Deus_Otiosus

EBs don't die that quickly, especially the Warwalkers.

However, specifically in the case of Lambda I use the crates/containers as my anchor.

Once the anchor is destroyed, its irrelevant that I have lost my anchor - because we are already moving on.

I already use darkest night on several other builds, the cast time is long but is well worth for any fight that you know will not be over in a blitz.



Footstomp is usually my lead off attack, but they way I use darkest night is to choose my anchor at range (I'm pretty fast with this) > activate the power before I am in range > run and jump towards enemy.

The activation will occur while you are in mid jump, and by the time you land, Darkest Night is already working. Then its footstomp time (or Soul Drain > SC for my DM/SD Brute)

Sometimes its not that smooth, sometimes you're already in range. At that point its a judgement call, usually Footstomp for breathing room and then Darkest Night or possibly Barrier or T9.

Correct, this is why I choose my anchor by enemy tier.

If I'm solo, I can simply save that enemy for last. Sometimes on teams people will kill your anchor, but if you choose a tough enough anchor most of the major threat in the mob will be gone by the time it is dead.



Try my method above, the entire [ target > activate > jump ] sequence takes place on the fly. By the time I'm actually taking incoming damage, I am already on the offensive.



I usually, at most, carry 1 Tier 3 Purple.

The rest is T3 Greens (6 - 8), T3 Oranges (6 - 8) and Blues (x4).

If I know I'm going to be running a lot of Lambdas, sometimes I pack more blues to deal with the Endurance drains.

On my SS/WP for example - I typically only use them when I know I will really need them, and I use the T3 Oranges to fill in any gaps as needed within cycles of Barrier > T9 > Barrier > Demonic

That's one of the reasons.

One of the other reasons I think is that threads allow the developers to gate the content and higher tier incarnate rewards off as group oriented, while allowing solo players a taste of the incarnate system with shards.

I'm sorry that wasn't directed specifically at you.

I just remember Santorican posting his attempt to build for 59% to all positions for his DM/SD (under the guise of soloing Apex, but he revealed why afterwards ) and getting advice.

I post pretty much the same thing and get accused of a variety of negative things.


Regardless, I appreciate the help and input so far.


I agree. I toyed with the idea of adding Maneuvers (+3.89% DEF) + Nerve Core Paragon (+2.8% DEF) + T4 Barrier (+5% DEF) = +11.69% DEF to all positions.

Unfortunately that would leave me around 57% to all (give or take a few bits) and I would still need to make some changes to add the final 2% (mostly at the sacrifice of Recharge).

It also means dropping Cardiac on top of adding another END hungry toggle (MAaneuvers).



This is the critical point for me.


Agreed on Barrier, already have T4 Cardiac Core Slotted.



I don't have endurance issues in the normal consumption sense, my consumption is completely under control due to slotting, accolades & cardiac.

The issue is dealing with:

• Rage Crashes (I do not double stack)
• Active Defense on a 60s cycle (7 end per cast, no worse than an attack but you can slow down on attacking - AD is on auto-fire)
• Hasten Crashes (7s shy of perma)
• OWTS Crashes (which would normally be fine due to the inherent recovery boost, but can get scary when you are juggling other crash type powers and are against endurance draining enemies like the IDF)

I'll pm the build, and correct I'm not worried about Incarnate AVs as I will have support any time I'm facing them.



You could be right.

I've had both truly amazing teams where we just plowed through the IDF like they were no worse than Cimerorans and I've experienced what I would consider catastrophic failures in terms of organization, team composition and PUG player lack of ability/build.


Yeah it's a tough call.

I'm currently working on getting L53 for my DM/SD Brute who already has Darkest Night - I'll take a few test runs with him to see how well it works before I make a final decision.

When you have a chance, please check your inbox.

And here are some suggestions:

• I don't think assault is worth it. I think you would be better off with Musculature instead, and save yourself the endurance consumption.
• I added another purple set, because this looked like a no price limit build - that being said, I think Elm/SD is one of those special cases where you really don't need purples. You could easily swap all 3 purple sets to Decimation, Posi Blast & Obliteration and at most you will lose 2s on the rech of SC, LR & lose 5s on Hasten.
• I put a single L50 Res IO in true grit, because I had a slot leftover - another choice might be the forcefeedback proc in Thunderstrike.
• I slotted and turned tough on, because its worth it.

