Brigand Guide

[Grenrick]

 

1. General information on class:
   Brigands are crafty rogues who employ intimidation and force to subdue their enemies. The Brigand maintains an element of unpredictability to arouse discomfort, fear, and confusion in an opponent. Strikes from a Brigand will often leave a foe crippled and vulnerable to further attacks. Basically a Brigand debuffs bring a ton to any group or raid. A Brigand will also remain standing while others fall because of some nice survivability abilities they have. If you want to play a high DPS toon that brings a ton of good things to the table, play a Brigand.

 

2. Why pick your class over another
   Brigands are very fun to play. Part tank, part scout all Debuff. Our cousins the swashy debuff offensive skills, where the Brigands debuff defensive skills. We are the best defensive debuffers in the game hands down. Just about any raid force wants one, if not two Brigands. While we might not match the DPS of rangers, or wizards or higher DPS's toons we can hold our own. It does not matter if its a single target mob, or an AoE fight we can bring the smack down. While we do not have a true hate transfer, we can spec for a temp one that will allow us to unload our DPS. This is raid wide. Also we bring a total of 9.5% Max Health reduction

 

3. AA choice and why - with screen shots 
     Link to spec for --> click Holybrig:

Rogue AA

So much to talk about in this line. Remember we are one of the best defensive debuffers.

Decreases Ability Recovery Speed by 82.5, Decreases Casting Speed by 41.2. Does a little damage

Decreases Ability Reuse Speed by 50%, Descrease Potency by 5%. Does a little damage

Get Boot Dagger to go into stealth for your stealth attack

Dance of Metal will be one of your highest DPS abilities.

All other abilities help in some way. But ones above should be picked.

Brigand AA

A few must haves. NOTE the Enhanced: Cheap Shot will NOT help against epic targets and I took it just for heroic runs.

Enhance: Amazing Reflexes: 38% of the time when you use a combat art you will get AoE avoidance for 5.6 seconds. (extra .6 thanks to Tunure)

Tenure: With this your Double Up ability will last for 6.7 seconds. Double Up our biggest damage dealing ability.

Honor Among Thieves: I consider this my power regen ability. With mobs hitting harder and harder you do have to be careful using it. But used correctly and you will never have to worry about power

: Save house. Cast it on the ground, or on a healer. Death save, but leaves you will very little hit points.

Debilitation Strikes: This will reduce the mobs max health by 2.5% (MUST HAVE). This is a must have for any Brig that wants to raid. If you do not pick this you might as well go back to solo zones because it is that much of a disservice to your raid members.

Cornered: This is an AoE dispatch that does a lot of damage.

 

Shadows AA

 

We have some good things here, but points can be better used in other lines. Thus minimum points are spent here. Yes, you want the end lines and Dispatch be better.

Remember Double Up will not only double the damage of Evasive Maneuvers, but also the Threat position. So you will drop 2.

Heroic AA

The first 2 lines are up on the air. I decided to go with more health, and Crit Bonus. My Reuse is easy to max now.

Enhance: Thieving Essence will give you and your group not only more ability modifier (not a big deal) but also 7.5 more Potency for your group. And it Decrease Potency of target by 7.5%. You can maintain this on the mob at all times. (thanks Jam)

Perfect Form: .24 more auto-attack Multiplier.

  Duelist's Perception: IF you are having hate issues, and only if you are having hate issues, this is your biggest bang for the buck. IF you are not I would put them in Expertise for more potency as above. There are items that can drop your hate.

Change of Engagement: This does 2 things depending upon where you are standing. Them most import thing is 4% Max Health reduction of the mob. This makes 6.5% with Debilitation Strikes. This is a must have for any Brig that wants to raid. (MUST HAVE)If you do not pick this you might as well go back to solo zones because it is that must of a disservice to your raid members.

Sunder: Typically #1 on my parse. If anyone in the group or raid hits the mob you have a chance to get credit for damage being inflicted.

Dragon AA

or

The Dozekar's Essence and Awakened Dragon Scales are ok, but nothing I would spend any points on. We get our main benefit from the other 2 lines. Honest you can go either way on these two. I went more for Dragonwrath side because it helps everything I do and then I switched to get the POT benefit when I chain all my big hits together.

Prestige

For the longest time I went down the left hand side. But Blinding Dust is just to nice with the damage it puts out and the GROUP Cover Darkness ability. If used correctly you can be your groups AoE blocker on every single AoE that goes off. Cover Darkness last for 8.4 seconds (thanks to Tunar) and prevents AoE damage to your group. It comes back in 30 seconds. You just have to think a little bit in order to time this correctly. Double Up also effects the Damage of Blinding Dust. How would you like to be on top of the parse during AoE fights?

