Candlestick's Complete Guide to Stone Melee

Ah, Stone Melee. That smash-tastic set that shakes the screen, makes cool noises and generly looks cooler than all the other sets. Unfortunately it has the reputation of being an endhog and subpar damage to Energy Melee and Superstrength. And this reputation is true. Stone Melee will not outdamage Energy Melee or Superstrength, but what it WILL do is make you the king of protecting yourself and your team using combinations of Knockdown, Holds and Disorients. Using Stone Melee, you can control the battle almost as well as a Dominator, while dealing tremendous amounts of damage.

Stone Melee also has the advantage of very fast activation times. This allows it to build fury quickly, and allows it to PvP quite well.

Now on to the powers!

Stone Fist
This is a power that many people choose to skip, attracted to the more damaging Hammer attacks. However skipping this attack will cripple you unless you happen to have another fast recharging attack. Unlike most 1st tier powers, Stone Fist does moderate damage, inflicting as much as most sets 2nd tier power. Considering its relatively fast recharge time, this makes an excellent power to build up and maintain fury, as well as doing sizable amounts of damage. Be sure to take and slot this power well.

Stone Mallet This is your first major heavy hitter, and you have access to it at level 1. Like Stone Fist, this is practically a required power, doing very good damage as well as being the first power to show the real power or Stone Melee....Knockdown. Stone Mallet has a very good chance of knockdown and combined with other powers, can keep a boss flopping around the entire fight.

Heavy Mallet The 2nd part of your Knockdown combo, Heavy Mallet does about 50% more damage as stone mallet, and has an even greater chance of Knockdown. At low levels this attack can also 1-shot most minions on fury alone, although at higher levels you will need to combine it with other attacks to quickly mow through enemys.

Build Up I have seen recent guides advocating not picking up Build Up, and I could not disagree more. Build Up offers a damage boost that equals to about half of a bar of Fury. This means that you can either pop it when you have no fury to simulate having a bar of fury to quickly take down enemys, or pop it when full, for that extra boost of damage vs hard targets. Build up is also VERY important when dealing with high defense targets, or when you have your accuracy nerfed. Trying to bust through a Tsoo Sorcerers Hurricane with no Build Up is an exercise in pain. Build Up can be put off for a bit into a build, but I like to make sure I get it in the mid 20's.

Fault This, my brutish friends, is the true gem of the Stone Melee set. Now when you first look at this power, most people go "meh, no damage, its pointless...Im grabbing Hurl Boulder." Yes it does no damage. However, this attack is the deciding factor in what allows Stone Melee brutes to take an alpha strike for a team of 8 with +2-+3 mobs AND SURVIVE. This is actually a very short-ranged AoE attack, not a Player Based AoE attack. It causes instant Knockdown to everything(thus giving you some extra breathing room) as well as a 100% Mag 2 disorient, with a 50% chance of a mag 3 disorient. This is massive. This basically allows you to hop in a mob, take the alpha, than put 90% of the mob out of the fight for 10 seconds. On bosses, use this to keep the bosses knocked up while waiting for your Mallets to recharge. Its this power that allows us to become the Controllers for brutes, and makes Stone Melee one of the safest sets to play. Fault does drain a sizable amount of endurance, so until it is fully slotted, be careful of how much you spam this attack.

Taunt For the most part, I have never felt the need for Taunt while leveling. I can keep as much aggro as I want with my Aggro Aura, and with Fault. I would not recommend picking this up until very late into your build. I picked it up at 49 to use for the occasional Recluse Strike Force and Hami raids.

Seismic Smash Seismic Smash deals as much damage as Knock Out blow and Total Focus, and does its animation 2 seconds faster than both of them. Oh, and it comes with a hold big enough to hold Bosses. This power will bust through Acrobatics instantly, something that Knock-Out Blow cannot do.

Hurl Boulder One of the "Meh" attacks of the set. This power has an incredibly long activation and is simply not effective in the heat of combat. Its only uses are a pulling tool and to knockout flyers. Thats it. The damage, since it is rarely boosted by Fury, is not that great. I recommend skipping this power unless you really like it for concept.

Tremor Tremor is a decent AoE, but due to its long animation, it feels wrong in the incredibly fast-attacking chain that is Stone Melee. It does have a large AoE, and causes Knockdown. It is an easily skipped power, but it is better than say, Hurl Boulder.

Slotting

For Single-Origin Enhancement Slotting, I recommend 2 Acc, 2 Dam, 2 End Redux in all of the single-target attacks. When you first start slotting, Acc and End redux are the most important.

For Invention Slotting, I went for 5 Crushing Impacts+1 End Redux. This was to ensure that I have a very nice endurance reduction on my attacks, as well as good damage, acc and recharge speed. The +5% recharge from Crushing Impacts is a very good addition to the slow recharging Stone Melee attacks.
For exact slotting, I went..
1 Acc/Dam, 1 Dam/Rech, 1 Dam/End/Recharge, 1 Acc/Dam/Recharge, 1 Acc/Dam/End, 1 Endurance Redux IO.

