SteelRat

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I PvP to make up for the fact im hung like a two year old

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A two year old what? Hamster, or Race horse?

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I don't know what to think about the fact that you want to know or that you care to know... *shudders*

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Clarification if the reason for PvP was a total lack of fear when battling against other players, or being a hero in game but feeling the need to make up for "things lacking" outside of it.

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Another shining example of the PvP community and their brilliant way of putting non PVPers right off ever trying. Why do you PvP? For glory? For the challenge it provides? For the ability to laugh and gloat when you beat someone?

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I PvP to make up for the fact im hung like a two year old

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A two year old what? Hamster, or Race horse?

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Another shining example of the PvP community and their brilliant way of putting non PVPers right off ever trying. Why do you PvP? For glory? For the challenge it provides? For the ability to laugh and gloat when you beat someone? I'm guessing if it were for the challenge as opposed to the gloat factor, you'd be welcoming the new powersets and be in awed wonderment about what additional tactics you would need to employ to triumph! However, if the latter were true, you'd be worried that the new powersets might mean the gloat factor was lower because your chance of victory was lower as well. Given the tone of this post, I know which I side of the fence I'm putting my inf on.

Fact of the matter remains. Wait until the powers are on test before crying wolf. Otherwise, the chance of anyone having any time, or any respect for such outbursts will be extremely low.

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Totally agree with this. I LOVE the challenges that pvp brings.
Me and a few supergroup/villaingroup members have already agreed to have a mass free4all in the teen levels Should be both manic and funny as hell ^_^

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Oops sorry Hero, I'm glad you realised my post was aimed at the OP rather than you (even tho' the title suggests otherwise)

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I couldn't fail to notice that only some people are allowed to have a subjective opinion whilst some seem to expect everyone to follow their own on the forums.

"How long is a piece of string?" is a stupid question but I think that maybe what the OP is asking for is what is the next toughest (as in sturdy) Tanker to play in peoples opinion although I could be wrong. I would like to know what order people put all of them in myself.

@Sitriel, Do all the Firetankers you know have tough or is that a stupid question? I heard some manage without it playing to a more challenging set of rules to survive by or enjoy every RotP on offer. I have a Fire/Axe.

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I have tough on my Fire / Axe tank and it generally means the difference between having just enough HP left so that you can fire off HF, or not having any and having to use RotP. Given that the recharge of the former is a whole lot faster than the latter, I know what position I'd rather be in

So so many bad stone tanks out there; people who think they can just stick Granite on and wander around not dieing irrespective of whats happening to their team mates. The oft held common misconception that Tanking = Surviving large groups of enemies means when ever I see a stone tank, I'm always wary.

As to what to go for, it really depends what you're after. Pure survivability, I'd go for WP. If you're a herding maniac, go for ice. If you want a jack of all trades and that "classic" superhero theme, go for Inv. If you want a challenge and like living on the edge, but love that feeling of "Gawd dayam" when you think you're going to die, but manage to survive anyway (in true hero stylee) go for a Fire Tank. Fire has that added bonus of Burn, and watching the likes of Nem Jaegers and Rikti Drones just sitting in the flames and frying.

Another shining example of the PvP community and their brilliant way of putting non PVPers right off ever trying. Why do you PvP? For glory? For the challenge it provides? For the ability to laugh and gloat when you beat someone? I'm guessing if it were for the challenge as opposed to the gloat factor, you'd be welcoming the new powersets and be in awed wonderment about what additional tactics you would need to employ to triumph! However, if the latter were true, you'd be worried that the new powersets might mean the gloat factor was lower because your chance of victory was lower as well. Given the tone of this post, I know which I side of the fence I'm putting my inf on.

Fact of the matter remains. Wait until the powers are on test before crying wolf. Otherwise, the chance of anyone having any time, or any respect for such outbursts will be extremely low.

