Brawler Archive

Introduction:

Hello, I’d like to introduce myself and give you a little bit about my background. As a MMORPG fan, I played EQ for over 4 years and made level 65 as an Iksar Monk, Halfling Druid and Troll Shadowknight. One of the things that is very important to me, is to have a class that is very playable, rewarding, is always welcome in a group, and delivers a good game play experience. I was in Beta3 for a good solid time, and had the opportunity and pleasure to see the Brawler profession develop as the game evolved.

Now I’m not a power gamer. I play 2-3 hours every other day or so (12 hours a week tops). I also like to maintain a certain level of being self sufficient. I enjoy solo aspects of this class, and I also enjoy grouping with my 6 real life friends that also play this game. I however am the only Brawler. In Beta I played every Brawler class to expert, and unarmed/polearm to their respective novice box in the elite tree.

Currently I’m a TKA student, with expert Polearm, advanced 1 hand and 2 hand, novice Carbineer, some Scout (working on Creature Handler) and some Medic thrown in for good measure. My characters name is Marshall Pat’richia and I play EST sometimes between 7pm and 11pm on the Gorath server.

Goals:

What I would really like to get, and I will need your help and cooperation as fellow Brawlers, is a good solid understanding about what it is being a Brawler means to you, and what can be done, to in a balanced way, enhance your game play experience, and the game play experience of those that are not Brawlers around you.

I expect from you to maintain a certain level of courtesy, respect and fellowship when talking about the issues we have as a class. I won’t tolerate rants, profanity, whines, disparaging comments about other players, or any other actions that are not conducive to an adult discussion. I understand that people can feel very passionate about their class, and take things very seriously. But I can only ask that you do your absolute best to make this as productive an experience as we can. The more cohesive we are as a group in getting across our issues and feelings, the more likely it is that we will receive positive response from the developers at Sony, who have so generously given us the opportunity to enhance and fine-tune the class and profession we love so much, the Brawler.

Going forward:

I have been asked to do what I can to answer the following question:

“What are the top 5 issues for each of the Brawler trees; Unarmed, 1 Handed, 2 Handed, and Polearm class.”.

And this is not an easy task. Varying opinions, game play styles, attitudes and a plethora of other concerns can pose to range these ideas across a gamet of possibilities.

So it at this time that I will ask the question that spawned the whole Brawler Correspondent idea. And before I ask this, I genuinely would request that you log off, sit back, and really think about the question before coming up with an emotional or frustrated answer.

Speaking for what you are, a Master (intended) Brawler, Unarmed Brawler, 1 Handed Brawler, 2 Handed Brawler, or Polearm Brawler, what are your top 5 concerns/issues?

To answer this question, please use the following template, and keep your post to only a few paragraphs. I do intend on reading each and every one, but those that choose to rant, flame or carry on will be skipped over. I want a constructive thread to come out of this, and I’m sure if you are as passionate about the Brawler as I am, you do to.

--------Start Template--------

Class: (Insert your class here. Unarmed, 1 hand, 2 hand, polearm, or all)

Race: (This is just to get an idea)

Name: (Please post your in game name. I may want to chat with you)

Server: (So I know where to find you if I want to chat)

Level: (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert)

Issue 1: (Succinctly and why)

Issue 2: (Succinctly and why)

Issue 3: (Succinctly and why)

Issue 4: (Succinctly and why)

Issue 5: (Succinctly and why)

--------End Template--------

In conclusion:

I will read these boards every day, and communicate with the developers once a week. The more focused we can put our attentions on the real issues, the quicker and more plentiful our rewards will be. I would truly like to see the Brawlers as the class people look towards when they speak about organization, camaraderie, unison, and dedication. Let’s make this experience as productive as we can to enhance and perpetuate everyone’s Star Wars Galaxies game play experience.

I will proudly represent you if you work with me for mutual goals, aims and an amazing game play experience in Star Wars Galaxies.

