Hello everyone, I've just rolled a Monk to play around with and she seems quite fun and brings back memories (I used to have a monk about level 32ish before I deleted all my characters and took off for over a year.) I'd like to know which is better for mainly solo questing and tradeskilling/small grouping, no raiding or pvp: Monk or Bruiser? I prefer the Monk for minor RP/Lore and generally a fun playstyle. I plan to take Quellious as a deity at level 20. Also what weapons should I focus on? I prefer hand to hand combat and two-handed staffs.
Honestly, if you care about RP, it's your choice. Bruisers are undeniably more effective, but they have always seemed.... evil. Monks are less (gameplay wise) effective, but can be just as fun and more RP friendly.
Deleted my monk and rolled Bruiser after asking the opinions of my guildies while considering my own wants/playstyle for a character and even though she is only level 7 or 8 the difference is huge (at least to me, as I'm very inexperienced with playing fighters/tank-types in general.) And in my opinion more fun than the Monk lol. But my other question remains unanswered: should I use hand to hand weapons or a two-handed staff? I like both styles of fighting, but I thought staffs are mainly DPS weapons and hand to hand/dual-wielding is for tanking?
While you're leveling up it probably won't make much difference. After level 90 or so go with dual wielding, 2H is crap.
Thanks everyone. A helpful guildy made me some duel-wielding fighting batons and a 2hand staff and let me know that two hand weapons are for tanking and duel wielding is for dps.
It wasn't but 2 short years ago that the Bruiser was considered a deplorable class to play. How times change
when I left I remember raids never ran brawlers .. so SOE make raid encounters where u needed the 2 types of tanks to force people to bring brawlers and crusaders ^^ good if things have changed for the best
Without getting into a huge Monk vs. Bruiser debate I am curious what makes a Bruiser more effective than a Monk? I may have to betray
At the end of the day it's all about what you prefer. I prefer bruiser over monk for many reasons, but I don't really want to debate. The mechanics of a bruiser make me happy /shrug
On a fundamental level, either class is a good tank. Monk technically on paper has a better Temp Rotation then Bruiser. Bruiser technically has better AOE Agro then a monk. With the inflated stats and procs doing a majority of DPS now, either is about the same for DPS. " yes, a DPS Bruiser will probably out parse a DPS Monl " in a tank role. Bruiser has a " Bar Brawl " kinda fighting stance. The typical, two hands up and squared. Monk has a " Crouching Tiger " kinda fighting stance. Some weird **** ya dont normally see. Both of these are purely visual and have ZERO impact on performance.
I agree it is all in what you want to play..they both are fun and both are good. It was the "Undeniably more effective" comment that raised my eyebrow. Cheers!
Bruisers get 1 more 100% dodge ability from mythical weapon. More Aoes. I use Drag all the time. Bruiser epic 2.0 abilites are better than monk imo as well. I havent played Monk in awhile, but i think some of their abilites to magic damage, allowing them to benefit from spell doublecast.
For Heroic are pretty much the same. With decent gear and healer, temp rotation are pretty useless (i usually use max 1-2 temp for fight..). The dps in this day depend on the ascension.. I have done 1.5 bilion dps in stronghold.. And easy 1bilion again one mob (with all clicky up and grp with decent dps ) with geomancer. For the epic, monk have more fervor bonus (and strikethrough.. with both epic we can have 150 strikethrough... ) and a static DR, plus a dr for the grp (but.. is.. uhm, strange, seems is still intercept the damage, but no more 1-2 hit, instead all damage in 2min... And i die like a idiot beause i got hit for 30-60milion hp). With everything up i can have 230 fervor spike, and 130 fervor for 40s (every 7min), with epic spell and heart-bond. Bruiser have more dps proc, less fervor but more DR, much more, 56 vs 10.
In the end bruiser and monk are quite similar. More than the other tank archetypes i'd say. There are clear differences between guardian/zerk and between SK/pally. But when it comes to the avoidance tank, especially at high level, with all the AAs, i feel the differences fade away. Bruiser would be more off than monk, but i feel nowadays, when you're in def stance anyway your dps won't be great. Though one thing striked me. It's the off stance and group buffs where bruisers shine more now. Because they increade damage by a % and their off stance give them a proc which gets better with pot, while monks get a lot of AS buff which aren't as usefull anymore. Though i was jealous of them back in the days . The big mit buff is better for monks because if i remember they have an AA that removes most negative effects while bruisers still have theirs. And of course bruisers get close mind which is quite usefull to negate cc. Fun thing though. They are quite similar, but never would i change my bruiser over a monk
