Energy, above all, is well-known for it's single-target damage. As such, Total Focus is one of the prime attacks of the Energy set. Though it has a long wind-up animation, it does immense damage, and combined with Aim, it does lovely orange numbers, especially when your fury is over half it's bar. 
Whirling Hands, though it comes early, is not as good as many of its other counterpart PBAoEs from the other sets due to the small radius (8, compared to Earth's 15, SS's 15, Fire's 10) and smaller damage. As you said, it is also somewhat of a end hog. However, it does have a chance to cause disorient, and it is a PBAoE attack regardless of radius, so that may be a good thing. Ultimately, it's up to you if you want it or not.
With your attacks, you've probably slotted Energy Punch too much already, but it might be worth doing the minimum following for each attack at DOs and SOs...
Acc, End, Dam, Dam
Remember as a Brute, you can do high damage anyway, so the End will help keep stamina costs down, and providing you last long enough, your damage will build up enough so that it won't matter. Since you picked Electric, once you get either Conserve Power or Power Sink, you can switch back to:
Acc, Acc, Dam, Dam
or something similiar, as you'll no longer have end problems.
Not sure what you can do for taking hits, as I picked Inv for my brute. But for my Brute, I made do with the basic Resist Physical Damage (innate 5% res) from the first power, a self-heal at level 4, and stuck with that until I picked up the all-resist/mez resist power at 18. It was pretty much a battle of "kill you before you kill me" throughout those levels. Maybe concentrate more on raising your damage to kill enemies faster instead of trying to take hits?
To raise up Fury a bit faster, you might want to keep the basic Brawl on your powerbar, and have it on auto. It recharges quick, is a quick attack (which can copy the appearance (only appearance, not power) of your energy punches if your fists are glowing at the time of activation) and doesn't use too much end. This works as an okay alternative to using Barrage, I figured, though since I had Air Superiority, that was part of my attack chain. Don't be afraid of Energy Transfer's hitpoint stealing, by the way. It does too much lovely damage to worry about it.
So, powers ranked in my opinion...
Barrage - get if you must, but as last option
Energy Punch - your starting power, may as well stick with it, does good damage
Bone Smasher - Good power to get, does better damage and higher MAG stun ability
Build Up - Get this to increase your power by 80% for 10 seconds. Enough time to throw 3-4 attacks. If you use it when fury is high, it can be even better
Whirling Hands - hit or miss... some people prefer to be doing single target damage, some like to have the option of an PBAoE in their attacks. You can skip it if you really want another power.
Taunt - you're a brute, not a tanker! Then again, you do have a form of tankvoke in your attacks, but it's only single target instead of an AoE effect like tankers have. May be helpful in much later levels when you're facing Archvillains. I plan to take at level 50. :3
Total Focus - your first of your most powerful attacks. Obviously get
Stun - since you have so many attacks which can build up MAG to break enemies down, it might be overkill to get Stun, which does minimal damage, but has great chance to cause disorientation. Up to you in the end.
Energy Transfer - uses your HP to cause high damage in a very fast activation. You might want to consider going for the self heal from the powerpools if you're worried about HP drain.
Have fun!
Ideon's Paragonwiki page
Member of Paragon/Rogue Knights
Arc: 60092 - Supa Rumble in the Park
"Keep living the dream, and never let any jerk tell you what to do."
-- High-Roller
I have a 38 Energy/Elec Brute and I had the very same problem at first.
Just wait till you get SO's and Aid Self and it'll be a lot better, I promise!
I agree with most things Ideon says. I also recommend not taking Whirling Hands and Stun, and only take Taunt if you team a lot (to save squishies in their time of need). However, you should take Barrage/Energy Punch/Brawl for your basic attack chain, and throw in Total Focus, Bone Smasher and Energy Transfer as the big hitters. Especially Total Focus and Energy Transfer, they can easily one-shot an enemy if you have a bit of Fury.
Once I got Stamina my endurance was almost never low (honestly, my guy wasn't nearly as end-heavy as some people say), and after Power Sink... well, just take it and love it! Aid Self is also quite handy.
What I usually do is Power Sink, and then Aid Self, because Power Sink's animation apparently renders the enemies unable to do something for about a second or something, meaning they will not be able to interrupt your Aid Self (which is extremely annoying when it happens).
