Valorin

Glad to see that the fun has returned to your character. Dark Armor is a challenge, but if you look at it as a challenge rather than a drawback, it's a lot more fun. My TW/Dark is just getting started incarnating, but endurance is already a non-issue (of course, she has Superior Conditioning, Physical Perfection, Miracle unique, and cardiac alpha slot all working for her, but I exemp down to level 30 and don't have much endurance problems there either). My build is in the build workshop forum, for what it's worth. It's a brute and a different primary, so probably wouldn't translate all that well. Good luck with your DA scrapper!

Edit:
And yeah, it's a rush trying to figure out if that last little 15% of your health bar will let you animate another attack or if you need to hit dark regen right away. Have fun!

Hi Stormmistress!

*Disclaimer* I'm a Dark Armor fan. I'm also a fan of "misfit toys" so, take that for what it's worth. Just finished leveling my TW/DA brute and figured I'd copy/paste a list of ways I used to combat her endurance drain while leveling her up. Some of these have been mentioned before, but they're worth mentioning again.

#1) Slot el-cheapo set IOs with end reduction (Frankenslot)
#2) Every time I log on her, I put up a bid for medium blue inspirations for whatever cheap price (500 inf each? 1000 inf each?) in a stack of 10. Collect whatever I bought from the last time.
#3) Keep a Recovery Serum power (really helped in the low levels, 18-25 I was sucking wind, it got better) handy. Buy these in stock too- lowball bids allowed to sit overnight. Buy the low level version or the high level version as the salvage is dirt cheap.
#4) First two alignment merits went to a Miracle +Recovery for Health.
#5) Get the Atlas Medallion.
#6) Theft of Essence +End Proc for Dark Regen.

Just a few ways to help mitigate your endurance burn. I don't think broadsword is any worse than titan weapons. A few tactical tips, if I may (no offense intended, but I sometimes overlook them when I come back to a DA character after playing something that doesn't rely on endurance as heavily)-

1) Your blue bar is also your green bar, thanks to dark regeneration. The more blue you have, the better off you will be as you can convert it to green every 30 seconds or so. The rest of your defenses exist to buy you those 30 seconds, that's it.

2) Treat your blue bar with care. No need to use Headsplitter to finish off a low-health baddie, pick something with a lower endurance cost.

3) Death shroud works for you in crowds, no need to keep it running in between groups. I set up a quick bind to turn it on and off. Kind of a pain in the butt, but might be worth it.

4) Oppresive Gloom (when you get that far) is a big helper. Those crowds of minions are wandering around drunk and not smacking you. Target one as it wanders away, makes a great way to aim cone powers like slice.

5) Dark Regeneration will bring you to full hitpoints from 2-3 minions. HOWEVER, as you know it costs at TON of endurance. So, what makes Dark Armor an exciting set to me, is that there is a "skill" factor. Learn when you need to hit the button at the last possible moment. The lower you let your health go, the bigger the heal. In other words, let's assume my offense lets me obliterate a spawn in 45 seconds. If I trigger the heal 15 seconds in, I have to last 30 seconds before my offense takes me to the end of the fight. However, If I know my own strengths/weaknesses vs. the damage coming in, and I judge it better, I can time it so maybe I don't have to trigger it for 25 seconds into the fight, leaving me with 20 seconds to finish it. Triggering it early may be necessary if I'm starting the fight low on hitpoints (or endurance- the theft of essence proc checks once per target dark regen hits, which means more targets= more chances for it to trigger)- but it also means I have to survive the full recharge time of dark regen. If I wait until the last possible moment, I can effectively take "more" damage. Of course, wait too long and you're dead. But that's why the devs gave us Soul Transfer, right?

OK, I wrote a lot more than I intended to. Hopefully, some of these tips will help you out.

Well after futzing with this for a bit and help from a few helpful folks in PMs, here's what I ended up with. Figured I'd post it so that anybody else who has similar goals with the powerset combo can get a leg up. The build below hits all my major goals, with one exception- I had to ditch Fire/Cold defense. Not really a big deal, as was pointed out to me, since most fire or cold damage has a smashing or lethal component. And I still have some positional defense too- that should help a smidge.