For Fault, I slotted 2 Acc, 2 Disorient, 2 End for SO's.
For Inventions, I slotted 5 Stupefies+1 Endurance IO. I went with Stupefy mainly for the +6.25% Recharge it grants.
My exact Slotting...
1 Acc/Recharge, 1 Acc/Endurance, 1 Stun/Range, 1 Acc/Stun/Recharge, 1 Endurance/Stun, 1 Endurance Redux IO.

Build Up should be slotted with 3 recharge SO's for the most of your career. After I reached 50, I began slotting it with Membrane Hami-O's.

Tremor I respec'ed out of before Inventions, but a mixture of Multi-Strikes and Scirrico's Dervish can produce a very nice mixture of Acc, Dam, End redux and Recharge.


Pool Powers

The Fitness line is an obvious requirement for Stone Melee. In addition to the Endurance bonus from Stamina, Health allows you to slot those very precious IO's like Miracle and Numina uniques. These 2 IO's should be on every Stone Melee user's wishlist, as they help migate the endurance drain Stone uses.

Air Superiority can fill in attack chains in Stone Melee, and allows you another Knockdown tool to keep bosses in Knockdown. Heavy Mallet and Stone Mallet are not quite enough to keep a boss totally flipflopped, but Air Superiority helps solve this.

Hasten is a very usefull power for giving Stone Melee that extra boost of Recharge when needed. Be warned that it may cause you to drain out your endurance fast, so make sure your slotting is good! Thanks to IO's, Hasten can also be made Perma, or near Perma.

Combat Jumping/Superjump. I mention this because Combat Jumping allows you to slot some of the Defense IO's that are so usefull. I love my Kismet+Acc, and my Luck of the Gambler+Recharge.

IO goals
The main goals with IO's you are looking for is +Recharge and +Recovery.
Because of this, you want sets that boost your recharge, such as Crushing Impact, Stupefy, and Doctored Wounds, as well as any Luck of the Gamblers you come across. When you get your Patron Powers, you can also slot Decimation in your single-target ranged attack, and Positron Blast in your AoE for even more +Recharge.

The Numina and Miracle Unique are the two most sought-after IO's in the game, and it is no different with Stone Melee. Getting these 2 IO's will help your endurance a great deal.

The Kisment+Acc is a very handy power for Stone Melee, as it actually gives a +6% To-Hit Buff, not Acc, which is much better. Considering how much endurance and recharge Stone Melee takes, making your attacks HIT in the first place is very important.

Secondaries

Invurnerability Inv is a bit of a endurance hog for Stone Melee, but when combined, it makes an excellent tanking Brute that can handle large amounts of aggro, and still stand strong. Inv has the advantage of excellent Defense and S/L resistances, as well as a wonderful Tier 9 power, and Dull Pain. Stone/Inv makes you feel *tough*, and a real bruiser. But it does have endurance problems, especially in the late game, when you face alot of endurance draining opponents.

Electric Armor An excellent combo with Stone Melee, Electric Armour offers stone a +Recharge power, Endurance drain protection, and the +Endurance of Powersink. Meanwhile, Stone Melee offers Electric Armour unmatched damage mitigation. This is quite possibly the most synergistic combo for Stone Melee.

Energy Armor Similar to Electric armor, it offers Stone Melee great endurance, while Stone gives it great mitigation. This blooms a bit earlier than Electric Armour, as Energy Armour receives their endurance powers earlier. However Energy Armour does not have the endurance drain protection or the +Recharge of electric armor.

Fire Armor Thanks to the boost to Healing Flames, Fire Armor is a very attractive Resistance/Regen secondary. It offers excellent damage with Blazing Aura, Burn, and Fiery Embrace, and decent damage mitigation through its shields and Healing Flames. It does tend to be an Endurance Hog, and Consume only goes so far. Fault allows a Fire Armor brute to use Burn without fear of the enemies running away from the Burn Patch.

Dark Armour A Stone/Dark brute is the king of damage mitigation. By combining Fault+Oppressive Gloom, most of the mob will always be stunned, and Cloak of Fear adds even more damage mitigation. Be warned though, Stone/Dark is a TERRIBLE endurance hog, and requires a good deal of special slotting to be fully functional.

Stone Armor Stone/Stone is the most *tankish* of the brute combo's. Stone Melee gives Stone Armor even more damage mitigation. However, this tends to be a very *slow* power combo, and I can only recommend it to players who enjoy teaming allot.

Well I hope you enjoyed my guide, no doubt I will be updating it when Willpower is released during i11.

