1) Pick Dark Melee or Fire melee
2) Pick Fire armor or Dark armor
3) ...
4) Profit ?
I shall endeavor to be slightly more helpful...
Fire/Dark will have huge AoE damage and good mitigation if you take all the AoEs/Auras, but end use will also be huge. I've seen it played very successfully but if running out of end annoys you alot then it might not be for you.
Dark/Fire is a very nice combination, 2 self heals and 2 end recovery powers. Dark melee has some good damage mitigation, especially if you solo against small spawns, but not the greatest damage.
You don't say how your going to play it so i'd say fire/dark for a team brute with some end buffs and dark/fire for smaller team/solo play.
Kitty
x
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
~Edna St. Vincent Millay
thank you im gonna use it as a team brute
Don't forget, Dark melee has an end regen move, if you have more than 2 people around you, 3 slotted with end mod you can get a full bar if you hit all 3. DM/FA would actually be pretty good now tat I think about it!
Defiant 50's
Many and varied!
@Miss Chief
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Fire/Dark will have huge AoE damage
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Fire sword circle every 15 seconds and death shroud with its tiny tiny AoE damage even with fury?
I'd say skip death shroud mate, wastes endurance, until your like lvl 22, replace all your dmg DO's with end reduct ones instead, the 200% dmg buff from fury is enough to kill anything anyway
You are an idiot, over time damage auras provide your largest source of damage.
Ya no rly, 5 tics of 12 dmg = 60 dmg
One smack of 233 dmg from total focus = almost 4 times as much
The numbers below are all for a level 50 Brute.
Total Focus does 148.48 damage with a 20 second recharge.
Death Shroud does 8.34 damage every 2 seconds.
Over 20 seconds, Total Focus will do 148.48 damage and Death Shroud will do 83.4 damage.
However, Death Shroud is an AoE and a Brute is rarely fighting just individual enemies. Against 2 or more mobs, Death Shroud does more damage (against 2 mobs, 166.8 damage in 20 seconds).
Against a 5-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPS of 7.424 and Death Shroud has a DPS of 20.85.
Against a 3-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPS of 7.424 and Death Shroud has a DPS of 12.51.
Against a 2-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPS of 7.424 and Death Shroud has a DPS of 8.34.
So when soloing, Death Shroud will do between 12%-280% more damage than Total Focus.
Agreeing with Fire Kitty here, Death Shroud out damages all my other attacks (note the relevance, Fire/DA) though Fire Sword Circle does come close.
At first I thought it was an End Hog, then it became the power that meant I could kill on average 12 targets with 3 attacks while it was running, without it I'd have to wait for one of those attacks to recharge.
As it draws agro it also boosts fury that way. All in all well worth taking
"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!"
Another big winner for Death Shroud is the effect it has on Fury. Each hit by the Shroud results in extra Fury whereas Total Focus is a big, slow, lumbering attack that allows fury to drain away while you wait for it to finish the animation. So fancy though Total Focus may be it's pants for Fury conservation.
Hmm, I don't think this is quite true - as far as I know for any damage aura it's only the first hit on a mob which generates Fury.
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The numbers below are all for a level 50 Brute.
Total Focus does 148.48 damage with a 20 second recharge.
Death Shroud does 8.34 damage every 2 seconds.
Over 20 seconds, Total Focus will do 148.48 damage and Death Shroud will do 83.4 damage.
However, Death Shroud is an AoE and a Brute is rarely fighting just individual enemies. Against 2 or more mobs, Death Shroud does more damage (against 2 mobs, 166.8 damage in 20 seconds).
Against a 5-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPS of 7.424 and Death Shroud has a DPS of 20.85.
Against a 3-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPS of 7.424 and Death Shroud has a DPS of 12.51.
Against a 2-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPS of 7.424 and Death Shroud has a DPS of 8.34.
So when soloing, Death Shroud will do between 12%-280% more damage than Total Focus.
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And in my brutes case anything less than 10 isnt worth getting out of bed for 
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
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Hmm, I don't think this is quite true - as far as I know for any damage aura it's only the first hit on a mob which generates Fury.
[/ QUOTE ]If the difference in fury gain my brute sees when Blazing Aura is on is anything to go by then I'm pretty sure it has more of a contribution than just the initial hit. 
