Valorin

I made a claws/EA brute and I've been fairly surprised at his survivability once I got SOs (I have the steadfast +3% def, weave, combat jumping in addition to /EA). One small purple to softcap him to S/L, very high e/n/f/c defenses to start off with. The heal in energy drain is unimpresive, but it helps. If it's getting a touch better with Freedom, then it should be just fine as a secondary from where I sit.

I don't find it lame. The non surpressing stealth is nifty, survivability is fine (not wonderful but fine). I agree with others who say it's "subpar". But it's not "unplayable" or "horrible". If you have a slot, make one. Play it a bit, play something else for a bit, then come back to it. Give it until at least level 22 (for SOs) or 25 (for Energy Cloak and some more slots).

If you're going to try a brute, I'd recommend Smurphy's guide, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...highlight=JoJo

Lots of good suggestions in there, maybe a little less relevant with inherent stamina, but still good stuff and the title takes the cake.

Willpower is a good secondary that you can turn on and forget about.

The primaries all have slightly different feels to them, but I don't think there's any that are truly hard to solo with. Stone Melee and Super Strength feel very smashy, lots of screen shake, etc. War Mace hits with a soul-satisfying CRUNCH and has a good range of AoE and single target attacks. Dark Melee has lots of tricks in the kit bag (fear, self-heal) but is single target focused. Claws is very nice on Brutes. Hard to go wrong really. The only ones that are probably less effective would be Energy Melee (some hard hitting single target attacks, but very long animations and little AoE to speak of), and to a lesser degree Axe (sacrifices the size of some of Mace's AoEs for slightly higher damage).

Remember, as a Brute, your damage increases with how often you are hit or are hitting things. Sometimes it can be counterproductive to stop and heal/rest. There's a sweet spot where you're moving fast enough to keep fury up but not so fast that you don't have a little time to regen health and endurance. It's a fun archetype though... The Pain Train is comin' woo woo!

I made my War Mace/Shield brute as a "concept" character and some powersets I hadn't played before. It was such a blast that it's now my favorite character. She's durable, hits hard, can do good AoE or single target damage, tank in a pinch (even without taunt, the only things that pull agro off of me are /Shield scrappers and Tanks), and just generally tons of fun to play. War Mace has such a satisfying "crunch".

She's using the build that Twilight Snow outlined in the second link Red Bull provided. It was not all that expensive to make (I did a bit of marketeering and spent some alignment merits levelng up, but not to any great extent) and it's good enough that I still don't see any reason to update it.

First of all, welcome back!

Part of the beauty of City of Heroes is that anything CAN solo. There's all kinds of debate as to what's the BEST soloer. In my opinion, Brutes are the easiest to solo from 1->50. Scrappers are fairly close, in my experience they're a tad slower until they get SOs. Masterminds can solo fairly well as well, although controlling your pets can be a pain sometimes (there are some nice bind guides out there, look in the mastermind forum if you're interested). Certain combinations of corruptors or defenders can solo reasonably well as well (Dark Miasma and Traps are two that I have soloed with reasonably well). Tanks can solo, but it's slow going (you'll hardly ever die though).

I'll throw a few powerset combinations out there that I have solo'ed with reasonably well. Just about any brute or scrapper is going to solo just fine.

Brute:
-Stone Melee/Willpower- lots of single target damage, screen shake, a real SMASHy feeling. And you're durable and your secondary doesn't take a lot of micromanagement.
-Dark Melee/Electric Armor- Single target focused, self heal in the primary and secondary. Elec is probably a little less durable than Willpower and at higher levels you'll need to use your tricks (endurance drain, self heals) a little more to stay alive. But it's a combo that I had a lot of fun leveling up.

Scrapper:
-Kinetic Melee/Invulnerability- Lots of single target damage, durable secondary. Up to you if you like the KM animations or not.

Stalker:
-Dual Blades/Ninjutsu- I forgot to mention stalkers earlier. They're generally regarded as "less powerful" than scrappers and brutes, although I had loads of fun with this character. The dual blades animations give a graceful feel. As a stalker you generally start fights on your own terms, which could be helpful for a rusty player. Stalkers do very good burst damage, sustained damage a hair below brutes, but at the cost of survivability (lower hit points, defense and resistance are on a par with scrappers/brutes- but you will notice the difference). I should note that I have seen plenty of stalkers in Incarnate (end-game) raids and have not once had anyone give them a hard time, called them "gimp", or whatever. They did just fine.

