Maximizing /WP survivability?

I currently have a 41 DB/WP brute that I really love. I'm starting to plan out what IOs I'm going to get, and I want to aim for survivability foremost. While I won't mind getting global damage and recharge bonuses, I want to focus on my defenses.

Obviously picking up Tough and Weave is a no-brainer, and I'm also grabbing Darkest Night from the patron pool since I have plenty of end to go around.

What I'm wondering is this: what set bonuses should I focus on to maximize my survivability? I know soft capping is the holy grail nowadays, but that's not really feasible with /WP, is it? I was thinking of focusing on +HP since that would help survive alphas as well as increasing regen. Is this a good plan? What sets should I be looking at to maximize my survivability?

---

"OOOOPPPSSSS." -Statesman

I'd aim for typed defenses. The defense bonuses you get from sets are just that high. Secondarily aim for +HP.

---

I personally built for some resistance increases to smashing and lethal and increased regen and it serves me well.

---

I went mostly for +HP, +regen, and +recharge on my SS/WP.

---

I built a number of WP brutes, scrappers, and tanks with a 'maximum survival' goal, and found the following to be an extremely effective and low-cost way to build upon WP's strengths and fill some gaps too:

Tough, Weave, and if possible Combat Jumping

Melee single target powers - slot with 4 Kinetic Combat (I avoid the proc) plus Focused Smite A/E/R and A/D/R if you have enough slots. Each KinCom set gives 3.75% S/L def AND 1.5% HP. Slotting these in boxing and brawl can make sense if you have few ST melee attacks, to get the maximum stacking of 5 of these bonuses.

PBAoE powers - slot 3 SciDerv (for Neg Energy resist) + 3 Eradication (for 3.13% E/N Def per set). I've had good luck with a combo of SciDerv A/D/E + A/R + D/E or D/R, and Erad A/D/E/R + A/D/R + D/R.

Resistance powers - slot at least 4 Reactive Armor IOs for even more S/L and E/N Def. You probably already have a Steadfast Protection Res/+Def IO in your plan; I've used HPT slot #1 as a convenient place for it, leaving plenty of room for Healing and Resist IOs in the other 4-5 slots in HPT.

There are a few other good defense-boosting sets if you have ranged attacks, targeted aoe, immobilizes, etc... Thunderstrike 4-slot or 6-slot, Detonation 5-slot, and Enfeebled Operation are worth considering. I try to add 2-slotted Winter's Gift in a travel power for slow resistance and 5% Cold resist, and a Kismet +ToHit IO in combat jumping to help the "active defenses" from attacks with knockdowns and other secondary effects...

If you have enough slots to spare, try 2 high level ToHit Debuff IOs in RttC. Two of my brutes are soft-capped against S/L damage from normal enemies in the RttC effect. You probably are aware that an attack with two damage types uses your larger defense value...so this even softcaps against many attacks from energy, negative, fire, cold, and psi enemies!

Research the badge Accolades too, if you haven't already. The +HP ones (Born In Battle, High Pain Threshold, and Invader) are of course highly beneficial for WP. The Demonic Aura click accolade stacks with your own defenses and resists for 60 seconds of pure .


[Edit]
While set bonuses of Regen can help, I found the bonus amounts to be small compared to WP's regen from Fast Healing, RttC, and (if taken) Health. SciDerv sets do provide 10% regen for the 2nd slot, which helps a little.

Recharge is something I did not usually pursue in set bonuses for WP characters...there are no WP or pool defenses that benefit from recharge. Unless you have an incomplete attack chain after fully slotting your attacks with IO sets or major active-defense attacks such as SS/WP's footstomp, Recharge set bonuses may add little to your DB brute's survivability or damage.

Consider the casting time of Darkest Night (3.17sec) and whether it fits with your brute's playstyle. In normal encounters you may find it to be a waste of time, especially if you use the IOs mentioned above. In the cases where you would really want the DN debuffs (against an AV/Hero, monster, +3 Elite Boss), expect its ToHit and even its Damage debuff to be heavily resisted by the enemy's debuff resistance and level scaling. Just a thought. The Soul Mastery APP is a great choice overall for utility, casting speed, damage, secondary -ToHit effect, and IO slotting options
[/Edit]

---

HP and regen work fine for me. For decent mitigation the sweep combo works wonders as well.

Similar slotting as above but with my melee I use 4 Kinetic contact and 2 pounding slugfest for another 8% regen.

