British Battler

LOL, bit like most of the rest of the armour sets then, Dark gets Toxic, and Inv gets a bit on Unyeilding and if you take Resist Elements u get a bit more, the Brute/Tanker self heals give them a bit more, but the only sustainable high toxic res comes from Granite in the stone set.

Nah, stone brutes in granite dont get 95% res m8, Granite gives a base of 37.%5 which with 3 SO's will give u 58.5% res. With stone skin and tough you can get S/L into the 80's, i think about 87%.

It's still enough to tank with but only 75% of what tanks get, but you still have the tank res cap. The 22.5% Def from granite with 3 SO's in helps a lot as well, loadsa Deflecteds above your help.

With a /sonic or /thermal you should be able to reach close to the caps, but I prefer a /kin, especially for Longbow Balista EB's, if they've got ID slotted with 3 res you got pretty close to the res cap for smashing and energy, which is of course a Balistas attack form lol, and the SB and FS come in handy lol.

Hi, the res of the Elec set I think is awesome, with SO's he'll have 40% res against all except energy which is 95% and neg which will be 35% or there abouts. If you put on power surge with 1 SO in Res he'll cap out in all except Psi which isn't affected by powersurge, so far from being weak it's probably better than unstoppable in the Inv set as his base figures with his other shields are higher to start with.

Grounded Costs no end to run though, acrobatics does

Yes malta sappers do do stuff to rooted, I know because of the Lost mapserver ins and outs messing me around over the weekend, they seemed to still be throwing out attacks whilst I wasn't. Rooted has a high end drain res, but given enough time Sappers will still thwonk you.

Chelsea m8, i think I have had this discussion with people before on the forum, he's taking flying because of air superiorities ability to knock down foes, it's peobably one of the best pre travel powers early on in CoV, hasten for SS would be my next bet but SS is pretty much gimped inCov due to the overlad map lay outs. Fly doesn't work well with Grounded if you FLY in missions, and I can't say I've done this much even with my flyers.

Agree with you on the Aid Self bit, my EA brutes getting it.

For your extra slots you may possibly take the dam res from power surge, as with only 1 dam res and your other shields you'll be pretty much maxed out.

If you look at that free download we were given, and if it is right, most of your dam res has a base of 26%, with 3 SO's thats 40.5%, yes I know energy is higher at 95% and Neg is lower at 35%, add in the Power Surge base res of 52.5% vrs most, 60% vrs Energy and 45% vrs Neg, it doesn't increase your Psi tho by the looks of it, and you'll have maxed out on everything with 1 SO in Dam Res, and you only do this for the Neg bit really, as with your other shields running you don't really need 3 SO's of Dam Res.

Hope this gets you your spare slots.

Also not sure if Summon Striker actually accept a recharge, I don't think any of the Patrons pets do, so that would give you another slot.

Would also slot recharge first on Power Sink, and I am assuming the Dam Res until you get hasten on your attacks would be recharges, I'm doing this on my EM/EA Brute as we'll.

Have Fun

hiya Stalk, you said EM does nothing to prolong your life in combat, well i'd call a boss dazed a lot, ie disoriented for the majority of the combat a definate bonus.

My experiance of stalkers is all EM/EA, and I do mainly solo on visious all the time, to me stalkers are assassins out to kill the boss types on there own, but have had masses of fun in all the teams I have joined with him, so fighting 3 foes at once is usually the maximum I do.

AS takes care of the first, then BU+ET and barrage the second then Bone Smasher, Energy Punch and Barrage melee the third, very fast, very efficient.

For the Boss, who usually has only one guard at this Diff lvl, I AS the guard, placate the boss, and leg it lol.

Hidden once more its back for some BU, AS, ET, Bone Smasher, Energy Punch, Barrage, Placate, Leg it.

Rest if hurt and to replen end, back and usually a AS will finish him off. Of course if the blighters disoriented I just keep pummalin him, which happens quite a lot.

The key to my tactics is eliminating all of his goons around him first, which EM seems to do really fast.

