Fury Flechette

If I had to choose, I'd pick the 2nd one. I really don't like either build because I disagree with the concept a buffing brute. Grant cover is a nice buff *assuming* everyone stays in range of it. Brute manuevers isn't enough of a buff to matter. If everyone stays in range (within 15 feet), your teammates will have around 19% defense (GC + manuevers) which is noticeable.

However, that's assuming they stay near you. The moment you decide to move up front, like many brutes do, to take the alpha strike, they lose the defensive bonuses. The teams I play with don't really turtle enough for grant cover to matter. The only times grant cover seems to help is if there's another melee toon around who's attacking up front with my brute, but they have their own defenses already.

I'd rather build my brutes for individual toughness and to deliver as much damage as possible. I noticed that you skipped build up in both builds, which I think is mistake. I'd also take hasten if possible and try to bring up the two mini-nukes (LR, shield charge) up faster. Killing stuff provides far better mitigation that turtling in the back and providing defensive bonuses.

I get a lot of requests for this thread. It's the thread for electric/shield and fire/shield builds for any budget: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=216944

When I get the time, I'll probably put it more into a guide format.

See the guide referenced in the sig.

The cheap Fire/Shield build referenced in my sig represents a fairly solid leveling plan in terms of powers taken and slots chosen. It's not an unlimited budget build either, but something I built towards players who want something very effective with a modest budget.

The build does what it should do. Take scorch and cremate early, take FSC at 18 and wait for heavy hitter, incinerate, at 26. You *can* level that way easily.

3 slots were probably referring to SOs. Level 35 IOs are better than SOs so they can give you more bang for your buck. A 1% difference probably isn't enough to justify a slot.

It's a long animation *and* it roots you. No thanks. Barb swipe is one of the worst scrapper powers in the game from a PvE perspective. The only reason why players take it at all is for PvP where damage is tied loosely with animation times.

Whipped this up quickly. It could stand for more optimizations. Soft capped, 3.56 end/sec recovery, 336% regen, 57.5% global recharge. Build is expensive.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.704
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
MA-Shield: Level 50 Natural Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Martial Arts
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Storm Kick -- Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(A), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(3), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Hectmb-Dam%(17)
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(5), LkGmblr-Rchg+(7), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(13), S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(40)
Level 2: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(5), LkGmblr-Rchg+(13)
Level 4: True Grit -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(7), Numna-Heal/Rchg(11), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Numna-Heal(42), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(43)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Crane Kick -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Mako-Dam%(33)
Level 10: Active Defense -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(11)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(37)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Heal(31), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(43), RgnTis-Regen+(50)
Level 18: Crippling Axe Kick -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(19), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Mako-Dam%(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(21), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(34), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(40), P'Shift-End%(42)
Level 22: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 24: Focus Chi -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(25), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(25), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(33), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(34), GSFC-Build%(34)
Level 26: Dragon's Tail -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(27), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(33)
Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 30: Phalanx Fighting -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 32: Boxing -- RzDz-Acc/Rchg(A), RzDz-EndRdx/Stun(46), RzDz-Acc/EndRdx(46), RzDz-Stun/Rng(46), RzDz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(50), RzDz-Immob%(50)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(37)
Level 38: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Aegis-ResDam(39), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(39), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Weave -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(45), GftotA-Def(45), GftotA-Run+(45)
Level 47: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(48), Numna-Heal(48), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Grant Cover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 6: Ninja Run

Is this him? Dark_Mike?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115168

Guide was written back in issue 7.

Yeah, pretty bold calling yourself the "world's foremost expert." L-O-L!

I'd love to see him post a build here. Or even dispense advice.

That looks like something Fire Kin Master would put together. And no, that's not a compliment.

A good farm build will have:
1. 45% smash/lethal defense - not more than that, not less. There's no point going way over that since it means you've compromised on other parts of the build. Anything +5 to +1 to your level has exactly the same chance of hitting you as an even con so the extra defense doesn't help unless you're debuffed. Hint: you will not be farming stuff that will be debuffing you.

2. As much recharge as you can muster in the build. Recharge brings up your heal, transference, controls and your damage powers up faster. This means you can farm faster. An expensive build will have around 80%+ while still having capped defenses.

3. Good endurance management. You will have hot feet and your other toggles slotted for endurance redx. It's irritating running out of endurance and having to spam transference all the time. That slows you down and hence slows down your farming. Your build should have good recovery and good endurance management. There are some folks who swears by having damage procs in hot feet and no end redx. I am not an advocate of that approach largely because procs only fire off once every ten seconds in aura powers and hot feet is very endurance expensive. Slot hotfeet like a high endurance consumption attack power - it needs end redx, damage and then accuracy in that relative order.

4. Siphon speed and hasten need to be maxed out. Hasten should be above the ED limit line with 3 level 50 recharge IOs. Siphon speed should have enough recharge in it so you can double stack it. It's also very nice to have the force feedback proc in Fissure. Not absolutely required, but just about any good build will have it.

5. Accuracy. Your heal, end recovery and controls all depend on hitting stuff. You want as much accuracy as you can muster. If you don't have tactics, you want lots and lots of global accuracy bonuses to overcome the lack of tohit buffs. A fire/kin build with lousy accuracy is bad.

EDIT: Good luck getting that +3% PvP IO. That IO by itself is worth more than the entire rest of your build.