Blue_Centurion

Got the bruiser to 44 today. He is doing good. All dark powers except taunt, all Invul except unstoppable, Fitness: run, health, stam, and Fighting: kick, tough, weave. Have 3 LOTG +7.5%, and Crushing Impact in smite for another +5 rech. Things are looking good. Once 50 I will drop in at least 3 purple sets, ,to continue my hunt for max recharge. (Works so sweet on this build, cause the end restore power up regular is a godsend, plus heals, etc.)

My question is what set to take Epic. Was gonna take energy mastery, but actually do not desperately need the end. Consensus is Soul Mastery has best attacks, but I already do all dark attacks, sometimes having a different attack type really helps. (although Soul is very thematic with my skull headed Necros!)

pyre mastery does not seem to have high damage attacks, and it is fire, most resisted in the game.

Mu mastery might be the way I go. Any thoughts?

I hate. I just HATE. THat is why I SMASH.

Nice tip Sardan, i will experiment wit this myself.

I used to abhor Taunt on a Brute, and I ran a Willpower as my main for a year. But with the nerf on Fury, and the 3 new power picks, it is an issue worth revisiting.

i tried a kin/will brute thru to 20, and parked him. That knockback, even though it is manageable, it is not good. Especially with a WP brute, cause it knocks them out of your area and so your health regen will suffer. It might work for another defense type, and add damage mitigation, something that has no PBAoE aura, or anything that requires mobs in close for effects. Since I normally play Will or Invul, it is not for me. Maybe Super Reflexes....?

Yeah, thats why its part of my current attack chain. But without end reduction slotted (as I do) the benefits are out wayed by the price. I will have better attacks up more often as I hit 50, get later game attack, get more rech. Then I can slot the combat heal for emergency green bar restoration/maintenance, and have a attack chain separate.

Heals help. Lol. Yes, they do. In fact, one of the reasons I am not going to run my Dark/Invul as a capped build is the combat heal attack in dark. I can spam that sucker for a portion of a fight, and hold off all but the fugliest situations. I use it as part of my attack chain now (29th level), but plan on it being a solely tactical support heal (1-2 acc, 3 rech, 1-2 heal SO), (er +resistance work according to the above posts logic). Since I will be running a super recharge build, I may even be able to feather off the recharge in this for more acc/heal, and still have it up constantly and spammable. That is the goal for this power in my build, with Dull Pain available every fight as well, my heals, (er, +Res), should help me brute through even a tough Psi fight.

Danged Deus, you are dialing in on the answer like a laser, thanks.

Yeah, but say I wanted to really make that guy a tank, pushing def/res to the exclusion of everything else in the build, where would I go?/how would I do it? What IO sets/Procs would I be looking for/why?

Just out of curiosity... (Cause I decided to run a rech heavy build)

But if you guys could throw the names of the sets and procs at me that get you towards the magic 45% I would appreciate it. Build is Invul/Dark/Fighting for now, haven't decided on epic pool, may not need physical perfection, then I could get a damage pool. Thanks. I might be able to cram some of this into my recharge build too.

Before the flame war ends the post, everybody take a deep breath. Lol. And if you do not think this game has complexity, well, you are just way smarter than me. I have seen players do things that stand the game on it's head. Myself, I like to wander in and smack, so, I brute happily. But I do nod to those who are capable of magic deferentially.

Dark Armor almost needs to be paired with Dark Melee, IMO. The synergy is part of what you are feeling. A part of Dark Armor's survivableness comes from deterring/debuffing. That pairs nicely with the deterrring/debuffing nature of Dark Melee. A decent level of resists across the board, nothing spectacular, and a "How can you go from almost dead to full green bar?" heal power to make up for miscalculations/burst damage. THis is why the set is insane when you throw a ton of money at it. You can pump the armor numbers from the mediocre starting point to an "okay thats a little better", and notice a dramatic improvement in play. if you pump the armors (neglecting everything else in the build), to a "well it's not perfect, but it is darn good all around" you get a spectacularly tough brute. And a spectacularly tough brute can generate a lot of fury, to pump the damage. But 3 of Dark Armors toggles are actually fury killers (circling back to the deterring), so this wonky brute could be said to be the toughest guy this side of granite completely I/O'd, but plays like a undead ghetto dom on steroids.