Thanks for the help everyone!
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.953
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Nightmare Queen: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Titan Weapons
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Defensive Sweep -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Dmg-I(9), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(5), RctvArm-ResDam(7), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 2: Crushing Blow -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(5), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 4: Titan Sweep -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(50)
Level 6: Murky Cloud -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(17), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(19), RctvArm-ResDam(19)
Level 8: Build Momentum -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(23), RctvArm-EndRdx(25), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(25), RctvArm-ResDam(27)
Level 12: Death Shroud -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(29), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(29), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(31)
Level 14: Follow Through -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(15), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(15), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(31), Theft-+End%(33), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(33), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 18: Rend Armor -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 20: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(37), RctvArm-EndRdx(37), RctvArm-ResDam(40)
Level 26: Whirling Smash -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(34), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(36), FrcFbk-Rechg%(42)
Level 28: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(45), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(46), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(46), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(46), Zinger-Dam%(48)
Level 32: Arc of Destruction -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(36), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(36), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(39), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Oppressive Gloom -- Acc(A)
Level 38: Cloak of Darkness -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39), LkGmblr-Def(40)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- P'Shift-End%(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(48), LkGmblr-Def(48)
Level 49: Soul Transfer -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Partial Core Revamp
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(43)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-EndMod(43), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 1: Momentum

Huh, the datalink didn't post. Weird. Well, here it is:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...18E37F6B00F1BA


I'll be sure to take a look at your build when I get a minute Flame. Maybe we can help each other

I'm working on a build for my TW/DA Brute. Goals include:

-Ideally I'd like to include all of the TW attacks- so far it seems like all of them have a place (possible exception Titan Sweep, once you get rolling)
-No Purples/PVP IOs
-Softcapped with a small purple (can be positional or typed)
-Decent enhancement values in core powers (Arc of Destruction, Whirling Smash, Dark Regeneration)
-End Sustainable (ie, I can live through AV fights with a few blues- TW/DA is end heavy, I get it)
-Add whatever recharge we can get, or potentially slow resistance too. Survivability for DA is pretty much predicated on being able to get Dark Regen up when needed, so...

I think I'm pretty close to where I want to be, shown below. Only some things I'm not sure about:
-Will this cost the earth? I have a billion or two I can plunk down on it, plus a chunk of reward merits I can burn (roughly 10 on the character in question, plus let's say another 10 throughout)
-The end burn is sustainable currently (pre physical perfection, but without maneuvers). How much worse will maneuvers make the situation?
-Is there a smarter way to achieve the same goals? What can I gain by sacrificing some of the attacks?
-Not really happy with the slotting results in Defensive Sweep and Titan Sweep (fairly low damage enhancement) but that's not really as important for brutes, so I sacrificed it for the greater good.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.953
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Nightmare Queen: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Titan Weapons
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Defensive Sweep -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(5), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Aegis-ResDam(7), Aegis-Psi/Status(9)
Level 2: Crushing Blow -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(5), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 4: Titan Sweep -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 6: Murky Cloud -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(17), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(19), Aegis-ResDam(19), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 8: Build Momentum -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(25), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(25), Aegis-ResDam(27)
Level 12: Death Shroud -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(29), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(29), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(31)
Level 14: Follow Through -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(15), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(15), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(31), Theft-+End%(33), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(33), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 18: Rend Armor -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 20: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(37), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(37), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 26: Whirling Smash -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(34), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(36), FrcFbk-Rechg%(42)
Level 28: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(45), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(46), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(46), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(46), Zinger-Dam%(48)
Level 32: Arc of Destruction -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(36), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(36), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(39), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Oppressive Gloom -- Acc(A)
Level 38: Cloak of Darkness -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39), LkGmblr-Def(40)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(48), LkGmblr-Def(48)
Level 49: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50), LkGmblr-Def(50)
Level 50: Cardiac Partial Core Revamp
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-EndMod(43), P'Shift-End%(43)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 1: Momentum

Thanks plainguy, I must have left one or the other on the clipboard. I re-added both of them to my previous post. Yes, they're not capped to melee with CD suppressed. Ranged is a little over, and about 0.5% under for AoE on the one without pets. Close enough for government work with the budget I had in mind (put the without pets build together this morning for ~200 million). Dumping the pets let me slot up surveillance a lot better and arctic breath as well.

