Anyone?
Not much to say really, sounds ok, your powers can be recharging whilst Shadow Maul animates.
I really should do something about this signature.
I've had similar thoughts about the -ACC in DM and DEF armour - except I've gone for Energy Aura. I've only just got to level 22 so I'm not sure how it's going to work out with SOs and tougher missions - I suspect pretty badly for now, but it's new enough and wierd enough for me to be interesting. I've been taking missions at Malicious without any problems up until now, so I'm going to push it a bit further with SOs.
The biggest thing I've done wrong so far I think is not getting Touch of Fear, the -ACC is the biggest debuff in DM and it cycles pretty quick, I went for a damage resistance power instead, I would probably change this in a respec; at the time I didn't think I had room for it.
I would think you'd want to use Teleport rather than TP Foe, since TP Foe is way too slow to use often, not that it's not useful.
The DOT of Shadow Maul is very fast - it's DOT during the animation of the power.
You'll be in for a tough time until Granite but Rooted, Embrace Earth and Siphon Life will probably be important to slot up. If you add 3 health slots to EE it adds about 50% to your HP total.
Hasten is probably a must for a Stone Brute otherwise you will go insane in Granite.
I just realised...you know this already since you've played a Stone Tank... 
Cheers Filth.
Im really looking at synergies between the sets. I would really like to know how your getting on with EA as well.
I suppose the real crux is whether the Acc debuff from DM is sufficent to really increase your survivability in Stone until Granite.
The reason for TP Foe was thinking to Rooted and Granite and the slooowwww penalities of them both. I think that TP Foe does cycle a bit slowly for my liking to use all the time so I envisage using it to catch runners from mobs.
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Im really looking at synergies between the sets. I would really like to know how your getting on with EA as well.
I suppose the real crux is whether the Acc debuff from DM is sufficent to really increase your survivability in Stone until Granite.
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As far as being survivable, Looking at Stone vs Energy Aura, Stone looks much better simply because of the Regen it has. You've got 2 healing powers in Stone (plus maybe Health from fitness) and the Heal in DM. With DM/EA I've got one, I have the one DM heal and that's it (unless I take the medicine pool) until Overload at level 38. I'm not going down the Fitness route to Stamina - EA has 2 End powers, and there's one in DM so End won't be a problem for me - but it does mean I'm not taking Health either, but I'll be able to include the DM heal in my attack cycle even though it's not a very "efficient" attack as far as being End heavy and not that great a heal, it's been enough for me so far though.
EA does have better all round Def than Stone pre-granite and gets those powers much earlier - the two most important toggles by level 4! but of course the Def isn't that great.
Unfortunately none of the DM AoE powers have an -ACC effect, but you'll usually be attacking the biggest threat first - who will always have the highest accuracy so maybe that isn't a problem. I am planning on putting at least one Acc-Debuff in each attack, so far just slotted with ACC and End Red.
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The reason for TP Foe was thinking to Rooted and Granite and the slooowwww penalities of them both. I think that TP Foe does cycle a bit slowly for my liking to use all the time so I envisage using it to catch runners from mobs.
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OK I get you, my experience has been with a Brute you will be tearing through whole groups very very fast, I can see you teleporting between groups maybe, but in any case if you go for TP you'll get TP Foe or recall anyway along the way.
Well, if you dont take to account the fact that DM is fairly nasty for brutes because of shadow mauls animation, and that stone is bad for the -rech in granite, and go more for a tanking build than damage dealer, I suppose it would work...
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As far as being survivable, Looking at Stone vs Energy Aura, Stone looks much better simply because of the Regen it has. You've got 2 healing powers in Stone (plus maybe Health from fitness) and the Heal in DM. With DM/EA I've got one, I have the one DM heal and that's it (unless I take the medicine pool) until Overload at level 38. I'm not going down the Fitness route to Stamina - EA has 2 End powers, and there's one in DM so End won't be a problem for me - but it does mean I'm not taking Health either, but I'll be able to include the DM heal in my attack cycle even though it's not a very "efficient" attack as far as being End heavy and not that great a heal, it's been enough for me so far though.
EA does have better all round Def than Stone pre-granite and gets those powers much earlier - the two most important toggles by level 4! but of course the Def isn't that great.
Unfortunately none of the DM AoE powers have an -ACC effect, but you'll usually be attacking the biggest threat first - who will always have the highest accuracy so maybe that isn't a problem. I am planning on putting at least one Acc-Debuff in each attack, so far just slotted with ACC and End Red.
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I have a DM/EA Brute at level 35 (also with no Stamina). ToF is a great power when slotted and makes Elite Bosses no problem. Siphon life is ok but the lack of a real heal is apparent sometimes and I'm tempted to swap out the passives for the medicine pool.
Octavian Vanguard
@ohmsEU and @ohms 2
Badging character: Bimble on the Union server, Badgehunter.com and City Info Tracker.
