Got to become a bruiser today and I noticed my damage go up a lot, which was good. It seems everything 20+ gets a big increase in damage and HP, mobs included. This has affected the tanking ability of my bruiser a bit. The avoidance: riposte, parry, block, just don't cut it by comparison to a guardian for example who has roughly 800 AC in his plate by comparison to me in full leather at 600. (Both of us with the best vendor armor). I'm just rambling now, but at least give us better than light armor. I think we're the only non-mage class that doesn't advance past light armor. Despite all this, the DPS is very nice, and I still do love my bruiser. Just wish he could actually tank as well as a guardian, like we're supposed to.
i dunno but at lvl 22, my bruiser friend and i can tank as well or better against yellow ^^ mobs. Our group actually wanted us to tank instead of the SK in our group... im DE , he was an ogre with best armor for his level. And i was dipping into yellow less than him.... was working great for me, im currently wearing 20+ quest armors 1-3 and the rest merchant lvl 20+ armor and quest stuff... 70+ agil. I love my dps too for a fighter..i just need ADEPT BOOKS
Hey, which NPC's give the armor quests for 20+ for us? I tried the guy in the bowyer shop in EFP but he doesn't give a quest. Maybe I need better armor. : )
Wait till you hit 35+ The tanking gap increases as you'll level up. Unfortunately. SoE needs to increase the DPS from Bruisers/Monks to make them attractive. Otherwise people will want Guardians for tanking, and scouts for DPS
21 Bruiser here. Bruisers are currently secondary tanks, and most likely always will be no unless SoE increases our avoidence by a lot. However, playing beta, I already expected this. I have found that grps usually want me because they want someone to be able to off-tank yet isnt **** (like crusaders ;p) when it comes to DPS. I find I can be a MT very well if there are 2 healers in the grp or an enchanter. Other than that, 2 arrow yellows and up are impossible to kill effectively. However, I dont think SoE will change this because, according to them, we should not be killing yellow to arrow mobs anyway. /shrug
Jakan, it gets better, but you are much more reliant on high agi (always use staggering stance) and avoidance skills then the other tanks, and you really need to get adept of the brawling stance and Martial Focus. I fealt the same in beta, but as I leveld, I fealt I became that much more powerful a tank. There will always be spikes though, where the random number fails, or lucky streaks where you seem to dodge everything. On the other hand, the other tanks are very reliant on getting high ac gear, and hp to be able to soak up damage, and preferebly have high ac/shield factor shield.
Jezekiel, what level were you in Beta? Everyone I know that was 25+ told me Bruisers/Monks were quickly falling deep down the dept chart when it came to needing tanks in groups especially considering theres only room for 6, people tend to get picky quick
Bruisers aren't supposed to be able to replace a guardian against meat and potato mobs. I'll put it in a little chart for you: guardian - tanks and buffs defense berzerker - tanks and buffs offense bruiser - higher melee output overall and lower defense overall A bruiser can tank in a pinch but you wouldn't want to. Any of the archetypes is supposed to fill a role in grouping and I can see the bruisers role pretty clearly. This might be the same argument a Fury or Defiler might make about Inquisitors. They have thier purpose in groups and are highly effective. Try grouping with a defiler as your bruiser. They can slow the mob and take its stats down for you so that you can tank like a berzerker. Or group with a Fury who can put damage shields and regen on you and make you last a bit long while putting out more DPS therefore taking less damage over time yourself. You have a role and it is a valuable one. Look into your buffs and your group buffs and figure out what kind of group you would do well in and make friends with those classes.
Well, I'm still truckin along with my bruiser... could anyone direct me to the NPC that gives us our lv 20 armor quests? Everyone else goes to the bowyer in EFP, but I can't seem to get him to talk to me.
Lvl 34, and I got to tank some mobs that was 35^^ towards the end of beta, also tanked stuff in ruins of varsoon at 28-30, with out the healers complaining or anyone else for that matter. You're right though, there were tons of people complaining in beta, but most of them really had little clue what they were talking about, and a good chunk of them also were basnig opinions on data pre the major overhaul of all the classes spell/skill changes.
thank can you tell us, from what you've seen, if a good Bo stick or dual-batons could equal Fists when it came to damage? thanks
In Beta it got considerably better for me in the mid/high 20ies. You get a couple nifty skills and it also felt, as if the defensive skills would scale better then. 18-24 about sure seemed like "hell"-levels, but they tweaked and tuned a lot in that time, so most of what i know would probably not hold true anymore. Regarding the weapon choice: Fists suck. One handed, long delay, and dont really hit that hard. they might show high hits now and then, but the dps is low. In general, most of your damage comes from skills. As long as your weapon(s) are up to date, there is no big difference. I myself preferred dual Cestii ( lvl 22 or 23 weaponsmith recipe ), but also tried the Ash Bo ( lvl 26 woodworker recipe ), as well as the Ash Batons ( lvl 27 woodworker ). It appeared Cestii>Bo>Batons, but by no means a significant difference. There was also a low lvl 20ish quest for some fist wraps in Nektulos, but i found the item one or two days before Beta end and didnt do the quest, so cant tell if its any good.
the lvl 20+ armor quest giver for bruisers is vassi, an iskar npc in the top floor of the NFP inn. This is for medium and light armors.
Funny... there is someone in the Guardian room complaining that Bruisers tank better than Guardians. Everyone has their spin on things. I've come to the conclusion that there will always be instances where classes are amazing and horrible. You just tend to hear more about the horrible ones on message boards.
I'm very happy playing my lvl 23 bruiser. The DPS is outstanding, but my only wish is to wear ringmail. That would be a step above casters, offer decent AC, yet still put meatshields ahead of us with their plate armor.
