Mr_Grumpums

If your brute has constant endurance trouble then you should probably suck it up and slot Cardiac. Going for Spiritual and having those powers cycle through FASTER will only make you burn through your endurance bar that much more quickly. I don't know about you, but I HATE having to stop and rest.

Personally, I would roll one of the following to pair with a Peacebringer:
-Radiation/Sonic Defender
-Kinetics/Sonic Defender
-Traps/Sonic Defender (Yes, /Sonic is THAT good that I would suggest it three times)
-Fire/Radiation Controller
-Fire/Kinetics Controller
-Earth/Radiation Controller
-Earth/Thermal Controller

All of these power combinations are extremely versitile. The defenders all have Resistance debuffs, varying amounts of healing, and strong debuffs, as well as Siren's Song to keep large groups down to a manageable size. All of the fire controllers will give strong additional damage and control along with their buffs/debuffs, and all of the Earth controllers will have more control and defense debuffs than their Fiery counterparts, but lack the damage.

Almost all of these builds can solo, with patience. Add in a Peacebringer's ability to deal damage and tank, however, and you've got a nice combination. Personally, I would run either the Radiation/Sonic or Kinetics/Sonic defenders. Both are capable and very cool (I've never seen a Kinetics/Sonic defender before, by the way, despite the fact that you can use Siren's Song, walk into the middle of the group, use Fulcrum Shift WITHOUT WAKING THE GROUP, and then walk back out of range and unleash hell).

Scrappers have the following play advantages over Brutes:

-Higher base damage allows them to get more out of damage enhancements, including the Musculature Alpha Slot, which is basically useless for brutes.

-No need to build up fury means that you can unload your biggest attacks right at the start for damage purposes, and don't have to worry about low fury when fighting one extremely strong enemy. This is one of the reasons that Scrappers make better Solo AV killers than Brutes.

-Scrappers tend to, on average, have slightly higher Single Target damage.

-Scrappers DO NOT HAVE TAUNT AURAS IN THEIR ATTACKS. This means that they don't have to worry about attracting piles and piles of enemies like Brutes and Tankers do. Tankers need that attention to tank, and Brutes need it for Fury, but Scrappers neither have or need such a large taunt component to their attacks.

-Scrappers have Spines and Brutes don't. Spines is a strong AoE set, and brutes drool over the idea of Spines with Fury. Go ahead. Make a Spines/Fire Scrapper right now and level it to 50. We'll wait...See? Isn't that ridiculous!? Good lord!

My dom is five bars of experience to level 39. Leveling teams seem like they've been scarce these days. Anyway, I plan on hitting the grindstone hard later on tonight and hopefully climb up to level 41 before bed. I've got 3 Basilisk's Gazes already purchased. Looking at the price tags of some of those IOs made me realize that this is going to be an expensive build. I think I'll just focus on making domination permanent for the moment and work in the defense afterwards. According to my calculations, I'll be spending billions on it.

Wow! This build is pretty much exactly what I was thinking about, though I was maybe considering Hoarfrost instead of Hibernation simply because I like to keep my toons moving (I haven't looked at the numbers for Hoarfrost to see if it's worth taking). I think this is certainly doable. Thanks!

Also, thanks for posting the text build rather than a data chunk. :P

Alphonse von Locke, my Elec/Ice Dom, is already at level 36, and I anticipate him being in his 40s by the end of the week. It's time for me to start thinking about what Alpha to pick for him, and the only one I can think to eliminate is Cardiac.

My plan for his build, if I can make it work, is to:
1. Make him permadom
2. Softcap Smashing/Lethal damage (He's in melee too much to focus on ranged defense, and with Frozen Armor it would be easier to softcap Smashing/Lethal than melee defense, which gives cover against many attacks at all ranges).
3. Increase his Damage/Endurance drain (far distant third)

Spiritual will reduce his recharge time, making it easier to go Permadom.

Neural increases his defense, which will bring me closer to that softcap.

Musculature will boost damage and endurance drain, which would be helpful, but is a distant priority.

If I had Mids, I'd make a build to try and figure this out, but I don't because Mac users can't use Mids.

My question to you mighty number wizards is this: If you were willing to spend infinity dollars, would all three goals be possible to meet without gimping my control, and if so which Alpha would add the most to the build?

Plant/Fire works VERY well.

Also, name it "Grassoline". XD

Or an Elec. The cages have front loaded damage that doesn't root enemies. Stack it on top of that sleep patch to keep enemies stuck.

