_Krom_

To your first post, both fire and war mace work well with a defense set, however ... leading into your second post, because of some weaknesses in energy armor, using a primary that provides some form of mitigation really helps the set. Fire would be fine, but you'd be living more on the edge (which is fine if that's your thing). War mace goes really well with energy armor because it has A LOT of knockdowns\stuns, which really helps. Yes, wm\ea is a very STRONG and PRETTY combo, but it's not for the feint of heart nor a beginner to brutes. To play it .. it requires:
-A good set of IO's
-A good character, because you gotta love it enough to put up with it's 'issues'
-Not much of a character design, because you'll almost never see your character

I've had A LOT of fun with Pretty and Strong (my wm\ea), but I didn't (and still don't) have an easy time with it as I do with my super reflexes brutes.

If you got a good concept and think you'll have fun with it, I say go for it. It is indeed a fun set either way.

I'd just like to say this is why I love dark/dark/* so much. The combo provides A LOT of flexibility with modest IO investment and you can go a lot of different ways with it and still come out as very survivable.

Many of my power and slot choices are similar to yours, but most are different, and yet I feel in most cases Meat Juice is almost unkillable if they can't kill me in the time dark regen is back up (and I also skipped the mez aura's).

You know I was inspired by this thread to make one as well. Sounds quite fun.

Yeah that is definitely one of the great selling points of claws. I have considered making another claws brute (and picking what you did), but it's not my first...it'd be me 20-something brute that I've made since CoV launched (that I haven't deleted). I love me some SMASH!

GL and hope you have fun with it.

The reason that people recommend */fire (in particular SS/Fire) so much is that you can run AE missions using mobs that have all fire attacks, so that you take very little damage. SS/Shield is a good all round combo, but for AE farming, I like */Fire as it makes it a lot easier.

So by going with willpower you're source of staying alive is regen\resistance (and perhaps a little defense, depending on how you build it). With that being said, I find stone melee, which has AWESOME single target damage and fantastic mitigation works well with willpower as its knock up\downs and stuns allow you breathing room when you need it. Yes Stone Melee has a high endurance use, but that can be mitigated with stamina, quick recovery, and some smart IO slotting. SM\WP is one of my favorite combos. The single target damage with the 2 mallets and seismic SMASH do fantastic burst damage (and note...seismic smash is a mag4 hold too, claws doesn't have something like this) and Willpower is one of the few sets that can easily handle the endurance usage of the set (aside from electric armor and energy armor).

I personally haven't taken claws\willpower. Willpower benefits from a secondary that has some decent mitigation (primarily knock downs) because when you need a breather you can use it and slow down the incoming damage enough to regen it back (while keeping all your foes withing range of Rttc). With claws you don't have that. For mitigation you have focus, a single target knock down and shockwave, a large cone knockBACK. Problem is that shockwave likely will knock things out of RttC range, which takes away from your regen. Claws does have exceptional endurance usage and a good mix of single target attacks and a great AoE in spin. I think it would be fine after a little IO'ing out to get some defense in the build so you're not relying on mitigation. I'm not saying I don't think it wouldn't work..I happen to love claws, but for my first brute, I personally wouldn't do claws\wp.

stone\willpower will be endurance heavy, single target heavy (HIGH burst damage), with fantastic mitigation tools (single target ku\kd\hold, AoE kd\stun, and AoE KD).

claws\willpower will be endurance light, have decent single target damage with some multi-target attacks in spin (aoe), eviscerate (cone), and shockwave (cone+KB), but the mitigation tools are not as plentiful (which may or may not be needed depending on how you build it).

For a first serious brute I'd pick stone melee. It's more forgiving (as long as you can keep up with it's endurance usage) and it has that SMASH feel to it that defines many peoples view of brutes.

Really.

Before the fury changes auto brawl was useful to help raise and keep fury going. It did decent enough damage and if you didn't have enough recharge to have a good string of attacks, it really was a good hole filler and did make a difference in fury levels.

Now it seems less necessary for fury reasons, but it's not bad at all as a filler until you get a good attach chain going.

An actual tip drops...you'll see them in your contact tab if you change to the tips tab if I recall. It'll tell you a tip dropped.

Yes..especially those pesky +recharge IO's that you're dom is most likely looking for for permadom that can be super expensive. You can also get some of those super expensive IO's that you see on the market by running tip's missions, buying them with merits you earn, and then selling them on the market.

Yes...although just my 2inf...farming is boring as hell if that's all you interested in. If it's a toon that you're having fun with that's one thing..but building a toon just to farm that you may not enjoy is a recipe for perpetual boredom. A lot of IO's you can get these days just from running tips missions which makes farming less necessary.

Just saying.