I'd leave out Taunt, and definitely keep Shadow Maul and Touch of Fear!
If you can fit Fly in conceptually, you don't have to go the Leaping route, and can thus keep one more primary/secondary power.
Like the private said, keep shadow maul in, its yor main attack pre (and even past) lvl 32. Not to convinced about touch of fear myself, I levelled a DM brute upto lvl 25 without ever missing it but it does have its uses I guess. And skip taunt, no use for it (especially with yor dmg aura).
Don't have taunt or touch of fear on my brute
With cloak of fear, no need for tof
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Don't have taunt or touch of fear on my brute
With cloak of fear, no need for tof
[/ QUOTE ]CoF is AoE control, which, while increasing your survivability, reverely limits your fury generation. ToF, on the other hand, is damn good ST mez and debuff, great for tough bosses/EB's/AV's, and doesn't really affect your fury.
Ok taunt I shall miss 
The choice is then between ToF and Shadowmaul.
I could go the airsup/fly route conceptually (not a great fit but nothing is), but I am concerned re being knockedback all the time (even if I go hover/fly), so cj/sj/acrobatics is probably the best.
The choice is the shadow maul / touch of fear:
My feeling is that shadow maul could go. The rationale is that with lightning reflexes (from elec) the overly long animation from maul could be frustrating. I feel like going the very quick, short animation punches to maintain a very high fury and let the DPS do the talking...
Shadow maul (as a scrapper anyway) was good damage and fast recharge but the animation was long long long. With lightning reflexes and everything else charging fast, I wonder if it is worth it...
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[...] I could go the airsup/fly route conceptually (not a great fit but nothing is), but I am concerned re being knockedback all the time (even if I go hover/fly), so cj/sj/acrobatics is probably the best. [...]
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As I understand it, with Hover/Fly you just flip around while still being able to attack when knockbacked - but I don't blame you for wanting to go the Leaping route 
.
Yeah hovers not bad for KB protection (unless you get nausea). However, having it on will slow down my manuevrability and is not going to do fury build up much good at all.
Hi have a dark/fire brute which I imagine will play very much like a dark/elec from the power sets.
This is my advice from my build which is evil in PvE but not so good in PvP (may be better now toggle dropping nerfed 
).
Firstly I have played 10 hard lvls as a stamina less build with Twisted. Although possible it makes it hard work and believe me my down time now I have respeced to stamina and one end recovery power (consume) is much better, which of course is better for fury. I have lost dark consumption because I found it missed lots and required a tight mob around you for best effect-If scattered slightly consume is much more reliable for end recovery as it affects a greater area.
In terms of my attack chain shadow maul is essential and my big hitter, I also fill it with siphon life. Before u laugh it actually does reasonable damage, heals u and debuffs the acc of the target nicely. I have also filled it with boxing and I would personally advise u to get tough.
I wouldnt bother with taunt as others have already said-your a brute not a tank-you have loads of taunts ie your attack chain and the elec version of burning aura gets a mobs attention lol and is essential. Remember all that dot damage adds up and I find that over the course of a game burning aura does more damage than anything even shadow maul.The elec version will I imagine be the same.
In terms of tof and midnight grasp-if pvp build think tof would be good as fear is poorly resisted but as a PvE power I respeced out as not that useful in the late game. I did find it useful initially for the boss/leu in a group. Midnight grasp I might however take again-it is actually a high damaging single target dot attack although it is not sold as one.
In terms of travel I would go with the leaping pool with both dark/fire and dark/elec. Plus with /elec I would think about the medicine pool personally as u do not have a dependable heal like healing flames from /fire.
Can't think of any other advice at present but if I do will post.
Cheers DD
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Don't have taunt or touch of fear on my brute
With cloak of fear, no need for tof
[/ QUOTE ]CoF is AoE control, which, while increasing your survivability, reverely limits your fury generation. ToF, on the other hand, is damn good ST mez and debuff, great for tough bosses/EB's/AV's, and doesn't really affect your fury.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hi again-just read this- of course Max is right here (another quote lol) and I thought I would clarify my position. As I said I used it this way in the early game and will respec it back for pvp. However I now just click fiery embrace for damage build up now then just run into a group(relentless mishs-and solo) with a boss and soul drain it. I have burning aura on and attack the boss. I honestly find survivability is generally not a problem, if it is have plenty of time to escape lol.Generally by the time I have taken the boss out the minions have had lots of aoe love and are no longer a problem . Fury is reached very quickly in this scenario of course which makes it all the more easier.
