KillerShrike

Brutes replace Scrapper? Doubt it. They are pretty comparable currently in my opinion, with no clear cut winner or loser in the general case.

If you favor a fast play style and just go from fight to fight Brutes will work better for you in general. If you stop and go more, scrappers will work out better. If you team with mitigation buffers Brutes generally have the edge, if you team with damage buffers Scrappers generally have the edge. If you like one of the powersets that's not yet been proliferated either way then that will obviously edge one or the other.

But otherwise the differences between them are pretty mild. For me, the question is really unless I want to play a dedicated Taunting aggro-sponge for team play, why would I make a Tanker instead of a Brute? I've got several Tankers that I used to really love...and now every time I look at them I just wish the character were a Brute instead. But that might just be me...I tend to favor a "Scranker" style of play for my Tanks.

With Quickness, you should be able to perma-PB with just 1 IO Recharge. It's END cost is a bit high, so I slot 1 RECH and 1 END Reduc on my lvl 50 SR for maximum efficiency. I also have some global recharge from IO sets, and in practice have about a 10 second overlap where I have 2 PB's stacked. I set PB on AUTO, and let it do its thing without micromanaging it, which is nice.

The only hitpoint that matters is the last one, so while having an unmoving green bar might make you "feel" good, its really not that important.


Having said that, in the early games WP will be much easier to play and faster to level. In the late game Invul will be far more durable vs alpha strikes and really hard hitting opponents (excluding psi).

Invul works well vs both groups and single hard targets, WP basically does to, but you are definitely better off when surrounded by a mob of minions while facing off against a tough foe as the regen kick from RttC is significant.

Both are really good sets currently. Personally, I prefer WP as it is more well-balanced and the ease of use in the early game allows me to focus on other things.

For a brute specifically, the extra END from WP can allow you to go go go go and keep your Fury stoked, which you should take into consideration.

You are almost certainly going to want Tough and Weave on SR. You will want to put a Steadfast 3% global DEF into Tough.

You will want 3 DEF IO's in all of your toggle DEFs. If you have END issues you'll want a 4th slot for END reduction as well.

You can get by with 2 DEF IO's in your passive DEFs as the extra % the 3rd will give you is marginal. But, if you have the extra slots, might as well.

CJ or Hover are handy and add a little more global DEF when toggled; I prefer CJ for most characters but Hover is just as valid.

Pick up IO sets that grant positional DEF for your attacks and any utility abilities you have from pools. Your primary has a big effect on this as it will determine which sets you can slot. I haven't looked at a KIn / SR combo yet, but Burst you'll probably want to slot with Obliteration and some of the KB sets offer some DEF if memory serves.

Note that you might find yourself in the position of deciding if you want to slot an attack with a set that isn't ideal for it from a damage dealing perspective just for its set bonuses. It can be a tough call.

Before you hit softcap, 6 slot Elude with Red Fortune for a little extra Ranged DEF and to help keep Elude available for you in tough fights. Once you softcap you can respec Elude away - you wont need it anymore.



As far as Kin Melee goes, the highest I've gotten a character with it thus far is a Kin Melee / Energy Aura Brute that's at level 14 (pretty similar to Kin / SR, really, being DEF based). My plan is to go for global recharge first so as to keep Power Siphon and Burst as available as possible, followed by DEF, followed by HP / +REgen. I'm hoping that increasing the rate of damage and the respectable damage debuff of BUrst will help mitigation in the short term and give me time to build my DEF numbers up towards softcapping.

As far as Power Siphon being good, there are a lot of naysayers that point to PS working against the lower base damage of Brutes and also getting Lost in the Fury Sauce, but while there is truth in both arguments I still find it useful on my Kin Melee brute thus far. It might change as I level up, but right now it seems to perform well for me.

I generally lead off fights with Power Siphon, which allows me to build up my damage bonus very quickly, to 225% and more at peak (including Fury). By the time the Siphon wears off, my actual Fury level is typically accumulated up to a respectable level, which takes me into the next mob. At this point, my guy usually has to rest as he will be low on either green or blue or both (being 14th level and not having Health or Stamina or other mitigation), and the third mob starts again. If I dont need to rest, PS is usually up again for the third mob as well. I'll also try to save it for a boss fight where the extra smackage helps me out.

The t1 attack, Quick Strike IIRC, is actually really good and I'll probably keep it even after leveling up. Its really fast, and pretty reliably does knockdown as well, and helps fuel the Siphon effect. It's very solid in my opinion.

So far, I'm at 21 and steamrolling. I haven't fully plumbed the depths of the new fire fixes, but so far so good. The last time I played a F/F was a Tanker waaaaay back in the day and that was fun for a while but ultimately boring.

The brute version is a lot more exciting and fast paced, and more durable than I expected.


Once I get tired of Praetoria, I'm going to bring my Robo / Traps MM over to Blue side as well...should be fun.

I want to like EA, but it does seem to be a tad bit anemic compared to other defense sets. It tries to be off-center and a little toolboxy, but it just doesn't offer enough in any area to compensate for its lack of focus. Compared to the somewhat similar Dark Armor for instance, it just fails to compete.

