Gospel_NA
-
Posts
375 -
Joined
-
So, what does the forums community think? What is the most survivable brute combination ignoring granite armor for these purposes?
-
Quote:Good advice right off the bat. Thanks Devil Dingo. Those sound like good changes to make.Originally Posted by devil dingo
I just leveled an earth/earth perma dom to lvl 50. I am at work so i can't post my build but your build is somewhat similar to mine. I didnt take a travel power and i took boxing and tough. I have a few suggestions.
1)Put only 1 common slow IO in quicksand.The extra slots can be used else where.
2)6 slot fossilize with 4 basilisk and 2 other from a cheap hold set. You really want as much hold/rech/acc as possible.
3) I am not sure if you will need the very expensive numina and the miracle IO's in health. Once you are perma...you get a full blue bar every 90 seconds. Even without perma dom i never really had an issue with endurance once my powers were I0'd with some end reduction.
4)Slot earthquake with 4 dark watcher Io's or 5 dampened spirit Io's. You will get a 5% recharge bonus.
5)you can save alot of cash if you 6 slot stone spears with the kinetic crash set. You sacrifice some damage but it turns the power into a mini lift. You also get some knock back resistance and an awesome 7.5% recharge.
6)5 slot fissure with a set of positron blast. This way you still get the recharge bonus and your not sacrificing damage.
Just my 2 cents.
I'd be glad to see your build when you find yourself with the time and opprotunity to post it as well, if you don't mind. -
I was curious about something I read on the forums and just wanted verification, before I start to get IO sets for my MM.
Is Acid Mortar auto-hit in PvE? -
So, this is my first real attempt at playing a dominator. I went with sets that seemed to be the most interesting to me and I really do like the combination of powers. It is entertaining, but at the sametime I do wish it to be as effective as it can be. Here is my build that I was hoping the forum community might take a bit of time to look it over and let me know if I can make improvements or if there are any glaring errors I maybe making.
I've gone for permadom with only one purple set being in place in my orignal build. I do have purple sets on the build as alternate slotting and will work my way to them eventually. With the current build, I am 1.5 seconds or less from permahasten and have achieved permadom.
But, I am curious if I am sacrficing anything significant with my power choices and with my slotting, such as stupefy in Fissure for the 6.25% recharge, should I be slotting that for damage or rely on other powers for my damage? I do want to make sure that this dom is capable of rendering mobs incapable (or as close to it as possible) and be able to deal with an entire mob quickly. So a mix of single target and AoE damage is certainly a goal. I figured a combination of tremor, ball lightning, stalagmites, and fissure would be enough even with their current slotting, though I am inexperienced with the sets. I specifically took salt crystals to place that Fortunata set simply, because I already have the set.
I appreciate, as always, the feedback given to me. Thank you.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Emperor Crag: Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Earth Assault
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(42), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(42), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(43)
Level 1: Stone Spears -- Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg:35(40), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:35(40), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:35(40), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:40(42)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(36)
Level 4: Tremor -- Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(5), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(15), Oblit-Dmg:50(17), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(17)
Level 6: Quicksand -- TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow:50(A), TmpRdns-Rng/Slow:50(7), TmpRdns-Acc/Dmg/Slow:50(7), TmpRdns-Acc/Slow:50(13), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx:50(15)
Level 8: Salt Crystals -- FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx:50(A), FtnHyp-Sleep:50(9), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg:50(9), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg:50(11), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg:50(11)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(A), Stpfy-Stun/Rng:50(13), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:50(33), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:50(33), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:50(34)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 16: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(43)