Shadow maul I find essential and the cone is incredibly useful (I think 5 minions is my record). Plus it easily outperforms the other attacks in terms of damage when reveiwed on hero stats .
DD
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Which means, what to leave out on Dark Melee?
My initial thoughts on options are:
Shadow Maul, Taunt, Touch of Fear
[/ QUOTE ]
I've got a level 22 Dark/Fire brute and I've so far found that ignoring those powers makes for a pretty survivable Brute.
Shadow Maul - Left this out because of the long animation time and because it's pretty hard to hit more than one target at once. YMMV but ideally you want your Fury as high as possible and long animation times detract from that.
Touch of Fear - Left this out because any enemy I can hit, I either want dead ASAP or hitting me to build Fury.
Taunt - Didn't want to die hideously due to getting more aggro than I could handle.
ok i tried the mini/max stamina less build and well soloing its fine, team or pvp = eeeepp :/ reason being is teaming, well things die too fast so by time you need to use consume or dark consumption.... :/
below is my current build for me lvl 40 dm/fa brute and also list of changes i'm gonna be making, as for tof it's a dam handy power to have, can use to pin things in place so avoiding face planting, cause i've ended up in situations where either i or other on my team have over agroed stuff... as for shadow maul i'd keep, jsut takes a little lining up is all lol, i've hit 8 npcs in a doorway before now at once... watch their health drop fast
Powers
DM
shadow punch 1xACC 1X end reduc 3X dam
smite same (as shadow punch)
shadow maul (same as shadow punch)
touch of fear 1X ACC 2X acc Deg
siphon life 1X acc 1X end reduc 3X heal 1X acc deg
dark consumption 1X acc 3X recharge
soul drain 1X acc 3X recharge
midnight grasp 1X acc 1 x end reduc 2X dam
FA
fire shield 1X end reduct 3X dam resist
Healing flames 3X recharge 3X heals
plasma Shield 1X end reduct 3X dam resist
consume 1X acc 3X recharge
firery embrace 3X recharge
Leaping
Combat Jumping 1X jump
Super Jump 1X jump
Acrobatics 1X end reduct
Fitness
swift 1X run
Health 3X heal
Fighting
Boxing 1X acc
Tough 1X end reduct 3X dam resist
Post respec
Powers
DM
smite same 1xACC 1X end reduc 3X dam
shadow maul 1xACC 1X end reduc 3X dam
touch of fear 1X ACC 2X acc Deg
siphon life 1X acc 1X end reduc 3X heal 1X acc deg
dark consumption 1X acc 3X recharge
soul drain 1X acc 3X recharge
midnight grasp 1X acc 1 x end reduc 2X dam
FA
fire shield 1X end reduct 3X dam resist
blazing Aura 1X acc 1X end
Healing flames 3X recharge 3X heals
plasma Shield 1X end reduct 3X dam resist
consume 1X acc 3X recharge
firery embrace 3X recharge
Rise of the phoenix 3X recharge 1X end mod
Leaping
Combat Jumping 1X jump
Super Jump 1X jump
Acrobatics 1X end reduct
Fitness
swift 1X run
Health 3X heal
STAMINA 3X end mod
putting back in stamina again as this is NESSESITY when teaming as said things die fast and well boxing pardon my
In anticipation of issue 7 im plotting my brute: Dark / Elec. Has a kind of "aborbaman" theme
Im going to have to fit in acrobatics + stamina, which means leaving 4 powers out of primary and secondary (in the run to 40)...
What can I leave out?
Electric Armour: Grounded and Conserve Power be my choices...
Which means, what to leave out on Dark Melee?
My initial thoughts on options are:
Shadow Maul, Taunt, Touch of Fear
Does anyone play dark melee brutes and suggestions on what to miss? I want to keep all the "absorb" powers (of life/endurance/buffs etc) in for concept reasons.