I would to politely ask you to reread my posts, my issue with the SD Brute is its not as survivable as the WP brute and the offense I am used to in the trade off is not as effective.


Your claws regen is not an aggro eating machine.


Or it could be the other reasons I've already posted, including no self heal and enemies having a 20% chance to hit a character that has its highest resistance at 35% and is actively tanking for teams.



Darkest Night is easily greater than an entire tray of lucks and sturdies.

Aside from adding more than a single Luck's worth of defense, and -21% damage to your enemies, it grants this mitigation team-wide in a massive 25ft radius and allows you to add a (very tiny) force multiplier element to your melee build.

The only reason I didn't have it on this build previously was 1) I was already survivable enough for general content/TFs and 2) It would be difficult to run on this type of build considering the other endurance concerns.

I'm ok with the occasional death when I make a mistake or simply get very unlucky. For example 1 in every 10~15 trials or so.



If I could build more of other layers, I most certainly would.

This is why Darkest Night is my prime option. It adds a later of mitigation that includes both reducing the damage of the attacks as well as making you harder to hit.



I'm a heavily team focused player. The only soloing I do is farming, PLing my alts or grinding out tip missions for yet another glad unique (™).



I'm kind of surprised at some of the responses in this thread. I thought this was the forum for discussing top end survivability and endless build improvements?

I'm sorry but did you actually read any of my posts?

Solo glory is not my intent.


Evening the playing field is kind of a silly idea, since support is the most powerful option in the game.

EM/EA or KM/EA would be pretty unique.

I would never play either of them.


I don't play, or worry about playing, unique combinations.

I play for performance.

I let my costume and playstyle be my unique.

The trade off pre-incarnate was worth it I felt, and was the main reason I started playing the SD over the WP brute for normal TFs and such.

The SD wasn't as survivable as the WP, but was survivable enough that death was a rare event.

In that case, I felt more offense was better - which is exactly the reason I play Brutes over Tankers in the first place. I was just making the next logical jump within the Brute AT itself.


As far as the devaluing of defense is concerned, it's definitely the trend and I feel really bad for several friends who play SR Brutes.

They have a taunt aura, the same threat mag in their attacks and as Brutes and are expected to act like Brutes - and unlike SD they can't fall back on extra HP or resistances to help hold them together when they do get hit.

At the very least, they have the best shot to actually build for the new softcap without completely gimping themselves - they have the defense numbers for it, as well as the innate rech boost to skimp a bit in that department.

All they would actually need is 54% to all positions, and then Barrier could take care of the rest.

But big spikes of damage are still big spikes of damage.


In the trials straight HP and Resistance are still fairly strong mechanics.

The few things that ignore Resistance so far in all incarnate content, are for the most part avoidable.

There's also a difference with a limited use mechanic trivializing passive mitigation occasionally, for example the Towers in BAF or Blue Patches in Apex, and every single enemy flat out making a mockery of your previously excellent defense numbers - as is the case in the incarnate trials.

A few mechanisms designed to favor flat out control or flat out damage are not an issue - because these are limited mechanisms.

Huge Incoming damage spikes and the the death of the old softcap however, permeate the entirety of both incarnate trials.



And yet, currently, my WP Brute suffices in this.

He is not invulnerable to incarnate content, he could never "go afk" inside Lambda in one of the hallways.

However his level of survivability is enough, that he can - and has - taken care of half the crates on his own when the time came that he needed to do so.

He can be the sole focus of Marauder's attention with, or without support for a significant amount of time - and has done so repeatedly.

That's extreme, but at the least I expect to be able to hold down a small team if necessary - and the SD is simply going splat too often for my tastes.





I have considered it, but I think it is a weak solution.

Darkest Night means -20% or so damage to everything in a 20 (25?) foot radius along with -14% to hit, it also means I can carry T3 oranges and greens instead of purples.

Power selection wise it's an easy fix, I just drop Super Jump for it, and move one slot over. (Already have Gloom & Dark Obliteration)

Endurance consumption wise it will most likely force me into Ageless instead of Barrier or Rebirth both of which which would be preferred.