Regards,

Marshall Pat’richia

Gorath Server

Brawler Correspondent

hey, an EQer! heh what server did you play on? i did some beta on it, and played for about as long as you did, quit twice, last time the final i hope. heh my main was a Dark elf paladin, that shows you how oldschool i was ;P Tareww marr player here myself

anyway,

Class: All.. going for master brawler/and either fencher or swordsman, cant decide yet

Race: Human

Server: corbantus.. although since brawlers are so gimped ive been playing my wookie DE on Flurry lately

lvl: working on master 1h, expert everything else excpet for unarmed, only advanced on that. aslo have med scout and carbine skills

Issue 1: biggest to me at least covers all brawlers in general, not just one specific class.. our defensive bonuses are just too low. I get horribly chewed up in battle, its not even funny. My artisan friend tanked side by side with me and he did just as good as i did, i only lasted slightly longer because i had a larget ham cost, we were taking about the same ammount of dmg. thats just not right. we need significant boosts to our melee defensive bonuses

issue 2: this is a close tie with issue 1, our ham costs are far too high. it can be lowered with a good weapon, but overall they're much higher than marskmen costs, and coupled with their high failure rate *cough berserk, cough* are almost as big a threat to us as the mobs!

issue 3: can someone explain to me the reasoning behind giving us a negative to hit, even at our ideal range? At my ideal range im about as accurate as a fleeing marksman shooting over his shoulder. Does that sound right to you? i have a sword thats 7/7/7 and i always have a - modifier when im attacking. no matter where i am, even at the ideal 3 range.. which is impossible to maintain by the way, which brings me to issue 4

issue 4: too anoying to keep on fleeing enemies, /follow doesn't work too well, it keeps you too far away to attack, we need a /stick command or something that keeps you as close as possible, while your at it how about having lunge actually keep people down for more than 1/4 a combat turn. although id rather go swordsman i think im going fencer because they have the only usefull solution to this, dizzy/lunge. And on that note, why is it that a fleeing enemy can somehow punch us with his back to us from 30 feet away?

issue 5: this is mainly for the swordsman class, but kinda applies to all the others. its too hard to get weapons. This is mainly due to the messed up crafting charts for weaponsmiths. I refuse to use an axe (too ugly and clumsy! ;P) and am trying to get a cleaver but cant. The reason? Someone decided it was a good idea to put a cleaver, a lvl II weapon cert weapon for brawlers, as the last thing a friggin weapon smith gets. While a curved sword, a lvl IV weapon cert weapon the 2nd step in the weapon crafters tree! that makes no sense.

thats all i can think of, the first 2 and to a slightly lesser extent the 3rd one are my major concerns, the ones that made me stop playing my brawler for now.. well that coupled with the anoying stat loss bug that hits me EVERY time i get my wounds healed. kinda hard to play a brawler when your missing 300 str/con/hp because of a stupid bug, but thats a general gripe and not just for the brawler class ;P

^_^x KD

this forum really needs an edit button, in issue 1 it should say "i only lasted slightly longer because i had a larget ham bar" not cost =P

hey there ! and welcome to these forums.

i'm a tera kasi

human

Jenson brann

i'm on tarquinas

i'm a novice in tera kasi

1) it would be nice to be able to hit a specific pool (i know there's a branch in tera kasi that teachs it but its way too long to reach ! ) its a total joke, to beat a mob i need to be lucky and hope to hit the pool who is the lowest !

2) more melee defense bonus, we really need it ! we're being trashed here !

3) group xp compensation: we are the ones who are taking all the risks by going upclose to the mob and we are the ones taking all the damages while the marksman shoots from a safe distance and gets more exp because beserk doesn't work half the time (ughh!) so we should get xp from getting damaged (or something like that)

4) fleeing mobs ! this is so annoying !!!! when you are close to killing a mob and he starts running off, you go after him but you can't hit him until you stop walking (running) after him, but the mob mysteryously (and frustratingly) can hit you while you chase him.

5)more unarmed weapons !!!!! so far the onlyunarmed weapon is the vibro knuckles, whycan't we have more unarmed weapons ? sothat we can rival the damages that other profesion do.

to your #1.. thats kinda the downside to TK, the other ones all have a specific pool to hit, TK gets more special moves and other bonuses. i think giving it specified pools on top of that is quite unbalanced. if you want to pick specific pools go for master brawler and whip out the weapon you want to finish off a weak bar on someone

heh i think im gonna see a lot of people clamoring for your #2 though, thats by far the most glaring problem we have

^_^x KD

My character got deleted, so I wont bother posting his info (dont remember it all) I was going for TKA Master though and was already a novice

Issue #1. No working /stick command. Any time something moves, you suddenly get out of range, and stop attacking. Things still keep hitting you though, even with their back to you. Makes grouping with a marksman VERY hard.

