What Am I Good For?

[Edavi]

<p>Sigh, ima 90 bruiser, and im disheartened.</p><p>It is so easy to get a grp on my illy (which are now much worse DPS in SoF) but on my bruiser, I cant get in one to save my life.  People dont want us as tanks because anything in plate is a much more viable option, and people dont want us as DPS because anything with 2 legs is a much more viable option.</p><p>I know we can put out nice DPS, but it seems that no one else thinks the same.  When it comes down to it, given a "real" dps class vs a bruiser, the real DPSer will do more.</p><p>People just ignore me when i send them tells for a group.  Seems all I am really good for is battlegrounds and my Illy.</p><p>no matter how much tank love we get with AA's, we are still no guardian, zerker, pally or SK, because they get all those same tank things.</p><p>What am I good for?</p>

[BChizzle]

<p><cite>Edavi wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Sigh, ima 90 bruiser, and im disheartened.</p><p>It is so easy to get a grp on my illy (which are now much worse DPS in SoF) but on my bruiser, I cant get in one to save my life.  People dont want us as tanks because anything in plate is a much more viable option, and people dont want us as DPS because anything with 2 legs is a much more viable option.</p><p>I know we can put out nice DPS, but it seems that no one else thinks the same.  When it comes down to it, given a "real" dps class vs a bruiser, the real DPSer will do more.</p><p>People just ignore me when i send them tells for a group.  Seems all I am really good for is battlegrounds and my Illy.</p><p>no matter how much tank love we get with AA's, we are still no guardian, zerker, pally or SK, because they get all those same tank things.</p><p>What am I good for?</p></blockquote><p>Bruisers provide laughs and good times to everyone but the bruiser.  They should just rename your class to jester <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Aule]

It's hard work to make a reputation for yourself as a brawler that doesn't suck. Once you have that though you won't have any problems getting groups. Heck, my main is a coercer that's all raid geared out and I regularly am asked to log on my bruiser instead for zoning, which is fine with me.

[gelinx]

<p>Aule was spot on with that comment. The problem is you're fighting against some well established ignorance from the majority of the player base. Dating back from pre-DoF we were always looked down upon in regards to being a tank, and this notion was reinforced due to the numerous brawlers around who either A) Seek to play as DPS, totally ignoring the fact that we are FIGHTERS (one reason why I thoroughly enjoyed the archetype progression system they had back then) and B) Spend the majority of their levels soloing, get to cap and have no clue the intricacies of tanking as a brawler, which can be alot more work than the other tank classes.</p><p>You're only chance for the most part is to find a clique of people that know your capabilities, and the fact that you have the potential, especially with the consolidation of block and SF AA's, to tank just as well as any other fighter. One thing to keep in mind, to make things a hell of a lot easier assign a scout or one of the dps'ers in your group as MA. Hopefully, they'll /assist through you freeing you to cycle through the rest of the encounter to ensure aggro stays on you. Also, maxxing out Divide and Conquer AA in TSO works wonders for some encounters, but the reuse makes it so it can't be relied on.</p><p>I totally understand where your coming from. The fact is you have much more to prove than other fighters, and until an awareness campaign gets out there about the potential of brawlers, and more folks that play brawlers understand the class in relevance to tanking only then will we shatter the stereotype.</p><p>Used to be the running joke that one would say "At least we aren't SK's". Heh how times have changed.</p>

[VericSauvari]

<p>as it has been said, the important thing is build a reputation by starting your own groups.  Until you start getting decent gear build your groups for hate xfer. This will not only help with hate but will make you look good with holding aggro.</p>

[Edavi]

<p>I am actually feeling much better now.</p><p>I have only been 90 for a day.  While This toon has always been my main, i had been playing my Illy because.. Well again no one needs a brawler.  But we have joined a new guild thatha 47 chanters in it, so after leveling my illy and finding that out, i switched to my bruiser.</p><p>And I smashed face on the parse, tanked the mob when the tank died, gave it right back when he got back up, and continued to blow up the parse.  All the while being the only one elegible for sexy leather gear and blunt weapons.</p><p>only been 90 for a24 hours now, and I have a lot of work to do, and I am feeling MUCH better about it.  people who wont respond to my tells can jump off of something high, Im back son!</p>

[Aule]

Also, divide and conquer with 5 aa's in it is pretty much mandatory. Target locks work on 100% of group instance named mobs in SF, I tested them all with thought snap on my coercer. That alone goes a long ways towards allowing you to tank good.

