Building a Brute for an unusual team

(I'm X-posting from the Brute forum because this board is where a lot of the big brains and melee AT experts hang out, and it tends to get a lot more traffic overall.)

In the coming week I am going to start running in a set 8-man 1-50 villain team which will level primarily through Strike Forces and other signature story arcs.
Another objective of this team is to play and learn character types that we are unfamiliar with. For me that will be a Brute, since I have never gotten one of those (or a Tanker) past 25. As this secondary objective suggests, the team composition will be... interesting.

So far the plan is for 3 VEAT's (2 Crabs and a Widow), 2 Doms (both Earth/*) and 2 Corrs (Arch/Traps and Fire/TA, who I imagine will play a lot like Doms as well) and my n00b Brute.
Any thoughts on what type of Brute might work best in this setup?
-What might be easy to pick up for someone new to the AT?
-With all that control... is a single target big hitter better than an AoE-oriented primary?
-Would a +defense or +resist secondary work better?
-Without healing and buffs other than the VEAT toggles, will a set or sets with endurance management and self-heal powers be important?
-General input on what powers might sync well with this team?
-Slotting suggestions?

When this project was announced I already had two Brute concepts in mind... Claws/Energy and Electric/Shield (some others in the group have already suggested that the latter might run into endo and health management problems on our team).
Any feedback on how either of those concepts might actually work out?

Thanks.

Can't go wrong with anything with that team. For someone who hasn't played brutes before, claws and willpower are very friendly and bloom early (something that tends to be a big factor with static teams). Might try one or both. But like I said, you'll probably be fine with any choice.

I would go for something AoE heavy primary combined with WP or Elec for easy times.

You're going to run with a team that'll be over the softcap with tons of controls on top of that. You could play a brute with brawl only and be just fine.

That said, to get the best bang for your buck on such a team, I'd suggest a resistance based brute with a damage aura and an AoE oriented primary. Beyond that, I don't think specifics really matter.

With a team like that I'd focus on high single target damage and good surviability for hard targets like Heroes or Monsters. Energy Melee has one of the highest if not the highest single target dps as well as huge burst damage coming from Energy Transfer and Total Focus.

Secondary I'd say either SR, Shields, WP, or Invul will do well.

Me I'd make an Energy/Shield and call it a day.

I say dual blade/ will power. DB gives you good ST and AoE dmg. The AoEs of DB will make up for the weak aggro aura of WP. And its flashy!

WP stacked with all that def would put you at def cap on top of high hit points, regen, and res. Its also endurance friendly.

Honestly, with that team set up, everything is gonna melt anyway even if you just used brawl and the origin temp power and you could pretty much stand there with all toggles off with any set you pick and not get hit.

with 3 VEAT's and the corr Traps FFG, you'll be at soft cap most of the time, i'd go with a resist based, best i'd say is /EleA it has the quickness, the damage aura, the self heal, the endred powers, ect... as for primary, you got alot of control in that team too so i'd go with somthing more exotic type damage, dont need much of any side effects in your attacks, i'd go with FireM, gives you a good variety in all pure damage both direct and dot, ST and AoE, and with all the lock-down you'll havein that team, you wont have ta worry 'bout runners

SS/Elec or SS/Fire

Also, is that Dahler Mendhi (sp?) in your avatar?

I would consider going fire/elec.

I took one to 38 and rebuild her as dm/elec. However the biggest hole in the set (for me on that build) has been corrected with energize. If I had energize on that ITF that made up my mind, she probably would have gone to 50.

I would also focus on high single target damage with your damage aura handing it out to the minions.

You can sap after 35, and those VEATS can basically soft cap you, depending on how they're built.

There's 2 stickied "results" threads that show the highest dps possible(with an extreme build) and the highest dps with a more average build. These compare scrappers and brutes.

We ran our first short session tonight, up to ~level 9.
I decided to go with Electric/Electric for AoE attacks, a resist set with endurance management and a self-heal and for concept reasons (character is "The Mechanical Turk").
The other news of note is that the Widow was replaced by a Claws/SR Brute... the rest of the team remains the same...

Thanks all for the input.


PS: Yes, that is Daler Mehndi.