Ehina

Most brutes are fine solo.

Not all brutes are the best in large teams, AE teams, boss maps... etc, cause there you need solid AoEs to be competitive.

But solo... pick the primary you like the name the most (avoid maybe Elec/ because it's awesome at AoEs but a bit weak for single target dmg).

And for a secondary, as many ppl said, /WP is a very solid choice. Nice mitigation, nothing more nothing less than what you need to rock the solo game... and Quick Recovery at level 20 makes a world of difference.

Good luck and have fun

I asked myself this question recently. I'm having so much fun leveling my Elec/SD I almost find she levels too fast. So I'm thinking about my next /SD brute.

I played SS/ so much I'd like to try something else. I have a 36-37 SM/WP that is much fun, but I suspect she would be even better as a SM/SD... that is if the endurance can follow^^

To run my SM/WP I had to Frankenslot her not to fall out of endurance : even Stamina and QR 3x slotted are not enough if you dont put end redx in your attacks !

So I think it's a more delicate case for SM/SD. Probably would have to Frankenslot even more toward end redx, add a miracle and perf shifter at mid levels so that she can be enjoyable.

On the good side I see a FF proc in both Fault and Tremor, so that Shield Charge should come back much faster

For the end build, no worry. You can always turn off any endurance issue. The problem is : it has a cost. When you need like 90% end reduction in each attack to run smooth, you end up frankenslotting and loosing set bonuses that could give you more recharge, regen, hps... etc.

I think it should be expensive at the end to work correctly (as is every brute), but it must work... and it must be Fun !

Elec/SD is a blast for me.

Mine is 44 atm, frankenslotted. And no I dont regret I didnt choose SS/SD rather (I hesitated at the creation).

LR + SC is just... so much fun and carnage !

And with a FF proc in Thunderstrike, guess what ? They come back much faster

Brutes are awesome, seriously !

You just need to find the right combo that suits you the best.

No every brute is equal, sure, but I think that every brute has the potential to crush everything that stands on its way. This potential just requires more or less time, infamy and dedication to be fulfilled for each different powerset combination taken.

So dont hesitate to try a few different builds, read some guides, before choosing the one you gonna take to 50.

Good luck !

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I was just curious why Spines has been muffled? Is it harder to soft cap?

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Sadly, you cant roll a Spine/Shield... I wish it was possible, but it isnt.

/Shield has maybe the biggest potential of all scrapper secondaries, because it adds tons of damage with AAO and Shield Charge, has solid defense once it's soft cap, and very good peak survivability with OwtS slotted and running.

Sure it's not the best when you're running with SOs and 25% positionnal defense, but we're not talking about that, are we ?

Fire/ has always been the top dps scrapper primary under "most" circumstances (not talking about some "extreme" builds or case scenarios).

DM/Shield is another good alternative : you loose some AoE power though, but gain in survivability with Siphon Life. You can also near perma Soul Drain and once you manage to perma fuel it (only works on the paper because Soul Drain kills your "fuelers") its dps is unmatched.

But if you want to deal some good AoE carnage too, I bet Fire/Shield is overall a better choice.

With a top build (that is soft cap, with hasten and a good recharge), you'll get extreme ST dps and ST burst, great AoE power with FSC, great AoE burst with SC which should be on something like 27 sec rech, not more.

I recommand also building toward +regen (and +hp) rather than taking Aid Self. Having OwtS well slotted + something like 30-35 hp/sec is largely enough for most scenarios (see again Iggy 2xRWZ challenge if you need to be convinced^^).

Here for Iggy 2xRWZ challenge and This way for John Printemps' guide

Good luck !

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Pvp or Pve or both?

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i'd be curious to see how you can build a SS/WP for both, knowing that in PvP Air Sup, Kick and Flurry deal more dmg than Punch, Haymaker and KO Blow, and you wont use the pool attacks in PvE. That's pretty impossible I think

Recharge being a no brainer, your main choice is :

- Going for +def, hps and regen.
- Only for +hps and regen.

In the first case you'll have the best survivability when mobs dont debuff your defense. However if you think your defense gonna get debuffed really often, going for hps and regen only is a better choice.

It's up to you, personnally I think a bit of defense never hurt.

PS : dont forget the FF proc in Footstomp, this thing is awesome !

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I think having relatively well-balanced powersets to the point where you can't really name a bad one also helps.

The Brute forums are an indication of how thin that line is.

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/100% agree !

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From my non-PvPer perspective, having a completely different set of rules for PvP makes me even less likely to try it out. I don't know if it makes it more casual friendly or not, but the very idea that my character will function completely differently in PvP is a point against it in my book. So if it was done to entice non-PvPers into PvP, my guess (having absolutely no data) is that it was a failure. Same with the PvP IOs, which appear (again with absolutely no data to back this up) to have done nothing but encourage PvP farming rather than actual PvP.

I can't believe I'm complaining about changes that don't even affect me, but yeah. Even as a complete outsider, it sounds like it's taken an already poor add on feature and made it worse. Hopefully I'm wrong, because I think the PvP community deserves better than they seem to have gotten in this game and in the recent changes.

