Everquest 2 - Overview Of The Bruiser Character Class In Everquest 2

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Bruisers make music too: “Crunch! Crack! Snap!”

Bruisers are nasty classes that use their fists to turn their enemies into quivering piles of jelly. If you like the idea of playing a brutal mobster-like character that breaks bones for fun, the bruiser just might be for you! They can tank, but their main focus is on doing damage with their brutal unarmed attacks. It helps to have multiple gear sets lying around for your bruiser if you want to get the most out of them - they rely heavily on strength to do damage, and agility to increase their avoidance. Like the monk, they can only wear leather armor. For those nervous that the class might be too similar to the monk, don’t be - they have a very different set of impressive animations to their abilities, and they’re more focused on doing heavy damage over debuffing. They often use hand wraps, staffs and bos to do their dirty work.

Some of their abilities, like Fierce Punch, knocks an enemy to the ground, stunning them and interrupting their spell casting. Jolting Fists enables the bruiser to unleash magical damage on their next five attacks. They also have a similar line of skills that gives them access to fire damage as well. Their Meteor Punch ability does lots of fire damage and costs health instead of power. Skill lines like Ignore Hurt allow the bruiser to replenish some of their lost health. Also, like the monk, the bruiser can use their Stop Heart ability to play dead, allowing them to drop threat when needed. Skills like the Hundred Hand Punch unleash a combo chain of attacks that keeps hitting until an attack misses. Their Eye Gouge ability decreases the accuracy of their opponent while doing some damage - ouch!

Bruisers don’t make good main tanks in raiding, as they lose much of their avoidance ability, which is what their chief tanking ability is all about. As a lot of bruiser tank gear stacks agility to improve their avoidance, this makes that role problematic - it’s generally best for a bruiser to stick to pummeling things until they fall over. Bruisers make for good soloers, but they work best in groups, even if it’s only a small one for additional healing. They can do as much damage dual wielding as they can with two handed weapons - or unarmed. Overall, it’s a versatile fighter with very high damage potential and decent utility, and their feign death helps to make them one of the more survivable damage dealing classes.

This post is part of the series: Everquest 2 Character Class Guides

A collection of articles detailing the many classes in Everquest 2.

  1. Everquest 2 - Class Overview
  2. Everquest 2 - Berserker
  3. Everquest 2 - Brigand
  4. Everquest 2 - Bruiser
  5. Everquest 2 - Coercer
  6. Everquest 2 - Fury
  7. Everquest 2 - Guardian
  8. Everquest 2 - Illusionist
  9. Everquest 2 - Inquisitor
  10. Everquest 2 - Monk
  11. Everquest 2 - Mystic
  12. Everquest 2 - Necromancer
  13. Everquest 2 - Paladin
  14. Everquest 2 - Ranger
  15. Everquest 2 - Shadowknight
  16. Everquest 2 - Swashbuckler
  17. Everquest 2 - Templar
  18. Everquest 2 - Warlock
  19. Everquest 2 - Wizard