Issue #2. Lack of any real "tanking" ability. HP doesnt go up as you get more powerful. Brawlers need a dramatic way of reducing damage, dodging damage, blocking damage, etc. The current dodge/block/toughness skills just dont cut it. Brawlers NEED to be able to stand Toe to Toe with harder things later in the game, not solo of course, but to be able to live long enough to keep aggro so the ENTIRE TEAM can kill the creature together. Instead, its usually: Brawler gets hit 3-4 times, dies, creatures gets kited around, slowly killing off the Marksmen and healers.

Issue #3. Compared to other classes, brawlers NEED a specific HAM attack, especially at low level. IE: Body shot for Pistol

Issue #4. HAM drain is WAY too high. Not just a little to high, INSANELY too high. Brawlers are supposed to be the masters of special and cool moves. Did Bruce Lee stop after 2 circle kicks and say "Aw no more, I cant take it anymore" I dont think so. Its silly how someone can spam their queue 100 times with body shot for a pistol and never run out of action, but a brawler uses one skill and gets hit for 150+ HAM drain. It REALLY needs to be the other way around. LOW ham drain for brawlers, HIGH ham drain for Marksmen. They have the advantage of range attacks.

Issue #5. Brawlers need an effective way to PvP vs Marksmen. Something like a "Leap" attack that gets them in close from 20 meters away. Basically, if Brawler doesnt start in melee range in PvP, he is dead vs a marksman. Thats just a poor system.

Having a correspondent for thevarious professions was the best idea I think the devs have come up with. I also want to embrace you with gratitude for taking up the daunting task and standing as spokesman of a very frustrated group of people. Let me get started.

Unarmed brawler/Scout/Medic

Zabrak

Oblio Ylione

Starsider

Teras Kasi Student

Issue 1: As a helper some other helpers and I like to take newbies out into the wild and teach hunting skills. Many times we go in groups. I am usually the only tank. Now that I've mastered Unarmed brawling it's getting embarrasing that I am the one dying the most, needing the most medical attention. Incapped the most. I've noticed that my punch is more powerful yet my defenses are no better than a newbie. I always seem to be the weakest. Although many times I am the most combatexperienced.

Issue 2: I stopped using berserk early on due to the fact that the HAM is too expensive. I stopped wearing armor nextbecause the HAM is too expensive. I put down the vibroblades at masterbecause the HAM is too expensive. And all I found out was that HAM is still too expensive. Icanincapfrom mind alone brawling one creature. Although I'm dishing out 400-600 in damage. Just doesn't seem balanced.

Issue 3: I have the hardest time targeting someone and sticking to them. We need some way to step on their feet and hold them in place.The creature or person can run and still do damage to me and I cant do anything about it. Even if I have enough strength to burst run I'm still getting damaged when the creature (or person) is almost 64m away. But I can always pull out my weak CDEF pistoland blow them away. That's unbalanced.

Issue 4: It seems we domost of the work in battle and only getting a fraction of the points a marksman gets. Usually it's half. Sometimes lower. When I am with more experienced groups we like to take on large reds and that's a lot of tanking. My xp will be good for brawling in general, but when the marksmen talk about their points it makes me mad. Especially if I'm pulling and tanking. Unbalanced. But don't get me wrong, it turns me on to pull and tank beasts some marksman are afraid to shoot with a rifle. I just want a share of the points.

Issue 5: We only have one special worth a darn (and it's not berserk) which isunarmed hit1,until Master brawler when we can attack 2 at a time. Unarmed brawling is a long tough tree to climb and I think it should be. That is why I picked it. I wanted to master something that was very difficult andonly the brave and persistant dareto climb. As I filled blocks, though, I didn't notice any difference until master unarmed. I can't figure out what stun and the other does because it hasn't worked for me therefore I don't use it. I keep going because of the promise of thegreat things I've heard about Teras Kasi in beta. I just hope I didn't work this hard and when I finally make it, TKA get's nerfed.

I guess that's it. I don't wish for brawling to be soft. I wish for unarmed to be the toughest combat skill to master. It probably is. These are just a few tweaks.

Oblio Ylione, concubineto Arkimus Dur

Oblio Industries "We can dig it."

