I tend to take the Passives on my /Inv characters since I prefer to have as much protection as offered. I do dig the resistance to slows and especially End Drain with all the effing Mu you face on CoV.
What do you plan to take in their place?
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I currently don't have Siphon Life, so that's being added. I also waited until level 49 to pick up Midnight Grasp, which was a dreadful mistake. So, one of the Resists will probably be placed in that power pick, Energys most likely.
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Originally Posted by Clouded
What do you plan to take in their place?
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"I want Johnny Sonata to open his Moon Casino so we can have some damn Wailers on the Moon." - Johnny_Butane
"The vet reward for 1200 months of play is we move the servers into your house." - BackAlleyBrawler
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Hmmm, now I wonder what you have for your power selection. It might be beneficial to add the Passives and replace something else but hard to say without knowing your power selections. |
Originally Posted by Caffinated_Hero
I currently don't have Siphon Life, so that's being added. I also waited until level 49 to pick up Midnight Grasp, which was a dreadful mistake. So, one of the Resists will probably be placed in that power pick, Energys most likely.
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Mind sharing your power picks?
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Certainly! I don't recall what order I took everything in, but...|
Originally Posted by Clouded
Hmmm, now I wonder what you have for your power selection. It might be beneficial to add the Passives and replace something else but hard to say without knowing your power selections.
Mind sharing your power picks? |
I've got every power from Dark Melee except for Taunt and Siphon Life, and all 9 from Invulnerability. I also have Air Superiority and Fly, Swift/Health/Stamina, and Spirit Shark, Bile Spray, and Summon Guardian from Leviathan Mastery (Which will be modified into School of Sharks, Bile Spray, and Arctic Breath). So, 49 is still a free pick.
Slotting's not an issue for me, I'll muck around with them to my satisfaction after I get powers sorted out properly.
"I want Johnny Sonata to open his Moon Casino so we can have some damn Wailers on the Moon." - Johnny_Butane
"The vet reward for 1200 months of play is we move the servers into your house." - BackAlleyBrawler
You might have one too many attacks once you get SL, MC and Artic Breath.
You have:
Shadow Punch
Smite
Shadow Maul
Siphon Life
Midnight Grasp
Air Superiority
School of Sharks
Bile Spray
Arctic Breath
That's a lot of clicking going on and you might be able to drop a power or two. Perhaps Shadow Punch or Shadow Maul or School of Sharks. It really depends on your playstyle, etc.
So my suggestion is to grab the powers you want and try them out. Then go to your Active Build and create and alternative build (with SOs) taking 1-2 less attacks and see how that works for you. You still might be able to squeeze in the Passives and save your self some slotting since attacks generally require more slot investment than the passives.
How in love are with Shadow Maul? Thats one I always skip. Hate the log activation. its nice when it hits 3 or more mobs but honestly I keep sands of mu for when I see that opportunity and I rarely use it. With Mako you got a some nice aes. Mu would be better ae wise but your fine with either. Clearly I would drop Shadow Maul grad the passive resist. Give it a try I am sure you will be happy.
Coming from an invuln brute I'd say drop elements and keep energies. Coming from a DM scrapper I say if you're gonna drop an attack, drop Shadow Punch.
I like the passives for dropping in psi resistance io's. Helps fill a hole plus I like to be able to take damage.
I love Sp. I liked it more when it was a .5 activation time instead of .8 but hey. Load up on proccer and it is great damage and even better SMASH.
On invul end I will get flamed for this but I skip unstoppable. I have developed a serious hate for that power. I think its the eye Candy that makes many Invul brutes...well suck. Its honestly a trap. IF ya ditch it. You wont miss it. And you will build your toon to survive and kick *** without it.
Shadow Maul and Unstoppable imo skippable.
PS
I really hate unstoppable.
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Originally Posted by wonderdad
I like the passives for dropping in psi resistance io's. Helps fill a hole plus I like to be able to take damage.
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This.
Keep your passives man. Not only for set IO's, but if you plan on off tanking anything substantial, you are gonna need everything you can get defense wise.