Defender:
-Dark Miasma/Dark Blast- It's been a while since I leveled mine (Issue 4), but she was fun leveling and it's only gotten more powerful since then. Lots of debuffs and controls, relatively weaker damage and no status protection. But if you do team, you'll be just as useful as any other defender.

Corruptor:
-Assault Rifle/Traps- Currently leveling this guy. Lots of AoE damage, good debuffs along with a little defense and some status protection.

-Fire Blast/Dark Miasma- weaker debuffs than my defender (and it's noticeable), she takes more damage but dishes out a ton in return. If you want to play a defender or corruptor, you can't go wrong with this.

I think you're on the right track by trying a few and playing them for a few levels. Play whichever one you find fun. That'll level the fastest by default .

The link below leads to a relatively old thread I started, asking for a cheap build for my WM/SD Brute. Twilight Snow posted a nice build - in fact, I've never upgraded to anything more expensive. The best part was that, with some patience, I was able to slot most of it as I leveled up. Getting your attacks slotted with your set IOs drastically reduces your endurance usage. Physical Perfection and Superior Conditioning helped round out the rough edges enough that I went Spiritual (recharge) for my Alpha slot on my WM/Shield. Anyway, enjoy the link. Hopefully you find some good tips there.

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

I've not run a DB/Elec brute and I'm at work and can't look at Mids at the moment to see what you're building towards (looks like you've got some defense, given the kinetic combats, etc).

However, I can offer some of my experience from playing my Dark/Elec brute (which I realize is a bit of a different animal, given siphon life, touch of fear, and the -ToHit debuff in Dark Melee). I didn't want to spend the cash to shoot for positional or typed defense. So, I spent the cash on cheap recharge buffs (1 LoTG, some crushing impacts and a few other "niche" sets that gave me a bit of recharge, some +hp, but nothing super expensive).

I have found that the best way to keep my brute upright when soloing large groups is to soak the alpha and then use power sink (possibly energize first, depending on the situation). I have power sink slotted with ~60% end mod and an additional endmod in Lightning field. The mobs go down to a sliver of endurance and it gives me time to whittle down the ones who hurt me the most (and my primary has very little for AoE, so you should be able to whittle a lot faster). Yes, they still gain endurance back faster than lightning field drains it, but it slows down their attack rate after the initial burst and I "feel" like they use their heavy hitters a lot less often.

I also went with Soul Mastery (which, given the Dark Ring Mistresses might or might not be out of your character concept) - so when I think i'm going to have a problem soaking the alpha, I can "corner pull" using darkest night. It's handy.

What's funny is that I had just picked my DM/Elec back up after a year (possibly years?) of inactivity. I died nonstop, even corner pulling with Darkest Night against x8 Arachnos and CoT. Then, I figured out the "sapping" strategy and it made the ride a lot smoother. Still challenging enough to be interesting, but not nearly as annoying as before. So, it might be worth a try- just try frankenslotting power sink for endmod/recharge and toss in one End Mod into lightning field. Hope that helps!

For what it's worth, my WM/SD brute uses Twilight Snow's build from the link below. It was cheap enough for me to afford most of it while I leveled up and I found that my endurance usage got a lot better once I got set IOs in the attacks and Superior Conditioning / Physical Perfection- I don't even have the performance shifter uniques slotted in them yet. I ended up going Spiritual for more shield charge, clobber, and crowd control and my brute very rarely has endurance issues (the only times I use Blues are when I run into a crowd of Mu and very occasionally Carnies). I had intentions on re-building her at 50 with more +recharge, but to be honest, her build's just fine as is. The only thing I'm missing is a ranged attack or taunt. That'd be nice, but to me it's not worth the hassle of rebuilding her.

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

I love my War Mace/Shield Brute. She was cheap enough to soft-cap as I leveled up (and this was without a lot of alignment merits too). Somewhere on these boards, I had asked for a budget build for her and Twilight Snow came through with a really nice, soft-capped to all 3 positions, and really cheap build. I believe the thread is titled "WM/SD "Budget Build"", or something like that. I'll see if I can find it.

