Blue_Centurion

I was hoping Conserve Power was going to stop the "Dropping Toggles NOW" problem. I can handle getting back up to the top of the blue bar (usually) but you aint seen a situation go from bad to worse until you are in the midst of a huge battle and half your toggles (including mez prot!) go away...

K, Ill retool a 50 and see how this works. If it works everytime I will be okay with that. With a caveat, this further restricts build structure around invulnerability. Invul is a great set in many ways, but does NOT do well with End Hungry Attack sets. In fact I pair it with Dark over 50% of the time. There are only so many Dark/Invul Brute + Scraps or Invul/Dark Tanks anybody needs. To further say, oh, it is Dark/Invul/Nrg every time? Also, it is not an option for Brutes, the most efficient users of Invul in my opinion, they get no conserve power option. I also think Unstoppable is slightly wasted on Scrappers, due to their lower resist cap. Other than that a decent idea. Keep makin sense

I used to use Unstoppable, and I agree with your tactics. Because you are right.

However,... Unstoppable's use in a modern team (or league, eek) environment is really really stupid. You are virtually guaranteed to be dead when the thing drops, unless you spend the last minute shaking agro and becoming USELESS to the team/league. THat gives you 2 minutes good times, 1 min running, 1 min recovering (you'll prob still need to retoggle at least a few and join team from your hole) Some environments do not even allow for this type of hiding, even if you liked to play this type of Jekyll/Hide (spelled that way on purpose, HIDE, get it, I'm Hiding....) Seriously, the only reason I could think to take it is on a poorly enhanced character that you need to be able to tank for 3 minutes and are willing to eat floor at the end of the run to pay for the bonuses your sets would have gotten you. It is a crossroads deal, and I just won't take it. Now if you could help me play guitar better we could talk...

I agree completely Samuel. Your point about tweaking the effect of the powers but not the animations "feels" right.

I don't agree with leaving stuff alone here, but I definitely hear you and it is a valid opinion from someone who plays the set WAY more than I do.

I fully agree with this statement, and believe it reinforces Samuel's statement above. The set is beautiful. I dio not play it because I feel cheated whenever I do. I can take Super Strength and get a jaw dropping radius on my PBAoE, or take Dark Melee and get tons of tools to help me through combats. Energy Melee's trick is Stun. I hate Stun and Knockback so much I cannot express it fully in words. If corpseblasting is a problem with EM, Stunning peeps as your secondary effect doubles down on it.

What would you suggest needs to be done to keep it up-to-date and competitive?

Yeah, if I built with your goals I would also faceplant a LOT more. I am "stuck" with Invul and Willpower on almost all my builds. I did run a Scrapper Elec/Elec that was very very vicious. Good at eating spawns too. Not a boss killer, I finally abandoned him. I am very "stuck" to the number of powersets I run. I am constantly 50ing new builds trying to add more to my "stable" of possibilities, but few make the cut. I look forward to the new Bio Armor, although it has no Def Debuff Resist, usually a red flag. I run Blasters a bit, and in between my constant whining I am learning the other end of the "edge" playing. How much i can pound a group before they whip around and i faceplant. That is a skill that serves a squishier Brute very well. I ran a ss/fire Brute when it was a FOTM. He was my "ghetto blaster" and ROTP was actually part of my attack chain on him. Not necessarilyt efficient, but danged funny. Any Brute or Scrapper with the lighter armors will need to play it careful. Frustrating especially on a Brute when you need the agro. THe art of inspiration management helps. My Elec/Elec scrapper farmed AE for Freakshow (he was an AoE monster) but I had his resists and defenses displayed and kept eating sm oranges and purps to keep him pegged, combining what was coming in for future needs. The Incarnate trials are frustrating, I hate it when they move the goalposts. But there are gamechanging powers in the Incarnate stuff that give back. Check out the Rebirth power with +crapton Regen. A truly beautiful panic button. gl.

