Brawler Class Achievements - From a Bruiser's Point of View [Archive]

Raidi Sovin'faile

11-14-2006, 03:36 PM

<div></div>Here's a writeup on the Brawler AAs I did a while back. Written more with flavour text in mind, rather than data entry style. Sorry if it's a bit verbose, skip to the end if you want "what to choose" options.This was written up prior to LU 24, so some things might be a little off. I think I caught most of the glaring changes (crits going from 22% to 18%), but who knows. Since AAs haven't changed much lately, I'll probably not keep on top of this much, people can just use it for reference.This stuff is 90% my opinion and some of it is based on stuff I've heard others say about the abilities. I'll be the first to admit some things might be off by 0.1 or so, but who cares.If you have a problem with it, bite me. I didn't see YOU take the time to write any of this. :smileytongue:And on that note... enjoy!<hr size="2" width="100%">Initial Ability: Favorable WindBrawlers are so awesome that they don't even need anything really good for their Initial Ability. Which is about what we end up with... a good for nothing ability.The ability grants us a 5% boost to run speed in or out of combat. It doesn't stack with anything but sprint, and it's such a small bonus that it's hardly even noticeable anyways.Some folks try and say it's good for chasing down folks in pvp, but that's theoretical talk, and not actually said with any experience. Really, if they are sprinting you'll need to sprint to catch up anyways.. and besides, with latency issues, you'll never hit someone that's running away with a melee combat art, even if you are right on top of em.Plus, the name sounds like we have a bad case of gas that gives us this small boost. Favorable Wind? Ech...Strength LineThis is a fairly decent line while leveling, fairly powerful at the end game, although it's debatable if it's worth getting the final ability. One thing to note, it makes your unarmed combat (no weapons of any kind in primary or offhand) a viable tactic, and most of the abilities require this (not just the customary 2nd tier ability). Basically, if you are intending to use weapons, don't bother with this line.Tier 1: Tiger StrengthEach rank in this will give you 4 extra Strength. Nice for boosting your strength score, but that can be done anywhere... so really only need to put 4 points in this to continue.Tier 2: Pressure PointThis is the attack ability designed for unarmed combat. It can only be avoided, not blocked (or parried, or riposted, or deflected), and it does some decent damage that scales with level and Strength score, as well as reduce mitigation vs Crushing. Lasts 30s and can be used again right away, meaning you can maintain the debuff on them constantly.The more ranks you put in, the higher the damage done on the hit, and the higher the debuff. Honestly, a decent ability, and if you intend to max out a particular line of abilities, this is a decent choice.Tier 3: Relentless PunchesAh.. the bread and butter of unarmed attack. This ability will give you 12% chance to double attack per rank, as well as a static 20% bonus to DPS. This means at 8 ranks, you are double attacking 96% of the time (which, when in practice, feels like all the time, going by the random number generator).Now, this is obviously good... but how do we compare it to using weapons? Well, we've had confirmation from the developpers that unarmed damage is considered the same Damage Rating (DR) as a storebought twohanded weapon.So we can take those DR's, multiply by 1.96, and add +20% afterwards and see what it's like compared to the other weapons.Consult the following chart to see what having 8 ranks in the skill will be like at the various levels:Level Store AA DR 20 15.6 ~36.730 22.8 ~53.640 30.9 ~72.750 39.9 ~93.860 48.9 ~115Now, we don't have storebought lvl 70 weapons yet in game, but we can extrapolate that it will probably be around 9 points higher, so something like ~57.9 DR. Which brings us to around 136.2 DR.As of mid summer 2006, we are pretty sure it's now around a 55 DR, before modifications. Still awesome, but not close to any decent fabled. The +DPS helps a bunch, but with the stuff fabled can give, Wis AA if going DPS, and the upcoming adornments, don't look to replace fabled with unarmed or anything.That's quite powerful, and at level 70 it's more powerful than even many fabled weapons. The only drawback is that you don't get any stats or +skill or procs. Now damage procs will only increase the damage of the weapon, but some procs like Stifle or Knockdown are nice things to have outside