magikwand

I enjoy my SS/SD immensely, and prior to GR, he was my main go to brute. Now, I have shifted back to my FM/FA. There aren't a lot of issues with ss/sd besides it being thirsty and not having end recovery options built in, but once you add in Energy Mastery and maybe Cardiac Alpha powers, it is a playable and worthy combo.

As far as farming goes- classic redside farming would utterly destroy a /sd farmer. The good old Nem farm would wipe out a shielder's defense in moments, whereas a good /fa would wipe out a spawn in comparable (if not better) time.

Just because there are no guides written on it doesn't mean that there are no people playing the combo. I say roll it and see what it has to offer. But I will warn that shield is trickier and more costly for scrappers and brutes to softcap defense.

Brutes, and all villains, are given access to their heroic counterpart's Ancillary Pool powers when they reach the appropriate level if they have changed alignment. Of course, if you want to choose powers from the Patron Pools, you will still need to complete the arc.

18% is nothing to really boast about. If you aren't at about 32% s/l defense or more, there really isn't a point to build with defense in mind.

Being at about 32% defense allows you to be one inspiration away from the classic soft cap for defense. So yes, elec armor does well enough against Praetorians, but 18% defense is kind of a piddling amount.

Easily ta/dp. The blaster combos will bring fun new ways to deal damage in their secondaries, and a bit of mitigation, but the defender will excel in debuffs and control type powers in his primary. The damage will be down a good bit, but I am sure it would be more survivable by a notable amount.

I understood it to be WAI that recharge will not affect these powers directly or indirectly. Not that the power is terribly necessary to start. But I guess that is not what this thread is even about... heh.

Willpower or Invulnerability?

Invulnerability. I think with the addition of so many great Incarnate powers boosting different stats, (like Regeneration and Endurance Reduction- problem areas for Invulnerability when it is stacked against Willpower) you can make Invulnerability more well rounded and livable than WP. Sure, there is a lot of /psi being tossed about in late game, but Invulnerability is tough and becomes even tougher after investing in a good build, IOs and incarnate boosts.

There are plenty of similarities, but I personally would just go for invulnerability as it just feels so much sturdier than willpower does to me.

They will play comparably, but I think that Dark Armor is one of the sets that favors brutes a bit more than it favors scrappers. I am not sure if the scrapper version gets taunt in the damage aura, but the damage aura definitely has taunt in it for brutes and it also will be boosted by fury. Plus, Dark Regeneration will probably be a bit better for brutes due to the higher number of hit points available.

Although I do have a lvl 50 brute claws user, I don't have the experience to speak on which version is better for which AT.

Personally, I think that just the concept of a shark fits more with a brute, but that might just be me.

SR is not playing to its full potential unless you are softcapped to all of positions (melee/ranged/AoE). That would be 45% in all those categories. DDR can be maxed out on SOs I believe, but I am not sure if you need sets to make it to the cap. I imagine that fitting in fighting pool, combat jumping and if your defender has some leadership powers, your GF may be able to reach the cap without using any set IOs.

For most PvE content (before Incarnate content) 45% will keep a toon pretty safe. SR is a set that pretty much needs all powers, with the exception of Elude, to be functional. It is less forgiving if one skips powers and generally requires a tight build, so make sure she didn't skip anything before Elude.

I shelved my /SR brute mainly because of the poor performance of EM/ and some synergy problems there, but I will admit that a capped /SR brute is fun to play. But the fun didn't really start until I made the investment to get the toon softcapped to defense.

Call me crazy, but I think I would have to say electric armor or fiery aura. Really, moreso fiery aura for my taste. It gives decent resists at that level, you can pump out some damage with the damage aura, and you can even fit in one of the best self heals in the game before 20 with tough and some other key powers. Honestly- the -rech in the psi powers of Praetorians may be a slight issue for keeping healing flames up, but I still think it is a good choice.

Without taking a look at your build, I know that the way rad debuffs will make it easier for your arrows to hit harder and more often, so yes- archery and rad emission definitely has a synergy.

Fire/storm will melt things away faster, but if you place a priority on staying safe, I have to toss my vote into the ice/storm hat. Ice blast will have mitigation in its slows that fire lacks through its additional damage.
Of course, /storm is chock full of slowy goodness, but I imagine a fully leveled and slotted ice/storm corr would be a bonafide jr controller. So yes- an ice/storm to avoid being killed.

Congrats! That is an amazing feat.

40.5% defense is still one small luck away from def cap. Might be a good thing, or bad. If you have gotten to 40.5%, you can make it to 45% by tweaking your build further. It may not seem like a lot, and I am certainly not the one to break everything down mathematically, but the difference between a meleer at 40.5% defense and 45% defense is sizable.

So, in short. 40.5% is noting to scoff at, but if you stretch, I am sure you can pick up the rest of that and be happy.

SS/SR is ok, but I think any occasional Rage crash is detrimental to survival on a def based character. They won't happen often, but if it does happen (you forget to click rage again, hit a lag spike and it doesn't auto fire, or anything else) you are pretty well boned.

If you can softcap /fire or /elec to s/l defense you will be better off IMO.

And to echo a point made earlier, /WP is sturdy if built correctly, but it certainly isn't known for its damage potential. Mob ripping would pretty much require a secondary with a damage aura or + dmg aura for me.

I had a lvl 41 dark/dark tank that I regret deleting almost everytime I log in the game. She was a hoot to play, and I never saw her reach her full potential.