How to build a brute

Rhysem · 02-01-2009 08:23 PM

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Original authorship by Rockfall @ Pinnacle.

I've seen a lot of posts in the Brute forums that seem to be doing some strange things in their builds. This guide is meant to rectify that: to show tricks and techniques for building a good Brute at any level. Much of it is probably applicable to other classes, particularly Tanks and Scrappers. Please note that this guide is aimed at a generalist. The goal of this guide is to get your Brute from 1 to 50 doing a mix of things like most players will end up doing -- contact missions, newspaper missions, mayhems, lackey'ing up, strike forces, solo, duo, small group, large team, all of it.

Low levels (pre-stamina, 1-20)

Face it, life sucks. Until you get stamina and can keep your blue bar from zeroing out you are never going to be a lean, mean, fury building machine. At these levels your fury is your damage source, topping out at +200% damage if you could get to a totally full fury bar, not the pathetic +7% damage you'll get from a Training Origin Enhancement. Slot your attacks, not your shields: they cost more endurance per second than shields do. Do the math if you don't believe me. Slot them with Accuracy and Endurance Reduction as you prefer. I dislike whiffing at enemies, so I'll usually try to slot 2 Accuracy and 2 Endurance Reduction in each attack before moving on to the next one. Slot your smaller attacks first! They are what build your fury, not Seismic Smash or Knockout Blow. Fury is damage, damage is victory.

You'll have picked (or been forced to pick, in the case of your secondary power set) 12 powers by level 20. Of these, 3-4 will go to attacks, 2-3 will go to defenses, 2 will go to a movement, and 3 will go to Stamina. Totaling that up you'll find that's 10 to 12 powers, so there's not likely to be a lot of luxury powers here unless you're XX/Willpower and can ignore the two prerequisite powers on the road to Stamina. Any free power picks are very well spent picking up something listed as "nice" in this bracket or "required" in a later bracket.

Slotting: 4 slots in each single target attack, 2 Accuracy, 2 Endurance Reduction. Next slot any powers noted in green below (hint: all heals). Any remaining slots go nicely in attacks, any other powers from your secondary, or Health. Slots beyond 4 in attacks should be endurance (if you are always needing blue pills) or recharge (if your blue bar is okay).

Attacks: Minimum three attacks, preferably single-target attacks. One fast-cycling attack (your first primary power, Air Superiority, or Boxing) to build fury.
<ul type="square">[*]DM: Siphon Life is neither a great attack, nor a great heal. Useful for top-ups for armor sets with no heal/dull pain.[*]SM: Seismic Smash at 18 if you can, but bump this to 22 rather than bumping Stamina or a mez shield.[*]SS: Rage at 18. Bump Rage to 22 over bumping Stamina to 22 if your defense set requires a power at 16.[/list]Defenses:
<ul type="square">[*]DA: Required: Dark Embrace, Obsidian Shield, Dark Regeneration. Nice: Murky Cloud.[*]EA: Required: Kinetic Shield, Entropy Shield. Nice: Power Shield[*]ElA: Required: Charged Armor, Static Shield. Nice: Conductive Shield[*]FA: Required: Fire Shield, Healing Flames, Plasma Shield.[*]Inv: Required: Resist Physical Damage, Dull Pain, Unyielding. Nice: Temp Invulnerability[*]SA: Required: Rock Armor, Earth's Embrace, Rooted.[*]SD: Required: Deflection, Active Defense. Nice: Battle Agility, True Grit.[*]WP: Required: High Pain Tolerance, Indomitable Will, Rise to the Challenge, Quick Recovery. Nice: Mind Over Body, Fast Healing[/list]Movement:
<ul type="square">[*]Air Superiority, Fly[*]Combat Jumping, Super Jump[*]Hasten, Super Speed[*]Recall Friend or Teleport Foe, Teleport[/list]Pools:
<ul type="square">[*]Fitness: Swift or Hurdle, Health, Stamina (optional for WP, but WP may want it later anyway)[/list]
General comments:
<ul type="square">[*]Skip your damage aura (for now) unless you team a lot. Mathematically the damage per endurance on the auras is fantastic, especially if they are saturated for targets. Too bad that requires you to survive 10 guys beating on you. You can pick it up with a spare power slot if you like, just to have it. Works great for keeping aggro on you if you do team though.[*]Similarly, skip your primary's damage AoE (for now) unless you team a lot.[*]FA's Consume and DM's Dark Consumption are nice, Stamina is better. Stamina first, the other power second.[*]You can put off the movement power with the AP/KR mayhem temp travel powers, but a real travel power is simply much better.[*]The base empowerment buffs are really sweet at these levels. Particularly, Increase Recovery, Increase Run/Jump, and Increase Attack Speed. They last for an hour (the text in-game that says 15 minutes is wrong) and persist even through death. If you already have an established character who can fund your use of these I can't recommend them enough. Storage of them is unfortunately highly limited due to the elimination of base salvage.[/list]

