I've played about with a DM/EA brute, so far to level 22. There's only 3 you might not take - the passive resistance ones, and the Energy Cloak.
The resistances in the passives is low - for slashing/lethal it is 7.5% base, however, if you slot this, take Tough from the fighting pool and slot that, you end up with 29.3% resistance to S/L which is pretty significant.
The Energy Cloak gives you a very good stealth power and small Def boost. Visually you are almost invisible so not one to take if you want to see your toon. Although it seems crazy for a Brute to take it works out as an aggro management power than aggro avoidance.
I would definitely take all the other powers. I would also take Stun from EM since the accuracy of bosses & elite bosses is the biggest shortcoming of Def based sets.
Edit: ...and you'll almost certainly need the medicine pool since your best heal power without it is Rest. 
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I've played about with a DM/EA brute, so far to level 22. There's only 3 you might not take - the passive resistance ones, and the Energy Cloak.
The resistances in the passives is low - for slashing/lethal it is 7.5% base, however, if you slot this, take Tough from the fighting pool and slot that, you end up with 29.3% resistance to S/L which is pretty significant.
The Energy Cloak gives you a very good stealth power and small Def boost. Visually you are almost invisible so not one to take if you want to see your toon. Although it seems crazy for a Brute to take it works out as an aggro management power than aggro avoidance.
I would definitely take all the other powers. I would also take Stun from EM since the accuracy of bosses & elite bosses is the biggest shortcoming of Def based sets.
Edit: ...and you'll almost certainly need the medicine pool since your best heal power without it is Rest.
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i thought the passives for EA were buffed to around 12% unslotted but im no good with numbers so i could be wrong. and i wouldnt take tough with it as thats 3 powers (u have to take punch or kick) that u dont really need omho. so i would skip the passives to make room for heal self, cuts down time alot and slotted with interupts con be useful in battle especialy as your defence based u will be hit less. also conserve power is very situational. Handy for dealing with the crash brough on by overload by then a good endurence drain u wont need it anyway. and stun i diddnt take as total focus has the same mag to stun as the Stun power, that with Energy Transfer, i see no need for it more benefit to a stalker (plus defence scaling is coming with I7 so u wont need to stun bosses that desperatly) not that u askes about energy melee. u could always take the pasives i said u wont need .
i took stealth which i found great for ghosting the odd mision and it alows you to use air self even more eferctivly aswell as greater managment of agro cos remember were not tanks.
and i almost forgot SMASH!!!
I've just got my EM/EA brute to 40, and all i can say is....i started to hate at the start, but the last 10 lvls were the easiest i've played.
I took Dampening Shield (the passive resist to S/L) simply because any attacks that did get through had a little less sting in them, also took Energy Cloak and thats then everything started coming up roses, its great for the "Can't be bothered to clear" outdoor missions and the +Def works great with the other shields....obivioulsy.
Never bothered with Conserve Power, its great but i just didn't need it as Energy Drain and Stamina was and is working just fine for me, and we mustn't forget Overload....simply put WOW 
with that power i've managed to solo a +2 Elite boss not once but twice in the same mission, it was a Wailer Lord and he rez'd....paniced a little but was still victorious.
So any way thats enough of me tootin my own trumpet, and back to the question in hand.....i can only see 2 powers not worth taking, and those are the 2nd passive resist (the name aludes me at the mo) and Conserve Power, and take the rest as i wouldn't want to leave the base without any of them.
Hope this helps a little, but most importantly have fun....i know i did 
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i thought the passives for EA were buffed to around 12% unslotted but im no good with numbers so i could be wrong.
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It's definitely (currently ) 7.5% base resistance for Dampening Field - I tested it when I started out & it's also the figure Hero Planner uses (not that this gives me faith in the other figures, but there you go).
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and i wouldnt take tough with it as thats 3 powers (u have to take punch or kick) that u dont really need omho. so i would skip the passives to make room for heal self, cuts down time alot and slotted with interupts con be useful in battle especialy as your defence based u will be hit less.
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You actually only need Boxing and Tough from the fighting pool to take advantage of the stacked resistance from the passive. Personally I don't like the fighting pool but the fact that you don't need Stamina with EA means you're freeing up a power pool and boxing is an extra attack to build Fury. I don't intend to go for Tough myself but I thought this might be useful info especially if someone decides not to take the Cloak.
