Solo and PVE only..... why Bruiser and not a Monk? [Archive]

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Scruffies

07-01-2009, 10:58 PM

Ok.... I solo leveled a Necro to L80 about a year ago and left the game, and I am just now returning to the game, thinking it would be fun to solo level up a brawler, and ive searched for "solo" on both forums but many posts are circa 2006ish so out of date.From what ive read today (googled "EQ2 Bruisers Vs Monks")...Monks have limited invis. (as long as his power lasts) but their heals have 3min. CD. Bruisers have no invis.Bruisers have 90sec heal CD, somewhat better AE damage, and somewhat better burst single target damage.I can tell you that soloing a necro I was casting invis all the time, so seems tempting to me to do the Monk just for that ability at L24. FD is identical for both classes. Not sure of the other differences that might matter....So to all of you Bruisers out there, especially those who have played a monk also (perhaps before rolling your bruiser), what is the compelling reason someone would choose a Bruiser rather than a Monk to level up from L1 to L80 solo only and PVE only? I basically want to solo quest the whole journey so no group or raids.I could roll both and play to 20 to decide, but would rather focus on one or the other and not get distracted, so any help you experienced players might offer would be appreciated..../Scruffies

Aule

07-02-2009, 05:04 AM

I have a bruiser, haven't played monk. If you're going to raid, monks are slightly more desirable due to a better raidwide buff. Lack of invis is almost meaningless. Being able to run and feign death, especially if you have glide or long jump boots and you jump before you feign death, nearly trivializes the need for invis. I leveled up my bruiser in March/April of this year, so fairly recently. It was a fairly difficult decision as to which way to go, but after doing as much analysis on the AA's and abilities as I could I felt that bruisers had a slight edge over monks. That being said, I must add that I also have no expectation of raiding on this character. You did state solo and PVE only. For soloing, particularly shiney farming, which is what many people create bruisers for, close mind and faster cycle mend are both factors that point towards bruiser rather than monk. (close mind allows you to ignore control effects for 16.5s) I should also add in parting, that at this point in time neither monk nor bruiser are highly sought after for grouping. I have the luxury of having plenty of friends who will group with my bruiser and so it's not an issue. If you're primarily going to be soloing bruiser is a great class. If you want people to respect you as a fighter though, you're going to need to double or triple up on gear so that you have sets appropriate for full tanking, full dps'ing, and somewhere in between for when you have good healers but can't quite get away with your full dps gear.

Aull

07-02-2009, 08:57 AM

For me both brawlers (as long as skill and gear are similar) are very close in soloing. Bruisers do get an aa selection that shortens the recast time for feign death by 1.5 seconds. Not sure monks get that. Also monks do get tsunami at lvl 55 I think and that is a huge bonus to have when soloing.Bruisers get knockout combo at lvl 65 which is a good burst damage tool. Close mind is very nice for getting places or even when fighting a moderately tough mob that stuns and such.Just remember that mastercrafted and legendary armored brawlers will solo decently but will still fall short on the really hard upper lvl mobs. Only high end geared brawlers solo the very hard stuff.

Mosha D'Khan

07-02-2009, 01:50 PM

the big think between them is that bruiser deal more dps and monks tank alittle better.the invis for monks is a waste, your FD in like a 7 sec recast and you should always keep it near master (adept 3 atleast). you will never need the invis because you should just fd every where need.as for tanking will mostly we just dont unless you are really good gear and have alot of hate procs because of our 2 taunts.my opinion would to be start up on and if you dont like how it plays just betray

Aule

07-02-2009, 02:07 PM

I can say that I've known a few bruisers who betrayed to monk in order to have a raid slot, ultimately did not enjoy the class as much and betrayed back to bruiser. I also know some very happy Monks.

luder118

07-02-2009, 06:50 PM

I have been playing my brawler for a pritty long time, was a monk till a week before RoK came out and would only go back to monk to help out guild with raiding (probably wont though hehe). bruisers get 2 stoneskin procs from AA, a much shorter heal recast, much better burst damage (and when soloing you are going to take on the hard stuff with all recasts up for the most part, so that will make a big diff), a third stun, a huge AOE at level 50/70/80, close mind at 58 (cant be stuned, feared, mezed, stiffled, rooted etc. for 30 at master), knockout at 65 (adds damage and 1 sec stun/interupt to every CA for 20 sec), and generaly are much tougher than monks. the only advantage a monk has for solo is tsunami at 55 (repose all frontal meele and dodge all other meele for 12 sec at master) and a good amount of haste from both group/raid buff and offencive stance (not that huge if you dont have fabled wepons). my sugestion would be make a monk (they are better at the low levels cause you have less CAs to push so the haste will help while you wait for recasts) then betray for bruiser around 45+ then the bruisers will continue to hold a clear advantage over the monks for solo play.-Eb

