Bruisers- what's the point?

GFunk

Is anyone using bruisers at higher levels?
I'm lvl 29 now, base team is 2 hunters 1 shooter. Im starting Episode 11. Have a couple low level epic bruisers, but I'm wondering whether it's even worth it to upgrade these guys, not seeing how they are effective at higher levels. Anyone using them at higher levels? Are they worth the slots?

AysatyoPet

Hahahaha! Ask @Cateye .. he spawn level 30+ walker using bruisers.

Shenon

Yes.

Having one highlvl Bruiser will help on missions like S.W.A.T for example. So they have their uses, but arent normally a part of your 'normal' setup

Cateye

Hey.. Bruiser is my mainstay and he's invincible one on one.. The prob with an all ranged team is walker reinforcements, especially so for higher recommended level missions, a balanced approach would be hunter, warrior, bruiser.. Definitely worth upgrading.. Ditch those scouts and assaults instead!

Necron99

Oh hell yes! I don't use the bruiser in the middle rounds, but once the Gas hits 9 and up; I usually use him. The reason I use him: well, he's a Legenary first off, but mainly because when your up against Level 16 walkers, you need his charge ability, cuz you can stun a while wall of walkers for 2 turns, and run like hell, cuz you can't kill 10 level 16 walkers!

Necron99

Although I ditch the "Bruiser" on Big walker levels, cuz he can't stun those! I'll use the scout instead. Cuz mine with her charge ability, can kill a level 15 big! Hope that helps somebody?

Headhunter

Bruisers are indispensable for marathon farming sessions. In fact, I find them so useful, I usually go in with two of them.

Once you get past lv 20 zombies, your only hope of killing these zombies is to stun them first.

You also need bruisers to keep everyone safe as any lv 20+ zombie hit on you will automatically enter into a struggle.

Once you get past lv 30, any zombie hit will kill you after a very short struggle.

The advantage a bruiser has over the assault survivor is his ability to stun for two rounds if he has a weapon with the concussion trait, and not attracting more zombies with every attack. Once you start getting lv 20+ zombie reinforcements, you really don't want more than two entering the map at a time.

Felecia

@Headhunter - very helpful! Same for you @Necron99

Ceszar

I made this video a month ago, at the time many people thought the Bruiser as useless, I proved to everyone that they are a great class.
Bruisers are playmekers, not killers.
Note 1: Sorry for the repetitive song
Note 2: At this time if you were attacked, regardless of the amount of damage you take, you lost one star.

zoson

Level 10 hunter will one shot level 13 zombies. This video doesn't prove anything other than they're viable at +3.

Ceszar

zoson said:

Level 10 hunter will one shot level 13 zombies. This video doesn't prove anything other than they're viable at +3.

Again you? Dude, get out of my ass. They started at lvl13 and at the end were at lvl16, you can kill hordes of zombies 6+ when you are cornered?
Man, at the time I posted this video for the first time you came to talk shit and did not prove that you could do the same using Hunters.
Again, out of my ass!

zoson

Ceszar said:

zoson said:

Level 10 hunter will one shot level 13 zombies. This video doesn't prove anything other than they're viable at +3.

Again you? Dude, get out of my ass. They started at lvl13 and at the end were at lvl16, you can kill hordes of zombies 6+ when you are cornered?
Man, at the time I posted this video for the first time you came to talk shit and did not prove that you could do the same using Hunters.
Again, out of my ass!

There are videos on my youtube showing me killing many more than this with my hunters up to +9. I prove more things definitively on this forum than anyone else. You have yet to prove a single thing about anything.

