Lord Pantz

Please do not post in this section of eq2flames unless you have read this.

Well in my laziness I have slacked quite a bit and I will make it up with this post I hope to clarify things for the new brigands, the old ones who are trying to improve and those who just like reading what I have to say.

Plain and simple brigands are probably one of the more fun classes to play on any level. Whether it be solo, groups, or raid we bring more than our worth to the table.

If you are a new player I suggest you review these threads:
Everquest II Spells, Abilities and Combat Arts and More
- Noob Questions - EQ2Flames Forum
- EQ2Flames Forum - Search Forums
- The Newbie Yard

Deities
The best god for Brigands is Anashti Sul and Rallos Zek. Mischiefs cloak has some fun things but over all Zek's cloak is still one of the better ones, and Anashti's miracles are awesome.

If you are a raiding brigand and you pull avatars it doesn't matter what god you worship because you will never have enough faction for miracles. So once you get your cloak it really doesn't matter. That is unless you love blowing your money on faction.

Casting Order
My casting order has changed a bit with the transition to TSO. I tend to put Thieves Guild on a Cleric or a Bard just depends on my group make up.

I cast these CA's in the following order, and as soon as they come back up I recast.

Pre-pull if up
Deceitfullness
Ruthless Cunning
Sneak

Rob
Roughen
Compromising Thrust
Traumatic Swipe
Thieving Essence
Dispatched
Blood Rake
Enfeeblement
Master strike (if applicable)
Double Up
Hood of Thugs (if up)
Will To Survive
Battery and Assault
Evasive Maneuvers
Spew
Entrail
Sidestab
Jagged Blade
Clock
Stunning Blow
Torporous Strike
Walk the Plank
Remiss
Hold Up
Boot Dagger
Rob

Other things I might cast now that Precision of the Maestro is raid wide or I'm grouped with a troubador are our taunts and group snare as well.

Auto Attack
I personally time auto attacks this way in my head:
CA - CA - Pause - CA - CA - Pause... rinse and repeat

Here are 2 links for other useful auto attack tools. One is a ACT mod and the other is an interface mod as of LU51.
Advanced Combat Tracker :: View topic - Single/Double Attack detection/notification v1.0.1.2
Auto Attack Interface Mod

Rogue AA's
I believe there are 3 acceptable ways to go here. One gives you HP and the other maximizes the damage output of your AA CA's. The newest option is due to the amount of damage shields in TSO. It will pretty much guarantee you never take aggro.

INT is not a viable option unless you solo and like the FD. WIS line 1h specced is also not very viable with all the double attack options that are out there for us in terms of gear or groups. Going to the end of the STA line is also not a viable option because if you want to tank you should have rolled one.

Option A (HP Spec)
Pick Pocket 1
STR 6-4-4-8-1
AGI 4-6-4-8-1
STA 4-4-8
INT 4-1

Option B (Max Dps Spec)
Pick Pocket 1
STR 8-8-4-8-1
AGI 4-8-4-8-1
INT 5-8

Option C (Those with aggro issues)
STR 4-8-4-8-1
AGI 4-8-4-8-1
INT 4-8-5

In regards to option B if you are at cap for STR remove points from STR and put them in INT instead.

Brigand AA's
Our class specific aa's are pretty lame. The right side of the Tenure line is the only thing that is absolute. The rest isn't a must have its just what I personally like. Safehouse is a good get out of jail free card, Honor Among Thieves isn't as bad as I thought it was if you have any power issues (I've even used it in VP and never died from it).

Blood Rake(5) -> Compromising Thrust(5) -> Underground Negotiations(5) -> Enfeeblement(5) -> Dispatched(5) -> Tenure (1)

Sneak(3) -> Cheap Shot(3) -> Baffle(4) -> Hideaway(5) -> Amazing Reflexes(5) -> Safehouse(1)

Jagged Blade(5) -> Rob(5) -> Roughen(3) -> Remiss(5) - Battery and Assault(1)

Savvy(4)

Shadows AA's
General
Hearty Constitution (5)
Swift Strides (5)

Scout
Quick Strike (5)
Sinister Strike (5)
Offensive Prowess (4)
Evasive Manuevers (1)

Rogue
Flurry (5)
Circle of Blades (5)
Poison Mastery (5)
Thieving Essence (1)

Brigand
Stunning Blow (5)
Distracting Weapon (5)
Plank Walker (5)
Positional Mastery (1)
Will to Survive (1)

Adornements
I'm not going to make item links because its pretty self explanatory.
Weapons - Vampiric Handles or Spell Crit (unless you have power issues then go with 1 phantom first before you try 2)
Gear - DPS > +CA DMG > STR, obviously get INT on the ears

Dream Team
My Dream team (that wouldnt hurt raid dps too much =p) is as follows:
Brigand->Troub->Illusionist-> Warlock->Dirge->Inquisitor.