Silly question, but I'm working on a (somewhat) cheap build for my own huntsman and I'm debating dropping Call Reinforcements- mainly so that I can pillage the slots to better effect elsewhere. The bots do help, but I've never really felt they did a tremendous amount of damage. Does anybody have a rough idea of how much additional damage they do? The primary goal was to be softcapped to ranged/AoE with cloak suppressed (so I'm looking for around 50% R/AoE def). Plus, dropping the reinforcements let me slot Surveillance a lot better. My thinking is that my own personal habits are to save long cooldown abilities for when I really need them, rather than use them as often as they're up (which I know, intellectually is probably suboptimal, but when playing I find I tend to do it anyway). Whereas, abilities like surveillance get used once per fight.

Here's the build with:
http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...3DF017A3E3FF34

I'm having fun with a Beam/Rad corruptor so far. He's only level 16 or so, but Radiation Infection doesn't cause redraw (kinda surprised, but it's a 1 handed animation). Enervating Field and Radiant Aura do, however. I think any of the debuff sets probably work fine with it, lay down your debuffs first and then blast away. I tried /Poison but didn't like it much.

/Poison was fine for my MM who could spend the whole time debuffing non-stop but less fun on a corruptor where you should be devoting some time to blasting as well. I found the same thing for Trick Arrow too though (a lot more fun on a MM who can have their pets do damage autonomously versus a corruptor who has to alternate between blast and debuff).

Personally, I'd go for:
-Sonic
-Rad
-Dark
-Traps

As ones that I'd think would have good synergy. Sometimes though, sets you don't think will work together can mesh really well. Roll a few different flavors and give em a try through the first few levels. You can never have too many alts and you never know what you might stumble on! Just my two cents, of course.

I had endurance issues on my StJ/Shield scrapper, I don't think there's much difference between shield and sr in terms of endurance costs, so maybe this will help. The endurance issues didn't go away until I started slotting level 35-40 set IOs. Most sets provide enough endurance consumption so that you end up not needing much more (mostly ended up using touch of death and mako's, fwiw).

Prior to that point you can always frankenslot (slot individual set IOs more for the enhancement values they provide than the set bonuses). Lower level IOs don't give as much enhancement value, so even though I frankenslotted a bunch of stuff with level 25 or so IOs I still had problems with endurance management until my recent re-build at 38 or so.

Some general tips:
-Slot accuracy and end redux for a brute's attacks. Add damage to taste but don't neglect the first two. Remember your brute needs to hit to cause damage and you're already getting a big damage boost from fury (along with a relatively low base damage), the extra damage you get from slotting for damage is less on a brute than it would be on another AT. Most of your endurance use is caused by your attacks. Make 'em less expensive and your problems will go away (eventually). Search on the forums for JoJo the Bunny's guide to Endurance Dysfunction. Humorous and helpful.

(edit) Link here http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...ght=JoJo+bunny

-Use Def/End IOs in your toggles. You can pick up a smidge more net endurance gain here, not a ton (although the powers are almost always on).
-Avoid overkill if you can. If something has a sliver of health left, get in the habit of smacking it with the least damaging attack that can kill it. Using crushing uppercut excessively will kill your endurance bar.
-Performance shifter +End proc ends up giving you more endurance gain over time than a third endmod in stamina. There's a mathematical calcuation on the boards here somewhere, but in general, this will help. Only problem is that it's 10 end at a time. If you're at 95/100 endurance it will waste the "extra" 5. But still, over time, it should be a gain. And these are generally fairly cheap at $10 million inf per (roughly, put a bid in and let it sit if you're worried about overpaying. Or, better yet buy the recipe and salvage and craft your own).
-Numina's +regen/+recovery or Miracle +recovery are more expensive options. Either can be slotted in health and help your recovery.
-Energy/Body Mastery epic power pool- Another option later in the build. Brutes get superior conditioning and physical perfection both of which make endurance management less of a problem. Also, another nice place to slot a performance shifter proc.
-Look for +endurance accolades. If you're a hero, the Atlas Medallion is an easy one to grab and it's helpful too.
-Recovery Serum Temp Power- Helpful. You can only have one crafted at a time, 5 uses per craft. Helpful to hit it right before a longer boss fight or something where you'll be attacking for a longer time than normal. Should be fairly cheap (less than 50k influence I'd guess).


