The information below is based on my own observations and reading regarding the Brigand class. It's a work in progress as I'm still knee-deep in learning my way around a Brigand myself, and as such there'll definitely be some updating as time goes on. That said...
Brigand 101: The Pointy End Goes Into The Other Guy.
Brigands are a damage-dealing melee class. That is our role. Generally more robust than Rangers and Assassins but with commensurately lower raw damage output, Brigands find our niche in our ability to debuff and control a single target. We differ from our sister class the Swashbucker, who tends to have more abilities focusing on multiple targets, by instead picking one person at a time and making them regret getting out of bed in the morning.
Race: To be blunt, race doesn't matter. At all. Brigands have such a wide array of class-based utility skills available that racial abilities end up being supplementary. If you're a Guardian being able to Hover or Camoflage can be incredibly useful, it's not something you can do normally, but as a Brigand most of those bases are already covered. So pick whatever race speak to you. Anybody can make an effective Brigand.
Attributes: Strength is your best friend and Intelligence is their cousin. Your main role as a Brigand is to deal damage. Strength drives that. Intelligence increases the frequency and potency of your procs, and for us that means poison. Always have poison on hand. As scouts our power pool is determined by Agility.
Abilities: The laundry list. Pertinent points -
Smuggle: The group stealth. Amazingly useful, but make sure you familiarize yourself with how it works. Smuggle is a point-blank AE that grants stealth to group members within a certain distance from you. Learn what your range is. Smuggle will drop for everyone in the group if any one person does something that would normally break stealth. If you're smuggling 4 people and one of them stops to pick up a shiny, you all get seen. The exception to this is that you can have both your personal Stealth and Smuggle running at the same time, if you are doing so and someone else breaks Smuggle you will yourself remain hidden.
Stuns, Knockdowns, and Positional Control: Frankly we've got a lot of 'em. Cheap Shot (and class AAs that can extend the duration), and Low Blow are outright stuns. Black Jack is a root that also prevents the target from changing their facing. Strangling Throw (our only ranged art) and Deceit are knockdowns. We can also pick up an additional facing control from the rogue Agi AA line - Walk the Plank. Try to minimize stun overlap when possible, so as to maximize the amount of time the mob stays out of the fight. If you've just stunned the target with Cheap Shot, don't immediately stun them again or you're just wasting stun time. With a little practice you'll find a natural rhythm that'll let you keep a mob locked down for most of a fight.
Positional Attacks: Learn to stay mobile. Some of your attacks only work from flank/behind, some from flank/front, some behind only. Learn which is which and don't be afraid to move around. With a little bit of practice, it's also possible to get off your positional attacks without actually stunning a mob by quickly circling around before they have a chance to turn with you.
Hate Management: We have two abilities that actively vent hate - Evade and Stay Low (the second of which will also put you into Stealth), and one ability that adds a passive hate reduction proc - Confound Adversaries. We also have one taunt that can be very useful as it both interrupts spellcasting and can dispel divine-based buffs on the target. And then there's Ruse. Ruse is one of your most powerful single-hit attacks, but it requires some management. Ruse requires the target to smack you, and increases your hate by a lot in an attempt to make this happen. If you're grouping, make sure both Evade and Stay Low are available before you Ruse - you can pull aggro from the tank, hurt the mob, then hit both your aggro reducers and give the mob back to the tank. As always, practice makes perfect.
Rogue AAs: Simply put, there is the Agi line.. and then there are lines that arn't Agi. Even if you want to do something completely different, make a point to dip into the Agi line long enough to pick up Walk the Plank. It's well worth it. Beyond that, the Str line of mostly focused on recovery time debuffing, the Sta line is tanking with a round shield, the Wis line focused on using a 1h weapon with an open off-hand (and getting a ridiculous double attack rate as a result), and the Int line is all about hate control. Flavour to taste.