Anyway all of you probably have way more experiance than me at stalking, I'm sure all of the sets have there plus and minuses which balance themselves out in the end, but being able to have 3 attacks in a set all classed really as "Extreme" seems to be of great benefit to a class which is all about assassinating individuals (Yes I know AS is only extreme if used from Hidden)

Have fun

Got mine to 27 so far, haven't bothered with the fitness pool, hit and run tactics used, and been very useful so far.

I would take Assassin Strike at 6, Build-Up at 8 and also slot recharges in this power first, wouldn't worry too much about slotting you defences early on, they only really benefit properly slotted with SO's, but extra damage could help you a lot more.

I would also slot accuracy in first two slots, then the 3 damage slots to help maximise your endurance expenditure.

Boxing and Tough are really not worth taking, as unlike Energy Aura on a brute the Res from Tough has nothing to stack with.

Would Probably take Combat Jumping and Super Jump rather than Air Sup and Fly, CJ gives you a nice Def boost almost for free as well as improving your vertical movement.

This means you can take lots of "other" powers to benefit your short sharp shock tactics.

I know your for PvE, so unlike mine who's got Stealth and Grant Invisibility for PvP, you could take Aid Other and Aid Self.

At lvl 20 i took Power Shield, Lvl 22 Barrage, Lvl 24 Grant Invis, Lvl 26 Energy Transfer, and I love this one even though it can hurt me. Lvl 28 I can get Energy Drain, leaving Hasten for lvl 30, which will help all of the other powrers cycle faster. Total Focus obviously at 32, conserve power at 35 as I don't have stamina and may be doing some minor scapper duties in party's and of Course Overload at 38.

I'm going for Mace mastery as my PPP, mainly due to being a technology type background.

Hope this helps, and have fun.

If you can't tell from my description above I am new to Granite armour, my brute is now lvl 39, going on 40, but I do have 2-3 alts worth of stone armour experiance.

Stone Armour is a versatile set, which enables you to get defence or resistance against ALL types of attacks, addmitadely Toxic comes from Earths Embrace.

It's very forgiving I find, and from experiance when grouping I have found that I tend to do better than a lot of my Brute Counterparts when teaming, and even pre Granite was taking the role of Alpha taker, and more often than not surviving, heck , only got the Punch Drunk badge at lvl 37, and have been playing on ruthless since I got DO's.

Stone melee's attack chain is full of nice knock backs holds and disorients, so has boxing I picked up to get tough, which combines nicely with Stone Skin and Granite.

Most missions i solo comprise me mainly rushing around hitting rooted on approach to mob and piling on in in rock with crystal and minerals running if required, smashing all things to bits in a mad frenzy, the first fight in a mish is the worst and takes the longest as your cold, then moving onto the next mob and so on.

The only instance i have found Granite to be more useful so far is those annoying Longbow Elite Boss Balistas and forcefield throwers, seems to ignore the defence completly, but I still only put the Granite on after I've thwacked him about a bit, but those guys hit hard, but I think those elec armour guys with there 40% res to smash and "uber"% res to energy will have their number.

Anyway, the Stone set I believe is a well rounded set, and the Granite is the last situational armour in the set, useful in those non Psi OMG situations. I love my Stone/Stone Brute, and among all of the (6 in all) he's my favourite, and seems to survive better than the others, wether this is pure chance I'll never know.

Fly = travel power intended to get to mission, not used much when on mission (well my flyers don't use it in missions much except for those horriblly huge CoT caves)

Air Superiority = one of the best rear end planters in the game, removing a boss etc from combat by knocking him to the ground.

I can see why he took it and the reasoning behind it, and know why.

Incidentally your comment could also be used for Super Jump and Teleport, its the pool power he wanted, so the travel power came to save a slot.

With you on that OMG button for Granite Nefarious, it's very useful against those longbow ballistas.

