Why Brawler?

[Murtanion]

Out of curiosity from the community perspective, why play the brawler?

I am a melee/dwarf fan, so on paper the brawler seems right up my alley. From what I have seen on BR the whole class seems half baked with no real class direction. I understand that the class is either tank, or DPS but what does it bring to the class table? If I bring another class I get reveal weakness, telling Mark, etc.

Other than a few fancy new animations built around the fervor/champ mechanics what are we looking at?

[Joedangod]

I like the general gameplay loop of building and maintaining 3 tiered buffs via the set-up/spender combo.

Also fond of the more western take on unarmed combat. Definitely a breath of fresh air from all the "monk"-style things you typically get.

[Heno08]

While we will have to wait until release to actually find out, nothing I have seen on the class mechanics would lead me to believe that it is "half-baked"; the gameplay seems fun and the class does have its own buffs it can share with a group.

Honestly, I will be playing this just to try out something new and different, been a while since we had a new class in this game and I imagine that it will be better balanced than some of the older ones.

[Oelle]

Its new. I'd play anything new... Want to start a fresh toon one day and all other classes are already highlevel.

[Seregthol]

Out of curiosity from the community perspective, why play the brawler?

Because they haven't added leprechauns and unicorns for a price....yet.

[Treadstone87]

I'm having some trouble figuring out the point of the class myself, from a gameplay perspective at least. I don't have an issue with the lore, and I think the concept is visually interesting, but as of the last preview on Bullroarer their DPS is really disappointing. I haven't heard much about the tanking specialization. I play solo 99% of the time so unless Blue Line turns out to be a solo god like Beorning or Guardian, or Red Line gets a last-minute DPS buff, I'm probably going to pass on the class for now.

[Murtanion]

While we will have to wait until release to actually find out, nothing I have seen on the class mechanics would lead me to believe that it is "half-baked"; the gameplay seems fun and the class does have its own buffs it can share with a group.

I would strongly advise you to look at the BR feedback on Brawler. There are so many bugs and even the skills and combos that work as intended offer little to no value. The class is a sub-par Tank, a vastly sub-par DPS class, and doesn't offer a 3rd trait tree/role.

It really seems like SSG wrote down all the unique class mechanics or "bonuses" and then tried to shoehorn them onto skills that don't make sense to pair with. I really can't wrap my head around this class. Additionally I can't really find a reason anyone would bring a brawler to a group or raid.

Do we have to wait the 2~ (?) years it took them to get Beorning to a viable state? Someone sell me on this...

[Pontin_Finnberry]

and doesn't offer a 3rd trait tree/role.

There is a third trait tree, just you don't spec to that tree, you spec to either Red or blue and can spend points in Yellow which only cost 1 trait point, this is intended, and I see nothing wrong with a new class being different with traits then other classes, so I wouldn't call it half baked.

[Wyllshire]

...so I wouldn't call it half baked.

Calling the Brawler class "half baked" is an insult to baking.

[Harvain]

Calling the Brawler class "half baked" is an insult to baking.

Yes, it's more like shaping pottery, except without a ghost to help

[wrath247]

I'm having some trouble figuring out the point of the class myself, from a gameplay perspective at least. I don't have an issue with the lore, and I think the concept is visually interesting, but as of the last preview on Bullroarer their DPS is really disappointing. I haven't heard much about the tanking specialization. I play solo 99% of the time so unless Blue Line turns out to be a solo god like Beorning or Guardian, or Red Line gets a last-minute DPS buff, I'm probably going to pass on the class for now.

Honest, same question tho.

Cos while I'm all for adding new classes, I'm not entirely sure what dps niche the brawler fulfills.

So far the dps classes tended to fill a diff dps playstyle at the most so smth like:

Champ: aoe skills

Captain: self-buffs and group buffs and enemy debuffs

Guardian: bleeds

Warden: DOT, and lots of it

Brawler i'm assuming falls under burst dps?? Would anyone who's tested the br be able to answer this.

[Joedangod]

Cos while I'm all for adding new classes, I'm not entirely sure what dps niche the brawler fulfills.

Those aren't really DPS "niches", that's just how they deal their damage, which is somewhat irrelevant outside of how it influences their gameplay. Red RK's/Red Wardens both focus on stacking multiple DoT effects on a target but that similarity doesn't make either redundant, they each offer very different ways to play.

That's kind of the key here; Brawler doesn't have to do anything unique, it just has to feel unique. The Set-up/Spender combo system combined with the tiering buffs leads to a conceptually interesting rotation of managing buffs and mixing up comboes. Actual tuning and how that functions right now is a bit wonky but that's why we need to give feedback on Bullroarer.

The more ways we have to play the same game, the better.

[Murtanion]

The more ways we have to play the same game, the better.

Normally I would agree. At the moment 10 classes exist. 30 possible trait lines. Very few of those are functional, much less optimized or balanced.

Feedback is worthless when they don't have the man power to act on it and just bull rush on to the next cash grab.

[wrath247]

Those aren't really DPS "niches", that's just how they deal their damage, which is somewhat irrelevant outside of how it influences their gameplay. Red RK's/Red Wardens both focus on stacking multiple DoT effects on a target but that similarity doesn't make either redundant, they each offer very different ways to play.

That's kind of the key here; Brawler doesn't have to do anything unique, it just has to feel unique. The Set-up/Spender combo system combined with the tiering buffs leads to a conceptually interesting rotation of managing buffs and mixing up comboes. Actual tuning and how that functions right now is a bit wonky but that's why we need to give feedback on Bullroarer.

