dmcfarland907

Originally Posted by Flux_Vector

Very-rare Destiny buffs are perma. At rare and uncommon they have a 50% to 66% uptime depending on which power you choose.

Originally Posted by Flux_Vector

I don't think incarnates help PBs nearly as much as they do other ATs. A house built on a shaky foundation is still prone to falling over under stress. This goes especially for human PBs, IMO, since I think the optimal PB build is human/nova. So, consider that a bit of caveat emptor. PBs are pretty, they can be fun, but you may end up with some buyer's remorse in the endgame.

I'm a little confused about your build's strategy. You're taking weave and slotting defense powers with common IOs, then skipping the opportunity to 6-slot attack powers to receive defense bonuses that would stack with weave and yield better overall build results. You've got 5 slots in buildup for a 5% recharge bonus you could have gotten for swapping one of your st melee attack sets for crushing impact, and you're slotting heavily for status resistance - even though it's a weak benefit and was mildly nerfed in i13 - but you say you are aiming for the incarnate endgame where the Clarion Destiny would make those IOs obsolete.

Essence boost, reform essence, and photon seekers are critically under-slotted. The first two are your best defensive powers, and you should aim to have essence boost up permanently. Light form is badly over-slotted. I would switch glinting eye for gleaming bolt: they have the same DPA, but loaded with procs gleaming bolt's quick cycle time makes it a viable ranged attack spamming option. I'd take glowing touch, especially if its improved range is here to stay. I'm not a fan of luminous detonation, the knockback isn't justified by sufficient damage. You can easily take slots away from quantum and thermal shield to help powers elsewhere, the damage types they defend against compose about 30% of the total damage encountered in the game -combined-, and your passive level 1 defense offers energy/negative resistance already.

I'd recommend taking superspeed. It is very tactically valuable for a human PB.

Originally Posted by Phoebe_Ponderas

Been away from the game for a little over a year, finally come back, finally figured out what I want to solo with...and still lost for my primary. I've been browsing the forums and see a whole lot of builds but I have no idea what I want for this one.

I've seen stone recommended a lot but I kinda think stone is ugly (although I could more than likely get over this one). I've also seen super strength as being suggested a lot for willpower but being reliant on hasten drives me bonkers, I don't want to build a super fast recharge build to try and keep hasten and rage perma-up, I would much rather focus my IO's on pumping my regen as high as it will go. I know how nasty SS can be but it drives me up the wall having to deal with two different sets of crashes.

I already plan to have a WP/Fire tank to duo with my girlfriend (although I still don't know if fire or SS is technically better AoE) so having a Fire/WP brute would be kinda end up boring me.

I dunno, after a year away from the game trying to re-learn all this is making me dizzy :P Any ideas?

[edit] And no, I'm not looking for a farmer build, just a brute who can pretty much solo and survive, well...anything.

[edit2] Wish there was a delete button after your post has been there for a while. I didn't even know we had a new powerset to play with, so... Kinetic/WP it is! Thanks if you took the time to read this ~_^

Originally Posted by Rock_Crag

Agreed. It's definitely worth getting regardless of the lack of crit. It's a great addition to your attack chain.

Originally Posted by Novella

Originally Posted by DrGamma

Yeah, you could do that. I was specifically answering to the "Grab gun or patron AoE INSTEAD of the crab AoEs" thing someone had said before, but you can always grab them all. I find that having that much AoE, though, doesn't really help me that much unless I'm fighting +4 enemies (which I don't like to do solo, and in groups I have more people to help with the AoE carnage). +1, +2 and +3 minions are dying pretty fast with just 3 or 4 AoEs (plus stacked assault and some damage bonuses) and pets and single target attacks take care of anything tougher much more efficiently. So I prefered to grab less AoE attacks (that frees lots of slots, too) and go for being tougher and having double assault and maneuvers.



As mentioned several times before in this thread, crabs can stack them too, and often do.



Those are cool advantages indeed. Plus stealth and crits, too.



Crabs can get those same three pets, which are hard to make perma, plus the three cool spiderlings, which are easily perma-ed, for a total of 6 pets.

Originally Posted by DrGamma

Just because of the legs? Because aside from that aesthetical nitpick, I don't see where the huntsman superiority is... Crabs can be tougher, get a really cool extra pet option that's very easy to perma, dish out some energy damage instead of just lethal (granted, activation time for supression is worse, but still)... I've seen builds that do amazing things with huntsmen, but it's difficult to just automatically think of them as better than crabs with no explanation...

I also think Crabs are more flexible... You can build for toughness, or for even more AoE, or more pets, or mix and match, while the huntsmen builds I've seen tend to be more similar... Not sure if banes are that flexible, either.

Funny thing is, as soon as I saw the info about the SoA, I rushed to get my MM to 50 JUST so I could make a crab and have those legs everybody hates. I have really liked them for a while, since a crab boss was using them to try to beat the snot out of my very first character, a squishy defender, in Faultline. Though I agree that the dual builds bug, with the legs appearing on banes and being all useless and mismatched there, really sucks.

Originally Posted by Zophar_Shinta

I'm looking for a couple power sets that are considered the worst for brutes.
I'd like to try and build something worth while out of them.

I'm not looking for help with the build just the perfect horrible pair to play with.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by jose2390

Can anyone explain to me in detail what exactly is energy aura, including the advantages and disadvantages of that set. Also, I would like to know which powers I should stay away from. Thanks!!