Had a battle against one last night and he was an EB, and he must have been on steroids, had burn't up all but my last 2 respites and CaB's and still only got him down to half health. So I switched to Granite, thinking to do a fighting withdrawl, but ended up staying. The amount of damage he was doing to me plummeted, as his attacks are based on smashing and energy, and if the figures I have worked out since are anything to go by (that's if the prima download is to be believed lol), I worked out that against smashing I had around 87% res running(Stone Skin, Tough & Granite) and against Energy I had 58% res (Granite), I was regenerating at about 273% and had defence of 18% against all his attacks. Yes my damage and attack rate had gone down, but endurance had ceased to be a problem, fewer attacks going off and less damage going out from reduced attack rate and damage, but he went down in the end. It was funny seeing myself actually heal naturally in the fight.

Yes it took longer than if I had exited the mission, picked up more insp and come back, but then again, in a party situation this character probably would have been happy to tank whilst the others did more damage safe in the knowledge that the Balista was contained, and probably the closest villans have to a stand in tank in the game.

Whilst Stone may not get the "uber" god modes of other sets, which incidentally only last 3 mins then have an OMG I'm toast feeling (thank heavens for new flashing icons), it does have the sustainable role of a demi "uber" and can run and run. Plus if you team with a /kin then the worlds your oyster, but that's just the icing on the cake.

Must say, saying a powerset sucks is a bit OTT, as I have 6 brutes and must say the top two I enjoy the most are my Stone/Stone and my Energy/Energy.

The first time I arrived at the Brickstown mayhem mish was my favorite, had just reached 35, yes I know not long ago, and saw all those Psi cops, and had minerals running, nice moment.

Out of all the brutes I have I would have to say the the stone armoured one is the most self reliant, and the most fun one to play, and they do not suck outside or inside granite form. When you can take on a red EB Solo and win,(thanks the inspiration bossess of luck) it says to me that this armour does not suck.

I'm running a EM/EA stalker atm, currently lvl 27, and if i spend a bit more time on him will be higher lvl soon enough.

My advice is as follows.

Lvl 10, change to combat jumping, jump kick has a long activation time, your a squishy more defence is best.

Lvl 12 PLACATE, i can't tell you the usefullness of this power enough, 3 slotted for recharge asap. I have being playing on visious since getting this power learn to use and love it.

My character is intended for Pvp, so I fitted in stealth and Grant invis, but these could easilly be changed for aid self/other or stimulant.

I took Enthropy shield at 18, didn't seem to notice many problems with this, a placated boss can't mez you, and took barrage instead of stun to give me a more filling attack chain.

I haven't really noticed the lack of ability by not taking the fitness pool, as this alt is designed for short sharp shock tactic, and usually carry a couple of blues for low end situations, and with energy drain and conserve power coming up soon saves me a respec.

It's worked for me, but then again all I do is Ghost paper missions as I want mine for PvP, so leveling this character is the most imortant thing, but popping stealth after an assassination has gone wrong has saved me a couple of times, and grant invisibility has helped the few teams I have joined out in the past.

Good luck.

The first thing I do with a brute is take the combat walk up to the fortuna in mercy, attacking everything enroute to it, up my diff to malicious and walk back, again killing everything enroute then do the first contacts mission arc, then off to PO, usually lvl 4 before I start the missions than away I go.

I usually leave it at this level for some time as soloing gives enough mobs to generate enough fury, and the mobs are bigger if people do your missions without being to overwhelming earlier on.

This was how i left it for ages, and one day though, this is a bit toooo easy now, SO's don't half make a differance, so about 3 lvl's ago upped it to Ruthless, and now am having even more fun.

These settings, Malicious and Ruthless, give more mobs for you to kill, so it helps you build fury as a brute, although some of your squishy friends may complain if you team and don't tell them.

Don't target the mob that the melee centrics are attacking and you'll be ok, nothing more annoying than having the mob your pummelling flying 20 ft away from you. Try and target the peripheral mobs and by the time you've shot them to bits the brute's will have finished there mobs and you'll be ok.