Anyway, the build I'm currently following, I'm at level 38 now:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1,20
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php
The Thundercharge: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Energy Melee
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Fighting
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Barrage -- Dmg(A), Dmg(19), Dmg(34), Acc(40), Acc(42)
Level 1: Charged Armor -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(3), ResDam(7), ResDam(17), EndRdx(46)
Level 2: Bone Smasher -- Dmg(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), Acc(7), Acc(11), RechRdx(15)
Level 4: Conductive Shield -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(5), ResDam(13), ResDam(17), EndRdx(42)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 8: Energy Punch -- Dmg(A), Dmg(9), Dmg(9), Acc(11), Acc(13), EndRdx(40)
Level 10: Static Shield -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(19), ResDam(42), ResDam(43), EndRdx(43)
Level 12: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump(A), Jump(15), Jump(50)
Level 16: Grounded -- ResDam(A), ResDam(46), ResDam(46)
Level 18: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Total Focus -- Dmg(A), Dmg(23), Dmg(23), Acc(25), Acc(25), EndRdx(27)
Level 24: Aid Other -- Heal(A)
Level 26: Aid Self -- Heal(A), Heal(27), Heal(29), IntRdx(29), IntRdx(31), RechRdx(31)
Level 28: Lightning Reflexes -- Run(A)
Level 30: Build Up -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(37)
Level 32: Energy Transfer -- Dmg(A), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Acc(33), Acc(34), RechRdx(34)
Level 35: Power Sink -- EndMod(A), EndMod(36), EndMod(36), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(37), RechRdx(37)
Level 38: Power Surge -- ResDam(A), ResDam(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(40)
Level 41: Boxing -- Dmg(A), Dmg(43), Dmg(45), EndRdx(45), Acc(48), Acc(50)
Level 44: Tough -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(45), ResDam(48), ResDam(48), ResDam(50)
Level 47: Taunt -- Acc(A)
Level 49: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Fury
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]
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</pre><hr />
Whirling hands is a good power for PvE, if a little end heavy. However, it recharges fairly quickly and with suitable end reduction can even be used as an extra single target attack in your chain.
Note that my Brute has barrage (on auto) instead of energy punch to help build fury. Brawl / energy punch can work well too.
UNION @Flitz 50, Lead Hose 50, Red Rag 50
DEFIANT Rose Bloodthorn 34
VIGILANCE Captain Caledonia 20 - Yeah, I made toons on the French server coz we only had 4 back then (might have to transfer/recreate them on one of the US servers)
..and many more!
Thank you all for the answers, helped me out a tons!
So I guess i'll just stick with this and later on take TF
Slot accuracy first in all attacks, 2 acc
Forget damage until you can afford the slots, late 30's to 40's is time enough.
2 acc 1 end 1 recharge is more efficient.
Fury is your damage.
Hi there!
Im in a bit of dilemma and I hope you could help me out.
I got a lvl 18 energy/elec brute and so far, I really like it, except I still have problems with taking hits and especially end. but the last will get with stamina and the elec. powers arround the corner.
To the topic:
Which melee powers?
Anyhow:
Atm I have
Energy Punch (3 slots, 1 dmg, 2 acc)
Bone Smasher (1 dmg, 1 acc, 1 recharge)
Whirling Hands (1 dmg, 1 acc, 1 recharge)
Getting closer to Total Focus, im starting to think that Barrage might be a better choice?
Im really new to fury and brutes so, take that as a note.
This is why I've thought of it:
Barrage is almost always up, it's cheap on end and when im constantly pumling things with it my fury will go up quicker and therefore more dmg done.
Total Focus is another "heavy" power with 18.5 end cost, 20s recharge while it does have nice dmg and stun abilities.
Was it a bad choice choosing "Whirling Hands", is that the "black sheep" with these powers?
And while it's on the topic:
When do I start to be able to take some serious beatings?
Atm I have Charged Armor, Conductive Shield, Static Shield all with 4 slots (3 dmg resist, 1 endurence red.).
Also 2 slot Combat Jump (2x defense buff) and lastly Grounded (1x dmg resistance).
All of the shield slots are DOs.
Thanks in Adance