Mid levels (post-stamina, 20-30)

You now have stamina. You slot it (twice) at 21 and drop in IOs (or SOs at 22). This is a life altering event for a Brute: you can now probably finish a mission without resting five times. Enemies are going to start scaling up though. You're going to see more damage and in particular much more exotic (Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative) damage coming your way. Start slotting up your shields and drop resistance or defense in them. Don't worry as much about endurance reduction in the until you've got everything else slotted up, or if you're having major endurance problems still (Stone/Ela I'm looking at you!). As attacks need less than two accuracy and two endurance reductions, start slotting some damage or recharge reduction into them. Better yet, use cheap set IOs to "over enhance" a power -- any IO that improves multiple-aspects does more total improvement than a single-aspect IO.

Attacks: Start diversifying. Add an AoE control, or a mez attack for mitigation.
<ul type="square">[*]DB: Required: Combos![*]DM: Required: Soul Drain. Nice: Dark Consumption.[*]EM: Required: Total Focus[*]ElM: Nice: Chain Induction (debatable)[*]FM: Nice: Fire Breath, Fire Sword Circle[*]SM: Required: Seismic Smash (if you missed it), Fault[*]SS: Required: Rage (if you missed it)[/list]Defenses: Your taunt/damage aura is a good pick in this rage for any secondary you have.
<ul type="square">[*]DA: Required: Murky Cloud. Nice: Cloak of Darkness, Cloak of Fear OR Death Shroud (not both).[*]EA: Required: Power Shield, Energy Drain. Nice: Energy Cloak.[*]ElA: Required: Conductive Shield, Grounded. Nice: Lightning Reflexes, Conserve Power (handy until you get Power Sink)[*]FA: Required: Consume. Nice: Burn (requires someone to immobilize the enemy, you w/knockdown or a friend with massive slows/AoE immobilize).[*]Inv: Required: Invincibility, Temp Invulnerability. Nice: Resist Energies, Resist Elements.[*]SA: Required: Brimstone Armor, Crystal Armor. Nice: Stone Skin.[*]SD: Required: Battle Agility, True Grit. Nice: Against All Odds. If you team: Phalanx Fighting, Grant Cover[*]WP: Required: Mind Over Body, Heightened Senses. Nice: Fast Healing[/list]Pools:
<ul type="square">[*]Fighting: Nice for adding smashing/lethal resist and stacking defense (EA/Inv/SA/WP).[*]Medicine: If you lack a heal this can be nice to reduce downtime (EA/ElA).[*]Leadership: Maneuvers/Tactics is unconventional, but handy if you team, particularly if your team tends to be higher or lower level than you are.[*]Concealment: Handy for slotting Luck of the Gambler: +7.5% recharge IOs or stacking defense.[/list]
If you can get a cheap Numina's Convalescence: +regeneration/+recovery or Miracle: +recovery, both IOs rock a Brute's world. FA and ElA are well served by a Steadfast Protection: -knockback IO. Defense using sets (EA/Inv/SA/SD/WP) should certainly start watching for the Steadfast Protection: +3% def/resistance IO and look for a resistance power to slot it in.