My brute is now my main go-to incarnate. She can hold agro great when there's not a tank in the team and she can tank just fine (indefinitely with support, or without support for short periods), she can do enough burst single target damage to put problem minions out of their misery (thanks Clobber), has no problems with sustained DPS, and she has a plethora of AoEs, that if properly targeted, she can contribute just fine in an AoE fest.

I ended up going Spiritual for my Alpha slot. I found that with Stamina, Physical Perfection, and Superior Conditioning, my endurance usage was just fine. I believe that what really did the trick was that I slotted my attacks with set IOs relatively early (in the early-mid 30's for most of them). That's all it took to go from "tedious" to "okay with the occasional blue in sustained fighting".

I'll reply again with a link if I find the build.

Ah-ha! Here's the link.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=246450

A nice read, as someone said earlier. Only things I'd mention would be "tactical tips", such as how to pick out one group out of a few clumped together, how to get critters to come to you by breaking line of sight, using Taunt to force enemies with ranged attacks to come closer to you, etc.

Something I do with teams is try and get a handle on who might need extra attention right off the bat. Who has the capability to pull agro off of me (shield scrappers, for example) or who has powersets that lend themselves to being in melee range but may not have the tools to keep themselves upright in melee range without some help (kin defenders come to mind). Usually there's not much you can do, but at least being aware that they might need help first helps me prioritize things. I'm certainly not saying that you need to babysit a scrapper, but knowing he has the capability to pull agro off of you fairly easily can dictate how often you taunt, or when you use your big hitters, etc. Having an idea in your head before you engage the enemy lets you mentally prepare for things before they happen and watch for them as they happen and you've already thought of a way to deal with it(rather than having to notice what's going on, interpret what's happening, and then take action all on the fly).

Just a few thoughts and it's late at night, so I'm probably rambling.

Annecdotal evidence to be sure, but worth a thought:

I logged on to my Storm defender who I haven't played since pre-ED (she's still five-slotted for damage). She had ~5,000,000 inf at level 39. So, that jives with what Obitus wrote above. I remember when they first introduced the various wings recipies, for a month or so they were "super expensive" at like 1,000,000 inf apiece.

I rememeber looking at the vendor prices for the level 50 common recipies and thinking "Wow, that's a ton of cash" in comparison to what else I was able to earn. Maybe that's part of the inflation?

I didn't go through the whole build, but I believe Repulsing Torrent takes knockback sets, which means you can slot the Force Feedback +Rech IO in it. I'd think anything that brings Power Siphon back faster would be a big help overall. Just a thought.

There's a few other DA/Ice tankers here on the boards, but I've yet to see one in game. Some things to keep in mind-
Cloak of Fear has crummy accuracy and a large endurance cost. I used it while leveling up (because I had never taken it on a DA character before and I thought the tohit debuff would be useful). I wasn't real impressed with it. I had a bunch of endurance problems while leveling (although frankeslotting and the theft of essence IOs helped a lot) and Cloak of Fear wasn't part of the solution. If you're keeping it around, plan on slotting some accuracy in there and a lot of end reduction. Maybe look at the accurate tohitdebuff sets (siphon insight is what I had in there while leveling up).

Ice Patch- you'll probably want a recharge rate in there rather than an end reduction. Should allow you to keep a patch out at all times. Handy

Death Shroud- I guess something had to give... if I was only slotting it with three slots, I'd find a bunch of el-cheapo multistrikes and cleaving blows to use. Enhance End reduction, acc, and damage (in that order), IMO. Death Shroud functions as your taunt aura, so whatever you're not hitting actively with single targets, taunting, or hitting with frost/frozen aura, you're relying on Death Shroud to pick up and grab the attention of. I tend to prioritize slotting on my auras more then that. In fact, when I run herostats, my auras are usually #1 or #2 in total damage dealt.

Greater Ice Sword- Most folks seem to hate this power. I have never tried it. I will leave the bashing of it to those who have.

Oppressive Gloom, I've just respec'ed into. It's useful with just one slot. The -HP is virtually unnoticeable on a tank, but it only works on minions (not LTs or Bosses) although it's effect can stack with somebody else's disorient to disorient Bosses/LTs.

