Crabbok

This guide is intended to help answer question about Bruiser Achievements. The information found here is subjective. Not any one “spec” is the best. Ultimately, you should choose whatever works best for you.

Starting out – What should I do? To a new bruiser, getting your first few AAs can be intimidating. With so many options, it can be hard to know where to assign your first points. Keep in mind that you can change your spec, as you get one free respec for each tree, and further respecs are available in guild halls, or in North Freeport at the Academy of Arcane Science (In the basement). For help starting out, Check out Sudden’s guide located here:
Sudden's AA Thread

The rest of this guide is intended for bruisers who are close to the maximum on AA’s, about 182 and up, due to the Shadows tree having a minimum-spent requirement for it’s lines. Keep in mind, if you are under level 70, you will only have a maximum of 50 points allowed for each tree.

The Brawler Tree:

This tree differs a lot. I’ll discuss each line and it’s pros and cons. I’ll assume you only plan to spend 4 points in the base stat at the start of each line.
Point 1 – Favorable Wind – 5% speed increase

Strength Line – Overall Excellent Line
Pressure Point – Good ability. Lower Damage, but a nice debuff. Helps our other attacks hit harder.
Relentless Punches – Double Attack, This is very good. Worth spending 8 points easily.
Claw Reversal – Deflection Chance. Good ability, very good for tanking or soloing. The only reason not to get this ability is for a strictly dps build.
Chi – Amazing buff for bruisers. 50 DPS and Attack Speed, 50% re-use, 100% casting and recovery. Pair this ability with Knockout and you can reach amazing bursts of dps. Chi is also very good for any time you have a long cast ability or clicky that needs reduction. Examples might be – Calling home, or clicking the orb in the Leviathan encounter. Chi has excellent defensive properties also. Hit Chi right before you use defensive temps, and you will see them come back MUCH faster. NOTE – If using Close Mind, cast close mind first, so that it will expire while Chi is still up.

Agility Line – Overall Good line
Baton Flurry – Nice extra CA with recovery buff/debuff. This ability is good for an early CA in your chain.
Ambidexterity – AWESOME ability. 12% re-use when maxxed. Everyone should spent 8 points here.
Monkey Dodge – Defense Boost. Not bad for the bruiser who is lacking in gear. Can help for a bruiser who likes to tank instances.
Altruism – Useful Ability. Casts a buff on a group or raid friend that will save them from death, and instead of dying, it will Feign Death them, and give them a small heal. Altruism also increases your hate 2 positions when it triggers. This is good for a bruiser who wants some Utility. It can save someone who pulls agro, or if your guild is raiding, it can be useful to use on the Main Tank. (Note – Death Save Items and spells all trigger at the same time, so do not use Altruism on a Shadowknight if he has bloodletter up. You CAN use it on an SK, but must wait until bloodletter charges have all been consumed. Otherwise his bloodletter will trigger, and he’ll also be FD’d.

Stamina Line – Overall bad line
Mantis Star – Ranged CA, Stamina Debuff. Not bad, but so many other classes debuff Stamina already.
Mantis Bolt – Damage Proc, 3% chance per point. The problem with this ability is that the damage is in the same proportion from when Kingdom of Sky came out. Basicly, the proc is not even CLOSE to being worth the AA points.
Deflecting Pincers – Increased Deflection. Deflection is a good stat to boost nowadays considering Deflection Chance is in the picture. However, getting to this point requires that you waste the AA’s to get the prerequisites.
Mantis Leap – Teleport with next hit being a crit. This ability has little use outside of PVP. Even then, Bruisers have Sonic Punch, so no need for an extra teleport. Can be fun for duels though.

Wisdom Line – Overall Good Line

Crane Sweep – Blue AoE CA with Stun. This ability is pretty nice, adding an extra blue AoE to our arsenal. Especially when you have Knockout up, it’s nice to have 3 blue’s to hit, rather than 2.
Crane Twirl – Damage Proc that can hit up to 4 targets in AoE. While this ability is better than Mantis Bolt(even on single target), it’s damage is still too low.
Crane Growth – 0.5% max HP per point. - HP is good.
Crane Flock – 16 seconds of 100% Double Attack and AoE Attack(max 4 targets). While not as useful as it was years ago, this ability is still our only source of AoE autoattacking, and is nice for many TSO zones.

Intelligence Line – Overall Good Line

Eagle Spin – Root-Spinaround CA. Gives you the mob’s back so you can hit Gut Punch. Try not to use this while tanking or your scouts will get pissed.
Eagle’s Fury – Melee Crit – 2.3% per point. Most bruisers should absolutely get this. Crit affects every attack you make.
Eagle’s Talon – Increased Parry. This is good because 25% of our parries become Ripostes, which can turn into stoneskins.(See Retribution of Stone in Bruiser Tree).
Eagle Shriek – if Below 30% health, you gain 75% crit and Mitigation. This end line is very risky to rely on. It’s usefulness is pretty minimal with today’s gear. Most Bruisers don’t need 75% crit, and if we are that low on health, the extra mitigation will not prevent us from dying. This ability can be useful in PVP however.

