Any brawlers/bruisers/monks out there?...

[Lonewolf_19]

Quick and simple question... my friend and co-adventurer has decided to become a brawler. Are there any advantage in attacking with fists as opposed to duel-wield hammers, maces, etc.? It seems fists are doing much less damage but it seemed ridiculous to have a brawler attacking with two hammers?

[Laffs]

My friend also is a Brawler, The fist wrap type weapons have a low damage output... So with me having a toon that is a weaponsmith I decided to make her a whole range of weapons and go on a killing spree with her lol...

The result was we found that maces seem to be about the best allround choice.... But it still depends on what it is your trying to kill.... I find myself carrying at least 3 types of weapons all the time and switch out if one type aint working well... That just what I found

[Jerhico]

Is he going Bruiser or Monk?

Fact is, weapons are nearly always better than fists, and by a large margin. Bare fists are not even dual-wield weapons and count as a one-handed attack.

The debate will end for him when he reaches level 20 anyway, as his class weapon (if he's a monk) will be Makato's Bo Staff of Striking.

Bruisers have an advantage using fist-based weapons (fistwraps) at later levels since they have some fist-specific buffs. Monks do equally well with fist, staff, hammer, mace, or flail-based weapons.

The general consensus is that there is no real advantage to dual-wielding as it does not affect weapon proc rate with it's faster hits, but does increase riposte chance, particularly if tanking.

A high Damage Rating staff is a good choice, and if he goes dual-wield, he's better off grabbing what he enjoys.

Fistwraps can be purchased fairly cheap from the broker or even an NPC seller in the city of his alignment. Fistwraps turn fists into dual-wield and there's no graphic for them, so they appear to be bare fists. (They used to look like oven mitts).

Crafted weapons of a given tier and of like quality all have near identical damage ratings and do approixmately the same amount of damage over time. Thus, crafted fistwraps, cestii, spiked cestus, fighting batons, quarterstaves, bo staves, knuckles, maces, hammers, and flails do not have an advantage over one another besides stats and delay-affected riposte rate.

[Kamintar]

I'm a 32 Monk ATM, and my current weapon set up are two handcrafted Batons. I like batons, because they attack fast, and they do decent damage, which means you can attack during the recast period. I normally get off one-two attack between each of my abilities, and that's when I recast as much as I can.

Really, it doesn't matter what you use. It all depends on your playstyle if you get handcrafted weapons. If you like High Damage, High Delay, go for the cestii. If you like the opposite, go for fistwraps or batons. Those are 1.4-1.5 delay. Dual Wielding allows you to attack twice, and have the possibility of 2, 1, or 0 hitting. However, if you have a dual hander, you only attack and have a 50% chance of hitting, lowering your DPS if you miss often.

However, once you reach the higher levels, there are some very nice 2 handed staves out there that any Monk or Bruiser would enjoy. For instance, I have a Branch of the Treefolke waiting for me in my bank for when I hit 35, which is 20-100 some odd damage and 1.7 delay. Very nice weapon for someone, especially with the added AGI and STR bonuses. I don't tank often, but I find if you use dual weilders, you do get to riposte more (Like Jerhico said), and that increases your chance.

Another thing, if you guys decide to go Monk subclass, once you hit 32, you get a nice Haste (especially if you upgrade - at 32, I got App4 and does 29% haste - Add that with Alacrity and you're ready to go ), so you can afford to use those high damage high delay weapons if you want. Not sure if the bruisers have a similar haste spell or not, so I won't assume they do.

[Lonewolf_19]

Thanks guys... I'll relay the suggestions to my friend.

[Nitefang]

just saw this - so I'll add my 2 coppers - my main is a 35 monk, and I have so far only used a 2hb weapon - its a bit slower than going with dual wepons but I like the damage output of the staff weapons - plus the "cool factor" of the staff fighting animations - I just think they look better lol -

it really does boil down to personal choice as far as I can tell - there's not a real big difference for me so far - that could change as I enter the upper end of the game - but so far I've not been impressed with the dual weild weapons I've seen.