I picked up the newest expansion for EQ2 the other day and I plan to give it another spin. I've only played EQ2 a bit at release, but I was raiding hardcore in EQ1 from Luclin until SoF, so I never had time. I played an iksar monk as my main for all of my time in EQ 1 and plan to be an iksar monk (or bruiser?!) in EQ2 to carry on the legacy. My question is: Monk or Bruiser? I don't necessarily want to tank all the time, but I want the ability to do so. I would also like to raid at some point if I get hooked, whether as tank or dps (Do monks raid for DPS in EQ2?). Thanks for your input.
Monks are more Single Target then Bruisers, but both are vary capable tanks and can if geared and AA'ed right can do nice DPS. As for just raiding on a brawler as a DPS i would hope no raiding guild out there would let you do that. I am sure it is possible but it is not normally does. non tank brawlers can do more dps in that same slot then you if you are just there for dps and not going to be willing/able to tank when needed.
I like tanking a lot but I was also unsure what eq2 brawlers roles on raids were. I've often off tanked and would enjoy doing so ok eq2 raids more than I would main tanking. Does that make bruiser a better option?
I have a L90 bruiser now and I'm still unsure whether to betray to a monk at some point. So far I've seen no real argument for one over the other. I'm told they're quite similar (the most similar compared to others "opposite" class. Monks apparently are slightly better at single target tanking while bruisers are slightly better at multi mob tanking. I have a beserker that is great at multi tanking which is why I'm still leaning towards betraying to a monk, so I have one good AE tank and one good single target tank. You can do what I'm doing and just pick one for leveling then betray if you'd prefer the other.
with the ability to get to 100% AoE Auto with my monk i can tank most anything i want to. well the Auto Auto and Mantis Leap at maxed reuse means i have 1 blue aoe snap on a 1 minet or so recast. I think Bruisers get 2 blue snaps without using Mantis Leap. Monks have a few more Temp buffs and Bruisers get more stone skins. thats about all i know about bruisers. i know a lot about monks tho. I prefer monks.
Is there any detriment to switching at high level? I did it on a level 10 back in the day and it was just an obnoxious quest line.
There is NO detriment to betraying at higher level other than replacing masters cost more. The quest is actually easier at higher level and since both brawlers a neutral now you can betray back to any city. Even though the Bruiser is considered an AE tank the class is more than capable of tanking the single target named. Bruiser is not locked into the OT role like Zerkers are. Bruisers are really Hybrid MT/OT tanks and I think monks are also hybrid too. ________________________________________________________________
I think I will start with bruiser then. With my iksar monk in EQ1 I always tanked in 90% of group content and I offtanked when I wasn't pulling on raids. I suppose I need to pick a server now. Any suggestions? I'm going to be playing all times of the day, but US prime times would be where my raid window was.
i played a monk pulling stuff to the raid in eq1 with my monk bro .... in eq2 .... hmmm very different . I still prefer the Monk . Why is easy : Scouting ability is better because of tsunami . DPS is a little lower ( bruisers skills always have higher base dmg ) Monks are in general harder to kill if they know what they do . if you go to do DPS use the best 2H you will find for Max base dmg and boost it to 500 crit bonus with flurry 40% . As a tank i use 2 weapons use block and avoid ... The Monk is the only class that has Group Aggro reset ! with grp FD to really play a G0oD monk on both speccs you should use 2 sets of gear : yes im serious one for dps and one for tanking ! YizznFitzz monk on Valor