Ok, I haven't played a Dark/Fire scrapper. I've played a Dark/Elec brute, which I imagine is similar enough. My comments on your power comments (aiming to provide some constructive feedback or at least a second set of opinions)

Shadow Maul- It's the only AoE you get that's on a decent recharge timer. Yes it's a smallish cone, yes the animation is super-long and it sucks when you miss. But it does good damage in an AoE, which you don't find anywhere else in the Dark Melee primary. So, it's worth consideration, IMO. /Fire armor may need this less than my /Elec did as you have burn, but still.

Siphon Life- I usually go for a combination of Acc/Rech/Heal/Dam/End Reduction. Frankenslot the heck of this power trying to get as much on all of those aspects as possible. Used consistently, the small heal can top you off and to me even a small increase in the amount it heals for can be helpful.

Touch of Fear- It carries a significant tohit debuff. I find that when 2 bosses are beating on my brute, her health can drop quickly. 1 application on a boss slows the damage considerably, and 2 applications (fearing the boss) buys me enough time to deal with other things first.

I find Dark Melee to have a lot of great tools. There's drawbacks to some of them, but there's also places where they come in handy. Again, this is coming at your comments from my experience as a Dark/Elec brute (with a similar focus on a fast attack chain).

Overall, it's a nice guide. A little more explanation of how / why you built the way you did or situations where certain powers were useful may help flesh it out a bit more. Thanks for putting it together!

Thanks Findulas, that looks a bit better and as you say the E/NE defense increased significantly. Assuming I can scrape together the merits and cash for it, it should be very sturdy. I picked up the Cardiac Alpha this morning, and that's proving to be a huge help.

I have a fair stockpile for my DA/Ice tank and I'm trying to build a blend of decent defense coupled with good recharge (both for improved offense and for getting Dark Regeneration up faster). Eventually, I will go with the Cardiac alpha slot line. Any thoughts on how I could accomplish more with less? I'm not married to Oppressive Gloom, but the recharge bonus is nice and being able to eliminate minions as a threat is helpful as well (I could see swapping Manuevers in there instead of Buildup or Hasten, although I don't want to lose Hasten as the build is pretty sensitive to recharge slows and Hasten is kind of my trump card against that).

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Fallen Legend: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Ice Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(3), RctvArm-ResDam(3), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(5), S'fstPrt-ResKB(37)
Level 1: Frozen Fists -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(5), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 2: Murky Cloud -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(7), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9), RctvArm-ResDam(9), S'fstPrt-ResKB(45)
Level 4: Frost -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/Rng(13), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(13)
Level 6: Obsidian Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(15), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46), RctvArm-ResDam(48), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(50)
Level 8: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-Acc/Heal(A), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(15), Theft-+End%(17), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(19), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(19)
Level 10: Death Shroud -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(21), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(21), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(23), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(25)
Level 12: Ice Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(25), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(27), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 14: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(42), Mocking-Rchg(42), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(43), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(50)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A)
Level 18: Cloak of Darkness -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(29)
Level 20: Ice Patch -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 22: Super Jump -- Jump(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam(33), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 28: Freezing Touch -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(34), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 30: Oppressive Gloom -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(34), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(36), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(36), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(43)
Level 32: Soul Transfer -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Frozen Aura -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(39), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Oblit-%Dam(40)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-End%(45)
Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Boost
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), EndMod-I(31), P'Shift-EndMod(37), EndMod-I(39)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 4: Ninja Run

What's it like at 50? Awesome. Fun. Smash-tastic. I went body mastery (with superior conditioning and physical perfection) for my epic pool and I went spiritual for my alpha slot (faster clobber recharge, crowd control recharge, and shield charge? Yes please. Plus a side of +Heal for Health and True Grit? Nice). I very rarely have endurance problems (blues tend to accumulate in my inspiration tray as a result) - even if I'm fighting carnies. I used a fairly cheap IO build (it's posted around here somewhere, look for "Budget War Mace/Shield" build. I ended up using Twilight Snow's build and it's pretty darn good). My WM/SD is not an epic AoE farmer like a SS/Fire brute, but she can come close and she doesn't have to worry about silly rage crashes.

Problem children: You've probably already run into Devouring Earth Quartzes. Malta sappers rarely hit, so they can be safely clobbered and then finished off with crowd control/shatter/whirling mace/shield charge or what haveyou. Cimmerorans can cause problems if you're handling too many by yourself (cascading defense failure). Things with lots of slows that can stack on you can be painful (Council/5th Column marksmen, nictus from the ITF)- but usually not fatal (not enough hit to really crash your recharge).

