I recognise a lot of your words. Giant Panda has the SMASH but bad. 
He's an SS/Inv build, and only two toggles (Combat Jump and Temp Invul) to run in a fight, and he bleeds end like a garotted giraffe. I've slotted my attacks for damage, though, simply for the SMASH of it - I enjoy one-shotting things with my smaller attacks, can you tell?
Sounds like you have a solid concept going, though. Look forward to hearing your fiurther adventures.
Combat Jumping is only worth slotting when you have not much else to slot, slot all your armours first and Cloak of Fear should provide a far better protection ( slotted for to hit debuffs ). My tank has it slotted in his last respec, but he is level 44 with slots to burn.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
combat jumping was definatly not rated in c o h , dont think the maths have changed respec it out .jump kick a better option less end usage, 1 slott with accuracy an leave it. gives a nice little kick with a knock back , leaving u to slot ur main powers
Part 2.
After a couple of days off work sick shot from 10 to 17 (halfway to 18) in that time. Picked up Obsidien Shield at 12, Super Jump at 14 and Health at 16. So I'll start off with a view of the powers taken and progress to date.
OS is great. Currently two slotted for end redux but will hopefully add three Res as well when slots allow. I now actually look forward to CoT missions and have a rictus grin on my face as I SMASH Mages and remember my poor Fire Tank who used to cower at the prospect.
I think that in another post today it says OS offers a base 35% mez protection which is just too good to ignore.
Super Jumping took some getting used to, but, its fantastic fun! Tigger Time! This is the first time I've taken it (previously being either a foot slogger or a flyer) and what a quick and efficent means of transit it is.
Health. Quiet contentious dependant on your point of view. I've always found it indespensible for high HP characters and with my brute it has been great for reducing downtime between scraps, fewer "Rests" and a consistently higher level of Fury on an ongoing basis. As such it is three slotted with Health DO's at present.
What Health doesn't do though is help absorbing alpha strikes which continues to be the main problem. I did three slot CJ with Def enhancers and have decided that any bit of Def or Res I can get I'm going to go for.
I have neglected my attacks up till now but will focus more on them as I progress. Currently I have Brawl, Jab, Haymaker and KO' Blow. At the mo, only Jab has any additional slots (1 end redux, 1 recharge redux, and 2 damage) on the basis this was my most used attack it seemed a reasonable investment.
I find I can alternate between Brawl and Jab continuously to help build Fury and against even lvl minions with 80% Fury I roughly do Jab - 30pts of damage, Haymaker 80 - 100 pts and KO' Blow 180 - 200 pts. Most +1 lvl Leui's and even lvl Bosses can be dispatched KO Blow, Haymaker and Jab.
BTW breaking the 200 pts damage barrier was an almost religious experience. " I have seen the light! " SMASH!
An aura like Blazing Aura or thingy from DA is essential. In the same scenario as above I regularly do 10 pts of damage per click (Slotted 3x End Redux, 3x Damage). If you have an aura take it and love it.
Other things of interest. OMG DO's are expensive! A shock to the system after happily buying armfulls of TO's. Serves me right for not saving up.
Joined a nice SG "The House of Counted Shadows" and all seem a good bunch of people.
Went off to Bloody Bay to try my hand at PvP when I hit 15. Got completely owned. Four of us were beating on a Controller (lvl 35 I think) called Discharge. I think my Ko' Blow surprised him but on the whole he stood there laughing at us for a few mins. You can imagine how disheartened we were when we finally budged his health bar and he promptly healed himself for 228 HP's!!!
Needless to say I adjourned to level up some more with my dignity intact but my behind in tatters.
The next phase will be to concentrate more on my attacks and to decide wheter to take Dark Regeneration or not. My current idea is to get it to help recover from alpha strikes and slot it (1x Acc, 1x Recharge, 1x End Redux and 3x Heal). Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
Thats all for now, more later.
Keep em comin mate .
Especially the slotting of your secondaries, planning a DM/DA brute myself (havent got CoV yet, ordered tho).
Okay, a bit more detail on how I've slotted my secondaries if you think it will help:
1. Dark Embrace. 3x DO Res Enhancers. So far I haven't found the need to put an End Redux in here although I may well do at a later stage. I might also put a forth slot in here just to try and squeeze a bit more benefit out. Currently this is giving me a 30% increase on base.
2. Death Shroud. 3x End Redux TO's & 3x Damage DO's. Slotted as a priority after Dark Embrace. I've found that I can run this, Dark Embrace, CJ and Obsidien Shield similtaneously and be End. neutral. Which is great until you want to SMASH stuff.