of pure damage.As it is... it's very worth doing unless you are getting some spectacular weapons. If not, then this line is a VERY good choice if you are wanting more DPS for your brawler.Tier 4: Claw ReversalHere's the defensive ability of the Strength line. It's actually quite good, and can even give you a little extra damage at the same time.What it does is give you 1.5% chance per rank to riposte attacks from the front, and parry attacks from the side and behind. This constitutes an extra 12% avoidance check at 8 ranks. Now this doesn't give exactly 12% more, just another check at 12%... but it's still quite a large boost to defense, and even gives you more ripostes (more attacks back).If you are going down the strength line, and want some defensive power, this is very nice to max out.Tier 5: ChiThis ability has it's ups and downs. What happens is you get all these bonuses to attack for 30s, and then get the same detriments for 30s after. The bonuses are as follows:Recovery timers reduced by 33%Increased attack speed by 50%Increased DPS by 50%Reduced recast timers by 50%Reduced cast timers by 75%This becomes the exact opposite (increased cast timers, etc) for the same amounts after the 30s, for another 30s. Most fights are only 30s, so that's good... however in constant pulling, it can be nice DPS for 30s, and then a loss in DPS for 30s... breaking even (or worse). On raids, it's not worth it either, unless you use it right at the end of a fight (and judge it right).And you can only use it every 15 minutes.Really, if you are going for straight up damage, this ability isn't worth the extra 12 points you need... that's 12 points in another line that you lose out... another line with an "always on" bonus to damage, with no drawbacks.Agility LineThe agility line is focused on baton usage for it's weapon, but only on the second tier weapon ability. The rest can be used with any weapons. However, the rest isn't that great all in all, it looks good in numbers and theory... but in practice it's inferior to the other options. Which is sad, since agility and dodginess is what brawlers should be about.Tier 1: Monkey AgilityThis increases agility by 5 points per rank. It's been proven over and over that raising the agility score is the most inefficient way of increasing avoidance... so only put points in this to move on to the rest. Well, unless you are a useless Monk who doesn't self buff Agility. Pfft.Even then, I wouldn't suggest Monks maxing this.. better use of points elsewhere.Tier 2: Baton FlurryThis ability does two hits for damage that scales with level and Strength score. It also increases the Recovery Timers of the target of the attack by 20% and lowers your own by 20%.Note that Recovery Timers are that 0.5s time that you can't do anything after you use an ability. So this ability basically makes it so the enemy takes 0.6s between combat arts, and you only take 0.4s.Yeah... so over the course of the buff, if you do, say, 15 combat arts.. you saved yourself a big fat 1.5s of time for autoattack. That's at best 2-4 more hits (depending if you dual wield).Each rank increases the damage, duration, and the resistability, but not the recovery timer %, which is a flat 20%. Honestly.. not that big a deal of a buff, you'll probably use it more for the damage.The requirement is only to have a baton in the primary. Well, onehanded or dual wield staff... not that we use 1handed weapons that much unless we are purposely fighting with one hand behind our back, ha!Tier 3: AmbidexterityOkay.. so here's where we are supposed to get some big DPS increasing ability for the agility line. Well.. we get a big fat 1% reduction in recast timers per rank.So 8% reduction at max. That means a typical 30s recast ability will come back in 27.6s instead. Yay, 2.4s faster... Hardly noticeable...If this changes in the next update, then maybe it'll be worth it, and I'll repost here. But I doubt it, there's been no mention of such a change (only a general change in cast time reductions on AA's... not recast times).Tier 4: Monkey DodgeAside from the lack of good abilities down this line, I've noticed this is all pretty Monk oriented in name... I mean, monkey dodge? What Bruiser would be caught yelling that out in a fight? Yeesh....Anyways... pretty straightforward, you get an additional 1.7 skill to Defense per rank. I think it might actually round up on the 4th and 8th rank, so it actually becomes +7 at 4 ranks, and +14 at max ranks.Honestly, it's okay, but not the best way to increase avoidance. At level 70, 14 points in Defense gives me about 1.4% difference in overall