On the otherhand, I think it wouldn't take anything drastic to make this set very viable. The minor tweaks made a few issues ago (I forget which ish, but when ED got a heal added to it, and so forth) helped and were moves in the right direction, but just aren't quite enough.


One change that would immediately improve the set would be to make the DDR (or at least a chunk of it) enhanceable. If the set could get up to 75% DDR base not including t9 god mode, the cascading failure problem would be greatly reduced.


The other obvious target for improvement is the two resistance Autos. The low base numbers combined with the very limited damage types make these powers not worth taking. They simply don't do enough. Lots of things could be done with these two powers without breaking the Cottage Rule. An interesting idea might be to make them both grant 5% RES vs all damage types except psi, and 10% vs energy; enhancehable to ~16% vs all and ~32% vs energy if both were taken and fully slotted.


It doesn't make much difference mechanically, but thematically it would be nice if EA offered elevated levels of DEF vs energy specifically; perhaps even enough to softcap without IO's

As for END efficiency; Conserve Power just seems to be unneeded for this set in its current incarnation. It's redundant. It would be more interesting to see something like an AUTO effect that had a much milder global endurance reduction, similar to Quickness vis a vis recharge times. EDIT: an effect similar to the temp mutation Pain Tolerance, actually.

Just my $.02. I keep chisling away with EA for concept reasons hopping that my perseverance will one day be rewarded with a buff. This has panned out in the past with SR, Dark Armor, Invul, and I'm hoping it will again.

I got a shiny new Fire / Fire Brute through Praetoria last night and emerged into Talos Island.

My personal play style favors Brutes, but I prefer blue side, so I'm excited to finally have the best of both worlds.

Loving GR / i18 thus far! Thanks devs!

Claws and SR just don't synergize very well. That's not to say they don't work together, just that they don't augment one another or cover for each others weaknesses.

On the other hand, your comparison point, Mace / WP works pretty well together as the mitigation in mace gives you pockets of time in which to let the HP regen of WP work for you. Also, of course, WP is playing the game on easy mode. Toggle up and go.

SR comes up in modules, rather than incrementally upgrading across the board. The highly specialized protection each defense power grants can force you to make some tough decisions, and to be more tactical in the foes you engage and in what order. (short version: if you have a DEF hole open vs Ranged or AoE, go after ranged & aoe using foes first).

SR also benefits greatly from using purple inspirations in the early game; your higher base DEF allows you to temporarily boost or even softcap yourself into unhittable range if you need to for tough fights.

Also, the scaling resistances of the passives mean you're actually a bit tougher when injured, so you shouldn't freak out right away if you happen to drop some green along the way.

SR can be frustrating to play up until the 40's unless you modify your playstyle to accomodate it's late-blooming nature. It's a greedy set and you need all the powers (except Elude, once you softcap via IO's) for it really work. Technically Quickness isn't required, of course, but its such a nice power you really will want to take it; the global recharge is very nice. Practiced Brawler starts off inconvenient, but after slotted a little bit to be effectively permanant it offers strong effect protection.

After all the pieces in the puzzle are in place, SR is really powerful in PvE. You can softcap it easily, and its very reliable thanks to the ultimate level of DDR in the game. There have been many many times when missions have gone to crap and my /SR character was the last one standing, fought on alone, and survived.

Dual Blades is fun if you like micro-managing. Its extremely greedy -> unless you just ignore one or two of the combo sets you're going to need every power except confront.

You actually turn out decent AoE damage and control (knockdown) if you leverage the combo system, but if you miss your chains a fight can go south on you.

As someone else mentioned, accuracy is particularly important to DB as a broken chain can really throw off your rythym and effectiveness.


I like Willpower w/ DB for the go go go and toggle and forget factor, but it definitely is a very tight build and requires tough choices.


Invul might work past Invincible as noted, but honestly the first 20 levels will require patience and slotting for END. I wouldn't be willing to suffer thru it personally to see if it matures.

Single Target Taunt = meh. Punch-voke works about as well or better in most cases. You might want the power just to slot a particular IO set, but other than that you can safely skip.

MA/SR in a nutshell:


SR:
Get the first 8 SR powers, plus Tough & Weave from the Fighting Pool. Get Elude to level with. Slot for DEF; no slots on LR, +1 slot on PB (END + RECH). Not a lot to figure out here.

Use I/O's to softcap your positional DEF (ie 45% DEF Melee, AoE, Ranged), respec to get rid of Elude entirely, everything else remains the same.

Some DEF is useless, lots of DEF is mighty, so don't try to skimp out on your secondary.



MA: You need Storm Kick, Focus Chi, and Dragon's Tail. The other attacks come down to personal preference. You'll have another melee attack from the Fighting Pool. Leaning on Lightning Reflexes and I/O set bonuses for global RECH, or slotting a RECH in each attack, you wont need a lot of attacks to put together a solid chain. With fewer total attacks you can afford to 6 slot every attack without gimping your support abilities.


