Bruiser
Battle Bracers Build
The Bruiser build is focused on mobility, damage, and strong outplay potential with multiple interrupts and disables available. It’s a high skill floor but high skill ceiling build, with the ability to develop high mechanical skill with the build. Technical, paced gameplay with the ability to beat your opponents through superior gameplay. If you want a challenge, but a build that gives you the ability to take on multiple opponents at once then give the Bruiser build a go.
Very different to usual melee builds in Albion you are not trying to brawl trading hit for hit. You have high mobility, and the warglove damage is typically more combination based. Use that mobility to move in and out as you deal damage, use those interrupts on your Q and W spells to stop and casts or channels. Ambush can buy you time to get your cooldowns back up and come out with more damage. This build may take some time to learn, but it is very strong in the right hands.
Dragon Leap: Dragon Leap is a two part spell, the first part offers you a short mobility kick that does damage in a close area around you, the second part gives you the ability to chain another mobility that will perform an uppercut, damaging and knocking up all enemies in the immediate area. Interrupting any spellcasting or channels. For the most part, just use the first part for good damage with auto attacks, and only use the second part when you need either the mobility or interrupt.
Triple Kick: As the name suggest, triple kick lets you kick three times in the targeted direction dealing damage to all enemies on the way, and will carry the closest opponent with you to your final destination. This is not only a great mobility, but is also another interrupt. It’s real value though is the displacement. Whilst traveling with you, your opponent is unable to perform an action, so it can be a great way of shutting down the damage of your target.
Falcon Smash: A great all round skill, offering damage, mobility, and a great defensive. When cast you will hover for a moment, whilst in this state you are immune to all crowd control, so you can use it to avoid being stunned or knocked back. Whilst in the air you have the option to crash back down at your targeted location, dealing damage over a wide area. The damage is the most at the center for the smash, with the outer edge of the AOE doing less damage.
Equipment abilities
Fiend Cowl
On a build with such high mobility, being able to purge someone else’s really puts you in control of the fight. Alternatively, should they have some strong sustain, damage bonuses or invulnerability, it can be a great choice to purge these effects off to stay competitive in the fight. Should you get in a fight with multiple opponents, or a very aggressive melee, the knockback on the Forcefield skill also offered by the cowl can be a great choice to switch to, enabling you to keep opponents at bay whilst you wait for your next cooldown.
Assassin Jacket
Damage, defense, and escape potential all tied up in one jacket. Hiding in ambush will slowly build up damage stacks on yourself, allowing you to come out of it with Falcon smash to really get some damage down, but you can also use it to hide from opponents when you don't want to get hit by something, or even just to buy some time for your spells to be back off cooldown. You can even use it to escape a fight, hiding until any sources of damage over time have timed out on you, allowing you to activate your shoes, drink your invisibility potion, and run.
Hunter Shoes
The Hunter shoes offer a very quick sprint, allowing you to close distances fast, or flee opponents or spells you don’t want to be around. These shoes help you close distance on mounts quick, or get in range of someone you need to purge before their shoes carry them to safety. If you are going to get into a tough fight however, it might be best to swap to refreshing sprint for better uptime on your abilities.
Undead Cape
With this build holding so much mobility, and the crowd control immunity on the Falcon Smash jump, you become near impossible to kill with an undead cape. When your undead cape is about to activate, use the Falcon Smash to rise up and become immune to CC to ensure you can't be locked down, then dash away to safety.
none
Passives
Hard to catch not only provides you with some damage resistances, but also a huge buff to your crowd control resistance (cc). A well timed triple kick can cut down the duration of any cc cast on you to a minimal amount. For the armor, take “quick thinker” on the chest, “balanced mind” on the boots, and “aggression” on the helmet. With the Eel Stew this gives you a great balance of damage and cooldowns.
Deadwater Eel Stew
More damage is great for any melee build, but you also want to be able to have your spells available as often as possible, Eel stew offers both damage and cooldowns, working great with the battle bracers to give you more direct damage from your spells, and higher dps and mobility by having them available more often
Invisibility Potion
As briefly mentioned in the Assassin Jacket description, this can be used to escape combat should you need to, but it is also a great consumable to sneak up on unwilling victims. If you have spotted someone gathering, or fighting mobs on the edge of your screen, you can dismount out of view, drink the invisibility potion, and walk all the way to them to launch an attack, keeping all your mobility to chase them down should they try to run.
Strengths
- Unparalleled mobility
- Amazing outplay potential
- Multiple available interrupts
- Multiple defense options vs. crowd control
Counters
- Cursed staffs
- Multiple ranges opponents