Brawler Archive

"Still", referring to the fact that they cost too much in beta, too.

Consider the starting tools of the novice brawler with an unarmed focus: Intimidate, Berserk, Taunt, Warcry 1, and Unarmed Lunge 1. Of those four, only one is an attack, and it's nearly useless.

My particular character takes 76 damage per unarmed lunge in exchange for a position change that doesn't last long enough.

Intimidate is somewhat useful, though it hits me for about 115 damage per use and fails more than it succeeds. Given that Intimidate cuts the opponent's damage in half, it's somewhat insulting that I make up for that damage reduction in HAM costs.

Warcry hits me for around 200 last I checked. I don't even bother with it.

Berserk is about the only useful skill an unarmed brawler starts with. Even though it hits me for 160 damage, it usually ends the fight fast enough to make up for that. Still, if Berserk fails, I've just hit myself for 160 damage with no reward.

Stepping up to Intermediate Unarmed, things don't look much better. Unarmed Hit 1 does just under 40 damage to me per use. I happen to know from experience that a well-made ranged weapon will never do that much damage to its user. I'm already taking melee damage 100% of the time, so what gives here?

I dunno...it just seems like the brawlers are saddled with penalty after penalty. And I know from beta that these costs only get worse as you progress through the Unarmed and Teras Kasi trees. And heaven forbid you should try to equip Vibro Knucklers, which only shows that you're suicidal.

If you want cheap HAM costs you should have been a Marksman.

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DarksideBilly wrote:
If you want cheap HAM costs you should have been a Marksman.

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Thank you for proving my point.

actually, i think my dilemma is a little bit worse. i really have no interest in PVP at all, but even in PVE, ranged has tons of advantages. that's really ok, but brawler has no advantages of its own. it's like they heaped all of the disadvantages on melee and forgot to give some to ranged.

the problem is truly exacerbated for the novice brawler, whose starting tools are ridiculously expensive and totally ineffective (115 HAM points for a skill that fails 50% of the time? i think not!) the only decent skill a brawler starts with is berserk, and that one skill prevents the brawler from using any other special moves while it is in effect.

I agree with NinjaFish.

Marksmen have the advantage in almost every way, plus they can attack while running away as well. Even if you do manage to get close to lunge attack him, he can get up right away again and point blank burst you anyway.

I think Brawlers should either have their attack range increased, special move costs reduced, or special move effectiveness increased.

For now I'm making a hybrid Tera Kasi artist, hybrid master rifleman, and hoping SOE improves the special moves and advantages for brawlers in the future.

PVP wise, right now it seems to me like you're forced to use guns if you really want to win, and brawling is just for the style factor.

Now that I think about it, that's not entirely true: melee has one advantage, and one advantage only: it hits like a truck against someone with a gun equipped, and especially so against someone with a rifle. Then again, it also hits like a truck against itself...

/bump

You do not need guns to win in pvp. In fact most pvpers are melee stackers or pikeman/swordsman. Then you have your rifleman/cm. But here is some advice, get buffed and stack with other proffesions. You have 250 skill points use them.