This conversation is taking me back to the motivationms of why I run the characters I do. I started running exclusively villains. Two reasons, I love Brutes and I love villains. This was back in the day of slingshot leveling and bridging. AND me just using SOs exclusively. So that puts me on Mayhem missions as the door breaker and beachhead holder for teams when the LB will just pour into the bank, sometimes over my level significantly. Yeah, I started to build to turtle. Even back then I could see where the Devs were going with hard fights. Tough opponents, zerging, and many different attacks to find your weakness. It is also why Invulnerability Brutes are still one of my favorites. Just writing this makes me want to go start another one, in fact I am going to go redside and do that for old times sake. (I normally run Blueside Virtue just for the "salmon run" grouping availability.) But enough digression. My last example is a SS/Invul Brute I ran some years ago. I forget my exact level, I think it was high 20s, maybe low 30s. I got on a team led by a SS/Invul brute 5 level above me. This was back in the day of "bridging". I really tried to keep up and be an effective second tank. 3 missions in the guy/girl checked me out. "Hey, these spawns are way over your level, I didn't even notice, you're doing great!" Yeah, SO'd Invul Brutes can do that. A well built I/O'd Invul Brute is a joy to run. I favor a good amount of reactive armor 4 piece (all the res ones) in my Invul builds, a few LOTG 3 piece sets for efficiency, one or two Kinetic Combats, some Globals/Procs, and depending on attack set a few other sets to round out the build and tighten it up. Always a hoot, never disappoints.

In closing, and the point of the above graph: One or two LTs? Because they are Dust? I am talking about building to hold the door in a mayhem for waves of Longbow, with MANY Lts, all with special powers. That is on SOs. DUST? Seriously. I have run the arcs in 1st ward on an Invul, and on a willpower. I saw DUST there. I fought DUST there. Meh, they didnt really stand out as the boogeyman, but I believe you struggled with them. Of course my builds I ran through there were "Cadillac" even at level 20-30, with some nice set bonuses. But still, I honestly do not understand why we are still discussing a Brute (even an SO'd one) being apprehensive around 1-2 Lts and 2-5 minions at +0. I believe you struggle with it, I just do not understand why.

Hmmm. I mostly play Brutes. I play a few Scrappers, and when i want a challenge I try to build a blaster and whine for weeks. I build using I/O sets. If I am not experimenting then I have a build in mind (usually already in MiDs w/ levelling plan), and the enhancers on hand to make the run.

My Brutes have always run straight into the largest groups I can find. I ran the game for a year just using SOs, usually on Invul Brutes. An Invulnerability Brute SO'd out correctly fears no minion or LT. Okay, sappers are freaking annoying, but we all got an achilles heal. My I/O'd out Brutes fear no Boss, or minion, or LT, and usually give a frogs fart about sappers as well. I play them to take the alpha, group the mobs, soak up the agro, and use that to pund the boss in the center. I have a build plan in hand to take my 1st level all the way into the Incarnate Trials with my Incarnate Powers already picked. Sometimes they do not perform as well as had hoped, and i implode/strip them. Sometimes the whole run was a thought experiment, and after they are fully incarnated I strip/delete. But my characters never, ever worry about minions and LTs.

I tend to not like AE farms. I tend to build with sets that are more ST devoted so that i can really help a team with AVs, EBs, and Monsters. (that's why I am asking about Energy Melee after all) However, even though I do not AE farm (or do so rarely) I fully expect my characters to be able to stand in the middle of the biggest spawns in the farms (oh, the old ambushes were so funny) and not drop. So, thats the power level I play at, and what i find to be fun in the game. It is true these might be considered "edge cases" but I find that at the heart of a few trials, task forces etc. there is one or two "edge case friendly" fights, and my teams are always grateful fore a Brute that can do it's job no matter how crazy the stuff gets.

Here is a trick I use that helps me a lot. I open up mids, and level up the character, 6 slotting every major power I can, or at least 4 slotting it. Then i put regular level 50 I/O into everything. THen i look at each power and see what that kind of love gets me out of the power and which ones I really need hitting ED. Then I start looking for I/O sets that reach that do that, but also have the set bonuses I want. Hope that helps, GL.

I'm sorry, I do not make characters that are ever worried about minions and Lts. Good luck to you in your travels though the cities in a desperate attempt to avoid minion combats.