Brawling

Brawling is the new avatar combat skill line, which arrives in 1.13. Like the Black Powder line, it can be learned by characters of any fighting school, and used with any weapon equipped.

The central mechanic of the line is the Brawling Combo. By using preparatory skills, you can stack up to four levels of Brawling Combo effects on your target. These effects have a minor reduction to your target’s defense, but their real purpose is for use with finishing moves.

Finishing moves remove the stack of Brawling Combo effects, and replace them with a debuff with a duration based on the number of effects in the removed stack.

Brawling skills deal damage based on your main-hand weapon, but generally do somewhat less damage than actual weapon skills. However, Brawling skills can never be parried; only Dodge is effective as a defense against them.

Jab
ATTACK.
Cost: 0 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: -60%. Cannot be parried. Target gains Combo (6s).
Combo: -2% damage resistance, -3% dodge; this effect stacks up to 4 times.

Jab is free, which accounts for its extremely low damage. Its primary use is to apply the Combo effect. Because all the skills that apply this effect have an 8 second reset time, and the effect itself will expire after only 6 seconds, this skill remains an important part of maintaining your Combo stacks.

Cross
ATTACK.
Cost: 20 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: -20%. Cannot be parried. Target gains Combo (6s).
Combo: -2% damage resistance, -3% dodge; this effect stacks up to 4 times.

Cross is functionally the same as Jab, only with an Initiative cost and higher damage. Early in your Brawling career, you’ll alternate Jab and Cross to keep your Combo stacks up. Because it can’t be parried, it remains a useful damage-dealing skill even at high levels.

Stomp
DEBUFF.
Cost: 10 Initiative
Single target
Target gains Crippled (8s).
Crippled: -50% movement speed

Stomp is mainly useful in PvP, where it works as a quick unavoidable snare. Because it’s not technically an attack, it’s a guaranteed way to slow down an opponent. If you have the cooldowns to spare, it can also be used in PvE to break off a tough opponent from a larger group of grunts.

Block
BUFF.
Cost: 20 Initiative
You gain Stun Immunity (15s).
Stun Immunity: The Stunned effect cannot be applied to you.

Block will help you to avoid a Roundhouse you know is on the way, but is also a generally useful defense against any stun-heavy build. It lasts for 15 seconds and can’t be used while you’re already stunned, so you’ll need to anticipate the incoming stun to get the most use out of this.

Uppercut
ATTACK.
Cost: 30 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Cannot be parried. If target has any Combo effects, all Combo effects are removed and target gains Broken Defense. Broken Defense lasts 6s per Combo effect removed.
Broken Defense: -20% damage reduction

Uppercut is the first of the finishing moves. Use it to follow up a series of quick Jabs and Crosses, and then follow up with either more Brawling or your high-damage sword and gun skills. Penalties to damage reduction work even if the target has no DR; they just make the target take even more damage than they would have otherwise.

Hook
ATTACK.
Cost: 40 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Cannot be parried; dodge is only 60% effective against this attack. Target gains Combo (6s).
Combo: -2% damage resistance, -3% dodge; this effect stacks up to 4 times.

Hook is the final preparatory attack in the Brawling line. It has higher damage than Cross, and is more accurate. If you have the available Initiative, Hook and Cross is the most effective Combo builder available; if not, an occasional Jab will keep your Initiative up. Use Hook when your Combo stack is running down and you absolutely need to get a hit in to keep it from expiring.

Knee
ATTACK.
Cost: 40 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Cannot be parried. If target is Stunned, target loses Stunned and gains Weakened, Shaken and Off-Balance (12s).

Kneeing someone in their sensitive areas is a tough trick to pull off in the heat of a fight, but will certainly shut them down for quite a while. This maneuver can be used in combination with any skill line’s Stun effects, but is intended for use with the following skill, Roundhouse.

Roundhouse
ATTACK.
Cost: 60 Initiative
AOE 180 degree arc
Damage: +60%. Cannot be parried. If target has any Combo effects, all Combo effect are removed and target gains Stunned. Stunned lasts 2s per Combo effect removed.
Stunned: Cannot move, attack, use skills, dodge or parry. Any damage inflicted on this target will break the stun.

The second finishing move, Roundhouse, is the largest AOE stun skill available in the game, with a full 180 degrees of stun. In order to make best use of it, you’ll need to spread your Combo effects to multiple arcs around you. Combined with the Knee skill, you can incapacitate half your enemies, seriously debuff the other half, and turn a desperate fight into an easy one.