Level 18: Earthquake -- UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg:50(A), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx:50(19), Achilles-DefDeb/Rchg:20(19), DampS-ToHitDeb/Rchg:50(21), DampS-ToHitDeb/Rchg/EndRdx:50(21), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(23), P'Shift-EndMod:50(25), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(25)
Level 22: Heavy Mallet -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(27), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(34), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:50(36)
Level 24: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(29), RechRdx-I:50(36)
Level 26: Volcanic Gasses -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(29), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(31), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(31), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg:50(46)
Level 28: Seismic Smash -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39)
Level 30: Super Speed -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(37), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg:50(39)
Level 35: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 38: Fissure -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(A), Stpfy-Stun/Rng:50(39), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:50(43), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:50(45), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:50(45)
Level 41: Charged Armor -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam:40(45)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(46), HO:Nucle(46)
Level 47: Summon Guardian -- ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg:50(48), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx:50(48), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(48)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50), RechRdx-I:50(50), RechRdx-I:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- KntkC'bat-Knock%:35(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Domination
Code:| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1431;720;1440;HEX;| |78DAA593594F135114C7EF74B1145A4A2D6B296D690B94ADC09B5B620C6082A1090| |605446333C0A44C52A6CDCC60E449D4F8863E68228B627C332E2FFA882F1AFD086E| |1FC3E5D1A59EE5B612E39B4DFAFFCDBD73EE39FF7BCF9DECE5319F10EBC78512182| |DA896951B2BAEE8866A174D7756CDEB8BBEF195926616CDF8A8A9E63D4288583520| |375A346CB358C88CABA6BD5C19ED7B7FC2B2D4D5822DDFCB5170C258D64CCDB0339| |507DF5411924C6A6A4937F23C38A9DB866659B534982E69DA52901E278C4BBAA52F| |E805DD5E6B1B2FE98B993FD5B2ABB9AC6AD99AB9D60A367BE11F760AF92B3BC53B8| |7101DA2F73DE313A1EF2361CB5F8D73897B8084E8D9646C31B609BD3B801EB10DE1| |8A0C57960023C2A1315442E70221B948D881703652763BCB0E9C72FD62FC20D4FF2| |4347C67DC204460895B16713F5570EAC013C63382EF11A1FE31A103C23D32DC334F| |196A6618B384DA39C6394233C47A690F65E16DA20C51C8502733D45DE712D708F12| |B8C7542E755760119FC32833F4D1BF5C05480A794C00C45F59D52F0C462903B288F| |20F8861C1C7CCB78050889C6E7346A7CC1EE5ED3640DE40B713E676893DFDC25B4D| |E66DC21ECC2013749E74DDC8F30F7232CFBC18D48725BEE43780B873B5AFA692AC2| |4832E2E0B64DE66BE38B12F94088F27D89F2251ACCD31E1F40BE7619DECEE5A35C3| |0C52E525CB79BCD243DB8960FAE6390FD41C198BCA7B12FB4A7F85742EA1BA1FB33| |C1EFC15BC84B13DCB58750BC4B16EFE2AE7573D7FAB84F03DCBC016EDE06544ACB1| |6A553D49B8134E126BCE997A7D27F0CE0728AC1BF780B6232D267869D0DB1B32176| |3DC4AE13E07358366E98CF74E45F88B8AADF9D1067E8139BDC3FE5A56C53AEEAE72| |6145E98C0282EF05FBF3D5F258FF7742D3C4D8388B328B3389C439947398F731750| |2EA2E450CA2F7D15AF814368E830CA1194A3281B18E4C14FAA0EC587E247A94709A| |034A084509A51C228BB28E5DF0C040617| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
-
Quote:Well, the advice is well taken Tonality. You and everyone else that responded educated me quite well on what I was missing out on with my brute. I respeced my SS/WP brute and even though I cannot afford all the sets right now he is still perfrom heads above what he was doing. He is actually fairing +1/x8 spawns without any difficulty at all. I still plan on building a more specialized farming brute when I have more infamy, but I think SS/WP is my jack of all trades for now.Originally Posted by Tonality
Well, I don't see a thing to suggest.
You could lower your end cost by slotting in the endredux parts of reactive, but you lose some resists - that's personal taste.
I do find that after a point, slotting for regen on a regen-heavy set really doesn't do anything. What you want is to stack defense or add recharge so that footstomp knocks things down faster, so the 8% regen you get in boxing isn't that big of a deal.
You could possibly switch to perfect zinger for some more S/L def, but lose the bonuses for fire/cold def and some recharge.
I think it will come down to personal taste now, unless someone spots something I missed.