High levels (30-40)

Psi. Just when things are really getting great you start seeing a lot more Psi damage and Energy drain. Smart player tactics can help this -- as can good powers. A stealth IO will help you get the first shot off against dangerous enemies -- hopefully killing them outright or at least mezzing them to put them out of the fight while you do kill them. Run/Jump +stealth IOs slot into sprint nicely, so you can use them when in combat or during overland travel.

Attacks: Everyone wants their tier-9 attack. Slot it up and go crazy.
Defenses: Should be mostly complete by now. Take your tier-9 if you swing that way. Take and slot your aura if you for some reason haven't.
<ul type="square">[*]ElA: Required: Power Sink. Slot it as utility (few slots, end or recharge as you like) or as an offense/defense (6 slots, 2-3 recharge and 3-4 end mod) and make like a sapper.[/list]Pools:
<ul type="square">[*]Speed: If you're going for a "perma" type build, get your hasten and slot it. Start searching for the Luck of the Gambler: +recharge's and purple sets you'll need.[/list]
End game (40-50)

Your patron is not your enemy, particularly given the patron pool changes. Yes people will debate if our patron pools are better worse than hero epic pools on the boards all day long. In the end, our patron pools are what we have. May as well make the best of it. Speaking of the best of it, do you know how many FA/Burn Tanks (or Scrappers) would kill to have an AoE immobilize in any of their epic pools?

Generally throughout my career as a Brute I find that I'm lacking slots more than lacking powers or survivability, but that's part of building as a generalist -- there are fairly few truly bad powers for you, and you'd like to slot everything you take at least a little so you can use it when needed.

I have no must-have powers to talk about here. Take whatever you feel you're missing. Patron powers are good. Any of the pools listed in the 20-30 section are good, each from their own angle. Taunt won't kill you, but I've not felt lacking for not having it.

Particular comments:
<ul type="square">[*]FA's take your patron immobilize (at 41 or 44) and Burn (before 41) and have a nice XP-filled cookout. Go make FA Tanks cry by having Rikti-roasts in the RWZ.[*]ElA's should strongly consider Scirocco for his -recovery/-end attacks to stack with Power Sink/Lightning Field.[*]PvPers love Black Scorpion for his Web Grenade. I don't PvP much in CoX, so that's up to you.[/list]
Final Slotting Advice:

Keep in mind that these are "starting points". I'm not saying you can't 6-slot your melee attacks -- just don't blindly 6-slot Crushing Impact in them. 5x CI and a proc is great, or the 4x Mako + misc + proc.

<ul type="square">[*]Melee (+recharge): 5x CI, skip the Acc/Dam -- low endurance use primaries may optionally skip Dam/End instead. http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics (required reading if you don't agree with the above):
[ QUOTE ]
HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods DefMods ) )

[/ QUOTE ]

AccMods in this setup, with 4 sets of CI slotted is 42.4% + 4x(7% accuracy set bonus) = 70.4%, on top of a base ~100% accuracy gives you 170.4% (AccMods). That's ignoring any global accuracy bonuses from other sets. Your final HitChance is capped at 95% anyway (that's what Clamp() does), so with that AccMod you'll be hitting as best you can against things where your (BaseHitChance + ToHitMods DefMods) = 95/170.4 = 55.75%. That's your default BaseHitChance on a +2 critter (minion/lt/boss class is irrelevant). If you added the Acc/Dam for a 6-slot CI, that's (..math..) = 48.24% which is about a +3. That's nice and all, but a Kismet: +"Accuracy" (To-Hit) Unique is +6% To-Hit -- so that's like (+6% ToHitMods) and is almost the difference between a +2 and +3. As a bonus, it only costs you one slot versus 4.