The only difference aside from the radius and damage of Ice Sword Circle vs. Fire Sword Circle is the secondary effect. Fire Sword Circle deals DoT, which is bad for builds that rely on sleeps. Ice Sword Circle lowers speed and recharge, and with Chilling Embrace, Power Boost, and Domination in the mix you'll find that they slow to a CRAWL.

I have an Elec/Ice Dom that I really enjoy, but it isn't a "wade in and enemies hit the floor" kind of toon. Instead of damage, you'll get added safety. It's a very unique character, and I find it to be a lot of fun.

That being said, if I had to choose ANOTHER Electric Control Dom, it would be Elec/Stone, Elec/Psy, or Elec/Elec.

Elec/Stone has strong hits, Conductive Aura from the primary to keep your endurance up, an added Hold in your strongest attack, and it works best in melee, where you can do the most sapping with Conductive Aura. I'd skip Mud Pots because it wouldn't synergize well with the sleep patch, and if Fissure knocks enemies back rather than knocking them down, I'd skip it, also.

Elec/Psy lets you stack Drain Psyche with Conductive Aura. That's just not right.

Elec/Elec offers strong damage and added endurance drain.

I ran a Fire/MM Blaster and slapped in Mace Mastery for his patron. The result is great!

My build focuses on recharge and defense (Which is why I initially went for the villain patron, since Ice Mastery's defense toggle looks awful), with Hover, Stealth, and Maneuvers adding to defense and having places to slot in LotG: Recharge IOs. The Spiderlings are slotted as Recharge Intensive Pets for now, and it takes a LOT to bring them down. I throw them down like I do for my Ill/Rad controller's Phantom Army power, and they soak up damage while my Blaster uses the Mace Mastery AoE Immob and Rain of Fire, followed by unloading the usual Fire/MM AoE attacks until everything dies.

Using the things as a decoy works very well for using Drain Psyche as well. Combined with a well-slotted World of Confusion toggle, Psychic Shockwave, and nearly softcapped s/l defense, going into melee as an ambush thanks to the stealth pool is a great option.

My Elec/Ice is almost level 30 now, and I've found that the only time I ever get myself killed is when I end up making a mistake, try to solo an EB, or run on teams.

I've found that with powers like Jolting Chain or the Confuse (whose name escapes me at the moment) that start with a single "Root" target and then branch from enemy to enemy, that Lieutenants are the best targets. People will run into the middle of a group and slam AoEs around so that the minions are all deceased, and then get wiped out by bosses. If you start with Lts, then at least you'll be able to chain a few more targets and stop enemies from a coordinated effort to smear you all over the walls. The Sleep is up faster than you'd think it would be, and I make full use of that to stop enemies dead in their tracks when they try and run for the squishies while the brutes stomp around in the big pile of baddies and ignore what's going on behind them.

Solo, I have no problems taking care of storylines and missions. The only time I've been incapable of finishing a mission was against Protean at level 22.

What on Earth is the build you're running!? If my SS/FA Brute could do that...

On my Fire/Mental, I decided to focus on softcapping S/L defense rather than ranged defense precisely because I play him both up close and at range. I also picket up Spiderlings and Mace Mastery's AoE Immob, and the tactical use of those powers has improved my Blaster's survival every bit as much as swapping to defense has. When you come close to a large mob, drop the Spiderlings before the enemies see you (not hard if you do what I did and snagged Stealth for the def boost and as a place to throw in a LotG: Global Recharge) and they'll draw all the aggro while you use Concentration and blow them out of the water. The AoE Immob (the name escapes me) is great for throwing at a packed mob right after, and you can follow up with Rain of Fire and other AoEs.

Got my Elec/Ice to lv 22. After getting SOs he's much more able to successfully kill enemies.

The ability to sap with Power Boost is tremendous, but his hitting power is a bit low compared to other doms. Knockback is a severe problem on teams, which I learned while running missions with a Bots/Dark MM and a DP/Storm Corr.

I made a fairly "modern aristocratic" character for this combo, and the sets fit the concept. No big overhand blows, explosions, or crashing hammers. Just a sword and ice projectiles flashing through enemies while you stroll around in massive electrical surges unharmed, feeding off of the energy fields of your convulsing victims until they're put out of their misery.

Just rolled an Elec/Ice, and I'm having a lot of fun at level 21. Its damage isn't stellar so far, but on teams it's a great character for locking enemies down, and once I have enough slots to give the attacks proper attention, I'm thinking that carving enemies up will be a little easier. What really does it is Power Boost combined with the secondary effects. It's great.