Ceszar

You proved nothing, you was envious when I started posting videos here, you came to harass me, soon you started making videos as well, all because of jealousy, the big difference is that I do not go in your posts harass you, so stop following me, stop being envious, I have no fault to be best player then you, to get more stars and have a better placed clan than yours, just deal with it and stop following me!

jureforjustice

Bruisers are not really efficient in the current stages because all the walkers are pretty much easy to kill. The walker's HP is low enough that you don't need to utilize bruisers, just hunters to AoE down all the walkers. However, once you reach the 3 or 4 lvl higher than survivor levels mark, then their stun is very useful. It always guarantees a critical, unless your survivor is 5 levels lower than the walker's level then it is always body shots <- I really wish this 5 lvl = body shots limit is removed... It practically puts a limit to how high you as a player can go with your skills as a player because your survivors are no longer able to land crits normally.

Clearly, it's not a matter of "bruisers are useless," it's a matter of, "the walker's HP is too low, why bother with a bruisers if your lvl 12 hunters can one or two shot four lvl 13 walkers without criticals?" It's just that fact. If the walker's HP increases, THEN we will see bruisers are needed, but now... They're only used for hurdling walkers that are 3 levels higher (when walker HP needs the bruiser to come in).

PS: if NG is reading this, please stop "adding more walker swarms" or "improved walker swarm locations" to levels, but increase HP of walkers, or else nerf the damage of hunters.

Putchuco

I agree with the usefulness of bruisers on some higher lvls, eg SWAT. Also agree that hunters are too overpowered, or melee too underpowered. Also would like to see the 100% body shot rule go away, we could really test our abilities on higher lvls in the weekly challenge. Maybe if we considered adding a multi-target overwatch ability to bruisers, we would consider using them more.

_sheilador

My default team is two hunters and a bruiser, but my guys are still around lvl 8-9 and I need the smash charge if I get surrounded (don't want to spawn new walkers by shooting at them). I've been avoiding the shooter class but have seen some advantages, especially with the multi charge, so my team will probably evolve soon.

Headhunter

_sheilador said:

My default team is two hunters and a bruiser, but my guys are still around lvl 8-9 and I need the smash charge if I get surrounded (don't want to spawn new walkers by shooting at them). I've been avoiding the shooter class but have seen some advantages, especially with the multi charge, so my team will probably evolve soon.

Yes you should try using a 2 hunters and 1 shooter team. Like you, I was reluctant to start using shooters, but they are a natural complement to the hunters. This is now my standard team I use on a majority of my missions.

PapaSmurf

The problem I see with the bruisers is the stun ability only comes with a charge, meaning you have to kill 2 zombies. How do you do this with high level zombies?

The class I think is the most useless is the scout. Can only engage one zombie at a time; and must be next to it. I just tried a mission with level 11 scout and 2 level 11 bruisers; and came away with only 1 start. Same mission with 2 hunters and a warrior or bruiser and I get 3 stars. Can anyone tell me when a scout would be useful?

The assault class I haven't quite concluded to be useless. It does have issues with higher level zombies.

For me, best combos include hunters, shooters and warriors.
Thoughts?

AysatyoPet

Scout is good if he got a good weapon with gold swift strike.. it gives him a chance to attack twice in 1 turn. I think any class is only as good as the weapon they wield..

zbot

AysatyoPet said:

Scout is good if he got a good weapon with gold swift strike.. it gives him a chance to attack twice in 1 turn. I think any class is only as good as the weapon they wield..

@AysatyoPet. agreed weapons make a big difference! As well as strategy, I play the overwatch shuffle and it nets me 160+ stars with my lower level guys. It involves 2-3 weapons with 100% interrupt, minimum 2 being ranged, luring out one or two walker at a time while advancing.

[Deleted User]

Scouts one charge ability will nearly take down a level 13-14 tank walker pulling 8-900 up out of them leaving them easily killed by anyone else. Range seems to only take about half of that meaning it takes 3 shots instead of 2.

Necroboogie

Lol think the argument is settled by the challenge exploit thread...

Headhunter

For me, bruisers only become a regular part of my mission team when I start getting zombies about two levels higher than my survivors, and my hunters and shooters are unable to one shot kill them.

After I reach the higher mission levels, my team always has at least one bruiser and a scout. Scouts are a natural complement to the bruisers, as they are the best at dispatching stunned zombies quickly and silently.

