switching from swashie to brigand

[ElsaRat]

<p>I'm a big fan of progression raiding, and have raided with my level 70 swashie for the better part of a year. I have it mastered out, I love the class, but I'm moving to another raid guild (also level locked at 70), and it looks my new guild already has a swashie and may have more need of a brigand, and I'm considering betraying.</p><p>So I'm specifically directing this question to people who have played both classes. Is the style of playing them very different? Is there anything I should know making the switch, any habits I will have to unlearn? Any other thoughts.</p><p>Thank you all.</p>

[Dareena]

<p>I've only played a low level Swash, but my main is a Brig and I've talked to people who have played both classes.  Here's some highlights that I see.</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Losing</span></strong></p><p>1)  Expect your dps parse to drop like a rock.  A Swash deals about just as much single target dps as a Brig, but a Swash's AE dps completely blows the Brig away.  Expect the noticeable loss of Hurricane.</p><p>2)  Expect to get hit more if you're soloing or stealing aggro.  You're switching for debuffing Offence as a Swash to debuffing Defense as a Brig.</p><p>3)  Expect to have to think about your aggro meter more.  You're going to lose your Hate Transfer, which means that you'll likely get removed from the MT and OT groups.  As a result, your raid perfermance numbers will likely be lower since you'll be in less stacked groups.  And depending on things, you may have aggro issues at times.</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gaining</span></strong></p><p>1)  Obviously you're gaining all of the various mitigation debuffers as a Brig.  This will cause a collective increase in your group's / raid's parses.  Though your contributions will be invisible and mostly over looked by your average raider.</p><p>2)  Amazing Reflexes will mostly allow you to ignore any AE.  This will result in your being far more aggressive when fighting raid AE mobs.  However this can be a dangerous habit to get into should you betray back to a Swash.</p><p>3)  While most people aren't wild about the end line ability of Honor Amongst Thieves, I've always been fond of this ability.  It's a great mana pool filling ability, which can be neccessary if you're not in a group with enough mana regen group members.  Also intercepting 50% of a single hit from the MT can be a raid saver in certain circumstances.  And when combined with your Safehouse end line buff, you should be able to survive your HAT intercept even if the damage should normally kill you.  (Though Safehouse will bug at times and you can still die while it's active.)</p><p>That's not the best list, but it's what I can come up with off of the top of my head.</p>

[lazlo1]

<p>I agree mostly with darreena. But I never use honor amoung thieves. Maybe im just lazy but raiding i think its too risky. I no longer do much grouping. fyi brigs are pretty bad at grouping. We are ok soloers and ok raiders.</p><p>AR is also a mixed blessing. I use the dragon timer addon to show when its up and that kinda helps. The addon seems to not work perfect but it better than nothing. Safehouse is a nice concept but in practice in raids it rarely works.</p><p>I think you are going to be very disappointed going from swash to a brig. Brigs are pretty much the short bus compared to a swash. There is a reason brigs are the least played char in the game.</p><p>Brigs do subpar dps, expect to get out dpsed by a good Dirge if you are in a group without a bard. Our AOE dps is horrible always.</p><p>Brigs are worse thats swashies in groups because of no hate tansfer and no aoe dps. Debufs in grouping has little to no noticable effect. A good raid will also be close to debuf cap so brigs only help somewhat. Most raids still like to have a brig so thats good.</p><p>Brig CAs are crazy tight positional. If the mob is not stable with his back to you your dps will fall like a rock. So your dps is dependant on good tanks.</p><p>A lot of aoe fights still have a good single target. Ignore trying to aoe stick on the hardest target.</p><p>Im truely sorry you need to betry. Every other brig I know has betryed to a swash / retired. I stick around cause I am in a great guild that lets me play and we have a really good swash.</p>

[ElsaRat]

<p>Thank you both for your replies; they were exactly the sort of information I was looking for. One thing I'll add is that I'm lucky, in that I seem to be going to be a place where brigands are appreciated. The raid leader sounded downright enthusiastic when I mentioned I was thinking of betraying, and other members talked about how they were missing a brig for a long time. This might be because this is a progression guild locked at level 70; people aren't necessarily near cap, and a brigs debuffs will have a bigger effect. I'll miss having my name in lights near the top of the parse, but as long as I know I'm contributing and it's appreciated, I'm happy.</p>