JWatt
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Kay! Your opinion is just as valid as mine.Originally Posted by brophog02
I disagree with most of this. -
Quote:EVERY character in the game can rez. That's what Awakens are for.Originally Posted by Jade
I would like to have Medical for the Rez ability I feel all defenders should be able to rez.
As for epic selection, I went with Psychic Mastery. I stacked Tough and Mind Over Body for good resistance to smashing and lethal, since Kins can draw a crowd. I also got Dominate, Telekinesis, and Mass Hypnosis. They're great support powers that keep enemies locked down when solo or on teams, plus Mass Hypnosis is great for an IO mule. Also, Transference and Telekinesis were made to be together. :P
As for Leadership and Stamina, I went for Stamina out of habit and skipped Leadership. It was a personal preference. I'm thinking about putting Assault and Tactics into my build instead of Kick and Tough, at least on my 2nd build. Assault isn't much compared to Siphon Power or FS, but you're a Defender, so you take whatever you can get in terms of damage.
I love the combo because I can fire off a FS Boosted RoA on command, and so I stacked in some recharge and Accuracy in Siphon Speed and grabbed Hasten. Even with the Psychic Mastery powers, which I use a whole lot, I don't have any endurance problems unless I miss Transference or do something dumb, like forget to turn off Telekinesis. -
For a Fire Blaster, I'd suggest any secondary other than Ice. It's not that I think Ice is worse, but it just doesn't work so well with a fast-paced Fire Blaster.
Let's go ahead and see what we'll get...
Fire/Fire you know about already. Fire Sword Circle, Fire Sword, Consume, and Burn that you can stack with Ring of Fire, plus two damage auras.
Fire/Electric gets more AoE with Thunder Strike, as well as good ST melee, a hold (albeit a melee hold), and Power Sink. It gives you a little more control direct control and plain damage.
Fire/Energy gives you high-powered Single Target Melee, but little in the way of AoE melee. You also get Build up at lv 4, Conserve Power at lv 16, Power Boost to pump up the Stun in your melee hits, and Range Boost, which a friend of mine uses to give Fire Breath and Blaze a little extra range and aid in pulling. This is a pretty popular combo.
Fire/Devices loses you Build up, but you get some more tactical powers in return: Caltrops to slow enemies while you pound them, using TP Foe to drop enemies on top of stacked trip mines, and throwing Smoke grenade that make enemies miss, as well as a floating gun turret. This used to be a popular one in PvP.
Fire/Mental gives you another ranged cone (with better range than Fire Breath), Drain Psyche, World of Confusion, and Psychic Shockwave. This combo is sturdy, strong, and pretty safe. I have a friend who uses this to great effect both solo and on teams. -
Quote:I've actually known people who have run a Stone/Dark so that they could Stack Oppressive Gloom and Fault. Of course, those people were TANKERS, so they didn't have to worry about the lack of fury. Brute-wise, this would be a terrible combo due to the excessive endurance cost and lack of enemy combat to bring up your fury.Originally Posted by Carnifax
A Stone/Dark Brute sounds like possibly the worst combo for End I can think of.
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Won't be playing today, and maybe not tomorrow. RL and all, blah blah blah.
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Quote:I did at level 41, so sure I was that it would be just fine. I eventually stopped using it until level 42 and I could cram in some inspirations, since it missed to much.Originally Posted by Kinrad
Has anyone dropped 'shadow punch' for 'dark blast'? It looks like the damage would drop just a hair, but -tohit would stay the same... and it opens up 'Shadow Meld', which looks like it would be a lot of fun.
Any thoughts on doing it, I am seriously considering it for a level 47 respec?
Personally, I skipped Shadow Punch altogether, planning on grabbing Hasten later on. "Later on" ended up being lv 28, so I had a little bit of trouble damaging. -
Darkest Night is a great power for Defense Brutes, but it IS a hog. If you were a Dark/EA brute then I'd say to go for it, since it has Energy Drain on top of your Dark Consumption.
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Quote:Okay, my short take on each brute primary. Because I've been on this game too freaking long and I'm bored waiting for my breakfast casserole to cook.Originally Posted by aboutblank
I'm kind of an AoE freak in the sense I love hitting multiple foes as often as possible, but I'm also a fan of shredding through them before they can even attack, basically I want things to die fast, but I don't like using brawl, or filler moves. That's why SS kinda turned me off.