If you still want to hit more, consider SS for Rage (+30% ToHitMods when single-stacked and slotted) or Build-Up (as Rage, but not perma nor stackable) or even Leadership/Tactics (+10% ToHitMods when slotted). There are some nice set bonuses in the To-Hit Sets for a Brute. Yes, you could combine all of these and be able to hit +5 enemies nearly all the time but that's not the general case and you'll do a pittance of damage anyway, so who cares if you hit? If you ever head for purple sets you'll be hitting +5s all the time anyway, so the Acc/Dam still ends up being a waste.

The deluxe version for a single power is of course 5x Hecatomb, skipping the pure Damage set piece.
[*]Melee (non +recharge): 4x Mako's (Acc/Dam/End/Rech, Acc/End/Rech, Dam/Rech, Dam/End) + 1x any-other-(set)triple of Acc/Dam/End/Rech

If you just don't care about +recharge set bonuses, do Mako's Bite instead and pick up a nice little 4x(+3% damage bonus). That's 12% of damage, which is equal to 6 points of Fury, plus some HP, which is great for the heavy regeneration sets: SA/WP. You could do 5x Mako, but the set bonus is pretty ~meh~. 6x Mako would be very viable if you wanted the range defense.
[*]PBAoE damage toggle: 4x Multi-Strike (Dam/End/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Dam/End) + 2 "utility" (End Mod, Slow, To-Hit Debuff, Taunt IO, Damage Procs)

Avoid the Taunt Sets here: the devs have stated that the ability to slot taunt sets in your {taunt} aura is going to be removed. This looks like a poor design/code limitation problem on their end -- procs are firing against the Brute running the power. Oops. There is also Scirocco's Dervish, but most of the Auras have a secondary component that could use some love, and the two triple-aspect IOs in Multi Strike helps free up slots for them.

For the deluxe version, if you can find a Armageddon: Damage purple, it plus two pieces of Scirocco's Dervish (Acc/Dam/End, Dam/End) can ED-cap your damage, leaving you with three slots to put "utility" set bits in.
[*]PBAoE attacks: 3x Multi-Strike (Dam/End/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Dam/Rech) + 3x Scirocco's Dervish (Dam/Rech, Acc/Rech, Chance for Energy)

This set maximizes recharge and damage, and maintains good numbers for accuracy and endurance reduction. You can push for more Acc/Dam/End with that piece of Scirocco's if you prefer. Adds some nice resistance buffs too. The full Scirocco's is also a nice path to take for the next three global bonuses, but you sacrifice a lot of recharge to do so.

The deluxe version is Armageddon, skipping the pure Damage IO. If you still want to 6-slot it, the Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi proc is pretty nice as it does just as much damage as any other proc, but is generally less resisted.
[*]Resist: 3x Ribo's (or 2x Ribo's + Steadfast Def%/Res, Steadfast -KB if you are ElA/FA)

You can use Ageis for some +defense or Titanium Coating for +HP if you wanted, but it is hard to beat really low endurance cost shields that are ED resist capped. You can also mix in any other unique set piece and a resistance (or res/end) of that same set for a tiny set bonus like the 2x Steadfast for ElA/FA. The defense for the Steadfast trick is best when stacked of course and ElA/FA aren't heavy-defense sets, but every little bit helps even if it doesn't help "as much" as it would someone already at 40% overall defense.

You will lose a touch of resist on the 2x/2x route, so I like sticking that in Tough rather than one of my primary shields. It'd also be fine in a "lesser" power, such as a passive res shield.
[*]Defense: 3x Cito's or 3x or 4x Luck of the Gambler (Recharge Speed/Def, Def/End, Def, plus optionally Def/End/Rech)

Are you rich and going for +recharge or not? Red Fortune isn't a bad alternative with the set bonuses there but begs for more slots for the +rech and +def(ranged), and those slots can be hard to come by and you often end up enhancing a useless aspect of a shield, like recharge.[/list]
Bad Powers

Some powers just suck. I know others will disagree with things on this list; they'll find odd uses for them, like Temperature Protection as a place to stick a -KB IO without paying an extra slot for it. That's fine, if you have a good reason more power to you. Just don't take junk like this when there are more important things to be taking first: Tough/Weave, Aid Self, Stamina, another attack, or such.