Ah well, unlike you it seems, i dont take 20 seconds to kill a +2 lut.. takes me about 4
Dude seriously dont take it, you will have end problems as it is n DS has a big EPS
I never just kill one target at a time, I tend to kill about 10. 4 x10 = 40 seconds. My 20 seconds sounds fairly good (though am damn sure the attacks animate faster than that)
Only thing left standing after my AoEs are bosses, and one ST attack will defeat them.
Of course if you want to fight ever foe one at a time its down to you. I'd rather defeat the whole group with 5 or 6 clicks
"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!"
Sheep, either you don´t understand the maths behind this or you take far too much time to get from one enemy to the next... or both.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
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I never just kill one target at a time, I tend to kill about 10. 4 x10 = 40 seconds. My 20 seconds sounds fairly good (though am damn sure the attacks animate faster than that)
Only thing left standing after my AoEs are bosses, and one ST attack will defeat them.
Of course if you want to fight ever foe one at a time its down to you. I'd rather defeat the whole group with 5 or 6 clicks
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I agree fully with this post. Even with my Dm/Fa Brute this stands as fact.
I fly through mobs so fast, thats why dmg aura's artent good for me
Also the dude being dark, and seem to be new to the sets
HE NEEDS TO USE AS LESS ENDURANCE AS POSSIBLE
I dont care about all this math, unless he is going to suppodly kill everything with death shroud he needs to have enough end to do his real attacks and heal
You're over exaggerating the End use of DA, with careful slotting it's not going to be that much of an issue. Likewise it was stated that this toon was intended for team use and with all the */Rad and */Kin Corruptors kicking around it's likely he'll get a recovery buff from a team member.
Also as he's running a Fire/Dark so "Flying" through mobs with Energy Melee is effectively irrelevent.
Well fire melee attack chain being just a tiny bit stronger than EM's attack chain does make it relevent
Not really, you're not taking into account how the sets work.
Energy Melee = Single Target high intensity attacks. Hit, splat, next target, hit, splat, rince and repeat.
Fire Melee = DoT attacks and a core of moderate intensity AoE attacks.
Fire melee may do alot of damage but it comes in smaller packets and it will take time for the DoT portion to take it's toll.
An AoE aura like Death Shroud supplements the damage of Fire Melee quite nicely (especially with 80+ Fury) with the likes of Fire Sword finishing off the stragglers.
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I fly through mobs so fast, thats why dmg aura's artent good for me
Also the dude being dark, and seem to be new to the sets
HE NEEDS TO USE AS LESS ENDURANCE AS POSSIBLE
I dont care about all this math, unless he is going to suppodly kill everything with death shroud he needs to have enough end to do his real attacks and heal
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At the end of the day, the combat mechanic of this game is all about maths. Let me give you another example - this time of damage per endurance (once again for a level 50 Brute):
As stated before, Total Focus does 148.48 damage with a recharge of 20 seconds. It has an end cost of 18.51.
Death Shroud does 8.34 damage every 2 seconds. It has an end cost of 0.52/second.
Against a 5-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPE of 8.02 and Death Shroud has a DPE of 40.09.
Against a 3-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPE of 8.02 and Death Shroud has a DPE of 24.06.
Against a 2-mob spawn, Total Focus has a DPE of 8.02 and Death Shroud has a DPE of 16.04.
Against an individual enemy, Total Focus has a DPE of 8.02 and Death Shroud has a DPE of 8.02.
As my previous example showed, Death Shroud has a higher DPS against 2 or more enemies, and this shows it has an identical or higher DPE to any sized spawn.
The same end use is true for all Energy Melee attacks (which all have a DPE of 8.02) except Energy Transfer which (with 190.18 damage and an end cost of 10.19) has a DPE of 18.66 due to the -HP on the caster. It has a DPS of 9.509, so Death Shroud has the edge on DPS and DPE against 3 or more enemies.
As I said before, it is rare for a Brute to just be fighting one enemy so this shows that Death Shroud really is an excellent power to take and uses less end and often has a better DPS than 'real attacks'.
Incidentally, there is much more Smashing resistance than Negative Energy resistance so in some cases the DPS and DPE of Death Shroud will be even more than those of Energy Melee.
Go easy on sheep.All this game experience he has made him really dizzy!Plus he dont care about math!11!
How could I forget...who needs math when you have dreck?
can anyone tell me what is the best way to put darkness and fire in a build for pve your input would be most apreciated