Kalgoras

Grats CK!

Now I just need to head up that way myself with a Hero, after taking a break from being evil!

- Kal

Change of plan in typical Kal style....went Trick Arrow for that 'Dukes of Hazzard' feel!

Kallateral Damage lives at last!

Yup i'm in!

I'm not keen on badges, but I am keen on the ones that improve your character!

As a Granite Brute, it's not about the big numbers...it's about getting everything hitting you

With the - Damage on Granite, it's only Fulcrum that helps...however a fulcrum shifted Fire Sword Circle is a thing of beauty....hitting 10 mobs for a good few hundred each is awesome hehe

(also agro's like hell!)

Cheers guys, I think I was leaning towards smoke a bit

- Kal

Was going to go /dark, but I'm going to go with poison for a change

Hi Guys, my fire/fire Dom is coming along nicely, but I wondered about peoples' thoughts on the following powers, as I hve to choose 1 from these:

1) Smoke
2) Stealth
3) Different travel power to Superspeed (more vertical movement)

I am partly leaning towards either smoke or stealth....

Assuming I solo and team, which is more useful, PvE and PvP?

- Kal

Hehe, nice thought, but IR doesn't overcome Granites -Fly

Syn mentioned something I forgot about there, the 'Ledge' problem!

In a team you have no chance of turning off granite/rooted if you are the spawn's focus (without dying a swift death), being able to TP up on a ledge (even if you only move a few feet) is awesome!

And as Syn says, there are a few 'slow' powers from mobs...Tsoo inkmen = YUCK with siphon speed, so TP is invaluable there!

[ Cynic, Yeh I bet you could! my only chance is my 3 slotted taunt which recharges pretty quick even without hasten , however your damage output probably far exceeds mine hehe! ]

Couple of points to throw into the mix, hasten still has a cooldown of about 2 mins in granite (or seems that long), so you need to be able to function a bit outside of that, or the team will get annoyed

I have not tried Rage with Granite, but I'm sure the recharge will be affected again by quite a bit, so it may be tough to keep it perma, so make sure your accuracy is passable without it!

If footstomp does knockback, it may be harder to keep the agro around you if it knocks everyone away (and out of mudpots), so the taunt is handy, but you will need to be able to move a bit!

I have been knocked over in granite before (without rooted on) in a big team, so be careful in large spawns

Granite and 3 slotted swift isn't too bad, but turn rooted on and the 3 slotted swift still means pretty much immobile!

I have to confess I wouldn't be without teleport Can't beat teleporting into the spawn to beat that pesky Unstoppable /Inv brute who's trying to steal your alpha strike! You need that alpha to generate your fury (or I do at least), wheras the others can rely on a decent attack chain, which is tough with granite.

Overall your thinking is sound, but as others have said holding agro for a brute is about doing a bit of damage too, so don't skimp on attacks too much to fit in your extra defensive bits

I went fire for the aoe's from FSC and Firebreath to hold agro, as they do great damage and no knockback so they stay in mudpot range and fire really annoys mobs a lot!

I highly recommend an accuracy in your attacks even with rage

Will be painful getting to 24 for stamina, but if you can stick it out it won't make a difference in the end. However I can't recommend getting stamina at 20 enough for a brute, push back most things and you won't be sorry at 20. (I would still take unyielding at 16 though, so work around that )

I believe the to hit buff from invincibility is tiny, you would be better served sticking the slots in attacks and adding an Acc enh

Umm that's all I can think of for now, rest looks pretty workable!

Pretty much as Zap said I'm afraid I always open up with Goto, then when they are close start issuing the attack orders. Even the lich works well close up with the tentacles.

Sometimes I send the Grave Knights in again after the first order to get close or next to something so they pull out their swords. Once the swords are out, they stay out for that group, and only put them away when moving to next group.

(Can't recommend a set of binds highly enough for Masterminds, especially the melee'rs, see Zap's Signature for his big guide, he has a set of great binds )

The 2 Recharge is not quite enough to offset the -70%. If they are green then they are about +66%...but it's pretty close. With enough attacks you should still have a reasonable chain. I still reckon granites best fury method is to be hit a lot, 1 group of 10 bad guys puts you at full fury in about 5 seconds

3 Slotted swift means you run maybe a tiny bit faster than a normal char with no sprint activated (not 100% I haven't really tested it! ), could be about as fast as a normal person with no sprint.