Other Leet Info and Links

Use items and food that boost your CA DMG, DA, CRIT, STR, and DPS whenever you can.

For other tips check out this thread:
Tips and Tricks

For the Epic Walkthrough click here:
Epic Walkthrough

For pics of peoples hotbars click here:
Hotbars

For a complete list of spells/ combat arts click here:
Brigand Spells/Skills 1-80

For the official Gear Thread click here:
TSO Gear Thread

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Pants.

Johnathon

Thanks pants, Concise and to the point.. Five stars IMO.

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MyBrute

Ofifi

Being a little nitpicky here, but I want to point out that in the TSO AA line one of those can only have 4 AA in it. The Brigand endline abilities need 2 AA each so you have 61 points there right now. I would probably drop the 1 AA from offensive prowess, especially if you can get to 520 or damn close without it self buffed.

Lord Pantz

woops my bad.. ill edit..

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Pants.

Tarvenbrig

lmao dont you do that every expac?

Lord Pantz

i suppose. i was trying to fly through it.

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Pants.

ldog

Couple observations/suggestions/questions:
B&A should go in dbl up sequence instead of Rake if you've got the 4 piece TSO bonus. Disp, Enfeeb, Master Strike, B&A, Dbl. Just switch B&A with Rake.

The venerable DPS AA spec. I'd say put the 8 points in int and 4 in str and stick the last point wherever. 32 int is likely going to do more than 16 str because of the curve and diminishing returns.

AA for Roughen is actually only 3 points. Also 2 another points in afflictions are unneeded it only takes 16 to get to the endline B&A. I cut 2 out of Jagged but since they all kinda suck meh. 4th point in sneak reduces cast time to minimum (assuming sailwind of course) If you don't ever use hideaway (don't see it in your sequence) then the 5 points are a waste, would probably get more mileage out of cheapshot (yes I know useless in raid and I forget to use it outside raid most of the time because of that). I've never found safehouse useful but I haven't played with it enough maybe.
5 points in Savvy because resists are always handy, besides the rest of the tree sucks so much it doesn't really matter. I don't put any points into defensive poisons but does anyone notice a difference with it?

Shadows lines- HP good. I like swift journey over swiftstrides but meh, it really doesn't matter where you put those other 5 points. Fuck I'm ready to put it into swift creation for grinding out those crit stones (my other toons are all craftmules and the extra 10% progress speeds things up quite a bit)
Scout the 5 quick strike and then the rest meh...raiders should be capped on offensive skills. The masterstrike timer reduction takes it out of sync with dbl up.
Rogue and Brig perfect as you have them. Other 4 points discretionary. I had nox tox saw no difference. Dispatched no difference. Trying out rugged shielding right now but meh. I think for people that aren't str capped might as well go for battle endurance.

Backpayne

Slightly different cast order than I use but only a couple CA's change.

Fire off Thieving Essence to get a small bonus to all attacks right off.

Spew and Entrail I always toss out early to get the dots ticking. The earlier you get the dots runnin, the more dps they add up to and the sooner you can reuse them. /shrug to each their own though.

Thugs I only toss out if the inquis fires off divine recovery and I spam everything out too fast.

Rob
Roughen
Thieving Essence
Compromising Thrust
Spew *
Entrail *
Traumatic Swipe
Dispatched
Battery and Assault
Enfeeblement
Master strike (if applicable)
Double Up
Blood Rake
Will To Survive
Evasive Maneuvers
Sidestab
Jagged Blade
Clock
Stunning Blow
Torporous Strike
Walk the Plank
Remiss
Hold Up
Hood of Thugs
Boot Dagger
Rob

ldog

@Backpayne getting roughen and comp thrust off helps other cas land, thieving ess can and does miss...I had been tinkering around with mine and had it before comp thrust and I was surprised to see how often it missed when I went through ACT logs from WoE last night.
getting dispatched and enfeeble (and then masterstrike if applicable) off before others makes them do more damage so B&A should go right before Dbl Up. And while throwing the dots in early sounds like a good idea your raidforce is going to benefit more from you getting your debuffs in earlier rather than later.

Also what I said in my above post was of course assuming all spell m1.

Lord Pantz

This thread isnt you have to do what I say, its merely a guideline for newbs. I am always looking to improve and hear what others think and see what they have tested/parsed.

In regards to the aa's im aware that roughen is not 5 points, I just meant max it out.

I fuck with my casting order quite a bit. This is just a general guideline.. and as fast as we fly through CAs I dont feel its that important that I get up the DOTs sooner, because if anything I probably miss 1-2 ticks at most. And the other stuff going up before that in my order is more important except b/a.

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Pants.