Otherwise, team with loadsa Corruptors, Dominators with holds and Masterminds who will just be shooting, mezzin and having their pets do all the running in anycase.

Have Fun

I don't think the protection from resist energies and elements is that great, and for the damage it will stop it might be better to get other powers with them, possibly punch and tough to give you uber S/L, your choice though.

Lol, I think you're just looking at the build m8, read the guys comments, he want's a mad blapper, and thats his concept, loadsa melee attacks and defences, hence the fighting pool, I don't even think he will be letting off more than 2 shots in each fight, and that's if were lucky.

He wants an attack chain to rival a fully primaried up scrapper and some of the defences as well, so he's going for all the def and res he can with the resources available ie the power pools.

Good luck to him, hope he has fun.

Why would you want to ditch the other armours in the set, as a brute you attacks need to be cycling through, and granite just slows it down, especially solo play. You may need Granite in Teams where you will be the Uber tank, as although other brutes get godhood modes, they only last for 3 min's then there spent, but at other times you will be happily smashing things in your normal armours. If you want to be a tank fit in taunt somewhere, my idea if I was going to tank would be to place it where I've put Build Up, as a brute is on a sort of permanat build up anyway.

But Granite will still be situational for a brute, most of the time you'll be in rock for speed, and minerals if your facing Psi, which also gives res to confusion, and Crystal for nrg/neg.

My alt runs Rock, Crystal, Tough, Minerals and Rooted in fights most of the time, although Minerals and Crystal depend on what I'm fighting, and with all of them running the fight seems to be over before my end runs out, and only on the big fights do I have to pop a few CaB's, but I suppose we all do.

The usefulness of the armours shouldn't be discounted when you get granite, there's a lot of psi enemies out there, so you'd rather have minerals up then than Granite, and there usually with energy blasting mobs as well, so Crystal needs to be up as well, and then of course rock is up, your rooted and I know it's my preferance to have tough and not everyones, but it stacks nicely with stone skin to give me a bit of res against that very common S/L stuff that's all over the place.

Anyway, that's just my personal take on it, don't crucify me for saying you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that, it's just the experiance I have garnered from experiance in the game. At the end of the day the choice is yours.

Have fun

Thats why I plan my builds from the start to avoid respecs, and apart from the /elec and/energy aura brutes who see no need for stamina when they gain certain powers, but need it till they do I see no need to respec.

The only alts I have respec'd are the ones I created way back when I first started playing and made a complete hash of them, we all do whan we first start. They are now playable.

With stamina he can always respec it out later, as it takes a hell of a long time before he's got power sink and conserve power, this is about the only comment I can see that may help, as I have a EM/EA who's getting it, but respecing it out later on as it'll be invaluable till you actually have the powers.

Nice to know that my Fury Building tactics are still intact then

Strange about the Def armour sets argument, because it seems that every time some one tries to attack you you seem to build up fury, just an observation because deflected now shows above your head, so that means "Armour has worked" so maybe, where fury is concerned this counts as a hit, but no damage is inflicted. just an observation, as thats how armour works in the real world, getting hit but deflecting or absorbing the blow. Yes I know it's a game, but does this still count as a hit for fury purposes.

Anyway, as I said in the earlier post, it's really what works for you, My Stone/Stone brute is differant to yours, you enjoy playing yours your way, and I enjoy playing mine my way, thank heavens we were all made differant and given all these powersets to choose from.

Having played with Brutes for quite a while, I think I've got around 6 of them, the main reason I can see for getting Taunt is because the "Squishies" in both CoH and CoV don't seem to be able to get there heads round how to support a combat.

What do I mean you may ask, well after looking and playing several diferant alts I think that the problem lies in the Corruptor/Blaster divide, and Masterminds and Dominators can fall into this catagory to some extent, as they can all Shoot to some degree. Stalker/Scrapper divide has been discussed elsewhere, and done to death so I'll stay on track.