Originally Posted by leilaopkin

So yah...90% of the SoA I run into or team with dont have that>.< Is there some sort of conspiracy?? T_T Its in virtue server btw

Originally Posted by Jibikao

Just to clarify, even if I believe Bane is at the bottom of the barrier for its "purpose" in VEAT super team, it is still a very decent branch.


I absolutely hate all those 2s activation range attacks. Fillers? They are HORRIBLE as fillers. A filler is like 1s activation range attack that you use in between recharge time (even if it's low damage) but no, Bane has low recharge and low damage range attack that takes 2s. Calling them "filler" is like saying Gravity's Propel (takes 3.3s) on Dominator has a "purpose" just because it knockbacks. It just looks cool and nothing else.


I would love to have Whirling Mace and get rid of one of the aoe knockback attacks. I don't care which one. But knowing there is rule that they don't completely change existing powers, I root for increasing recharge and damage on some of the Mace attacks.


At current rate, I feel my Bane has to go melee (not because it is purely designed to be melee because 4 out of 8 attacks are RANGE!). You are not going to convince me that Bane is simply a "Melee" AT with some range attacks. Bane has 4 range attacks and one range Hold power. That's 5 powers that don't mesh well with Bane's "hidden" (Stalker style). In fact, if you watch enemy Bane, they start with range attacks and then placate for Executioner Strike. The current Bane style is literally hide and then go in for mace attacks.


Night Widow is the premier Melee branch, not Bane...far from it. Bane doesn't have the melee defense to begin with and while having a bit higher HP (other branches can make it up by getting 3 accolades), VEAT in general has very low base HP (dominator level only?). However, I have no problem with Bane's survival issue. I only have problem with Bane's style in general and how almost every power takes 2s to activate. If you play NW and then switch to Bane, you feel like your Bane is in slow-motion.


Has anyone playing Bane without Cloaking Device? I feel Bane's versatility is hindered by feeling the "need" to hide for critical. Maybe it is more beneficial to use web hold on somebody to start the fight (but you lose hide). Maybe it is better to use aoe range attacks in the beginning of the battle instead of running in for mace attacks (you lose hide).


I enjoy my current all melee Bane (Shatter Armor and Shatter) but I feel that's not Bane's strength.

Originally Posted by Shadows Strike

Can they solo EBs and AVs?
Are they expensive to build, I only have 1 bill to spend on a build

Originally Posted by OneWhoBinds

I think the big issue with Energy Aura is that it is armor plating over tissue paper.

It provides some good defense values... and nothing else. The Resistance Values you can get out of the auto powers is meaningless. The only utility powers the set provides are Stealth (often considered counter-productive to Brute game play, and yet needed to enhance your defense...) and Endurance Management. While the basically unlimited blue bar is nice, Energy Drain and Conserve Power don't add much to keeping your Green Bar intact.

(Yes, a heal was added to Energy Drain. No, it doesn't really make a difference until you actually achieve the soft cap)

This doesn't even go into the wasteful powers... the end result is that to GET the proper amount of protection, this set needs to run 4 toggles, where most other sets use 3.

If you want a defense-based character, Super Reflexes provides far more coverage, and has actually useful utility powers. If you want unlimited Endurance, Electric Armor is a far better choice, providing actual protection from Endurance Drain as well as essentially unlimited endurance.

I have seen the set played and working great... but it requires a lot of time, effort, and significant IO investment. For that last reason alone, the set should really get another look at and overhaul...

Originally Posted by Trashman

Greetings I am a long time player who just recently reactivated, not because of Going Rogue, but because I felt like it. In fact I wasn't aware of Going Rogue until after I activated.

Anyway, so my quest in this game is to make the AT-est AT of each...AT. It's not necessarily the most efficient, for I find builds only built for efficiency to take the fun out of the game for me. I am pretty much set on what I want with heroes. I will give you an example of my heroside plans just to give you a general idea of what I want.

Blaster-Fire/Fire. Blasters in theory are supposed to be glass cannons who can destroy entire cities if they don't die. So in this respect I chose fire/fire, ignoring any defenses I may have and taking any sort of thing that might cause damage (ie: Hotfeet and Burning Aura, which in all regards are taunt auras) and slotting IOs Primarily for damage, Secondarily for Recharge, and avoiding defense.

Controller-Earth/TA-Simple, it offers a crazy amount of control. I also plan on getting presence so I can fear them.

Defender-Sonic/Sonic-Sonic/ seems to have the most to offer a team. While emps are considered the poster child of defenders, they don't offer debuffs, which I believe is what defenders should do as well.

Scrapper-BS/Regen-BS is a boss killer, which I believe that scrappers should specialize in, as they are supposed to be one on one killers.

Tanker-Stone/Dark-Stone of course is all defense no offense and dark for the recharging heal that it gets plus the -tohit.

As you can see, while some, like the scrapper, would be efficient, I plan on only strengthening my strengths and ignoring my weaknesses so they continue to be a problem, which in turn makes the game more fun to have that risk of death.

So now, I ask you, the bruting community, what the brutiest brute is. I was considering SS/WP since it seems that nothing is more brutish than some strong guy who is too dumb to know he is hit. If you have any other suggestions let me know. Also, if you could give an explanation of what you think a brute's role on a team should be (obviously not a true tank, but not a scrapper, but a brute). Finally, if you can suggest what to aim for slotting purposes (just general, I don't need actual builds) in IOs that would be wonderful.

Anyway, take care, and thank you for all your help.