Dark/Shield, When abusing AAO+SD against enemies that are weak enough not to kill you but strong enough not to die from SD, has the highest possible DPS output.
But you said no uber builds.
There was no need to cross post. Many scrapper players also play brutes. There's a reason for this. The two ATs, when solo, are close enough in all things that they might as well be the same AT. It's only when outside buffs come in that brutes can pull ahead.
Fury vs crits is a wash.
Brutes get higher base HP.
Brutes have to work harder than scrappers to maintain higher damage output.
So is it a dm/sd brute? Nope. You're not going to have saturated AAO&SD all the time. You're not even going to have that most of the time.
Until softcapping, SD isn't all that great. You're forced to doublestack active defense and take a power that doesn't buff your own defense just to get close to the DDR that SR can push out.
So what's the best for soloing AVs? Considering that most of the time you're going to run out of AAO-SD fuel while fighting one, probably FM/SD brute. Unless softcapping and high recharge gets too expensive. If so, then FM/WP.
Be well, people of CoH.
I haven't run any numbers, but Dark Melee/Shield Defense already comes with huge damage buffs, so the additional buff from Fury isn't going to help as much as it normally would. So while I'll guess that in general, Brutes would be superior for the job, in this case, I'd probably go with the Scrapper.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
Videos of Other Stupid Scrapper Tricks
Im not extremely number savy in terms of AT stats, so I may be completely off.
But i would go with the scrapper. Although the advantage of fury poses an interesting point, as Bill pointed out, a few crits, and the scrapper can jump ahead of the brute.
In terms of survivability, im more comfortable with a scrapper. Something just FEELS stronger, more resilient.
Not sure if anything ive brought to the table is worthwhile, but i do browse the forums daily, and stop at most posts where the above two player's names pop up. So if i cant help, they surely can.
Flux Tempest-Electric Melee/Willpower
Zaunte's Rage-Claws/Invulnerability
I think the AVs on the blue side tend to be easier for the melee damage-n-survive type of AV soloing... but the numbers come out ahead for the brute... primarially because of the +hitpoints. Other things are relatively equal.
I gotta make pain. I gotta make things right. I gotta stop what's comin'. 'Least I gotta try.
I played both, but not exhaustively. What I can say from my experience is that a scrapper can crit right at the beggining of combat while a brute will have to power up their Fury bar, a bar that does like to dwindle fast and forces a frantic pace while being hindered by other players in a team.
That said Fury acts much like Rage and feeds damage auras (which do not crit for scrappers) and does the same for epic powers (though those crit for scrappers).
Now one thing brutes do have is 'better' epic pools. I'm looking in particular to the Darkness one with a cone and a fireball power. Or the Leviathan cone that does -res and can be spammed.
For those alone I'd bring a brute to the blue side since I can't be hassled with playing red.
A Dark/Shield Scrapper is better than a Dark/Shield Brute. But a Fire/SR Brute is better than a Fire/SR Scrapper
The more damage buffs available to a Scrapper, the closer he'll get to reach (and surpass) Brute levels of damage
Scrapper VS Brute, soloing AV's, who's better, who's faster, and who's easier? Three diffrent questions. Paramaters: No insp, no temp powers, no outside buffs. IO's ok, but no extreme builds that most people would never get to. I'm talking in the Billion dollar range. Just the powers an AT comes with and the IO +'s you can attain with that build. I'll reserve my pick now as either a Dark/Shields Brute. AAO + Fury + survivability= Safest, faster, and better. I maybe wrong (strong possiblity) but, this is why I posed this question. Have fun and enjoy the knowledge and debate.
(Disclaimer: I realize I am posing this question on the Scrappers forums; fear not I posed the same question on on the Brute Forums, I'll get the results and post them)