I do have a Dark/Elec brute at lvl 50. And after much pondering I decided to have Stamina.
Thanks to IO sets, I have dropped haste, by the way.
Electric Armor wise I have all the powers. From dark, I dropped Taunt (with the patron area and the PBAE toggle I can keep most mobs looking at me anyway, and single target the superb sustained damage does the trick) and Dark Consumption (which I respecced out).
What made me take this decision was the way I see brutes. And that is: being able to keep up with both bars full all the time. And while Dark Consumption is great... it is just too slow. I can take great use of Swift (my travel poser is flight) and Health (more regen is great for brutes), so the simple addition of Stamina, which is working all the time is just perfect. Even with Stamina, running 3 toggled shields plus the toggled PBAoE damage, sometimes when I finish a group of mobs, it may have descended to half bar (specially if I use my 'toolbox attacks' which I will explain later), I just apply power sink when I start the next one and... voila... power is full again. The end drain is also great, specially since your PBAoE also keeps the endurance down (and when you are grouping and there is another group member with power sink, you keep all the mobs without end very easily).
I believe dark melee is great because, while it does not pack as great a punch as other brute melee sets, it offers great utility powers, being mainly for me Touch of Fear and Siphon life. Even when there might be mobs that would be ressistant to the fear status effect or need more than one application, the accuracy debuff is *very* noticeable. And about siphon life, you have just to slot enough accuracy on it (and having a ton of +acc set bonuses does not hurt). I suggest at least 1 or 2 lvl 50 acc IO.. I only went back to 1 to have 5 doctored heal IO (to get the -5% rech bonus) when I got at least 27% acc bonus from other sets. The lack of initial melee damage is very mitigated with fury building, and the very fast animation times of all attacks save your cone/flurry attack (which makes great damage anyway when it connects, so it is more than alright).
Dark consumption was just too slow, and thus too situational, when you have power sink. And Stamina helps it make it so.
Electric armour is... just too good. So incredibly good that I am afraid there will be a nerf coming for us at some point. I think it's the only set I have ever taken ALL the powers from, in any high level character I have ever built. Everything, is incredibly useful, and I am not meaning only the fact you have a very well spread ressist to most type of damage (including psionics). Normally you would even disregard, having Stamina and Power sink, the Conserve Power effect, but in the very long fights, when you are fighting just one tough mob (and thus your power sink will not be gaining back too much) or when the enemy debuffs your recovery (such as dark ring mistresses) it helps tons. Heck, even the god mode is the best I have ever seen (specially when you compare it to the stupid moment of 'glory' which everybody and their mother can overcome with enough accuracy or psi powers... at least with this one it does help for end recovery even when you are fighting psi and it does *not* take you down to 20% health during the fight itself, plus, looking like a Cape Au Diable goblin is cool, specially if you are playing the huge character template, makes you feel like Deathsurge).
With this builds, all missions are like a breeze when soloing, in relentless difficulty. Only toxic would give you some trouble, and things such as the Arachnoids Elite bosses can still be soloed with the god mode and some red pills (the rest can be managed with touch of fear).
I think I *could* manage without Stamina, keeping my power up with constant use of power sink and dark consumption. But for tough mobs such as Elite Bosses or particularly hard bosses (such as Carnival mistresses, or bosses that manage to debuff your accuracy such as Death mages) I would have trouble power wise, since with just one mob at your side the end recovery is not too great (unless you have 6 slotted with 3 recovery and 3 recharge both powers and I feel that's a waste).
And in groups, the powers that *really* help are the two PBAoE (to keep the crods thinking of you, and Soul Drain to REALLY make most power ups look at you with shame), the power sink (if there is other member of the group with power sink it's awesome) and the Targetted area of effect you will get with the patron powers (usually the only one worth taking). Not only this combination is great to grab the crowd attention (jump into a crowd, do the soul drain, then the ball of darkness - I got Ghost Widow - and then power sink and you will see what I mean, specially when you keep them with you thanks to the lightning field), but it will leave you in each mob with great initial damage and full of endurance, with ALL mobs damaged and MOST mobs with half (or none if you have somebody doing the same) endurance.