The more ways we have to play the same game, the better.

Good point, and does eliminate the mindset of just sticking to x class for y role; or at the very least lessens it.

Although, can we please get more classes for the light and medium armor sets

[Cambruyn]

Out of curiosity from the community perspective, why play the brawler?

I am a melee/dwarf fan, so on paper the brawler seems right up my alley. From what I have seen on BR the whole class seems half baked with no real class direction. I understand that the class is either tank, or DPS but what does it bring to the class table? If I bring another class I get reveal weakness, telling Mark, etc.

Other than a few fancy new animations built around the fervor/champ mechanics what are we looking at?

A better question would be why not? It could have literally been anything to take our mind of the horrible class and trait imbalances and poor class design in general.

Sorry, I'm sure Raninia is doing the best he can, but the guy in charge of class balance? He's been sound asleep for years. I sincerely hope class balance and design was not his only job, for they're a failure of epic proportions. A third of them works.. well, if you would consider guards being equal to cappies etc. Another 3rd is considered niche and the final third is just absolutely useless in absolutely every situation. That right there is terrible class design.

So again.. why not brawler. It'll have you reroll and forget that blue line hunter is useless, as is blue line burg, as is blue line champ, flash of light is still vastin underwhelming on a class that has literally little to no use at all, ...
So yes, Brawler. It could have been 'eagle', but they struggled too much with the animations. Could've been ent, but the outfitting system bugged out. So yeah, brawler.

[Cambruyn]

The more ways we have to play the same game, the better.

And how many ways to play the game have you? yet another class with with one decent tree, one niche and one useless one. Oh, I guess someone in the class balance department woke up and realized 3 trait trees is far too much work, they'll settle for 2 trees on the latest one with some optional skills from the third tree instead.

Sorry, yes, I'm bitter. The game is doing good I think, but it's just so damn boring as hell and I blame the class design guy. Every trait tree plays and feels the same, it doesn't affect the class in a meaningful manner. Yes it'll make your LM pet stronger in one tree, your debuffs and group utility better in yellow and your 'dps' better in red. But you're still pushing the same buttons, still refreshing the same skills and still responding to the same events. And you're doing it with one tree which 'works', one which is niche and one which doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever. That guy should get his s**t together and start making meaningful changes to classes to bring them into the year 2021. What we have is beyond abysmal and a new class isn't going to fill the void so many classes experience. We're all playing the exact same type of cappie, the exact same type of hunter, the exact same type of champ. Oh wait, currently, champs don't even serve a purpose according to the latest parses on BR.

So yeah, yey Brawler!

/salty, sorry. They can add a class, but can't even fix Flash of Light or the Burglar HoT or... or... or..

[Treadstone87]

Honest, same question tho.

Cos while I'm all for adding new classes, I'm not entirely sure what dps niche the brawler fulfills.

So far the dps classes tended to fill a diff dps playstyle at the most so smth like:

Champ: aoe skills

Captain: self-buffs and group buffs and enemy debuffs

Guardian: bleeds

Warden: DOT, and lots of it

Brawler i'm assuming falls under burst dps?? Would anyone who's tested the br be able to answer this.

From what I've been reading on the Bullroarer forum and various discord servers, it seems like the intent might be for Red Brawler to be like Red Captain - low DPS for a red line specialization, but compensated for by powerful buffs to the rest of their fellowship. Which I find quite weird.

There's been less discussion about Blue Brawler but they appear to have very good defenses, but very little in the way of self-healing, so they're not even going to be particularly good at soloing difficult content.

The class's appeal really does seem to be limited to "kill things by punching them instead of striking them with a weapon!"

[DavidmeetHal]

Calling the Brawler class "half baked" is an insult to baking.

I cannot stop laughing. Well said sir, well said.


To answer the OP, I'll play it because it comes with the xpac, but from a gameplay point of view, it seems to me that all the class roles have been filled for sometime now. I honestly do not see a gamewise practical reason for a brawler.

Lorewise, it really does not bother me in the least.

To be honest though, I'm glad we had a brawler rather then a Dunadain, which some fanatical in the suggestion forums were really pushing for a while back.

[Kaeneth]

Well here's something nice I can say about brawler- there's now finally a melee class dwarves can use that don't give them slower animations than men and elves.

[Loox]

I would strongly advise you to look at the BR feedback on Brawler. There are so many bugs and even the skills and combos that work as intended offer little to no value. The class is a sub-par Tank, a vastly sub-par DPS class, and doesn't offer a 3rd trait tree/role.

It really seems like SSG wrote down all the unique class mechanics or "bonuses" and then tried to shoehorn them onto skills that don't make sense to pair with. I really can't wrap my head around this class. Additionally I can't really find a reason anyone would bring a brawler to a group or raid.

Do we have to wait the 2~ (?) years it took them to get Beorning to a viable state? Someone sell me on this...

If Brawler goes down the same path Beorning, they'll be a healer.

[Treadstone87]

If Brawler goes down the same path Beorning, they'll be a healer.

"Inspire your allies with your really hard punches! Give them the will to carry on by pummeling oliphaunts into submission!

Restore your fellowship's morale as they proverbially feast upon your banquet of knuckle sandwiches!"

[CaerArianrhod]

Out of curiosity from the community perspective, why play the brawler?

Well ... why not. Having the same fun as with the Beorning for many years until it will be a usable class. ;-)

[Radhruin_EU]

If Brawler goes down the same path Beorning, they'll be a healer.

The beatings will continue until morale improves!