Some specs for this line:

Popular DPS spec is
STR 4/8/8/2/2
AGI 4/4/8
WIS 4/4/5
INT 4/4/8

Bruisers who can get their melee crit above 75% solo, can consider dropping the INT line for DPS. I have done that and still can get 100% crit in raids.
My spec
STR 4/5/8/8/2
AGI 4/4/8
WIS 4/4/8/8/2

Popular Tank/Altruism spec is:
STR 4/4/6/8/2
AGI 4/4/8/6/2
INT 4/4/8/5

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Crabbok

The Bruiser Tree


The Bruiser tree is far less complicated than the Brawler Tree. Basically you have 4 lines, of which only 3 are useful. With max AA you will be able to get just about everything you want from these lines, so don’t worry much. This whole tree is pretty much a no-brainer.

Conditioning – The “Defensive” line on the left.

Pretty much every ability in this line is worth getting, except the upgrade to Rock Skin. Enhancing your Self Heal is absolutely one of the most important choices from this line. Upgrading your “Spirit” line lets that temporary Mitigation last longer. Close mind and Stone deaf also get good re-use upgrades. Tenacity is nice also, though possibly north worth maxing out, due to point limitations.

Retribution of Stone – Increases Riposte Damage by 35%, and you have a 25% chance to gain 1 stoneskin on a successful riposte. This is the reason why bruisers everywhere are in love with ripostes! It’s a pretty low chance to actually get the stoneskin, but this ability is nice because you don’t have to do anything, it’s passive!

Sacrifice – Enhancing our Intervene line.

This line is underpowered. For starters, to use it, you have to upgrade each intervene spell separately. Additionally, the end ability is not worth the cost.

Soak Hit – 9% Damage Reduction when you have a fighter’s Intervene ability on you. Ok this ability is horrible. Sure it only costs 9 point, but it’s a waste. Nobody takes this ability.

Attention Line – Enhancing our Taunts and Feign Death.

This line has some weak upgrades to our taunts and our Feign Death, but also has a few gems. For starters, we can gain “Alternate: Shiftiness” which is a substitute for our Manhandle buff. It acts as a de-hate instead of gaining hate. It’s nice to use, when threat is an issue and your in DPS mode. Additionally, we can enhance our rescue to gain additional hate positions. Enhancing rescue costs 2 points per upgrade though, and has a max of 3 upgrades.

Control Hate: A Fast-Recasting Mini-rescue, or De-hate. A nice ability for it’s fast re-use, Control hate will act as a single hate position increaser, or, if you have Shiftiness Active, it will act as a single hate position decreaser.

Knockouts – Our “DPS” line on the right.

This line is straight forward. It increases the damage of 4 of our CA’s, and increases Knockout! The line also has an enhanced duration to Trepidation. You should only use 1 point in Trepidation, so that it unlocks Gut Punch. Other than the 1 point in Trepidation, most bruisers will want to max everything in this line if they have enough AA.
Drag – 4 Second Force Target and Target move. This unique ability physically moves your target, so you literally “DRAG” them where you want them. It used to be a fantastic class-defining ability, but now in TSO nearly every raid target is immune to it, and it’s usefulness has been drastically reduced. Still a good ability to have!

Specs for this tree: The spec I have listed above in the picture is a popular spec for this tree. Though most bruisers who do not have 200 AA yet, will often cannibalize this tree in order to assign points elsewhere. Many bruisers will take points from the attention line, as it is the least critical. Additionally, some bruisers will prefer to spend more points on Enhance:Tenacity than I did.

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Crabbok

The Shadows Tree



The Shadows Tree consists of 4 lines. The General Line, which everyone gets. The Fighter Line which requires 60 points spent globally, and that you be a fighter. The Brawler Line, which requires 120 points spent, and that you be a Brawler, and the Bruiser line, which requires 170 points spent, and that you be a Bruiser. The Fighter and Brawler lines each have an end-line ability, which requires 10 points spent in that respective line, and costs a single point to get. The Bruiser line however, has 2 end-line abilities, and instead of 1, they costs 2 each, but also grant you a title.

General

Pet of the Gods - Boost to attributes and casting speed of God Pet - Not a bad choice.
Bountiful Feast - Improves Duration of Food and Drink - Weak Choice.
Ample Harvest - Chance to Double Harvest. Good for Harvester, Bad for Bruiser.
Hearty Constitution - Max HP, a MUST HAVE for bruisers.
Swift Journey - Mount Speed.
Enhanced Mind - Max Power. Some folks like this for max stats.
Swift Strides - Run Speed.
Swift Creation - Tradeskill progress boost - Again not for bruisers.

Fighter

Consumate Defender - Boost stats of D. Stance. Useful for Tanking.
Swinging Strike - Boosts base and crit damage of Hammer. A good dps choice, considering hammer is often a Master 2 choice.
Enhance: Rescue - Re-Use Reduction for rescue. Nice for tanking with aggro drop mobs.
Offensive Prowess - Boosts skills of O. Stance. Not a bad DPS choice.
Riposte mastery - Boosts riposte Damage. Riposte damage is NOT worth wasting AAs to boost. Avoid this AA.
Battle Hardening - Physical Damage Reduction. A must have for any tanking or hybrid spec.
Sneering Assault - A shorter recast rescue that deals some damage. Not bad for only 1 AA point.