[DemureAB]

<p>I do not mean to be rude but bruisers offer a lot to groups and raids.  SOE actually came through this xpac and gave us some good tools.  Do some research and practice then show off your tank skillz.</p><p>Harowen</p><p>"<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">Also, divide and conquer with 5 aa's in it is pretty much mandatory. Target locks work on 100% of group instance named mobs in SF, I tested them all with thought snap on my coercer. "</span></p><p>I disagree with this.  Waste of 5 AAs....  If you need help with hate gain and locking an encounter on you with all the tools SOE has now provided our class I think you need to roll a new one.</p>

[Dechau]

<p><cite>DemureAB wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Harowen</p><p>"<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">Also, divide and conquer with 5 aa's in it is pretty much mandatory. Target locks work on 100% of group instance named mobs in SF, I tested them all with thought snap on my coercer. "</span></p><p>I disagree with this.  Waste of 5 AAs....  If you need help with hate gain and locking an encounter on you with all the tools SOE has now provided our class I think you need to roll a new one.</p></blockquote><p>I completely agree.. Putting 5 points in DoaC is 100 % a waste of points, its not needed in instances, and its not working in raids anyways..</p><p>The key here is all about building up a reputation, start your own groups for some time, let people know the name of your Bruiser both in Battle grounds and in pickup / Guild instance groups..</p><p>When you ahev spend some (read ALOT) of time building up a good reputation, you will soon be able to post a LFG in the channels and people will start picking you for either dps or tanking..</p><p>This was what happened to me when I hit max lvl first time, and I found that its by far the best way to get groups with all different classes..</p><p>As for setting your AA's, there is a very nice guide provided by Crabbok on The Flames site, you should read it (Remember to sort all the bs from it also), and set your AA's respectively..</p><p>Hope it helps</p>

[Omgidomms]

<p>Bruisers has two stigmas. Firstly we have a horrible reputation from the start to tso that continues into sf.</p><p>Secondly we are still very gearstats dependant because of our low ca dmg. While most classes have a steadly increase in dpsabilities as they gain more gear, brawlers tend to start really low and have more of a exponensial curve in terms of dps. To sum this up, once you hit 90 you'l most likely "suck", while a raid-geared bruiser will destroy you in all types of competition. (Look at BG, some brawlers are little threat, others destory groups alone)</p><p>What I think we are good for?</p><ul><li>We can jump in and hold almost anything for a short duration, making us very good for rescuing a grp while the tank is rezzed.</li><li>We can put a pretty massive avoidance buff on whoever we like</li><li>We bring 5% accuracy to the raid (remember red adornments only give 1% accuracy...) (monkbruiser also stacks so we can give 10% total)</li><li>With some aa's and a red adornment our def-stance become pretty impressive, maybe one of the better stances available? (strike-through immunity ftw)</li><li>We do pack a pretty good amount of dps, but first after we have gained some vital stats</li><li>We can put a 2-hit ward on tanks that only triggers on large hits</li></ul><p>All in all I think brawlers are awesome, but they are not an easy class to perfectionize (is that a word?)</p>

[Nightshade]

<p>You have the niftiest animations out of any class? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/49869fe8223507d7223db3451e5321aa.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Wastura]

<p>Krindi = reroll coercer</p><p>He's right though, my guardian has actually asked Aule's bruiser to tank a zone I wasn't able to. But I can only think of a handful of bruisers worth taking anywhere.</p>

[Aull]

<p>Any bruiser no matter what lvl will be less of a tank/dps fighter if they do no possess the best gear for their lvl. That is true for any fighter, but I do think the bruiser class has the most issues in this reguard.</p><p>With all the aa's at 90 and better than mastercrafted gear a bruiser finally is able to be worth something at least at the heroic lvl of play.</p><p>Right now the biggest change I would suggest for the bruiser class from lvl 1 to lvl 90 would be an increase in the low end portion of the bruisers combat art damage. Example would be like one hundred hands....160-434 damage should be as 290-434 damage for the low end portion and similar increases for the rest of the combat arts.</p><p>Other than that I feel bruisers have the greatest dps potential of all fighters when grouped with the right buffing classes.</p><p>Tanking is just a matter of having better or the best gear available.</p>

[BChizzle]

<p><cite>Aull wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Right now the biggest change I would suggest for the bruiser class from lvl 1 to lvl 90 would be an increase in the low end portion of the bruisers combat art damage. Example would be like one hundred hands....160-434 damage should be as 290-434 damage for the low end portion and similar increases for the rest of the combat arts.</p></blockquote><p>Making your spreads smaller would blow your dps up at the end game level due to how spreads work with crit bonus.  I don't play with a bruiser but from what I've seen you guys don't need that huge of a buff.</p>

[Aull]

<p>I understand and my spread example may be on the extreme end. Again that is the one area that I would change atm as long as it didn't allow to much craziness.</p>

[Dechau]

<p>I'm not sure raising the low end damage of our ca's is going to change the fact that our ca's in generel do to little damage..</p><p>They need to up both lower and higher damage of all of them, that will help get us the last few steps to where we should.</p><p>That being said, right now I feel my bruiser is in better shape than ever, I can tank the heroic stuff, solo, and raid MT if I wanted to (read.. Wanted to means - If aid leader allowed it). So I think we are very close to be where we should, so now they can focus on getting the SK back on the step where they also should be, and not high up on a pedestal where they do not belong <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>