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Where do I even begin with Fire Armour? Just having a look at the set, the mez protection is all over the place and I'll need acrobatics too. And Burn to free from Immob too 
I've got access to Dark Consumption and Consume, that means I'll have a full end bar every 45s, cycling the 2. Do you think I could get away with not taking stamina if I do this?
Is Touch of Fear any good?
Siphon Life and Healing Flames, is it good to take these? Using both could keep me standing for much longer, but is it worth it?
Combining these 2 sets seems pretty unusual 
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Speaking as a Fire/Fire brute, you don't need Burn for Immobilise protection. Like you said, you'll need to get Leaping pool anyway for Acrobatics - and Jump Kick isn't that good - so just take Combat Jumping (your immobilise protection) -> Super Jump (pretty good for a brute - just as well, as serious /Fire brutes don't have any choice) -> Acrobatics (knockback & hold protection).
I have no experience of Siphon Life, but have heard it's not up to much - Healing Flames is the only heal I have and it's served me fine on its own, slotted 3xHeal & 2xRchg - you could stick another recharge in to cut the timer down to every 30 seconds, but most of the time it's available when I need it, so I haven't.
I took Consume at 20 and was able to hold out until 30 before getting Stamina, but in the end it was my toggles that demanded the extra Endurance - I wanted to run Blazing Aura and Tough - but my build was already stretched Endurance-wise by the mid-20s. I don't know how good Dark Consumption is - from the planners it looks like slow recharge (90secs with 3 SO recharges - Hasten could reduce it of course, but it won't be up all the time).
Personally I'd hate to try building/playing a brute without Stamina - but you haven't mentioned if you want to be able to run hungry toggles like Tough & Blazing Aura, so it may be possible - but I'd guess you will have downtime unless you heavily slot End Reducers in your attacks.
Touch of Fear? ... No idea... (I'm a poet... I didn't even know it...) 
I have played a dark/fire brute to the dizzy heights of L11 & it is very hard going. You eat endurance at an incredible rate and that with end red in every attack. You don't seem to be able to either dish out the damage or for that matter take it. I was doing missions, fighting 2/3 foes and having to rest after every combat. . .not very good for building up the fury bar. If you have the patience, then yes I can see it being a very powerful build at high levels but it will be a chore getting there.
Touch of fear is a great power, has big acc debuff in it but isn't very effective if you are runnung your blazing aura at the same time, because everytime you damage them, they can react.
Siphon life isn't that good imo but it does resonable damage & heals you a little in the process <& it is a little>
Good luck if you are going to do a dark/fire brute, I've moved onto a SS/INV build and it rocks
The Good:
Krazy Mary L50 Kinetic defender
Uniqua L31 PeaceBringer
Black Annis L24 Warshade
Krystal L18 Ice Blaster
The Bad:
Frenzi L34 SS/Inv Brute
my only experience with sithen life was that is was really [censored] :/. Only tried it on my scrapper, slotted with acc/heal/dam and it didin't really heal very much and cost quite a bit of end. I get by just fine with just healing flames on my fire/fire brute so I geuss it's personal preferance but I'd say it's more aimed at a armour set that doesn't have a heal so you can skip it np for something else.
Hi am currently at lvl 26 with my dark/fire brute. I have found while not having the most powerful attacks a good attack chain is possible that builds fury very nicely, holds and knockbacks are infrequent following the leaping pool to acrobatics. I chose this combo for all the utilities available to you in terms of 2 heals/2 end recoveries and self rez as well as control. All your attacks debuff the enemy as a bonus and this aspect is enhanced by me. Have just respeced to stamina less build and although cannot say that I will not decide on stamina in future, am currently soloing with few end problems (even easier with team a s larger mobs to launch into to use consume for example on and by doing so increase fury 
). I have hasten which obviously helps with the access to the end recovery powers like consume, have end red in all powers (I let fury deal with damage) and 3 recharge sos in the recovery powers as they are critical.In addition I only turn toggles on when necessary-e.g. if knockbacked-acrobatics gets turned on/only when fury up do I turn blazing aura on to maximise damage. AS you can see some strategy is required to run totally stamina less but it is very possible and binds help.