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Well said. And you dont even know how bad this new system is... Just read my example in the post above.

Personnally, I dont mind taking some time to understand a totally new system, even if I think like you it's totally counter-intuitive and the opposite of what should be done to attract PvE players to the PvP zone.

But when you see the total absurdity they created... well, I'm speechless...

I really have no clue understanding how such a thing could ever go live... really. I do believe the devs are clever people (otherwise we wouldnt have such a great PvE game). I do believe they made a mistake and they gonna fix it in one way (to revert back) or another. It cant be otherwise...

Because as you said : this game deserves better ! Much better !

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For the last year and a half I have mainly played spine/wp in Sirens and she is an alt I feel most comfortable playing now.

However, over the last few months I feel I am now being forced to 'hang up spines' due the the increasing amount of nerfs and the changes to damage that Spines has when in PVP. I find it ironic that if I want to deal any real damage, I have to use a tier 1 pool power from Speed or Kick from Fighting pool. I will not do this out of principle.

I would like to ask Castle how he can justify they low amount of damage thats Spine does now and considering 'Doms' even with their tier 1 powers can out damage a Spines tier 8?

I'm not asking for a massive increase to Spines, but just to have the PVE damage in PVP would be good enough for many spine users and many of those who have been forced into using FOTM alts, just do some damage.

Castle, it is really sad when you're forcing spine users into temps and power pools to do some decent damage. Care to explain why please?

Thanks,

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You just described exactly how I feel about i13 PvP.

And I perfectly agree with your post.

My problem being it's not only with Spines/ : it's the same with every melee powerset. You're forced into Pool attacks and that's utterly ridiculous. You people cant believe it, heh ? Just check your Mids on PvP mode, take any melee powerset, even with the longest animations... and see how AS/Kick/Boxing deal much more dmg with lower activation times. this is total crap !

However I see many ppl in the zone still using their primary attacks, and not knowing about this issue. So sad that the only ppl who keep playing this ridiculous system are the ones who dont know how it works. In the best case scenario, they just know that longer animation time equals more dmg. But look at this example :

Level 50 Fire Scrapper, base dmg in PvP, without any IO, SO, or sets :

- Fire Sword : 131
- Incinerate : 141
- Greater Firesword : 228 (2.33 sec activation)
- Air Sup : 252 (1.5 sec)
- Kick : 282 (1.83 sec)
- Flurry : 417 (3.07 sec)

I'd really like an answer about that specific pvp issue too (not even talking about DRs, resistance normalization which are other large problems too...).

Why are we supposed to rebuild completely to build up, air sup, kick, flurry and ignore our primary ? Isnt it the total opposite to what this game is supposed to bring to the table : aka power choices and customization ?

So why did you kill the PvP, for us, players who like to build a toon and invest time to think about our power choices ?

Dont you devs feel bad that most of your serious PvP playerbase left, while the other part of the game community who took some time to look into the new system (I'm in this category) feels like it's a total waste ?

My 2 cents, but I'll keep repeating it as long as I can, mostly because I love this game and I think it deserves a much better PvP !!

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Why exactly are you bothering to point any of this out? Do you think they will change pvp back?

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As ridiculous as it seems to be, yea I still hope they will.

The new pvp system is such an absurdity, I dont believe they can stick with it ad vitam.

Seeing the old guard of PvPers all leaving the game, the new ppl supposed to be the ones the changes were made for saying they wont play this (I'm in this category)... And the large majority of the people playing it now being obviously the ones who dont understand how it works... (lol@ppl in the zone still firing their melee attacks when AS/Kick/Flurry deal twice more dmg ??)

Should I say more ?

However to answer to the OP, I dont think Going Rogue will change anything to PvP. It's broken now, it'll be broken then.

But yes I still hope they change all of this. I think they made a huge mistake, but they're clever people and they must understand they cant leave it as it is now. Otherwise I wouldnt post about it. It's just a way to attract their attention.

Open your Mids on PvP mode (Options/Configuration/Effect&Maths).

Check the dmg of your attacks. Check the dmg of Air Sup, Kick, Boxing, Flurry : yea they deal twice more dmg than your primary attacks. No it's not a joke or a bug. It's how stupid the new i13 pvp is.

So what's the use of knowing if your primary is good or not, you're not supposed to use it... You can still keep FU, Focus and Shockwave however, the first one for the ToHit an dmg buff, and the two others because they're range. You wont be as good as a guy who kept BU from his primary and use AS/Kick/Flurry, but you'll be better than the large majority of ppl who ignore the new i13 rules and keep firing their primary melee attacks in the PvP zones

For a secondary, /Fire is a good choice due to its great self heal, its second build up, and its self rez which doesnt require a ToHit check. All the others datas (defense, resistance) are normalized anyway...

Dont invest in anything more expansive than SOs for a PvP build, it's totally useless. The DRs reduce your set bonuses to almost nothing anyway.

