Stolid

Didn't look at it too closely, but a few things: Serendipity is not really a set you want to be using. Uses up a lot of slots and doesn't really help you much, giving .63% more def to two damage types, while giving double that to a positional. Look into moving those slots around, leaving the LotG 7.5% and 3 Hami-O's of the appropriate type for you to move 2 slots. Boxing is a good power to move them over to, as the stun set 'Stagger' has a 3 slot bonus of 1.25% Fire/Cold, basically acting like two Serendipity sets.

In general I'd overlook your build and use the set bonus finder to help with this--You've got a lot of set bonuses geared toward a primary positional +def, which means you're only using the halved type-def bonus. Try to avoid that when possible.

Also note that I think Energy Drain should be slotted better, but I don't know how often you team or how Energy Aura itself performs on just the high defense.. but I know it has a Toxic and a Psi weakness, so I'd probabl want Energy Drain to be used as a decent heal in large groups.

Just because they *are* your primary and secondary powersets doesn't mean you should take all the powers. Most Tier 1 attacks are never taken (for Brutes; Blasters have incentive to, and Tankers have to) because of their low damage. Given that Brawl is free now, no real reason to take a very poor attack unless you just like the animation or something (Energy Melee being an example, for me).

There's usually one other power or two that you can or might want to skip in some sets (Hurl, Shadow Maul, etc..) Even though they're decent powers, you either don't like the animations or just don't have any real need for them.

medium to good single target damage? I was fairly certain SS was in the top end for that kind of thing, due to Rage's permanent buff helping the set so much.

Most likely Dark, considering it's nothing but toggles and clicks. Basically, the less auto powers it has the better, and Dark's probably your best bet.

I would say your best bet is going to be Energy Aura because it has a stealth power that allows for transparency without the need for a power pool dip (plus Stealth isn't that transparent anyway). With all your Energy shields up I think it looks fairly decent for a dark-themed set.

I wouldn't advise Willpower, just not enough graphically going on there.

I wouldn't suggest /SR either, not really the same visual and I think black colors for SR's toggles just looks choppy, doesn't look really 'good' like Dark Armor's fluffyness.

I believe it's been stated that Patron pools will still be available to villains, but if you respec blueside as a villain then you'll have access to some ancillary power pools like the heroic AT's have (though I've been told they won't be exactly the same).

Also: I can't disagree enough with people who say to not take Weave or Maneuvers. Both are very good powers for a brute to take, as they're some of the easiest methods of gaining more defense. With a Willpower Brute, they tend to have the Endurance necessary to manage the toggles.

Quite the opposite.

Brutes are pretty much a hybrid of Scrappers and Tankers. They have the same baseline (roughly) as Scrappers, but they have the taunt auras and capability of a Tanker, along with a Tanker's limitations when it comes to buffability (and even moreso, offensively), with hit points that are a bit above a scrapper's. Their inherent leads to a non-stop pace, killing everything in their path until there's nothing targettable left, and they accept that their PBAoE powers will not work on their teammates, no matter how hard they mash the button while nearby their allies.

tl;dr -- No.

0 and 7. And Two of those are just me telling Arcanaville Happy Birthday and her response.

I think I had a few more talking to CuppaJo back when she was around, but that was way long ago. Never really talked to any of the other devs, just posed a question here or there.

Willpower takes Heal Self. /Regen takes Hasten.

In that respect they kind of even out. It's really the fact that Willpower has built-in defense and /Regen doesn't that helps to shoot Willpower up so far, given that +Def from IO's is really the best thing to do with set bonus slotting.

One day, /Regen. One day you'll get IH back as a Toggle. One day..

Leadership pool is a good choice. Take Leadership and Fighting, stack Weave and Maneuver's defense bonuses to get you closer to the softcap. Nothing wrong with a brute taking Leadership for more defense (but the other powers in it are kind of unneeded, unless you have nothing better to take).

Hey, Brutes. Idle question that I'm mulling about tonight: I just recently joined Virtue and realized that there's actually roleplay to be had on CoX. I've done roleplaying and I've played CoH for years, but never sought to do one with the other until recently.