Brawler

Tranquil Forewarning - Improves threat of taunts. Avoid this waste of points.
Tactical Precision - Adds melee and specc accuracy to our raidwide buff. A MUST HAVE for any spec.
Blazing Cobra - upgrades Body Flail's cast time and damage. Not bad for DPS.
Thunderous Strike - upgrades damage of Lightning Fists. Bad choice for dps.
Deflecting Blow - Boost deflection chance. Good for tanking or hybrid.
Aversion - Improves the minimum deflection of D. Stance and Mid Stance. Good for tanking, especially raid tanking and off-tanking.
Inner Focus - Awesome ability. 2 Charge Stoneskin, absorbs physical attacks that would deal 35% or more of the bruisers health.

Bruiser

Conquer- boost threat of Divide and Conquer. At rank 5 it locks the entire encounter. Excellent for tanking, or off-tanking.
Calming Demeanor - Adds de-hate to non fighters to our raidwide. at 1% per point, this is pretty weak but can be nice depending on your raid if they have hate problems.
Deadly Assault - boosts recast and damage of Savage Assault. A nice dps boost.
Bruising Fury - Boosts damage and reuse of Comet Punch. A good dps choice.
Hardened Skin - Upgrades mitigation. Simiilar to monk's Mythical chain mit, but gives slightly less. A MUST HAVE for tanking.
Adrenaline Rush - Chance to get a stoneskin after getting hit for 40% health. Excellent passive buff. Good option for a tanking spec.
Impenetrable Will - 12 second Temp - Allows caster to deflect all attacks, and increases taunts by 25%. This ability is a must have for any bruiser. Only mobs that strikethrough can melee you through this.
Staggering Blow - 1 Minute recast - 4 hate positional increase, damage, plus knockdown. A good option for tanking, especially mobs that aggro drop.

Specs for this tree:
Many specs for the Shadows tree are more defensive. the picture above is my spec. It is generally defensive with some DPS options. For a more offensive, MAX DPS style spec one coudl drop Deflecting blow and Aversion, and drop Adrenaline rush. Using those points, Upgrade Offensive stance, Body Flail, and Comet Punch. Maybe Drop Sneering Assault for that last point to pump into Savage Assault.

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Tanino

Question concerning Adrenaline Rush. What type of content would allow Adrenaline rush to proc? Would the current X2 or any heroic instance content hit hard enough for it to proc and what does it show up in ACT as?

If you had aggro problems even in non-raid environments, would you choose Tranquil Forewarning or Calming Demeanor?

Crabbok

I like Calming demeanor more than Tranquil Forewarning. For one, it'd always be up, and for 2, it'd also give you a little extra to yoru raidwide if you raid.

Boosting our taunts would only have been worthwile if taunts recieved the super boosts they were going to recieve with the fighter changes.

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sajiin

quick question at what % crit would you dump the int line for the wis Crabbok? Grr I'm hammered can't type

dakster

Ive seen him say elsewhere around 75% before temps.

Crabbok

Yeah I listed it in the specs, as an alternate spec.

The reason I went with 75% as a roundabout estimate for what is good enough to drop the INT line is that you can get more crit from multiple sources.

Rilisian Rager Whetstones - Can use 2 of these at the same time, just in-equip your secondary, then apply it in inventory, then re-equip. With 2 of these, and an expert's elixr of tactics, you'll gain 10% crit. Add a dirge or troub and youve got an extra 7-10. if you have any gear that procs crit, add that too.

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Sstingerzz

your popular dps spec is clocking in 2 points to high...i run something simular

str 44861
agi 447
wis 447
int 447

I'm addicted to chi and cant live without it, and my crit isn't uber enough to do away with th the int line alltogether.

My bruiser line is very close to yours as well. I don't raid tank, so the extra points in rescue seems like a waste for my pourposes. I max out everything in attention but rescue.

As far as shadows, I do HP & Power increases for general.

Fighter Line I hit up Swinging strike an offensive prowess, though i think i'm gonna drop offensive prowess because my my melle skills sit WAY over 500 in raid so the extra boost is wasted. I'll probably respec for battle hardening for the likely event i pull aggro.

Brawler line gets the Max ranks in Tacrical Precision, and Blazing Cobra for DPS (especially nice with the TSO' being sick with multi mob encounters). I also grabbed inner focus to save my ass when I intercede the MT.

Bruiser line sees the most action. I have almost everything maxed out. I didn't grab Staggering Blow, since I don't tank often, and I KNOW I would hit it while I was waiting for my other abilities to repop (...must...click...ca's...). Conquer is also short on points, for the same reason.

Keep in mind I spent most of my time trying to duck the responsibilty of tanking, but have successfully tanked all TSO zones, except Ferzhul, using this spec so it works for the bruiser who fancies himself a tank (but not a TSO raid tank). I can pull off tanking any RoK raids with it.

Crabbok

Thanks for catching that! I adjusted it.

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