Good luck, the best is always to try it by yourself, try to understand how it works and see if you like it or not

I agree with the OP. He has a good point and both his suggestions would improve the playability of the set without creating any imbalance.

And shame on the following posters who try to ridiculize his post, showing their lack of knowledge of the scrapper secondaries. Guys seriously, learn about the game before laughing at others.


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Would also love -KB in DA and FA.

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(I agree also^^)

@Rabid, read my post above = your attacks are not good ! For PvP you must pick in the power pools (AS, Kick, Flurry...), they deal much better dmg. Keep Hurl and BU from your primary. That's pretty stupid but that's how it works. I keep repeating it as ppl seem to ignore it, and maybe when everyone knows that the devs wont have any other choice than changing it.

For your secondary, /WP is stupidely gimped due to the fact that every mez gonna drop your RotC toggle... and it takes like forever to recast it everytime during a fight.

But what really counts here, believe me, is that Stone/WP is a blast in PvE. Stick with this one for long, you wont be disappointed

(And one last tip for PvE, put the Force Feedback +rech proc in both Fault and Tremor, it has a chance to proc for each critter hit by your AoE. That means that while in a large pack of mobs it procs with a proba of 2/3, giving you +100% rech for 5 sec ! It's really awesome with this combo as you can spam your AoE mitigation alot while /WP regen keeps ticking. And the FF recipe is really cheap, what can you ask more^^)

PvP is broken.

I tried it too (this new i13 pvp system) with my SS/FA. Well until I discovered my primary attacks : Punch, Haymaker, KO Blow were totally useless there, because Air Superiority, Kick, Boxing, Flurry deal twice as more dmg...

The best advice I can give you is to check it by yourself. Set up your Mids in PvP mode (Options, Configuration, Effect&Maths) and look carefully at the dmg of each attack.

You'll see that you only need Hurl and Rage from SS/. Rage because its ToHit and dmg bonus still apply in PvP, and Hurl because it's a range attack.

On the /FA side, it's really good mainly because of its self heal : it heals alot, recharges fast... but not that fast it should be affected by DRs.

Anyway, try by yourself and good luck

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I enjoy making characters that are simply overpowered.

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I would suggest you Fire/Shield, check Iggy last movie about how he can handle a double RWZ challenge... And for an IO build John Printemps /Shield guide has several good builds for this combo.

Good luck

PvP has been broken since i13.

If you still wanna give it a try, check your mids turned on PvP mode (options, configuration, effect & maths). And look carefully at the dmg of each of your attacks.

You'll notice that Air Sup, Kick, Flurry, Boxing (aka the Pool Attacks) deal twice more dmg than your SS/ attacks, and, but Flurry, have shorter activation times. No it's not a joke, or a bug in Mids. Yes that's how stupid the new pvp system is.

However you can keep rage from your primary as its ToHit and dmg bonus still works there, and Hurl because it's a range attack.

For /Stone as a secondary I'm not sure how it performs, but I suspect it must be really far from how tough it was before i13, due to the stupid normalization and DRs on resistances.

Good luck

Yes PvP is broken.

Sadly, the only ppl I see playing PvP now are ppl who obviously dont understand the new i13 rules. There may be a few exceptions, but not so many I think.

I could play to CO, and I really dont think that CoX's playerbase will migrate there, at least not the ppl who have been there for some time and are addicted to its mechanics.

For me CO is closer to WoW than to CoX. For the PvP i just tested one arena, so I cant really say : sure, it cant be worse than i13 pvp, but nothing can beat that in term of absurdity anyway...

For the PvE part : CoX excellent mechanics and orginal gameplay + the MA + power customization incoming = I dont see myself leaving this game anytime soon for another WoW-like generic mmorpg.

To the OP :

I have no problem joining a team, running task forces or strike forces on Freedom... However most of the AE teams are tagged "farms" there, and some ppl dont like this concept.

Before ppl used to "farm" radio missions to level, now it's AE open maps with bosses or lieutenants. Radio missions were getting very repetitive too, most of the time in buildings or caves... those open maps arent less fun for me, I could even say that the AoE action on AE open maps is even funnier, and much more of a challenge than the old radio missions that became a bit too easy past mid lvls !

I dont see that much of a difference pre or post AE for my teaming, only that the AE is the best thing ever I've seen in an MMO as a source of endless new story content.

That said, if you dont like the "farm" tag everyone on Freedom seems to put on his AE team (even if most of those arent at all what farms used to be before), maybe you could try out Virtue. There are more RPers on this server, very cool and nice ppl last time I checked, more "story" oriented.

For myself, I like the Freedom action and activity

You can grab "farming" missions at any level. Most of the"farming" maps auto-sk you to level 50.

However they're better running with a team.

Were those changes in the last very small patch we got ?

I cant find the link, at least if it's this patch (07/01) it doesnt talk about any AT/Powersets changes...

I dont think that there are many people who are really serious about PvP, understand completely the new rules, and dont want it back to what it was in i12 and before.

We can never repeat it too much... maybe one day the devs will listen to us... maybe^^