You see what I really want is fun, this will be my first level 50 afterall. I just happen to have alot more fun when things around me die quickly.(flashy moves help too)
(btw, just right now ruling out electric melee, tried it for the AoE not really in love with the animations)
Help is appreciated.
Battle Axe - Looks silly on anything other than the huge build. Lethal Damage type, but it still manages to dish out some nice damage. You can make an AoE combo with Cleave, Whirling Axe, and Pendulum with a Gash or Swoop thrown in. It has the same animations as broadsword and Mace. It's flavor is Knockdown, sending enemies soaring on impact. That keeps them from hurting you, and it's always impressive to see things go high in the air.
Claws - The new guy. I love the fast attacks and low endurance cost. My lv 9 builds up fury quickly, and keeps it going for as long as there are enemies. It looks neat (minus Eviscerate, IMHO), and with a set with an auto recharge power like Electric Armor or Super Reflexes you can keep up a continuous stream of damage with incredibly high fury.
Dark Melee - This set gets a bad rap due to being much weaker in early issue of the game and having very little AoE. However, now it is a very solid set with a nice damage type, its own self-heal, its own recovery power, a unique build up, and good DPS. The lack in AoE Damage can only be overcome if you go /Shield, but going for SR or EA might be smarter. Dark is also unusual in that it has both a melee range Immobilize and Fear power, to keep you from being overwhelmed.
Dual Blades - Flashy, fast recharge, cool looking, and combos to boost damage and drop enemy attributes, with Dual blades you wanna keep looking for that next enemy to ginzu. It has a considerable endurance cost and lethal damage, but I find it to be an extremely fun set. Some Dual Blades attacks and combos will knock enemies down.
Electrical Melee - Meh ST damage, but the most noticeable AoE Brute set. With Thunderstrike, Lightning Rod, and Chain Induction you'll be hitting a lot of enemies. It looks cool and deals good damage. Go /Shield and you can throw in Shield Charge, another AoE. A lot of people love their Elec Brutes. It's Energy and Smashing damage, with some attacks being pure energy.
Energy Melee - ST damage and stuns is what this set is about. This set has extremely strong Single Target damage that used to be all the rage in PvP. It also has two Extreme-level attacks. The stuns will protect you from the enemy you're currently swiftly murdering, but not much else. It's Energy and Smashing damage.
Fiery Melee - Another high-damage AoE set, fire has been overshadowed by other sets over the issues. It's a simple set. You deal fire damage, and the added effect is more fire damage over time. Your job is to burn everything. I think its fun, but it doesn't do anything to help you protect yourself from enemy attacks, and it's become less popular.
Stone Melee - Not much AoE damage attacks in this set, but you can knock them back pretty often with Fault and Tremor. I think of this as more of a Tanker set, but the ST damage is pretty good. Smashing damage, mostly knockback effects, but Fault and Stone Fist have Stun, and Seismic Smash has a Hold. I find it hard to build fury.
Super Strength - Big extended punches, followed by enemies dying. Super Strength has one AoE attack that somehow nominates it for AoE set status. It also has Rage, which can be thought of as a build up that can be made perma. This is what you think of when you think of brutes. SS has Smashing damage, and lots of it.
War Mace - It's basically Battle Axe with Stuns in some of the attacks and Smashing Damage, as far as gameplay appearances go. It has high endurance cost, and I think it has higher damage than Battle Axe due to having two Extreme-level damage powers. Its power animations are all the same as those in Battle Axe and Broadsword (minus Broadsword's Parry).
Feel free to yell at me for anything I said. I really don't care enough to fix it, though.
If someone want to quote this and fix whatever you think I said wrong, then you'll have actually accomplished something. I won't be upset with you for being more precise than I was. -
I like my Dark/Nin. It's at lv 42 right now, and I find it to be hardcore awesome. The lack in AoE damage makes it more of a challenge, and you have tools available in your primary and secondary to keep enemies occupied on things other than getting through your defenses, such as Touch of Fear and Blinding Powder. I find it comparable, if not superior to, an EM/SR Stalker in terms of ability to solo AVs. I managed to solo Mako and Johnny Sonata's Soul, among others.