You'll want the Fitness Pool for Stamina (as usual). Take the Epic and Travel Pool of your choice. Combat Jumping or Hover help add some more DEF, you don't really need Hasten, and TP does nothing to help you in combat, so you know how that goes...

Some people like Aid Self for SR to give you a click heal as well (the low probability of getting hit with high DEF allows you to use it in combat). Personally I prefer to pick up as much spare +Regen as I can easily scrape up from I/O sets, Health, and Physical Perfection as I prefer a more aggressive play style and don't want to stop in mid-fight to band-aid my boo-boos. YMMV. Either way, not getting hit very often plus good healing makes for a very survivable character.

SR is good if you don't want to be bothered with micromanaging your defense / health status. Unless you just completely miss the boat on DEF in your power selections and slotting you'll spend most of your time completely healthy and occassionally will get hit hard by something and have to use an inspir or run. It can be rough early on before you can generate high enough DEF levels, but purple shields are your friend.

WP is good if you avoid big alpha strikes, but your health bar will yo-yo back and forth as your regen teeter totters against incoming damage. If this alarms you, you'll not like it. You must take Rise to the Challenge, or you will not make it.

Regen is solid, but you need to be johnny on the buttons or you will faceplant a lot. If you can't pay close attention or don't have good twitch reflexes to hit the right button at the right time, you probably wont do well.

They added Physical Perfection when they added an additional power to the epics a while back. It's particularly useful as a mule for the various flat / chance of END Mod and Health IO's.


Also, soft cap is very beneficial. You can simulate the difference yourself if you don't have softcap yet by eating one or more purple shield inspirs to get yourself to the softcap temporarily (monitoring your DEF stats via the Combat Attributes window). Stand around and see how much less often you get hit.

I have a Bots/Traps MM and he's all SO's...works very well. I've been considering the frankenslot route (sitting tight at 35 waiting for Rogue), but haven't been motivated to do it due to lack of a sg / base for that character and because I just generally don't like zoning around red-side to get things done. I tend to log on, grind thru solo missions, park on a day job and log off once or twice a month for a couple hours at a stretch. Bots / Traps is fun, but its a lot of micromanagement and I'm not always in the mood; plus I love masterminds, bit I really don't like red side.

A WP/ tank is pretty much playing with "easy mode" on even on SO's if you don't self-gimp your power picks and slotting. Pick a high damage melee like SS or SM for Scranker, or one of the elemental melees for some control or utility as you prefer.

My main is Hype, a level 50 MA/SR Scrapper. Coincidentally, he's also my first character, and is a loose homage to a Champions pen and paper RPG character I used to play.

My main alt is Tennebrae, a level 50 Dark/Dark/Dark Defender. He's slow to solo with but fun for task forces and PUG's.

As many others do, I have a lot of alts, with a pack in the 30's and another pack in the tweens and a bunch floating around level 6 that i made and played for a couple of hours and never got around to deleting.

When leveling, I tend to rotate between 2 or 3 alts to take advantage of patrol xp, as I normally only get to play for an hour or two late at night after my family is asleep and I want to make the most of my logged in time.

One of the things that I like the most about CoH is trying out different powerset combos to see how they work together. However, I do wish that there was a buyable token to allow a powerset switch, priced high at say $20 (double a rename token) to prevent rampant abuse. There's a couple of characters I'd definitely pay to swap powersets on because I've got time invested in them but their sets just don't work well together even into the middle levels.

Quick note, Hover offers viable KB protection as well, which Dark armor needs. It also makes it easier to reposition yourself for the various click PBAoE's you'll be relying on.

Well, assuming the Devs are still doing the heavy data mining that supposedly drives periodic adjustments, if Elude has been rendered redundant they'll eventually notice and maybe decide to do something about it.

I still carry it on my soft-capped MA/SR 50 mostly out of nostalgia for the good old days of perma-elude, but I very rarely ever click on it; if I'm hosed without it already its not going to make a difference. If I somehow managed to get completely DEF debuffed into an unworkable place or somehow got END drained badly it would probably make the difference, but otherwise its just a mule for another I/0 set...and even then I could carry the same load on one of the positional toggles (where the recharge aspect of the set would be wasted, but oh well).


As far as AoE is concerned...just to reenforce whats already been said, you can't afford to not have it. AoE damage tends to be lower on average but it's more prevalent than is obvious from animations alone. Before I had Evasion when I went down it was usually either from AoE or non-positional Psi (or, you know, just getting into scrapper lock mode and going down swinging because I was too aggressive for my own good). Mixed message aside, seriously, AoE DEF is needed.

Personally I like the KB on Crane Kick and even slot it with a KB set. It's a useful mitigation tool. Usually, I either use it as a finisher or to get a bad guy to leave me alone for a few seconds while I cycle to a different target. I've got so much Recharge working in my favor (SR secondary) its not like I have to use CK to complete a chain if I don't want to or its not situationally advantageous.

The Debuff resistance SR gets is so high that it will take a lot of debuff to degrade you even 1%.

So, its not worth stressing over but if you happen to pick up even 1 more % from somewhere, it will make you debuff proof in practice in typical scenarios.