Bruiser in a trio

[Miele]

Hi all,I play always with 2 friends, more often than not we trio together.The other 2 play an Inquisitor and a Warlock, up till today I play a conjurer "tank pet specced".We play most of the time with combat exp turned off, so we level slowly and try to do all the content available for our level, as of now, we're in the high 30s, approaching level 40.I considered recently to play a tank class to have better odds vs nameds, because the tank pet of the conj can't really take the punishment white ^^^ and above dish out.Playing with a warlock and a conjurer rightnow, every encounter doable in AE dies so fast it's unbelieavable at times, heroic or not it doesn't really matter, but on ^^^ mobs it's a totally different story.I'm here to ask you an opinion about your class, one that I always liked but don't really know deeply: is a bruiser good to tank heroic content with a warlock nuking behind or would a plate tank more suited to the job?There are various reasons for playing a leather class in our trio, but the stylistic one is probably the most important for me (although some races look good also in plate), but agro and dps remain a concern, that's why before committing to one, I'd ask more experienced players if tanking efficiently is a problem or not. I'd hate to reroll as a class that has to become crazy on each pull to save the warlock, some work I don't mind, but when it's too much... Being mostly in 3, my class needs to be able of dishing out some damage on his own thus bruiser sounded a good choice as well as a berserker.We don't plan to raid anytime soon if at all, so that's not a concern, we always try to get as many adept IIIs and masters as possible and with our slow levelling pace it's usually not a problem to have pretty good gear too.

Thanks in advance.

[Thoral]

My fiancee plays a warlock, and I am almost never able to hold encounter aggro off her anymore.  If you want your warlock to be able to unleash, choose something besides a brawler as a tank.  If you still want to be a bruiser because bruisers are the coolest, then you'll have to ask your warlock to turn down the DPS on triple-up encounters until he thinks he can kill them all.  I find it very fun and challenging to try to keep the aggro off my fiancee by switching targets, using my AoE spells, and continually asking her if she actually uses her deaggro spells.  Another thing that will really help is to group with classes that have hate management skills like a pally or dirge or something like that.

[delbranson]

In my experience, I've never had trouble holding single target aggro.  In most cases, a bruiser's roughhousing procs and burst dps should handle the aggro management.  I find I only really even have to taunt at all when I group with very powerful (or very careless hehe) rangers/assassins/wizards/warlocks ... aoe aggro is our weakest point, probably the worst of all the fighters.  Our single target aggro is nearly unmatched, exceeded really only by monks, though it depends on how often we hit, which exposes us to riposte dmg and isn't as effective against higher con enemies. 

 

Really though, I think the biggest setback as a bruiser in your trio would be the fact that your healer is an inquisitor.  Brawlers operate best with proactive shamen or fast casting druids.  Not to say its impossible, but it certainly requires more of your healer.  Reactive heals of a cleric simply don't work as well on evasion tanks.  Sometimes you'll evade so much that reactives expire before they expend all their heals, and when the enemy really eats through your health fast, a cleric's long casting time big direct heal spells will often come just a second too late =P  You'll make your inquisitor's gameplay much smoother by choosing a plate tank class.

 

If you're just looking for something that can hold up better than a pet tank on longer fights ... well, really any fighter class should work, or even a defensive swash/brigand.  Pet tanks are huge health pool/low defense tanks, making them great tanks for short term fights but ultimately less sustainable by a healer than a smaller health pool/higher defense player tank.

 

If your partners are a warlock and an inquisitor, then my wholehearted suggestion would be to tank as a Shadowknight.  Shadowknights have great utilities, lifetaps for health and aggro, spells for boosting group casting dmg.  SK really makes for the ideal small group plate tank with caster assist, in my opinion.

 

Just my two coppers worth

 

 

 

Message Edited by delbranson on 01-22-2007 03:59 PM

[FallenFeather]

I find bruisers and monks, very good for small groups because they a litle bit of evreything; dps/heal/tankage, if you are short on anything of these three things, the brawler can adapt himself to make the group stronger. I have also duo'd alot with a wiz bud, and its no secret that they can easely steal aggro, but give it some time, and you learn to work around it, but know that warlocks have a greater ability for aoe encounters and that would be your weakness against any other tank, since you get aggro when you give DMG not when you take, so single encounters will be easier on you. The best tank for a warlock, will either be a 1: paladin, 2:Shadowknight, 3:Berserker or 4:Guardian.Your healer as del mentioned, is you biggest weakness with your setup. The proc will only trigger when you get hit, and unless you get a dot in on you, the heal proc wont go of as often. If you could change healer, I would suggest a druid, if you want to rush threw things with that extra dmg they will help you with, a shaman if you want to outlast the harder stuff but use longer time to burn em down.I would say that if you each find a char that you think you are happy with playing instead of forced to play with because of the others, go for it, even if  not all classes click so good together, alot works soon as you start to know each others class,., yet,  the perfect setup for you guys would be Berserker(or SK)/fury/warlock, or Bruiser/Druid/Wizard.. but if it is only the tank that needs to changed, roll a SK or maybe a Berserker.:smileyvery-happy:

[Miele]

Thanks everyone for your feedback.Given that we're doing fine with a tank pet up to blue ^^^, any fighter will actually be an upgrade for our small group, that's why I didn't exclude a bruiser right off the bat, even tho I'm aware of the reactive healing inefficiency on brawlers.

The inquisitor will refuse right off the bat to play another class, at least as a main character (she has a warden too), and being her played by my girlfriend, I can't really force a class change. She rolled the Inquisitor in January 2005 and was her only char for months (aside from alt crafters). We recently returned to EQ2, I dissed my old assassin (boring and not really cool in a trio) and our other friend picked a warlock. I have no problems rerolling, I like to try out different classes.The SK suggestion is also intriguing (aside from being Freeport based, EoF zones are just that cool).Anyway, thanks all again

[dasching]

This is an excellent group make-up.  You will kill fast and move through interesting content with ease.You might run into trouble with white named mobs... but you should mow through blues and lower.  Bruiser is one of my favorite classes for solo-duo-trio play.