My /Inv is a beast. I can stand with any /Stone and take just as much of a whuppin. Granted, I spent alot and did alot of negotiating on my build, but anyone on Virtue that has teamed with Super Destroyer has learned that there is a more fun alternative to /Stone.
<QR>
I often find that the same people who bemoan /Inv's poor performance are the same people who think the passives are garbage.
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To each his own, I guess. IMO, Unstoppable is more useful to a Brute than a Scrapper or Tanker. Unstoppable, with 3 RES gets about 82% RES to everything but Psi. Slotted up Passives and/or toggles can easily get you 90% RES to everything. For those 3 minutes, you are pretty much Unstoppable.|
Originally Posted by Louis_Cipher
I love Sp. I liked it more when it was a .5 activation time instead of .8 but hey. Load up on proccer and it is great damage and even better SMASH.
On invul end I will get flamed for this but I skip unstoppable. I have developed a serious hate for that power. I think its the eye Candy that makes many Invul brutes...well suck. Its honestly a trap. IF ya ditch it. You wont miss it. And you will build your toon to survive and kick *** without it. Shadow Maul and Unstoppable imo skippable. PS I really hate unstoppable. |
With Scrappers, Unstoppable is kinda "meh" because of the 75% cap. Tankers can't put out the type of damage Brutes can, and are tougher overall, so Unstoppable is alot more skippable for them as well.
I can't imagine a ***/INV Brute without Unstoppable. Only /INV and /ELA Brutes can self cap their Resistances and, unlike /ELA Brutes, /INV Brutes can generate decent DEF to layer with it.
Granted, the crash stinks. But it's nothing a Blue and Dull Pain can't fix.
I also voted out Unstoppable. The 3 mins of glory IS pretty good but the crash and long recharge made me not rely on it and id rather have a constant buff to resistance (passives) than an occasionnal god-then-crash-and-burn mode. If you get your defense to smashing/lethal to 35% with just 1 mob in range (wich is easy with IO's) you'll see your survivability greatly improved, even more with DM's -to-hit.
I wouldn't skip the resists, and if possible Tough/Weave/Combat Jumping (yes i know you took fly im just suggesting ) can help also. Hope you enjoy /Inv
Beware what lurks in the Shadows
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I play mainly CoH, and until I read this, I totally forgot that Brutes' Resistance cap were the same as Tankers. I skipped Unstoppable on my Scrapper (I actually like it, just didn't have room), and was planning to do the same for my Brute. Now I have to re-think my plan
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Originally Posted by JulioThom70
To each his own, I guess. IMO, Unstoppable is more useful to a Brute than a Scrapper or Tanker. Unstoppable, with 3 RES gets about 82% RES to everything but Psi. Slotted up Passives and/or toggles can easily get you 90% RES to everything. For those 3 minutes, you are pretty much Unstoppable.
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Anyway, I would have said the the passives were skippable before they were buffed. Now I think they are much more useful, and worth taking. I also agree on Tough/Weave, but this would come at the cost of the Patron powers, which I'm thinking the OP doesn't want to do.
My DM/Inv skipped Unstoppable and i haven´t missed it. Only patron power i have is gloom since it was a pretty tight build.
I would never skip the passives.
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For the passives I drop Aegis psi resistance in them. An extra 6% helps on top of set bonuses. I hang with stone brutes all the time. I have outlasted plenty of them as well. I also dont need a kin to function which I like. |
Originally Posted by Tyrantula
This.
Keep your passives man. Not only for set IO's, but if you plan on off tanking anything substantial, you are gonna need everything you can get defense wise. My /Inv is a beast. I can stand with any /Stone and take just as much of a whuppin. Granted, I spent alot and did alot of negotiating on my build, but anyone on Virtue that has teamed with Super Destroyer has learned that there is a more fun alternative to /Stone. |
For those that dont like unstoppable I just save a large purple, dull pain and a large blue for the crash. Hit the purple just before the crash after hit dull pain and the blue and you are good to go.
Out of the four passives (three Res and Tough Hide) you can probably skip one. Not RPD, you have no choice there. And while you could skip Tough Hide, remember that it gives the same equivalent protection as the other three combined, AND resists Def Debuff. (RPD gives you that protection too, so you might skip it and make do with just half the Def Debuff resist)
So it probably comes down to whether you want the Slow protection, the End Drain protection, or both.