<ul type="square">[*]Taunt: Most brutes don't need it. You get more AoE and ST damage capability than Tanks do, and thus can hold aggro better through your damage alone.[*]ElM's Lightning Clap, SS's Hand Clap: KnockBACK. It sucks. Mobs leave your aura, nobody else's AoEs are hitting all of them. Pass, unless you've got a way to mitigate it or you know how to carefully control it.[*]SM's Hurl Boulder, SS's Hurl: Aptly named -- the long animation and single target nature of these leave them lacking and may remind you of vomit. The -Fly they apply can be nice, so it might be a useful tool sometimes, but who wants to stand there for almost 4 seconds to apply a -Fly to a Longbow Eagle who's now flown 200 yards or more away? Oh and it does knockback. Make that 215 yards away. Animations improved since I originally wrote this, but still less good than a patron blast IMO.[*]Self-Rez: If you died, you did something wrong earlier. Use this time on the ground to think about what it was so you can avoid it in the future.[*]FA's Temperature Protection: Weak fire/cold resistance. Take it if you want to, but take it late. There are far more useful powers to you pre-30. Yes they added, what, slow resistance? It still sucks, it just isn't automatically the worst power in the game.[/list]

Rhysem · 02-01-2009 08:23 PM

Sample Builds

I thought I'd show a couple sample builds, from real live Brutes I have and how I followed, and ignored, the above advice.

The first is a Stone/Fire Brute who's currently level 21. She does quite nicely for herself solo or in a smaller group. I -tend- used to run a lot of the Cap Au Diablo SF with friends (note the Miracle: +recovery in health), which is why there are two Steadfast Protection -KB IOs in this build so early. Or at least she did before the changes, since then she's become a lot less effective at it. Her next power picks are Seismic Smash (curse you Plasma Shield at 16 for blocking it!), Consume, Blazing Aura, then Burn. Slots go into Seismic first, then Blazing Aura, then fill out my shields and Healing Flames. Slotting Blazing Aura and Burn can wait till the 30s.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Level 21 Natural Brute
Primary Power Set: Stone Melee
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Stone Fist -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), EndRdx-I(3), EndRdx-I(11)
Level 1: Fire Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), ResDam-I(17)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(5), EndRdx-I(5), EndRdx-I(11)
Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(7), EndRdx-I(7), EndRdx-I(13)
Level 6: Healing Flames -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(A), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(9), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Mrcl-Heal(13)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 12: Fault -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(15), EndRdx-I(15)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), ResDam-I(17)
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Heal-I(19), Heal-I(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)

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Rhysem · 02-01-2009 08:24 PM

This is my main, red-side. Please note this is not a theoretical build, this is what I have slotted on Rockfall. With global +16.6% To-Hit and +81% Accuracy bonuses, I'll only notice trouble hitting when there are 4-5 Nemesis LT's worth of vengeance on a mob. My resistances and defense aren't great, but between Fault, Tremor, and Power Sink they are more than sufficient. My standard attack plan is: charge in, Tremor, Ball Lightning, Power Sink, Tremor, go find more mobs. If I have friends with I usually shorten that to Tremor, Ball Lightning, find new mob, Tremor, Power Sink, repeat. Sometimes if I missed a LT or didn't quite have enough fury I'll need to use ST attacks to poke the LTs to death, or the odd guy who is outside of that 15 foot radius of death. If I'm concerned about a spawn (double boss spawns), I go in with Fault queued, Ball Lightning, Tremor, Power Sink, SS the boss, Tremor, Heavy Mallet the boss, Fault, ...

