Well Fire offers more protection to everying but Psi and Neg En than Dark does. Inv is very solid vs S&L but not much else. Granite is stupidly good, no psi protection (only Elec and Dark get this infact IIRC) but is slow and nullifies my offence. A stone brute gets brought back in line by a Kin corruptor, I become a walking nuke
"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!"
A good offence! Erm, sorry, seriously I'd say /DA was the best allrounder. I don't trust stone, anything that impacts your gameplay to protect from mezzing is baaad, energy aura is too weak, as is electric armour, fire has too many weak spots and Inv perishes if you leave it in to soak, and also isn't great at non-SL.
DA's got sturdy defences, and some neato tricks.
Edit: And Fire isn't anywhere near as weak as energy or electric!
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
Having played fire in the RV event at 40 (doing normal missions cause I snuck away from RV) and DA they are quite comparible. DA can rescue itself from a much worse state than Fire can, but fire doesn't get into that bad a state as often. The only real time DA shines is Psi, and then it really shines. Wann fight Carnies and Rikti as much as possible, go DA (three guesses at my two favourite enemy groups)
"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!"
Having a very solid SS/Fire myself, I'm curious as to your /fire's build and what level you're at.
I've found fire to be very good.
A decent, quick recharging heal that doesn't rely on acc like DA's one.
A nice damage aura that works wonders with fury but needs some careful slotting - though other sets have this too.
Good resistance against everything but psi - I'd still recommended picking up tough though.
A handy end recovery power and a further damage buff to add on top of your primary one and fury.
Thoroughly recommend it though it does need tough - as mentioned - and more or less forces you into SJ as a travel power to pick up acrobatics.
That said, I've heard good things about both DA and Inv. Up to you.
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Edit: And Fire isn't anywhere near as weak as energy or electric!
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Yes and no. Comparing you need to check the complete set, wich has the 38 'panic' power, making elec an extremly strong thing to fight. Likewise unstoppable and overload make them (although for a peroid of time) far far stronger then a fire ever will be.
Add the fact fire has no KB resist, elec has basicly resist to everything (even psi/drain and kb).
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Having played fire in the RV event at 40 (doing normal missions cause I snuck away from RV) and DA they are quite comparible. DA can rescue itself from a much worse state than Fire can, but fire doesn't get into that bad a state as often. The only real time DA shines is Psi, and then it really shines. Wann fight Carnies and Rikti as much as possible, go DA (three guesses at my two favourite enemy groups)
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I have a /Fire brute and a /Dark scrapper.
Fire wins hands down on end usage, it is really cheap, both in end usage and power costs as you only need 3 powers. It has an okay heal that saves you loads and provides most of your survability. Burn may increase survivability a bit. I'm not sure how much though.
Dark is more expensive, it has 3 must run toggles rather than 2 and they are comparable cost. Where it really shines is the self heal. It basically is a full hitpoint heal in many circumstances, that is available twice as often as the fire heal. It unfortunately costs loads of end though. Also Dark gets 3 other option defensive powers, the 2 controlling powers, which increase your survivabilty at the cost of fury and Cloak of Darkness for a small amount of defence.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Elec is a great def set and with tough from fighting pool even better the only bad thing no self heal but with medicine pool possible but no real must have, in pve i love my Elec Brute more than any other Brutes, in pvp every brute is weak vs the critical attacks of the coh AT's
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A good offence! Erm, sorry, seriously I'd say /DA was the best allrounder. I don't trust stone, anything that impacts your gameplay to protect from mezzing is baaad, energy aura is too weak, as is electric armour, fire has too many weak spots and Inv perishes if you leave it in to soak, and also isn't great at non-SL.
DA's got sturdy defences, and some neato tricks.
Edit: And Fire isn't anywhere near as weak as energy or electric!
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Every time someone says Energy Aura is weak I take one step further away from Statesmans Nerf Bat 
DA, blatantly 
Shall we review? Lets. Dark resist is either equal or superior to fire in every respect save fire damage and energy damage. Yes, the S/L is the same, and the cold is stronger with dark.
