Recently started a bruiser...

[Eldr]

Helgra McPretty, lvl 30 Troll Bruiser. Sexy. Fun as heck to play. I heard they are nerfing bruisers pretty hard in the next LU or so, but I don't care; so far I am having a BLAST with this class!I wanted a more DPS oriented character that wouldn't die in 1 hit if I accidently stole aggro, and am really hoping that I found the class.Just a couple of questions first:Stats- I know bruisers are an avoidance based tank, so I know AGI is important. However, I am planning on making this char more DPS based; I have a lvl 70 paladin so I have had enough of the tanking experience :p So in terms of DPS, which stats are the most important to me?AA- In terms of DPS, which achievement skills/lines should I invest the most in? I'm gonna try to use 2x dual wield weapons if I can (assuming that matters, of course)Any answers or general tips are appreciated <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Kram337]

Hello there and welcome to bruiserism,I'm only 53 so bare that in mind with my advice. Anyway, I would say that bruiser is the class you're describing: able to do DPS and not die if you take agro. Now the DPS isn't so much that we put real DPS classes to shame though because we can take a hit or two we don't have the agro issues that some dps classes do. Anyway, on to your questions.Str is the most important stat for DPS. Agi and Sta are of course imoprtant too but not for DPS.  My bruiser focused on Sta which turns out to be fine for me since I do most the tanking in my groups. And I actually have more hp than the other tanks my level. But I would wage, if I had less Sta and more Str I'd simply not be MT as often. For AP's there are a few ways you could go. I've only got 8 of them so my thoughts are just general ideas, I'd get a lvl 70's oppinion on this. But anyway, Int line has the Crit % increase and so that would definetly be a route to take. I'm told (on these forums) that the str line isn't bad but only at lvl 70 where your fists become statless t8 weapons.Myself, I'm going up the Sta line, but really only for the end efffect, Mantis Leap. I'll also be going up the int line to get the % to crit.  Mantis leap is a skill you can do every 1 minute that teleports you to a mob (up to 30m away) and gives you crit hits for 10 seconds. I figure this would greatly increase my burst dps and allow me to down plenty of mobs before they knew what was going on.Anyway, thats my take. Again welcome aboard,<div></div>

[Kram337]

One other thing I'll mention <span>:smileyhappy:</span>Str = Power pool You can't do any dmg without power so str is important for that too. At lvl 53 I only have 179 str and 2k power which is really pretty low imo.  I do consistantly run low on power and it's becoming an everly increasing issue for me. In fact it's so annoying that I'm planning on turning my focus towards str a lot more than previuosly.  I've got 5k hp which is nice for not havbing plate but it doesn't do much good if I dont have the power to keep agro.<div></div>

[mkruger]

<DIV>If you want to do dmg only, go str as main stat, and go str line (the one without weapons), then you'll dish out insane DPS</DIV>

[Eldr]

Awesome, thanks so much guys! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Eldr]

Another question, is there any of the AA lines worth maxing out? str perhaps?

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

<P>It's usually better to find the abilities that you want specifically, and try to max them out.</P> <P>Personally, I don't like any of the end abilities, considering their recast timers and short durations (or crazy requirements). They also cost way too much to get them, for such little benefit.</P> <P> </P> <P>If you are looking for straight up DPS, then your options are the following.</P> <P><STRONG>Str 4, 4, 8 --</STRONG> This will give you some seriously powerful autoattack damage. Considering autoattack is about 33-50% of your damage, it's the single biggest upgrade you can do to your DPS. This one will only become "the best" once you hit lvl 70, as it will be better than any easy to get weapons. It's still useful in lower levels, but if you are going to get your hands on decent weapons as you level then you might as well max out some other lines first, and then do Str line when you hit 70 (or respec).<BR><FONT color=#ffcc00>This also gives you an extra attack with a crushing debuff attached to it.</FONT></P> <P><STRONG>Sta 4, 4, 8 --</STRONG> This will give you a proc: 24% chance to do pretty decent damage (scales with level and i believe strength). I saw someone post about how this one is changing to ranged autoattack only... but never saw anything since. If that does happen with LU 24, then this will be useless to you.. so maybe save this line for later until we hear more about it.<BR><FONT color=#ffcc00>This also gives you a ranged attack with a Sta debuff to it. Good to use at the start, to lower the mob's health. Sta debuff reduces max only tho, so using it partway through a fight is kinda useless (unless you are refreshing the debuff to maintain it), as it wont touch their current health.</FONT></P> <P><EM>ex: Mob has 10,000 health. Hit it with debuff and he drops to 7,000 health. Now you damage him for 2,000 health, so he's down to 5,000/7,000. If instead you hit him for 2,000 first and brought him down to 8,000/10,000 and THEN debuffed him, you'd still only bring him down to 7,000/7,000. Wasted effort, and it'll look like he's been healed (% of health goes up, although his max went down overall). It's hard to understand, I hope this makes sense.</EM></P> <P><STRONG>Wis 4, 4, 8 --</STRONG> This will give you a proc: 8% chance to do pretty big aoe damage (scales with level and strength again). This damage is even higher than the Sta one, but procs less often. Really good for group encounters, and toggleable so if you don't want to aggro through walls, etc, you can turn it off. A good alternative to the Sta line if it gets funked up.. or if you decide to go with weapons instead of the Str line.<BR><FONT color=#ffcc00>This line will give you a 2hand staff only aoe attack, which is nice for keeping aggro with groups, decent damage for group encounters. Not a be-all end-all attack for DPS, but it doesn't hurt if you are using a nice 2hand staff anyways.</FONT></P> <P><STRONG>Int 4, 4, 8 --</STRONG> This will give you 22% crit chance (soon to be reduced to 18.? %). This is straight up great damage, since a crit's minimum damage is at least max + 1, and since some of our damage abilities are very wide ranges, it's nice for that 200-900 kidney punch to land for 901 as a low roll instead of 201.<BR><FONT color=#ffcc00>This one has a fun attack. Requires fist weapon (here's your dual wield), and flips the mob around for you, so you can land your backstab attack and any other attacks you don't want parried. Very useful, and I find myself missing it sometimes when I went unarmed.</FONT></P> <P> </P> <P>The beauty of this, is that you can choose any 3 of the 4 options with your 50 points. So instead of maxing out one line, or getting the end ability down two lines, you can get three whole DPS focused abilities maxed out.</P> <P>Considering your choice of weapon (dual wield), I'd suggest going Int line first, then maybe Sta or Wis depending on the upcoming changes. Then when you hit the higher levels, or if you are finding a hard time getting decent weapons, you can respec or start putting points into the Strength line.</P>