avoidance. I'll let you think on whether that's worth it or not.Tier 5: AltruismOkay, the big end ability for the Agility line! This is pretty great in concept, but there's some problems.This ability is a buff that can be placed on someone for an indefinate period of time, so that when they die they instead Feign Death (guaranteed 100% chance) for 36s, and heal for 5%. So they basically drop to the ground and sit on 5% health for 36s or until they stand up.Once the ability is used up, it has a 15 min recast time to be used again.Warning: The problem with this ability is that currently it has been dropping for no apparent reason. On zoning sometimes, or possibly from someone curing the target of something... it's rather buggy in whether it actually stays on the target.The other issue is "when will this be used"? In raid situations, having it on the tank won't really save the raid because he loses aggro, and if it's anything like our Feign Death, he'll get aggro back right away if he stands up right away and die since he's only at 5% health. Basically, it would take a lot of planning and coordination. Oh, and remember being FD doesn't block being hit by an AoE...In normal group settings, it might be useful if you get it to actually work, but since it's unreliable, and there's plenty of other ways to prevent someone dying or a wipe (rescue, intervene, or other classes like the priest "no die" spells and evac or group FD or self FD + rez stone, etc).And it's not useable on yourself either... so useless for soloing.Honestly, considering how rare it is that this ability will even come into play (unless your groups die a lot.. which is a whole other set of issues you need to deal with) then it's probably not worth the wasted points.Stamina LineThe Stamina line is focused around ranged attacks. This is nice for pulling, or adding some ranged combat to a primarily melee focused class. Also, since PvP deals with movement a lot, it can be real nice for that environment as well, especially the final ability.Tier 1: Mantis StaminaThis ability increases Stamina by 6 per rank. This is very nice, and as a Brawler and Tank, you will find that Stamina is the hardest physical stat to max out. If you honestly have no place else to put points (doubt it, once I tell you what you can do) then here's where I'd put them. More hitpoints means more survival of AoEs on raid Bosses, etc, so really.. it's the one of the best stats to pump up.Tier 2: Mantis StarThis is the weapon ability, and requires having a thrown weapon equipped in range. Unless you get one of those rare non ranged weapon items that can be put there by fighters (they do exist, strangely enough), you'll always have access to this ability. Basically, you should have no conflict whatsoever in weapon usage with any other line, so this makes a good second weapon ability to get.It's also a nice ability! It does some damage that scales with level and strength, and debuffs Stamina by a LOT. This ability also has a long duration with a shorter recast! Which means you can maintain it on at least two creatures, which is extra nice for that big a debuff.Not sure if the duration and debuff amount goes up with ranks, I'll update if I find out. The damage and resistability will, of course.Now, a note on debuffing stamina. When someone's Stamina is reduced, it brings down their MAX health only, not their current health. This means it's wasted completely if the mob is already damaged (unless it can heal itself). In fact, it'll look like it's being healed in the health bar, since the max goes down and now it's % of health left is higher... it really doesn't heal tho, although it's possible it might not do anything at all.However, combining this with a ranged attack makes this an awesome pulling attack! If you get this in on the first hit, you effectively do max reduction in health for the ability (especially if you maintain it).So use this ability first to pull, or first at the beginning of fighting something. Otherwise, it's only good for the little bit of damage it does. Honestly though, at nearly 100 Stamina debuffed (at rank 1 that I can see), it can do a lot more damage if used right.Tier 3: Mantis BoltNow this is a good, solid ability for increasing damage. What it does, is give you an "always on" proc that does damage. Pretty straightforward, and comes with no conditions (doesn't require using ranged, or having a particular weapon).It gives 3% chance to proc per rank, and while the damage doesn't increase with ranks, it does increase with level and Strength score. At max ranks, that a 24% chance to proc some fairly decent