I do agree that it is hard at lower lvls with this build which is why I have only just respeced to stamina less build after I had access to all powers and sos.
In terms of heals-love both-nice to have healing flames as click heal and siphon life actually does great damage (fury remember) and is great at the end of an attack chain and builds fury well. Often lead with it as well-cos it is a great accuracy debuff IMO.
Anyway hope this helps if this doesn't soz-Have you considered dark/energy if the above doesnt appeal.
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holds and knockbacks are infrequent following the leaping pool to acrobatics.
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I only turn toggles on when necessary-e.g. if knockbacked-acrobatics gets turned on
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I know you were mainly talking about Acrobatics' knockback protection, it just bears mentioning that you can't turn on Acrobatics to cure yourself of a Hold (like you can with Combat Jumping and immobilises) - iirc the only power/insp you can use when Held is a Break-Free type insp (oh and pet command powers if you're a Mastermind). Personally I leave Acrobatics up all the time (admittedly I don't have End probs) - I'd hate to forget to activate it going into battle against a mob with Hold powers, only to find myself toggle-dropped, held, with no break-frees and a whole spawn beating on me
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I have played a dark/fire brute to the dizzy heights of L11 & it is very hard going. You eat endurance at an incredible rate and that with end red in every attack.
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I've found SS/Dark quite End-hungry as well, probably because of my over-use of Knockout Blow (but it's SOOO much fun) and the fact I was trying to run all 3 toggles. But when solo I've actually run some missions without the toggles and it balances HP/End/Fury nicely - instead of resting after every fight I only need to rest every 5+ fights, because once my Fury is high I don't take much damage as things die so fast. And I only slot my powers with Accuracy TOs/DOs - because not missing means less wasted Endurance. Seems to work.
I'm hoping this tactic will carry me through to L22, then SOs can start to cure the End problems.
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holds and knockbacks are infrequent following the leaping pool to acrobatics.
[...]
I only turn toggles on when necessary-e.g. if knockbacked-acrobatics gets turned on
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I know you were mainly talking about Acrobatics' knockback protection, it just bears mentioning that you can't turn on Acrobatics to cure yourself of a Hold (like you can with Combat Jumping and immobilises) - iirc the only power/insp you can use when Held is a Break-Free type insp (oh and pet command powers if you're a Mastermind). Personally I leave Acrobatics up all the time (admittedly I don't have End probs) - I'd hate to forget to activate it going into battle against a mob with Hold powers, only to find myself toggle-dropped, held, with no break-frees and a whole spawn beating on me
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Good point. I did mean if I was worried about knockback I would turn acrobatics on eg freaks. Don't know if I am right about this but thought most of a dark/fire brutes status resist was plasma shield
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Good point. I did mean if I was worried about knockback I would turn acrobatics on eg freaks. Don't know if I am right about this but thought most of a dark/fire brutes status resist was plasma shield
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Fire Shield has the disorient/stun resist. Plasma Shield has sleep/mez and weak hold resist. Which is why almost all /Fire brutes I've seen in the game have taken Leaping pool for the missing immobilise and knockback resist.
/EA, /Invul and /Stone get all of those status resists without needing Leaping pool (EA also gets protection from repel and TP foe).
/Dark gets sleep, hold and disorient resist, can get immobilise resist from Cloak of Darkness, but doesn't have knockback resist (so you still need Acrobatics). But /Dark does get Fear/Terror resist, along with Psionic damage resist, and none of the other brute sets have either of those.
I don't know if the magnitudes of all the resists are the same from set to set - I read that most are mag3. I have a feeling the Hold resist on /Fire might only be mag1 or mag2, though, because I've had Holds overlapped on me after a toggle-crash when I had Plasma Shield up but not Acrobatics.