---

QR

I slotted for +def (smashing/melee), +HP and +regen. I figured not getting hit as often (def) would allow my health (+HP, +regen) to heal quicker and it works very well.

---

I spent just shy of 3 billion and went for all +hp/+recharge/+regen. Didn't aim for any defenses although I did get a couple just from the sets I used. The Brute has 2466 HP with a passive regen of about 45 HP a second and 78% Global recharge. With 5 purples in footstomp and the chance for rech proc most things die before my hitpoints get low enough to warrant any insp usage.

I did a build on Mids with soft capped defenses to exotic types and decent defense to smash/lthl but didnt like the loss of HP and recharge

---

I hear alot of /WP brute building for +recharge and it's something I don't fully understand since only one power (self-rez) really benefits from the additional recharge.

Sure it helps your primary but I don't even have Hasten on my SS/WP and my attack chain is seamless.

I should note that this is not a farming build whatsoever.

---

Mine is an all around build. I use it for farming/TF/door mishes and when I did PvP I even used it there too. I went with a ton of +rech for AV soloing. SS can crank out some serious DPS even factoring in rage crashes once you get enough recharge to stack rage for a good while.


+rech on a WP Brute allows for much more offensive activity since you get both QR/Stamina. Since you can handle spammin attacks more than some other sets with end troubles, why not make it so you can keep on smashing. More offense = less defense needed

---

I see your point. Different playstyles it seems as I use mine for Teams, TFs, Raids and not much else. I rarely need more DPS due to the team and with Darkest Night toggled, spamming attacks and/or Hasten dropping (on top of Rage) would just give me endurance issues I don't need.

Thanks for the info Snappin.

---

During AV fights I run Darkest Night, all WP toggles +tough and I even use footstomp in my attack chain since it animates quickly with decent damage(Arma proc and FF chance for +rech) and dont have end problems really.

With slotted QR+Stamina and a chance for +end in both combined with the Numina/Miracle procs and some good +recovery bonuses my end is most often above halfway. Another great end bonus is the day job from pocket D. It offers the same as a numina IIRC and even though it says when out of battle it works in PvE in battle. I think the in battle discription is for PvP only. When i get that day power going my end stays capped off

---

You are using a highly Purpled out SS/WP Brute with both Uniques.

I am not. The only unique I run is Numina's and I do have some other minor +recovery bonuses. I don't care for massive +recharge or making a purpled out Brute (way too many alts).

I'm quite satisfied with the uberness this brute exumes.

---

Slotting for +regen on a /Willpower brute is the worst you can do (actually slotting for it on a /Regen scrapper is the worst, but still). The +regen will not be noticable and will barely increase your survivability at all.

---

It's not the worst thing to slot towards and is usually tied with +HP set bonuses.

I would say the worst thing to slot for would be +mez resistance. :P

---

nahhh worst would be slotting for debt protection....

---

Now we aren't ready quite yet to let the catgirls out of the bag.... (quote from ex libris)

[ QUOTE ]
It's not the worst thing to slot towards and is usually tied with +HP set bonuses.

I would say the worst thing to slot for would be +mez resistance. :P

[/ QUOTE ]
+global KB and/or procs that do KB... but +mez resistance is up there.

My suggestions: some +hp, some +defense; Tough and Weave; Darkest Night.

If you can do it without sacrificing damage, and Dual Blades doesn't need a lot of +recharge to get near its peak on damage dealt, you can work with Kinetic Combats (for Sm/Le - all but the proc for 3.75%), Pounding Slugfest and Pulverizing Fisticuffs (for En/Ne - use 3 of each in attacks for 2.5% per power), Thunderstrike (3.75% En/Ne for 6-slotting, 2.5% for 3 slots) or Devastation (+2.25% hp/+12% regen and 3.75% Psi def) in Gloom, and slot your resistance powers with Reactive Armor (4-slot for 1.25% S/L/E/N). LotG gives +hp and +regen with only a few slots... my SM/WP has a lot of wasted +1.13% hp bonuses because of my slotting for recharge. That will cover a large chunk of the damage you'll see coming at you, Darkest Night will cover the rest.

---

[ QUOTE ]
I would say the worst thing to slot for would be +mez resistance. :P

[/ QUOTE ]

No, atleast then you'd have a gimmick. Slotting +regen is just stupid.

[ QUOTE ]
It's not the worst thing to slot towards and is usually tied with +HP set bonuses.

