Thread: Bruiser Ultimate Noob Guide

B.U.N.G.
Bruiser Ultimate Noob Guide

I've been saying I was going to make this for awhile now. This will most certainly be a living document that will change and grow as time goes on. As always, if I have anything incorrect, or if you have a suggestion, feel free to post.

First off, if you are a returning player, and have missed alot over the years, I'd direct you to another thread to help you get caught up: What have I missed?

Additionally, here are some links to informative posts made by devs that I think are worth referencing here:
Combat Mechanics and Player Progression - By Xelgad
Sentinel's Fate Mechanics Changes - by Timetravelling

Can Bruisers Tank?
Yes, we can tank. Our tanking has been improving every expansion and now the gap between brawlers and plate tanks is closer than ever. As a bruiser, there are certain AAs you will absolutely want to have for tanking. Defensive AAs such as Inner Focus and Impenetrable Will are critical to a tanking bruiser. We also have good AoE hate and really shine with the new WIS line, and our SF end line Wild Beating, is just amazing for AoE hate. Sentinel’s Fate brings us a lot of gear with mitigation increasers on it, and we also can now choose physical mitigation in our character traits screen, instead of resistances. At the time of writing this, I am often close to 72-75% mitigation, usually around 12K mit in raids. And with our defensive stance making us immune to Strikethrough, and our new abilities like Brawler’s Tenacity, we are looking MUCH better. To summarize, yes, we most certainly can tank.

AAs
If you are leveling up, I will try to help you decide which AAs to pick first. If you have 250 AAs then I would point you to this thread http://www.eq2flames.com/bruisers/69...v-edition.html
For bruisers, especially bruisers at low levels, Chi is often the most popular choice for the first end ability to get. Start off with the Brawler Tree STR line and go 4/10/8/2 to get some double attack and Chi. You won’t regret it. The next thing you will want to get is the INT line for crits. After you have Chi, and 10 in crit chance, you have a little more freedom.

I would suggest the WIS line at this point, all the way down to Crane Flock, which is a great ability. Go 4/10/8/2 in WIS, (Though you could go 10/10/2/2 if you want to max Crane Sweep, but you’d eventually want the HP higher, so that’s why I say 4/10/8/2). This will give you 10 in crane flock, which is amazing, Crane Sweep, which is a nice Blue AoE with short stun, a little HP, and most importantly, Crane Flock, which owns.

Also you can try 4/10 in the AGI line for re-use, or 4/10 in STA for the nice proc, either is good and it’s your choice what order you want to get them, but if you are below lvl 70, you won’t be able to spend more than 50 in the brawler tree, so it may be time to go to the Bruiser tree now.

In the Bruiser tree, the first thing you want is to max your self heal. (Though when you are max level and have a lot of potency gear, you can get away with only 3 points on the heal and it’ll still crit and fill you up). Get some goodies from the left side first; you only need 20 points to get Bodyguard of Stone, which is a fairly decent ability. You will also eventually want the right side Cas, and especially the increase to Knockout Combination, which is an amazing ability that you first get at lvl 65. If you aren’t 65 yet, you don’t need to worry about putting points into this yet.

Lastly, you don’t really need to put points into the Shadows Tree for awhile, so I usually work on this tree last, as it doesn’t get really good until you have over 120 AAs. Once you DO have over 120 though, then you can start doing this tree. Obviously you want Max health, and for the other one a lot of people go with run speed or deity buff, but it’s all up to you. For the fighter tree , good early choices are damage reduction, and the stance boosts, but again, nothing critical here that’s going to make or break you. I personally do NOT choose sneering assault, as it misses too much and I prefer my rescues to be reliable.

The brawler line is where it starts to get good. First of all, you want 5 in your raid wide buff for accuracy. Then you can either go with block chance, or the blue AoE boost, whichever fits your style of leveling up. Try to just spend 10 in this line, to get Inner Focus, which rocks.

Then when you are over 170 AA, you open up the bruiser line of the shadows tree. For leveling you will want mitigation and possibly adrenaline rush, but could skip adrenaline rush for the savage assault. Then get the 2 end lines because they are amazing.
When you get more than this, you are probably ready to spec more for endgame and are probably close to max level, so I would refer you back to the link to the AA thread.

Casting Order
This is asked all the time and my response is always the same, though I generalize a lot. I generally cast all my CAs from fastest recast, to longest recast. Now there are some exceptions, and a good bruiser will know when to interrupt their order to meet the demands of the situation. Here is a rundown of what a DPS fight will look like for me:
Before Pull: Temp adornments, potions, swap in Gozak Helm and activate, swap back normal helm and recast stance (or Lycanthrope Bracelet – See below on special items) Lightning Fists, Chi, Knockout, Crane Flock, and Impenetrable Will, pre-cast Savage Assault if mob is single target.

