LostHalo

Doesn't mean they can't be veterans of other games as well.

You have four 'true' categories of "healers":

1) The Ignorants, aka "newbies"
[-]a) These are typically (but not always, some people can just be that oblivious, even after 50 months...particularly if they do nothing but solo or rarely play support, etc., "fish out of water" as it were) your pilgrims from games where a buff that gives you a 2.5% increase to physical resistance is huge as opposed to this game where 2.5% is what you get from an IO bonus and your regular powers are five to ten times that potent.
[-]b) They can also just be exactly as their category says: They just don't know any better.
[-]c) Usually, with a little bit of friendly, not overbearing education, you can fix their misconceptions/misguidance. If you can't, then you're looking at a Category 3 Healer. And do remember that what you view as being friendly might actually be passive-aggressive and actually ******-ish.
[-]d) Also applies to anyone that says "nice heals" past the early-mid teens (and not in a surreptitiously sarcastic manner). Generally, you reach a point where if healing was key to your survival, it means the commentary should follow the lines of "Who forgot to buff?" Of course, this is more aggressive and anti-wallflower so yeah.

2) The Idealists, aka "damn RPers"
[-]a) "I can feel the pain of all those around me--thus I cannot bear to cause harm to others, only to alleviate their woes." Of course, this means that they're ignoring their Spines/DA Scrapper teammate impaling people with poisonous spears. It also turns a little creepy if you consider Pain Domination in the reverse...
[-]b) "Medic [x]" "Doctor [x]" "[x] Nurse" "Mother [x]" "[insert druidic name here]"

3) The Indignants, aka "noobies"
[-]a) These are the ones people remember and belittle on the boards and in regular conversation. You can't reason with them 99% of the time. Everyone has their own experiences with these.

4) The Wife™, aka "Mind if I join?"
[-]a) TVTropes provides some good reading on this.
[-]b) Do note that this category is gender-neutral. It simply refers to the [gender noun]friend/fiance/whatever that wants to specifically help their reciprocal relation. They're likely to be less attentive/knowledgeable of playing (falling into Category 1 territory) but have their own identifiable foibles. If they get into the game, they'll leave this category and probably figure out the deeper mechanics on their own. Otherwise, they're a lost cause (and their reciprocal relation will probably be less than amused by attempts to educate).
[-]c) Beware of word usage that commonly includes "hubby". Beware.

"Most"? I believe the word you're looking for here is "all". (And I won't go to the trouble of sneak attacking you with a wall of text espousing both the cynical/pessimistic view and the philosophical view. This time. )

It's already been pretty blatant that the loudest supporters have no inkling of how the game actually plays out beyond "Scrappers can solo AVs? They must be more powerful than everybody!" without considering "750 million influence and 2,800 posts dedicated to calculating optimal DPS chains and the development of 'Arcanatime'."
But it's easier to yell and scream in absolutes and ignore the other factors.

You know what, on second thought, I welcome IOs granting mez protection. On a Taunt set's 5th bonus. +0.5 magnitude for a possible total of +1.0 on every character without a natural source. And make it a PvP set.

* "you are an idiot"

Hot damn, some good, anonymous arguments on both sides here!

Based on your Brute:
Cold or Thermal are the best options for ELA. Cold will be the better long-term option, Thermal will make the pre-SOs, pre-Energize, pre-Tough/Weave/IOs much less painful but will be weaker in the long run (but do note: "weaker" as in "a man with $950,000,000 is poorer than another with $1,000,000,000").

I would suggest Pain Domination, Kinetics, or Sonic Resonance as being runners-up that would be a little bit rougher. Sonic Resonance will sort of plateau early and not get much stronger after Sonic Dispersion and Disruption Field but it also won't become obsolete. Pain Domination will spike early but after said spike, until it gets its late-game goodies like World of Pain, Anguishing Cry, and Painbringer, it will be one of the weakest options. Kinetics is, well, Kinetics. You can't really badmouth it except that it can be rough on the user when played well. And if you ever broaden your team on some nights, your Dead Cat© Brand Member-Seeking Device™ will be able to swat a couple out of the air very easily, so it's not exactly crucial to have your own (unless you expect good performance--PuGging is always a crapshoot).

