Tanking 4-Star Lady Grey with Only Brawl

[Projector]

What started as a joke turned into an absolute icon in the form of Only Brawl, my new Stone Armor/Energy Melee Tanker that only uses Brawl for combat--no autopowers, no toggles, no actives. (I do use Travel Powers...I'm not a monster.) This means that every single power and slot is a set mule to empower my endless usage of Brawl, which is 6-slotted with 2 Acc/Dams and 4 procs.

My first accomplishment with him was taking him on a Really Hard Way Magisterium before he had any incarnate powers. I dualboxed, played my ice/cold corruptor, gave Only Brawl a jetpack and put myself on follow with Brawl on auto. Somehow, despite no level shifts and autofire brawl, Only Brawl managed to get the killing blow on Chimera. If only you could have heard our voice chat in that moment...

Spoiler

Since that day, I decided to step it up, finish up a few passive accolades for some bonus health, and then lead a 4-Star Lady Grey where I tanked with him. No following or dualboxing this time. I would either get this the legit way, or I wouldn't get it at all.

As I thought through the TF mechanics, I realized it would be impossible to tank well without the use of Taunt, as brawl alone is not enough to control and maintain aggro on multiple high-priority threats. I also realized I would need to use Fold Space and Combat TP for effective movement. If I'm asking my team to carry me with everything else, I needed to make sure I carried out my end of the deal to tank it effectively. So, with those necessary concessions made, I gathered some friends and we set off to conquer Omega K'ong and his merry band of Rikti fodder.

Not only did we pull it off, we did it  in under 50 minutes with only 26 deaths, no teamwipes, and Only Brawl did not die a single time (screenshot in spoiler tag)
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

As additional proof, I did record the run, but I accidentally screwed up my OBS settings and it did not capture the in-game audio, however I did clean up the Discord audio and kept it so all of you could experience the marvel that was the Only Brawl run, all the shot calls, and most of the jokes.
 

Later that evening, I also tanked a 4Star Aeon, however I failed to record that one (recorded the wrong game window 😭). So now Only Brawl has legitimately earned Excalibonk and the Rikti Mobile Combat Dummy.

Special thank you to StarWhispers, Chachki, Cherry, SapphireRachel, Gregg (Celestia), Cowbell, and Marsh for actually agreeing to go through with this run!

But this achievement does not actually support the argument that you can bring what you want just because I showed it can be beat just using Brawl. It actually proves the opposite, as without everyone else on the team bringing mostly "meta" builds/powerset combos, this wouldn't have been possible. I don't know that this would be possible with any less meta of a setup. It's moreso proof that all of the work the dedicated hardmode community has invested in this content has been really successful.

For anyone who would like to see it, I have attached the Mids build in this post. The V1 of this build that I use for normal content is less than 1% off of softcap for S/L and Melee Defense through set bonuses alone. Happy to provide that upon request if anyone would like to see it.
PVE - ONLY BRAWL V2.mbd

 

With that, enjoy the run!

 

[houtex]

I'm late, but just wanted to say...

 

I wholeheartedly approve of this Brawling. 😄

[Americas Angel]

Incredible.

[Bionic_Flea]

Bonus points for skipping Stone Skin, the auto power, and not slotting damage procs in Taunt or anywhere other than Brawl!

 

Edited March 21 by Bionic_Flea

[Projector]

13 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Bonus points for skipping Stone Skin, the auto power, and not slotting damage procs in Taunt or anywhere other than Brawl!

 

Thank you! I believe in integrity in my challenges, so the only concessions I made were ones I genuinely felt I needed to, and I made sure to list those concessions out specifically. I am pretty sure the only auto power I took was the alpha and only because I needed the level shift 😄

[Projector]

21 hours ago, Americas Angel said:

Incredible.

Incredi-brawl

[Xalon]

At first I thought you were serious about the only brawl. But yeah, dual boxing ruined it.

 

I would love to hear about a new character where you only use Brawl and don't rely on dual boxing to level up. That would be amazing.

