SS/SD still viable with general IOs?

This is my first brute. After reading through just about every SS/SD, SS/* and */SD thread for the first 20 pages of the forum it seems like an interesting build with good ST and decent AOE.

i've essentially played a myriad of scrappers using Kat, DM, FM, WP and SR. I just can't get back into a build yet so I wanted to give a Brute a try.

I'd be starting out with zero inf, would play mostly solo and look at hitting red side PVE content as much as possible. I've read that SS/SD is still AV viable, although expensive. That doesn't worry me too much though.

So, as a leveling character, I get that I'm gonna have early end issues, will have to perma rage, with hasten etc. I'm so impatient with painful leveling, ADHD acting up again. But, with just general IOs and SOs, will it be viable to level or somewhat painful?

Also, any ideas on leveling builds would be awesome. Most of what I've seen are end game builds. Even out of ThugsRus' guide it seems to be geared toward end game, although the lvl 40 build seems to maybe be a leveling build, but it was a bit unclear and I honestly have no idea if it is or not.

Thanks ahead of time for the help

In my experience, both scrappers and brutes are going to find themselves pretty squishy using Shields without significant IO investment. The best you can achieve without using any set IO's and including Weave is about 30% defense.

I'd like to point out that 30% defense is nothing to sneeze at. You're still fairly robust at that point. Your biggest hurdle is going to be endurance cost. With SS being a very end heavy set, you're going to want to put significant endurance reduction in all of your attacks. There's nothing you can do about the endurance loss associated with rage crash, so you'll have to learn to deal with it.

With just Common IOs SS/SD has great burst AoE and can take quite a beating, but can have issues with surviving if you're tanking for the team with no support. You'll be fighting the endurance bar more than anything else.

Later on, when you have patrons, you can run into a mob, Footstomp, Shield Charge, Ball Lightning and Electric Cages everything to death. Before you know it you'll have enough money to start investing in things to keep your blue bar up high. Performance Shifter Chance for +end (triple slot stamina with that and 2 other Perf. Shifter IOs for good bonuses) and keep an eye out for the Miracle and Numina uniques. Run an ITF and do a random merit roll. You'll eventually get both, or get other things you can use to sell on the market to afford them.

There's no need to try and IO out on the way to 50, but once you get there you'll realize it's a lot easier to make money and earn good items than you might think.

I agree with Panzerwaffen... Much like any primarily defense based set, you will feel squishy until you hit at least 40% defense... And that last 5% is what really makes you feel strong.

Without a fair ton of IO set bonuses... You're going to hate life.

And I have a level 50 SS/Shield. I hated life until I got to 40% defense. And I wasn't really happy with him until he hit the soft cap. Even when you hit the soft cap you're gonna wanna carry at least a couple columns of purples for when you get hit with defense debuffs. You can go from godmode to dead in seconds fighting anything worth fighting if a defense debuff lands.

When I was leveling my SS/SD, I got my defense to about 33% to melee and ranged. Then I just carried lucks around. One luck got popped every minute or so to keep myself at the cap, with new inspirations coming in constantly to turn into lucks or whatever I needed. I lead the group and absorbed the alpha strikes (or I tanked, stupid recent "brutes aren't tanks" thread) during my entire run from 1-50.

Before I got the gaussians set and steadfast IO, I popped two lucks a lot. This worked, too, but it was kind of annoying. Once you get to 33%, just having to pop one luck really makes the process easy.

Leo_G: You've never played /Shield, have you? The 33% figure he's quoting is WITH combat jumping, AND weave. And the Steadfast Protection +3% defense global. And the entire set of six Gaussians.

This is why Shield is expensive to build on a Brute.

Also, Hand Clap is a terrible power. I don't care if you like it. I don't care how many of your friends like it. Anything that throws 3/4 of the spawn out of your foot stomp radius, and leaves them disoriented so that they stagger away from you, is BAD.You're much better off using the slot you would have used for Hand Clap to get Weave a little sooner, or work towards aid self (Which should be in every /shield build, period), or hell, even take manuevers to save yourself a few million in IO costs.

Almost anything is better than Hand Crap.

Yeah, I don't believe in Aid Self either. Honestly, without Sets, SS/Shield can do just fine if you're teaming or don't ramp up the difficulty too much while solo'ing. My 38 SS/Shield was teaming with just 1 Kin and we were doing +3/x8 Rikti missions and, in general, we were wasting them. If I had one AT that boosted defense, I woulda been golden.

SS/SD is definately -VIABLE- with just SOs/Regular IOs. It's just not uber like it is when setted out or like a SS/WP is with just generics.