It depends on the player. Take me as an example: I'm terrible playing a stone Brute (I tried), but found out that I'm really good with Fire and than Elec after I7.
Elec doesnt have the same defense as stone, but the other powers are quite good in my hands hehe
The popular choice is ss/inv i have one and he doesn't die rage and dull pain together is so awesome.
Other than stone? I think for numbers is possibly Elec or Inv if you have a large group around you. But really you have to find one that suits you. I cant play inv as a secondry at all, I know its good, but that doesn't help. the powers come at the wrong time, I cant slot what I want when I want to, and I'm left cursint RPD all the time. That said its a very good set in other peoples hands.
"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!"
fire brutes are pretty much regen brutes now
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
The Elec shields work just fine 
anit-sleep, knockback, etc etc.
I have a brute Elec/Elect, I just love it. Dont have a clue how he works on pvp though. but for PvE. it just rock
cheers
Oh yes the change to fire is a nice improvement, I've certainly noticed the boost. Needing to pick a certain travel power is a bit of a pain though, and the resistance numbers still aren't great
"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!"
Assuming PvE only, DA. Nothing else but Granite compares.
To paraphrase Stalk_obot : fire brutes are regen brutes now, and DA brutes are regen brutes on perma-IH. DR is that good if you slot it and use it well.
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fire brutes are pretty much regen brutes now
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... albeit without Integration, Instant Healing, and Dull Pain.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
That's all made up for with the lack of knockdown protection and no imob protection.......... hay wait a minute....
Syn's right, the lack of an underlying regen rate stops Fire being anywhere near as effective as Regen, though the changes to healing flames are nice you still need to break attacking to keep healing and you still dont heal as fast as a regen does. I'd be willing to bet a Spine/Regen would out preform a Fire/Fire brute in herd sizes solo. With support however /fire is truely amazing
"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!"
Inspired by the regen brute idea I rolled up a dark/fire yesterday. 2 heals and (later on) 2 endurance recovery powers with dark consumption and consume. Level 11 and so far it seems pretty good, be interesting to see how long it can maintain a full head of steam later on.
My MA IDs:
Fiend Space: 211464
The toughest secondary for brutes depends on what you want to make him for. If you want a PvE brute you should get stone armor or energy aura, for PvP invul, elec or fire. Im not the best on DA brutes, not seen many around so i cant say much about it. I only know DA scrappers can be very good in pvp if u slotted them right, so DA brutes could possible be even better 
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fire brutes are pretty much regen brutes now
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... albeit without Integration, Instant Healing, and Dull Pain.
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And no Quick Recovery, Consume is great, but hardly the same thing.
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
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fire brutes are pretty much regen brutes now
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... albeit without Integration, Instant Healing, and Dull Pain.
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And no Quick Recovery, Consume is great, but hardly the same thing.
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Regen - re: uber heal such as a 50% heal every 20 seconds, I dont recall saying the the secondary was anything akin to the scrapper set as it clearly isnt, its resistance based. Healing flames has however significantly altered the fundamentals of the FA set.
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
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Healing flames has however significantly altered the fundamentals of the FA set.
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Really? I always played my /Fire Brute with heavy reliance on HF (having not taken Tough, unlike a lot of */Fire Brutes and Fire/* Tanks), all the changes have done is made my playstyle much more viable.
It's probably more a playstyle shift for (most) Tankers than (most) Brutes, I'd imagine; charging through mobs without stopping and healing frequently has always reaped more benefits for Brutes, after all.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
Its not really altered how I play mine I must admit, its just made it a bit easier and I now use less insps to acomplish the same thing
"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 have a ss/fire brute, with tough. The recent buff to Healing Flames has made an awesome difference to his survivability, it takes a lot to drop him. 
I dont have tough, I have a duoing partner with shields
"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!"
Fire tankers are a pain to kill now, i couldnt even kill 1 when i played on full fury with my brute 
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Fire tankers are a pain to kill now, i couldnt even kill 1 when i played on full fury with my brute
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Time to drop by the pvp zones with my mastermind and his assortment of debuff poisons then and check these fire tankers out .. Or just lvl my MM. I dont think theres that many tankers in sirens.
Surely enough -recharge from say an Ice/Cold corruptor would do it?
"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 ]
Inspired by the regen brute idea I rolled up a dark/fire yesterday. 2 heals and (later on) 2 endurance recovery powers with dark consumption and consume. Level 11 and so far it seems pretty good, be interesting to see how long it can maintain a full head of steam later on.
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My dark/fire brute is currently Level 24 and I'm still loving it! With the recent changes, and I already had Healing Flames 3 slotted with reduced recharge, I rarely have to pop a green or a blue (courtesy of aforementioned end recovery powers).
I deleted my stone/stone brute as I found it very boring - I only got to level 18 with him.
Cambo Snr.
[B]Order of the Cruciform/Crucified Swords[/B] - [B]Defiant[/B]
50's - Tridento (claws/invul scrapper), Robo Medic MkIV (empath/rad defender), Entrino (dark/dark defender) & Captain Wombat (thugs/traps mastermind)
[I]@EU-Cambo[/I]
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Inspired by the regen brute idea I rolled up a dark/fire yesterday. 2 heals and (later on) 2 endurance recovery powers with dark consumption and consume. Level 11 and so far it seems pretty good, be interesting to see how long it can maintain a full head of steam later on.
[/ QUOTE ]
My dark/fire brute is currently Level 24 and I'm still loving it! With the recent changes, and I already had Healing Flames 3 slotted with reduced recharge, I rarely have to pop a green or a blue (courtesy of aforementioned end recovery powers).
I deleted my stone/stone brute as I found it very boring - I only got to level 18 with him.
Cambo Snr.
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Sounds awesome
I had a feeling it would be a good set of powers once fury gets pumping.
My MA IDs:
Fiend Space: 211464
think hammerfall can testify to the survivability of dm/fa in SC from me being in on mine the other night :P
and yes i do have tough on mine, helped a LOT post lvl 40, without when issue 7 went live was kinda like being the uber squishy lol
Yesterday I took my En/Fire out for his first serious spin since the change to HF.
I've also gone for the non-tough approach, and I have to say I'm loving the change, not least because it lets me use energy transfer with a lot more wanton abandon, which is (probably) a good thing.
Dead Calm's Defender Manifesto
hi i know stone is toughest after 38 but what is the toughest overall
in your oppinion???