This has to be one of the most helpful threads I've been privy to be a part of. Thank you very much all of you. -
You've convinced me I need to give my SS/WP brute another try. I've taken your modified version of my build and tweaked it a little bit more. I'd like your opinion and observations, before I go into the respec later.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build! -
Quote:Well, I put together a quick build for a SS/ELA with the advice you gave me earlier in the thread, Tonality.Originally Posted by Tonality
With the changes to elec, I'd put elec above /Fire now for general all/around performance. Elec has superior end management tools and better resistance numbers to S/L/E, which are the big 3 types of resistance you will face end-game.
Fire still has the advantage of a very quick heal, offering it as quick as 10 seconds, but Elec has leveled the playing field as you can get energize reasonably near 30 seconds, with that 30 seconds giving you a good boost in regen for the duration. For damage potential, Elec and Fire are near dead-even. Fire comes out slightly ahead with combustion and fiery embrace, but both have a nice damage aura. Elec offers a 20% recharge bonus over +dmg with lightning reflexes. I like the extra recharge.
I'll list a few encounters and put which armor comes out ahead:
Nemesis Farm: Fire Armor hands down. You need those heals.
Rikti/LGTF: Elec (90% nrg vs ~30% nrg) - only have to worry about Hami
AE: Both can build missions around their strengths.
Cimerorans: About equal with both.
Malta: Elec (sappers are the last thing I need to kill)
CoT: Maybe Fire
Carnies: Elec (little more psi resists, and end drain resists)
I'm just wonder how ELA manages to survive as well as Fire without a very quick recharging heal. 30 seconds is a far cry from 12. Even though an extra 200% regen and a massive endurance discount is pretty nice trade.
I do, however, like the growth potential of ELA. But, I will probably do SS/Fire and build that up as a farmer doing the lib farm for purple drops and then consider building up a SS/ELA when I can afford it.
Here is the build:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build! -
Quote:I've played a few scrappers that were SR and I have to say that next to my Stone tank the SR scrappers probably had the highest survivability of any of my other blue side characters.Originally Posted by Vicar
Just wondering if anyone else made one of these that turned out well. Leveling it was painful with the end issues though its improving with IO's now.
Currently im working on IO builds for both pve and pvp and was just wondering if anyone out there had any opinions on it performance.
The only SF/TF I have run into issues with is the ITF, not really a shocker with the ridiculous amounts of defense debuff but I was just curious how others felt about it. I have yet to meet anyone actually playing one.
You'll find that the ITF will be no trouble for you when you finally get all your defenses in place, and I stress to you that you only really want to skip elude if you are going to skip anything in the secondary. The reason for this is that many of the power hold key underlying protections such as debuff resistance and scaling resists.
When taking all the secondary powers, minus elude (If you are soft capped) and quickness (Though why you'd want to skip a free +20% recharge bonus, I don't know) you should have between 90-95% defense debuff resistance (I forget the exact amount, but certainly in that range). The other powers provide scaling resists, which while might not seem like much at first, actually turn out to be a sigificant boon. As you lose hit point your resists slowly get higher and higher which means if you have 2000 hit points the enemy will, theoretically, have to deal 2500 or 2800 (Just making up a number here for an example, but the number is actually pretty significant) to actually bring you to zero.
This buys you more time to pop inspirations, kill the enemy, or flee as you need. So, it is an incredibly effective set for defensive purposes, but doesn't really add anything in the way of utility or offense. As long as you are at the softcap and manage your rage crashes in an effective manner SS/SR can be very very effective. (Just make sure you either activate rage before the crash or during the crash to avoid a very painful -20% defense loss) -
Quote:That sounds like a pretty solid SS/Fire brute. Outside of the lib farm how does the character farm in SFs, ITFs, etc? Is it a character you use exclusively for farming or do you find that it stands up well in those other activites?Originally Posted by Fiery-Enforcer
SS/Fire will become a killing machine, but it does take a bit of IO investment to really boost its survivability. One of your defenses is having a good offense. The patron power set is debatable.