Highwayman's Advance: Typically one of the top 4 DPS abilities we have.

Exacting Venom: Typically high on the DPS parse.

Mercy or Anger: Use it! This is our Hate transfer to a tank. Burn this on pull or when ever the tank needs aggro help. You transfer 50% of your hate to the target. This is RAID wide. On the other side of the coin if you put this on a non tank, it will reduce that persons damage by 58%, total of 3 attacks and last 16.8 seconds. Want to help keep your healer alive? Want to help yourself stay alive? Use it! Honestly we don't need it for ourselves, we have Amazing Reflexes, but think, where can you use this to help the most. Again RAID wide ability that comes back in 60 seconds and last 16.8 seconds.

Class Focus

OK, if you want to put points in Thieves Guild to help casting speed you can.  Black Jack and Debilitate reduce the reuse (useless) but also the damage of those abilities. I don't think its worth giving up anything to give some one 10% more casting speed.

 

4. Spells/combat arts discussion, basics on your stuff.

Snaps

What are we tanks? Well believe it or not, we do have   Shenanigans. Threat increase by 2. I personally do not ever use this. And can cause issues if used incorrectly.

AoE combat arts

 We only have 3... but wow are they nice (well 2 of them anyway, both from AA lines)

(REMEMBER on AoE fights, Double Up these combat arts and they will hit twice)

  Cornered first. Massive Blue Debuff, and hit

Blinding Dust with 3 points in Poisoned Powder means this ability hits 4 times up to 8 mobs with double up that's 8 times

Barroom Negotiation. Nothing to write home about. About 1/2 the damage of Cornered, but still if you are hitting 8 mobs and doubling it up, its worth it.

Single Target Attacks.

We have a number of them. List here More important is the casting order in which they are used.

 

5. Hot bar setup - with screen shots

 

6. Group buffs and individual buffs and why you use them where.

 

Self Buffs

Evasiveness: (Rogue AA INT line). I spent 7 points here to get the 10.5% hate reduction

Amazing Reflexes: What makes a Brigand a Brigand. Keeps the AoE protection up just about all the time.

Street Smarts: More health, STA, Mist, AGI, and Base Avoidance. We are as tough as nails

Lunge Reversal: Small Damage proc

  Exacting Venom: Typically high on the DPS parse.

Befuddle: With Focus points reduces hate gain by 10% (that's 20.5% so far)

Daring Advance: This is our offensive stance. More Slashing, Crushing, etc and with AA Decreases Hate Gain by 20% (total 40.5%). This should be enough to keep you out of trouble in most groups.

Havoc's Treachery: This is our mythical. 30% more damage to our big single target hits: Murderoush Rake, Dispatch, Debilitate and Backstab. Also improves our debuffs by 10%, and has a damage proc/ DPS proc for us.

Thief's Prowess: Small chance to proc Threat priority descrease (AA)

 

Buffs I put on people Thieves Guild: Always put this on a fast hitting tank or scout. Guardian, Zerker, swashy, monk, bruiser would be my first choices. This will only trigger on Combat Arts.

: Save house. Cast it on the ground, or on a healer.

 

7. Pre pull buffs

  Ruthless Cunning: More Multi Attack by 48.8, last 1 minute 8 seconds. Not a big deal

Deceit: More Attack speed by 44.2, last 1 minute 8 seconds. Not a big deal

8. Casting order, combat arts/spells, temp buffs, and why.-

--Bow: After pre pull buffs I will typically use my Bow/Ranged weapon followed up by Double Blast. This is our one and only range attack

Now the casting order for awesomeness:

Hold Up: Has a small range and Debuffs single mob by 3633 Elemental Damage

Mercy or Anger (AA) depending upon if the tank needs more aggro or a squishy needs a hand.

Lucky Break and Mug via Macro. Lucky Break is our Heroic Opportunity, and Mug Decreases Deflection-62, AGI-145.2 and Defense-54.6

(NOTE: None of the top 3 combat arts do any damage, this should give the tank time to get mob set)

Thieving Essence: Give you and your group not only more ability modifier (not a big deal) but also 7.5 more Potency for your group. And it Decrease Potency of target by 7.5%. Which means anything following is going to hit harder.

Battery and Assault: increase your accuracy by 8%, and does damage. This accuracy bonus can be maintained at all times.

Band of Thugs. Massive Damage to mob. This is our "pets". Long recast.

Dance of Metal (AA): If you hit up to 8 times, this combat art hits harder each time. You have 11.2 seconds to get 8 combat arts in. Recast 60 seconds.