The contribution of teammates so far has been hit or miss in my experience.

Sometimes you're in a big dogpile of 24 people and you have buffs out the wazoo, and other times you're on an 8 man team that got split into two smaller units of 4 for whatever reason.

And if mitigation continues to be trivialized, where the only mitigation becomes a big huddle of 23 people - this might as well be city of support + blasters.

I don't think we're there yet, but I don't believe in justifying the current trend of constant escalation.

What kind of enemies are we going to face beyond i20?

Content designed around 24 people packing T3 or greater destiny buffs, 24 people each with 2 pets minimum, 24 people with T3 or greater Judgement powers hitting 24 - 40 mobs at a time.


The i20 powers are fun, and they make Incarnates ridiculously overpowered vs. standard content - but they make me a bit nervous about the potential escalation in future content.

I understand how to do it and used it to generate 2 Glad Uniques and a couple extra billion in sales.

I no longer want to do it because it has become a boring chore grinding out the same handful of missions repeatedly.




Not every answer to a problem is people's lack of information.

The best part about that picture, is the OTHER cat.

Is the other Cat the Mastermind or EMP Defender?


One of my completely baseless suspicions is that there is a limit per trial to the number of Very Rares (and possibly Rares, but I've seen at least half a trial report getting rares when I was running 16 person BAF runs to see if it increased everyone's "participation").

Other players have referred to this as the "MVP" award.

No, it doesn't really.

While I always wish I could get more +Resistance for my Brutes - 4% to all damage types is a significant amount, and the nearest other options are the Shield Wall Unique (2 to 3 billion) and Tier 4 Barrier Core Epiphany.


Which by the way, means you can stack all 3 of these for an increase of around 12% Resistance to all.

No bonus, in any IO set, even comes remotely close - because they only provide +RES to a limited amount of damage types and not damage resistance across the board.

• FA can reach Fire Res Cap
• Ela can reach Elec Res Cap
• Stone Can Reach SM/L Res Cap and 65-68% to all other types except psi (zero %) - requires Granite.
• Invuln can't cap without Unstoppable or Inspirations, but can get to 80% vs. SM/L Base.
• DA might be able to get close to PSI - but the build would be pretty bizarre, likely gimped and not worth it.
• WP Can get to 60% SM/L Res base and can Cap SM/L Resistance with SoW - due to the nature of WP as a set you can use SoW frequently and without worry.
• SD can get to 80% SM/L Res at the extreme end with OWTS running. However 70% is more likely due to more pressing slotting requirements.

None of this takes into consideration T3 inspirations or the Barrier line of Destiny Incarnate powers.

You mean a ghost town?

I’m not convinced the trade off is of the same value that it used to be for a Brute.



I think it will get worse, before it gets better.






I’m hard-headed, I don’t like to slow down.

SS/SD Brute is also a very different animal from a Katana/SR Scrapper – with one of the strongest taunt auras in the game, a threat mag 4 in every attack, and frequent use of AoEs & Taunt to specifically draw aggro for the dual purpose of fueling fury and keeping attention off of others – the choice is to either build to survive the incoming attacks or to abandon the build.





I don’t think the softcap has changed in the pre-Incarnate game.

What is your Epic/Patron?

Shadow Meld can function as a mini-elude with no crash, but I wouldn’t build for that unless you were very focused on running trials above all other content.











Normal softcap is only 30% Defense in an incarnate trial when I’m not with the group – and against the IDF that simply isn’t enough.






Absolutely. The WP Brute has T4 Void Final Radial for that express purpose.

I’ll most likely take it on the SD as well, I suppose I’ll have to wait to get the fun and flashy pyronic on my Corr.

Good tip!!

Most things would be preferable to the current system.

I would hug you for buffs, I promise.



I have periods of cruising that are suddenly interrupted by a deer hopping out into the middle of the road.

I don't have a permanently large enough group of friends I can count on to be on every trial I run (I run a lot of trials).

I'm not looking to run off on my own, but I'm not going to stand there waiting for a bad team to figure how to tie their shoes either.




It might be part of an overall solution, but eventually purples run out.

I also find it much more valuable to be mostly unhittable and then back that up with T3 Orange Inspirations as well as Healing Insps.