damage!Really, it's hard to see any badpoints about this ability.. one of the most solid Damage increasing abilities we get.Tier 4: Deflecting PincersThis is also a pretty simple ability, it grants 1.6 skill to Deflection per rank. I think it rounds up on the 4th and 8th point, to be +6.5 at 4 ranks, and +13 at max ranks.Deflection is a nicer way to increase our avoidance, but there are other ways to increase the skill (such as through many brawler items at the higher levels), as well as one of the biggest increases we get from our Defensive stance. There is also a cap to how high a skill can be boosted, so this is another factor to take into account.However, as defensive options to go, it can't hurt you really, and the rest of the line is pretty nice so you might be going this way anyways.Tier 5: Mantis LeapThis is a pretty nifty ability, makes us seem a little more Ninja like (something I kinda like to foster).It's a ranged ability, 30 meters, that warps us instantly to the target. It's instant cast and instant recovery, so you can attack right away. It also makes the next hit you land an automatic critical hit. With a recast of 1 minute, you could use it almost every fight...Ultimately, it's neat, but not required ability for normal play. Bruisers already get a similar ability with their Ancient ability from Desert of Flames, Sonic Fists at level 52. Sonic Fists is nicer for pulling, and while it doesn't have the crit nor as quick a recast, it will warp you BACK, so it's perfect for pulling without using ranged ammo.However, if you play PvP, this ability can make you deadly. Sonic fists brings you back, this ability keeps you there... so it's great for catching people unawares, or catching up with someone running away. Warp to them, hit them with a stun/knockdown and then start the pounding!With a fast refresh, it means you can be constantly leaping after folks too... none of that 15 minute refresh bull.In the end, not worth wasting the points in PvE... but absolute GOLD in PvP.Wisdom LineThis line is geared for the Two Handed staff fighter. It focuses on area attacks mainly, which is a nice option to go with Brawlers, since we are lacking in the aggro control for group encounters compared to other fighters. It's questionably lower in DPS compared to other options, due to the fact that you might not run into group situations often enough to get the full effect, however fighting at least 2 creature can make AoE's worth it... 3+ makes them powerful.Tier 1: Crane WisdomThis increases Wisdom by 7 per rank. The only other stat, other than Stamina, that we should have but have a serious lack of. Since it boosts it by 7 each rank, it's actually worth putting extra points in (if you aren't liking your other options), as each point of Wisdom increases ALL resists by 4 each.Maxed, you'll get 56 Wisdom, so an extra 224 to all resists. That's pretty nice, especially if you don't have fabled gear and are lacking in the resist departement...Tier 2: Crane SweepThe first AoE ability you get down this line. It requires the use of a two handed staff, and does a very nice AoE ability with high end scaling damage (also scales with Strength). It also stuns all the targets and throws them back. Max targets is 8.This is one of the neatest animations, as you whirl the staff around you and all the creatures fly backwards. Very brawlerish.Each rank increases the damage, duration and resistability, of course. Duration of the stun starts at 1.8s, and goes up by 0.1s per rank. It may jump after 4 points, to max out at 3s. Not sure if this is being changed with LU 24, I'll try and get an update.All in all, one of the best visual, damaging, and utility abilities we can get. Very specific in weapon requirement, but that can be swapped easily with some options (like unarmed).Tier 3: Crane TwirlThis is another one of the decent damaging passive abilities. It has one of the highest damage effects from the proc, however the proc chance is fairly low at only 1% per rank.The damage scales with level, as well as strength, and also increases with each rank. At the highest levels, it's quite high for a proc, in the 700-ish range for average damage. Proc chance is only 8% at max though, so you might not see it often..Two things to note about this passive proc.. it doesn't seem to have a limit in targets, which means the damage from it can skyrocket in some situatioins, and since it can aggro things you might not want to, it's a toggleable buff. It stays up as long as you want, but you can turn it off if you don't want to break mez or aggro through walls, etc.All in all, a very nice