End drain resist. Psi resist. Carnies? Rikti? Sappers? they don't have a chance in hell. (The psi resist, btw, is IMMENSELY powerful. For a brute, 2 oranges puts you at psi-res cap)
Self heal: Fire. Meh.
Seal heal: Dark. HOLY DAMN! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? 1-1200 in 2 seconds. The large end cost is worth it. Oh, and with 3 recharge SOs and hasten, it's up every 11 seconds. I had a fair bit of fun tanking the second respec earlier 
Cloak of Darkness v Consume: Well, CoD is free stealth and perception. I can always hit what I want, perception debuffs just falter. And I can position myself effectively. Mind you consume is a good power too.
Death Shroud v Blazing Aura: Death shroud is .4 end cheaper, but .1 BI weaker per tick. Also, neg damage is less resisted.
"Utility" powers. Burn and Fiery embrace: Well, I suppose burn does some nice damage, and FE is excellent if you're fire/fire. But CoF stops minions from hitting you unless you allow them too, while being end heavy. Oppresive Gloom is sickening. They don't even get a chance. Especially good in PVP, since stuns detoggle.
RoTP v Soul Transfer: I'll be honest. There is nothing ST does that RoTP doesn't. Disorient? Check. Damage? barely compares. And ST needs a target. However, it's autohit, as is it's mag 37 disorient. I can stun an AV with that thing, if he does manage to take me down (which, with DR, isn't likely while I still have anything blue).
If you like buffing and damage, fire. If you like resisting damage, having a bag of tricks, and being made of awesome, then go dark.
I agree, soon as I got my SO's EA comes into it's own, and Overload is just totally fab!
Defiant 50's
Many and varied!
@Miss Chief
En, far too common to gloss over. Much more EN damage than psi, and DA sucks naughty parts when it comes to En damage. On the hero game I guess Fire and Dark are closer, but on villains I think that tips Fire into being a fair bit tougher.
End cost. Dark has lots more end cost in the set, fire gets an end recovery power.
Oh and the end drain resistance, if you're worried about end drain play something with defence, its hardly worth mentioning the resistance in the set.
However, if you like herding and living on the edge dark is good, cause Dark Regen kicks those very same naughty parts
"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 ]
Death Shroud v Blazing Aura: Death shroud is .4 end cheaper, but .1 BI weaker per tick. Also, neg damage is less resisted.
[/ QUOTE ]I'd say negative is more resisted (for vP, that is), since negative protection comes in same powers that give energy protection, which people want, while fire is teamed with cold and those powers are usually neglected.
[ QUOTE ]
Oh and the end drain resistance, if you're worried about end drain play something with defence, its hardly worth mentioning the resistance in the set.
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While I accept everything else you said, I would like you to know that neither elec/elec blasters, kinetics corrupters or defenders, dying carnies, or even sappers themselves have yet to touch my end bar.
So nyah to your naughty parts, dark regeneration makes everything better
And in fairness I find the end cost manageable with 2 end reductions. Although I DO suck at energy. /em curse elec blasters.
A group of Mu can empty my end bar with their alpha strike if they all hit (maybe I just have too big herds)
"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!"
i gotta say having played a /fire brute that its just a bit... well... naff lol u end up being pritty much forced to take jumping and fighting pools to make up for its short comings. Now with my /elec brute im having a blast! cheap end cost, more speed huge end recovery powers, what more could u ask for? (besides a self heal which fair enough fire has) IMO elec>fire
Doesnt Stone give Res to Psonics?
Minerals Power?
Union-
HEROES
Shiver . Ice/Empath Controller
VILLAINS
Necromozone . Necro/Dark Miasma Mastermind
Tils - Bane Spider
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Nope, the Minerals Armour you can get at lvl 35 gives you DEF against Psi.
Dark makes you feel awesome against anything except Mu and Ballistas
I have a Fire brute at the moment and have established it offers i think the least overall defence . I was wondering if anyone knew what the best secondary for a brute was ?
Nick Anything lvl 46
Dartz lvl 20
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