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Entry 2:
Logged in at lv 14 pretty late in the evening. Struggled up to lv 15, mostly by going solo, and was consistently creamed by CoT ghosts. I reset the difficulty to fight +0 enemies which spawn as if my character was actually 2 standard villains, and it worked well when the missions obeyed the rule, but I kept running into red CoT ghost lieutenants that made climbing to 16 hard. When Konsultant's DOs turned yellow, and someone on my coalition offered a high level team, I jumped on it and hoped for bigger experience. Unfortunately, the leader, my coalition friend, began to suffer from a migraine and logged about halfway into the mission (I hope you feel better, Deasile), so Konsultant only made it halfway to 17.
My that time it was late, so I ran solo missions and grinded through to level 17, so that I could replace my DOs with shiny new ones.
At level 16, I picked Pulverize, an attack I'd previously skipped, in hopes that using it for now and scaling back on Clobber use might help my endurance problems and rage (Star_seer suggested it, and I didn't want to at first). I will freely admit that I was surprised at how much it could stretch my endurance bar without making the fights more dangerous. It might do to skip on Clobber until later levels, if you're just starting a new WM brute. I still use Clobber to pretty good effect once my Rage bar is around 3/4 full to mow down a tough enemy or full health minion, but it's not a power that I click anymore just because it's recharged and the others aren't.
After hitting lv 17 and loading up on new DOs I ran a paper mission. The enemies were CoT, and they dropped quite a bit faster than they did before. Pulverize and Bash were good for building rage and slapping minions around, and I started using Jawbreaker on Lieutenants every now and again. Brawl is a very nice rage builder, and I threw it in as soon as it recharged, unless Konsultant was about to die and had another high-powered attack he could use. Endurance is still running out sometimes, but I popped a purple inspiration and brawled a couple of Defender/Archer/whatever CoT minions (the ones who only shoot crossbows and attack with knives in melee) to death with the bare minimum of toggles on until the blue bar came back up. It took forever, but Konsultant didn't lose his rage bar while he was recovering.
Now I guess I'll get Health at level 18, Stamina at level 20, Energy Cloak at level 22, Build up at level 24, Shatter at level 26, and Energy Drain at level 28. I'm going to look at a few builds with Suckerpunch to see what looks right (I just got a mac, so I can't use mids anymore to do the numbers and IO thing for me). I'm thinking about getting Ghost Widow as my patron in a zillion levels so that I can use Darkest Night in conjunction with EA's defense toggles.
Start lvl: 14
End lvl: 17
Powers gained:
War Mace: Pulverize
Opinion:
- Endurance problems make this build hard and not very fun to play solo.
- Teaming seems like the best way to earn experience right now, because there are some enemies that Konsultant has an extremely hard time killing.
- Pulverize made my chain much nicer for now, but the onset of SOs and stamina might lessen its usefulness later on.
- Did I mention endurance problems? Because they are a factor.
- Overall fun solo Pre-17 DO refill = 1.5/5: Slow and hard to level, very little fun to be had.
- Overall fun teaming pre-17 DO refill = 3/5: Team mates with Speed Boost make my life much easier, but I didn't do enough damage due to being lackeyed.
- Overall fun post-17 DO refill = 3/5: Much better, and much higher survival rate. Feel like EA is actually blocking attacks, and War Mace started connecting with meaty thumps again, though Endurance downtime is still annoying. -
Quote:Jawbreaker is up pretty often, and I throw in Brawl in between attacks. My brute does okay with Rage, and its survival and endurance management became a lot easier after plugging in some Accuracy, Defense, Endurance Reduction, and Recharge DOs into my powers. I plan on plugging damage DOs in later, maybe after I get more slots or hit lv 17 and buy a new set.Originally Posted by Star_Seer
I think I would have taken Pulverize instead of Jawbreaker for a more consistent fury building.
Energy absorption will get rid of all endurance issues when you get it. -
So we've all seen the thread, but how many of you have MADE a WM/EA brute to see if it's really worth it?
