Forward (useless information about the author)
Kaiserin, my Fiery Melee/Invulnerability Brute was the first character I ever created. I'm quite attached to her so I bring you a guide of everything I've learned about the sets in the past nine or so months of playing City of Villains.
I am a character designer, this particular trait often forces me to stick to concept when building a character rather than choosing an optimal build. Most of my characters have questionable choices for powers
Although I PvP, I am anything but a shining example of a good PvPer. These two sets, along with being a Brute and Fury being rather worthless (and still broken), are not the best choices for the PvP universe. However, I enjoy PvP enough and love this character enough to keep at it and try to make her as effective as she possibly can be.
With that said, let me begin. Be sure to check out the helpful images at the end.
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Fiery Melee (needlessly violent set) [/list]
PvE
A not well liked set due to its lack of control, however it sports hard hitting AoE attacks as well as some decent damage and is typically renowned as the AoE king set for Brutes. Fiery Melee is fairly cheap on endurance, which is nice since neither Fiery Melee nor Invulnerability have an endurance saving power. If you slot endurance reducers into your attacks I found that you can run missions nonstop without having to pop any catch a breaths.
PvP
Sadly Fiery Melee is not an optimal choice for the player versus player because of its lack of burst damage, lack of overall damage, and lack of control. However, this does not stop me from using it and loving it. Fiery Melee does have damage over time, and although some argue that's not a good thing, it can have its uses. For one DoT messes with interruptible powers. If used properly, you can give someone using Aid Self a hell of a time getting it off. It can also mess with oh *censored* powers like Hibernoob, Personal Noob Field, Phase Shift, etc. Generally people use these powers at low life, and if you time it right and drop your heavy hitting DoT attacks before they use such powers, the DoT will continue while they're invulnerable (or whatever) and can finish them off. Another 'perk' is your opponent will have a harder time gauging how much damage your attacks are actually doing.
Scorch
I prefer this attack over Fire Sword. One since it doesn't have a silly looking sword, and two it's a
fairly quick attack to build fury with.
Fire Sword
Nice and quick and does a fair amount of damage. Sadly I hate the 'weapons' of this set and switched out this power in favor of Scorch.
Cremate
I debate if I prefer this over Combustion, it would be nice to have another AoE attack, but I am rather fond of the Cremate animation. It's a solid hitting attack, I like it.
Build Up
Self explanatory. More damage and accuracy is always good.
Incinerate
I always have to laugh when people omit this attack from their build; it's one of the higher damaging attacks in the set. Drop Incinerate first and then follow up with Greater Fire Sword for some lovely damage.
Taunt
I've had mixed feelings about Taunt, I've had it, respec'd out of it, then realized its usefulness. Taunt's important for teaming (assuming you're one of those Brutes that can hold aggro), and good for PvP to keep those pesky Heroes off your lackeys.
Breath of Fire
Never found any use for this attack. I wouldn't take it, too slow, not worth the damage, you'll rarely ever get more than two targets. It doesn't fit my concept build, not useful for PvP.
Fire Sword Circle
Best attack evar. Also quite pretty. When confronting a mob, go for the nastiest, least likely to die thing first with your single target attacks and use Fire Sword Circle as often as possible. When you're done with the nasty critter the minions will have lost a considerable amount of health and shall be easy picking, or they'll be dead. In PvP I have a fun time using this on MasterMinds. Burn!
Greater Fire Sword
Hate this attack with a passion, sword looks like a flaming triangle on a stick. But sadly this is your highest damaging attack so yes, take it. Nice and quick recharge so you're firing it off often.
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Fun Game: Want to see something disturbing? Switch between Fire Sword and Greater Fire Sword rapidly.[/list]
General slotting for attacks: If you lack Hami-o's, slotting one accuracy, one recharge, one endurance reducer and three damage works fine with your attacks. When using Invincibility accuracy isn't that big of an issue for PvE.
