ArchLight

The problems with LB are several most PU teams I see do not know how to fight them. The nulls drop those sonic grenades and the PU teams always seem to want to fight in the very middle of all them. Also the Sonic greande affect on you lasts about 5 seconds after you leave the field. I thought it used to stop as soon as you left the AOE. Not to mention the Special OPS END drain etc. LB also do -3 Stun protection, and -Defense. Being in the middle of all this can get very dangerous.

Arachnos has its own issues with the hated Blindness and Toxic.

As most have already comment on the build I thought I would focus on these foes.

I do agree with nearly all the slotting advice so far as well.

I have a for fun Dark/Dark I made long ago I take out to have some fun with. He is my Super speed undead pirate. Yes super speed on a peg leg. Smite with the Hook or Siphon as a finishing move is cool looking.

He is nearly suicidal in +1 - +2 missions. With siphon life and Dark regen it takes some hard hitting to put him down. My alt build I went with a fear monger and took the presense pool and have four useable fear powers. I have three IO sets of two in each to jack my Fear duration through the roof. Touch of Fear lasts forever.

He is a lot of fun but I do not plan on ever taking him to 50.

Of course half the fun is talking like a pirate in chat.

I agree with Tonal and crew I have been able to play my main L50 with out a lot of farming I tend to avoid the farm teams or most farming missions as I have done them to death. I will go street hunting in RWZ or get a team together and run a series of Paper missions or WZ missions. In doing this I have also paid for every IO project on this server. About 16 full builds plus surplus. I am not a marketeer or very into the aspects of Market PVP that earn others a lot of INF. But I do bid carefully and protect myself from some of the salvage cost manipulations. Last week I past the 1 B mark. Granted I have a few new concepts to IO out and that will drop below.

My message is that just having fun playing your main L50 can bring in plenty of INF. If your careful with the market. I do not have any purples on any character I sell every purple I get. My builds are still very effective with out them and I still have a lot of fun.

I would not get rid of all the + damage everyone likes plus damage. My main has about 10% damage buff and similar recharge. I agree recharge is always good but a lot of things need to hit yah to debuff. They also have to live long enough to make something of the debuffs they do land.

I have a SS/Fire I am about to IO out in the high 30's I will compare to your build and let you know.

Sad to hear red side players asking you to tank.

No offense but it sounded like you were a tanker come brute. I play nearly 80% of the time red side and I can spot the Blue side players when I team with them. Brutes are about the SMASH if you understand SMASH then you will not want to tank for the team. It might still happen by virtue of your pursuing Fury and SMASH but its a different mind set. What server are you on?

In looking at your SS/Fire build I see your very concerned with Recharge and getting + damage bonuses. With a very similarly expensive build i think you could still have a lot of recharge (not as much) but have quite a bit of defense something Fire lacks. However 10-18% defense is not going to cut it long run. Its nice to have but you could have a lot more. Either by focusing on typed S/L or by going like Tonality with heavy Melee defense.

+ damage is nice to have but with Fury its not as needed. For my tanks I sure want plus damage. Brutes its nice to have but I focus on still being in the fight so I can continue to SMASH.

Based on what you have said I agree with Twilight Snow. If you have played this many Brutes to the levels you have (instead of speed leveling) then I am confused. What you describe you want and the way you describe playing or how things don't work for you makes me think you want to play a tank.

Going Rouge is coming and that should allow you to play a tank red side. That should put some color on your cheeks. Because I think thats the only thing that will meet your description other than Fury.

In my time I have meet people with Billion INF builds that seem so uber on paper. But to watch the player behind the keys I am amazed at how they play.

Given how flexible the game is or how you built your character that could be the problem your having. Maybe you should show us a few of your builds that you think were good but not quite there. We might be able to help fix it up?

While I agree with Krom on Electric Armor and enjoy the heck out of it myself. I have noticed that a lot have not figured out how to play it well. Most of the people I have meet are not very good at it.

For a newer player I would recommend Will Power or Super Reflex (see mild to wild comments above). INV can be pretty tough but red side but it has some situational issues late blooming being one.

My comments to the OP is each AT has its own strengths and weaknesses as well as each power set there in. The beauty of the game is your not shoved into a specific role. You can preform a role of your tailoring. Some obviously do this better than others.

Maybe if we understood how you felt they were under preforming it would help to give advice and help you pick a set that works well for you.

My SS/DA Brute who had Hasten and Rage crashes to deal with not to mention the 16 end Dark Regen costs had on the team search info will Brute for END.

Not to mention I loved Cloak of Fear but at some point it became a pain and I did not play the 40's till over a year had passed. With IO support, have nearly every +end or +recovery I can get plus the proc in stamina the END burn is not so bad its that so many things post 40 villain side drain END.

The only way this character plays well is if I slow down a lot. Letting the COF and OG manage the spawns while I Death Shroud and Foot stomp them to death. What I came to call the Freak Cook out on the garbage heap in St M waiting for Issue 7 to come out.

Teaming with stalker friends they loved the Dark controls.

Sirens does not stack? Recharge and duration make it look like it would.

