monk/bruiserFollow

whats the difference between them? like abilties, weapons, and armor

which one tanks better and which one does better damage and solos better and stuff

Subclass distinctions often detemine your secondary role. A bruiser and monk are both primary tanks, though a bruiser is a secondary damage dealer, while a monk is a secondary support class.

Bruisers will focus more on doing damage, and some extra crowd control.

Monks will focus more on buffing the party, and some extra damage.

do bruisers use 2 handed staffs and have the same armor as monks

I've got to disagree. Monks and Bruisers are not tanks. They can act as one at earlier levels, when the classes are more similar. But as the levels get higher, they get worse and worse as tanks, and better and better for damage.

I find this to be a common misconception. You ARE correct in the fact that from 20-30, Monks (and i assume Bruisers) are NOT very good tanks. As Moorgard said in his Brawler's Pit interview, Monks/Bruisers do not come into their true power until 30+.

I know at 30th, I tanked the Zek Boat ride with very little problems. This was my party's third attempt at the boat, first time with a 29th Guardian as MT, monk as DPS. With the number of mobs you must hold aggro on during that encounter, my Deflection and Dodge abilities were the difference. One lvl of difference on the tank maybe, maybe not.

I know I can solo Yellows at 30th and lose around 30-35% of my hp; at 25, that was a tough, tough fight. My ability to evade attacks has GREATLY improved since 30th lvl.

Yeah, I got lots of "you cant be a MT" from groups in Fallen Gate. But once I got around to lev 25+, and some buffing skills, I can actually tank ok. No, still not as good as a guardian, but then again, we can hold aggro better, from my experience. I think that we are given lots of misc abilities, and we avoid damage, as we dont have damage mitigation, we should give the MT role to guardians as that's what they are mainly built for. Its nice to tank with a shaman or a druid, although inquisitors have a harder time, as we dont get hit all that often for their vitae lines to be useful to us. Its when we do get hit, we get hit for nearly full damage, and it shows. That is why people think we cant tank, as we seem to be hurt badly during fights. Then again, watch the power meter of the healers, you will find that they are comparable after a fight with the same mob, with another tank class MTing.

The biggest point here, is that ( and it has been said before ), you need to develop a game plan and help your healers by telling them how you tank.
1. You want to be kept at 75%+ health, if possible when fighting multiple enemies.
2. Make sure to take advantage of fear and mez abilities during a fight to reduce the number of mobs hitting you.
3. KEEP YOUR GEAR UPDATED! Spend some $ getting better gear. Better to be poor than poorly equipped.
4. Keep your buffs up. Intimidating orders always after you pull, keeps em away from casters and adds a nice buff. Use other short term buff skills as well.
5. Use your own mend wisely...
6. Always be ready to adapt... people dont want you to be a tank, dont be one. A bruiser/guardian combo works great as Puller/MT respectively as we are much better at pulling ( FD, crowd control).
7. Suggest to share the load ( takes practice ). Example, you pull, you dont use taunt, but keep aggro with dps, and let the other tank win aggro from you during fight. If he doesn't get aggro, use FD ( I choose an additional FD ability for my training skills to get a backup FD... it has saved my skin) to lose aggro. This again, takes practice and the other tank needs to know how this works, or you will lose aggro and mobs will go to casters after you fd.
8. Be Patient. Dont try to force people to think you are the tank for their group. We can play the dps role, as well as crowd control and saving caster's lives ( fear works great to pull mobs off casters).

I think I rambled a bit, but the last point I made is probably the most important.

Remember when to yield and be flexible like a willow rather than break like a stubborn oak branch, when necessary.

I may be mistaken but I am almost positive agility has nothing to do with our power pool. Agility is a defensive modifier. The higher your agility the better your avoidance will be which, as stated above, is how we tank. We tank by not getting hit which makes agility extremely important for those times that we are the MT. Stamina=hps, Str=damage. I actually think wisdom is our power pool modifier but I very well could be wrong.

very cool, that was exactly the information i needed

Well maybe not prove per se, but I'll argue it ^_^ My 22 bruiser can solo lvl 20 heroic^^ mobs in FG (semi-consistantly lol). The trick to bruisers when soloing is to use all the defensive abilities and to hells with offense (you'll be skill-spamming anyway).

Of course the rub is that after you've blown all your pwr on one ^^ mob, some little meanie greenie has to tap you on the shoulder and start some ****. Lol ^.^;