Double Up. Recast 30 seconds, last 6.7 seconds. Any combat art that you do during this time recast it's self. Also, make sure this is mastered.

Sunder (AA): Recast 60 seconds. Remember if any of your group or raid members hit, you have a chance to proc damage that gets credit to you.

Dispatch: Massive Mit debuff by 9024! And with the Prestige line of Low Blow it will hit twice... and with Double up running it will hit 4 times. BAM!

 (Now, if it is a group of mobs I will cast Cornered (recast 30 seconds), Blinding Dust (Recast 30 seconds) and Barroom Negotiation (recast 15 seconds. IF single target I will skip Barroom Negotiation and go to....:

Sinister Strike: With Low Blow this hits twice, with Double up running this hits 4 times. Also debuffs mob 1254 vs physical. (Recast 60 seconds). This is our biggest single target hit.

Debilitate: With Low Blow this hits twice, with Double up running this hits 4 times. And Debuffs mob by 4147 vs Physical. (Recast 30 seconds)

  Murderous Rake: with Low blow this hits twice, with Double Up running this hits 4 times. Also debuffs vs all but Pysical by 4095. (Recast 30 seconds)

By this time your Double Up is about to end. I will try to put in Evasive Maneuvers so I can get the Threat priority 2. And its a good hit to double up. Recast 30 seconds. Why am I including the recast time of all of these abilities? Because in 30 seconds you should repeat this casting order.

IF you look at my casting bar I will then follow up with whats in order.

Dragonwrath, Change of Engagement, Evade, Puncture, Backstab, Shank, Walk the Plank, Desperate Thrust, Will to survive, Bum Rush, Stunning Vlow, Boot Dagger (stealth), Rob (needs to be in stealth), Black Jack (has a chance to reset Mercy or Anger), Deft Disarm, Traumatic Swipe, Torporous Strike. Gouge does not get used that often because you have to be in front or beside the mob.

NOTE: IF its a nasty mob, I will start with Traumatic Swipe, and Torporous Strike and maintain these on the mob.

 

9. Oh no buttons, when things go bad.

 Evac

10. Gear choices

This was a hard one. For the new ToV Arcane/Potent gear I am going to go with 5 items with Pot/Crit bonus and the rest with DPS/Weapon Damage.   This seems to be a good balance. I focused on getting Reuse to 100% first and meeting the min for everything else. Most of our damage comes from our abilities but Auto attacks do help a ton.

 

11. Adornment choices

White:

Crit chance to what you need to do the zone

AGI Astral Adornment where I can

DPS on Chest, Neck, and Waist

Other white I got just to top off any ability that need a few extra points.

 

Purple.

Mostly DPS , and AoE . I would put priority in DPS. 

12. Deity/other items (mana stone, etc)

I went with Zek

Mana stone of course, Steward's Cloak of Eternity, cure pots,

 

13. Macros you use

 See above

 

14. Useful tools you use (outside of game) - including download links

DragowulfUI SpellTimer is a must have for me. To me having this, ACT, and Raid hub are must haves.

 

15. Videos of your character doing his/her job

 Coming soon

 

BIG!!! Thanks to Ferk and Jam for catching somethings that I have adjusted. I changed this post based upon some of there comments below.

 

[Jazzalyn]

A whole guild just for brigands???

 

^_~

 

Excited to see it.

 

-L

[Grenrick]

It was a long night :)~

[Grenrick]

Updated!

[Pattywak]

Hey Holy, as I like to know as much as I can about the scout classes, I have a few questions for you.

You seem to put a lot of points towards hate drops and -hate AAs. I was wondering if they were really needed. There's a neck piece that's pretty easy to get with -50 on it, you can adorn pretty easily for -hate, plus with the 50% transfer, I wouldn't think you'd need all those points towards it when you could use them elsewhere. I know in the past Brigs would have some agro issues, but I thought those would have been fixed with their new tools.

My other question is why you feel Potency gear is better than WDB. From what I've read in playing the Swashy, the WDB is far better for scouts. Even with the great returns on Swashy AoEs, the Potency gear just isn't worth it over the huge boosts that WDB give to your auto attacks.

[Grenrick]

Great points! I have not been lucky enough to find one of those -40 hate items. But yes if I did I would not need extra points in -hate. I would spend some more in the dragon line.

as noted above:

(Duelist's Perception: IF you are having hate issues, this is your biggest bang for the buck. IF you are not I would put them in Expertise for more potency)

For the 2nd point I am finding a 1/3 (auto attack) to 2/3 (combat art) split with my DPS. One I get the DPS skills (600 DPS, 200 haste, 125 multi), I was going to focus on Pot and Crit bonus. Looking at Yab's setup I notice he is running a 2/5 split with gear also. 2 auto attack set and 5 Pot/Crit bonus.