I've played a SS/Fire/Mu Brute for a couple of years and just have recently switched to Soul Mastery and haven't looked back. Some AoE damage was sacrificed by skipping Burn, but my overall killing speed increased. The little bit of reduced damage of Dark Obliteration is negligible since minions and LT's melt so fast regardless. And Gloom is just that good of an attack and allowed me to kill bosses much faster.
If you're planning on farming Liberate TV, the lack of Burn I've found not to be a problem. I didn't use it that much in that mission in the first place. First, by the time I locked down all of the minions and LT's they'd all pretty much be dead. Also, I didn't like it for Fake Nemesis since you have to immob them to keep them in the patch for long. It messed up the timing I had and they ended up using PFF more times than less.
With that said my SS/Fire currently sits at 92% recharge and sometime hits permahasten thanks to the FF +rech proc. Foot Stomp recharges in 5.6 seconds and Healing Flames in 11. Along with 2057 HP it can stand up by itself pretty well. -
You seem to have a lot of experience with Brutes in general, Tonality. Your post are certainly helping a lot. I will definitely mull over my SS/WP brute and see how it turns out for me.
However, on the other hand I am still very interested in a SS/Fire or now perhaps a SS/ELA.
I'm curious on how you think the two secondaries stack up when paired with SS in terms of damage, survivability, and ease of use? -
Thanks Charnage your experience with various combinations is helpful. You've certainly tried some combinations I had not considered.
Tonality, thank you very much for the incredibly insightful post. It really does help having other people look at the builds. Some of the changes you suggested seem very common sense, but for some reason I had not seen them.
I am not certain if I will try to rebuild my Elec/SD, since I think two nuke type powers without much ST damage is a little too specialized for me.
However, I am going to revisit my SS/WP and poke around with my SS/Fire with your suggestions in mind. I think I can indeed make quite a few improvements on these two build.
Thanks to both of you for taking the time to provide so much information. -
Quote:I appreciate the future input on the SS/Fire brute, Archlight.Originally Posted by ArchLight
I would not get rid of all the + damage everyone likes plus damage. My main has about 10% damage buff and similar recharge. I agree recharge is always good but a lot of things need to hit yah to debuff. They also have to live long enough to make something of the debuffs they do land.
I have a SS/Fire I am about to IO out in the high 30's I will compare to your build and let you know.
Sad to hear red side players asking you to tank.
I also appreciate the amount of helpful information in this thread so far. Thank you. -
Quote:No offense taken. I do have a tanker mindset since I played more on blue recently. I do not care to tank for teams when I don't have to, but do when I am asked to.Originally Posted by ArchLight
No offense but it sounded like you were a tanker come brute. I play nearly 80% of the time red side and I can spot the Blue side players when I team with them. Brutes are about the SMASH if you understand SMASH then you will not want to tank for the team. It might still happen by virtue of your pursuing Fury and SMASH but its a different mind set. What server are you on?
In looking at your SS/Fire build I see your very concerned with Recharge and getting + damage bonuses. With a very similarly expensive build i think you could still have a lot of recharge (not as much) but have quite a bit of defense something Fire lacks. However 10-18% defense is not going to cut it long run. Its nice to have but you could have a lot more. Either by focusing on typed S/L or by going like Tonality with heavy Melee defense.
+ damage is nice to have but with Fury its not as needed. For my tanks I sure want plus damage. Brutes its nice to have but I focus on still being in the fight so I can continue to SMASH.
The reason I'm concerned with recharge and +damage for fire is that I want to have key abilities such as healing flames, rage, firey embrace, footstomp, and consume up as much as possible. From what I've been reading a quick and effective offense lends much of the fire secondary its survivability. I am, however, mulling over the build for improvements, as I believe I want to get a winter's gift slow resist in there somewhere to have 40% slow/recharge resist.
The defense, however, was not a goal, but merely a happenstance with the sets that I chose for getting my recharge up. I can, however, probably remove the sixth slot from the powers that I slotted with obliteration and make better use of them elsewhere. From what I'v been reading it seems to be a general consensus that defense is a moot point on a fire secondary brute without any sort of defense debuff resistance. It is nice to have, but not meant to actually be a large factor in the way that secondary performs its function.