You are obviously not a new player. But after reading these boards for quite a while I am greatly amused by your post.

Yes, brutes do more damage than tanks. Wow. I know, right?

It always devolves. Nature of the beast I guess.

Especially if you get into a situation where you did not know you would be fighting end drainers, or even if you knew, but the mish was way long, any brute without resistance to that is gonna be hobbled. Unfortunately for dark armor, almost any end drain is too much, because of all the power the build burns thru with toggles. Its a lovely set, but very hard to get good with.

Dark Armor is tightly written, and wisely to resist end drain. That set has a HUGE number of toggles. For full damage mitigation you need to run all, or almost all of them. That is why it is almost essential to pair it with Dark Melee, to have the End restoration power available.

I am really glad I started this topic. I got the responses I was really looking for, thanks. For myself, I am going to take a blend of what you guys said. I will be looking at a ton of recharge from Purples and LOTG. I am running a Dark/Invul, so the goal is to get Soul Drain near perma, Dark Consumption and Dull Pain up whenever I need them (a lot), and to pump my limited attack chain to be ASAP, then I can slot Siphon Life (which I currently use as part of the attack chain) as a spammable heal in emergencies. In this way high global recharge will both increase my damage by making my buff always available, bringing my big attacks up fast, giving me an end restoring power to pay for that up fast, and fast heal powers for the tough fights. I will still have some problems with spike damage, which no brute is completely immune to. Rather than addressing the spike damage through the build, I will lean on inspiration management and the heals as my survival tools. Also, with a high recharge build Unstoppable will be up very regular for a true emergency spike damage control (although I hate the drop).

I have upped my Recharge. Up yours!

Okay, most of us are here cause we like Brutes. Most of us have at least one 50 brute, probably a few. At one point or another a lot of us have had Brute mains. Some of us blow a ton of time/money I/Oing are Smashtastic creations.

The question is when you are spending a ton on a Brute, is it better to go for huge Recharge to get your powers/heals/attack chain up more, or do you try to make your Brute tankier?

My first two 50s were SS/Invulnerability (diff servers). My main for the last year has been a tricked out I/O'd SS/Will. One invul has a couple I/Os, the other is all SO. They both feel much tougher than the tricked out Will. To be clear a claw/will, or SS/will will not be the brute that can take the most hurt, not and still be standing.

As I said before, the Dark/Invul will be the strongest brute aside from the stone, which is only strong 38+. But the dark attack set is not for everyone. This dark/invul pairing is strong from 1-50.

Dark/Dark can be incredibly strong, but needs a ton of I/Os to make it so. I mean a lot of cash, done just right. And then it still has the Dark attack set's strangeness, and in addition the armor set is also a little funky. Again, only good I/O'd, which means this brute will mature very late game.

I'm not calling anybody a liar. But a few things seem odd on the pylon list. Like a tanker beating a brute at damage. Seriously? I am to believe this?

Answer carefully, because if I am to believe a Tanker can out damage a brute, I would like to turn that logic around on anyone that says a abrute cannot outdamage a scrapper. And if a Tanker can outdamage a brute, and a brute can outdamage a scrapper, then a Tank can out damage a scrapper. For my next trick I will show you how a Tanker can out damage a blaster. Keep feeding me weird "facts".

I hate being sent flying, and 8 pts is the same as four in the game, so I got 12. rock steady now.

Thanks Nal, I have a dark/dark at 36 currently, will look at this for him. Looks like you only have 8 pts KB prot? Or did I miss somethin? My dar/dark only has 4 I/Os so far, 3 @4 pts KB prot, and that End Rech that goes in the AoE heal (that thing was pricey!)

the prob is 5 sets of purples take a lot of room, not much area to place the defense bonus sets, and without 45% then it won't help much.