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stun i diddnt take as total focus has the same mag to stun as the Stun power, that with Energy Transfer, i see no need for it more benefit to a stalker (plus defence scaling is coming with I7 so u wont need to stun bosses that desperatly) not that u askes about energy melee.
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I know I was off-topic when I mentioned Stun but I thought it was worth considering since it's generally overlooked. I could see it being useful against 2 tough bosses and in PvP. Generally it's bosses that are the problem with Defence armours and potentially you might have no resistance to the damage if they do hit you. Being able to stun two bosses very quickly must be useful.
Good to know you had fun with this Kronic, since I haven't seen much posted about it I was wondering how people did with it. I wanted to know why you took the fitness pool? I'm planning to avoid it completely - were there other reasons you took it other than Stamina? Did you also go for the Medicine Pool?
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iYou actually only need Boxing and Tough from the fighting pool to take advantage of the stacked resistance from the passive.
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lol i said 3 cos i diddnt take dampening field, i probably wasnt clear. and i will admit they are handy just i havent had time to respec after takin consever power 
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so i will probably take dampening feild instead as smash/leathal so is common, the only reason i diddnt take the passives and stun is the space in my build is sadly quite limited. btw do u pvp alot as stun probably rules there.
im such Hypocrit
as for bosses i cheated if i was solo and just mashed all the ins picked up over the lvl or hit overload 
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if you could post how u get on without stamina that would be great, i made do until 20 and a bit beond by simply managing my toggles but atm i cant see myself without it, i would loose a fair few slots to end reductions. but if it works the extra powers could make for a pretty hardcore brute
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Good to know you had fun with this Kronic, since I haven't seen much posted about it I was wondering how people did with it. I wanted to know why you took the fitness pool? I'm planning to avoid it completely - were there other reasons you took it other than Stamina? Did you also go for the Medicine Pool?
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I took the fitness pool purely for stamina as the 1st 20 lvls rolled by so slow having to rest every couple of minutes, which also didn't help with the fury system. Now looking back, when the higher lvl content arrives i may get the new respec a run a few tests to see if its any better with just Energy Drain and Conserve Power, which will leave to extra power choices as well.
And yes i took the medi pool, but not until i got the 2nd respec...but with Aid Self i was able to bump the rep up to the hardest one (previously on the middle setting).
I will say one thing about the EA set, i found it suffers in larger teams compared to the rest....simply because of the lack of damage resistance. But then if your in a large team, you've generally got some bod who can heal ya so not too much to worry about.
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iYou actually only need Boxing and Tough from the fighting pool to take advantage of the stacked resistance from the passive.
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lol i said 3 cos i diddnt take dampening field, i probably wasnt clear. and i will admit they are handy just i havent had time to respec after takin consever power .
so i will probably take dampening feild instead as smash/leathal so is common, the only reason i diddnt take the passives and stun is the space in my build is sadly quite limited.
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Yes, you're right in that it takes 3 powers to get that S/L resistance. It's a tricky one, you know more than me what it's like all the way to 40, if you have the option and don't mind running another toggle it might well be worth taking since the damage reduction is pretty big, nothing like the other armours but not bad.
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btw do u pvp alot as stun probably rules there.
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My PvP experience is limited but the EM attacks are probably the most effective melee attacks there are - high single target energy damage, combined with stuns and toggle dropping is just very nasty. In theory an EM/EA Brute could be very potent in PvP.
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as for bosses i cheated if i was solo and just mashed all the ins picked up over the lvl or hit overload .
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I would call this intelligence ;>.
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if you could post how u get on without stamina that would be great, i made do until 20 and a bit beond by simply managing my toggles but atm i cant see myself without it, i would loose a fair few slots to end reductions. but if it works the extra powers could make for a pretty hardcore brute
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I chose Dark Melee/Energy Aura, so I have 3 powers which can boost Endurance (there's one in DM). Right now I'm level 24 and I'm using the DM power which so far is very good, my endurance tends to be right on the edge, generally I can keep going without stopping for rests if I'm soloing or in a duo. Slotting for my 2 main single target attacks is 2 ACC, 2 End Red, 2 Recharge. At some point I'll probably put in an ACC debuff in these as well since this is the secondary effect in DM. Of course I've yet to get Energy Drain at 28 so I'm counting on that giving me enough Endurance without Stamina and even without Conserve Power - by the time that becomes available I'll know whether I need it or not. I still have another 3 or 4 attacks I'm planning to pick up so my End use is going to ramp up, but at the moment I'm doing well enough to know I don't need Stamina.