TI I don't know if I'd skip on a Brute. But, if you slot up RPD, and rely on Invincibility and Unyielding it might be okay. I have a Scrapper that skipped TI. Although it's kind of nice to have that enourmous protection against physical damage that is Inv's specialty, I also kind of like having a more balanced protection, even though it's lower overall.
The only thing is that having more protection on a Brute usually means you get more Fury to do more damage. So you almost don't need all the Primary if the Secondary is tough enough.
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you dont have to 'rely' on it, its there IF you need it. usually, i never need unstoppable on my ss/invul brute. its awesome the way it is. 70% smashing lethal resist, 50%+ to everything else except psi. i think it has 10% res to psi right now. also have 12% defense to psi. capped defense with a few baddies around me with 1900+ hp at all times and around 2800hp with DP on. with slow resists and drain resists to top it off, invul comes in very strong.|
Originally Posted by JamesTheShadow
I also voted out Unstoppable. The 3 mins of glory IS pretty good but the crash and long recharge made me not rely on it and id rather have a constant buff to resistance (passives) than an occasionnal god-then-crash-and-burn mode. If you get your defense to smashing/lethal to 35% with just 1 mob in range (wich is easy with IO's) you'll see your survivability greatly improved, even more with DM's -to-hit.
I wouldn't skip the resists, and if possible Tough/Weave/Combat Jumping (yes i know you took fly im just suggesting ) can help also. Hope you enjoy /Inv |
oh and did i mention my recovery rate is 4.08 EPS? and with toggles draining at only .57 EPS.. yea. powerful indeed
I am big a fan off both Dm and Invul. Together then can make a really nice toon with nice set of tools and very tough, but built badly it just ugly. Ya got to keep the passive. I know it hard to justify because they dont look like much but they are. You want to get tough and weave. Get your SL resist up 70ish. Get your set bonus focused on S/L def-Kinetic combats are king for the this. You want about 35-40 Def to leathal smashing and invincibility will get you the rest of the way easy and give you some insurance again debuffs. You can get high if you want but realisticly you dont need to. Then build set bonus for Fire/cold/eng/neg. You cant get those both to 30 def without much difficultly. Once you are well over 30 def in all the damage types with 20-30 resists to fire/cold/eng/neg and 70 s/l you have very nice layered toughness. Then its all about building your global recharge time. Lotg Recharge and purples where you dont have def.
Finally the down side to DM is PBAE recharge time. As damage dealers DC/SD suck. You can balance this out nicely with MU. Lightning ball and Fences are very nice aes. Add Soul Drain damage and damage buff to the mix and you have alot of effective damage. I am not a big fan of cones, Over all they are generall less effective then Target Radius AEs.
That brings us to shadown maul. Ditch it. With good Global Recharge time and Mu you would not need it. Having said that your stick with Shark cones and get your playing style it could be very effective. I would see it as a Pita but if you like angling your powers for biggest effect go for it.
End game though you are looking to cap your specific def and use Invincibility as debuff insurance. 25-30 resist c/f/eng/neg, 70+ resist S/L with 80+ global recharge.
Once your there or close you will find unstoppable useless because you will already be unstoppable with out the crash and a spare power.
I'm working on a massive overhaul of my level 50 DM/Inv Brute. As the first time I played either set or the AT, I made some poor choices I wish to rectify.
My question is this; popular opinion seems to be to skip Resist Elements and Energys. Granted that they only add about 10% resist to their damage types once slotted, they also have some other bonuses. Elements has a resist to Slows, and Energys to recovery drain and debuff. Are these simply too small to be worth keeping the powers?
My other choice was to leave out Invulnerability and Tough Hide (I didn't feel the 15-20% defense was doing much), but my mind changed on that so quickly my head's still spinning. ^_^;
"I want Johnny Sonata to open his Moon Casino so we can have some damn Wailers on the Moon." - Johnny_Butane
"The vet reward for 1200 months of play is we move the servers into your house." - BackAlleyBrawler