Stone / Fire brute Volkanik reached the heady heights of level 50 last night and after two years of Co* and 7 other 50's I can safely say it's the most fun I've had with any character.

Big fan of FA - have a level 50 Fire / Axe tank as well as a lvl 41 Stone / Fire brute, so well aware of its weaknesses.

Thanks for taking the time to post a build tho'

Only things I'd change in there is probably take Health at 16 and hurdle at 49 - extra regen from Health is nice for FA. Additionally, I'd probably take Scirocco as a patron and use the Electric Cages which is a multi target immob which makes Burn much more effective.

I'd be tempted to swap shadow maul and BA as well - but I'm thinking with the attack speed of DM, Fury build up would be less of an issue, and therefore one could afford to take it later, as you have suggested.

Well he's only level 5 at the moment, but I was surprised just how quickly he got there. Smite unslotted was almost, but not quite one shotting even level minions even at that level, and of course they were being one shotted once the fury had built up a little. Given the speed at which fury was being amassed - likely I'd imagine due to the speed of the recharge, didn't take long before smashing through street mobs of 5 or 6 minions and a couple of lt's was actually quite easy.

Out of interest, BW, what is your DM brutes secondary? I'm thinking I might even try DM / Inv; conceptually the dark aura surrounding inv brutes would work quite well I think

Anyone any experience with the DM primary on a brute, and if so, what have your experiences with it been?

I rolled a DM / Fire brute last night, and was quite pleased with the way it performed. Seemed to build fury quite nicely, had a decent recharge on the powers and given that both primary and secondary have end replenshing powers (Dark Consumption and Consume), these would likely do well to mitigate the end useage issues that both sets are famed for.

Added to this, the negative energy component to the damage and some of the fear based powers, both of which aren't commonly resisted, it'd seem to make a good choice. I notice though it doesn't seem to be a very common choice and wondered what the reason for this (other than the end usage) would be?

Boils down to whether you want to be the "Unstoppable Force" (Inv) or the "Immovable Object" (Stone)

And 2 IO KBs are enough to get around that. If you look at all the KB protection powers, they usually have a magnitude of 10; 2 KB IOs would give you a protection of 8 and seeing as the only things that give me real trouble with just 1 (ie a KB prot of mag 4) are some of the FF based or SS based AVs, 2 would seem to be adequate.

The big issue with Acrobatics is that, like tough, it's a big end hog. Given that FA is heavy on end, and so is SM, running Tough AND Acrobatics would prove frustrating at best. Personally I find I could do without acrobatics as I've described above, and although I'd imagine with appropriate IO'age, you could increase your survivability sufficiently to do without Tough, I'd say it was that "extra little bit helps" which could make the difference between your survival and your death.

Two of my favourite toons use Firey Aura for their protection; namely a lvl 41 Stone / Fire brute and a level 50 Fire / Axe tank, and there are a couple of things that both these toons share in terms of their survivability.

6 slot Healing Flames as soon as you can.. I've used Doctored Wounds in both builds, both give a Recharge and Heal of around 95% and DW is one of the more affordable Healing IO sets.

Consume is also your best friend. Leap in to a mob and use Consume to not only replenish your End after the previous mob, but as a good opener to get their attention. Added bonus is that Efficiay Adapter has a recharge bonus to all powers; essential if you're going to use Stone as your secondary.

Acrobatics is optional. If you're going to be primarily PVE, then 2 KB prot IOs will be more than enough to protect you against knockback. Some take Temperature Protection (as I have with the Brute) as an "always on" method of KB protection.

Tough is a must have for a tank. It's quite heavy on end, but the extra S/L protection helps the survivability.

Burn is the understated hero of the set. No acc component so never misses.. particularly useful against high def fear immune enemies like Rikti Drones. As you're using Tremor and Fault to keep them on their backs or stunned (I've slotted Fault with Stupefy stun IOs for a little more recharge), Burn is doubly useful.