[/ QUOTE ]

It isn't tied with +HP set bonuses. Increasing HP increases survivability by the exact same amount for all sets, regardless of mitigation type. +10% HP increases survivability by 10% for everyone. The exception is of course if you already have +HP from other sources, like all bonuses it suffers from diminishing returns.

---

[ QUOTE ]

No, atleast then you'd have a gimmick. Slotting +regen is just stupid.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not as stupid as general statements without support. How about you put up or shut up.

[ QUOTE ]

It isn't tied with +HP set bonuses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. +Regen is normally the first set bonus in a given Set with +HP being the 2nd bonus. So if you're going for +HP, then you are indirectly building for +Regen.

I totally agree that +HP > +regen since any +HP will yield a great hp/sec result then adding regen but to call adding +regen stupid is incorrect and misleading.

---

Meh, I've gots to make that survivability guide I've always intended just so I don't have to write the same thing over and over again.

How about this. Slotting +regen isn't stupid, slotting specifically for +regen is. Now I'll shut up. If you don't believe me and is too lazy to do the math, then that's your choice.

---

[ QUOTE ]
If you can do it without sacrificing damage, and Dual Blades doesn't need a lot of +recharge to get near its peak on damage dealt,

[/ QUOTE ]


That's the second time someone say that in this post. And it's far from true. With normal recharge, you'll do extremely less damage then a perma-hasten purple build. The more recharge is almost always sure to increase the damage output, since you can spam your best attacks a lot more.

So, yes you'll be far from it's peak . =P

---

"It's a scrapper. If he can't handle it, no one can." -BrandX

[ QUOTE ]
I went mostly for +HP, +regen, and +recharge on my SS/WP.

[/ QUOTE ]

I went this route as well (on a 50 SS/WP)

Darkest Night, Gloom, Dark Obliteration and RttC all provide to hit debuffs at about 32% vs single target (a little less against mobs).

My build is more resistance oriented w/MoB, SoW, High Pain Tolerance and Darkest Night for about a 79% resist to S/L, 60%+ for Psi and about 40% for everything else.

I also made sure I picked up Demonic Aura... at that point; most everything gets absorbed for a short while.

At minimal RttC bonus (+Health and Fast Healing); +775% Regen is possible utilizing 4double slottings of Pounding Slugfest and 4 double slottings of Numina and a double slot of Devastation on Gloom.

Max HP is almost at 145%; expanding Numina into 3 slottings; 2 slotting Efficiency Adapter and 3 slotting LotG in any Def powers that I do have

[Why +recharge? To spam your primary and patron attacks, Rage and Fury. I went the Force Feedback route in this and with the way I have them slotted I am at top speed about 50% of the time... I also grabbed Force of Nature to try and ensure that my DPS overrides EB/AV regen rates (and it gives a nice +Recovery to cover the uppage in END use due to speed increases)

---

Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars

[ QUOTE ]
Slotting for +regen on a /Willpower brute is the worst you can do (actually slotting for it on a /Regen scrapper is the worst, but still). The +regen will not be noticable and will barely increase your survivability at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll also have to disagree on this... in the chance that your END bottoms out (from spamming, crashing, sappers, etc) the big, bad RttC bonus drops like a rock as it does when fight single targets (as opposed to mobs).

Having a non-endurance/status reliant backup plan doesn't hurt and it can be done without sacrificing much in the way of damage.

---

Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars

Thats true but +hp adds +regen as well as a form of damage resistance since you can take more hits.

I am pretty sure, even though it doesn't soiund like it, they meant to say that building for +regen before things like +hp are a bad idea since you get very little return on +regen sets and in order for it to make the IO investment worth it by stacking regen sets you end up losing out on other more important sets

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you can do it without sacrificing damage, and Dual Blades doesn't need a lot of +recharge to get near its peak on damage dealt,

[/ QUOTE ]


That's the second time someone say that in this post. And it's far from true. With normal recharge, you'll do extremely less damage then a perma-hasten purple build. The more recharge is almost always sure to increase the damage output, since you can spam your best attacks a lot more.

So, yes you'll be far from it's peak . =P

[/ QUOTE ]
Kindof a threadjack, but you only need 128% recharge in your attack chain (counting global recharge and enhancements) to seamlessly chain Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals: a chain that provides more DPS than (double-stacked) Empower -> Sweeping Strike, which requires 214% recharge.

Since it's more or less out of place here and has been discussed in another thread, why don't you go here and post your "peak" chain.

---