However with rooted, you are still pretty much rooted to 1 spot combined with granite even with 3 slotted swift. (I reckon about 10x slower than normal running....)

Granite has pretty good mez protection on its own, however I have been knocked back once with no rooted running on a big team!...wierd watching granite get back up again hehe

Granite has a -70% recharge penalty (Roughly 2 green recharge SO's) or negated by hasten (for a bit...).

And a -30% damage penalty.

Accuracy is the same.

I went very 'Tanky' on my granite, so made sure defense was a priority over everything else, so my attacks aren't what they could be, as well as taking taunt.

I went 2 acc, 1 end red, 1 recharge in my faster attacks like fire sword and boxing, but I went 3 damage in Fire Sword Circle to do a big alpha when I tp into a new group.

2 recharges should pretty much negate granite's speed penalty, however I find fury is no problem at all on a team, as everything is hitting you

Solo Granite is a nightmare however you want to play it, so my stoner is set for teams

If I wanted to do damage I would roll another brute (which I have, as well as wanting an eleccy!)

In my opinon though, Granite armour is designed to be 'tanky', thinking about damage too much and fury chains makes me think about rolling another brute!

However I love my stony guy

Fraid i'm in the elec/elec and thugs camp ;(

Yup, my sights were set on Thugs MM's as Elec/elec didn't look too much fun....now the tide has turned and ElectriKal hoves back into the picture!

Yup to echo Carnifax, Dark works with everything, and bots are a very strong primary, especially past 32 for AoE madness

As for personal attacks, no real need, Pick some lovely /dark goodness instead!

If the bruiser benefits from all the tactics like the other minions, then maybe only 1 Acc in him too as he's higher level than the others, so should hit even more easily

It will be interesting to see how much end he uses in a fight with the big upgrade, in which case, don't rule out an End Redx in there (similar to prot bots)

Hmm you realise Zap will now struggle to get his head through a normal doorway? He will have to get 'Evil Genius' new ones shaped like a large Keyhole for extra 'Ego Headroom (tm)'

Nothing with your clothes on anyway...

Yup FB absolutely rocks!

But as Max said, not for teams with melee chars or for sets with melee troops, as the radius is huge compared to dispersion bubble. I would NEVER pick FB for Thugs/Ninjas or Necro's as force bubble is such a good power I couldn't bear going FF without picking it!

Things I found that can run through it are:

1) Carnie Strongmen
2) Rularuu Brutes
3) Most Elite bosses (not all...I pinned the wailer one in a corner and my bots burned him to death )
4) All AV's

Otherwise pretty much everything else can't penetrate it. It will draw quite a bit of agro to you, however with the defense changes and Bodyguard in i7, I can see it being far more useful than PFF

Yup once you get to the higher levels and regularly face orange/red in teams, the defense sets fall behind in power.

Hopefully the defense changes in i7 should even this out more with the higher levels not receiving their 'to-hit' bonus against the lower lvl player.

Only time will tell

As it's been said matey, /Stone brutes aren't really cut out for Sirens in my opinion, levelling my stone was 38 levels of pain, and 2 levels of more pain (with no kin corruptor / 2 levels of joy (with kin corruptor)!

Stones only use is Granite really, other sets do everything else better outside that, so if granite ever gets nerfed it will be the death of /stone for Brutes or Tankers.

The benefits are great, but the minuses balance it nicely

- Kal

Cheers folks! Exactly the kind of stuff I was after...looks like Aid Self ftw!

I went tough on my Granite brute, for obvious reasons, but that one has been bothering me

- Kal

Handy, no real surprises though

Ah still torn on secondary to go with my Thugs

There is probably a post somewhere about this, but I wanted to get a few people experiences

For the armour sets without a heal, mainly Electric or Energy Armour, I want to choose 1 of these 2 sets...however I can't really free up the slots for both!

So first up ASSUME ENDURANCE IS NOT AN ISSUE !! So the fact Tough is a toggle is no problem hehe, I'm looking at pure usefulness in combat.

1) Which is better for soloing?

2) Which is better for teaming?

3) Which is better for PvP?

My preliminary thoughts are Aid other for solo, and tough for teams, but what are peoples thoughts who have used them?

- Kal

***bah...couldn't even spell the title correctly ***