Tanking with a fire tank takes a lot more doing than our Stone or WP brethren, but for me there's that extra satisfaction when you're standing around a pile of bodies knowing that there were a number of times one of them could have been you, but that you came through anyway.

Just a quick note to let you guys know I'll be leaving GoEH. The SG I play with more regularly on Union is starting a presence on Defiant, so I'll be moving my characters there. Additionally, RL constraints are making it increasingly more difficult for me to join in for the Saturday teaming sesh - which has largely been the only time I play with you guys anyway!

Thank you for my time with you, and I wish you all good fortune in the future.

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1. How much in game currency will these builds cost me?
Answer: a lot of $$$ but the payoff is worth it, in my opinion.

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And the title of the post is "BUDGET" builds?

ROFLMAO. Priceless.

I did wonder that after I posted actually, but if that is the case, wouldn't it make more sense if the ceiling was 9,999,999,999? Though I do admit, "Good Sense" often doesn't apply in such cases

Does no one else think it's a little odd that it shows EXACTLY 1,000,000,000?

Paint Shop is a wonderful thing yanno.

Burn is a SUPERB power, if a little situational. It is your immob mitigation power apart from anything, it is also very useful against foes that are resistant to fear like rikti drones and Nemesis jaegers, and it has no accuracy component so never misses (particularly useful against Rikti Drones because of their high def).

It is doubly useful if your primary contains powers with disorient abilities. I have a stone / fire brute, and therefore open up with fault, which is an AoE knock down and stun, then lay down a burn patch while they're staggering about. Also good as /fire brutes do tend to be a bit squishy, so if things get too much, you can lay down a burn patch to buy you some breathing space.

Don't think of it as a "Static Blazing Aura", it's not that AT ALL.

No problem with weapons from the TANKER sets; I agree that Mace and Axe would work very well with Brutes conceptually, but Martial Arts and Claws? No. Too "athletic"; too "fussy" for a brute. A brute is all about raw power and SMASH, none of that fancy complicated nonsense. No finesse. No subtlety. Just SMASH.

No.

Not sure it's possible to SMASH!! with claws.

DB for brutes and tanks was a mistake imo. There are few things that look more ridiculous than a DB / Stone brute or Stone / DB tank.

Can heartily recommend SM / Fire. Have been playing one as my main toon since double xp weekend, and it's the most fun I've had on this game in yonks. Sure, it has it's weaknesses, but a quick self heal, two build ups and the two AoE stuns it really can be a damage dealing monster.

Yup I'll bring Tiger Slash exemped lvl 50 Claws / Regen scrapper (my first 50 and long term toon - he occupies spot #1 on my Defiant list )

Freddy is no more.

On Claws vs MA Cyn I've tried MA toons a couple of time and never really been able to get into them for some reason. As for Shockwave, only tend to use that with Focus for the KD against bosses and the like. Alternate between the two and use other attacks while they're on their backs and one or t'other to knock em down again. Lovely

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Yay BS scrapper.......... I mean I'll be sad to see freddy go obviously, and crushed by the loss *coughs*

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lol.. yeah a bit naff really isnt it. Not sure how much of that is the bloke controlling him and how much the lack lustre damage. Anyhoo... didn't really get any of the BS done as I was having way too much fun with a Stone / Fire brute. How would people feel if I bought my Claws / Regen scrapper along and played him exemped? He's not IO'd yet, so would seem a good way of getting some inf, bringing along a toon that was a wee bit more useful than Freddy is, and earning prest for the SG to boot.

I rolled a version of him on Union as well (tho Claws / WP instead of /regen for a bit of variety). For some reason Claws is the only scrapper primary that I can really get into.

DXP weekend I'll be playing Man-Tiger with the view to getting him to 50, and some lowbie Onion toons that I've been playing with. There's a possibility I may delete Freddy and level an alternative scrapper (possibly BS / WP.. I know... one blade.. thats SO issue 10)