Str or Agility?, what AA's to get first?, and some questions about the existing guides.

[JackBurtonBTLC]

I'm new to the brigand class, level 14 atm,  and have some questions which  I'm hoping the better of you can help steer me in the right direction.

----   Q1 --------

The general brigand guide at the very top of this forum says:

"Strength.  Our DPS stat, most important.  Wer'e there to do damage, this stat is the key."

However the Ratius raiding guide says:

"Agility - primary stat, more agility means more damage, and there's no cap for tier 9.   Look for agi now not str.

These contridict each other, which is the most important for generating the most damage? Which is best for leveling, and general questing?

--------  Q2 ----------

The general brigand guide at the very top of this forum says:

AA's http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/...essage.id=12435Nothing much to add, a very comprehensive write up by Rokjin, good job.

however... this Link does not resolve, its Dead. Is there a new Link?

------    Q3 -----------

I'm looking for a PVE/Leveling guide fo how to spend AA points as I get them.  Such as, at 20 AA points you want this config, at level 40 you should have these.

right now I have 5 points in walk the plank, should this be taken to 10? where should I put my next 20 points?

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thats it...and thanks for helping a new brigand out.

[Dareena]

1)  Agility is THE stat for brigands now.  Before the latest expansion, which came with the stat consolidations, the answer would have been different.  (Strength was our dps stat with Intelligence being our poison proc damage stat.)  But from now on, +Agi is king.  All bonuses from +Str and +Int are basically worthless.  Though technically Str does increase your carrying capacity.

2)  Any old AA guides may no longer apply.  Since the minimum stat requirements for the Rogue AA tree were removed, it's caused some people to re-examine things.  The same goes for the additional AA options added with the latest expansion.

If you want an up to date guide, I'd suggest that you poke around EQ2 Flames for more current information.  Or just ask us on this board.

3)  Walk the Plant (WtP) is a very powerful ability.  I find that with about 6 ranks in that ability, I can get off x3 rear attacks even when experiencing a bit of lag.  Though when you're lag free, 5 ranks should be enough.

However WtP isn't the end all goal of a Brigand.  It's something that I would suggest that every Brigand starts with, but you need to diversify.  Your next main goal is to start investing points into the Strength tree to max out the +Crit  ability.  Criting is very important as a scout, especially at lower levels when you don't have 100% Critical from your gear.  (To get to the Critical ability, just fill the prior abilities with the minimum 4 ranks in each slot.)

After you max out the +Crit stat, then it's really up to you.  It would probably be best to either start on the Brigand tree abilities or to work toward the end line ability of the Agility tree (in addition to maxing out the Avast Ye rear damage proc). 

I personally use the Strength and Agility trees on my Brigand for my soloing AA spec.  (Having a Mirror of Reflected Achievements should be a priority as you start to get to your mid to upper levels.)  Then once you hit 70th level, I add in the Intelligence tree for the end line ability of Feign Death.  It's a very powerful soloing tool.

[JackBurtonBTLC]

Thanks for the reply. didn't know about that mirror, that seems handy. 

Where would you recommend I set the XP to AA experience slider? 50%

I tried creating a macro to "go to stealth" then on a second click, execute a Back stab but it doesn't seem to work. Is there a trick to getting a macro to do both, or is this just not gonna work?

 Is there a good AA calculator out there that does all the lines? the one on eq2ref seems really old and out of date....

[Dareena]

I don't use an AA calculator, so I can't help there.

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Sliders?  Hmm...  Well that's a very mixed bag subject.  I personally almost never use the slider unless I'm at the level cap on a character.  If I'm around levels 12-20 and just leveling too fast for my skill increases to keep up, then I'll switch the slider to 100% conversion to temporarily level lock myself.  (You'll usually find out the hard way that your skills are behind when you can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn.)  Otherwise I usually level the slider at 0%.  The one exception is when I run a dungeon, where I set the slider at 100%.  (In addition to this, I usually only run dungeons for the 1st time when I'm 30+ levels above the targeted level.  About a year ago, SOE added a +% AA bonus for mentoring down.  If memory serves correctly, the max bonus is at a -50 level difference and provides a bonus +250% AA.)

