Gruumch

I am going to have to disagree with you on EA also. I have a WM/EA that I have been playing for a long time and he has to be close to my favorite brute. I don't play him as a stalker either, I have always used him in the tank role on teams. I think alot of your problem may be your choice of primary. Em does not provide much mitigation as has been mentioned already and EA benefits from sets that provide that. Try pairing EA with another primary and then come back with your experience before condemning the whole set.

WM, BA, DM, SM and SS would all be better with EA than EM. I probably would not try Fire with it myself unless you are a masochist.

As far as the heal/end power, I have found from my experience that I prefer slotting it recharge first then heal and end mod last. I also use it in large groups to get the most benefit. With my slotting I get 46% heal every 25 seconds off of 10 mobs.

I find myself in somewhat the same situation. I had a set group to team with for awhile and over the last year they have all quit for other games. I have resorted to PUG's and even AE to find teams lately, but I just haven't gotten into another active group. I have 2 huge well stocked bases, one hero and one villain, on Freedom and I just don't want to give them up after working 3 years on them so I haven't been willing to move to another SG/VG. I have looked for a group also, but not much luck yet.

edit: I find pug's all the time, just not a set group of people yet.

I'll second that. I fought getting sig pic in using the built in loader and it never worked. I then switched to the [IMG] tags and it worked fine.

As for the DB/Elec Brute I would recommend a couple things to make the teens easier. First at level 13 you should slot your attacks with endurance reducers first and then one accuracy, this is where most of your endurance is going so reduce it as much as you can. I like to have my attacks slotted with 3 endredux and 1 acc at this point. Second, only run the toggles you need to fight the enemy you are facing. Charged Armor will get you by on most missions and add then add Conductive Shield when facing Clockwork or CoT at this level. I have played many brutes in my 3 years and I seldom have endurance issues any more by following these simple things.

I would focus on typed defense, mainly smash/lethal and energy/-energy with Kinetic Combat in ST attacks(4 slots), Reactive Armor in resist powers(4 slots), and Eradication in PBAoE's(3 slots). You can easily get 30-35% to those 4 damage types. I would also take Tough, Weave and CJ.

My money is on it not getting anything. Look how long it took them to fix the other sets and Mu was considered to be OK at that time, so I doubt you will see a 5th anytime soon.

I have played a brute and a tank with FA and tried both with and without Tough, both were very squishy without it. I don't know how you play, but I like to fight large mobs and FA is very good at that if you can leverage Burn and tough help a lot in that . That may not be your play style, but tough is still very useful and I would try to fit it in somewhere. The great thing about this game is you can build any way you want just have fun with your character.

I saw a few things I could improve for you so I worked up a new build. I kept SS since that is the travel power you picked but I switched around a lot of other stuff to fit in Fighting Pool and get patron powers at 41.

edit: A little explanation I guess. I went Mu for Electric Fences since it is an AoE instead of a cone. This lets you leverage Burn very well. Also, I consider Tough to be needed on a fire brute, it will increase survivability by quite a bit.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Natural Brute
Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fire Sword -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:30(A), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(3), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(7), P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg:30(34), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg:30(37)
Level 1: Fire Shield -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg:30(5), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(11), TtmC'tng-ResDam:30(25)
Level 2: Cremate -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:30(A), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(3), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(7), B'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(40), B'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(43), B'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:30(50)
Level 4: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:30(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:30(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:30(11), Dct'dW-Heal:30(15), Dct'dW-Rchg:30(25)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I:30(A)
Level 8: Incinerate -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:30(A), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(9), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(9), B'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(15), B'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(37), B'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:30(50)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(29)
Level 12: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:30(13), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:30(13), Stpfy-Stun/Rng:30(37), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(46)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Winter-ResSlow:30(A)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg:30(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam:30(34)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I:30(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:30(19), Mrcl-Rcvry+:30(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:30(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:30(21), P'Shift-End%:30(21)
Level 22: Blazing Aura -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:30(23), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:30(23), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(43), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(48)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(43), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:30(46), ImpArm-ResDam:30(46)
Level 26: Fire Sword Circle -- Erad-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(27), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(27), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(31), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:30(34), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(40)
Level 28: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(29)
Level 30: Consume -- Efficacy-EndMod:30(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg:30(31), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:30(31), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg:30(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc:30(40), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx:30(50)
Level 32: Greater Fire Sword -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:30(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(36)
Level 35: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(36)
Level 38: Burn -- C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:30(A), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:30(39), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:30(39), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(39)
Level 41: Electrifying Fences -- RtngG-Acc/Rchg:30(A), RtngG-EndRdx/Immob:30(42), RtngG-Acc/EndRdx:30(42), RtngG-Immob/Rng:30(42), RtngG-Acc/Immob/Rchg:30(48)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:30(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:30(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:30(45), Posi-Dmg/Rng:30(45), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(48)
Level 47: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:30(A)
Level 49: Temperature Protection -- S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- EndRdx-I:30(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth:30(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:30(A)
Level 1: Fury

Sounds awesome!