I welcome any feedback, comments, flames, angry mobs, etc.

hey Candle man, this is nice guide lines. I like how you explained how stone melee feels with each secondary.
I love stone and i agree with you that +recharge/recovery is key to having a really good SM toon.

I would have to say that the best combo is stone/elec though because once i start attacking I dont have to stop until everyone on the mission map is dead. I usually get off about more then ten attacks before i hit power sink, and fault is golden it prevents me from running in PSurge because knockdown enemies can't attack Plus it gives you that few seconds you need to hit aid self.
another good thing about/elec is LF, all you need is LF,Power sink,fault. PS,fault,PS -LF tics lol your mob is not really attacking at the point right? :P

aslo agree with having BU because like you said you its like half fury damage and by the time you get off your attack chain you have at least half fury.

Nice guide man, remember HAMMER SPEAKS 4 ITSELF!!

I agree, nice guide there. I too have a Stone Melee / Electric Armor brute who is level 34 right now. I picked up Hasten, Boxing and Tough, which made fitting Build Up in before the mid 40's really hard. I could probably move some things around, but I'm still not sure.

Right now, I have my hammers slotted 2 accuracy, 2 recharge and 2 endurance reducers. I would love to slot some Set IOs in there so I can include some damage, I'm just not sure which sets yet. Crushing Impact is always recommended by just about everyone, but they're just too expensive. This is my only Villain and I'm sitting on about 2.5million Infamy, so I just may have to hold off on Set IOs for a long, long time.

On that note, are there any other recommendations for Sets rather than the insanely expensive Crushing Impact? Accuracy, endurance and recharge are important so sets like Mako's Bite and Touch of Death seem to lack a little because only 5 or the 6 parts contain attributes while the 6th is the damage proc. Is that why most go for Crushing Impact (along with the nice set bonuses)?

Again, nice guide there, thanks for sharing.

Oh, here is the build that I'm working towards, if you're interested:

+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: Harek
Level: 50
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Stone Melee
Secondary: Electric Armor
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Charged Armor ==> DamRes(1),DamRes(15),DamRes(17),EndCost(33)
01 => Stone Fist ==> Acc(1),Acc(3),Rech(9),EndCost(11),Dam(27),Dam(34)
02 => Stone Mallet ==> Acc(2),Acc(3),Rech(7),EndCost(9),Rech(25),EndCost(34)
04 => Heavy Mallet ==> Acc(4),Acc(5),Rech(5),EndCost(7),Rech(11),EndCost(27)
06 => Conductive Shield ==> DamRes(6),DamRes(17),DamRes(31),EndCost(33)
08 => Hurdle ==> Jump(8)
10 => Static Shield ==> EndCost(10)
12 => Fault ==> Stupefy(12),Stupefy(13),Stupefy(13),Stupefy(15),Stupefy(40),Acc(43)
14 => Health ==> Heal(14),Heal(43),Heal(43)
16 => Grounded ==> DamRes(16)
18 => Seismic Smash ==> Acc(18),Acc(19),Rech(19),Dam(23),Dam(23),Dam(25)
20 => Stamina ==> EndMod(20),EndMod(21),EndMod(21)
22 => Lightning Reflexes ==> RunSpd(22)
24 => Combat Jumping ==> Empty(24),Empty(50)
26 => Super Jump ==> Jump(26)
28 => Hasten ==> Rech(28),Rech(29),Rech(29)
30 => Boxing ==> Smashing Haymaker(30),Smashing Haymaker(31),Smashing Haymaker(31),Smashing Haymaker(34),Acc(37),EndCost(40)
32 => Tough ==> EndCost(32),EndCost(33),DamRes(40),DamRes(42),DamRes(42)
35 => Power Sink ==> Rech(35),Rech(36),Rech(36),EndMod(36),EndMod(37),EndMod(37)
38 => Power Surge ==> Rech(38),Rech(39),Rech(39),DamRes(39)
41 => Lightning Field ==> EndCost(41),EndCost(42),Acc(45),Acc(45),Dam(46),Dam(46)
44 => Mu Lightning ==> Acc(44),Acc(45),EndCost(46),Dam(48),Dam(48),Dam(50)
47 => Build Up ==> Rech(47),Rech(48),Rech(50)
49 => Conserve Power ==> Rech(49)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)

Very nice, at least I am this comfirms I am not completely crazy. I told people that I didn't have 3 Dam in my attacks and that I had 2 End redux and they said that I was. IMO 66% enh end redux is the minimum for the single target attacks, I think with the CI and EndIO your at 74% which is what I will have for my Stn/Stn.

[ QUOTE ]
Very nice, at least I am this comfirms I am not completely crazy. I told people that I didn't have 3 Dam in my attacks and that I had 2 End redux and they said that I was. IMO 66% enh end redux is the minimum for the single target attacks, I think with the CI and EndIO your at 74% which is what I will have for my Stn/Stn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Deffinitly not crazy.

