The way i would look at it is fire/fire tanker better then brute for taking damage, fire/fire brute, better then tanker at dishing out damage 
I've never played a Fire/Fire Tanker, but Fire/Fire Brute was my first L50 villain. For sheer power and destruction the brute will beat your tanker by a noticeable margin as long as you keep your fury high, I can guarantee you that. I doubt you'll be as survivable as your Tanker, but Fire/ Tankers aren't renowned for that anyway - either way you still have the marvellous Healing Flames on the brute so the slightly lower resist numbers probably won't be as noticeable.
But they won't be similar to play. For starters you have Cremate instead of Combustion, so you'll be better at single target damage - but you won't necessarily lose out on AE damage - at high Fury (I can keep most of my brutes at 80-90% Fury no problem in normal play) your FSC will do better damage than your Tanker's FSC & Combustion put together. At high fury, after using BU & FE, my brute's FSC will pretty much kill most of the minions near him (if it doesn't, the next tick of Blazing Aura usually does) and bring the lieuts so low that a single tap from another attack takes them out.
With the brute you'll want to start off using your fast single target attacks until your Fury is at 75+% before you start pulling out the big attacks like FSC and GFS. That's pretty much the best playstyle for most brutes regardless of powersets. One good tip for brutes is to put a fast attack on auto (Ctrl + click the power in the tray), such as Brawl, Scorch or Boxing (if you take Fighting pool to get Tough later) - then you always have a filler in your attack chain, because you need to keep attacking quickly to keep Fury high if you're not being attacked much.
Hope you have fun with it - Fire/Fire Brutes are vastly underrated, but they have both great single target and area damage. Mine used to pull aggro away from other brutes (with different powersets) on sheer damage alone, no problem - against AV/GMs you can do some serious damage with the DoTs stacking and having time to tick full duration (Incinerate especially).
Thanks guys! I have highhopes - Igenerally havent had that much fun on CoV as it hard work teaming with my Stalker. I know there are some differences between the two but Golden has been my all time fave alt so I am sure Dragon-Phoenix will provide just as much pwnage in the Rogue Isles!
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
Golden mate,
I have both Fire.Fire tank and Brute at 50.
Very simular,
More damage output(which by your post sounds your kind of thing) play it mate as yourself my Fire fire tank was my first and my favoured char, it is 2/3's IO'ed up and tanks as good at any other tank.
Brute it is weaker on HP and I have a long way to go to get him up to the standard of my tank but I love him just as much as my Tank fun to play, hard to play at times, but fun as it is with the tank form.
Go for it mate you know the build it is easier and again the damage you give is soooo good.
BTW for your epic powers on brute go Scorp get web genade and Burn mass hold and big damage, combine it with fire sward circle, epic power blast(AOE) and combust. AOE tastic mate!!!
If you need any help with buld or IO's: @Durin Danark
DD
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BTW for your epic powers on brute go Scorp get web genade and Burn mass hold and big damage, combine it with fire sward circle, epic power blast(AOE) and combust. AOE tastic mate!!!
[/ QUOTE ]Why Black Scorpion? All Patron Power Pools give an AoE Immobilize (well, Cones from Leviathan and Soul Mastery...) but Mace Mastery is the only one that requires weapon drawing. I'd recommend Mu myself, you can also get Ball Lightning as an extra AoE DoT if you want (Mace Mastery only offers a Cone as its ranged area attack).
lol golden phoenix - i have both a fire/fire tank and brute. And I know exactly how you feel; took me a while to get into CoV too, mostly cos I played the ATs wrong. The powers work basically the same way, but u have to change ur play style slightly.
also a few basic facts abt me 1st:
1. Only played fire tank post ED
2. I team and PVE mostly - so builds are always team orientated
3. yes - i have taunt my brute as well
4. cos I am poor and cheap; my builds are mostly slotted with L30 SO's with only a few pick-up sets
as already said - very similiar when choosing your shields. I tried with and w/o tough - I would take tough if u like the feeling of being tank-like.
a big difference I felt with a brute is that u take the small attack powers and use em; including brawl. This is a concept that didnt dawn on me till the mid 20s (yes yes - i'm not that bright). As a tank (team build) I took the high damaging attacks over low dam - but due to fury building in brutes; u shoudl choose your attacks based on recharge rather than damage.
my fire/fire brute is not L38; and I must say she plays pretty well. Shes resilient enough to take the aggro and build fury. And yes, she can herd effectively too! Shes always punching healing flames, then consume, then running off to kill yet more. Shes fast. Much faster than my fire tank ever was.
As a tank, I never really thought abt damage output as a major concern, even with fire. However, unlike a fire tank - Burn isnt your only major damaging power. My brute routinely has damage bonuses into the 200%++ with build up, making things even like fire sword a good single target attack. As yet I havent got burn yet, but do plan to in the 40s.
remember as a tank - trollers are ur friends. Unfortunately, dominators are less so; their hold powers actually reduce my fury building ability. I do like corruptors and MMs for their buffs though.
SOme of my build quirks:
took tough early, skipped weave
left aura till later - as couldnt manage the aggro w/o tough
I still have acrobatics (like I said - very poor!)
low dam fast rechargin attacks over slow high dam ones
taking Burn in 40s
taking Mu mastery
have fun mate. dont be discouraged by team being mroe fluid on CoV, think its just cos the ATs are less dependent on each other. But this game wouldnt be the same for me solo.
Lets say Fire Brute has a life expectancy of 15 secs against a Fire Tanks life expectancy of 20 secs against a theoretical group type A. In that kill or be killed situation ya simply gonna need to do more damage (if not then some control) as a Brute.
Trick is, in those situations where ya seem to recall that ya had oh about 5 secs of life expectancy if that...did ya really need to go about that group how ya did? Did so and so in the team have to try to do the job of another AT or was anyone looking to defy game mechanics?
The important thing would be to not care, (unless someone else is always tasting carpet) and RotP! Slot it, love it and use it..fun just goes on and on.
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.
Hi Guys
How do these two compare against each other? My first and always most favoured alt is Golden my Fire/Fire tanker for sheer power and destruction. I have always had issues with CoV and struggled with a few alts for a few poor levels till i got bored. I rolled a Fire/Fire Brute last night in the hope they would be similar to play but now I am not so sure. Does anyone know how well they compare?
Thanks
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?