...And now I want to try an Elec/Ice Dom. >_<

There is math stating that Mu Mastery adds higher DPS by an apparently significant margin. My SS/Fire Brute came out of Praetoria straight to Blueside, so I haven't tested it. While I absolutely believe the numerous people who have stated that Mu Mastery is stronger, I -will- say that I've been quite satisfied with Pyre Mastery on My SS/Fire Brute. It is my plan to actively attempt to gain my brute Mu Mastery on one of its builds as soon as he has his Very Rare Cardiac alpha.

I played a Rad/Energy up to level 38, and I found myself hating all the faceplanting. Radiation's attacks weren't dealing enough damage to warrant the long animation times (minus its sweet, sweet tier 3), and the -Defense debuffs were too low to care much about. I loved the heck out of /Energy, and I was frustrated because I WANTED to like Radiation Blast, but all I ever really used out of it were its tier 1, tier 3, and Irradiate.

Sonic/Mental is the sort of Blaster who is at its most awesome solo, and I believe that my Sonic/MM/Elec is able to give my Fire/MM/Mace Blaster a darn good run for its money in terms of damage.

While my Fire/MM Blaster has Rain of Fire, Fireball, Psychic Scream, and Psychic Shockwave at its disposal to deal out huge piles of damage, none of them are the same type of AoE. Fireball is a Targeted AoE, Psychic Shockwave is a Ranged Cone, Rain of Fire is a Ranged Location AoE, and Psychic Shockwave is a PBAoE. This requires a lot of work and movement in order to line up the maximum number of enemies affected.

My Sonic/Mental's main AoE chain consists of Howl, Psychic Scream, and Static Discharge. All three are Ranged Cone attacks, so you barely have to adjust your targeting at all.

Siren's Song works -very- well with Drain Psyche, and Mind Probe adds melee damage when needed. There have been several times in which my Sonic/Mental used Siren's Song, walked into a mob, activated Drain Psyche, and then picked off a Lieutenant or two on the way back out to a safe Cone onslaught range.

FA is absolutely more damaging when solo, but on teams, when Against All Odds has all the enemies it needs to give a constant buff, I'd say that the damage is more equal, and the added survivability is certainly a plus.

This is coming from a person who absolutely loves his SS/Fire brute, by the way.

SS/Fire has more ridiculous damage than any other brute I play. Minions evaporate so quickly that usually only Lieutenants or Bosses are left alive for Burn, and powers like Knockout Blow and Haymaker, while awesome attacks in their own right, are basically filler while you wait for Burn and Foot Stomp to recharge, all while Blazing Aura ticks away nice chunks of enemy health. Triple-stacked Rage and Fiery Embrace raise damage to a degree that people have to see to believe. Healing Flames and Consume keep you going for a long time, which is impressive when you consider how much endurance you're burning through with all those attacks. I find myself needing Consume ever after taking the Cardiac Alpha.

Unfortunately, you have to use a lot of purples if you want them to see it. /Fire's resistance isn't any great shakes, and its defense is nonexistent unless you get the Fighting Pool, when it then rises to a whopping 6%. Right now I don't know if it's POSSIBLE to softcap S/L defense on an SS/Fire. I've spent a lot of influence trying, but I've only managed about 19% so far after throwing 1.5 billion at my brute. I worry that I might accidentally gimp him, too.

/Shield Defense has few of these problems. It's easily softcapped in terms of defense, and has a permanent damage buff of varying degrees in the form of Against All Odds. No heal or endurance recovery power, but you can use leftover IOs that SS/Fire uses for defense bonuses to boost regeneration, recovery, and recharge. I've seen a SS/Shield Brute in action, and it looks sort of like a cross between Captain America and the Incredible Hulk. It doesn't stop for anything.

Anyway, that's sort of my take on it. /Shield lets you more easily softcap and has a more steady dmg buff, but may run into more endurance troubles. /Fire has a better attack in Burn (it may have a lower target cap, but it comes up at least three times in the time it takes Shield Charge to recharge), but is far less durable.

So far I'm up to 16% S/L defense with Kinetic Combats, Reactive Armors, and Obliterations. This isn't a cheap build anymore. I'm already up to about 1.2 bil.

I lack Mids, otherwise I'd do be making this build for myself (Stupid mac).

