well they all have pro's and cons
Dark - is togglestastic and end heavy, but has psi resist
Fire - is toggle light but not that protecting
Invuln - is easy to use, but focuses heavily on smashing and lethal
Stone - is slow but has good resists
EA - has high defences, but is weak against bosses due to low resists.
For fun, I'd definitely recommend SS as your primary, love that powerset 
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with either DA or Inv though, sorry. 
If you want to destroy everything, just take Energy Melee/Fiery Aura.
Fiery Aura has Blazing Aura, which with full fury can kill a white minion in 3 ticks
Energy Melee has heavy disorient powers, even in the low levels, a damaging AoE, and 3 extreme damage powers (Bonesmasher, Total Focus and Energy Transfer).
It's by far the best PvE brute I've found (Stone/EA comes close but only after Conserve Power). You aren't a tank but you kill so fast that you can handle a lot of enemies.
Energy Melee/Invulnerability is a great set for soloing, you shouldnt get any problems all the way up.
/stone with a kinetic in tow is awesome, mine is a compromise as is geared for duoing. The speed and damage I can do with Gandrol is insane. I can solo but its slow work as I dont have any end reds except in mud pots.
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I think the strongest brutes are probably EN/Inv and Fire/Inv......... I like my DA for the all around protection, but in 9 out of 10 missions an Inv will out perform me.
SS is nice, but its all an often resisted damage, which means EN has the edge on it.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
With Inv, you resist better than with Fire but you lack a damaging aura. I know that I really outperform the SS/Inv Brute of a good good friend, well built. He simply lacks the damage of Blazing Aura. But he is tougher than me against bosses (though with all the insps I have with killing hords of minions, it's not a problem for me either).
Also with inv you get a pbaoe autotaunt built into invincibility which is nice
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As you've got one with Blazing Aura, but one which does very good damage.
I'm not saying /Inv Brutes are bad, they do pretty well but /FA is a really underestimated set. Though, I've only tried it with Energy Melee which has a lot of disorients to protect me and my poor little resistances...
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As you've got one with Blazing Aura, but one which does very good damage.
I'm not saying /Inv Brutes are bad, they do pretty well but /FA is a really underestimated set. Though, I've only tried it with Energy Melee which has a lot of disorients to protect me and my poor little resistances...
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All a matter of opinion of course, I find FA far to squishy and though invincibility doesnt injure the opponents it does continue to increase your defence and accuracy with each opponent in melee up to 16 so at least if your taunt pulls unwanted agro you have more of a chance of fighting it off (IMO). Perhaps the defensive sets suit my playstyle more, I personally infinately prefer my Granite brute to my Inv but as a beginner brute I dont think he will go far wrong with inv.
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Taunt ? I'm a brute, not a tanker ! 
Taunt means nothing to me ! Just smash, smash and resmash, I don't care about the others in the team 
I have an EM/DA and it is a lot of fun (but requires toggle management - you do learn what each mob type in CoV does
If you hare comfortable with end management I'd suggest giving it a go. If that doesn't appeal, I'd steer clear.
I've had an Inv/SS tanker and I suspect a Brute version would be a lot of fun... and sort of the "classic" brute (rage is great btw).
I really don't think there IS a bad brute primary/secondary (some are obviously better than others but I think that is down to personal preference OR waiting for a defence buff...).
Synaesthetix:if your mum wasn't already dead I would go kill her for bringing
you into the world
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Taunt ? I'm a brute, not a tanker ! Taunt means nothing to me ! Just smash, smash and resmash, I don't care about the others in the team
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you care if other people are stealing your agro as you lose fury
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I find Inv gets detoggled far too easy for my liking. Although fire doesnt give great protection it is good with a kin or rad corruptor (not as good as stone tho).
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I find Inv gets detoggled far too easy for my liking. Although fire doesnt give great protection it is good with a kin or rad corruptor (not as good as stone tho).
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In pvp Inv is a joke, turn on autobrawl and it drops farcically fast. With the inv set hold/stun res power on in pve though I havent ever been detoggled (I forget the name of it at 1.20am )
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I find Inv gets detoggled far too easy for my liking. Although fire doesnt give great protection it is good with a kin or rad corruptor (not as good as stone tho).
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In pvp Inv is a joke, turn on autobrawl and it drops farcically fast. With the inv set hold/stun res power on in pve though I havent ever been detoggled (I forget the name of it at 1.20am )
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Unyielding.
As for being detoggled with INV: My inv tank has been only detoggled in PVE when facing 15 Tsoo green ink men (stupid mass stuns).