However a lot of people say that they set their slider at around 30% conversion.  While I'm personally satisfied to have around 100 AA by 70th level, a lot of people are looking to have closer to 120-140 AA by 70th level these days.  If people really aren't looking to hit the end game scene any time soon, they can even set the conversion rate at around 50%.

Though I will use the slider at 100% to level lock myself at certain points in time.  If I've got a handful of green quests which I'm about to gray out, then I'll AA lock myself.  The same principle also applies towards hunting down over land named mobs while they're still green.  It's much easier to hunt zones for nameds when you're already there questing.  Having to mentor / chrono down later on and return to these zones can be annoying since you're very dependent on random chance for their spawn cycles.

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Your macro will work if you only hit it once.  Every macro can que up to x2 CA without a problem.  The 1st CA would put you into stealth, then it would automatically cast the 2nd CA to use your stealth attack.  However if you hit the macro a 2nd time before the casting chain finishes, then you'll restart the macro.  Your macro casts stealth while already being stealthed, which cancels your current stealth buff.  Then your stealth attack fizzles since it can't be used.  (So just hit the button once and be patient.  Let the macro take care of itself.)

Another easy macro to use works with Boot Dagger.  By spending 1 AA in the Intelligence line, you can access to a rear/side attack when also places you into stealth.  Then your macro can fire off a stealth attack as the secondary function.

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I assume that you're using EQ2 Maps.  If not, then please download it.  Refusing to use it is just foolish and far more trouble than it's worth.

[Turb]

I would agree with STR then AGI then INT for soloing/levelling.   There's a case to be made that FD is the most useful of the three for fast levelling, along with Walk the Plank.    I'll add a little more about that to my guide.

I think the brigand guide by Lord Pantz at EQ2 Flames is also out of date (written for TSO and not including SF) but there's good discussion there.   Unfortunately I have a life ban at that site (didn't know it was so bad to create a new login name when you change mains... ooops!) hence I only post here.

It might be useful to have the SF guide I've written here stickied, but that's up to the SOE mods

[Nummer]

leveling a brigand is fast and fun, and untill you have oh, 230 aa? every single one of them aa will be making a huge visible difference to your dps and game. once you hit this area, aa points seem to need 4 or 5 ranks etc to make a visible difference to your parse.

i suggest you work the first "rogue" page first, you want to have certain skills unlocked earlier so you can hotbar them and get used to using them.

you should unlock torp stike, walk the plank and boot dagger first.

then aim for sailwind. after that - look to get traumatic swipe. raider brigs tend to ignore the int line, i have one point in it, for boot dagger, =D unless you like to feign to avoid aes, theres generally no reason to put a lot of points there except that one point in boot dagger to stealth before you cast rob.

if you play your slider up and down as things get hard/easy - you ought to have 70 or more aa points by the time you hit lvl 50.

macro wise, i would try to get used to not using them. better to have ten hotbars or more... we rely on positionals so much more than other scouts. even swashys flank more than us, while we must have back. if you used a macro that stealthed via boot dagger then cast rob, for example, you could end up waitn on a timer to use that macro again if the [Removed for Content] mob back moves... the only macros most brigs i know use are "ive dispatched" and "ive ae dispatched".  and casting "self stealth" in the middle of combat is a pure waste of time and possibly miss a valuable autoattack.

speaking of autoattack, yeah use 2 combat arts and wait, then use two more. or one long timer art then wait. like aoe barroom negotiation takes teh time of two red ca. as a brig or swashy you need to autoattack, its almost half of our potential dps, and a player who times attacks will always outparse the brig player who spams like hes a zerker, =P.

especially at 90 when your double attack is 100% solo, and your weaps crit 100% and proc poisons and items and gear, you just gotta learn to time arts.

some may disagree, but this is how id spend the first 70 points you earn : http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?201y16aa1a4a14a@61