I am, of course, since it has been pointed out pondering a SS/SD build as well, I'm just not certain that the combination is as low key as I'd like it to be right now. They seem very popular and are the big thing with my VG right now with comments like "They can't be beat by anything for damage" or "It can't be touched for AoE" and so on.
I feel the +damag intergrated on the build is fairly signficant as it is 22% without anything else taken into consideration. A bit over a fourth of what rage provides when it is up. I certainly like having it there, but I can also do without it should a better prospect be provided. -
You are right Archlight, I do play tanks on blue side a lot and a handful of scrappers. I like the idea of a brute which seems to be a fusing of tank and scrapper.
Here are a few of the builds I have used and one that I am currently considering for a SS/Fire brute.
Elec/Shield:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
SS/WP:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
SS/Fire:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
If you shift and right click on Ball Lightning, Electric Fences, Blazing Aura, punch, and mu lightning, in the SS/Fire build I have place purple sets for future use.
The biggest problems with the builds are lack of expected performance and endurance issues, which actually seems to be a reoccuring issue with many of my builds. But, I may simply have a hard time with the conversion of the number values to gameplay. -
Quote:I am starting to believe that you are correct. I have always been very good at getting the numbers I've wanted, but it seems never the performance I wanted. I would say that the biggest issues with my Elec/Shield was lack of ST damage, and lack of defense debuff resistance, however, I only recently learned that more debuff resistance can be gained through slotting active defense (I'm still uncertain whether the debuff restance can be increased in grant cover?)Originally Posted by Tonality
I have a feeling the reason you haven't been liking the sets is that you haven't been happy with the build - not the set.
For example, you grabbed scorp with focused accuracy on a SS brute with rage? Rage already has a to-hit power, and with sets that give accuracy bonuses, you don't really need rage either to hit things (but for damage)
Second, Footstomp is arguably the sole reason why SS is the best AoE set in the game - the excellent recharge time, the mitigation from knockdown, and the large radius all combine for an excellent AoE power. If you want more, go Soul Mastery for Gloom and Dark Obliteration. Gloom is an excellent ST attack (though has a DoT component) and Dark Obliteration will add some AoE.
If you still are unsatisfied, there's SS/SD for shield charge, but it costs a decent amount to make it viable, and even more to be sustainable with the end costs. SS/WP helps avoid this with quick recovery. SS/Elec is always an option, though I've grabbed defense sets for that combo for layered survivability.
I really do think the problem isn't the combos you picked, but how you built them. If you would post your builds, I'm sure we can tweak them (with or without adding purples) to your liking.
As with my willpower character, I feel that the character was fine, but perhaps I was focus too much on softcapping S/L defense and again using focused accuracy to fit in the chance for build up proc and the defense bonuses.
I am still at odds wondering how SS/Fire and SS/SD stack up against each other when it comes to kill rate, AoE capability, and overall survivability. I'd wager the latter would go to SS/SD.
I will dig up some of my builds and post them. Perhaps, I'm not qutie as handy with Mids as I had believed. -
Quote:It is quite understandable it is not needed, especially if you've made your build in a fashion to where you are not relying on the to-hit buff, however, the end result of this observation is that it comes down to personal preference.Originally Posted by _Krom_
So this is going to sound like blasphemy, but I've been farming with my SS/ELA brute lately and I've come to the conclusion that I don't NEED to run RAGE all the time. I've actually started not running rage at all to see how well things move and with lightning field, foot stomp, and dark obliteration, I'm killing fast...very fast without any sort of down time due to rage crashes. I'm not saying it's not needed...but I've discovered (for me) that it's not required to be on ALL the time.
It's actually now got me considering SR for my next SS toon to see how well it can go with only using RAGE for certain fights (bosses and large fights, etc...).