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner v5.0
+ http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Super Strength
Secondary: Fiery Aura
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Jab => (! Acc, 1 End redux, 2 Dmg)
01: Fire Shield => (3 Res, 1 End Redux)
02: Haymaker => (1 Acc, 1 End Redux, 1 Recharge, 3 Dmg)
04: Blazing Aura => (1 Acc, 2 End Redux, 2 Dmg, 1 Obliteration Smashing Dmg proc)
06: Healing Flames => (Doctored Wounds - 5 slots, 1 Heal)
08: Knockout Blow => (1 Acc, 1 End Redux, 2 Dmg, 2 Rech)
10: Temperature Protection => (Steadfast Protection: Mag 4 KB Protection)
12: Hasten => (3 recharge)
14: Fly => (1 flyspeed)
16: Plasma Shield => (3 Res, 1 End redux)
18: Rage => (3 Rech)
20: Consume => (Efficacy Adaptor - 5 slots)
22: Boxing => (1 Acc)
24: Tough => (3 Res, 1 End Redux)
26: Weave => (3 Def, 1 End Redux)
28: Burn => (3 Dmg, 2 Rech)
30: Hover => (Blessing of the Zephyr: Mag 4 KB protection)
32: Foot Stomp => (1 Acc, 2 Dmg, 2 Rech, 1 Kinetic Combat: +Rech proc)
35: Fiery Embrace => (3 Rech)
38: Rise of the Phoenix => (1 Rech)
41: Char =>(1 Acc, 1 Hold, 1 Rech)
44: Fire Blast => (1 Acc, 1 Rech, 1 End Redux, 2 Dmg)
47: Fireball =>(Positron's Blast - 5 slots, 1 Rech)
49: Rise of the Pheonix =>(1 Rech)
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Inherent Powers
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Brawl => (1 Acc)
01: Sprint => (1 Runspeed)
02: Rest => (1 Rech)
02: Swift => (1 Flyspeed)
02: Hurdle => (1 Jump height)
02: Health => (1 Numina Regen/Recovery proc, 1 heal)
02: Stamina => (1 Performance Shifter +End proc, 2 Recovery)

For the sake of damage, I'd prefer to keep Fireball, Fiery Embrace, Foot Stomp, Burn, Knockout Blow, Rage, and Blazing Aura. This is a very high damage brute, and I don't want to lose TOO much damage dealing for the sake of protection (I've heard that the Mu Patron actually helps this build do better damage, but I can't confirm it). My eventual goal is to increase recharge and softcap his his defense (at least S/L) . With the Cardio Incarnate enhancement and consume, his endurance is pretty stable. Flight is a concept travel power, and I have the 60 month vet reward, so I can pick Fly and then use Combat Jumping later, if need be.

Current Endurance Consumption is .96/sec with all toggles running.
Recovery is 2.97/sec
Regeneration is 13.20/sec
Global Recharge is 11.25% with Hasten off.

Any build help would VERY much be appreciated. I'm terrible with numbers, so without Mids I'm really lost.

Money isn't an object. This character makes a good amount of it, and with all the TFs that are going on, I'm getting plenty of rare drops to add to my war chest.

I agree. I wouldn't say that my Bane is outstanding in terms of its endurance efficiency, but I haven't as many problems with it as I have with a scrapper at a corresponding level. I use maybe one blue inspiration per mission, and that's while running several toggles of leadership as well as the spider leadership powers (I think 5 in total).

To be honest, I think that's something that the developers are working on. They've been working hard on balancing the whole game for YEARS now, and it seems like every new or returning player I've chatted with has had good things to say about their archetype, of they've chosen the right one. I don't see the developers slipping now.

There are several ways that they CAN alter Kheldian inherent abilities to accommodate "Leagues" as it is, either by dividing the standard bonus by a certain fraction, or by establishing that the first seven people in the league will set the bonuses. It might even be the case that Kheldians get to choose.

And if the Kheldian Inherent happens to accept bonuses from 47 people instead of 7 people, then I suppose we know that at least one character in the group will be able to finish things, if needed.

There is one thing that Stalkers have over Scrappers, and that's the ability to stealth almost any mission and use a team port. If I'm going to run a speed TF, then I want as many people who CAN stealth on the team as possible.

I'm also a huge fan of /Nin Stalkers. They may not have the raw numbers that other builds enjoy, but two of their three utility powers are great both solo and on teams. Smoke Bomb has limited use, in my opinion, but Blinding Powder is awesome, and Caltrops can actually do fairly impressive damage when proc'd out, aside from its control.


When it comes to straight-out teaming, I'd probably prefer Scrappers. They run in, set a steady stream of damage down on enemies, and are great for hopping back and forth between killing enemies around the tank and protecting squishies from anything going their way. I mostly see them as interchangeable with Brutes (despite what people think, most brutes CANNOT act as a surrogate tank without the right buffs), though maybe with less AoE and more ST damage.

I don't like saying this because I team regularly with Stalkers played by friends of mine, and I've seen what they can do to a mob of enemies with just one round of Assassin Strikes. There are some VERY cool Stalker builds out there, but Stalkers need time to Placate or go back into Hide before they can unleash a big critical attack while Scrappers just keep hitting things.