The most worrying thing, as a brute, I think I can see is when I can see a "Squishy" next to me in a melee firing off wily nillie, why, well for Blasters, I'm not so worried, they've got close combat powers, and I've seen some masterfull hit and runs off them, it's when thay start to go toe to toe with that boss I haven't got to yet that worries me, because playing a tank if his bamage output exceeds my taunt ability, he's gonna get hit if he's not careful, but in CoV corruptors and MM's dont have this Close Combat abilty, they have buffs, heals and utility powers, and a lot of these powers have a thing called range with them, and funnily enough there primary powers come with a thing called range in them as well And many of there attacks have secondary effects like -recharge and -def, which would be handy if they target the same thing the Brute/Staler was attacking. Don't forget to target the same thing the brute is attacking all you have to do is click on the character in the team menu. Then the "Squishies" don't need to, in most circumstances be saved, as long as they remember there role in the game, and do what their characters are supposed to do ie Shoot and Buff, keeping your enemy at range.

Masterminds on the other hand normally end up faceplanting if they shoot before there pets have got the aggro, they should remember to send pets in first, use the goto command for those tricky corners and only shoot when the enemy is engaged by there pets.

Dominators should, and indead as the progress, will be the masters of delivering pain and suffering on the battlefield, as not only do they get holds, immobs etc they have access to both melee and ranged attacks, but these take time to gain, and as they essentially have no direct damage mitigation they have to be a little more clued up on there powers than most, realising and remembering what they've held, immob'd just around the corner and such like, as when it runs out they have to put it back on, or have finished it off by then. A well run Dominator is a gorgeous site to behold, sums up villany to a tee, without the insane explanations you get in the films. the problem happens for them is when thay bit off more than they can chew, and we all know how that feels

That's enough for now, so Cya all in the game.

I Never take mudpots, waste of end in my opinion, and so is fault, it does no damage and yes a disoriented foe can't damage you, but then again he can't hit you to build up fury, it just seems a waste of time if they aren't helping me keep my fury at 85-90 all the time.

Mudpots is fine on a tank, but a brute is not a tank, he's a brute as many people point out, so taunt is not a requirement one little bit, you get enough aggro without it and if you play solo a lot even on the second highest difficulty setting you don't need either of them, as when you do end up in teams there's always someone who covers the mezzing bit, so your little fault won't go amiss, but that attack of yours doing 60-100 points of damage will.

At lvl 33 my attack chain consits of Brawl(yes still in there, and the ammount of times this is the attack that actually finish the enemy off is hilarious),Punch,Stone Fist, Stone Mallet, Heavy Mallet, Seismic Smash and for when I'm surrounded and need a bit of a breather Tremour, still find it funny that you can jump so high when rooted.

Defece wise, Rock Armour,Stone Skin, Earth Embrace, Rooted, Tough and Crystal Armour, getting Minerals at 35 and of course Granite at 38.

Utility powers, well I don't like TP, so got Combat Jumping early on, helped till I got rooted and Super Jump for movement, then the usual S/H/Stam from fitness, and Build Up to pop when rage is at the 85-90 point in boss fights, or whenever to add to the destruction and mayhem.

I always have an attack going off, you may notice no hasten in there, and solo on ruthless fine, and when I join teams I have had no complaints, in fact usually the opposite.

Finding a friendly /kin every now and again, and even if they've got energy blast it doesn't bother me, as I can run after the even rooted with an sb on

All in all, a team build is what you make it, the powers of fault, mud pots and taunt I would take on a Stone Tank, but on a brute, never in a million years, I much prefer to be dishing out direct damage and ensuring defences are up, and in my build I think I have that balance that works in both teams and solo, and apart from the movement power, which can be interchangable should I ever get my head round teleport, I wouldn't change it.

In the end, it's all down to individual playstyles and how you envisage your character, and more importantly, What works for YOU.

That's the end of this little message, and have fun.

Main Alts:

Defiant: Hammerok-Lvl 33 Brute, and to many to mention.

Union : British Battler-Lvl 29 Scrapper, and more besides.