Should I choose to go SS/Fire, I would indeed run rage whenever I can simply for the hefty damgae buff that it provides. I do like being able to hit 350%-400% damage bonus with just my personal buffs, sets, and fury alone. -
Quote:You seem pretty correct on most accounts there.Originally Posted by Twilight_Snow
I only tried willpower on a tank. It's pretty good with a large number of minions and lieut, so it's great for mission teams. The defense and resistance are quite well rounded. I have some problems with hard hitting mobs like AV, when regeneration may not be enough. You can try soft-capping defense.
For defense debuff resistance, super reflexes is the best. As mentioned, there are ways to get around for shields. Energy aura only has a resistance of around 52%. If vengeance is an issue, that means all defense-based power sets are not good enough for you.
I tried ELA on a brute. For normal missions, I have problems with Longbow's nullifiers. I have problems with Cimerorans too. Because I use IO to raise defense, which can be easily debuffed. Probably, it's not the best for ITF, but should be great for LGTF. I don't know what lib farming is. For RSF, I believe you need buffs and support.
According to your description, probably no secondary power sets are good enough for you. All defense sets are out because of to-hit or defense debuff. Resistance sets are vulnerable to resistance debuff. Trying to optimize with defense IO bonus are also problematic against defense debuff. There are power sets that have a mixed bag of mitigation, for example invulnerability and willpower. Invulnerability has a psi hole. Willpower is well-rounded. But if you are facing tough mobs or rushing tfs, the incoming damage can overwhelm what willpower has. I believe that leaves granite, but then you want to farm.
I do like super strength and I do think that footstomp is an incredible AoE power, however, it wasn't enough within itself to manage the way I had built my character. Perhaps, I could have gave up focused accuracy from Black Scorpion and went with Mu Mastery to pick up some added AoE damage, however, I feel that WP was still a secondary, that while potent, wasn't exactly right for me.
I have taken into strong consideration trying a SS/Fire brute. I like Super Strength and feel that it has very powerful single target capability for bosses and decent AoE capablility on its own, but coupled with fire it would see a marked improvement in AoE potential with Blazing Aura, Burn, Consume, an Fiery embrace. The cavet to this is the fact that I have never played fire and maybe nearsighted when looking at damage numbers versus survivability.
Healing Flames is probably the best self heal I have ever seen, but is it enough to keep you alive when you are only boasting about 50% smashing/lethal resistance and about 15%-25% against most other damage types.
Is the damage output really high enough you can survive the alpha strike with healing flames and take out the mob before it can decimate you? If this is possible, when IO'd out, how does it fare against 3 to 8 man spawns? What about +2s, +3, and +4s?
Twilight maybe right in implying that I'm asking for too much from one set, but I am willing to accept the trade offs if I fully understand what I'm getting into with a set before I get 30+ levels into it. I've had too many brutes get put on the shelf that way.
If nothing else I do need to find a character that can farm well enough to fund other endeavors. I think SS/Fire fits the bill, but as I said my understanding of the secondary, beyond a few very old guides, is poor. Perhaps a SS/Fire couldn't survive a speed run ITF very well, but I can deal with not being able to do absolutely everything I want with just one character. -
Quote:The only two sets I've came to the realization that I was not very happy with them was DB at level 34 and EA at level 38. Everything else I have played up to 50 and have IO'd more than adequately, but not to full potential.Originally Posted by Minotaur
Well you've already tried the combinations I'd have tried.
SS/WP and ElM/shield are two of the best with a fairly minimal investment (I don't slot purples and not always top flight sets).
ElM/shield I did as a scrapper, and only nemesis and DE gave me a problem. The defence debuff resist issue can be overcome with HOs (your mez prot will take def/rech type HOs and these will enhance your debuff resist, it also stacks with itself) although I haven't bothered. I pwn Cimerorans and have no issues even with the lower scrapper hits. If the lack of ST damage worries you, set to no bosses solo.
To get your big AoEs up faster, footstomp, and thunderstrike love the Force feedback chance of +rech (it doesn't work properly in the teleport attacks).
I did ElM/EA on a stalker and have successfully "tanked" SFs on that. EA is very easy (but not cheap with the kinetic combats) to softcap by the mid 30s.
