Debating secondary for Claws Brute

I'm not sure what to take as a secondary powerset for a Claws Brute. I've narrowed it to three choices, each with their own virtues, imo: Invuln, SR, and WP. My playstyle, which may be a little unpopular here, is to build my brutes as light tankish (think a Sherman vs. an M1 Abrams) with good to great damage dealing capabilities with Fury running. I'll also be running this Claws Brute with SO's until I can generate enough cash to IO set him out. I have no end-game experience with any of these powersets on a brute, but I do have a 50 /stone and a 50 /Elec, which both play much differently atm from the sets I'm considering. I've tried all three powersets on test up to level 10, and I like em all for different reasons so far.


The problem I'm having is, I know the SR will be easiest and cheapest to max out effectiveness, but without having a PBAoE taunt, how well would I be able to hold agro for my teams with just taunt from Claws and maybe toss in a spin or two? Is Spin worth taking, would you think?

WP is great, but again, the taunt is lacking, and I'm unsure how well WP is in the end game on a Brute. There are times I have an issue taking the Alpha on my 50 WP Tanker, and I'm worried this will be an issue pre-sets as well on this one.

Lastly, the Invuln will have a great PBAoE Taunt, but will be lacking in survivability until sets, imo. Plus that whole Psi hole scares the bejeezus outta me, as redside has a lot of Arachnos that like to use it. Toxic in Elec Armor was bad enough, I can't imagine what it's like having that on an LRSF (my /Stone has built up sets to help close it, but at today's prices....ugh!).


So, I guess I'm looking mainly for advice on how well each set does in the end game more than anything, and any suggestions the folks here can give me.

Thanks!!

/SR has a PBAOE taunt. It's in Evasion.

I say Energy Aura. Then you can be Strong and *Sexy*.

Not to be confused with the Strong and Pretty WM/EA.

Well, since you haven't posted a build it's hard to know exactly what we are working with here. My Claws/SR scrapper opted to drop Shockwave which is heresy to some folk.

Best advice is for you to make that determination yourself depending on playstyle preferences.

Out of the three choices you offered, I would heartily recommend Claws/SR and fully agree with Spin being must have.

Well i would say /fire having fire embrace will make it worth it also since claws has low end cost it can only benefit with fire me thinks.

Here's an idea for the pure SO build I've come up with so far. Feel free to tweak it or make suggestions you feel would benefit me. I'll miss having Elude, but I was thinking Taunt may be a better choice for teams anyways, especially once I do put in IO sets and have softcap or higher values for defense.


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Claws SR: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Strike -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), RechRdx(5), EndRdx(7)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(7), DefBuff(9), EndRdx(9), EndRdx(45)
Level 2: Focused Senses -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(11), DefBuff(11), EndRdx(13), EndRdx(46)
Level 4: Agile -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(13), DefBuff(15)
Level 6: Slash -- Acc(A), Acc(15), Dmg(17), Dmg(17), RechRdx(19), EndRdx(19)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(21), DefBuff(21)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(23), EndRdx(23)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(25)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump(A)
Level 16: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(27), Heal(27)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(29), EndMod(29), EndMod(46)
Level 22: Evasion -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(31), DefBuff(31), EndRdx(31), Taunt(45), EndRdx(46)
Level 24: Focus -- Acc(A), Acc(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), RechRdx(34), EndRdx(34)
Level 26: Dodge -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(34), DefBuff(36)
Level 28: Lucky -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(36), DefBuff(36)
Level 30: Spin -- Acc(A), Acc(37), Dmg(37), Dmg(37), RechRdx(39), EndRdx(39)
Level 32: Taunt -- RechRdx(A), Taunt(39)
Level 35: Quickness -- Run(A)
Level 38: Follow Up -- Acc(A), Acc(40), Dmg(40), Dmg(40), RechRdx(42), EndRdx(42)
Level 41: Eviscerate -- Acc(A), Acc(42), Dmg(43), Dmg(43), RechRdx(43), EndRdx(45)
Level 44: Boxing -- Acc(A)
Level 47: Tough -- ResDam(A), ResDam(48), EndRdx(48), EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Weave -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(50), DefBuff(50), EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Fury
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1499;601;1202;HEX;|
|78DAA593DB6ED3401445EDD8A9734F9DD0A49794368196865253DEB83C2041A9846|
|8A4B611020122B260DA188213C50E94373E805FE047E027B8F339E11CCF9E20FB95|
|48D92BD9B3CFCC99B1A773B657D0B40FB7353D7F77E00641EFCE78128A4C6712BAA|
|137F43364BE0BD6BBC796A6697634D6EB8881104E34D090CE9E38117E209CEE6424|
|C6BD637132106722B0EFFB7D31167EE8A81F85C3E170E01C0877E4F9A7B9E84F772|
|4C44BE9EF7BA12F82A0883FA7FD90528D7B23EF85239739106F3D37ECBB7EAFE306|
|A118BF5FA4A6DAF4F5B8BBE8334D47300D2DA568489A8AB6E49C25F995737A546B6|
|A26C6C08C22B257C06F5C821A1D995C82056477C0EF0443D6A40C95014BE02BCAA6|
|B18F34FA2F81F3469C15ECA382F96B440BF35B98EF5C823F085964B2A8AFD9FFEA9|
|92D625EF690CA636C31C13A658A32A3154BD24B935796736BE5AAF42CF26CAC67E7|
|A4B79C209F6D55668CEA9CF41A09EE80BF080B329B5EC09ECE27A99E553D7EFE3EB|
|18EB3ADE34CD7158D389BD86713B53F094BD8C712D6698217C0DF8415645612638A|
|AF69BE55F4B08AB52F2A1A716EA2874DF4F086B8266BF53535863DFE21B470F62D9|
|CFD80F21BD18B3D4D6F608D4B8A469C6DCCD7C65A43E216FADC424D1BBC6C2468C7|
|EF864EDCC6BBB18D1A833C07CFD8A948EFAAA215A749DC457617E7762D49641BE6E|
|CDE6BEADE1F98B3FB4C17427A87262CF274F4BB1FE51EB0F75F9FCF05D543F6885F|
|E92ECB4396472C8F599EB03C6579C6F29CA5C732FD32AB2E5FE7866EB0DC64B9C5F|
|29143165FC73C4B81A5C8526229B3CCB354596A2CCB2C9F58A67F0164BAC236|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

See, here we are at one of those "playstyle preference" decisions I was talking about. I would totally agree with what Demobot posted - dropping Eviscerate for Shockwave - but for slightly different reasons.

Using nothing but SO's and working with the build you posted, you won't quite be at the softcap (45% def to melee, ranged and AoE.) So, using Shockwave to blunt the alpha as Demobot suggested is a perfectly valid (and some would say superior) suggestion.

Once softcap is achieved, things change dramatically, so dulling the alpha strike isn't as much of a priority. At the softcap, I opted for a heavy-hitting melee cone instead of Shockwave.

One other note - I would seriously suggest you look at the order that you've selected some of the powers in your build, (ex. Follow Up.) This is your "build up" type power and I would suggest taking it far earlier than what you have listed.

/WP is straight up sexy once you start getting IOs in it. seriously, it is just insane.

Not knocking /SR, you just said you hadn't made a decision yet. Figured I would make it harder. Cus really, all three with claws will just be nuts. In fact, everything with claws just looks sexy buildwise.