Brute Squad Guide
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Revision as of 16:48, 21 March 2008
NEWBIE BRUTE SQUAD ADVICE & SPOILERS
Joining Requirements: Neutral alignment, large size, and a shot of rumplemintz. You also need specialty degrees available for 4 points of charisma (2 carousing, 2 intimidation), 9 points of constitution (3 stamina, 3 recuperation, 3 hardiness), and 9 strength (3 brawling, 3 massive blow, 3 massive exertion). These numbers may be slightly inaccurate.
The advantage of the brute squad is that your entire guild experience is based around incredibly straightforward concepts. Here's a list of them for your consideration.
Race suggestions
Ogre - The ogre. Pretty much a synonym for 'brute', isn't it? At a glance the ogre has everything you're going to want out of a brute - huge size, high constitution, and possibly the best strength you can hope for before the lesser races. The downside is that's all the ogre gets. No night vision, no particular natural weaponry or armor, no desirable brute traits. A solid option, but it's worth to keep the disadvantages in mind.
Yeti - More decked out than the ogre. You're still getting high constitution, strength, and size. But you also get some nightvision as well as claws, which enhance your straight-up unarmed damage (it's worth noting that wielding unarmed weapons often means you sacrifice some of the 'unarmed' bonuses brutes get). In addition you get access to cold affinity, but this comes at the cost of a weakness to fire. And frankly, there's a lot more fire around Lost Souls than ice.
Minotaur - Smaller size and lesser con and strength, in exchange for well-rounded stats, superb (as opposed to excellent) natural weaponry, nightvision, as well as horns which can be used as an additional attack in combat. It's worth noting that well-rounded stats are far from a bane in the Brute Squad, due to the usefulness of many charisma, intelligence, and other non-brute stat specializations.
Sleestak - Smaller still in size. But the sleestak has some attractive features for a brute - fantastic strength and constitution, yet still well-rounded stats. Heavy natural armor, excellent natural weapons, night vision, regeneration, and (very low) limb regeneration. All that, plus an extra (unarmed) attack through the tail.
Dismember: This is more or less the center of your world as a brute - being able to rip limbs off enemies and staying in the fight while you do so.
ADVANTAGES - Obviously, ripping off the right limbs can make many creatures utterly incapable of attacking you. But that's not all: A removed limb could also lead to armor and equipment being torn away with it. Ever rip off the wing of a flying target in mid air? How about ripping the limb off someone wearing full body armor? Or yanking off the ring-hand of a Green Lantern or Ringwraith? And while specifically targetting a limb is rarely a completely reliable option, the fact that this move does not 'miss' makes it all the more dangerous. Finally, a target that is bleeding can be dismembered to perform a killing blow, and restore some of the brute's reserves in the process. The Brute Squad motto could well be: Easy to predict, hard to stop.
CONCERNS - Dismembering costs endurance to perform - and the stronger the target's limbs, the more endurance it costs to dismember. Against hardier targets, this means you can expect to run out of endurance (Against some ogres, I cannot completely dismember them even with 2000+ endurance and well over 200+ str) quickly. Think about beer will restore a nice chunk of endurance along with your health, but the delay can be a problem. Also, the lower your endurance, the lower your combat speed - so a brute is in the position of both wanting to spend endurance to dismember, and keep endurance to optimize their round-to-round fighting. Finally, dismember requires at least two working hands in order to use. This means that losing a hand can be downright fatal to a brute.
Remember that many creatures can still be a threat to you, even with every limb removed - breath weapons, spells, and so on can do some incredible damage all on their own. And really, once the limbs are removed, a brute's combat options are limited. All you can do is hope the damage will stack up from round to round, or hope the headbutts and elbow smashes will stun and harm enough to seal the deal.
Pump Up: Your only buff skill. And what a skill! This will boost your strength and constitution (and therefore your hit points and endurance). Its effects are enhanced by alcohol - and whenever you're attacking, you should be as drunk as possible anyway. As straightforward as it is, this ability has no real concerns to consider other than general needs to raise skills and stay plastered. You can also 'pump down' to remove the buff.
Headbutt: Once upon a time, a skill even more effective than the mighty dismember, changes have made this ability decidedly 'okay'. It can hit multiple body parts in a single strike, and the attack itself can hit hard.
Think about beer: The guild help files don't make this clear enough, so it's worth stating here: This command will provide a very nice body-wide heal, add a slight amount of inebriation, and restore a large chunk of endurance to the brute - but only if its use results in the brute saying "Mmm... beer." There's a delay between use, and its successful use seems linked to spirit in a way that is unclear. I've been reduced to 1 spirit through vlekthid attacks, and think about beer will still work. But I've also had 10 out of 140 spirit available, and then it does not - so it seems to be proportional more than anything. A staple ability right alongside dismember. Note that thinking about beer will not restore limbs.
