_Krom_

Yeah...it's one of those 'on paper' things. I don't really need to be wowed on damage as I see electric\psi being more strong in the lockdown\mitigation department. I don't need to blow everything away with a single sneeze. I do that just fine with my brutes . Just looking to see if it's an 'effective' combo to really lockdown\sap\mitigate spawns.

I've never really been able to get into dominator's for some reason..been trying since opening day and just not my cup of tea. That being said, I thought I'd give electric control a try. It seems like it would mesh well with psi due to electric control being more of a melee range set and Psi seems to do well in melee range as well please there seems to be a lot of +recovery, +regen, -recovery, -end between the two to really slow down\sap spawns.

So the general\broad question is how does these two pair up in the big picture? Anyone taken one the distance have any anecdotes to share?

In my experience, as what was suggested, stone melee can be really endurance hungry. So with that said:

Stone Melee\Willpower - The regen-lite for brutes with some really good built in endurance recovery. It takes the edge off of stone melee's endurance usage, but it's by no means a cure (mine and others often get low on the blue bar still). The thing this offers most is mitigation in the form of fault, which works REALLY well with RttC (your regen based on # of enemies power). Need to regen a bit? Fault and they'll stop hitting you for a bit while they're on their back and disoriented.

Stone Melee\Electic Armor - This works really well like willpower, but it's a pure RES set with the awesome sauce that is power sink. It comes with END drain resistance, a heal\+regen, and power sink. All great things for a stone melee set. I have one and he's A LOT of fun. It cries for some good IO slotting though.

Stone Melee\Energy Armor - Like electric armor, this has a really necessary endurance recovery power. Unlike electic armor, this set can be a little rough around the edges since it's a DEF set (and, for the most part, not considered a strong DEF set). I don't personally have one of these (but I do have a WM\EA brute), but I think with decent IO slotting (like my WM\EA) a SM\EA brute could be made quite decent.

I'd try a few out...but understand that all these sets don't really address stone melee's problem (end usage) until the 20's and 30's. Stone melee is pretty much a single target set with the exception of Tremor when it comes to damage...so if AoE is your thing you might want to give SM\ELA a shot so you can combine Tremor and lightning field to get some decent AoE out of the set.

I have a DS\FF and layered RES + DEF is very nice (plus lt's that heal single and AOE wise). Also one of the selling points is the demon prince has +DEF already and soft capping him with FF is really easy. Consider a soft capped melee boss pet....it's actually a nice thought . Problem is my DS\FF has stalled out in the 30's because honestly I have a serious love\hate relation ship with having to buff my pets every 4 minutes...individually.

I've since built a DS\Traps and I'm much happier. Still able to soft cap the prince, but no need to shield everyone every 4 minutes. But if you don't mind shielding pets, I'd put in my vote for DS\FF.

I've used the chance to stun on my lightning field builds and it's somewhat effective if you've got a primary (fire) that has no other form of mitigation. It's far from 100% reliable though....but it does help.

fire\rad can pretty much steam roll over just about everything (just like fire\dark). They're pretty comparable.

Is it fun for you?

Let's be honest...that's what maters in the end, but yes fire/rad can be quite successful.

I love Dark...a lot...and that's my problem..I've done it TO DEATH..so I've forced myself to go traps instead. So far honestly I'm glad I did. Traps is a SOLID set. The thing to remember about demons is they are pretty self sufficient...generally. You don't necessarily NEED a set like Dark to keep them alive. Dark has a lot going for it and if you've never taken a dark up to the top it would mesh well....but, not to not help with your confusion, traps is a good pick too.

On thing to consider is that the Demon Prince from DS is almost trival to soft cap with FF or Traps (if in the force field generator range). A boss that focuses on melee with AoE's and is soft capped...something to consider.

I have both DS\FF and DS\Traps and so far both are a lot of fun...traps seems to perform better over all though, but with FF the demon prince is VERY hard to hit even outside of the force field bubble due to the targeted shields.

My dark\kin has been re-born many...many times. It can be quite a flexible build. If what you're doing works for you that's great...I just don't approach dark\kin the same way.

Is this for PvE? I'm a little baffled by some of your power picks if it is.