Resource storegrand openning July 24. Coronet City, Corellia.

Class: Expert Polearm, Expert Unarmed, going for Master Brawler.

Race: Trandoshan

Name: Vovix Sibi on Wanderhome

1&2) What others said about defensive ability and HAM costs. Two biggest issues. We take so much damage we're killing ourselves using specials.

3)Combat queue functionality.It would be nice if I could specify a skill to be performed "as soon as the target is in range, or ASAP".Mainly, my problem is that when a mob runs away, and I've been targeting the action bar, when chasing them I also have to keep hitting the leg hit key to make sure I do that instead of a normal attack when I get in range (for close fights it's really important to not waste attacks, plus I seem to miss a lot). Same thing when I start with the carbine, and switch to polearm when the mob closes, I want to continue with the leg hits, not waste time with a normal attack, so I keep hitting the toolbar key until they get in range. Maybe something like having the queue skip anything that can't be done and to do whatever is next instead of just removing it, but keep it at the top to be performed ASAP. Just something to think about really, I can deal repeatedly hitting the button while chasing/waiting.

4) Targeting. I find it very difficult to choose the next target when being attacked by multiple mobs. I play in first person view, so I usually can't see all enemies on my screen, and tab doesn't help much, especially when there's a lot of things nearby. Maybe if the tab key worked by cycling when pressed rapidly, but if not pressed for a few seconds, next time when pressed it'll select the nearest enemy instead of just picking up where it left off. Again, the problem here is that I end up wasting time doing normal attacks instead of concentrating specials on the next enemy.

Minor things, but annoyances none the less. I think I'd be a better fighter if items 3 & 4 were done.

Hey, great to have you on as the Brawler correspondent

Character name: Speti

Class: Wookie

Server: Corbantis

Skills: Expert in Two-Handed Sword

1) My number one issue is my accuracy. I have a very large axe, but no matter how close or how far I get from my target, I am hitting at an accuracy of -18 at its lowest up to -50. This is insane. I am almost a a novice swordman and I can't hit my target, but I can pull out the pistol that I just learned to use and shoot stuff while kneeling at +30.

2) Once again, I must complain about the lack of a defensive bonus. As a wookie, I can't rely on armor to help me at all and yet I am going against creatures that can quickly take down my high health bars. There are numerous ways this can be fixed, but it does need to be fixed.

3) This is a complaint that I have been personally pushing on the boards for a while. The lack of decent melee weapons is astonishing. I can go on the bazaar and find almost every make of ranged weapons, but when I look for melee weapons, I am lucky if I can find a modded Heavy axe. There needs to be an incentive for crafters to make these items so that they can get out there and be used by the brawlers that need them.

4) Experience is my next issue. I have grouped all too many times where I am lying almost dead on the floor, gaining almost no experience and my rilfeman friend is sitting there with full health and almost twice the experience. If I am going to be hurt that bad in battle, I at least want the experience gain to match the risk I am taking.

5) My final complain is about the range issue. I decided to test this out and see how bad the range really is. I went out and was killing creatures up until the point they ran. I actually died in 8 out of the 10 incounters when the creature that was running could not be hit by me and killed, but could hit me without turning. This issue needs to be looked at.

It seems that there is a general theme running through all of the posts. I know that the developers will do all in their power to even out our class and fix some of the problems. Thanks for taking the time to work with us and relay the information to the developers.

I hope you are rigth Speti, that a general theme will emerge. If we are all together on a few issues, I'm sure that we can balance things out to improve the Brawler gameplay and SWG experience for all.

______________________________

Marshall Pat'richia

Gorath

Brawler Correspondent

Greetings,

Class: Unarmed

Race: Zabrak

Name: Merketh

Server: Chilastra

Level: Advanced

Issue1: I'm fairly new to this class, but already I can tell that as an unarmed fighter I do not dodge as much as I should considering my experience. As a matter of fact my quickness is all the way up and most creatures still hit faster and miss less than I do, even really easy ones. This seems a bit rediculous and leaves a brawlershorthanded in situations where groups of enemies gang up on them. Also in this catagory I would propose that some sort of defensive bonus was given to the brawlers also that adds an armor rating. This armor rating represents a combination of both dodging skill and overall tolerance to pain and an iron will to stay concious for longer. Instead of giving them a high health bar, give them an armor rating.