Unarmed: Brutes gain particular advantages to unarmed combat, and frankly I (as a yeti) have gotten to level 35 with minimal hassle using my bare hands/claws. (I've also been running around naked most of that time, though as everyone will tell you, a parageos works wonders for brute success.) But there's one particular point to keep in mind: With some racial exceptions, you will only do out and out physical damage using your bare hands. While it goes without saying that certain creatures are weak to particular damage, ghosts in particular will not only take no damage from basic physical attacks - they also cannot have their limbs removed. I strongly advise looking around for weapons that do alternate damage types for use when fighting such targets.
When evaluating weapons, make good use of the commands:
show attacks show attack rating with [weapon] show damage rating with [weapon]
Note that you can do this with your hands/claws as well. What stands out is: Moving from bare hands to even unarmed weapons often means the removal of your brawling skill bonus. This can be a large chunk of your attacking rating, resulting in fewer hits.
Joinable Associations:
LDD: Joinable, and popular. Clears the route for a brute to wear the ever-desired parageos without needing a chaos amulet, and nowadays provides access to the chaos affinity skill needed to "keep" the item while logged out.
Hank's Garbage Dwarves: Joinable. At the very least, it provides rapid (if unpredictable) mobility between areas that have a trashcan. Not only is this somewhat convenient, but it can be a lifesaver if you need to get out of a town quickly - and best of all the command works off endurance. The rewards granted for gathering up garbage may well be desirable too.
Sanctuary Gods: All three are joinable by brutes. Of the three, Vashanka seems like the most obvious choice - a specialty point in courage and Brute-friendly joining requirements, in exchange for an amulet that minorly enhances dexterity, constitution, and strength. Jinx and Doppel are options, but require more consideration on the part of the brute.
Questors of Tyr: They consider brutes to be amoral, drunken thugs. Apparently the great deity of Justice prefers the forces of chaos with their limbs left on.
Brotherhood of Wine and Song: Drink-smuggling party animals with a tavern specialty? Sounds like a perfect match, right? Unfortunately, Danilo prefers his brothers pretty. Very pretty. While the benefits once inside seem good, most brutes will probably have difficulty passing the appearance test.
Weapons of Vengeance: A pain in the ass to get to and join, though very likely to be worth it based on the customization options and specialty accesses. At the very least, certainly brute joinable.
Cult of Agni: At the moment, this seems to do nothing more than provide specialty access to fire affinity. Could be worth it, since there's no lack of fire-using types around.
Fallen Blood of Chaos: This knowledge is the stuff of years-old memory, so it may be out of date and inaccurate even in recollection. Brutes may be able to join this, but I recall one effect of membership being unarmed damage turning into order-based damage. While fun, that practically requires the keeping of unarmed weapons, as I also recall running into many things which were strong or even immune against order.
Crafty Linguists: Assuming a reduction in price comes with the membership, this may be a good association to join just for the nigh-universal language training access alone. I don't recall their getting anything other than this, but I could be incorrect.
Followers of Apollo: Too many specialization points required to gain access to a guild that, at best, is going to compete with Eris/Hank for item sacrifices, grant a strength against light-related damage at the expense of far-more-common dark-related damage (I believe necromantic damage falls under this heading), and the use of a dazzle skill with spirit points that just about every brute will be sorely lacking. Best for the most well-rounded brutes only.
Almerian Inquisition: Considering the hit given to carousing, a core Brute skill, this seems to be off the table as far as joinability goes.
Ollin Tonatiuh: Let's hear it for the sun god, he's a real fun god! Wait, wrong guy. No information had at the moment.
Wandslingers: No information had at the moment. The likely SP-related requirements would indicate some brute difficulty.
Maidens of the Spear: There are female brutes? Where? Even if this association is joinable, the weapon restrictions (which happen to include most of the Brute 'best option' picks aside from unarmed) and the weapon focus make this one a bad choice at a glance. All that plus you lose access to a parageos, and instead have to make do with lighter armor in general. Finally, there's something clearly Freudian going on here.
Stalkers of the Gate: Likely Brute joinable. Vastly more certain mobility than Hank's Garbage Dwarves offers, likely easier to get into than the Brotherhood of Wine and Song, all for the cost of (unknown) specialization, neutral alignment, and a touchy good/evil artifact handling system. May require more SP than brutes typically have to make it worthwhile.
Servants of the Crystal Blades: A puzzle. On the downside, the normally unarmed-heavy brute would be forced to wield a weapon in combat at least some of the time. Worse, unless things have changed, these things simply do not rest - if you're online and in this association, you're either killing or being killed. On the other hand, the sheer amount of straight-up combat assistance these weapons offer are not to be refused lightly. The Weapons of Vengeance are probably more desirable overall, but 'A Brute with a crystal greataxe' is the sort of thought that makes me happy Lost Souls is PVP-light. At the moment.
Note to experienced brutes: This guide, with the association notes in particular, is vastly incomplete. If you can verify these associations are joinable or have input about their compatibility with the brutes, please add to this guide.
Categories: Spoilers | Guides | Guilds