Aull

07-02-2009, 09:35 PM

Monks being able to haste into such high lvls is actually a nice ability to have. As a monk being stuck in the fat kid group isn't as bad for them as it is for bruisers. Bruisers cannot self buff haste or dps. The aa crane flock combined with a monks high self haste makes for some very nice aoe damage.Monks are still a strong fighter class lvling up and many people at one time had this class as a main character until the bane of tso came about. I still venture to say that there are more monks wwide than there are bruisers since a monk can fill the roles of tank, dps, and better utility. Bruisers are basically tank and dps with little to no utility at all.

Gilasil

07-03-2009, 01:24 AM

At level 80 invis is a waste as you can feign flop. Can also get invis totems at lower level. HOWEVER at lower levels it is NOT a waste because FD is not nearly as reliable. I think when you first get it it has less then a 50% chance of working or something like that. It has always been my personal take that repeated fiegn flopping is cheesy and I avoid doing it. Most don't seem to mind though.I like the timed monk mitigation buff over the bruiser one. The monk one buffs a little less as I recall and it roots the monk, but it recycles fast enough to use in most fights whereas the bruiser one recycles much slower so I end up saving it for bigger fights.Bruisers have some nice skills. I'm rather fond of close mind and stone deaf (close mind is immunity to fear/charm/root/stun/stifle and can be cast while stunned or stifled. Nice.). Stone deaf protects against a LOT of magical crap. The bruiser heal is also bigger and recycles faster. While the monk heal can be used on others it's rather small (although it can be increased with AAs) with a longer recycle. No brawler is going to be doubling as a healer, even of himself, but those heals are enough to save some situations. Tsuanmi is nice. No doubt about it. Bruisers with at last 172 AAs (or was it 182? I've got it but now I can't remember. It's late) can get a cheap imitation but it isn't as good as tsunami. Then again, bruisers get knockout combo which I dearly love. It was one of the first things I mastered out. For 20 seconds I can really smack the mob around. They have different places where they shine. I think where tsunami really shines is in raid situations -- one way even a poorly geared brawler can tank some really tough raid mobs -- for 12 seconds anyway. If it doesn't do strikethrough (which is pretty cheap but I digress). In a raid the additional dps of knockout seems to get lost in the crowd, but in a group situation it can be a lifesaver. More then once the extra dps saved the group I was in when things were starting to go south.Monk group feign death has saved many a group. Bruisers don't get it.And yes, monk haste means monks can do much more damage with autoattack then a bruiser. In some raid situations where power is an issue that can be very important. I think monk CAs do less damage the bruiser CAs to compensate. On average, I think monks do more damage through autoatack while bruiser do more through CAs.My peronal opinion is that bruisers and monks -- while similar -- are NOT the same. These differences add up. A monk cannot pull out all the stops and burn down mobs like a bruiser can when the crap hits the fan. Of course, the bruiser (unless he has his mythical or a boatload of AAs) can't survive truly epic mobs way beyond his gear for short periods of time. Monk is more group friendly and perhaps a bit more versatile (with invis, group FD, other heal, tsunami). Bruiser does more damage and can operate when everyone else is stuned, stifled, or burned down by an AoE which the bruiser can shrug off with stone deaf.Both would be poor choices if you want to tank raids.That's my take as a non-uber, (ok more uber then I used to be but nothing like some on these boards) bruiser with a monk alt. (b.t.w. the bruiser gets a LOT more play time then the monk).

Antas22

07-03-2009, 06:10 AM

The reason why Bruisers are better for soloing than Monk is quite simple. You say they have "slightly higher burst DPS", this is outright wrong, by way of being massively understated. Bruisers absolutely ROCK Monks (and most classes) in terms of burst DPS capabilities. If a fight lasts more than a full CA rotation, an equally geared and skilled Monk will catch up, but for soloing, fights won't last that long, period. I flip-flopped between Monk and Bruiser on the path to 80 (and have both Mythicals), and while I've always enjoyed more success finding raid spots as Monk, Bruiser is without a doubt the more capable soloer and instance tank. Not to say that Monks are complete slouches, just not on quite the same level.