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Invulnerability (/e tarzan) [/list]
Overview
A simple defense set, nothing tricky, nothing fancy, it just keeps you alive. This set is awesome for the start of the game, but becomes a bit thin at endgame due to its lack of elemental/energy resists. The toggles are cheap to run and the status protection magnitude is one of the best in the game. The resistances to cold/fire/energy/negative energy/toxic in the set are very meh. I'd expect a little more from a set called Invulnerability. It's survivability lies within Dull Pain, Temp Invulnerability, Invincibility, and Unstoppable, though. The added resistances should simply be viewed as a bonus. The passives in Invulnerability are quite useless and very skippable. This can be considered a perk since it opens up extra powerslots that you can toy with. As a Brute you get the awesome looking non faerie pixie dust version of the set, black is always stylish.
Resist Physical Damage
Sadly a power you're forced to take. About as useful as the other passives in this set.
Temp Invulnerability
Here be your lethal and smashing resistance. Love it.
Dull Pain
This is the power that will keep you alive. Best used as a self-heal at roughly half life.
Resist Elements
I took the passives for a while, then respec'd out of them. I didn't notice a difference, in fact I started dying less because I used those slots to pick up the Presence pool to better mitigate damage. The added 7% or so is not going to save your life and there are much better powers to choose from.
Unyielding
Status protections and resists to everything else. Hopefully one day the silly -def will be removed from this power. Keep in mind if you're ever facing an opponent with mezzes, Invulnerability can take up to three applications, a fourth will mez you. For example if you have three stacked holds on you, a break free should be used before your toggles are dropped.
Resist Energies
Refer to Resist Elements.
Invincibility
I adore this power. Taunt aura to keep things off of other players, and a decent defense and tohit bonus. I find it amusing that an Invulnerability Brute is at his or her best when completely surrounded. In PvP, at least the warzones, I've taken habit of taunting and keeping grey NPC's around me as often as I can. They don't do damage, they build fury, and they feed invincibility.
Tough Hide
Take it to counter the defense debuff from Unyielding
Unstoppable
I had to laugh when I first used this and saw that the tarzan emote was associated with its trigger animation. Take it, use it, scream obscenities at your computer while you level mobs and heroes.
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Recovering from Unstoppable: Unlike other tier 9 godmode powers, Unstoppable doesn't have that annoying 10 second no endurance recovery time. With decent timing, a simple catch a breath, break free if you have a mez on you, and Dull Pain will put you back on your feet instantly. If you have accolades, using Force of Nature will help with the endurance crash so you can swiftly pop Dull Pain. Demonic can also be used to avoid the off-chance that your opponent(s) might get lucky. I have survived crashes fighting the Freedom Phalanx face to face, I have survived crashes fighting player Heroes face to face. Crashing from Unstoppable does not mean you will die if you're currently engaged in a fight.[/list]
Temp Invulnerability/Unyielding slotting: One endurance, three resistance enhancements.
Invincibility slotting: One endurance, two-three defense, two-three tohit enhancements.
Passive slotting: If you do take them, don't waste slots on them. One is plenty.
Unstoppable slotting: Three recharge, three resistance enhancements.
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Patron Pools (irritus arma) [/list]
Overview
Brutes don't sport too many impressive Patron Powers, overall they're heavy on endurance and serve no purpose other than a simple novelty item. Some have their uses, though.
<ul type="square">Ghost Widow[/list]
Gloom
Gloom is bloody awesome. It does a considerable amount of damage, it's DoT yes, but this works wonders in PvP. Keep rotating between Gloom and Incinerate on opponents, especially if they use Aid Self. Although it's nowhere near fool proof that they'll never get an Aid Self off between all those tics, I can assure you it will be difficult for them, and they'll waste endurance trying for it. It's also amusing to nail a fleeing target with it, and watch their life tick away into nothing.
PvE use, I highly recommend picking up a ranged attack for a brute. If anything, I use it to draw back enemies who've wandered from my taunt field and started assaulting some poor squishy. It's also a decent ghetto-pull, well, maybe not so much gloom since it's DoT, but it's helped me thin out mobs to avoid suicide rushing. The -tohit on it is a nice compromise to the defense of Invulnerability, and I often find myself using it to stop bosses from hitting me.
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Slotting suggestion fun: For comedy purposes, I have two damage/range Hami-o's slotted into mine. It's pretty funny being able to nail someone with this attack from far, far away.[/list]
Soul Tentacles
To be useful this power needs heavy slotting. Its endurance cost is beastly and to hit more than one target you need a bit of range to it. I've been debating on picking up this power again for PvP purposes. It's ranged, it does damage, it's DoT, having multiple ranged attacks on a melee class is fun.