Issue2: Unarmed damage with no weapon is way too low. This raises as you go up in experience, but even the additional modifiers are a bit too low in my opinion. Your fists should be just as deadly, if not more, than a regular pistol, especially since you have to be within melee range to use them. I would love to play a brawler that didn't need vibroknucklers just to kill a few yellow creatures.

Issue3: HAM costs for using vibroknucklers are way too high, and in effect kill you worse than what your attacking. As has been said a million times already probably, fix this please.

Issue4: Constantly having to close in on your enemies should have its rewards as you get experience. Brawlers need some sort of speed modifier, which increases there speed as they gain experience, and I would even suggest this as a teras kasi artist skill as well. Ultimatly choosing the path of brawler should confer you with a more tone and effeciant body than the rest, so why do you still run as slow as an apprentice marksman? Also this could tie into burst running for longer periods as well.

Thank you for taking the time to look at these and I hope you change this class for the better.

Merketh

Good to have a spokesperson for us brawlers. Hope you realize that at the moment, you, the commando, droid and bio engineer's are going to be needing he most attention. Hope you speak the loudest, heh.

Class: Currently Advanced Two-Handed Defense Swordsman
TKA Novice and alot of other class mixes. Medic ect.

Race: Human

Name: Xiang Wei

Server: Starsider (A.K.A the red headed stepchild)

Issue 1: Basically the major problem is the fact that melee's don't attack, or stop attacking when a target that is 1m away from us starts moving. Also PC are able to change position after using lunge, especially ranged opponent's since they have this mental psyche that if they don't run from us they will die (which is true) and they automatically change position by pressing the forward, back, auto-run ect. keys.

Issue 2: HAM Costs are extremely high for our moves as compared to people using guns. Many times people wil lsay it is easier to pull the trigger on a gun as guns don't way as heavy as a sword. Hate to break news to them, but battle ready swords in real life way no more than 3 pounds. Anything over that is merely for decoration. Anyway, try and get our HAM costs toned down.

Issue 3: Lack of melee defenses. For the love of GOD, how in the world did the dev's think a melee class would survive without decent melee defense. I am not talking about the melee defense skill because from what I can tell, it is broken.

Melee Toughness does not decrease the amount of damage we take by much. I still get hit for the same amount by kreetles when I was a novice brawler.

Now let's take a look at riflemen and pistolers, they have block and dodge skills. Um, correct me if I am wrong but wouldn't it seem like common sense to grant these skills to melee classes? I mean when people fight with fists, there is blocking, parrying, and dodging out the ying-yang as you don't want to be hit. Speaking of which, what type of game has no parrying ability for melee classes? Really poor thinking by the devs.

Issue 4: This mainly deals with the Two-Handed Class. The Power Hammer, our supposed advanced weaponry, is seriously underpowered. Merchant is one of the best melee weapon crafters on Starsider. Both weapons listed below I bought from him. (Katana = Two-Handed Curved Sword)

Power Hammer 87-216 Damage 6.3 Speed

Katana 80-236 Damage 2.7 Speed (2.0 Sliced)

Now in this game currently, speed is king. IF you want people to consider even buying the Power Hammer you will need to increase it's base damage by 30% to match the horrific speed it has. OR!!! Decrease it's speed to 4.0 and increase it's base damage by 20%.

class: unarmed brawler
race: human
name: Ryuen
server: Chilastra
level: expert

issue 1: not being able to hit while running: this is very annoying, ranged professions can attack while running and so should brawlers if we are in our range of attack

issue 2: not being able to attack a single ham bar: effectively having to kill creatures nearly 2.5 or 3 times is not fun at all, not only does it add to the time we take to kill it but it also means more wounds and battle fatigue than any other class out there.

issue 3: high HAM cost for specials: this is in line with my issue 2, if I can't attack a specific HAM bar then at least make sure I can use more specials than a class that can

issue 4: defensive bonusses: tied in with issues 1 and 2, we take a lot of wounds be it because we are kited or a longer than needed period in melee combat, therefore I believe defensive bonuses would help us quite a bit to stay in good fighting shape for longer

issue 5: melee range chance to hit modifier: I allways have to deal with a negative modifier when in combat. This should be fixed as it makes no sense to me, I mean I am toe to toe with the mob and I get a negative modifier to hit?