[Projector]

42 minutes ago, Xalon said:

At first I thought you were serious about the only brawl. But yeah, dual boxing ruined it.

 

I would love to hear about a new character where you only use Brawl and don't rely on dual boxing to level up. That would be amazing.

Normally, I'd let this comment slide, but judging how someone else spends their time playing this game is an easy way to get under my skin, so I'm going to respond against my better judgement. It's a game, the point is to have fun playing how you want to play while being respectful to those whose gameplay you also impact.

• There is virtually no difference  in leveling up Only Brawl manually versus farming to 50. My contribution with a toon that only uses Brawl is about the same in both cases. (This is pretty much the one tiny bit of humor in this response, the rest of this is far more pointed).
   
• I have nerve and tendon issues going from my neck all the way through my wrists. This significantly limits the amount of time I can play without excruciating pain. I'm lucky to play for more than 5 hours a week right now and there have been times I have been in literal tears trying to finish something because I committed to it even though I was barely able to press a key on my keyboard. Imagine how much pain it takes to get to the point that just pressing a key on your keyboard is something that causes you crying levels of pain. I found a way to accomplish something I thought would be both fun and funny without causing myself a ton of pain, but I'm so sorry that how I accomplished my goal isn't acceptable to your arbitrary standards. How can I ever make it up to you??
  
  Look, you're free to play the game how you want to and I'm free to play the game how I want to, but anyone who wants to write someone else's achievement or gameplay off just because it's not the way they prefer is someone that I won't knowingly give the time of day to in-game.
   
• Maybe I should start playing for your gratification and fun instead of my own, would that unruin the experience for you?
   
• I put in hours of time in Mids trying to get this build as strong as I could with the sets available. I pulled in several others to help me theory-craft options and a lot more thought went into the AT and power set choices than it may seem on the surface, too. Farming him up doesn't mean I didn't invest as much effort as someone else, it just means I chose to invest that effort differently.
   
• I lead content quite often for others and it requires me to have multiple toons ready at all times to fill the gaps so that newer players and those with less readily available options can still participate. The accolade grind alone is roughly 6-8 hours long per toon, and that's not even factoring in if I don't have emp merits to transfer from other toons.
   
• Probably the most obvious point: This isn't a "I only used brawl from level 1-50 and then tanked the hardest content in the game" post, so whatever you thought I was serious about was a wholly incorrect assumption on your part.
  
  Since you somehow missed it, the title and point of the post is: "Tanking a 4-Star LGTF with Only Brawl," which is the hardest TF with the hardest fight currently in the game. I even left a tray open with all my toggles visible so it would also be clear I wasn't using them.
  
  I listed the caveats very plainly, I didn't dual box for the actual runs at all (only dual-boxed on a Really Hard Way run and that's it, which isn't relevant to this post or point of the toon at all and was only done as a meme), and I posted a video of the 4-Star LGTF showing I only used Brawl during it and was obviously actively playing the toon shown on screen. Yes, I used an additional few powers tailored to 4stars because tanking them properly without those powers is an absolute nightmare. The Kong fight is literally impossible to tank without a ranged power of some sort since you cannot hold Kong's aggro when he is in a different corner and the gas is up.
  
  I also didn't want to disrespect my teammates who were putting up with this experiment anymore than I already was by bringing a toon that was intentionally terrible. I want the people I play with to have a good time, too, so I'm always going to make meaningful and reasonable compromises where I can in order to respect my friends properly. 

But, if you want to watch me sprinting around brawling enemies for hundreds of hours just so you can be absolutely positive I only used Brawl from 1-50, then sure, I'll record it and post the playlist of videos on YouTube just for you so you can spend hundreds of hours being amazed. I presume you'll be paying for the ensuing medical bills. It's only reasonable. Maybe I'll start an OF for OB and you can subscribe that way to help cover my bills.

Or, better yet, you can just go waste the hundreds of hours leveling an Only Brawl-equivalent up, you can be amazed at yourself, and then you can write your own forum post about how much more amazing you are than me. That would save me the pain and time, and you the money!