Solo Brute advice - starting with no Inf

I took a long long break from CoX, and am enjoying the game again. In the past I mostly played Blue Side controllers. Initially, I thought I would enjoy playing a dominator since I liked controllers so much. Alas, I found dominators much more frustrating and ended up shelving CoV, more or less.

I have recently been playing my first scrapper on blue side and I find I like the frantic pace, and the "KILL KILL KILL!!!" mindset.

I would like to translate that to a CoV experience so it seemed to me that Brute would be a decent AT to start at, and I have come to ask your advice.

Caveats
I will have little to no influence, apart from what I earn as I level (I may be able to convert some Influence to Infamy, but all my blue side toons are poor as Influence was basically worthless when I left CoX)

I solo almost 100% of the time due to wife aggro

I would like this toon to be able to farm infamy for any later villains I bring up, so Farming at 50 is a goal.

I do not PvP, ever

Anyone have some advice as to what powersets work well for the solo player?

SS/WP is cruise control for cool. A bit dull for my tastes, but good all-around durability and hard to screw up.

In terms of melee sets, SS, SM, and DM are all quite solid. SS offers decent ST, good AoE, and extra damage from Rage, SM has good ST damage and the extra safety of Fault, and DM has superior ST damage, a nice secondary effect, and a self-heal. In the armor sets, /WP as mentioned is good all-around and has endurance mitigation, while /SD and /Fire offer extra offensive capability at the cost of some simplicity in achieving mitigation. /Stone has superior survivability if you're keen on that, but also has notable drawbacks that are particularly harmful for Brutes. Other primaries and secondaries are also functional, but may take more finesse to perform to your liking.

You may want to try Doms again, though. They've been buffed recently.

With respect to your money situation: merely playing ordinary missions and selling what drops to vendors or on the black market should get you enough for SOs or common IOs, which are entirely sufficient for leveling. Once you reach 50, your natural earning ability and patient bids on the market will allow you to kit yourself out quite nicely, and after that it's a matter of how much patience you have for farming and/or market gaming - I have little of either, which is why my builds tend to be modestly priced.

On a brute? All of them. Seriously. But for farming late game? FireMelee/Shield Defense. Many also say SS/Shield, but I hate the crash from rage.

Sell everything you get on the market when it comes to salvage and recipes. You'll quickly figure out which recipes are considered trash and those you can sell at any store.

Doing this you'll have enough inf at level 12 and 17 for DOs and enough for SOs at 22 and 27.

At 27, start crafting basic level 30 IOs. They provide about the same benefit as a SO, but you never have to replace them like you do SOs. (Exceptions, try to get a Steadfast +Defense Unique as soon as you can. Same goes for a Performance Shifter Chance for +End to throw into Stamina.)

By the time you hit 50, you should be considerably well off financially and can then outfit your brute for heavy duty farming.

Sounds like you you'd be happy with Super Strength/Willpower (SS/WP). Willpower is renowned as a strong all-around performer with just SOs or generic IOs. Super Strength gets Rage which gives you a big to-hit and damage bonus at the expense of 10 seconds of downtime every couple of min. The main reason SS is a common primary for farm builds is that you can (as funds permit, over time) pile on a ton of +recharge bonuses which will let you Footstomp your way to glory.

Make absolutely sure when you get Footstomp to put in a Fore Feedback Chance for Recharge proc. It'll go off frequently when you're surrounded.

I would suggest a DM/WP, Stone/WP, SS/WP brute.

EDIT: Ah farming, SS/WP then

I'd also suggest solving poverty via the market. I started on a fresh server with a level 1, and had a level 50 with a fully (non purple) IOd build and 3BN in the bank in about 6 weeks. It's not difficult and there are guides out there.

To somewhat jump in on someone else's thread, but in a related way, which of these 3 will eventually make the best budget farming brute? I think all are non-ideal and maybe even terrible but I happen to have all of these in the high 30s already. Just wondering which to push to 50.

Elec/WP
SS/Energy Aura
SS/Elec

Thanks,

Lewis

Thanks for the replies. I know /SD is uber, with enough cash, but I dont actually like shields for any concepts I want to play. Uber, but not my thing. So, if /WP is the second most effective, and more effective on zero cash, I'll use the Elec/WP.

Thanks!

Lewis

Unicycle- I'd just like to point out that your SS/Elec will likely be able to outperform the Elec/WP when it comes to farming. Remeber that farming is all about finding a map that maximizes your inf-xp-tickets-merits-whatever/minute. Would your Elec/WP be more survivable in a variety of contexts, yes. But the extra damage from rage/dam aura/footstomp as opposed to just the one big hit from Elec is noticable. Once you reach the survuvability index for whatever your fighting, it becomes all about killing stuff quickly. Find a map with energy damage critters and footstomp/ball lighting/elec shackles/lightning field those fodder into oblivion.

Slot in a Force Feedback +rech as mentioned above, and between hasten and lightning reflexes you'll be spamming AoE's nonstop.

My main villain side farmer is a SS/WP, and man do I miss having that dam aura.

Cool. My SS/Elec is the character I like conceptually the most anyway.

Thanks to all!

Lewis