Role in teams: Typically, I take a role as an Off-Tank/damage. I'll wade in to the spawn behind the "main" tank and see how much agro I can pull off them. If the main tank goes down, usually I've got enough threat that most things can shift to me and it's a matter of picking up stragglers and making sure the squishies are safe. If everything goes well, things get clumped around the "main" tank and I can go to town with AoEs or single target any problem children that need to be dealt with.

Hypothetically, I think you could get away with the cardiac alpha and stamina just fine. I found that my endurance problems started going away when I started slotting sets. The extra end redux in your attacks really makes a huge difference. Cardiac would just build on that instead of the extra max end and extra recovery that I built into my build through Physical Perfection and Superior Conditioning. In general, I don't find myself lacking AoE or wishing an AoE was up sooner with my current setup. The build that Twilight Snow made for me is soft capped with no real sacrifices in terms of power picks or expensive IOs (a few touch of death sets, 1 mako's bite set, multistrikes in AoEs, serendipity in defense toggles, and the steadfast +3% def IO. No PvP IO).

My War Mace/Shield brute is my new main character. I'm sure there are stronger characters out there but she's pretty darn strong, survivable, versatile (in the sense that she's got a powerful AoE chain and a powerful ST chain), and I came up with character concept and costume for her that I really like. Hopefully this information is what you were looking for.

Here's a link to my "Budget Build" request.

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

Good luck on your tanks Mayor. There's a thread maybe a page or two back where somebody was starting up a Dark/Ice tank. Some good suggestions in there. Theft of Essence +End proc is very nice in Dark Regen. I'd put in a lowball bid when you get a chance.

My DA/Ice is 32 and he's pretty fun. He's very sturdy althoguh the damage output isn't great at this point (caveat: the only tank I've liked the damage output on is my Fire/Fire ).

The combination of slows in the attacks, Ice Patch, Cloak of Fear, respectable resistance, and a full heal, plus end drain resistance makes him pretty darn hard to kill. Relatively low tanker damage means that soloing for me usually means setting the mission at -1 x2 or -1 x3 and then "gathering" up a couple groups of enemies and using Frost/Death Shroud to whittle down the minions while my "big hitter" single target attacks take care of the LTs.

As far as tactics, I typically run into the middle of the group of enemies, taunt the biggest group at range and then hit Ice Patch. Then, while they're flopping, I'll target an enemy on one side of the ice patch and try to jump in the opposite direction. This lets me use frost over most of the enemies flopping on the patch. Then hop back in, target the LT with the most health remaining, and go to town.

Cloak of Fear, it depends on my inspiration situation. If I have plenty of blues, it goes on and stays on. If I'm running low, I'll turn it on for the opening phase of the fight and then off once I'm more comfortable with the incoming damage. If I'm on a fast moving team and not taking a beating, it'll go off.

I'm certainly not a master of tanking and not a master of DA, so do check out the other thread.

Hope that helps you. DA/Ice has been the most fun I've had with a tank in a while. I rarely have to worry about how much I bite off, it's more a matter of can I chew it fast enough.

Here's what I'm rolling with while I'm leveling anyway (Thanks Titan Sentinel for making this easier). Hopefully it's not too much a digression from the thread topic, I thought perhaps I could see where folks did things differently or maybe folks could see how I slotted and make adjustments themselves. As I said before, it solos like a glacier. Slow, steady erosion . Not a lot of recharge reduction in Dark Regen, but I haven't needed it much. Common IOs were crafted off my own drops, most of the set IOs were picked up with the intent of helping to get more enhancement from my (limited) slots. Also, oddly it's not showing my two additional slots in stamina.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Fallen Legend: Level 31 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Ice Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(3), ResDam(3), ResDam(5)
Level 1: Frozen Fists -- Acc(A), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(7)
Level 2: Murky Cloud -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(7), ResDam(9), ResDam(9)
Level 4: Frost -- Acc(A), AirB'st-Dmg/EndRdx(11), AirB'st-Dmg/Rng(11), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(13)
Level 6: Obsidian Shield -- EndRdx(A)
Level 8: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-Acc/Heal(A), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(13), Theft-+End%(15), EndRdx(15), EndRdx(17)
Level 10: Death Shroud -- EndRdx(A), Acc(17), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Dmg(19), Dmg(21)
Level 12: Ice Sword -- Acc-I(A), Dmg(21), Dmg(23), Dmg(23)
Level 14: Taunt -- Taunt-I(A)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A)
Level 18: Cloak of Fear -- EndRdx(A), SipInsght-Acc/ToHitDeb(25), SipInsght-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25), N'mare-Acc/EndRdx(27)
Level 20: Ice Patch -- RechRdx(A)
Level 22: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(27)
Level 28: Freezing Touch -- Acc(A), Dmg(29), Dmg(29), Empty(31)
Level 30: Cloak of Darkness -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)