Also remember that you can seriously up your AoE damage from your epic, so if you've judged a set by the mid 30s, you may be a tad premature (there are some good ST punches in there too). -
Thank you for the replies so far.
So far with the builds that I have tried I've ran into the problem of either not like a primary set that I've tried or a secondary with the character. I've also ran into problems where I felt that a character would not reach it's potential without purple sets in its build. As, I currently do not have the means to afford much anything, beyond typical sets with a small assortment of some of the rarer sets, those types of characters really aren't effective to me.
Thus, I'm really attempting to find a brute that can cover all my bases for me and fit a greatly into a farming role and still allow me to remain active in all the endeavors that my friends take on without being a liability to their tasks.
I can say that with super strength, I really enjoyed that set, however the rage crashes could be annoying, but they were managed easily enough. The single target damage was phenominal, but the AoE damage just wasn't enough with footstomp alone. I certainly felt it need a little more to be a compliment to farming. I've considered SS/Fire, but I'm afraid I'm so very unfamiliar with the /fire set and how it plays and what kind of survivabilty it offers in most tasks.
Willpower, this seemed to be a phenominal set as well, however, I did find that in many task that my VG run on a regular basis he was always in danger of dying, speed run LGTFs, speed run ITFs, RSFs, he didn't quite boast the survivability that I saw in the numbers on Mids and he was very well IO'ed. In large groups he was very adept at surviving, but he had trouble holding aggro when it came to him absolutely need to and the rage crashes paired with this set were a little more troublesome fo rme. I know SS/WP is a good pairing, it just simply did not work out for me.
I forgot to mention that I had a Energy Aura brute as well, that set...I don't know what to say about that set other than I have never gotten that set to perform well for me even though I've made several attempts at it. Highly lack luster in my opinion and has not performed well for me.
My Elec/SD brute seemed well enough off other than having pathetically poor single target damage and rather low defense debuff resistances. He managed to survive most situations well, but did rather poorly when it came to vengeance stacking nemesis and large groups of defense debuffing Cimeorians. Perhaps, I would have been better of with SS/SD, but I do not think that the particular combination is going to meet my needs until I have more resources to perfect such a build.
I have been curious as to how ELA performs when paired up with various sets and DM/ELA sounds like a pretty good pairing as I've played DM on a couple of scrappers and found the single target damage to be rather intense, but was more curious as to how it's managed putting out enough AoE damage and how it would survive things like Lib farming, speed run ITFs, and on the RSF. -
So, it seems a ton of post are missing from this folder, so I wanted to ask in this thread, have you folks managed to make competitive farming crab spiders when compared to brutes.
Can you successfully solo farm large groups, lib farm, etc?
I have my crab at 43 and have been working on his build, but I'm still on a quest to build myself a character for hunting down the elusve purple recipes.
So, if you've managed to make effective farming crabs, I'd love to hear your success stories. Thanks. -
So, I love brutes. There is no doubt about the fact that I love playing brutes. I love fury, I love big damage, and I like the survivability compared to many other archtypes.
However, I cannot find a brute power set combination that has been fitting for me. I've tried a few brutes already, Elec/Shield, SS/WP, SS/EA, DB/WP, and Stone/Stone, yet none of these made me feel very great about them.
I've pushed each of these to 38-50 each and none of them have clicked for me. I've really been wanting to make a very effective farming character for lib and AE, but still be able to mange SFs without feeling like a liability. I really want to have a character that can be highly effective without need for purples, but can later add purples to really peak its performance.
I'm not asking for builds, you can add them if you like they do help, I can, however, make builds on my own. I am pretty handy with Mids. So, what I am asking from the forum community is their takes on powerset combos that will fit those needs and detailed experiences they've had with those combos.
As always, I thank those that take the time to address my concerns. Thank you very much. -
Quote:Soooooooooooo sllllllllllowwww Sehil.Originally Posted by Gearford
ill have a travel power next time, i swearz
-
Count me in for all 3.
King Oak - 50 Stone/Stone Tanker -
Count me in again.
King Oak - 48 Stone/Stone tank. -
Definitely a great run.
You can count me in on future endeavors.