What about you other scouts?

 

[Pattywak]

Here is a parse of the last time I was on a raid (Last Wednesday). Of my top 8 parsing items the largest is my auto attack at 40%, the next 7 (totaling 29%) are 3 item procs (13%), 1 ability proc (5%), and 3 AoEs (11%). Potency does not affect the item procs, it only affects abilities. That leaves 4 of them to be affected by Potency. So more than 50% is not affected and less than50% is affected by my Potency. I say less than 50% because on top of it adding up to less than 50%, as I look, many of the items are other people's procs (Blade Chime, Piece of Mind, Windblade, etc) on me which are affected by their Potency, not mine.

Also, looking at Holybrig's stats, since he is at 400 DPS (I noticed he's still wearing less gear than our minimum requirements where our raiding Brigs should have mostly Potent+gems at this point and should be well over the 600 soft cap) so for now his abilities will be doing a larger % of his damage compared to someone with capped+ DPS mod. Capt is sitting at 835 DPS (758% harder hits compared to 400%) so the WDB boost is going to be exponentially more because my autoattack is hitting harder to start. WDB also applies to MA and Flurry, so the higher your MA and your Flurry are, the more WDB will do.

Here is a link to my Dragon Armory (so you can see my WDB since EQ2u doesn't show it): http://www.dragonsarmory.com/character/463858640538

 

[Grenrick]

I am picking up what you are putting down my friend. I have no doubt your numbers are 100% correct. And on Wednesday you were rocking the parse, up with the rangers!

Also, please don't think I am using Holybrig's numbers. He just got some upgrades last night but he is not on par with raid toons. The numbers I am using come from Athena and Isthisme and past raids with holybrig.

Here is the main reason why I think POT/Crit Bonus is more important than going over on DPS, Haste, etc

Low Blow, Blinding Dust (Poisoning Powder) and Double up.

With this AA choice I hit 4 times with Dispatch, Debilitate, Murderous Rake, etc

With this AA choice I hit 8 times with Blinding Dust, 2 times with cornered, etc

So I will get more bang for the buck from my combat arts then my cousin the swashbuckler.

With casting and recovery max that would be .5 seconds or under to cast my single target stuff. I have 6.7 seconds of double up. I can fit a ton of combat arts into this time frame. If I did nothing but single target attacks I can double up 14  (.5 X 14 = 7 seconds) of my combat arts within this time frame. I of course will double up my Blue AoE's which take a little more time to cast, but not much.

For the Brigand, I strongly believe POT is more important.

 

Maybe.. just maybe I can talk Liepha into letting me bring Holybrig on an easy raid on Wednesday to compare?

[Mermut]

Now that I've finally finished the warden guide I've been looking at my briggy more closely and I've got some questions about some of your AA choices. I'm hoping to better understand your choices to help my own decisions.

Brigand page:
Enhance cheap shot: not useful in raids, is it helpful in grouping?
Enhance: Defensive Poisons: since this expac is all about debuffs that make the mob's do less damage, why not 5 pts?
Enhance: Street Smarts: Resists on gear are in the 10s of thousands, this only provides a couple hundred...
Enhance: Gouge: This only works NOT from behind. Why spend points on a rarely used ability (in raid situations).
Advanced Strike: 5pts in this doubles the damage of the brigs automatic damage proc when behind mobs.. why not take it?

Shadows:
You've got 5 pts in Enhance: Sinister Strike, but you've got nearly 100% reuse, so those AA do nothing

Heroic:
Since potency is harder to get this expac, wouldn't it make more sense to put 10 into potency rather then crit bonus on the 2nd row?

Dragon:
In the gear section (and your discussion with Ferk) you stress the importance of potency on the brig, might the dragon claws line (the 3rd one) be a better choice then? To hit the potency buff right before the double up chain?

[Grenrick]

Enhance cheap shot: not useful in raids, is it helpful in grouping?

Correct. I link it in my chain to lock mobs down. I agree not helpful in raids. I will make a not of that in the guide.

Enhance: Defensive Poisons: since this expac is all about debuffs that make the mob's do less damage, why not 5 pts?

I will adjust this also, cheap shot is not going to help in raids so points can be spent better.

Enhance: Street Smarts: Resists on gear are in the 10s of thousands, this only provides a couple hundred...

And.. why am I not spending more points for Enhanced: Murderous Rake. That would help the wizards. Has this always been on this page? Adjusting.

