+ SS is high spike damage (KO Blow) with a very good accuracy/damage boost (Perma Rage) and a decent AoE (Footstomp). Attack animations (Hurl, KO Blow) are kind of slow though.
+ Stone is fairly decent all-round, with an AoE stun (Fault). It's high endurance consumption, and the attack animations are still sort of slow (Hurl, Tremor) though not as bad as SS.
+ Fire gets a few decent AoE attacks, and is much better at single-target damage than the tanker version due to "Cremate". Fast animating attacks, and the damage inflicted is much less resisted than Stone or SS. Incinerate deals a very good amount of ST damage for the recharge/endurance cost, but it's inflicted over a short period of time. No ranged attacks, but the highest-damage ST attacks have a short recharge.
If it were me I'd probably pick Fire for a PvE brute due to the less resisted damage, but SS with perma-rage is no sloutch either. Stone can also be good fun if you manage to compensate for the endurance consumption.
I would go SS or Fire, my reasons;
SS:
Pros: High damage, fast recharges for fury, mostly fast animations, okay end consumption, Rage, knockdown for juggling, Knockout Blow at level 8
Cons: Rage crashes, sometimes repetitive cycling, slow animation and high end drain on Knockout Blow
Fire:
Pros: Good damage, good recharge, okay end consumption, good AoE
Cons: No Rage, no controlling secondary effects like stuns or knockdown
And my thoughts of Stone..
Pros: High damage, good control
Cons: High end use, high recharge, no rage.
Hope this helps. (rage ftw)
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc
Hm... I'd go for Stone then. I like big bad bursts of damage and to me it seems less dull than Super Strength!
Heh, not going for EM, I have a EM/Inv brute, a EM stalker, 2 /energy blasters and a /energy tank so pretty bored of the animations on those
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Heh, not going for EM, I have a EM/Inv brute, a EM stalker, 2 /energy blasters and a /energy tank so pretty bored of the animations on those
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Yeah, I just reread your post and noticed you didn't want EM. Edited my post to say Stone Melee 
Disadvantages of Stone: Slow Recharge, High End cost.
*looks at ELectric Armour*
+Recharge Auto power
ENdurance recovery power
*whistles*
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Disadvantages of Stone: Slow Recharge, High End cost.
*looks at ELectric Armour*
+Recharge Auto power
ENdurance recovery power
*whistles*
[/ QUOTE ]
Which is fine and dandy after level 35, getting to there with your end bar running out all the time isn't fun though 
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc
Stone is lots of smashtastic noise and visuals, seizmic smash is a mag 4 hold which means you can hold bosses with it with one blow and tear them apart in seconds, no other attack from the other sets can do this.
IOs fix the end and recharge issues
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
Plus that mallet looks so damn cool...Stone Melee FTW!
thanks for the comments, going to give stone melee a try
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Which is fine and dandy after level 35, getting to there with your end bar running out all the time isn't fun though
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And thus one of the other great advantages of Dark Armor comes to light. Getting an endurance recharger at level 18 is just golden.
Oh and good luck with the Stone Melee. Very smashy and fun to watch...and don't skip out on Fault. Besides being a nice way to scatter a mob (which is useful sometimes, despite some people's hatred of all think KB) it looks infinitely smooth.
-jared
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Which is fine and dandy after level 35, getting to there with your end bar running out all the time isn't fun though
[/ QUOTE ]
And thus one of the other great advantages of Dark Armor comes to light. Getting an endurance recharger at level 18 is just golden.
Oh and good luck with the Stone Melee. Very smashy and fun to watch...and don't skip out on Fault. Besides being a nice way to scatter a mob (which is useful sometimes, despite some people's hatred of all think KB) it looks infinitely smooth.
-jared
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fault is Knock UP not knockback so just throws them in the air and doesnt scatter and its dark melee with the endurance recharge power, dark armour has the mega heal (in terms of heal and end cost)
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
I have an elec/elec brute which I created when elec brutes were 1st available and got to L41, however I am very disappointed with his damage output so have decided to create a new brute.
Elec armour is a must, I have an Inv brute, a fire tank, a dark scrapper and a EA stalker.
The choices for primary are SS, Stone or fire as I have plenty of alts which use the other attracks. Anyone care to comment on the pros and cons of these? at the moment I am swaying towards stone/elec...