Brawler Archive

I'm a rifleman/ranger. Tried and true combo, and I've enjoyed it for the most part. But I'm bored. I've always wanted to do a melee profession, and right now I'm heading towards fencer. (first profession I ever thought I wanted to do actually.)

Anyway I made a pretty long post on the fencer boards, but it hasn't gotten any replies. Probably due to its length, I'm not sure. My question is simple, which melee class or mix of classes is the "King of PvE".

I'm not interested in pvp, if I was I'd pick up the FOTM like so many others and have uninteresting duels with the same outcome 90% of the time, or larger scale pvp battles filled with griefing, exploiting, excuses and god knows what else.

Right now I'm looking at two templates, they are as follows:

_Leesil_
A character I've created on eclipse to test. Goal is Master Fencer / 0021 pistoleer / 0040 ranger. Leaves 7 skill points I'd either use for pistol skills or ranger skills.

_Tank_
Master Brawler / 4400 Fencer / 4040 Swordsman / 4/0/0/4 TKA / 0040 ranger. I know thats more then 250 points but I don't know if master brawler or more points in one of the elites is worth it.

Basically I'm not interested in doing the defense stacking thing (because its getting fixed and because its not what I'm after) but rather a balance of good defense and offense to be able to go on long (buffed) hunts without lots of downtime. And I've got to keep the 0040 ranger in there.

Is swordsman best, due to high damage/quick killing? Or maybe TK for their balance of defense and offense? Or is fencers defense ability stacked with some offensive pistoleer skills even better? Please respond with serious feedback and or knowledge, I'm interested in creating the best creature killing ranger out there

My first advice is dont do the plan for _Tank_

It's way too spread out. If you want, go 4000 tka and then fencer or swordsman.

And since you seem to like ranger a bunch I guess i cant talk you out of it. I find a really good combo for melee professions is Master doc/melee.

I've heard the "King of PvE" is apperently swordsman. I wouldnt know though, I'm a tka and I think i do okay in pve

get master Swordsman, master brawler, and get some defense lines from fencer, tkm, and pikeman.. then your tha man

except that defense mod stacking is getting capped .

I think I'm gonna start going swordsman and slowly drop rifle as I need to. I'll play fencer on my other char for fun (and it IS fun .. sword just seems better pve I guess.)

Message Edited by No_names_available on 02-26-2004 12:38 PM

Swordsman rocks in PvE. I am Master Rifleman/Master Swordsman/Master Brawler. For PvP, I use Rifle withmelee for backup. But for PvE, I much prefer pulling out the Hammer of Death and "nailing" them, and I almost never use my Rifle for PvE anymore.

Has this changed since Pub. 7?

i'm the same way, I dont PVP...and would like a good PVE template that doesnt involve alot of medic ...ie. 3,3,3,0 medic would be the most i'd wanna go.

novice medic if the template could really survive well without having to heal alot.

Do not overlook the pikeman, indeed it is very very slow at the start, you hit slow and you miss a lot an awful lot. But once you get 4xxx you start mowing things down and rapidily.

There are two good things for the pikeman, one is stun and the other is KD. As a brawler I don't need to tell you the power of stun. On top of this both moves are also available as AOE specials. As a bonus you also get another AOE which dizzies. TKA overpowered? Bah! they haven't seen a pikeman at work. I doubt a fully buffed TKA can take down ten critters all in one go and as quickly

Pikeman like swordsman is not for PvP, but both rock in PvE.

Bear this in mind, Pikeman will make you want to quit early on cause you miss so much, but stick at it and you'll discover one gem of a profession.

Yes, consider Pikeman as well. I was a Master Pikeman for a holocron. Pikeman has the potential to be the highest damaging melee class in both PvE and PvP if you can get one of those Nightsister lances with mind poison and/or mind fire. I had fun times causing poison, disease, knockdown, and dizzy to my opponents with just two Pikeman moves.

There's a great template tool here:

http://swgcb.yogn.net/

Now I'm probablky a lifelong smuggler but were I ever to give it up I'd have to say pikeman. I got it on one of my holos and man, the area swings are just too amazing in PvE. My temp would look something like:

Master Pikeman
Fencer 3400
TKA 2304

And 57 points left to play with. Great defenses (capped ranged and melee).

Pike is also nice for the NS lances which CAN be amazing, though rare.

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Pikeman like swordsman is not for PvP, but both rock in PvE.

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O-dog wrote:

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Pikeman like swordsman is not for PvP, but both rock in PvE.

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why do you say Pikeman and Swordsman aren't for PvP?

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Simply put they don't have the same number of defensive modifers as the Fencer.

The two professions on their own has no really significant melee or ranged defence, unlike the fencer. All brawler professions have the damage output to effectively finish someone quickly. Don't get me wrong about the swordsman and pikeman, they both do a lot of damage perhaps even more than the Fencer and TKA in sheer damage terms, (light or medium AP non-kinetic damage weapon). If you take a look at the melee and ranged defence modifers you'll see fencer is much more suited to PvP because they become bloody hard to hit along with their dodge bonuses.

The downside to the swordsman and pikeman is neither profession is as fast or accurate as the fencer or TKA, nor do they have as high a melee and ranged defences. In PvP this modifer matters a great deal. Hence why you see many people complain about the pre-publish 7 TKA/Fencer/Rifleman template, cause they're nigh unhittable. That's been changed in the recent update but even just a Fencer/Rifleman is still rather difficult to hit because of the modifers to defence (melee and ranged).

Bear in mind my arguements do not factor in your combat strategy nor what armor you may be wearing. Ultimately good combat strategy will dictate whether you win a fight or not, but we're not debating playing style here but the professions on their own. I'm not saying swordsman and pikeman can not do well in PvP, but they are not really suited or geared up for it. If you consider the other status defensive modifers you'll see why the swordsman and pikeman aren't that great for PvP.

Hope this explains my reasons for the earlier post