I decided to write a guide and make a movie based on my 50 em/ela brute (links provided at end of this post). My main aim is to help people decide on their powerset choices and provide a great description of all the power choices so you can develop your own builds.
Programs referenced:
CoV/Coh Character Builder
HeroStats
Brute's have a lot of primaries they can choose from. But since brute's do not get unresistable damage bonuses like scrappers' do Energy Melee is a popular choice for many of us for pvp. Because energy melee is so rarely resisted, you'll find yourself ripping through scrappers/tankers quite a bit faster than some of the other primaries- especially if you generate some fury. The downside to EM is that the set is basically balanced around energy transfer- a power you do not get til level 32. Thus, you will not fully reach your full potential til level 32.
Below is a list of all the powers from the EM primary. Each skill is rated from 1-5:
Barrage - (3/5) 1.8 BI. This is a great power for building fury. It does more damage then brawl and recharges faster. It's a great addition to a PvE build. Would also make a nice addition to a PvP build if you can fit it. But I would not drop one of the other attacks or nice utilities to fit it
Energy Punch - (5/5) 2.77 BI. This is a must have for a PvP build. It activates very fast and has a pretty fast recharge. This attack doesnt do as much damage as Bone Smasher however it's still very useful for its damage and utility. It has a low chance to provide a Mag 2 disorient.
Bone smasher (5/5) 4.55 BI - Another must have. Provides bout a 60% chance to land a Mag 2 disorient and does very nice damage. Has a very fast activation time too.
Build Up (5/5) - For 10 seconds you will do increased damage and have better accuracy. 6 slot this power with +recharge and +tohit. This is a critical component of a PvP build. You want to slot it with +tohit enhancements so you can punch through /sr scrappers Elude, force fields, and other high +def abilities. Also, you want it because it provides you with insane burst capability for 10 seconds
Whirling Hands 2.77 BI PbAoe (2/5) - This is the only AoE attack we get besides Lightning Field. I skipped this one. I tested it out on test server wasn't too happy with the results. If you want to be an AoE monster then you want to look for another primary. EM is a single target specialist.
Taunt (4/5) - useful for holding aggro in Team PvE. Your squishy teammates will love for you being able to attract a mob away from them. Also, this power will help you maintain fury in PvE. In PvP, this power will cause an enemy to only be able to target you unless they break line-of-sight. I picked up this power for team arena matches specifically. I do not feel that brute's have to pickup this power though.
Total Focus 9.88 BI (5/5) - You finally made it. Total Focus has a 100% chance to place a mag 3 disorient and an 80% chance for a mag 4 disorient. The only bad thing about this attack is that it has a slow activation time. Even though I have energy transfer, I still often lead with Total Focus to stun a squishy. Then polish them off with energy transfer. This attack is critical to a disorient stacking build whereas the goal is to drop a meleer's toggles.
Stun - 0.69 BI (2/5) - This attack does horrible damage however its very useful for a disorient stacking build. In Siren's Call, scrapper's have around Mag 9 protection. So, stun+BU+TF+Bonesmasher will drop their toggles if Bonesmasher's 60% chance goes through. The problem is that it's difficult to fully capitalize on this solo. You've just used a lot of your major attacks to detoggle the meleer. So, this means you might at best only get to hit them with Energy Transfer while their defenses are down. A competent player will pop a Break free and retoggle. The Break Free will also provide them with kickback resistance. So, trying to spam air superiority might not work. Lastly, /regen scrappers have Resilence which provides them with high mag protection against disorients. So, you won't be stunning those guys anyway. Thus, Stun's usefulness takes a plummet. On a team you might be able to get your teammates to open fire while the meleer is stunned but its hard to capitalize on this in a 1v1 fight.
Energy Transfer 12.66 BI (5/5) - This is why we rolled EM primary. It does the best single target damage out of any other primary. Also, because energy damage is so unresisted, you'll do tons of damage to even meleers (unless its an /ELA meleer). With fury, you will nearly one shot Controllers, defenders, etc. 6 slot this baby with +acc +dmg and +recharge. Another nice thing bout this attack is it's incredibly fast activation time. With hasten+lightning reflexes+force of nature or Hamidon enhancements, you'll be able to pull off 2 ETs in a BU duration.
