having high avoidance was king. There is no reason for a Plate tank to have all the mitigation of plate and having a 80% avoidance as well.I have seen raid tanks get this easily.I would love to also have access to swords for bruiser. there are couple martial arts styles out there that utilize sword and dagger(sai). If we had access to at least swords that will go a long way to opening up itemazation for bruiser weapons.

Lethe5683

04-24-2009, 06:30 PM

<cite>Arimish wrote:</cite><blockquote>WHat i would love to see is a limitation on chain and plate wearers for avoidance so that they can undo the change they did back when RoK came out and having high avoidance was king. There is no reason for a Plate tank to have all the mitigation of plate and having a 80% avoidance as well.I have seen raid tanks get this easily.</blockquote>I agree totally. But scouts really shouldn't wear chain so if they did that without changing scouts armor type I would delete all my scouts.

Aull

04-24-2009, 07:21 PM

Well scouts wearing heavier chain armor and out dpsing lighter leather armored brawlers has always stifled me. Yet the rogues still have better utility. When this game first came out I don't think either rogue had the dps they are know for now but for the debuffs. It may have been gu 13 that changed it all, but I can't remember.If this was the real world lighter leather armor would provide better dps due to less emcumbering moves

Lethe5683

04-24-2009, 07:53 PM

<cite>Aull wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well scouts wearing heavier chain armor and out dpsing lighter leather armored brawlers has always stifled me. Yet the rogues still have better utility. When this game first came out I don't think either rogue had the dps they are know for now but for the debuffs. It may have been gu 13 that changed it all, but I can't remember.If this was the real world lighter leather armor would provide better dps due to less emcumbering moves</blockquote>Scouts should be wearing leather or cloth, chain is rediculous. It's the most cumbersome armor type and is noisy which would make scouts loud, clumsy, failures at sneaking.

Sprin

04-24-2009, 07:57 PM

<cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite> Sure you can fight a lvl 80 epicx4... remind me again what mob in the game is lvl 80 x4, because I honetsly can't even think of a single one. Not one. But back on track here, </blockquote>I love smart a's that dont think before they type... lvl 80 x 4 guards in NQ... but thanks for playing.. bubyeJust because you have a junky geared bruiser doesnt mean everyone does BTW... especially if you know a warlock that can tank anything as long as you can... but thanks for playing again

kelvmor

04-24-2009, 10:38 PM

Ya know, Bruisers are sorta like a more advanced form of a Berserker. Rather than deal with heavy plate, their light armor allows them more agility. Rather than swing a heavy axe or sword, they prefer hand-to-hand or light crushing weapons.And despite the lack of weight in their weapons, they deal devastating damage compared to the Berserker.Sorta funny.---Crabbok: There are TONS of level 80 epic x4's. Guards in Freeport, Neriak, and Qeynos especially.~~~Kelvmor

Aull

04-25-2009, 12:45 AM

<cite>Sprinng@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite> Sure you can fight a lvl 80 epicx4... remind me again what mob in the game is lvl 80 x4, because I honetsly can't even think of a single one. Not one. But back on track here, </blockquote>I love smart a's that dont think before they type... lvl 80 x 4 guards in NQ... but thanks for playing.. bubyeJust because you have a junky geared bruiser doesnt mean everyone does BTW... especially if you know a warlock that can tank anything as long as you can... but thanks for playing again</blockquote>I don't mean to get off on this but all I can say is the door swings both ways. Crabbok is not junky geared and even if he was not many here could even be a stitch in his leather.Yes there are "those" lvl 80 epicx4 in those zones, but I don't see any raids going for that horse $#!t on a consistant basis.Mercy <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" />

Quicksilver74

04-25-2009, 02:05 AM

Thanks for your sarcastic reply. I don't spend time in Qeynos, being a bruiser and all, and don't ever remember seeing an 80x4. I was seriously asking where I could find them. Regardless, just because you can stay alive for about a minute on one of those guards doesn't mean that you can tank raids. there is a vast... VAST difference between a white, even conned mob and orange conned epics, that strikethrough and can easily 1 shot you. And I'm sorry if I'm too junky geared for you. I tried fighting those NQ guards but wasn't able to kill him. I only managed to get him into the yellow... before I eventually ran out of power. Lasted over 4 minutes though. Maybe if I get some more gear I can kill it solo.

peepshow

05-05-2009, 08:02 AM

<cite>Crabbok@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote> Maybe if I get some more gear I can kill it solo. </blockquote>I hope you will never be able to solo those Crab, cause then we will have other classes scream nerf all over the place..But with your gear and high avoid, I'd say there is a good chance you will be able to very soon..

Quicksilver74

05-05-2009, 11:41 AM

People scream nerf all the time, there is no stopping that. I'm actually sure I coudl solo these guys if I went offensive, and tried to burn them down fast. The other night though I was merely trying to last forever. Back in T7, when the Fallen Dynasty came out I know of people who solo'd the lvl 100 guards. I also heard about a mage who solo'd Nagafen. The point is, it doesn't matter if you can solo mobs that don't really yield a reward. The guards in North Qeynos are really easy... basicly they are heroic mobs with more HP. They are not anything like raid mobs. Plus I am raid geared, I don't represent the soloing ability of the average bruiser.