Dread

@Headhunter

Agreed.
although I usually use a warrior over a scout since they do high damage, aoe, and their charge ability does more damage, even to a single target.

They really need to make scouts....scoutier... to increase their value a bit.

Headhunter

@Dread Interesting that your warrior does more damage than your scout. For me it isn't even close. Charged or not charged, my scout does WAY more damage to a single target than my warrior.

In fact, once the zombies are two levels higher than my warrior, she isn't able to one slice kill them anymore. So not only do I bench my range killing team, I also find myself putting my warrior in reserve too most of the time in the higher mission levels.

Only my scout can still one hit kill zombies three levels higher than my survivors.

Dread

@Headhunter

Well my warrior is better geared than my best scout, but the reason the warrior charge does more damage with it's charge is because i can slice them twice.
2 slices (one being a crit every time) from the warrior does more damage than 1 brain stab.

Headhunter

Dread said:

Well my warrior is better geared than my best scout, but the reason the warrior charge does more damage with it's charge is because i can slice them twice.
2 slices (one being a crit every time) from the warrior does more damage than 1 brain stab.

I don't believe that you're guaranteed a critical hit with the warrior's charge ability. I think only the hunter's, shooter's, and scout's charge abilities guarantee you a critical hit.

I spent much of yesterday accessing the warrior vs scout abilities in various scenarios used in conjunction with the bruisers. In killing a zombie four levels higher than my warrior, I ended up with two consecutive body shots when I used my warrior's charge ability. Each time, I had to use my scout to finish off the zombie that my warrior couldn't kill.

My scout can at least overcome the body shot penalty, when the brain stab ability is used on the high level zombies.

So all things being equal in my experience, the scout is superior to the warrior in attacking a single high level target.

Dread

Headhunter said:

Dread said:

Well my warrior is better geared than my best scout, but the reason the warrior charge does more damage with it's charge is because i can slice them twice.
2 slices (one being a crit every time) from the warrior does more damage than 1 brain stab.

I don't believe that you're guaranteed a critical hit with the warrior's charge ability. I think only the hunter's, shooter's, and scout's charge abilities guarantee you a critical hit.

I spent much of yesterday accessing the warrior vs scout abilities in various scenarios used in conjunction with the bruisers. In killing a zombie four levels higher than my warrior, I ended up with two consecutive body shots when I used my warrior's charge ability. Each time, I had to use my scout to finish off the zombie that my warrior couldn't kill.

My scout can at least overcome the body shot penalty, when the brain stab ability is used on the high level zombies.

So all things being equal in my experience, the scout is superior to the warrior in attacking a single high level target.

Interesting.
I have not done extensive testing like you say you have, so I guess it just comes down to the superior stats and gear my warrior has over my scouts.
I recall getting crits all (or most) of the time, even on higher level walkers... perhaps brainstab is immune to body shots (which really makes sense)
Also, I really love the aoe interrupt she can pull of when they start surrounding her... not to mention retaliate, but that isn't really relevant higher up .

However, another thing the warrior has going against it in that regard is it takes 3 kills to charge rather than 2 from the scout, so the scout wins there too when they are so high.

I have a new shiney 5* baton for my scout that I plan to level once my training ground has finished upgrading. I'm sure that will make all the difference in the world and ultimately shake up my high level star grinding team.

Thanks for the input!

Headhunter

Dread said:

I have a new shiney 5* baton for my scout that I plan to level once my training ground has finished upgrading. I'm sure that will make all the difference in the world and ultimately shake up my high level star grinding team.

Congrats on your new toy! I've always wondered how one brain stabs with a police baton. It must be truly painful

I'd be curious to know if you're scout becomes more useful to you in the higher levels. Good luck in the next challenge!

Necroboogie

Umm??? Need bruisers for lvl 20+ really depends on the mission. That was just with one hunter on deadly

Sdot

Answer is......none