I subsribe to its all the above. I have been wanting the Defender Psi set corruptor side since launch. Imagine my joy trying to make my Psi villain and going my only choice is a Mind/Psi Dominator in the prelaunch weekend. Granted we did finally get some real Psi with Fortunata. That and Dominator Psi just got some much needed attention.

Villain side had a very low Psi potential with only Dominators having access to it. Not sure what the reasoning was back then I thought people said it was for PVP reasons. But I doubt that was the offical reason. Much like the nashing of teeth about Blasters getting Psi.

The Blaster Psi rework dropped the extra AOE, the Immoble to and to add AIM and better fit the blaster power sets mold.

At least they sped up the Psi power set activation times. For my money the Defender set is more fun than the blaster set.

Maybe going Rouge will put a little color on the cheeks of corruptors this way.

What server are you on I have quite a few Electric brutes built several ways.
I am on Infinity with my villains.

I went with a ranged fighting build. I skipped the melee powers and took the ranged controls and ranged fire. nothing like a solo spawn locked down and breathe fire on them

I would take mass hypnosis over total DOM. Mostly for control of extra spawns.
I did take TK as an experiement but use it rarely.

Its been a lot of fun.

Welcome to the game. I have been here 5 years now and still login almost every day.
I find I like solo play as well as teaming. Teaming is usualy more fun and certain characters come alive with teams becoming vertitable force multipliers.

Classy.

It sure looks like your very concerned about END cost on your toggles.

While I usually take the Mu PPP due to theme reasons I have managed 71% Smash due to IO bonuses on my Battle Axe and its noticeable. Wished I could do the same for Lethal then I could say what Rikti where.

Getting the +5% S/L temporary buff on top of tough sure seems noticable.

Different schools of thought I think. But I would love to get my head around your statement on Tough could you please explain.

Wow you really use Power surge that much? For me I skip it on my first electric who actually took it I used it maybe once a night. My other three past L38 skipped it.
I do have tough but skip Aid self. This was true even before the Conserve power.

Energise is a nice addition and helps out for sure.

Nearly 60 months here Dec 4th. I started at the very end of Issue 2. My first and total favorite was my INV/SS tanker. But that was to be short lived Issue 5/6 killed her. This lead to an eventual purge of 6 other tankers before Issue 7 and one more in issue 9. I kept the INV/SS and eventually got her to 50 with come coaxing from a friend. Once Issue 5 hit I started working my Kin/Psi and my other Kinetic defenders. Hero side my favorite for the longest time was my Kin/Psi who is now 50. I tried my hand at Blasters and for awhile I did not play them well. Issue 6 came along and I started playing villains. Since then I have played 80/20 villains over heroes. I usually take a few months out every year and work mainly my heroes.

Villain side my main was a SS/Dark Brute but once issue 7 hit and I had no epic END recovery or mitigation she only made it two more levels before frustration set in. IO recipes brought her back to life and she eventually made 50. I had also been playing a Fire/Kin as well. At this time I nearly quit the game over frustration with the Issue 5/6 changes. Poor Dev handling of it and the essential killing of my resistance based INV tanker.

A friend talked me out of it and I made a SS/ELec armor brute. She was essentially became everything my Resistance based INV tanker was and more. Not to mention a whole lot more fun to play. My friends were surprized to see me suspend my altitis and make L50 by September. I have since played the character for well over 200 hrs post L50. She is my main character over all others. My next 50 was my SM/Elec Brute a single target smashing wonder. Around Issue 8-9 I also fell in with Mind control Dominators. My first was a fizzled L18 Mind/Eng from issue 6 I got back into till L34. My next was a Mind/Fire that also suspended altitis. She quickly became my 5th 50.

Around this time I went hero again working my Winterlorded Fire/Fire from the long pasue at L27 to the 40's. Last fall I started a Sonic/MM Blaster and worked him into the 40's. (this week I should hit 50).
I also made a pair of Widows which are just a lot of fun.

Over all my favorites and the ones I had the most fun with (might not be the most uber):
SS/Elec Brutes of which I now have 3 across a couple servers now.
Mind/Fire Mind/Elec Dominators.
Kin/Psi defender really anything kinetic at one time I had 14-18 but have paired that back to about 8.
Fire/Sonic Corruptor
Widows.

Along the way I have learned that I do not like certain power sets Ice Armor, Stone Armor, Energy melee or Ice Blast much. Same goes for Controllers I have tried several times my latest are a pair of mid 20's Mind/Kin and Ill/Rad but no luck. Yet I love Dominators. Hero side all I really play now are Blasters and Psi Defenders, I have given up on tanks. I rarely play scrappers even though I find them fun.

I have also learned I love Fire melee and blast sets a lot, same goes for Electric in all its forms. They strike a cord visually as well as how they play. Brutes Brutes Brutes I have nearly a dozen on Infinity. Not to mention 5-6 Dominators and 4 Corruptors. Red side Infinity is my main play ground my heroes on Pinnacle only get a fraction of my time. This inbalance means I have far more INF red side.