During Pull: Pressure Point, Master’s Strike, Baton Flurry, and then I begin hitting each CA based on recast. The first 2 will come back up fast, so I’ll hit them again as soon as they light up. I will save big hitters like Devastation Fist and Sucker Punch for when the Brigand dispatches. When your troub casts POTM, you should throw your taunts into the order also, as they are ultra fast and will give you free damage. If you are fighting multiple mobs, and you are NOT tanking, you can hit Wild Beating first, so the 2 hate positions might not put you at the top for every mob. But generally save the blue AoEs until all mobs are within range, and then hit them right away, because they could be dead if you hesitate.

Armor Choices
People always ask what armor they should be wearing while leveling up. The answer is simple. Mastercrafted all the way up until your 70s and then quest rewards will start to get better, and then you can also do some easy raids and get some low level fabled which will be better.

Also there is a new quest line in Tenebrous Tangle for Class Specific gear and gives a cloud mount also. If you are around lvl 60 you can do this quest line. Link Here

If you are level 85 + you can start doing Public Quests in Velious and trying to earn rewards. The armor from those PQs is very very good compared to most other stuff you will have gotten by the time you hit 90, and will get you in good shape for starting DoV Instances. You must be 90 to wear the PQ armor though.

Weapon Choices
The most important thing in weapons is that when dual wielding, both of your weapons must have the EXACT SAME DELAY. If they differ at all, even by a decimal, they will be off and will eventually mess up, and you will get stuck waiting an entire auto-attack round extra for your weapons to re-sync.
There are some good 2-handers out there, but I’ve found that dual wielding is always the best solution. The only times that 2-handers can be good are in PVP (Like Battlegrounds) or if you hit Crane Flock, since the primary weapon will AE attack. Still, in a high-end raid, dual wielding can still be better even with crane flock up, since there are so many procs that will trigger per hit, like Victorious Concerto for example.
In deciding the best delay, there are really only 4.0 delay 1handed weapons available at the end game now.

Stats

When upgrading gear, people often ask which stats they should focus on. First an foremost, Crit Chance is the top dog as far as stats are concerned. Strength is important too because it affects everything, you want to generally shoot for over 1200 Strength. Crit bonus affects everything as well, but with our large spreads, doesn't give us as much of a boost as other classes, with our low lows; still it's nice to have, especially in large quantities. Potency is awesome, but only affects CAs. Double Attack is great, but only affects Autoattack. DPS is great also, but again, it only affects autoattack.
For Bruiser I'd say Crit>Crit Bonus>MultiAttack>STR>Potency>DPS>Attack Speed. This isn't always the exact rule, because some stats have caps like haste and DPS mod, and depending on how close you are on your individual stats, your choices will be different.

Adornments
White Adornments are a lot more versatile now. Generally, you don’t worry about adornments until you are max level, as the good ones become very expensive, and you will be replacing gear often as you level up, so be smart and wait until you know you will keep a piece of gear for awhile before you adorn it. Also, for this guide, I’m NOT going to include Legacy adornments, the T8 adornments that are no longer craft able. Some of them are great but since they can no longer be made, I’m going to focus on what will always be around. Also if multiple adorns are listed, I'm showing what is best in my opinion, plus a few other options.

Best White Adornments per slot:
---------------
Helm: Health
Cloak: MA, Crit Chance
Shoulder: Ability Mod, Attack Speed
Chest: + C/P/S/R, Ability Mod, DPS,
Forearms: MA, Crit Chance
Gloves: HATE GAIN, c/p/s/r
Belt: DPS, Attack Speed
Legs: MA, Crit Chance
Feet: +C/P/S/R
Neck: 3% Riposte
Ear: Health, Ability Mod
Ring: Ability Mod
Wrist: HATE GAIN, c/p/s/r
Primary - Crit Bonus
Secondary - Crit Bonus
Ranged - Crit Bonus

Red / Yellow Adornment suggestions:
For DoV these have all new options. For Armor, you may have to get crit mit adornments if you don't have enough crit mit to survive. If you are good on crit mit then you can get Multi Attack and Flurry on all pieces that will allow it. Some slots, like forearms, will alow white, yellow, and red slots for multi attack, so if you get a hardmode forearm, you can end up with an awful lot of MA as a result. My general advice if you are raiding is to get crit mit on your easy mode armor, and then get MA and other DPS options for you Hardmode gear, (personally I try to keep 2 sets of Hardmode Gear, 1 for crit mit, 1 for DPS).



Deity
There are 3 main choices for bruiser on which deity to choose. Zek, Anashti, and Tribunal. Zek and Anashti are both offensive, though Zek has a nice death-save miracle, though his Rallos Devastation miracle is clearly the best in his line, which makes him pretty much a DPS diety. Anashti has Call of Death, a nice proc that does good damage every time you hit and is nice for getting high parses. She also has a flurry miracle that is pretty overrated and doesn’t give nearly as much dps.