3. Murky Cloud. Left it out for now but will probably pick it up in my 30's as the types of damage becomes varied. I would expect to slot this 3x End Redux & 3x Res.
4. Obsidien Shield. Slotted 2x End Redux TO's and will possibly add a third later and two Res. It does have a high base resist aprox 35% so may leave it as currently slotted.
Next power pick will probably be Dark Regeneration but on all accounts it is very end heavy, needs to hit but has a fast recharge time. Therefore will probably slot 1x Acc, 2x End Redux and 3x Heal (or even 3 end redux and 2 heal). I will play about with this and let you know.
Currently run the following toggles in combat. DE, DS & CJ. If required I also run OS. My end use is not unmanageable with my current slotting and the fact that 70% of the time in combat I'm only using Brawl (1 +Acc) and Jab (1x Recharge, 1x End & 2x Damage) but I often have to pop a bluey to keep going.
If I'm fighting a Boss and need to use Haymaker or KO' Blow I try to end the fight asap. I therefore ensure Fury is at the max (target the minions first) and pop any Reds I have. Basically I try to end the fight with as few of my End heavy attacks being used as possible. Needless to say both Haymaker and KO' Blow have +Acc in their only slots. Missing is the least efficent use of end there is IMHO.
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Joined a nice SG "The House of Counted Shadows" and all seem a good bunch of people.
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Hullo!
I've slotted all my attacks Acc, Recharge, End reduction in that order, and am only starting to put in damage slots now.
With stamina (3SOs) and running Temp inv, Unyielding, invuln, and CJ and an attack chain of brawl, jab, punch and haymaker, with KB thrown in for special occasions (1 end red SO each, apart from brawl), I'm having almost no end problems except against electricity heavy spawns of freaks, or when the crash from Rage hits me at a bad time.
Dead Calm's Defender Manifesto
Hullo,
My toons called Solice btw. Do you have any figures you could post about Rage + Fury? One of the reasons I took SS was to see how much damage I could do with a single blow (Fury + Rage + KO Blow = True Love) and would be really interested in how you've found it so far.
Hello All,
I just thought I would post a blog of my Brutish adventures so far and add to it over the life of my toon (Solice) as he hopefully progresses. I'm not a numbers guy so things will be pretty much based on in game impressions and obviously my own opinion of what constitutes Brutishness.
First off the power sets chossen have been SS/Dark mainly because I wanted a primary that wouldn't take too long to develop and therefore I picked SS as opposed to EM. I also like the idea of seeing Rage and Fury working together and Hurl Boulder and Hand Clap will be a nice surprise in PvP.
Dark because I haven't played to many Dark chars and wanted a varied powerset. The fear powers later on were a particularly good fit for my concept and Res vrs PSI has got to help for PvP.
Overall I wanted a balanced toon for PvE and PvP and of all the CoV AT's I think that the Brute best offers that balance.
Solice has just hit lvl 10 so the toons still in nappies but, OMG they flew past. This is possibly the quickest lvl'ing toon I've played. So far I've learnt the following:
1. Fury - Wow. Second only to Containment this must be the best innate power in the game! Knowing who to fight and when makes a huge difference and forces you to make some important tactical descions on the fly. It is immensely refreshing to get to lvl 10 with only three damage enhancers in my build and to have Brawl and Jab as my two main attacks.
2. Endurance. The bottomline in this build. All of my armours and attacks will be slotted for End Redux. I want to be able to spam my bread and butter attacks running at least three toggles and be as near to End neutral as possible before unloading a blockbuster. Having said that I can't imagine leaving out Stamina end consumption in this build is huge.
3. Blockbuster. (Dictionary Def; A state of nirvana for the followers of the Zen Art of SMASH!!!) KO' Blow. Is...is...is indescribable. With about 80% on my Fury bar I am one shotting even lvl leui's. I think I first posted damage of over 120 at lvl 8 and now regularly do between 150 - 160 per blow. SMASH!!!
4. Be careful who you fight. I munch minions like nobody's business. On the few occassions I've gone down its to Bosses and not being able to absorb the alpha strike. When things go pear shape as a Brute they go very quickly indeed!
Mez's are starting to play merry hell with me now as well. Nevermind Obsidian Shield at 12 will sort that out!
I've also picked up Swift to start the health pool and Combat Jumping to start off my Travel power. The only issues I forsee going forward is getting enough End Reducers in my powers as slots become avaliable and how to slot CJ. Is the Def worth the extra slots?
So theres the first blog posted. Please feel free to comment or add any guidance. I'll keep you update as I progress.