If you're tired of Willpower and want a no-frills secondary, Electric Armor will work. Fault will provide more mitigation than most of your secondary, and you shouldn't need to bother with Tough since you can just knock everybody down and then pop Aid Self while they're getting up stunned. So why not Fire? Because of the endurance drain resistance, psi resistance, and faster recharge on the endurance refill.
It's not the minmax way to go and Electric Armor isn't all that great on endurance until you hit level 36, but it doesn't require a lot of IOs to perform well. Just make sure to slot at least one endurance reduction into the Stone Melee powers until you get Power Sink slotted, after that you can replace them with recharge reductions instead and still get away with it.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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SM/anything works just fine, i often forget to turn on my fire sheilds on my SM/Fire and plow through relentless missions untill something mezes me.
SM/sheild sounds lol-tastic in terms of mitigation and damage though 
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I have a SM/Shield at 37 that I made more for concept, but he's actually surprised me quite a bit. Shield Defense is a bit on the squishy side for brutes, but the mitigation in Stone Melee picks up the survivability quite a bit. He isn't squishy at all 
<.< just don't got the crazy masochist way I went with SM/DA. They tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen!
I have a SM/DA brute who has been at level 13 for I say a couple years now though I do have a few brutes I ahve made and have not finshed levleing. I do have a levle 35 sm/elec brute who is fun. haveing a area stun helps his survablity in the lower levels. Even though I have a level 40 ss/elec brute I have more fun with my level 35 sm/elec brute.
WP, ELA, and EA have been my favorite so far, simply because they have the ability to deal with SM's massive thirst for endurance, and they don't need a ton-o-IO end bonuses to do it.
Well, Stone Melee has two things that makes for good synergi: high end cost and excellent active mitigation. What you need for high end cost is obvious, active mitigation isn't so I'll skip right to that. Active mitigation is much better on a set that relies on regaining hit points quickly as it's mitigation. That means Dark Armor, Fiery Aura and Willpower.
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Well, Stone Melee has two things that makes for good synergi: high end cost and excellent active mitigation. What you need for high end cost is obvious, active mitigation isn't so I'll skip right to that. Active mitigation is much better on a set that relies on regaining hit points quickly as it's mitigation. That means Dark Armor, Fiery Aura and Willpower.
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However, SM/* rocks on */ELA because ELA needs a little bit of time to work it's "-endurance" magic lol. With the active mitigation from SM working on your side as an ELA, you have all the time you need to not ony avoid a HUGE portion of a spawns alpha, but also drain them dry so that they "can't" attack you almost at all afterwords.
It's dang near magic to be honest lol, a thing of beauty haha
according to numbers posted in the scrapper thread about ideal rotations, stone melee is nearly a full 1 end per second higher than anything else out there once one has a lot of global recharge.
so if you go sm, you have to think long term: IF you plan to slot a lot of io sets for global recharge, stone melee can hit 5+ eps. you will need to maintain higher than 5 eps with toggles running and i just dont see that happening without both stamina AND quick recovery, or a fast recharging power sink/conserve power
so if that's your plan and if having to carry around a trayful of blues on the important, lengthy fights were maintaining said rotations is important - it's gotta be wp or elec imo
I have solo'd a SM/WP and SM/SD to 50 and both were a frakkin hoot. You are tired of WP, I can tell you that shield with Stone Melee is a endurance management challenge but the shear smashtastic silliness of that combo is a lot of fun.
I want to roll up a Stone Melee brute, but am having trouble picking a secondary to pair with it. This a strictly PvE character, without a lot of infamy to spend on IOs. Probably mostly solo too.
Right now, I'm considering Fiery Aura, Electric Armor and Willpower, but I'll take suggestions too.
Fiery Aura would provide even more damage, and the idea of Seismic Smash stunning a boss then dropping a Burn patch under it is enticing. SM's defenses via Fault, knockdowns, etc, should help FA's overall weaker resists. Enough skippable powers means I should be able to fit in Tough without too much pain. And Consume helps with endurance issues. No psychic defense/resist does frighten me a bit.
Electric Armor I've never played, but I like the idea of resisting endurance drain. Lightning Reflexes helps with SM's slow recharge rates, Power Sink and Conserve Power help with endurance costs. But having to take nearly the entire secondary would make it rough trying to fit in both Tough and Aid Self. Again, SM's knockdowns and such would help the secondary's weaker numbers.
Willpower is... well, Willpower. Excellent all around. Only reason I'm not going for it first is because I've played a bunch of Willpower brutes already and am kinda tired of it. Still, Quick Recovery for endurance, a Fault at the right time would let Rise to the Challenge fill up the health. But I'm still bored with Willpower.
Thanks for any assistance or suggestions.