A little help w/ my SS/DA Brute

OK, don't start by saying delete and redo with something like SS/WP, it's not going to happen. I started this guy a few years ago on a 14 day trial and have just started playing the game full time a couple of weeks ago. I'm up to level 15, almost 16 and was looking for some advice as to what powers I should take in the future. Right now I've got Punch, Hay maker, Jab and Knockout Blow from SS. I've got Dark Embrace and Death Shroud from DA. I also have Hover, Air Superiority and Fly from Flight. I think I'll eventually respec Hover out of there but I grabbed it when it first came up. I'd like to farm with this guy but I also like joining teams and doing missions so I would like to be versitile.

WOW, somehow just saying thank you doesn't seem quite adequate. This is way more info then I could have ever expected to see. I am extremely grateful.

Don't forget to slot a shedload of endurance cost reduction enhances while levelling up, as SS/DA is pretty much the biggest end hog in the game, in fact I remember a lot of my old mates laughing when I told them I had one at 50, but with enough IO love, its end is fine now, especially if I use effective toggle management (say I'm fighting guys with only guns and swords, I turn off murky cloud, or if I'm fighting like air thorn casters I'll probably turn off dark embrace and certainly turn off tough as that's the biggest end hog for what it does.

Oh and don't forget to manage use of Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear to suit your needs, as if you don't need them on they'll actually hurt your fury if you leave them on (not to mention the massive end drain that cloak of fear puts on your system) as enemies that can't fight you generate no fury for you to hit them harder.

I'll throw a couple of things in here based on my experience with both sets (I have a SS/WP 50 and a Ele/DA 50)

For superstrength:
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- Keep in mind that as of right now, Brawl will have no endurance cost come issue 16. That will make it a great fury-builder. Nothing to worry about right now, obviously.

- As was suggested earlier, drop either punch or jab for one of the attack powers from your power pools.

- For your fury-building attack chain, you really should only have 3 attack powers. More than that, and you'll start to stretch yourself extremely thin on slots.

On my SS/WP Brute, I went with: Boxing > Punch > Haymaker

- What may hang you up is taking attack powers from both Fighting and Flight. Again, be wary of too many attack powers. If you're not married to Flight for your travel power, consider Leaping. You can pick up Combat Jumping (minor defense boost and immobilize protection, negligible endurance cost) and Super Jump, which is a fast and fun travel power.

Combat Jumping will allow you to skip Cloak of Darkness in Dark Armor if you want (see below regarding dark armor).

For Dark Armor:
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- As mentioned above, slot 2 endurance reduction IOs/SOs before you start slotting for damage resist. These powers are endurance hogs.

- Skip Death shroud until after you get Stamina (also mentioned above). The end cost is 0.50/sec base, which is ridiculous.

- Cloak of Darkness is a great power if you want to have some defense in your build (I had good success with this), but bear in mind that it makes your character very difficult to see on your screen, even with particle effects turned up to max. It doesn't use the typical stealth effect -- it turns you into a floating cloud of shadowy dust, and you stay that way whether or not you're in combat.

- Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear are not great for brutes. They will severely impact your fury generation, because they will prevent mobs from attacking you altogether, and maintaining high levels of fury without being constantly swung at is difficult, to say the least.

Additionally, they are magnitude 2 and 3, respectively. Which means that they will work reliably against minions but not lieutenants and bosses.




Hope some of that helped. Ultimately you're going to find your own way through the build through practical use and general knowledge of game mechanics, but the forum nerds are a great resource, all the same.

Oh, also: Soul Mastery loves you.

Open a fight with Darkest night > Dark Obliteration, and if you have Cloak of darkness running (along with combat jumping, minor though it is), you really won't get hit very often. When you do, Dark Regeneration will easily take care of it.

CoF and OG are easily skippable. After you hit 50, and start getting cash loaded up, and start thinking about IOs, combat jumping and cloak of darkness will make your life a lot easier.

I have a SS/DA it was my first COV character and after I hit 40 I stopped playing it for a year. I would try everynow and again and get a level but the END costs were too frustrating.

IO's helped fix a lot of that. Plus a few accolades. The problem was I wanted to Speed Brutes. But DA plays slower for me. Not to mention what happens to your END when Rage and hasten crashes happen close together. Then tag on 17 END from a Dark Regen and you have dipped pretty low.

My advice is be careful with the timing and END use of certain powers. Shut down what you don't need.

And get a -4 KB IO recipe slotted in there.

Death Shroud is skippable until after Stamina, but don't put it of too long: ove time, it will be your single greatest source of damage, and the most END-efficient once you get it slotted up.

You'll want the fitness pool for health and stamina, and probably the fighting pool for tough and weave. Since fighting forces you to take either boxing or kick anyway, I'd recommend picking boxing up as a filler attack. Brawl, with 0-END cost after I16, should help a lot.

I don't run OG or CoF on my dark/dark brute. I tried them, but they interfere with building fury too much. If you plan on teaming a lot, put either one into a secondary build that is more geared towards survival and less towards damage, if you enjoy tanking for a team. DA takes a big investment to make it a tanking build, but it can be done. With SS, OG is probably your better choice: lower END cost, and the ability to stack stuns.

I almost forgot it had been so long.

For a short time I tanked for a few stalkers. Run in COF on and gather up a few and it was AS city. They loved it I would get the slow kill on which came to be called the Freak Cook Out they would mop up and I would mitigate quite a bit.