Not sure what you mean by bruiser, I guess I’ll just tell you what I know.
Monk serves as a DPS class with Knockdown and Silence CC in PvP, mainly with Hand Knife, One Inch Punch and Energy Blast. The class does not really have that DPS burst needed to kill others quick, but it makes up for that with its CC to disable opponents for the kill. With that said, its knockdown and silence CC can be resisted, and both are the main kinds of CC that players in PvP gear towards resisting. Outside of the CC, Monk’s decisive damage is lacking as compared to other classes, and Monk is a melee class in a class tree that isn’t really made for melee at that so it is more tricky to pull off such CC. Due to that, Monk’s usefulness depends on how prepared your opponents are against such CC (basically, not that useful). Monks typically works to disable and cripple opponents so you (and your teammates) can go in for the kill.
With that said, a Monk’s role can change depending on the classes you choose with your build, so your playstyle depends on your build. The Monk class alone lacks “decisive” damage, so depending on the classes you pick with your Monk, you can do more burst damage or go for a CC build as an enabler for your teammates (not healer, haha).
The classic PvE Monk-Inquisitor-Zealot works well in PvP as a burst damage build, going in and taking as many players out with you as you can before you die. Inquisitor and Zealot are two burst DPS classes that can make up for Monk’s lack of decisive DPS, Inquisitor having some interesting PvP tools with wide AoE skills and a Vaivora equipment with it, and Zealot with its Fanaticism Martyr attribute to reset skill cooldowns and resist death for some time. Making use of those bursts and PvP tools, the playstyle is to observe for opportunities (preferably supports or players you feel that doesn’t have much immunity against your CC) for you to go in and deal as much burst damage as possible and hopefully come out alive, or if you get killed, hopefully take out as many players as possible with you before you die. With that said, this build is all in on damage, and does not have much CC mitigation that classes like Oracle and Plague Doctor have, so you have to be careful in not getting CC-ed.
Because of the suicidal playstyle and lack of CC mitigation, players also diversify outside of Monk-Inquisitor-Zealot to trade off damage for some CC mitigation, less suicidal tendencies or better CC skills to cripple opponents. For example, Priest’s Revive is strong in PvP, Krivis’s CC skills are great in the right hands, Druid has always been a stellar class in any build, Oracle as well in PvP with its CC and CC mitigation, Paladin has some interesting skills towards tank/defensive purposes, Chaplain’s Visible Talent Arts is crazy if used right in PvP (IIRC top PvP player in kToS at one point was Inquisitor-Chaplain-Kabbalist), Plague Doctor has CC mitigation and speed boost, Kabbalist’s healing does not scale with Healing power, and so on.
Nothing beats experience though, just hop in to PvP and create your own build that is suited for you.
), I’ll only answer the questions related to Monk, but before that, what do you mean by “brusier-ish” playstyle? PvP builds are as diverse as they come, but one thing I can say for sure is that Monk is not a tank.