Fire certainly has the weakest status protection of any brute set, but it's only an issue if you dislike super-jump as a travel power - thankfully I love it
Having played a DM/FA Brute to 40, I can safely say that it's a really good combo. As a previous poster mentioned, you get your immobilise prtection from CJ and knockback protection from Acrobatics. You don't need to take Burn at all. I have it on my Brute and I use it when a) the mobs are locked down or b) as an "oh [censored]" power when I need to dispel the mobs and run for the hills! 
Siphon life is a great power IMO as it not only hurts the mobs (and with the fury bar up it can do some serious damage) but it also reduces the mobs acc and heals you. ToF is a no no for a brute as you want the mobs to keep attacking you and keep that fury bar heading north. It cycles quickly as well and with the right slotting it can heal you to the tune of 33%ish of your total hitpoins every 45 seconds or so. Healing Flames is also a must have, slot it 3 heal and 3 recharge reducers and you're on to a winner.
It is hard going until you get plasma shield, but after that milestone I found the going a lot better. Unfortunatly due to the ammount of toggles you need to run, it is a very end heavy set, so stamina and end recs are also a must IMO, unless you want to take the strategic path and rely on DC and Consume for your end needs.
Here's a link to a great guide from the US Forums that I found a lot of use as a basis for my build.
Clicky
Don't give up on it as you will love it in the late game. Well I do at any rate!
@Byrne
Debtmeister General of The Plastic Army & Empire
Thanks peeps, that's a lot of great insights there
I think I have to at least try the no stamina route, and if it doesn't cut it, it's not the end if the world. Maybe I'll post a proposed build at some point, but until then, thanks!
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG
Previous poster has already said it, but I'll reinforce it anyway! .
Siphon life is a great power, particularly early on when you haven't managed to effectively slot all your other defenses. Having played Dark | Dark to 50 on Union as a Scrapper I relied upon Siphon Life until I got Dark Regeneration... then never used it again! But as you are going down the fire route, it will continue to play a useful role for some time.
Some of these questions are interesting to me as well as I have just started a Dark | Dark Brute! (guess which thread I'll be reading next!). I am going to take stamina I think, Dark Consumption is great but it does rely on their being sufficient mobs around you whenever you need them... it never hurts to have more.... just depends what you are sacrificing to get it I suppose. I think that ED has at least given us options to play with that can remove the necessity of stamina!
For me, Brutes seem to consume energy by the fistful and in order to be able to keep piling on into those mobs with full Fury bar up, I think the more stamina the better... keep the punches going in and take those sucka's out
There. My 6 penneth.
Why be so reluctant to get Stamina? I can think of four good reasons to go that route;
1. It opens up the fitness pool which is great throughout.
2. You'll be getting Health as a pre-cursor which in itself is a very useful power for a brute.
3. I think you'll still have End issues with Dark/Fire without it.
4. Consume and Siphon Life will need a boat load of slots in to be as reliable as you will need them to be.
Because it's different, and Dark/Fire has the tools to at least try it.
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG
HI again, Follow up since my respec to my stamina less build.
Firstly wait until you have access to and can afford end red SOs, as found it very hard until got these into attacks and shielding. As I said before, I think early on you are better going with the fitness pool until the respec as it will just be easier to get there pre SOs. Although the build is very manageable now in terms of end recovery and useage (especially in teams-no probs as mobs are so huge) POST SO, I can still have problems that are life threatening when DARK COMSUMPTION misses and I have not had the foresight to gets some blues
. If I do respec back to stamina in the future (which I think would be better for PvP) I will drop dark consumption as often misses (even with 2 acc SOs in it) especially if fighting above your weight Consume is much better.
Hope this update of the last weeks play helps.
DD
Where do I even begin with Fire Armour? Just having a look at the set, the mez protection is all over the place and I'll need acrobatics too. And Burn to free from Immob too
I've got access to Dark Consumption and Consume, that means I'll have a full end bar every 45s, cycling the 2. Do you think I could get away with not taking stamina if I do this?
Is Touch of Fear any good?
Siphon Life and Healing Flames, is it good to take these? Using both could keep me standing for much longer, but is it worth it?
Combining these 2 sets seems pretty unusual
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG