Brawler Archive

Well im a Twi-Lek Brawler, She is almost to the point of gaining Master in unarmed. I am a strong believer that the classes in the game are meant to help each other. As far as a brawler to markman in damage if you train in both you shouldnt have a problem in anything, in fact you are a pretty decent killing machine. I brought my brawling skills up first, now im working with marksman weaps as well as mobs permit my unarmed skill.

My brawler when using your special attacks, stun, blind ect can heavily outdamage a opponent. Yes my pistols, carbines do the same but I do not see a difference, Brawling is a defensive posture more so than offensive, most brawlers dont consider that. So to those of you who are brawlers mix-n-match it does wonders!!

The gist of this post is that brawlers aren't so bad if you're primarily a ranged profession with a couple of brawler specials thrown in.

I would argue that is precisely why brawlers need tuning.

exactly man.. as it is theres NO way you can be just a brawler right now, it just isn't happeneing without you getting your ass handed to you on a regular basis

I think the unarmed brawlers is the most important skill to pickup first, prior to getting anything else (i.e. marksman).

Because if you die, you wont have any weapon to use for protection in the meantime until you loot your corpse. Having that skill will save your life along the way to your corpse retrival. Especially at higher level brawler and TKA it will help a lot!!!

Hello all,

Kenshin-dono says, "as it is theres NO way you can be just a brawler right now, it just isn't happeneing without you getting your ass handed to you on a regular basis"

Um, that's exactly how it should be. If your gonna play a straight up brawler you should expect to "get your ass handed to you on a regular basis". Why? Because when you find yourself in a ranged engagement with a pair of VK's there isn't much you can do but get shot up. At the same time, I fully believe that the same should be said true of ranged only combatants. They too should find their ass handed to them if ranged is their complete combat strategy. A person who has at least master in some brawling and master in some ranged should find themselves a far more capable opponent on the field of battle than someone who is even an elite profession of just brawling or just ranged. Having no brawler or no ranged should leave a glaring weakness in any player who chooses that route. I'm firm in that belief and I have little pity for those who cry otherwise.

I say all this while putting my money where my mouth is.I play a Trand-master UA (soon to be Tera Kasi) whois almost also a carbine specialist (soon to be carbineer). Why? Because if I were to totally overlook ranged I'd get my ass handed to me, as I *should* at times. I am also taking both a step further though I think that even specialist<ranged> or master <melee> is adequate and even desirable for most combatants. I can solo yellows and sometimes reds based on tactics and not justraw skill--a combination of ranged and melee is what permits this however, as it should be.Yes, my carbine can outdamage my UA play but I can tank far better than relatively skilled players when I switch to brawl with a mob that has closed ranks. I don't use VK's, which admittedly accounts for my lower damage output however I find that being able to use several specials is more important than the damage output in many cases.

Also, I hear people complaining about "stun" and the like. The problem is that they have not wrapped their head around "states" all that well. Stun is not a literal "stun" in the way it has been implemented in previous MMO's/RPG's. It doesn't cause the opponent to freeze up and not be able to attack. What it does do is lower their defenses so that they become easier to hit. It is a debuff. Blind is also a debuff that lowers the opponents defensive and offensive abilities.Furthermore, if you have some hunting skill, be sure to check the vulnerabilities listed with a mob. Some, like an Ikopi for example, stun seems to work particularly well on (via their vulnerability). I find a higher failure rate when trying to blind them however and I typically stick to using stun with two unarmed attacks.

On another point--get some decent armor folks. Seriously, if you think armor sucks its because you don't understand how it works. Yes indeed, some armor is best left off because it just isn't the right type or the creator didn't put much effort into it and the result is mediocre, making being unarmored better. Even just a chest piece and a helmet of some decent armor can make a vast difference however. If you find your going up against ranged opponents, be sure that the armor your getting has some good protection against blasters while melee opponents should cause you to find armor that has good protection against kinetic. It *does* make a difference, but only if you take the time to understand it and find armor that isn't sub-par, like most of what is available.

Finally, I agree that there are issues with melee vs. ranged in PvP. There does need to be some love paid to the brawler classes to make melee combatants more lethal and pressing on an opponent that they have closed ranks with. At the same time, if you want to be a melee only combatant, expect to get your ass handed to you with plentiful supply because that is a narrow minded way of approaching combat in this game. Keep in mind, I fully believe that a ranged only combatant should find themselves in dire and quite unforgiving situations with melee combatants (including mobs) if they so choose to remain ranged the entire time. It should work both ways.

-Derelict

This is perfectly reasonable, and I believe that the top five issues we sent in reflect this attitude.

Currently this balance does not exist. A ranged user is better able to deal with any combat situation at any range than a brawler.

I would very much like to see brawlers have an arena of competence that they alone excel in, such as point-blank combat.

Of course, pistoleers are the undisputed kings of that arena currently, but perhaps we can change that.

I'm also an Unarmed Brawler/Carbineer and I find it pretty disheartening to know that I can get more experience safer and faster with my gun. And that if I get into trouble, I can always fall back on the carbine (which is a level behind my unarmed), to get me out.

Hi again all,

Declarent said, "I would very much like to see brawlers have an arena of competence that they alone excel in, such as point-blank combat."

Exactly. You said in one line what Ionly tried toconvey in paragraphs. Brawlers do need to excel in a certain area of combat and, at this point, it doesn't seem to be the case in the one arena that should be a "given", point-blank-close-quarters combat.

Declarent continues, "Of course, pistoleers are the undisputed kings of that arena currently, but perhaps we can change that."

What it amounts to is that pistoleers should "checkmate" any other ranged in close combat, while they themselves should be outdone by an equal or greater skilled brawler combatant. You'd think it would be a no-brainer that a guy trying to pistol whip someone with a two handed sword would find themselves in a serious predicament but I guess SOE doesn't see it that way so far. *Shrugs* Basically, pistol whip is just an overpowered special that should be riskier when using against a melee opponent who has defensive bonuses that could and *should* protect against such a thing. As you say, perhaps that will be changed and I offer a clear vote in that direction.

-Derelict

I am also a twilek but i did not have the patience for unarmed. You do far less damage than a wook or a trando and once I got expert I switched over to 2hand.

And now i cookass.

If you're going unarmed, get Vibro Knucklers. You'll become much more powerful. Unarmed is faster, but less damaging than the other brawler professions. When you get up to Teras Kasi (IF you get up there) you're soon a machine. With Berzerk and good knucklers, my old character was hitting faster than once a second at 400-700 a hit. Sure, it's not quite the 1000+ that say a polearm person would be dealing out, but it's not too shabby. And it looks much cooler, imo.

Declarent and Derelict.... thank you very much.

Yeah brawlers are not bad as long you are not a pikeman. They are the most gimped fighting class out there *cries*

I disagree completely. I have rarely found myself in the "getting your ass handed to you on a regular basis" situation. I am a master brawler and use fencing as my primary skill. I have found that for soloing creatures is far easier with brawler then marksman skills (with the exception of exploiting and kiting slow creatures). I can solo almost any yellow or red. As an example I regularly kill 2 stormtroopers 7k or so health as part of rebel missions. Being a brawler does take more finess and has greater risks than being a marksman.the only area brawler really needs help is in pvp situations.

Kiting, one hit kills and other such Marksman "exploits" are what that profession was designed to do. It works as intended.

I too can solo creatures. I have killed red conned creatures. I laugh at white con creatures. I have only been able to solo one red conned Rebel trooper. All Rebels AIs since then have beaten me up. I cannot solo them. I also have to be careful about what red conned creatures I fight, because they are not equal. When I group with my friends, the ARTISAN aquires more kills than me. He's a freakin' Mon Cal that intentionally lowered his health pool to get more recovery for his action pool. He's a novice marksman with Pistol skill at 3. I have unarmed at 4 and polearm at 4. I have the best darn Vibroknuckles I've seen in the game yet and a pretty good vibroaxe (do 1000-3000 dmg. regularly with it).