Theory Crafting - Brawling (Psychic Stealth Fist)

[MoloMowChow]

With the new changes introduced to pugilism (those punching sounds are the best) and stealth I felt it was high time to started messing with my own builds and try making an adventurer that punches stuff with support from other trees, even if it isn't a super effective build. After screwing around with ideas all day I thought about making an adventurer centered around punching in stealth, using Psi abilities for support. Although I'm well aware that If I'm gonna build a character involving Willpower and Cunning that I might as well make a ranged psychic adventurer . And if I wanted to really make a brawler I'd just make a "Better Brawler" substituted by better melee talents from other melee trees.

I never tried making any builds of my own before and my knowledge is limited to following other people's guides and playing the game based around other builds. So what I put down here is probably bad, but I'd like to know what other people think about the idea of brawling adventurers.

First, here's the build I had in mind:

Class Talents

Technique / Pugilism
5/5/5/5
Can't be a brawler adventurer without this. From playing and reading about brawlers myself it seemed that they could be effective without relying on their combo points system. All the skills in pugilism seemed to be what made brawlers strong, but I'm not sure if maxing this tree is a good idea or could be better spent in a different category.

Technique / Unarmed Training
5/0/0/0
Only for unarmed mastery to make our fists actually do damage and support pugilism

Cunning / Stealth
5/5/1/5
The other tree involved in the core of this idea. I figured a stealth brawler could play very similar to a rogue (flurry = flurry of fists). And with different talent procs available on ego gloves it could be more interesting.

Psionic / Absorption
5/5/5/5
I thought this would be one of the best Psi support options for a brawler. But I'm also not sure if it's necessary if I'm running stealth in the same build anyways, and vice versa.

Psionic / Psi-fighting
1/5/0/0
Augmentation boosts Strength and Dexterity using Willpower and Cunning which are the stats I plan to max. Gloves use STR, DEX and CUN as damage modifiers, so I felt I could build CUN first for the stealth tree, then have augmentation to boost the dex necessary for getting pugilism skills.


General Skills
Combat / Training
5/0/0-5/0/0
Because thick skin is important along with CON I guess. Combat accuracy is a consideration too, I think.

Cunning / Scoundrel
1/1/5/0
It gives an mobility option without breaking our stealth. Important, I think. The sustain is a nice bonus too, I believe.

Technique / Conditioning
5/1/5/0
I think this is a good defensive tree for melee classes and may work well with absorption for protection, using this tree and recovery.

Psionic / Feedback
1/5/1/5
Another supportive recovery tree. Maybe I have too much support/defensive trees?

Psionic / Mentalism
1/1/1/1
I uh...couldn't think of anything else to spend generic points on, but this gives the ability to clear mental debuffs, immunize against them as well as go invisible+through walls, which I thought would work well with stealth and goes along with the Psychic Brawler mindset.

There are other things I hadn't completely thought through yet, such as prodigies should I get far enough (but probably Flexible Combat and Mental Tyranny).
Primary stats would be Cunning > Willpower = Dexterity => Constitution. The idea was to build Cunning up first to get Stealth up and running. But after I reached the point where Cunning would keep hitting the ceiling, the options were to put the extra points into Willpower to build up the absorption shield to at least level 2 each, or dexterity to build up pugilism talents for offense. It seemed this idea would end up with me relying on stat boosts from equipment a lot.
In the end, I wanted to max Cunning and Willpower, and only getting enough Dexterity (with equipment) to get all the pugilism talents to level 5 (requires 44 dex) before dumping the rest into Constitution.


Next I put it into practice (Normal difficulty). Here's what I did shortly after birthing my character:
I put 2 points into Dexterity first to get access to level 2 double strike, and from here on out I planned to dump all my stats into Cunning.
I got these unlocked trees and talents first:
Technique / Pugilism
2/0/0/0
Cunning / Stealth
1/0/0/0
Psionic / Absorption
1/0/0/0
Technique / Unarmed Training
0/0/0/0

Cunning / Scoundrel
1/0/0/0
Psionic / Feedback
1/0/0/0
Technique / Conditioning
1/0/0/0

From then on building Cunning to get stealth related skills (and unarmed mastery) up would be first priority.
I played as a Cornac so I started in Trollmire. It wasn't so bad at all, I didn't run into any unexpected elites or uniques and was able to take down the boss without trouble. I avoided Bill of course. Then I went to Norgos, all was fine until the last level I encountered 2 psionic rares, one mindlashing Bear and other a snake with kinetic shield. They double teamed me and I ended up dying. It seemed like it would be possible for it to get off the ground (probably not on Nightmare though...).

At this point I thought that while testing builds and stuff, it would be a good idea to consult the community as well to get their thoughts and ideas on my silly plans. This isn't really a super serious build or anything, just wanted to share my ideas and maybe discuss different adventurer theories (involving punching).

[Elroniel]

I'm not sure if you get the accuracy bonus from the item held in your psi slot .... but if you do, holding a staff there would be handy for the extra proc damage to your glove procs.

[Tharsonius]

theres already an addon class pretty close to ur adventurer build, in doctornull's class pack - the Transcendent Fist.

comes with pugilism/absorption etc but no stealth but has a pretty cool unique talent tree

didnt try it myself yet but thought about a possible build for it, and will state my first impressions on ur build:

u should give dexterity a higher priority, maybe even prime attribute - as the damage from ur striking stance scales with it. second would be cunning for me, or prime cunning until unarmed mastery is maxed and then dex.

for pugilism my personal preference is more like 5/4/2/1 and only put more if really needed (flurry of fists has a pretty big cooldown, and double strike is already at cooldown 2 with 4points in second talent pugilism the other two skills dont get major improvements, and u can still glitch 4 points to flurry of fists if u need it rarely for a tough boss)

stealth and absorption both require heavy investment so u wont have much points for offensive stuff left (stealth doesnt help in all situations from my experience)

well in general i think ure lacking 3 very important parts of a build: status attacks, (attack/global)speed buffs and decent mobility.

thats where it comes down to ur generics. nimble movements has a cooldown of 15 when maxed? i think theres really better options. if u dont want to go antimagic maybe u should try to get the spacetime weaving mobility tree from chronomancers?
im not sure about this one but i think stealth got changed so that instant stuff doesnt disrupt it any more, and dimensional step is instant.

i think the vitality category is also not optimal since ull only have 1.0 mastery and not much room to build con

well all in all if id build that one id put a little more offensive options. maybe sleep or some spells, just to have some possibilities if u run into a wall-type-mob. brawlers already have few active skills, and if u dont get finishing moves or some other attacks it will be even less. no way to deal stun/confuse/cripple ull be a autoattacking tanky brawler, managing ur health and positioning.