I decided to try it out, and made a Mutation WM/EA brute on Freedom server. His name is The Konsultant.
So I figured I'd give an account of it from level 1 to however far I make it. I'm one of the people who pays attention to numbers, and understands them in vague terms of "okay that's good" and "okay that's not so good," so you'll be more likely to get sentences like "(blank) power didn't hit worth (blank)!" than a list of accuracy percentages and average damage output. My brain just isn't wired for continuous mathematical thought.
Here goes!
Entry 1:
Rolled up, and ran around Mercy killing things with wild abandon until level 4. Face it, all brutes are awesome at that point, and having a baseball bat feels very brutish. I started with Bash, then skipped over Pulverize and chose Jawbreaker at level 2. Level 4 was Konsultant's 2nd toggle, Power Shield. By that time, cleaning out Kalinda's missions was a breeze and I skipped Mongoose, going straight to Port Oakes at level 6.
Port Oakes has much harder enemies, so running around and playing baseball with random enemy heads wasn't as easy. Energy Aura started feeling REALLY weak while surrounded by all those reds and purples while running to the missions, but the missions themselves were pretty easy as long as I didn't rush in without checking Konsultant's health, as is usual for PO. Clobber at level 8 was what finally broke Kon's endurance bar. It sucks a LOT of endurance (more than 15, I think) for a pre-stamina brute, but anything short of a boss that takes a hit will almost always drop dead once the rage bar is about halfway. By the time Konsultant's rage engine is properly revved, both Jawbreaker and Clobber are 1 shotting minions, and lieutenants are dropping like flies. Endurance is tight, though, and so Clobber has to be used sparingly lest Konsultant run out of endurance and have to rest, losing all his accumulated rage. Whenever things get too hot for Kon's Energy Aura to handle, a couple of small purples makes him nearly invincible, so I try and keep two in the tray at all times and save them for emergencies and potentially suicidal bum rushes.
Joined a lv 50 Malta team with some people in my coalition around 10pm. The mission took about 45 minutes, and Kon bumped up to level 10. Malta kicked his butt, but one of the Corrupters had SB, so there near-limitless endurance to play with. WM really felt weak in that mission, and did little damage compared to the two other brutes on the team. I dunno if it's because of WM's rumored weakness, increased Smashing resistance in enemies, or my having been a low level lackey.
I was glad to hit level 10, though. I picked up Entropy Shield, Konsultant's mez protection. Those Malta Gunslingers won't be so irritating next time. I went back to missions in PO and solo/PUG'd it to level 14, getting Hurdle and SJ. The lack of Stamina is REALLY felt now. On teams I usually click down on blue insps as soon as they show up in the tray. WM/EA seems fairly hardy still, but other brute primaries are starting to catch up in terms of damage. Solo, the KD and Stun in Konsultant's WM attacks keep most minions and lieutenants from hitting me at all. DO'd, EA is fairly sturdy, though I still keep purples in the tray.
I plan on getting Health at level 16 and either Build up or Whirling Mace at level 18, with Stamina at level 20 and Energy Cloak at level 22. Level 24 will be whichever power I: didn't choose at level 18, and I THINK that Shatter comes in at level 26. Won't swear on it without looking it up, though.
Start: lv 1
End: lv 14
-Powers Gained
War Mace: Bash, Jawbreaker, Clobber.
Energy Aura: Kinetic Shield, Power Shield, Entropy Shield.
Leaping: Combat Jumping, Super Jump
Fitness: Leaping
Opinion:
- So far, WM/EA is solid solo, but has trouble keeping up in teams due to endurance issues.
- VERY fun start, until the endurance starts to run low.
- WM effects useful for keeping enemies from attacking at all. Stuns and KD are always fun, but might make earning rage bothersome.
- Strong hits, but they cost endurance.
- EA solid, pretty, has somewhat annoying sound effects (but I'm used to that, since I have a lv 49 Sonic/MM Blaster).
- Overall fun = 3 out of 5: Pretty okay. -
Excellent guide. I showed it to my friend and it cleared up a lot of his Power set questions, as well as answered one of my own :P
By the way, are you going to update it for Issue 7 anytime soon? I'd like to see what you think of the Thugs MM set.