Well, this should give you a spectrum of options to try, with varying degrees of time and influence investment. Worst case, carry blue inspirations. Stock up before a mission. Email yourself some so you can refill without leaving the mission. My StJ/Shield scrapper was out of breath most of the time but the difference after I slotted her up with lvl 35-40 set IOs was definitely noticeable. Now, I can pretty much bounce from one mob to the next without pausing. Still have to use the occasional blue when fighting Mu or draining enemies but it's not nearly as bad.

I have a SS/Dark that's pretty fun. Took him a while to get there though. Claws/Dark would probably be pretty nice, maybe Kinetic Melee/Dark? Only one I might avoid would be Stone (from what I have been told it's pretty heavy on endurance usage and DA does use endurance prodigiously). Might avoid the weapon sets if you're real set on avoiding any redraw, since Dark Regeneration would trigger that. I don't think you can go too wrong though.

I've had a blast with my WM/Shield brute. Once you softcap defense, shield is survivable, has a good agro aura (no problems getting the AV's attention in the BAF and that's without taunt- does require tankers not being stupid, but eh), and adds to your offense. Depending on your character concept, it pairs pretty nicely with War Mace. It may not be strong and pretty, but I've had a lot of fun with it.

Hey Screw, I remember your posts from back in the day. Welcome back and we're glad to have you back.

I was going to jump in with the "budget" WM/Shield Brute build someone made for me, but I'm not much of a build guru and I see your build requirements are an order of magnitude more than mine in terms of influence.

Still, it's a powerset combination that functions quite well without purples or glad armor or anything crazy on my brute. I can't imagine a scrapper would be any worse (the damage would certainly be much higher- getting all that extra benefit from AAO). Kinda wish I had made her a scrapper to start with now, but I'm not going to plow through making her over again- now that she has an IO build I'm satisfied with and T3+ on all her incarnate slots.

For completeness' sake (and so anybody else looking for build ideas doesn't have to search too far), here's a link to my budget war mace/shield brute- which ought to translate just fine to a scrapper (the epic pool will change but I don't think I'm getting much out of it in the way of set bonuses). The budget build is in post #3, although other folks contributed some nice builds as well that might give some ideas.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=246450

I started a sewer trial on my level 7 peacebringer and noticed partway through that I wasn't getting any experience or influence. When I swapped out of Nova into human form, within 1 spawn or so I started getting xp again (and I continued to get xp even when I swapped back to Nova). I believe that the problem is that I was in Nova form when I entered the trial and never swapped to Human. So, somehow the exemplaring code never reset my level to the exemplared level. However, everything continued to con normally (even when I wasn't getting XP). I didn't see this on the known issues list, but thought it might be worth mentioning here.

Hello hello. My old Dark/Dark defender is in the same boat as yours. However, I have rolled up a Fire/Dark corruptor and started her on the path to Incarnate-dom and IOing, so I'll try to offer some general advice. I'm sure smarter folks than I will respond later .

Dark Miasma hasn't changed much in a long while. Your general knowledge of the powers and how they function should be enough for you.

Big change to defenders is that now vigilance gives you a scaling damage buff depending on team size (it goes to zero around 4 teammates, biggest when you're solo)- so it should be less painful than you remember to solo.

Do a search for "Frankenslotting" IOs here on the forum. There is a fairly good guide on it. IMO it's probably the easiest "bang for the buck" that you can get out of IOs without dumping a lot of cash. Essentially you slot IOs like mini-Hami-Os. Look for (for example) ToHit Debuff sets for Darkest Night. Mix and Match the ToHit Debuff and ToHit Debuff/End Redux IOs from various sets to get your powers maxed out in less slots than it'd take with SOs. Ignore set bonuses and aim for cheaper sets. repeat for other powers so that you can max out the attributes you want from that power.

You can also look at level ranges other than max level and see if you can pick up a 49 Dark Watcher's Despair ToHit Debuff IO for less than that level 50 was going to cost you. The difference is fairly trivial.

The ToHit Debuff, Accurate ToHit Debuff, Fear, and Accurate Healing sets tend to have more supply than demand, so they should be fairly cheap to get your mitts on. Some of the ranged damage sets don't have a lot of desireable set bonuses, so they usually are in the same boat (Detonation, Air Burst, etc).

If you have some seed money, take a peek in the market forums. There are some nice guides as to how to make a fair amount of cash through marketeering (essentially buying recipes and salvage, crafting and then selling the IO for profit) if that's not objectionable to you. HeffronCM (I think?) has a link in one of his posts to a spreadsheet to help keep track of how much you need to sell a crafted IO for to make a profit. Worth a look. Once you get rolling with it, it can take 15 minute or so out of a play session to buy/craft/list.

Once you take the plunge into Set IOs, personally, I'd build for +recharge. I suppose you could try to build for ranged or lethal defense, but it doesn't seem worth it to me for the cost. I also went Spiritual (recharge) for my Incarnate Alpha slot, which essentially adds a recharge SO to each power and some of it ignores ED. Worth a look at any rate as you'll be getting shards just by doing the incarnate unlock arc in Ouroboros (Mender Ramiel) and then earning shards for just playing the character.

I'm a brute-a-holic. I have tons of brutes. I can't stop rolling new brutes.

In terms of feel, here's what I think about the primaries, I've played:

Super Strength- some heavy hitting punches, but very little AoE until 32. Not sure that'd be your cup of tea. It feels smashy though.

Stone Melee- So far, this has one of the best SMASHY feels to the set. Lots of screen shake and when you hit something you HEAR and FEEL the hit. Not much AoE here either, though (my Stone/Willpower is only 15 so I haven't got far with the set).

War Mace- I love my WM/Shield brute (although /Shield is a more passive set, so probably not your thing either). Three AoEs (if you count Shatter- which I use like Shadow Maul, line up a few and smack em). A nice crunch when things hit and it hits pretty hard.

Claws- A fun set, with early AoEs, but it still feels scrappery. Not much screen shake and some fast animations/snicky snacky sound effects.

Dark Melee- Lots of tools and stuff to use here (Fear, Self Heal)- but, like claws, it still feels like a scrapper set. I'm smacking things, not SMASHING. Also, virtually no AoE, so probably not your thing.

Kinetic Melee- Not smashy like stone, mace, or superstrength- BUT it has an interesting gimmick in Power Siphon. About average AoE, maybe a little below.

Dual Blades- Another scrappery set, rather than an SMASHY brute set. But the combos could keep it interesting. Fair amount of AoE as well (maybe a little less than Mace, in my subjective opinion).

So, of the ones that I've tried, I'd say look at War Mace or Stone- maybe Super Strength.

Active Secondaries

Willpower and Shield are pretty fire and forget- so probably not something you'd want.
/Dark- is endurance heavy and your survivability revolves around a high endurance cost but powerful heal. The theft of essence proc is essential in my opinion.

/Fire - Not as endurance heavy as /Dark and more offensively oriented. More squishy though and definitely more vulnerable to endurance drain/fear.

/Electric- This starts out as fire and forget, but there is an active component to your mitigation as well. Energize is imporant and it's on a longer timer than other heals, so deciding when to use it is imporant. I use Power Sink as a mitigation tool on my /Elec brute, so that's another active component.

/Energy Aura- It's fairly fire and forget so far. I've only got up to level 37 on my Claws/EA. It's stealthy, which is a bit different for a brute. The native defense isn't nearly as bad as it's made out to be (once you get SOs anyway). I find that my only major problem with /EA is the lack of a taunt aura makes it hard to keep agro on teams. Of course, that's changing when Freedom goes live. It's not very big on active mitigation though at the moment.

/Regen should be more active than anything else, once Freedom goes live.

Long story short, SS/Dark can be pretty fun, once you get around the endurance issue (which is better now than it was before inherent stamina). I know other folks have had fun with Claws/Dark too. Combos I'd say that'd be worth trying for a bit would be:

-Kinetic Melee/Dark Armor- Some gimicks in your attack set, active mitigation in your defense set through your big heal, stuns/fears, etc.

-SuperStrength/Dark Armor- A good smashy feel. I have one at level 35, and he's pretty fun to play at this point, he feels like an indestructible engine of doom. Earlier it was a bit of a slog with having to stop and rest or buy lots of blues.

-Kinetic Melee/Fire Armor- I have a baby at level 20 or so. She's fun so far. Doesn't have the smashy feel that SS had, but puts out a lot of damage, that's for sure. And /Fire makes up for the smaller amount of non-knockback AoE in KM. Actually, this might be a winner.

-Stone Melee/Fire Armor- SMASHIEST primary combined with a nice AoE punch from your secondary? Sounds like fun, to me.

Maybe the answer is to not allow the ratings to count unless the arc has been played in full and completed- that would make it much more tedious for the drive-bys. Comments allowed (so if somebody gets stuck on your ultra hard final boss, you can hear about it and adjust it or drink their tears, as you see fit ) but no rating.

The other option would be to go to a more complex rating system that is not as easily "gamed" by somebody trying to deliberately rate-bomb it?

As far as farming vs. story arcs- I agree the primary purpose of MA has been to make your own stories- and the focus should be there. However, I do use the farming arcs for a couple of purposes. One, mid-level salvage is pretty rare and even some of the common mid-level salvage can get pretty pricey. So, I fire up a "farm" arc and spend my tickets on mid-level salvage (using it to craft if I need it, or dump it on the market to drive prices down and get me cash if I don't). So, there would be some not-so-desireable effects of removing the ticket farms, IMO. I would expect (at least for the short term) that rare salvage prices would increase fairly dramatically and mid-level salvage would increase as well, possibly putting newer players out of the market for stuff alltogether.

Anyways, tonight I'll try to play a few of the rate-bombed arcs, hopefully I can help make a dent in restoring some of the damage and have some fun doing so! I remember Fear and Loathing on Striga as one of my favorite AE arcs and a few others I picked up around here, sad to see somebody bashing hard work that turned out well. I am assuming that multiple ratings from the same account don't count, correct?

Congrats on the Full Alty!

So, I started a Claws/EA brute in anticipation of the changes to /EA. I'd like to have a brute that's fairly survivable and fun to play in regular play (not really interested in farming with him, mostly just teaming, TFs, and soloing tip missions and such). I put this build together to try to get him softcapped to all and then put on some recharge on top of that. I'm not sure I'll need body mastery when I'm done- I think the endurance drain of all the toggles plus fighting pool might be enough to where I will need it if I don't want to have to constantly fire off Energy Drain and cause redraw frequently. Anyways, I'm looking to keep the build relatively cheap (the LOTGs were thrown in as kind of an end build once I get the alignment merits to buy them- they're not critical to softcapping). So, if you guys can help me tweak it to make it a bit cheaper or a bit more effective, I'd love to see ideas. Thanks in advance.


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Swipe -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(A), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Kinetic Shield -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def/Rchg(7), S'dpty-EndRdx/Rchg(7), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(9), S'dpty-Def(13)
Level 2: Strike -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15)
Level 4: Dampening Field -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ResDam-I(13)
Level 6: Spin -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(15), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(17), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(19)
Level 8: Follow Up -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(21), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(21), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), T'Death-Dam%(25)
Level 10: Entropy Shield -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Power Shield -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def/Rchg(25), S'dpty-EndRdx/Rchg(27), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27), S'dpty-Def(46)
Level 14: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam(31), RctvArm-EndRdx(46)
Level 18: Focus -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(31), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 20: Energy Cloak -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def(34), LkGmblr-Rchg+(34)
Level 22: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(37)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(37), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(39), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Sciroc-Dam%(42)
Level 28: Energy Drain -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(39), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(40)
Level 30: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Shockwave -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Dmg/Rng(43), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), FrcFbk-Rechg%(45)
Level 35: Conserve Power -- Empty(A), Empty(40), Empty(40), Empty(43), Empty(45)
Level 38: Overload -- Heal-I(A), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 41: Energy Protection -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 44: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(46), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(48), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(50), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(50), GSFC-Build%(50)
Level 47: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(A)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(48), P'Shift-End%(48)

I have a SS/FA and a DM/Elec, so, having played all three sets in question, I'll drop my 2 inf in here.

*/FA (for normal, non AE content) will probably be a lot squishier. But, Healing Flames is on a short recharge which helps cover this gap. Unfortunately, you're also more vulnerable to recharge debuffs (which /Elec has protection against) and endurance drains (again /Elec has protection against as well). The slows really can eat you alive because it slows down how much damage you can recover from with healing flames. Your heavy fire resist doesn't come into play as much in the regular game. BUT.. you get burn. And a taunt aura to leverage burn (scrappers don't generally have a good way of keeping things in the burn patch). You also get fiery embrace which adds damage to all of your attacks. So, you really trade off a significant amount of survivability for more offense with /FA.

