magikwand

I wasn't scolding- just giving the OP some advice that might help him get a better response. I am sure the OP will appreciate your input, but that is all I was trying to get him to do: Post a build for critique instead of asking for one.

Teach a man to fish... right?

If I had a dollar for every time I saw a thread like this... heh.

You should post your own build instead of asking for a handout. It is much easier for mids fu masters to critique what you post rather that talking about something that may not even exist yet.

The patch to mids just came out a couple of days ago, and no one may have even completed a build. Let alone the fact that they may not be willing to just hand it out...

I am just amused at the fact that you have a farming toon that has a concept. That is just... refreshing. Most people treat their farmers as indentured servants. Never giving those farmers decent names, back stories, costumes, or concepts.

I think of it like this... running a fire/fire tank is like having a v6 Mustang. Its quick enough, looks good and does it's job well enough. Sure, it isn't going to outpace that Corvette over there, but you certainly won't get put down by the mom driving her kids to soccer practice in the mini-van.

A fire/fire brute is more like having a Mustang Cobra ... You are considerably faster than your brother with two fewer cylinders, sound better, and are more lethal in general. Flashier, more likely to catch the attention of the police? Sure. But you can hang with the Corvette in most areas and maybe even show him out.

A fire/fire tank with a well planned build is fast in killing, true. A comparably endowed brute is supercharged and just plain nastier. The only reason I can think to go with the tank over the brute is the increased HP and damage resistance. Admittedly, it is reason enough if you are looking to have a sturdier toon.

In the end, it comes down to what priorities you have...

If damage is first and survivability comes later, choose the brute.

- and I will echo some comments about combustion: I don't miss it at all on my brute. It is slow and not that great in my eyes.

If survivability is critical and damage isn't as important, choose the tanker.

I only started in on the 1st part. I noticed on your second Cybil spawn that you didn't take out the Surgeon first. You probably could have saved a bit of time throughout the whole TF if you make Surgeons your first kill and then killing the non buffers.

Congratulations tho! I want to do this on a few of my toons too.

OP- I guess the point we are all illustrating is that there is no right answer. You have to think about your individual needs and observations. I think of the Alpha slot as a way to shore up something that has been lacking in the performance of that toon. For my ss/shield, I went with cardiac initially because he was thirsty and needed blue bar help. When development released more Alpha powers, I explored Agility and found that it was a good match because of the increased defense and because the end modification boosts worked well with the fact that I went body mastery (or whatever its called for brutes). Would it have worked so well if I went with the Fire Epic? No- because there aren't any powers there that would benefit from the endurance modification boosts that Agility grants. I probably would have ran back to Cardiac like a long lost love.

The other thing I love about Incarnate boosts are that you are never tied into things permanently. So as long as you have the threads/shards/components, you can craft until you are blue in the face and find something that works for you, and try different boosts out for different situations.

I have seen a lot of km/ea brutes around. Particularly because this is a thematic and good looking pairing. Who knows, maybe it's just me.

I think you should roll one and enjoy it. If farming isn't your priority, don't worry about it.

I was on Freedom and got the big red boot. I don't feel so bad about just taking on that BAF instead of that MoM that was forming now...

Is it worth the "trouble" of going for the (classic) s/l defense softcap? Absolutely. Elec is a sturdy secondary for brutes as it is, but when you add in a softcapped build, you get the best of multilayered defenses (high s/l res, high s/l defense, endurance mitigation tools, solid damage aura, psi res, energy res... and the list goes on).

Call me crazy, but I wouldn't consider a build softcapped if it has to rely on barrier to get there. In my eyes, Barrier is more of an OH ***** button in case you are getting pelted and need some relief. In order to call oneself truly softcapped, I would think you need to be softcapped all the time; not just when Barrier is up. Speaking of that, is it even possible to have Barrier "perma"? I have a brute with barrier, but it is T3 and it doesn't seem like even getting to T4 is worth it or likely to bring it to a perma status.

It isn't elec armor, but I have a fm/fa brute that rocks softcapped defense (without factoring in Barrier or any ATO enhancements) that sacrifices nothing as far as damage goes. So don't listen to anyone that tells you that reaching defense goals will cost damage or anything else. It can be done, and it is unquestionably worth the "trouble". I don't have an elec armor brute, but I am sure that if it can be done with fire, it can be done with electric too.

This should definitely be possible. I have a partially kitted fortunata (I mostly play him as a NW) that is doing pretty well with defense and perma Mind Link is looming in the future. The only thing I don't care for is the lack of DDR, but I guess if you had capped DDR, you would technically be a tank mage of sorts.

I actually have a mainly thematic tw/da brute that I have been leveling. It is a thirsty but fun combo. Once I kit her fully with some IOs, I expect her to be a full blast.

Great responses so far. I will just chime in and say that I initially thought that I could run Agility instead of Cardiac on my grav/time, but unless there is someone else juicing my blue bar, I can run myself dry. Though the + Def and +Rech are so good that I routinely swap one for the other on that toon.