Agree entirely about Touch of Fear, what a great power. I'm only on TO's at the mo but the effect duration seems good and Fear is still an unusual attack type to see in game.
Normally I can ToF the primary threat, defeat the mobs and then focus on the boss.
As for Max's points on the -Recharge from Granite my thinking was that first off I would have Hasten to lessen the effects but I could have a nice attack chain of - Brawl, SP, Smite, SM, etc.
I was planning to use the long animation time of SM to let my other powers recharge, turning a negative into a positive. If I still have gaps in my chain I could always throw in ToF.
The other upside of this is that SM seems a very endurance effective attack because you appear to recover end during the animation.
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I have a DM/EA Brute at level 35 (also with no Stamina). ToF is a great power when slotted and makes Elite Bosses no problem. Siphon life is ok but the lack of a real heal is apparent sometimes and I'm tempted to swap out the passives for the medicine pool.
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How is Energy Drain? I read that it's auto-hit and the recharge is 60 seconds - is that correct and do you use Dark Consumption as well? I was thinking with Energy Drain and Consumption I wouldn't need Conserve Power (?) I was also wondering if the End drain was significant Vs. Bosses.
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Well, if you dont take to account the fact that DM is fairly nasty for brutes because of shadow mauls animation, and that stone is bad for the -rech in granite, and go more for a tanking build than damage dealer, I suppose it would work...
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I'm not sure the animation time is significant, since if I use an attack chain with Shadow Maul at the end, I still have to wait for the other powers to recharge after it's finished animating, this could change with Hasten though.
A DM/Stone Brute certainly looks like a Brute 'tank' though. It might make up for the legions of dreadful MMs.
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I have a DM/EA Brute at level 35 (also with no Stamina). ToF is a great power when slotted and makes Elite Bosses no problem. Siphon life is ok but the lack of a real heal is apparent sometimes and I'm tempted to swap out the passives for the medicine pool.
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How is Energy Drain? I read that it's auto-hit and the recharge is 60 seconds - is that correct and do you use Dark Consumption as well? I was thinking with Energy Drain and Consumption I wouldn't need Conserve Power (?) I was also wondering if the End drain was significant Vs. Bosses.
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Yup it's auto hit and with three recharges is available every 30 seconds or so. With 1 End Mod enhancement (so far) I go from about 20% endurance to full from 2 enemies. You will, however, need 15% or so End to activate it.
I also have dark consumption which is up every 1:30 with 3 recharges and costs very little endurance to use. Soul Drain/Dark Consumtion actually makes a very nice aoe attack once you've got some Fury going.
As for end draining bosses, I havent been able to manage it since the changes went it. They are normally dead before they get close to being drained 
Octavian Vanguard
@ohmsEU and @ohms 2
Badging character: Bimble on the Union server, Badgehunter.com and City Info Tracker.
DM/SA is probably the most defensive brute you could make with DM being the most defensive primary.
I'm not much of a fan of DM i think its rather weak in the damage area and midnight grasp is ****.Yes the debuffs are good in it but it doesnt compensate for the weakness of the set.
Go with energy instead, you can deal proper damage with that and at high level you'll be a killing machine
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I'm not sure the animation time is significant, since if I use an attack chain with Shadow Maul at the end, I still have to wait for the other powers to recharge after it's finished animating, this could change with Hasten though.
[/ QUOTE ]See, if you have gaps in your attack chain with a brute, something is definitely wrong with your build (That, or you're pre-L22)
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I'm not sure the animation time is significant, since if I use an attack chain with Shadow Maul at the end, I still have to wait for the other powers to recharge after it's finished animating, this could change with Hasten though.
[/ QUOTE ]See, if you have gaps in your attack chain with a brute, something is definitely wrong with your build (That, or you're pre-L22)
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Gaps in attack chain, gah, brawl on auto or not?
Anyway I've always found the best time to use SM is when there's a chance of catching more than one in it, if this means breaking the attack chain slightly it doesn't really matter, it should be easy enough to recover. I do the same thing with Breath Of Fire
"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!"
Not a build plan, more a concept.
Started a DM-Stoner last night and would appreciate observations and advice on these powersets and the synergy between the two.
Reasons for this choice was:
1. Acc debuff from Dark will compliment the Def of Rock Armour and eventually Granite.
2. Wanted to get Touch of Fear. Plan to use a strategy based on running Rooted in combat so fancied an attack chain of TP Foe, Touch of Fear, SP, Smite, SM rinse and repeat.
3. DM includes a self buff to Acc and Dam (can't remember the name) which may go some way to offset the -damage of Granite(?)
4. The DoT component of DM attacks SM and the last one might not be such a minus if my other attacks will suffer a -recharge in Granite.
Sound thinking or waste of time? Comments please.