I solo'ed mine a bit last night at -1 x2; That made it a bit fun. I could gather up 2 or 3 groups, focus my single target attacks on the LTs and let Frost/Death Shroud wear the minions down. I suppose I could amp up the "team size" to x3 or x4, but somehow that would feel too slow. For the record, I ended up finishing 5 tip missions in an hour and 10 minutes, not horrible all things considered (that included a market break or two). I have more slots in my attacks though, so YMMV.

Funny, I just saw this thread today and my DA/Ice tank just hit 30 over the weekend. Here's my experiences with the powerset combination:

Soloing is glacial- exceedingly slow but very steady.
Teaming is a mixed bag, I find that I don't always have enough AoE yet to grab all the attention for an 8 man team. Last night I teamed with 6 scrappers and a mind/rad controller and I definitely lost agro from time to time. Very few deaths though. And he's a sturdy frickin' tank, that's for sure. 4 DE bosses pounding on me at once was one of the few things that I had to use dark regeneration for.
Endurance usage is a problem, even without having to use dark regen much. I tend to run cloak of fear (for the tohit debuff if nothing else) and death shroud (so I can get agro around me and focus my single target attacks on problem children and use taunt for ranged attackers). So, that's where that's probably coming from. Additionally I don't have a lot of Set IOs slotted yet (although I do have the Theft of Essence proc, so that's a Godsend), so I'm operating with very little end reduction in my attacks. Double whammy.

As I look at set IOs, I'm kind of thinking that I want to build towards 1) Recovery, 2) Recharge, 3) Picking up additional end reduction through the individual set IOs I use. How expensive is it to pick up a significant amount of defense with DA/Ice? What amounts to significant, considering I have CoD and Combat Jumping to build from for starters? (Eventually I'll pick up Weave). I haven't played around with it much yet.

Here's the build that Deus gave in my post. I'll leave the decision as to whether it's godlike or not up to you . As I said earlier, I'm only about halfway to finishing the "budget" build. But with one small purple, I'm at the defense softcap. With no means of healing myself outside of inspiration drops, I still feel pretty sturdy in most situations (Devouring Earth emanators are an exception, multiple venge'd nemesis would be the other but they're not really as bad).


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Pulverize -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(42), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Mako-Dam%(43)
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(39), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(40)
Level 2: Jawbreaker -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(3), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Mako-Dam%(39)
Level 4: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(5), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(5)
Level 6: True Grit -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(7), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 8: Clobber -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Dam%(17)
Level 10: Active Defense -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(11), HO:Membr(11)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Whirling Mace -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(19), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(19), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Oblit-%Dam(23)
Level 20: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(21)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(25), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(25), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(34), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 26: Shatter -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(27), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Oblit-%Dam(31)
Level 28: Phalanx Fighting -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(31)
Level 32: Crowd Control -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(33), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(33), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), FrcFbk-Rechg%(34)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(37)
Level 38: One with the Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Heal-I(50)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(42)
Level 44: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(45), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(46), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 47: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(48)
Level 49: Grant Cover -- EndRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(40), RgnTis-Regen+(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(43), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(46), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(48), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(48), P'Shift-End%(50)

I had posted asking for a budget build a month or two ago for a WM/SD brute. Here's the link:

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

Deus posted what I would consider to be a very nice build for it and Twilight Snow posted a good "budget" build. So far, I'm about halfway through making the budget build (Level 44) and it's sturdy, fun, and good against single hard targets or lots of small targets. Congrats on 50! When I get home tonight, I'll take Deus's code and export the actual build to this post.

I wouldn't mind a few mobs salted in that reacted to healing/buffing agro or even went straight for the healers/buffers. It'd be just like malta sappers- targets to be identified and eliminated posthaste. Whole enemy groups that ignore the tank would not be fun.