Below we review the Electric Armor secondary. Electric Armor is extremely popular for pvp because it provides high energy resistance, fast recharge, great energy conservation, and has no 'holes'. The negatives is that it does not include a heal nor does it provide a complete knockback protection solution. However, it does provide +slow resist and teleportation resistances and many other nice benefits which makes this set a real winner.
Charged Armor (5/5) - Provides resistance to smashing, lethal, and energy. This is very important because guess what AT has high energy damage? Blasters, especially the Ice/EM Blasters. We can sit there and laugh at a lot of their damage but just keep in mind they have 30% unresistable damage so they are still dangerous. The energy resist also helps us shake off Ice/EM Tankers and many other heroes.
Lightning Field (3/5) - This is a great power for leveling up. You can herd up some mobs and let this baby rip. For leveling, I picked up this power and slot it with 2 +acc 2 +endredux 2 +dmg. For PvP/PvE, it has a useful end drain component. Also, it's great for protecting you from stalkers in arena/warburg. Lastly, it taunts mobs very nicely keeping them aggroed on teams and helping you build fury.
Conductive Shield (5/5) - provides additional energy protection. It's a must have for PvP. Also helps out in PvE. Energy damage isn't as common as smashing/lethal in PvE but there will still be some enemies that this power will help protect you against.
Static Shield (5/5) - provides psi resist, teleport, and end drain protection. Also provides a lot of basic protection like from holds, etc. The only bad is that it doesnt provide knockback/knockdown protection like most mez protection.
Grounded (4/5) - Provides excellent protection in PvE. However in PvP Grounded isn't as great. There are some powers that'll exploit it like /EM Blasters Power Thrust and /psi defenders knockback attacks. However, regardless it is a passive/free KB/immobilization protection power. for pve this power is 5/5 but for pvp I'd get combat jumping / acrobatics then maybe consider adding Grounded later for extra immobilization/KB protection. Movement is king in pvp and grounded is a bit too limiting for my tastes. 3 slot hurdle + combat jumping is as fast as unslotted superspeed. Not even lr+swift+sprint can touch that.
Lightning Reflexes (5/5) - Provides very good movement and a recharge boost. This is a very important asset to EM. Hasten + LR will help get those big hitters and tier 9 (power surge) backup. In PvP, hasten+LR will help get energy transfer, etc backup which usually means certain doom for the average squishy. I slot mine with 2 +run enhancements to help maxout superspeed
Conserve Power (4/5) - Many newcomers to Electric Armor wont find a use for this power. However, for a burst damage build Conserve Power is pretty essential.
<ul type="square"> [*]If you have infections on you, Aid Self might get interrupted causing your end bar to plummet. CP helps prevents this[*]Helps improve your DPS. The key is that now we can put all +recharge in our attacks instead of +endredux. Also, this allows us to pop CP at the begining of a tough fight. For instance, there is no point in trying to sap a /regen scrapper normally. So, pop CP and maintain fury + nice attack chains[*]The more +recharge you get, the more endurance you'll burn. CP helps manages that[*]Helps against kiters. Sometimes you'll be in a tough fight and for some reason your opponent might kite causing power sink to miss.[/list]
Power Sink (5/5) - This power is everything you imagined it to be plus so much more. It's a PbAoE meaning that it'll sink endurance from everyone around you. The bad is that if the mob dies or moves then it'll miss. However with hasten+lr its almost always up. in PvP, its effective for draining more melee types out there in a long fight. However, being EM you can output very nasty burst damage. Still, sink is very nice for draining those melees out there that dont properly manage their endurance. Once you detoggle them, they'll be stunned to boot if you just hit them with Total Focus or got lucky with Energy Transfer. Lastly, Power Sink is incredible for unhiding an enemy. For instance, once I saw a controller that was running invisibility. Sometimes the game sort of glitches and for a few seconds you'll see someone even though they're hidden. In this situation simply leap to where you think they're hidden, then sink'em. This will drop their invisibility. From this point just go ahead and smash them into the pavement. Other times you might be fighting someone and they'll try to go invisible. Just hit power sink to uncloak them then proceed to open up that can of beans on them
Power Surge (5/5) - This is a must have. This power allows us to tank signature heroes, epic bosses, you name it. In PvP, this will make you a near god allowing you to soak up so much damage your fury bar will sometimes max out. Power Surge is the perfect compliment to Energy Melee for this reason. Once your fury bar hits the rim just BU+ET alone will nearly murder a squishy. BU+ET+Bonesmasher will pretty much takeout a blaster. Also, because you got Conserve Power, once power surge crashes after 3 mins you can pop a green, pop a blue, hit conserve power, then hit Aid Self. Sometimes I've been able to pull this off in a fight. Just be careful sometimes if surge crashes in PvP you might want to pop a Break Free also incase static shield crashes. Power Surge caps most of all of your resists and provides Repel resistance to boot. So, if I'm in an arena match with a bubbler sometimes I pop surge to get out of it. Then try to murder the squishy as many times as possible before the crash. For PvE/PvP, make sure you download
Herostats which will help track when the crash will occur.