The biggest change I've thought about making would be swapping out Mu Lightning for Electric Fences. I usually use ML for blasting runners, and EF could do that nicely as well, plus it would add to my AoE damage. The bad thing is it'd also stop my knockdown in Fault and Tremor. Fault will still disorient them, but now Tremor won't. I'm a bit concerned I'll keep getting myself killed with that. I could also swap out Leadership for something like Fighting to buff-up my S/L resistance and defense a bit, but for how I tend to use Rockfall I don't feel the need. Sure, I don't take 8-man spawns solo. I take 6-man spawns. Well, I've got 4 other friends who I play with, so that's just fine. If we have others invited to the team I can be certain that my friends aren't going to pass up the ability to nuke the living crap out of an 8-man spawn, so they'll be with me. There'll be at least one Corrupter or another Brute to split the aggro with. Actually, I haven't tried 8-man spawns since I got my Absolute Amazement: To-Hit Debuff slotted. I might fare a lot better now when 1/3 the mobs I hit with Fault will be taking a 20% To-Hit Debuff.

This build is perma-Hastened. No gimping of the build required (you could swap out my Leadership for Fighting and lose a Luck of the Gambler and still be essentially perma, 120.3 recharge) -- but boy is it expensive! I dig my perma-vengeance though, that is pretty sweet. Sure it requires a corpse, but if you bring along a lowbie who'd rather chat than kill...

If you do that Accuracy calculation for Rockfall from above, you find that I run about (100% base + 42.4% slotted + 81% global) =~ 220% Accuracy on my ST attacks and Tremor. So not even counting in my +To-Hit, I've got a 95% hit rate against +3.5s or so. Once you factor in the always-on +16.6% To-Hit buff I bring myself, I'm at a 95% hit rate on +5.5s. If someone dies and I can cast Vengeance, I'm hitting +7s 95% of the time and still probably have a reasonable hit chance against +8s. Not that I'd be doing any appreciable damage to anything above a +5, but I could hit them. Assuming of course I haven't been to-hit debuffed and the enemy doesn't have any defense buff or debuffs up.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Rockfall: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Stone Melee
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Stone Fist -- Hectmb-Dam%(A), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(15), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(23)
Level 1: Charged Armor -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(25), HO:Ribo(25)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(13)
Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(9)
Level 6: Conductive Shield -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(7), HO:Ribo(7)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(40)
Level 10: Static Shield -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(11), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(11), S'fstPrt-ResKB(46)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Heal(17), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(17), Numna-Heal(43), RgnTis-Regen+(43)
Level 18: Seismic Smash -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Lightning Reflexes -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Grounded -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A)
Level 26: Fault -- Amaze-Stun/Rchg(A), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(27), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(27), Zinger-Dam%(34), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(39), Amaze-ToHitDeb%(40)
Level 28: Lightning Field -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(29), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(29), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Efficacy-EndMod(39)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 32: Tremor -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(33), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Armgdn-Dam%(34), Zinger-Dam%(40)
Level 35: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(37), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48)
Level 41: Mu Lightning -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(42), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Apoc-Dam%(43)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Ragnrk-Knock%(46), Posi-Dam%(50)
Level 47: Tactics -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(48), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(50), LkGmblr-Def(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Fury
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]+8.5% DamageBuff[*]+3% Defense(Smashing)[*]+3% Defense(Lethal)[*]+3% Defense(Fire)[*]+3% Defense(Cold)[*]+3% Defense(Energy)[*]+3% Defense(Negative)[*]+3% Defense(Psionic)[*]+3% Defense(Melee)[*]+3% Defense(Ranged)[*]+3% Defense(AoE)[*]+81% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]+92.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]+103.9 (8.63%) HitPoints[*]+Knockback (Mag -4)[*]+MezResist(Confused) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Held) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Immobilize) (Mag 26.6%)[*]+MezResist(Sleep) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Stun) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 20%)[*]+23% Recovery[*]+68% Regeneration[*]+10.1% Resistance(Fire)[*]+10.1% Resistance(Cold)[*]+1.26% Resistance(Energy)[*]+1.26% Resistance(Negative)[*]+3% Resistance(Psionic)[/list]

