Welcome back to the game/boards.
First off- what sets are you asking about? It seems you are asking about fiery melee/ super reflexes and fiery melee paired with war mace. You seem to move your secondary and primary powers back and forth in your discussion and it makes it hard to follow. Particularly with sets like electric or fire or stone which can be found in either place. Remember, we like to state the primary set /secondary set to avoid possible confusion with some other ATs.
If you are talking about Fiery aura for a secondary, you should go back to the drawing board. I would hardly say fiery aura is the regen set for brutes. Fiery aura has decent resistance to dmg. Most are able to slot fiery aura dmg resistance to S/L well into the 50% range. Whereas with Regen, the only resistance offered is not going to get you near those numbers. The only thing fiery aura has in common with regen is a strong self heal and a complete lack of intrinsic defense.
If you want something along the lines of regen for brutes, look into willpower. A lot of people have noticed that the regen lvl can be made into something similar to the regeneration powersets passive regeneration with IOs, and you have decent resists and defenses to boot. The healing component of willpower is critter dependent so it works better when you are surrounded with mobs.
If you want something with strong healing capabilites along with a click heal, and something fiery- I suggest going Fiery melee/ willpower with aid self. You will discover you really don't need a click heal with willpower, but if that is your thing, there is plenty of room to build it in.
Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.
"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality
yeah..sorry..edited....im looking at fire melee and willpower
The Porcelain God - DarkKinetics Corruptor
Meat Juice - DarkDarkSoul Brute
Pretty and Strong - Do you really have to ask?
Well, if you really want to maximize your potential, a Fire Melee/ Willpower, would be useful. Having a shield to most everything that game can throw at you, a way to not "have" to get stamina, the ability to place some of the best Global IO's, and a generally good combo.
Like you mention, mitagation will be an issue. One way, late game, would be to get Darkest Night from the patron pool. Good part about it, if you did go with Stamina and Quick Recovery, you would be able to run toggles with little fear of endurance issues.
Good reason for Super Reflexes, you will be awesome in PvE, and able to survive a lot of situations, that most others would find troubling. Just, for me, it takes to long to feel like you can just go all in. Sometimes it feels like you have to be cautious. Which, I find hard to do as a brute.
Its funny, every time I change from running a brute, to say a Corruptor, I find myself still trying to gain Fury with a character, way to squishy. Takes about 2 or 3 trips to the hospital until I figure out what I am doing wrong!
210 50s and still counting!
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So I'm returning after a VERY long break...since i8 and I see lots has changed..which is GREAT! So now I'm looking to start up a new brute and I've seen some mention that fire\sr is a good combo, but I've always been a little shy of defense sets because of that one or two lucky hits that just ruins everything. Add to that ...in that fire has no damage mitigation...I'm a little confused how this'll work (I assume that if i pick up air sup that'll help).
So my other option is a safer fire\wp...the 'regen' set for brutes. Which, to me, is basically a way for me to heal up quick after I've laid waste to everything around me.
I'm willing to try fire\sr, but fire\wp seems like it would work better. Any thoughts on either of the sets together? The primary I'm really targeting though is fire. I've got a fire\elec in the 30s and she does alright, but I'm kind of tired of elec (i've got a SS\elec and SM\elec ... both in the 40s).
Any insight would be great...thanks!
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I think both combs are about equal in terms of effictivness with fully IOed.
However, Fire/WP is much easier on the budget and is still amazing with SOs/Common IOs.
Fire/SR is just as amazing but requires some investment for +rec, +def to maximize the potential to equal the Fire/WP, IMO.
Since you're just now returning to the game, presumably you're not sitting on tons of infamy. So I'd say go Willpower. It's a smoother ride and you don't have to have a huge budget.
I created a Fire/SR scrapper and once he got around level 40 with lots of +defense set bonuses he became godly. But earlier in his career he was pretty squishy and without investing in all the set bonuses to hit the soft caps, he would've been decent but nothing special.
Go Willpower and have fun.
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
Fire/SR for both PvP and PvE
Fire/WP for PvE.
Either works great in PvE, except /SR takes a little more care to make it worth the while. WP is out of the box but doesn't seriously open up like SR does with IOs.
Thanks for all the feedback..and yeah..no..I don't have a TON of inf...so I'll probably start with WP...thanks!
The Porcelain God - DarkKinetics Corruptor
Meat Juice - DarkDarkSoul Brute
Pretty and Strong - Do you really have to ask?
I have a 50 FM/WP that I made quite awhile ago and it's a fun combo. Easy on the Infamy and great damage. I chose to go with Mu Mastery for PvE and it works nicely with FSC. Before they killed PvP, it was pretty solid with Gloom as well.
As far as SR goes, it will not only cost more to be as effective but also eat all of your endurance.
I agree it costs more, but it doesn't really eat all your endurance. I run all /SR toggles, CJ, Tough and Weave and do not have any end problems. I will admit to having a fair bit of +rec from IOs, but that's part of the "cost more" disclaimer. 
So I'm returning after a VERY long break...since i8 and I see lots has changed..which is GREAT! So now I'm looking to start up a new brute and I've seen some mention that fire\sr is a good combo, but I've always been a little shy of defense sets because of that one or two lucky hits that just ruins everything. Add to that ...in that fire has no damage mitigation...I'm a little confused how this'll work (I assume that if i pick up air sup that'll help).
So my other option is a safer fire\wp...the 'regen' set for brutes. Which, to me, is basically a way for me to heal up quick after I've laid waste to everything around me.
I'm willing to try fire\sr, but fire\wp seems like it would work better. Any thoughts on either of the sets together? The primary I'm really targeting though is fire. I've got a fire\elec in the 30s and she does alright, but I'm kind of tired of elec (i've got a SS\elec and SM\elec ... both in the 40s).
Any insight would be great...thanks!
The Porcelain God - DarkKinetics Corruptor
Meat Juice - DarkDarkSoul Brute
Pretty and Strong - Do you really have to ask?