ability when maxed out.Tier 4: Crane GrowthThe only defensive ability that goes a different way from avoidance. It instead increases your max health by 0.5% per rank, maxing out at 4%.This is one of the best ways of being a better tank, as the higher health you have, the bigger hit you can survive, letting your healers catch up and avoiding one-shots.As brawlers, we have a lack of abilities that increase health, as well as a lack of mitigation, so this is definately a better way to increase tanking ability over avoidance boosts.Tier 5: Crane FlockThis is a final ability that can be a two edged sword.This abilty grants 100% chance to double attack melee attacks, as well as 100% chance for the primary weapon to hit up to 4 targets they are facing. This lasts 16s, and has a 5 minute recast. Instant cast and instant recovery, so you start doing damage immediately with this.As you can see, if you have a lot of haste and dps, and nice procs form AA's, this can do a LOT of damage. For 16s... every 5 minutes.Really, if you are trying to do lots of damage, there are better ways that can be used every fight... whereas this might only be used once every 2-3 fights. Also, since it can do TONS of damage in a short amount of time, it's highly possible to pull aggro if you aren't the Main Tank.It's a nice situational "flare" ability, but it's not a rock solid bonus like other abilities are, and it is costly.Intelligence LineThis line gives fist weapons a chance to be known. Which is cool, since it's Brawler unique (mostly, other than some dagger like weapons that look similar), and there's many a fabled that's fist weapons. It's also focused on crits, which is a fairly nice way to increase damage.Tier 1: Eagle IntelligenceIntelligence doesn't really do anything for Fighters. In fact, the only thing it does at all is increase the damage on procs on spell like damage on weapons, and our lightning proc ability.Really, you'll put your 4 ranks in this to advance and move on.Tier 2: Eagle SpinThis ability require a fist weapon in primary (only primary, so anything can be in secondary), and gives a nice short Stun, damage attack that also has a nice little feature... spins the target to face the direction away from you!This line was designed for Bruisers, since we have an attack that requires flanking, which means we can do it without having to jump around! Very good for using an extra damage (and efficient in power/damage ratio) ability while tanking.The only downside is that if there's anyone positioned to attack it flanking, they may get screwed up for the few seconds it's like that... but otherwise it's stunned while it's facing that direction so you don't even have to worry about it doing a cone attack while facing others.. it'll turn back to the original position instantly after the stun.When using different weapons, I miss this ability... which speaks volumes.Tier 3: Eagle's FuryThis is a straightforward damage increasing ability. It increases melee crit chance by 2.25% per rank. Well, roughly.. at max ranks it's 18%.It's especially nice for bruisers, since a lot of our damage comes from Combat Arts, which is boosted by this as well. Monks can buff their autoattack a lot more, so they end up wanting more "works well with autoattack" stuff.However, all in all, it's a pretty big boost in damage. That and seeing all those large numbers flying all over the place satisfies some kind of primal "crush, kill, destroy" need in me.Tier 4: Eagle's TalonThis increases the parry skill... by quite a bit! 2.1 skill per rank in fact. This also rounds out at the 4th and 8th rank, so like +8.5 skill at 4th, and +17 at max.This is the largest of all the skill increasers, although not by much. It's also possible parry increases avoidance the least. Howevever, it's possible (although unverified), that parry is a factor in ripostes.. in which case it's another possible way to increase damage at the same time as defense (like the Strength line's ability).Not a shabby way to increase defense if you are going for crits anyways.Tier 5: Eagle ShriekThis ability is a tough one to make useful.. for more than the occasional situation.Basically, what it does is increase your Crit chance by 75% and mitigation by 1400, whenever you are lower than 30% health. This means you'll crit most of the time with the previous ability maxed, but only if you can maintain your health that low without dying or being healed over.The mitigation helps a long way in achieving that... and in fact, it's a decent ability for tanking since you'll get a sudden increase in mitigation when you really need it. However, maintaining