*/Elec (for normal, non AE content) will be sturdier. You have endurance drain resist that lets you laugh at Sappers. You have knockback resist (which /FA lacks, although IOs can help). You have recharge debuff resistance. However, your heal is on a signficantly longer timer. It comes with a side of endurance cost reduction, which is handy, however. I would say that the resistances between the sets are fairly comparable, but energy damage (/Elec's strong point) is encountered more often in the regular game. Additionally, instead of additional damage, /Elec can drain endurance from it's targets with Power Sink and Lightning field. If you slot for it, it can be a nice secondary way to keep the incoming damage down. On top of that, Power Sink can refill your end bar and is on a faster cooldown than consume. So, you'll have that going for you as well.

Dark Melee- Most of the truly damaging powers in dark melee are single target attacks. Shadow Maul is a short cone that you can use as an AoE, but it takes practice and it has a very long animation. Dark Consumption does a little damage but is primarily used to refill your endurance bar. Siphon Life is just handy as heck. It heals you a little and does decent damage. On my DM/Elec, I use it to keep my HP bar topped off so I'm not relying on energize as much. Touch of Fear is another nice tool to have. 1 application on a boss may not fear them but they hit noticably less often. 2 applications fear them and not only do they not hit as often, but now they rarely attack. So, in summary, DM has a lot of nice tools, very light on AoE. Good single target damage.

Super Strength- SS has a lot of single target attacks as well. Instead of DM's -tohit, you get lots of knockdown and a nice HEAVY HITTING HOLD in KO Blow (do slot this for recharge and endurance reduction as well- it will drain your endurance bar dry but it's so sweet when it connects. It's like a siren song... "c'mon, press me. I'll nail that Tsoo Sorceror into next week. Look! Rest is recharged... there's no reason not to press me..."). The gems of Superstrength though are Rage and Footstomp. Rage adds +80% damage and a little tohit when it's up. It lasts for a few minutes and then crashes. When it drops off it's a bit of PITA as it sucks a good chunk of endurance and it gives you a -9000% damage debuff. I find it useful to monitor my damage in the combat attributes monitor on my SS characters so that I notice when rage drops. YMMV. It's still a sweet power and the debuff doesn't last more than a few seconds, but it is an annoyance to be aware of. Footstomp is just awesome. Excellent damage, probably the best range of any tank/brute PBAoE, and a side of knockdown for mitigation. So, superstrength I would say has good single target and aoe damage (on the basis of footstomp alone) without many of the tricks and tools of DM (but few other sets have as many gadgets as DM). It's more heavy on the endurance bar than DM in my experience (mostly due to the regular rage crashes and KO Blow/Footstomp endurance costs).

So that's my long-winded, totally IMO, qualitative evaluation of the sets you asked about. DM/FA, DM/Elec, SS/FA, and SS/Elec are all good builds that can be fun to play. Personally, I like /Elec more than /FA for regular content and I like DM more than I like SS as well. But that's just me.

Claws is very nice for brutes, with spin at level 6, a nice ranged attack in focus, and a few other AoEs. War Mace is fun too, although it's AoEs come later in the set.

My favorite brute of all of mine is my War Mace/Shield. She has a relatively cheap IO build (cost me 300 million influence about 6 months ago, the build's here on the forums and has been referenced in a few other posts), but she's soft capped and can open up a can of AoE or Single Target Whooping. And the mace attacks just hit with a soul satisfying CRUNCH. None of this wimpy smacking or slapping that you get with Dark Melee (nevermind DM is probably doing more damage). The feel of the set was just fun for me. She started out as two sets I hadn't played before and figured I'd try and became my "go-to" brute. She had endurance problems early on, but IO sets fixed most of that and Physical Perfection / Superior Conditioning did the rest (I went Spiritual for my alpha slot on her).

Bottom line is that I don't think you can go wrong with any combination of brute (maybe stay away from energy melee). Pick a few, level them to level 6 or 10 or so and see what you like.