I came back and now have a SS/WP brute up to level 41, and just spent millions giving him decent IO's and memorizing some of the basic IO recipes. He's got a good chunk left, but not too much.

Well, I'm thinking of starting another character (as the one I'm playing now isn't one I'd really like to RP, I started him before I looked into the RP-dig). SS seems like a staple (I'd prefer martial arts, but it's the next-best-thing, as DM's a bit too flashy with Soul Drain/MG), so I was thinking of maybe changing the secondary from WP to another defense-based secondary.

Problem is they all have some glaring issue, I feel like.

* Energy Aura I like, but it has no true Taunt Aura since it's located in a click power, it has a Toxic hole, and I hear bad things about it overall--But if I don't take WP again, I'm considering this. Anyone's experiences--good or bad--with EA would be awesome to hear.

* SR I *love*, but it has a click mez protection and I am way too lazy/forgetful to click the mez protection or Rage every two minutes, I'd want to be able to set them both to auto-fire, and the game doesn't allow it. If anyone has experience with SS/SR, love to hear it.

* Shield Defense is a good set I hear, but it's out for concept reasons. Not gonna carry around a shield.

* Invulnerability I've played and I like, but I feel like it's one of those sets that really only shines when played on a Tanker as a primary.

As it is I'm trying to decide between Energy Aura or taking WP again, rather undecided. The eventual goal is to softcap the defenses, which I know WP benefits tons more from softcapping than Energy Aura does, given its built-in regen that synergizes so well with the softcap. Opinions?

Anyone heard more about this? I don't believe that Powerset Proliferation has been slated to be with I18 or GR, but I'm really really hoping it's just a well-kept secret. I may be in a minority, but am I the only one that wants to see /Regen ported to Brutes, Along with Martial Arts? And for Energy Melee to be given alternate animations so Bonesmasher/ET/TF all aren't forced to be double-fist animations?

AV's will resist the majority of the debuff toggle, making it less useful against them than I think you'd really like.

SR's taunt aura in Evasion is pretty standard, in magnitude and duration. SR should have no problems holding aggro; those that say they do are probably just used to the /SR of Scrappers, and not Brutes. (That, and the fact that since it's a Defense set, you won't notice the additional aggro as much if your defenses are good, since you'll still be dodging the majority of them)

I do believe it takes something like 114% +Max HP to cap a Brute's hit points.

If you get the +HP accolades, that leaves 94% required. You can get a decent chunk from sets if you slot appropriately (use Mid's to look up what sets offer the best bonuses, and which sets you can slot the most of), but I'm not sure if you can actually reach the cap without some sort of power (like Dull Pain, which WP doesn't have) to help you out.

Best of luck. Sorry I don't have a build to show for it.

Haha.

Thanks for the help, Galactiman. I think that's the conclusion I've come to, since I don't own that kind of keyboard anyway. Appreciate the help. =) I'll end up just leaving Rage on auto and clicked PB anytime I see the icon flash.

I appreciate the responses!

So, I'm really wanting to make a SS/SR Brute; I really like SR because I've just recently gotten into Defense-based sets, and Super Strength just has some awesome damage potential with perma Rage + Fury giving you some massive ST damage.

Problem being, both Rage and Practiced Brawler are click powers which need to be set to auto, and I can only set one power to auto-activate. So, I've been looking through my options, and I've come up with.. two, it seems.

1.) Make a Keybind (and/or macro) which sets Rage to Auto-activate, and then activates Practiced Brawler. I believe I'd still have to click it every two minutes to ensure Practiced Brawler is refreshed, however.

2.) Someone else suggested to me that Icould try to keybind the activation of the powers --Rage and/or Practiced Brawler--with movement keys, i.e., they're activated any time I move (or jump, or what-have-you). If it worked properly, it'd ensure they're pretty much always auto (as long as I'm actually playing, which is the only time it really matters). I would probably do it so PB is set this way, and leave Rage on Auto-fire, as Rage I'd want to double-stack moreso than PB.

Can someone tell me which is the better option, if #2 is even possible like I'm thinking? Has anyone else come up with some other convenient way of maintaining multiple click powers (like Domination and Hasten), which have to be refreshed as soon as they're up?