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Taunt ? I'm a brute, not a tanker ! Taunt means nothing to me ! Just smash, smash and resmash, I don't care about the others in the team
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Its worth protecting kin corruptors with your life, because they make that life easier to keep. The added bonus more attacks on you more fury, but then Inv is more likely to be able to handle those more attacks. Am not saying FA is a bad set, but the OP asked for an opinion between DA and Inv anyway. Out of the two I think Inv is the easier set to play, and 90% of the time the more powerful set too.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
[ QUOTE ]
All a matter of opinion of course, I find FA far to squishy and though invincibility doesnt injure the opponents it does continue to increase your defence and accuracy with each opponent in melee up to 16 so at least if your taunt pulls unwanted agro you have more of a chance of fighting it off (IMO).
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Healing Flames pretty much makes up for the lack of "stonewall" resistance in the /FA set - it doesn't matter if you're squishy, so long as you can regenerate nearly a third of a bar whenever you need to. FWIW, I think Blazing Aura is more useful on a Brute - past a certain point on the Fury-meter, I can stand in the middle of a bunch of minions, regenerating health and endurance, and have everything dead (with a still high Fury bar) by the time I'm ready to move on to the next group. I raise my eyebrows at "Taunt" as well - the best Taunt I have is going and one-shotting the guy in the middle of the group firing at people other than me. 
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
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All a matter of opinion of course, I find FA far to squishy and though invincibility doesnt injure the opponents it does continue to increase your defence and accuracy with each opponent in melee up to 16 so at least if your taunt pulls unwanted agro you have more of a chance of fighting it off (IMO).
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Healing Flames pretty much makes up for the lack of "stonewall" resistance in the /FA set - it doesn't matter if you're squishy, so long as you can regenerate nearly a third of a bar whenever you need to. FWIW, I think Blazing Aura is more useful on a Brute - past a certain point on the Fury-meter, I can stand in the middle of a bunch of minions, regenerating health and endurance, and have everything dead (with a still high Fury bar) by the time I'm ready to move on to the next group. I raise my eyebrows at "Taunt" as well - the best Taunt I have is going and one-shotting the guy in the middle of the group firing at people other than me.
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I was talking about the pbaoe autotaunt of invincibility and flaming aura by the way, I cant really see where you can slot in real taunt on a brute
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Taunt ? I'm a brute, not a tanker ! Taunt means nothing to me ! Just smash, smash and resmash, I don't care about the others in the team
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you care if other people are stealing your agro as you lose fury
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I never team with MMs so I've never found anybody who can steal enough aggro to make my Fury decrease.
Thx for the advice guys - ive decided to go with EM/Inv
FA was tempting, but my whole character concept is a robot, so the whole fiery thing wouldnt work. I'll see how things go, and maybe make another brute later
OK - does anyone have a good EM/Inv build handy?.. pref not with SS or SJ as the travel power
Could run you one when I get home, but someone with more knowledge of Inv would know about slotting more than I would.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
How does this look?
01) --> Energy Punch==> Acc(1) Dmg(5) Dmg(15) EndRdx(19) Dmg(37)
01) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(1) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(40)
02) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(9) EndRdx(19) Dmg(34)
04) --> Temp Invulnerability==> EndRdx(4) DmgRes(5) DmgRes(7) DmgRes(27)
06) --> Hasten==> DefBuf(6) Rechg(7) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
08) --> Dull Pain==> Rechg(8) Rechg(9) Rechg(23) Heal(31) Heal(36)
10) --> Whirling Hands==> Acc(10) Dmg(11) Dmg(11) EndRdx(21) Dmg(37)
12) --> Hover==> Range(12) DefBuf(13)
14) --> Fly==> EndRdx(14) Fltspd (15)
16) --> Unyielding==> EndRdx(16) DmgRes(17) DmgRes(17) DmgRes(25)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20) Heal(21)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(31)
24) --> Total Focus==> Acc(24) Dmg(25) Dmg(27) Dmg(34) Dmg(40)
26) --> Kick==> Acc(26) Dmg(37)
28) --> Barrage==> Acc(28) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) EndRdx(33) Dmg(40)
30) --> Invincibility==> TH_Buf(30) TH_Buf(31)
32) --> Energy Transfer==> Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34)
35) --> Build Up==> Rechg(35) Rechg(36) Rechg(36)
38) --> Unstoppable==> DmgRes(38) DmgRes(39) DmgRes(39) Rechg(39)
Not really familiar with invul, but shouldn't invincibilty have defence buffs aswell?
hmmmm - you're right - i found this build on the US forums, and didnt really look too closely...
OK ignore that build - any suggestions?
I want to make a brute, but I have very little idea which sets are good or not. From a purely concept point of view, Ive narrowed it down to EM or SS for the primary and DA or Inv for secondary.
Playstyle wise, i prefer wadeing into the thick of things and getting rid of good guys the old fashioned way... its just more fun that way
Could any of you expert Brutes recommend a good set or build for me please?