It's more-or-less a question of how much suffering you want to impart on your third. Cold is the absolute best for self-survival and end-game performance on your existing layout. Sonic Resonance will be rough on the Corr (Dis. Field and Son. Disp. together suck endurance like nothing else), as will Kin as I've already said. Pain will be more or less indifferent (must...resist...puns...).

And for the love of all that is holy: Get and slot Fault up right away, it's not just useful for you! If you learn to love and use Fault, ELA's shortcomings will make it easier on your supporting third and make the game overall much easier. It really is that good.

As for primary... Well, I'll suggest the obligatory Sonic Attack. -Res is always nice. However, Radiation Blast can be extremely enjoyable, particularly once you turn Neutrino Bolt into a proc cannon--Neutrino Bolt giving off five numbers (regular, scourge, Apocalypse, Shield Breaker, Lady Grey, and possibly -Res from Achilles' Heel) is immensely satisfying to see, even if it's not from you. It also can be satisfying in the "I always have something I can do...and I have endurance to do it with!"

Your team is a little lacking in AoE. I might suggest the Stalker, if they're set on playing a Stalker, go Electric Melee or Spines (although I can't attest to the strengths of the second personally, so this is just an armchair estimation). If they're not totally set on Stalker... Another Corr or Electric/Shield Brute will also do quite nicely.

The reason I'm dubious on the Stalker is that after awhile, having a more ST-oriented set will likely make the Stalker feel less powerful and more like a third wheel, particularly when an ST-focused build like an SM/ELA Brute starts to come into its own. But hey, your mileage may vary.

This build would be unplayable outside of a respec and inside of a respec...I have zero faith in it. There are better ways of getting the same results. (And 3-slotting a set like Hecatomb is bad planning through-and-through.)

So instead of having to deal with challenges, it's less boring to fight threatless mobs and have no danger in encounters.
Okay. You're either trying way too hard to be a caricature or there literally is no hope with you.


But because I love feeding the cycle...
Let's define the reverse: What do you want out of a challenge? In specific terms, no platitudes.

A number of my compatriots that play Sonic Res. have taken to a habit of making their buffs obtrusive. Gone are the days of green number blindness when you can have green Disruption Field!

Everything but this. For some silly reason, I always think MA/SR as the iconic Scrapper, probably because of the picture the book came with for the "default" Scrapper look and characters like Batman. Of course, that's assuming if Batman were constrained to this univers--who am I kidding? Batman is still Batman/Batman/Batarangs.

No, it won't.

In-game, it'll float around the global channels, poking its head in, asking "sup gaiz?" for a few weeks to a couple of months, then go to a predictable cycle like the accuracy nerfcalls. Occasionally, there will be a flare-up when you get people that are convinced they're right and "their friend" has had crap drops or some other silliness, kind of like the random people that are still 100% certain each server has its own market. These latter ones are usually reserved for "Legendary PuGs" so the effect should be localized (of course, this doesn't account for people that get confused by wrong information and ask about it, possibly sparking a debate).

On the forums? It'll probably follow a cycle like the accuracy nerfcalls (after this thread dies down), with a possible wildcard response coming from ignorant people who notice/wonder why their drop rates changed. After that, it just will be in danger of necroequinophiliacs and being used as a localized Internet meme. And in fact, it already is in use.

No. Brutes have a vested interest in having an instantaneous control of aggro, moreso than any Scrapper. I'd be rather displeased if say, my EM/EA suddenly had a useless Taunt.

You just need something that can mow through minions and lieutenants like they aren't there. Fire/Kin isn't anything special in that regard.