I like the cones from Leviathon Mastery and have them on a couple of my brutes. I get the best use out of them by jumping straight up while in a mob so the cone fire straight down and acts like a AoE then. It works best if you have hurdle for the extra jump height.

I farm with my Fire/Ice/Pyre Tank pretty well and I have no problems keeping mobs in my burn patch.

Yeah no separate forums for Villains anymore. Just change to the color to red and feel more villainous.

I have a hard time skipping Fault when I play Stone Melee, but it doesn't do damage so I can understand skipping it. Other then that not to bad.

The one I get the most comments on is my WM/EA brute Bubbagimp.

It always get lots of laughs.

EA has some rough spots where you will get frustrated with it. Pre-SO's you will think sometimes you don't have a secondary at all, but most defense sets can feel that way. Also, late game when psi is more abundant you will notice the big hole in your defenses to psi. I avoided Carnies like the plague with mine.

I really enjoyed playing my /EA and now that he is 50 with softcapped defenses he is one of my favorites.

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And if your Dark Armor Brute is weaker than your EA Brute, you built your Dark Brute wrong. Very wrong.

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My /EA brute is fully IO'ed out and my /Dark is not. If I had the inf and the interest to IO out my /Dark I may change my mind on it, but I had a lot more fun playing my /EA so it was the one I spent the inf on for IO's. From my personal experience EA was better and more fun to play. Of course YMMV.

edit: Have you played EA to 50? Just asking since a lot of people knock the set without even having played it.

I have played 6 brutes to 50 so far and if I had to rank them on overall durability EA would not be the bottom.

I would rank my /Stone and /WP over /EA, but I think /EA is better than my /Dark and /Elec and about even with my /FA.

edit: I would probably rank /Dark higher if I had enough inf to IO him out with purples.

[ QUOTE ]
So after looking at Mids a bit more.Very disappointing there are not more sets to increase resistance.
Thanks for the replies and suggestions.
Not sure if I want to continue with this scrapper or not now.

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Dark Armor also has defense in CoD that you can stack on. You can easily have 20% def to all to stack on your resistances as well as OG and CoF. That is very good mitigation. Dark has many layers.

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Regarding skins, however, it does suck there's only two available for mace (and one requires the illusionist badge @!%$).

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Two?!? What game are you playing? There are 17 (and that doesn't count the two unlockables).

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That's what I was referring to. WM gets two custom maces, Axe gets 4; and, of those 4, none are half as difficult to get as the carnival hammer for War mace...

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Not sure what you are talking about here.

BA gets 15 and you have to unlock 7 of them

WM gets 17 and only have to unlock 2 of them

By the numbers WM has more unless you think having more to unlock is better.

I have a WM/EA brute I took to 50 awhile back, so I can answer your questions. I post a lot since I found I enjoyed the set after I started playing it. I made him as a joke back when the Strong and Pretty thread first started thinking it would be terrible as every body was saying. Of course then both sets got buffed and things did change. EA has a real bad rep and gets a lot of hate. At one point that may have been justified, but I don’t think that is the case anymore. It does play different than other sets, so don’t think it will play like WP.

1. Is relying on quick attack chains to build fury the best way to go for an Energy Aura?

I went WM which is definitely not quick animating. I build fury by taking the alpha in a team and yes I have done that since level 1. I died sometimes also, but with a defense set that is going to happen.

2. I've read that controlling enemy threat levels via Energy Cloak is one of the trademark utilities of an /EA. What does this translate to in-game in a typical teaming situation from spawn to spawn? Energy

Cloak makes keeping agro difficult at times. In the early levels I took taunt and was able to steal agro from all the other brutes pretty easily. Before you have AoE’s it is really the only way to keep agro reliably.

3. Can /EA handle spawn alphas and how does it mitigate this?

Yes EA can handle alphas just fine. I have been doing it since level 1. As you get more of your powers you will handle it better, but that is true with all sets. I took all the powers in EA except conserve power and tough and weave so that I have layered mitigation.

4. What sort of team role does an /EA play in terms of holding aggro and psuedo-tanking?

I tank with my EA all the time. Once I hit 50 I spent about 400mil inf on mine and am now sitting at the softcap. I am able to take on a spawn of 12 level 54 bosses solo, so yes you can tank well. I keep agro now by using my AoE attack chain and using Energy Drain, I dropped taunt once I hit 50.

5. What primaries pair well with /EA?

Primaries with mitigation help EA a lot. Fire is probably the only primary I wouldn’t play with EA. I would go with a set with a lot of AoE myself, but single target sets would be good also.