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</pre><hr />

Aggelakis · 02-02-2009 01:40 AM

Rhysem - nice, but can you edit the attack mechanics link you have to point to paragonwiki.com instead of wikia? Wikia is no longer being edited and is woefully out of date!

Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari

I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Rhysem · 02-02-2009 05:20 PM

Good point. So edited. I actually wrote that about 6 months ago, but then had some time away from CoH (tried OtherBigNameGame) so hadn't bothered posting it.

Infiniti · 02-02-2009 11:02 PM

Hurl's animation time was reduced. It's not so bad anymore.

"Sometimes you have to roll the Hard Six." -- Adama
Teabagging Ms. Liberty - http://kk-comics.com/allmmproject/rsf21.jpg

HotButteredSoul · 02-04-2009 04:27 PM

Great guide! I especially like how you walk people through the early to mid levels. I have a few thoughts:

1) Unless I missed it, you seem to have left out any commentary on Super Reflexes... might be useful.. even if you were to say you're intentionally not mentioning it.

2) Stone Melee's Fault, IMHO, is not a required power. In fact, by dazing enemies you prevent them from attacking you. Thus, Fault is counter productive to building Fury.

3) By that same token, Taunt helps you to build Fury. And if you team at all, considering the large number of Brutes, you will often be competing for Fury with other Brutes. Having Taunt will make your Fury bar fatter than other Brutes who forgo it.

Rhysem · 02-04-2009 04:44 PM

SR got skipped because, well, at the time I wrote it, it didn't exist! (at least, I think it didn't) I added SD since I have a SD scrapper and some experience with it. Just hadn't thought about SR.

Fault certainly can be unproductive, but on the flipside, it'll keep you alive and once your fury is built, you won't have trouble maintaining it, even using fault. Rockfall certainly uses fault every spawn (no taunt either) and doesn't have a problem with fury (nor really did he while leveling... once I got conserve power and then respecced to power sink).

Taunt could be good, but if you need to taunt, that means you weren't first in the spawn. In that case, there's a much easier way to fix the problem, without using a power slot. :-)

But of course, to each their own!

Stillhart · 04-28-2009 07:06 AM

I wouldn't mind seeing you add in the "required" powers for War Axe/Mace. I love guides like this that give requirements at different levels and explain the theory instead of just making recommendations. I am a noob here and I get all paranoid when I'm choosing skills that I'll do something totally wrong.

Right now I'm working on a WM/WP Brute and using tips from this guide for the /WP part. I'm having trouble deciding if I should stack up Fitness pool early (ie. Stamina around 20) or if I should take Fighting and/or more WP skills early. Right now my endurance could use some help (L12) but the WP version of stamina is supposed to be better and WP has few toggles.

Either way, thx for the guide. Been helpful.

Plyxx · 04-28-2009 09:37 AM

Yes Willpowers Quick Recovery is slightly better that Stamina so you could put stamina off till later.But don't forget the other reason to get the fitness pool is Health,which will increase your Regen.And as a Willpower with no heal, Regen will be important.

Oh and my SS/WP has 7 toggles :P

ItsJustJake · 04-28-2009 10:09 AM

Nice Read, and overall it appears to be pretty accurate, though some things (as always in this game) are a matter of preference.

I'm still picking my way through my first successful Brute, using similar tactics as you described, with modifications for personal preference and teaming .

I play a lot solo for No XP, and team regularly with a pre-determined group for XP. Playing for no XP may seem counter-productive to many, but it really did help me learn to play him.

My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question