The Tribunal is more defensive, though he does have some DPS options also. Tribunal is well rounded and an excellent choice.

Personally, I go with Zek. I love Rallos Devastation, and I also like the fact that Zek has a 100% size increase miracle, so I can get that for fun when messing around.


Grandmaster Choices (Master 2)
While leveling up, you generally consider 2 things when choosing a Grandmaster. If you already have a master, you generally pick something that you don’t have mastered already, and you also generally pick the ability that will give you the most DPS, so the highest hitting CA on the list.
In t9, most bruisers go with Beatdown, due to our improved AoE output. Sucker Punch is also a viable choice.

PVP’ing on a Bruiser
First off, I’m no PVP expert. I play PVE, but do some battlegrounds from time to time. But here are some tips.
2 Handers are great, especially at higher levels when you can flurry.
There are also high damage satchels available in Sentinel’s Fate. These are excellent for us, especially with consolidated Double Attack. I’ve 1-shotted plenty of weaker folks with a nice critical double attack ranged shot.
Sonic Punch and Drag work well together for pulling someone out of a group, especially if you have a +range item like Miragul’s Charm.
PVP is an excellent reason to have 2 charges in Brawler’s Tenacity.
When you get someone low on HP, and they put up a 100% avoidance ability like Tsunami, fear not… Staggering Blow and Wild Beating will always hit, so you can kill a Tsunami’d opponent with those.

What should I be parsing?
People always ask this, and It’s really very negotiable. Your parse is going to change dramatically based on group setup. Right now bards with a good VC can almost double their group’s DPS output, so it’s always going to be different. Typically with high-end gear though, a bruiser should be able to do at least 10K, and preferably 20k or higher with a descent group. Still these numbers are very rough estimates. For example, In a group with no support classes, and low hit ratios, I might do 5K, but then move me into a group with a dirge, inquisitor, illy etc… and I’ll do 25K. Yes groups make THAT much of a difference.

Honestly there are more important aspects of playing a bruiser than parsing, but parsing is fun and it’s really the only measuring tool we have to compare each other so that’s what we do. Always hold yourself to a higher standard, and never stop trying to improve.

Key Loot, what do I need?
I see this asked often and it’s a difficult question to answer. It’s difficult because many great items are rare, or take a skilled group or raid to get. I’ll cover a few particularly awesome items though.
SF T3 Defensive Shoulders – Otherwise known as our Waansu Defensive Shoulders, While all SF T3 raid gear is generally good, this item is sporting a whopping 7% mitigation increase! It also has some potency and other goodies, but it is a gem for tanking. Takes a skilled raid to gain, but you MIGHT be able to buy loot rights someday. Expect to pay upwards of 1,000 plat though.
Any items with Torrent or Pestilent Rain – These encounter procs are amazing! They rock in Battlegrounds, but more importantly they rock when fighting linked encounters, especially when you are AE attacking and proccing them multiple times per attack. The last named in Cella drops an amazing wrist with Pestilent Rain, and that zone is doable by a fairly decent group.
Gozak Helm/Lycanthrope Bracelet – these items essentially do the same thing but don’t stack. They have a temp clicky that gives you a buff, healing you and doing extra damage with every CA, much like Knockout combination. Nowadays, with better gear available, many bruisers will swap in a Gozak Helm, click it, then swap it out, and retain the 1-minute buff. It’s probably something that will always be useful. The Lycanthrope Bracelet is only 20 seconds though so not nearly as good. Lycan is from doing chests in Mistmyr Manor, and the Gozak helm is from Gozak, in Munzok’s Material Bastion, which takes a raid to get.

Advanced Combat Tracker
I suggest you get this and use triggers to help you get better, especially timing auto attacks. http://www.eq2flames.com/bruisers/40...-triggers.html

Epic Weapon
No need to do the mythical anymore, just get the fabled and then run Epic Repurcussions.

Epic Walkthrough: http://www.eq2flames.com/bruisers/20...lkthrough.html

Epic Repurcussions: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Epic_Repercussions

I'm still a noob, where can I get more help?
You can join the lucan_dlere.wwbruisers and ask questions, or crushbone.allmonks as they are the worldwide bruiser and monk channels in game.

You can also practice your parsing and gear selections by practicing on training dummies in your guild hall. Repetition can help you commit your casting order to memory and can help you improve.

And of course, you can always post a question here on the bruiser boards.

Originally Posted by Crabbok

Best White Adornments per slot:
---------------

Neck: +C/P/S/R, DPS

Why not the 3% Riposte? Well for tanking gear anyway =P

Originally Posted by Baiynne

Why not the 3% Riposte? Well for tanking gear anyway =P

Because of this:

Originally Posted by Crabbok

Also, for this guide, I’m NOT going to include Legacy adornments, the T8 adornments that are no longer craft able. Some of them are great like the 3% riposte for neck, but since they can no longer be made, I’m going to focus on what will always be around.