I can see lowering that Endurance redux for sets like Willpower, Electric and Energy, but for Fire, Inv, Stone and Dark, 60-90% end redux would be a requirement.

hey candle stick nice guide i have a stone/stone brute at 34 having end issues can you tell me what ios to put in my attacks for saving end?

Slot Hami-Os Acc/Mez or Dmg/Mez in Seismic Smash and you can keep bosses perma-stunned

Put a Forced Feedback: Chance for +Recharge in every Knockback power you have. That includes Stone Mallet, Heavy Mallet, Fault, and Tremor. (You shouldn't have Hurl Boulder, so you can ignore it.) Laugh as all of your powers recharge silly fast. ALL of the attacks do knockDown rather than knockBack, so mobs will remain in your AoE range unless they manage to wander away between bounces.

Stone Melee got fast animation in exchange for long Recharge. The Forced Feedback proc eliminates the long Recharge. It gives you +100% Recharge Reduction for 5 seconds when it activates. You can almost have a full attack chain using the main 4 single target attacks, and they do awesome damage. You can also have a fairly solid AoE attack chain: Fault, Tremor, EPP/Patron AoE, Fault, Tremor, Seismic Smash (not AoE but still nice).

Great guide Candlestick.

The only 2 I have a different opinion on is Hurl Boulder, SO slotting for brutes.

Yes I agree that the animation time for HB is long and can hurt your DPS. But it dose up in damage with fury from my experiance. It dose the same damage as Stone Hammer with the added benefit of Knockback, range, and -to fly. I have found it to be much more useful than AS with a lot more damage. I use it as a filler or to knock down those nasty flyers or even to kill those idiot runners. I find it and Hurl from SS much better powers than most give them credit for.

For slotting SOs for a brute I go with 2 Acc, 2 End Redx, 2 Recharge. I have found this slotting to keep me in the fight longer and with fury at almost full your killing minions and some Luet. in one shot with all powers but stone fists anyways. Mine is SM/SA so by the time I have the group were I want them I am at full Fury anyways. With tanks I agree with your slotting, it is the best way I have found so far for SO's also.

These are just MHO and experances with SM. Like I said great guide, keep up the great work.

i know this is mainly about brutes but i am a 4year veteran of coh and i still play daily my fire/stone tank!! stone melee is great and i use this build for pvp aswell. i slot mine for mostly dmg,acc,mezz becuase of the pvp aspect. i never liked it as a means of dispathing mobs in pve becuase it is end heavy and its almost all single target. in the past pre I5 i believe, i would use fualt then burn patch to dispatch mobs by the truck load til the great nerfs of burn and aggro limitation. hearing now what a great pve build people slot for is great news so i guess stone has its pve and pvp advantages. good work hammer heads!!

You might want to update this with Will Power now. It's probably more "synergistic" than Electric Armor now simply because a group of knocked down baddies will only add as a source of fuel to your regeneration from Rise to the Challenge. Quick Recovery will also make up for Power Sink.

would Stone Melee/Will Power be a effective build?

It's effective but even with QR and Stamina you will still need some end reduction. My wp/sm tanker was out of end very fast with triple slotting in QR+Stam until I added 1 reducer to each attack.

SM/WP is effective and effectively boring, my sm/ela brute is much more fun and dynamic to play and having a damage aura slotted for end redux can save you end in the long run since you won't have to waste attacks on low hp mobs (they'll be gone already ). Power Sink / Lightning reflexes take all the sting right out of SM and add another layer of mitigation through end drain. Also the end drain/slow resists are very nice (sappers & slowers just aren't as big a threat as they are to other sets)

WP is so tough hp wise that fault isn't as vital as it is for other builds though.

O

Yes, Stone Melee/Willpower is an extremely effective build. Stone Melee is one of the best pairings to Willpower because of its knockdown abilities.

I disagree that Fault isn't as vital to Willpower as it is to other secondaries (or Primaries if you're a Tanker). Fault will knockdown all the foes around you giving Rise to the Challenge ample time to work its regeneration magic will less, if not no, additional incoming damage. Yes the additional hit points makes you more durable, but a major part of Willpowers mitigation is its regeneration in RttC, which synergizes with Fault almost perfectly.

Also, you can do just fine picking up Quick Recovery and skipping Stamina altogether. You should always slot your attacks with endurance reducers though as mentioned in the previous post. You don't need both, though it is pretty nice.

I would never tell anyone not to take a power, as they all have uses. If you farm the cimeroan wall for example, you can lead off with hurl boulder and most of the time the healer they have is out of the way. Also, if you have extra slots, said power is a great place for mocking beratement or a good ranged IO set. Stone melee is one of the few sets where every single power is good. (with that said) hurl boulder would be the lone one that I would skip if any though..