Dark Obliteration
I wouldn't recommend it. Drains entirely too much endurance, has meh damage and a long recharge. Might be good for PvE for its tohit debuff, worthless in PvP.
Blood Widow
I had a Blood Widow, I loved her. She's completely useless for solo play, I run Relentless all the time always, and she simply cannot take a hit from anything that's higher than her spawn level. Same goes for PvP, completely worthless. Take it if you have a free spot and want a novelty item.
<ul type="square">Black Scorpion[/list]
Mace Blast
Not nearly as useful as Gloom to the point where I would suggest not bothering with it. It has a draw animation and meh damage, making it a very meh power.
Web Envelope
Arguably one of the best Patron Powers which is sad because it's pretty useless considering the draw time (which confuses me because I recall the reason Brutes were denied draw weapons was because draw time conflicts with fury building, hmm...). However, for PvP, it is nice to be able to ground leaping or flying targets...but...the duration is short and you kill your DPS trying to keep them down and trying to keep up your attacks, not to mention a super speeder will just run circles until it wears off. The more I keep using this power the more I don't really want it.
<ul type="square">What I imagine when my other Brute, Demichi, uses this power:
Demichi: Cursed Gods, where is my mace? Hinodrase where did you put my mace!
Kaiserin: I didn't touch your bloody mace.
Demichi: Warlust! You took it didn't you!
Warlust: :: stares ::
Demichi: Ah, here it is. Stupid good for nothing pimp stick...alright how do I use this thing... right, flip this switch and aha, it's loading up. Loading up...loading...still loading...ha! Take that hero! I only sacrificed my fury bar and damage output to ground you for a minimal amount of time. Hey wait! Don't superspeed away! Stupid useless mace![/list]
Mace Beam Volley
Like Dark Obliteration, I wouldn't suggest it. I've seen herders use it, but that's about it.
Summon Blaster
I had this briefly on another Brute of mine, it was funny, like the Blood Widow, but worthless and quickly removed.
Other Patron Powers: Haven't tried any others, no opinions.
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Pool Powers[/list]
Concealment: If you can fit it...it's useful to shake toggles off in PvP. PvE...you're a brute, you don't need to conceal yourself.
Fighting: Never tried it using Tough or Weave, it seems rather pointless to have on an Invulnerability Brute, though.
Fitness: A required pool for most builds. I tend to wind up taking all four powers for all of my characters, the added free movement is too nice to pass up. I take health, I three slot it, it makes a big difference in my eyes.
Flight: Flight's fun in PvP as most people don't have their screen tilted up to keep an eye on flying opponents so you can usually get the drop on people. However, everyone and their singularity has a -fly power, so expect your wings to get clipped often.
Leadership: I almost took assault and tactics after getting so frustrated over the fear status. However, it's too much of an endurance hog and provides little use for a Brute. We're not terribly perceptive creatures.
Leaping: I like having Combat Jumping, easy to move around, and a little added defense to compliment Invulnerability. I used to have Super Jump, but for concept purposes got rid of it.
Medicine: I hate Aid Self. Hate. If you're going to take it, I'll assume you're only in for PvP. I tried this power in PvE and it got me killed more times than it saved me. If you need to use Aid Self, you're in a bad situation, a really bad situation, if you're in a bad situation chances are it's going to take many attempts to get that power to actually work, draining your endurance, and Invulnerability does not have a handy dandy endurance drainer to recover whatever you lost. For PvP it has its uses, take it if you want, but Dull Pain is good enough for me.
Presence: I took this pool for concept purposes. Intimidate is hilarious. A pool I highly recommend to fill out the damage mitigation gap in both sets. You'll have to heavily slot up Intimidate and Invoke Panic for them to be of any use (Invoke Panic is an endurance hog and the fear durations are pretty meh), but well worth it for the mild control. For PvP it helped out my build quite a bit, sadly a simple break free will clear everything up, but it's something and something's better than nothing.
Speed: Hasten is a power that every build can benefit from. Currently Kaiserin has superspeed, although I love it I will most likely spec out of it the next freespec I get. Simply doesn't fit her concept.