the balance for max crits all the time needs a very understanding healer, who can keep you alive but not overheal.Honestly.. that's tough to do, so I'd personally look at this ability as more of a "saves you when you are low" tanking ability, rather than a DPS ability. The max crits will pretty much just make it so you can probably keep aggro while low as well.CombinationsAlright. So that's Brawler abilities in depth.So how can you get the most out of these abilities. First I'll look at focusing on DPS role, and then focusing on a Tanking role. Since those are our two options, that's about all I need to look at.Focusing on DamageUltimately, you'll get the most overall damage from abilities you can use as often as possible. Passive, "always on" abilities are the best in these situations. Here's a couple options, based on what weapons you might use.Unarmed: For this one, you want at least Strength, as this will max out your damage with unarmed. After that, you'll want Intelligence to get the critical hits on your melee attacks. This is the most solid bonus, and it will give a noticeable increase in damage in each fight. Lastly, the Stamina line will give a proc that gives a more constant effect, you'll see it in every fight, guaranteed. Wisdom proc is another good option, but it's lower so it's possible to not even see it in a fight, and not every fight has multiple targets.So in the end, go with Strength (4, 4, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, Intelligence (4, 4, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, Stamina (4, 4, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. If getting this while leveling, go with Intelligence first, then Strength or Stamina.. as you'll likely outgrow unarmed often until you hit the next tier, but at 70 it's one of the best weapon choices you can get. If respec'ing at 70, go with Strength first, as it'll give a massive bonus to DPS first, then Intelligence, and then Stamina.Using Weapons:Really, your options are similar to unarmed, only instead of going with Strength, get the procs on both Stamina and Wisdom, and the Crits from Intelligence.So Intelligence (4, 4, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, Stamina (4, 4, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> and then Wisdom (4, 4, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. Do it in that order, as it's the most surefire benefit first, down to the last. This also allows for two choices for weapons in your abilities, either a twohander with stun on aoe's, or a fist weapon in primary with spin around. The only real restriction is that you need to have a fist weapon on your dual wield choice.. which isn't hard considering the weapons out there at the moment.Focusing on TankingNow here's where you're a little bit more limited. Since all the tanking abilities are in the 4th tier, you need to spend an extra 4 points per defensive choice. If you remember my achievements post, this means maxing at most two abilities.This leaves you with an extra 9 points, which means you CAN get the final ability on one line. So our target here is to find a final that can also contribute to your tanking ability.In this case, there's only one real option: Eagle Shriek. With an extra 1400 mitigation at a time when you really need it, this final can really help with tanking those hard hitting mobs. It can single handedly make you viable for raid tanking.The other side of Tanking (other than surviving) is holding aggro. Since brawlers have the hardest time holding aggro against groups of mobs, it's probably best to go down the Wisdom line since it has two abilities that can hold aggro.So let's try out Wisdom (4, 4, 8, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> and Intelligence (4, 4, 4, 5, <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. This will give a large number of benefits. If using a fist weapon, you can spin the target and get extra backstab attacks as a Bruiser. If using a two hander, you get an extra AoE attack to hold aggro. Wisdom also increases resists, increasing survivability, and 4% to max health gives a lot nicer bonus than 1-2% avoidance increase. You'll also get a decent crit bonus, maximum aoe proc for damage and holding aggro.All in all it's a great blend in survival skills and aggro holding. It's just a shame the int abilities weren't in the Stamina line, to give extra health... ah well, can't have everything. The last point can be put in extra Wisdom, or maybe increasing the crit chance or damage on an a weapon ability. One more point in parry won't do enough to really be worth it.