Enhance: Gouge: This only works NOT from behind. Why spend points on a rarely used ability (in raid situations).

Mainly because there was nothing better to spend the points on. Let me adjust this, based upon your great ideas!

Shadows:
You've got 5 pts in Enhance: Sinister Strike, but you've got nearly 100% reuse, so those AA do nothing

I am wasting points here! Great catch, adjusting.

Heroic:
Since potency is harder to get this expac, wouldn't it make more sense to put 10 into potency rather then crit bonus on the 2nd row?

Crit bonus effects combat arts and auto attacks, so I would rather spend points here... but Captjak brought up some great points about maybe not needing as much hate reduction. I a I am going to adjust a few more things based upon his recommendations.

Dragon:
In the gear section (and your discussion with Ferk) you stress the importance of potency on the brig, might the dragon claws line (the 3rd one) be a better choice then? To hit the potency buff right before the double up chain?

humm.. wonder if I can same some points in other areas and get both of these end lines.. the 3rd and 4th.

Brig guide will be updated shortly.

[Grenrick]

BIG!!! Thanks to Ferk and Jam for catching somethings that I have adjusted. I changed this post based upon some of there comments.

[hypozeuxis]

Pattywak wrote:

... affected by my Potency. I say less than 50% because on top of it adding up to less than 50%, as I look, many of the items are other people's procs (Blade Chime, Piece of Mind, Windblade, etc) on me which are affected by their Potency, not mine.

Looking at a recent parse, Peace of Mind averages a different amount for each person in the group, which strongly implies that it is your Potency, Crit Bonus, etc -  not the caster's - which affects how much it procs for.

Because Victorious Concerto is charged up by the bard and then released, everyone in the group gets the exact same hits per fight, change in average depends on how many times individual toons hit during individual VC releases.  Item procs are mostly not affected by Potency, Crit Bonus, etc.

Example: Accursed Sanctum (Sunday 2014-02-23, after reset and starting again), Group 2 (Liepha, Jamisia, Hypo, Mezeri, Captjak, Zictorb) - Median hit by group proc in k

Character	Peace of Mind	Stampede	Windblade	Blade Chime
Liepha	108	178	81	27
Jamisia	109	179	81	28
Hypozeuxis	111	189	84	29
Mezeri	111	194	88	29
Captjak	112	192	86	30
Zictorb	105	175	79	27

[Jazzalyn]

hypozeuxis wrote:

Pattywak wrote: ... affected by my Potency. I say less than 50% because on top of it adding up to less than 50%, as I look, many of the items are other people's procs (Blade Chime, Piece of Mind, Windblade, etc) on me which are affected by their Potency, not mine. Looking at a recent parse, Peace of Mind averages a different amount for each person in the group, which strongly implies that it is your Potency, Crit Bonus, etc -  not the caster's - which affects how much it procs for. Because Victorious Concerto is charged up by the bard and then released, everyone in the group gets the exact same hits per fight, change in average depends on how many times individual toons hit during individual VC releases.  Item procs are mostly not affected by Potency, Crit Bonus, etc. Example: Accursed Sanctum (Sunday 2014-02-23, after reset and starting again), Group 2 (Liepha, Jamisia, Hypo, Mezeri, Captjak, Zictorb) - Median hit by group proc in k Character Peace of Mind Stampede Windblade Blade Chime Liepha 108 178 81 27 Jamisia 109 179 81 28 Hypozeuxis 111 189 84 29 Mezeri 111 194 88 29 Captjak 112 192 86 30 Zictorb 105 175 79 27

This is interesting. Because I was closest, I compared my and Zictorb's CB and Pot (atleast as they appear on u.eq2 now)

Liepha: CB - 477.8  Pot - 270

Zictorb: CB - 497.5 Pot - 320.6

 

I wonder if I had that many procs going off to increase my stats, since his CB and Pot are higher than mine, or if my spell damage bonus on damage really makes that big of a difference to make up for the missing CB/Pot - or if something else is in play here.

[hypozeuxis]

I don't know what actually affects these, although it could have been that the zone-wide medians were a bit off because of the number of hits in specific fights.  For example, even though VC procs for the exact same amount for everyone in the group, Hypo's zone-wide average was higher than Jam's (by a significant amount) because Hypo had more hits during the fight with the 845k VC than the 200k VC, probably due to luck with AE melee or combat art at just the right moments.

[Mermut]

I specced into dragon claws on the dragon AA page... hitting that before my double-up chain is huge. I even managed to beat Capt on the parse.... well on boss fights with just a single mob