Teleportation: A very useful travel power for clearing large distances, dropping toggles and escaping. TP Foe wouldn't have much use for a Fiery Melee/Invulnerability Brute, it isn't quite the one-two combo as TP Foe + Stun.
<ul type="square">Overview and random tips[/list]
I have played two Brutes to 50 so far, Kaiserin and Demichi: a Energy Melee/Electrical Armor Brute. Fiery Melee/Invulnerability is more of an aggressive set. What I mean by this is with Demichi I have several utilities to mitigate damage, where as with Kaiserin I rely on killing everything quickly to 'mitigate' damage. With Demichi I find myself backing off if things are getting way out of hand, with Kaiserin Invulnerability is at its best when things are out of hand, so I tend to stay and fight even if my hit points are in the single digits.
Use inspirations, that's what they're there for. Use them in PvE, use them in PvP. A couple luckies on top of Invulnerability's defenses will make you practically untouchable by mobs.
Have trouble building fury in PvP? In Siren's Call the place is littered with grey Clockwork and Warriors. Taunt them with Invincibility and keep them around you, they build fury and set off the defense and tohit bonus from Invincibility. Same goes for Warburg, in the Web you can find grey spiderlings. In Recluse's Victory you can stand around and brawl with the single Longbow Nullifiers. If you want to maintain fury to a moderate degree during a fight and you're fighting a moving opponent, use your ranged attacks. All of them. I use Challenge constantly, even though it doesn't do damage, it's a ranged attack that builds fury. I mix Gloom, Intimidate and Tranq Dart (inherent Origin power) in with it and throw my melee attacks when possible. It's not guaranteed to keep your fury up, but it's something.
For fun and humor, The Kaiserin has insisted on including other helpful tips that she took the pains to draw out. Enjoy!
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How to tank the Freedom Phalanx
How to kill a Player Hero
Why Fiery Melee is superior in PvP[/list]
End
Build subject to change next free respec.
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Kaiserin
Level: 50
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Fiery Melee
Secondary: Invulnerability
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01) --> Scorch==> NucleExp(1)NucleExp(3)NucleExp(3)Rechg(5)EndRdx(46)
01) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(1)
02) --> Temp Invulnerability==> RibosExp(2)DmgRes(7)DmgRes(9)
04) --> Cremate==> NucleExp(4)NucleExp(5)NucleExp(9)Rechg(11)EndRdx(11)EndRdx(13)
06) --> Swift==> Run(6)Run(50)Run(50)
08) --> Combat Jumping==> Jump(8)
10) --> Incinerate==> NucleExp(10)NucleExp(13)NucleExp(15)Rechg(15)EndRdx(17)
12) --> Dull Pain==> Rechg(12)Rechg(17)Rechg(19)Heal(19)Heal(21)Heal(21)
14) --> Health==> Heal(14)Heal(23)Heal(33)
16) --> Unyielding==> RibosExp(16)DmgRes(23)DmgRes(25)
18) --> Build Up==> MembrExp(18)MembrExp(25)MembrExp(27)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(31)EndMod(31)
22) --> Hasten==> Rechg(22)Rechg(31)Rechg(33)
24) --> Hurdle==> Jump(24)Jump(37)Jump(39)
26) --> Fire Sword Circle==> NucleExp(26)NucleExp(27)NucleExp(29)Rechg(34)EndRdx(34)EndRdx(34)
28) --> Invincibility==> EnzymExp(28)CytosExp(29)EnzymExp(36)
30) --> Challenge==> Acc(30)
32) --> Greater Fire Sword==> NucleExp(32)NucleExp(33)NucleExp(36)Rechg(37)EndRdx(40)EndRdx(48)
35) --> Intimidate==> EndopExp(35)EndopExp(36)EndopExp(37)Rechg(39)Rechg(42)
38) --> Unstoppable==> Rechg(38)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)DmgRes(42)DmgRes(42)DmgRes(43)
41) --> Gloom==> NucleExp(41)CentiExp(43)CentiExp(43)EnzymExp(45)Acc(45)Rechg(46)
44) --> Invoke Panic==> EndopExp(44)EndopExp(45)EndopExp(46)Rechg(48)EndRdx(48)EndRdx(50)
47) --> Super Speed==> Run(47)
49) --> Tough Hide==> DefBuf(49)
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01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)Run(7)Run(39)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------