Also, I'd just like to reiterate - I am not going to attempt to build for 59%, because as Claws said it would most likely "gimp the build".

Nor is my goal to run around on my own.



Now that others have been nice enough to confirm that 59% is in fact the target , I simply need to choose the direction I will go.

A) T4 Barrier + AoEs to leverage T4 Diamagnetic.

B) T4 Ageless + Darkest Night (which would allow reactive).


I would be losing Super Jump (I took it as a "for fun" power, it's proved useful on Lambda but CJ will suffice) for Darkest Night which is not a major loss - and Darkest Night will only require 1 additional slot beyond base to get a 2nd enzyme.

I'm already level shifted to L53.

The character is not as successful as I would like it to be, because the lack of sustainable durability (i.e. hits that get past defense) was often made up for by a very powerful offense.

However, Elite Bosses and Bosses to not die so easily.

I've run, probably 200+ trials at this point. I have a clear idea of the L51 vs L53 situation, but this is beyond that.

My WP Brute can, and has, solo'd half the crates mission (not on purpose, I had a particularly bad team - I prefer everyone sticks together for the most part and plow through as a group).

I don't think the SS/SD Brute would be capable of the same without Darkest Night at this point (which the WP Brute does have, but that build is not softcapped to begin with at 40% SM/L and 35% E/N/F/C)


With 4 Purple sets and a Glad Unique already invested, the money is already spent on this build.

The goal will now be to either find an acceptable level of mitigation or shelf the character. I have others.

I'd be disappointed if the character was relegated to running the trials until powers are slotted and then shelved for regular content - so I am looking for options.






I agree for the most part, my goal is not 100% pure solo ability all the time on trials (that would be folly).

My goal is to be able to perform exceptionally well even in bad situations/poor team comp.

That's not the case currently for the SD Brute.

Sometimes the support is there, sometimes it is not.

This is only really an issue on Lambda, when sometimes you get team mates who decide to run off on their own.

I try to keep as many of the squishies together with me as possible, but random team comp is random team comp.

Both my WP and SD brutes are L53 and the difference in their capabilities is fairly huge in terms of survivability.


I've built for that for the most part.

Running 155% or so rech with hasten up, 35% SM/L defense base, 2400 HP or so, 2700 or so with OWTS up and 60% SM/L res.

I'll be attempting to push that further, but the decision to go Darkest Night might force me to take Ageless instead of Rebirth of Barrier.


I grabbed T3 Barrier because it was immediately useful, but I may go Ageless in order to make Darkest Night work.

I have no end recovery tools, and I already juggle Rage, Hasten and OWTS crashes.

That will allow for 45% Defense + -14% To Hit from Darkest Night and the ability to shrug off debuffs.

Alternatively I was considering T4 Barrier + T4 Diamagnetic - I can open with two AoE attacks and have a 100% chance to proc Diamagnetic, for a total of -10% to hit on top of +5% DEF permanent from Barrier.

It's the riskier option, but for a lot of situations I'd prefer Barrier over Ageless usually.



For straight building with IOs, yes. I can get to 50% with barrier. I could sacrifice some recharge and probably get to 55% - but I don't think I'm willing to do that.

What is your opinion on 45% Softcap Defense + 5% Permanent from T4 Barrier while leveraging 100% chance to Proc Diamagnetic for -5% per hit?

The goal would be to open with FS, Dark Oblit and Shield Charge - which will be -15% To Hit for anything nearby.

FS is on a 5.6s recharge - sometimes faster when the Force Feedback Chance for Rech procs.

That might work for Blaster or a Scrapper with no taunt aura, but my Brutes are designed to take the lead on teams.

My choice is to either build for the new softcap, build for 45% softcap + darkest night, or abandon the character/playstyle completely.

I know this is the proposed solution for dealing with leeches, but it is not a perfect solution:

1) You can't see the entire league on your map, only your own team.
2) Outside of being AFK in the hospital or the door, its very difficult to distinguish what is a person leeching and a person experiencing massive lag (not uncommon on the trials, especially BAF).

Even worse, it also screws over everyone around them.

Pets & Pseudopets unfortunately seem to be a black hole sucking in rewards other players (including the owner) could be getting.