I tend to prefer
balanced brutes as well with more agility, then speed and finally strength, i.e.:
- Agility > Speed,
- Speed > Strength.
Why do I prefer
speed over strength? For a simple statistical reason... let's take the example of:
- BruteA: Strength=50, Speed=20
- BruteB: Strength=20, Speed=50
Both have the same total number of stat points. However if BruteA misses one hit it will have a more severe consequence than for BruteB because the frequency of his hits is smaller. This just means that *on average* BruteB will be less subject to the consequences of failed hits. Of course, BruteB will also be less subject to the consequences of lucky hits...
And why do I prefer
balanced brutes over hyper agiles at high level? Because of the point of view of the efficiency of stat points (effective effect per stat point, i.e. multiplicative and not additive effect). For example:
- BruteA: Strength=10, Agility=70, Speed=10
- BruteB: Strength=30, Agility=30, Speed=30
Both brutes have a total of 90 stat points. In order for BruteA to double its agility efficiency (e.g. will be hit twice less often) it has to gain 70 points. With those 70 points, BruteB could double the efficiency of a bit
more than two properties:
- agility + speed (i.e. being hit twice less often AND hitting twice more often),
- or speed + strength (i.e. hitting twice more often AND doing twice the damage),
- or agility + strength (i.e. being hit twice less often AND doing twice the damage),
instead of only one (agility). Then BruteB ends up with the same total number of points (160) but with either 6 times more efficiency in strength and speed (60 vs 10) and 5 times less efficiency in agility (140 vs 30) or, 6 times more efficiency in one category (60 vs 10) and 3 times more efficiency in a second category (30 vs 10) and roughly 2 times less efficiency in agility (140 vs 60).
Of course this supposes all stat points categories are equally important which is not the case. That's why I favor a bit more agility than speed.
What I usually first look at is the total number of stat points
strength + agility + speed.
Indeed if this number is pretty high (with enough abilities as well) a brute can compete with a higher level brute.
Usually my target for this sum is about
280 at level 200 and
more than 500 at level 400. Of course this criterion doesn't have to be always met but can be approached only if the brute's other specialties are good enough.
For exemple this brute http://nicvcdwycww.elbruto.es/cellule is very nice from the point of view of abilities but has only 247@200 and 472@400. However that's still more stat points than the average (and that would be enough for me taken the great specialities of this brute - for me the dream brute!). On the other hand, if you take for example biceuri it has 245@200 and 480@400 (which isn't that bad), cometviking 244@200 and 481@400, and finally the "famous" vampirian only 186@200 and 345@400.
I'll take the example of a weak brute like Vampirian and compare it with for example my second BC brute (sioc-rkeuse) which has 285@200 and 535@400. At level 120 sioc-rkeuse has roughly the same number of stat points (and similar abilities) as Vampirian at level 200. This means that sioc-rkeuse at level 120 would be more or less on par with Vampirian at level 200 which shows a non negligible effect of high vs low total number of stat points (as a first approximation of course because I'm not talking about specialities, weapons, and pets)...
As for your brutes they imo all have a sufficient total number of stat points (Brarxal: 260@200, 496@400; Stinkypain: 271@200, 518@400; MBA1625: 244@200, 470@400).
Usually my target level is 200 for a first approximation, then 400. As for specialities I usually look at the following:
- 1st row: strength, agility, speed, are must have. Martial arts and master of arms are highly recommended but not eliminatory criteria if the other stats are exceptional.
- 2nd row: full row
- 3rd row: implacable, untouchable, fierce brute are must have. Survival, strong arm, and thief are highly recommended by not eliminatory criterias if the other stats are exceptional.
- 4th row: cry of the damned or hypnosis are must have. Tragic potion, net and bomb are highly recommended by not eliminatory criteria if the other stats are exceptional. Hammer, hypnosis and deluge are important nice to have that would for sure make fights more enjoyable to watch and may turn the scales in some circumstances... but those are not eliminatory criteria.
As for your brutes imo Brarxal and Stinkypain are only missing pugnacious and armor in second row (but they have plenty of other specialties).
As for
pets, I only care about the total number of pets because anyway at high levels a single hit may kill any of the pets. I'm looking for a minimum of
3 pets at level
200 and
4 at level 400. This is imo a very important eliminatory criterion because a brute that has less pets will *on average* waste more hits by hitting the enemy's pets while the enemy hits, well, the brute...
I'd say that's the biggest concern for your brutes (MBA is the only one to have 3 pets).
As for weapons I don't care too much about them. Usually I try to avoid coffee cup, ninja stars, piou-piouz, noodle bowl and favor whip, sword, hammer, halberd...
And last but not least, after all as a final step most important is still imo the
simulation fights. First one has to select a panel of brutes that one thinks is representative of what may be encountered in tournaments. Then for each brute to be tested one should run about 10 fights (with different seeds) for each selected level (eg. 100, 200, 300, and 400) in order to get a statistically relevant picture. Selecting different levels turns out to be quite helpful to get a picture what is the range of levels (to be aligned with the target level) where the brute is strongest.
Of course this part is particularly time consuming...
And finally just to remind that this is just my personal opinion, others may disagree of course... :-)
Subject: What kind of brute do you like? 
Sun 28 Feb 2010, 00:24
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