Below I'll review some power pools you should consider:
Leaping Pool - provides us with Combat Jumping, Super Jump, and Acrobatics. Get Super jump, combat jumping, and Acrobatics for pvp. This will provide a superior replacement to grounded. For instance, in pvp most any Controller has an immobilization power. If they hit you with it, then you'll literally be grounded unless you pop a Break Free. You'll be unable to jump unless you have Combat Jumping, a Break Free, or power surge. For movement, you can stack CJ + Hurdle for fast, unsupressed movement. The problem with super jump is that if you try to smack someone you'll be 'supressed' for a few seconds. So, what I like to do is rely on Hurdle+CJ for my unsupressed movement. I use Acrobatics for my knockdown protection. As an added bonus if will take a controller 4 mezzes instead of just 3 to overcome your protection.
Speed - Another must have pool. Hasten and superspeed are the powers you want to pickup. Hasten stacks with Lightning Reflexes to increase your DPS to an insane amount. It also helps you generate a lot more fury. I ahve always had hasten in all of my builds. Superspeed is awesome for catching squishies. It stacks with Lightning Reflexes. So, after you pop a squishy with web grenades you'll be able to catch most any ground target. I tried to demonstrate this in my PvP film. I run CJ+Hurdle+LR+Superspeed+webnades so I can catch any target on the ground. After I throw a punch superspeed is temporarily supressed so at this point I rely on Hurdle+CJ for a few seconds til superspeed kicks back in.
Fitness - I always go with Hurdle (3 slot +jump), Health (3 slot), and Stamina (3 slot). This is the most important pool you could ever pickup. You can never have too much endurance, Stamina helps you out there. Health is great for PvE since it helps reduce downtime. Stamina helps keep that fury bar pegged in PvE. In PvP you'll need it for all the toggles, etc.
Medicine - we dip into this pool for Aid Self. Now, I know many electric brutes pick Tough instead which is great for PvE. However, Aid Self helps us deal with any incoming damage type. So, it helps us recover from damage from /EM Tankers, Blasters, etc. In PvP, you'll get a lot of different types thrown at you. The only bad thing about Aid Self it can be interrupted by debuff auras (like chilling embrace), damage auras, infections (like rad defenders), etc.
Flight - Fly sucks for PvP. There's just no other way to put it. There's simply too much -fly attacks out there. However, Air Superiority is a great attack for PvE. For leveling up, I do recommend Air superiority. Once you get around the 40s you can respec out of it. I do miss Air Superiority in RV sometimes. It's so easy to takedown an enemy heavy using it.
Mace Mastery (Epic Pool) (5/5) - This is one of the best pools you can choose for a brute. A great deal of our lifetime is spent chasing squishies. Superjump + web grenade slotted with +range will help ya lockdown most any flyer. Web grenade also shutsdown leapers. If superjump is their only travel power then you'll have an easy time usually. If they are running both superjump + superspeed then you're most likely dealing with a professional. You can still catch a superspeeder because of the -slow and your maxed out superspeed. At this points our stuns is the dealmaker. TF will stun the speeder unless they have some sort mez protection, been buffed with Clear Mind / Increase Density / Clarity, or prepopped a Break Free. BU+ET will dust off an injured squishy normally. There are some other powers besides Web Grenade in this pool that looks handy but I haven't tried them yet. To be honest, if it wasnt for Team Arena I'd replace Taunt with Mace Blast for some long range capability.
Link to my pvp video for my EM/ELA Brute:
Without_Limit 159 WMV version
youtube version:
Without Limit Part I
Without Limit Part II