I don't know what you're slotting is but Fury makes up for not having Damage slots in your attacks, as long as you can keep your momentum going you can sustain high Fury most of the time.
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Good to know you had fun with this Kronic, since I haven't seen much posted about it I was wondering how people did with it. I wanted to know why you took the fitness pool? I'm planning to avoid it completely - were there other reasons you took it other than Stamina? Did you also go for the Medicine Pool?
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I took the fitness pool purely for stamina as the 1st 20 lvls rolled by so slow having to rest every couple of minutes, which also didn't help with the fury system. Now looking back, when the higher lvl content arrives i may get the new respec a run a few tests to see if its any better with just Energy Drain and Conserve Power, which will leave to extra power choices as well.
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I took Dark Melee so I had a very good Endurance boost power at 18, I can imagine it would be hellish waiting to 28 without that and without Stamina. So far I'm managing OK, I was wondering if EA could leave Stamina by only using Conserve Power and Energy Drain.
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And yes i took the medi pool, but not until i got the 2nd respec...but with Aid Self i was able to bump the rep up to the hardest one (previously on the middle setting).
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That's interesting - is Aid Self usable in a fight at this level?
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I will say one thing about the EA set, i found it suffers in larger teams compared to the rest....simply because of the lack of damage resistance. But then if your in a large team, you've generally got some bod who can heal ya so not too much to worry about.
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I've found just the same, as long as I know the people in a large team, EA doesn't have much margin for error.
Something I've found a lot of fun is teaming with a Stalker, this has a completely different feel to anything I've done before since being EA we can be 'stealth brutes'; the Stalker can generally take out bosses very fast and I can take the aggro off a Stalker and mop up. I'm curious to see if this scales up with more EA brutes and more stalkers...or ends up with a line of skulls in the team window.
You will freakin love Energy Drain!
i used to use it to drain bosses if they took their time, not so good after this new endurance patch. if your coping without stamina now this is the icing on the cake. you can regain near or max end from 2mobs when u get this sloted and u dont have to wait to long either
Yeah i noticed that with Energy Drain....slotted with 3 End Mods it can drain about 3/4s of the targets End Bar and only needs 2 targets to nearly fill the bar, with the added bonus of always hitting as it doesn't take Acc enhancements.
And to answer Filths questions.... i think that you should be able to fair well with Dark Consumption (thinks thats the name), Energy Drain and Conserve Power. Would probably just use Conserve Power as a back up, cause with the 2 End Recovery powers you should always have one ready for when its needed.....probably wise to put some End reductions in your powers as well.
Also i found that Aid Self works pretty well in battle as long as you slot for 3 Interupt Reduction as well as the Heals, the down side is that it has a long animation but that can be put up...its better than having no heal.
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Yeah i noticed that with Energy Drain....slotted with 3 End Mods it can drain about 3/4s of the targets End Bar and only needs 2 targets to nearly fill the bar, with the added bonus of always hitting as it doesn't take Acc enhancements.
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I wonder what the effect is in PvP? pretty nasty if it's auto hit as well.
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Also i found that Aid Self works pretty well in battle as long as you slot for 3 Interupt Reduction as well as the Heals, the down side is that it has a long animation but that can be put up...its better than having no heal.
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Since I'm Dark Melee I have a combat heal already which most of the time is enough, a lot of the time its part of my attack chain.
iv tried it in pvp and was unimpresed end drain isnt as effective in pvp as pve that compined with the pace of the fights iv ony found it useful in drawn out fights with tanks as just as there runing out of steam you finsh their end off and top up your own for a nice total focus, though u /darks have 2 drains so u may have more luck than me.
I'm making an EN/EN brute, and was just wondering if there are any powers that can be skipped in the energy aura set.and any that are impossible to turn down.
Any feedback would be much appreciated.
thnx
Union
CoH
Captain Phantom - lvl 50 en/elec blaster
Haruko Chiaki - lvl 50 ma/regen scrapper
CoV
Devil Phantom - Lvl 40 DA/Fa brute
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