Questions for planning a Dark Melee/Energy Aura Brute

I'm currently toying with a Dark Melee/Energy Aura brute concept, trying to put together a build for it.

however, I've got a few questions, and I'm hoping for some advise:

1) Shadow Maul. If this were a Tanker or Scrapper, I wouldn't hesitate to take this power, but this is a Brute, and the 3 second cast time is certain to be bad for my fury. Should I skip it, and concentrait on making a buzzsaw build, or should I take it and just deal with the fury loss as it comes?

2) End Management; This combination includes 2 PBAoE End Recovery powers... but it it worth taking Dark Consumption with Energy Drain ten levels away? Keeping in mind that I am likely to take Stamina, at least while leveling.

3) Are any of the Patrons a must-have for this Brute? All seem to have their plusses and minuses, but I don't see anything sectacular in them. Am I missing some form of Synergy to make onemore appealing than the others.

I'm likely to think of others as I go, but these are the ones I have right now.

Thanks for any help!

I can't comment on the EA side of your build, but I can add my experience with DM.

1) I like Shadow Maul, but I didn't take it till 47. I haven't really noticed issues with Fury generation, but as the number of mobs stack up, my Fury comes from their attacks more than mine. Shadow Maul also hits like a truck, easily up there with SL and MG. It's good enough to use against one mob if you have a break in your attack chain, but it soars when you hit 2+.

2) My secondary is Fiery Aura, so I also have a second end management power. A good portion of the time I only use 1 of the 2, but against Carnies, Mu, missed ToF Sappers, having the second one makes things much easier. If your build is tight you can probably get by with just 1. Also, I have stamina as well and still enjoy having both.

3) It really depends on what you need to fill. DN from Soul Mastery is incredible for staying alive. Mu has the better AoE powers. I can't attest to Mace or Leviathan. I went with Mu since DM is light on the AoE and Fences (Targeted AoE) works better than TT (Cone) with Burn from /FA.

I have a DM/EA brute that i am working on. Here is my 2 cents.

1)I took shadow Maul simply because of lack of AOE'S. It is very skippable though. If you don't like the long animations...skip it.
With all the changes to DM last year when I13 went live i dont think too many people go for the "buzzsaw" DM anymore. I still loaded Shadow punch with Damage procs though on my DM/SR brute.

2)With Energy Drain's much faster recharge times....Dark Consumption is not needed at all.

3)You might want to go with Ghost Widow's Patron Powers. Darkest Night is a great debuff that goes quite nicely with EA. The - to hit debuff really helps when fighting large groups...especially if you solo alot.

DM is the games best kept secret.....enjoy your toon.

By the way....i have been playing COV for 4 years and this is my very 1st post.

Shadow Maul dishes out better AoE than one would think at first. Having recently run a dm/wp brute to 50, I wouldn't skip SM.

Since you sound like you're not worried about burning respecs, you could take DC for a touch more AoE damage until you get ED and then respec out of DC.

I went with Soul Mastery. Darkest Night's mitigation is very nice. The end cost is high, but as an /EA user, you won't have to worry about that. On top of that, the best DarkMelee attack chain for a brute includes Gloom.

On my DM/WP, I drop DarkestNight, tighten up the spawn to build fury and get them closer, hit EnergyDrain to cap my HP, SoulDrain to bump damage, DarkObliteration, ShadowMaul and then go to town dropping the weakened enemies.

I would skip dark consumption and go for energy drain. That is if you are taking stamina.

Yeah after looking at Energy Drain's numbers I would say DC is not needed. It is up more often than both DC and Consume combined. The only thing I would say though is that DC (like Consume) only needs .52 end to fire off while Energy Drain needs 13. So if you find yourself in a near empty scenario, it won't help you. But again, with a 60 second recharge it should be up enough that it will only be an issue if you are hit by lots of end drain in a short time span.

It's been quite a while since I've played my DM/EA Brute but based on my recollection I wouldn't recommend going staminaless. DM/EA can do it just fine, no question about that IMO. The thing I didn't care for about it was having to watch my blue bar all the time. That and the time spent filling up my endurance was time I wasn't doing anything else, including attacking.

If I was building one now I'd probably take Stamina and Energy Drain, skipping Dark Consumption.

Superspeed helps mobility more than swift. Yeah it suppresses once you're already there, but then you're already there. Make sure you have them taunted when you're in the fight and it's not a problem. So now that you don't need stamina or swift, is hurdle worth taking all by itself? And people who think health is really helpful to a brute who is moving through mobs at the pace he should be are smoking crack. If you want to stand around and wait for your green bar to slowly creep up while your fury quickly drops to nothign,t hat's on you. If you are going to move like you should, you'll either eat greens, take aid self, or team with a corruptor. Health has no time to be helpful.

Fitness is pretty worthless in my opinion. Yeah, without stamina you do have to watch your blue bar. That's the only thing. But you have a billion other toons on your account right? Every last oneo f them has fitness, right? They all are built pretty much the same way, right? Now you have a chance to have one that you can build in all kinds of crazy ways that you never could with your other ones because you had to take fitness with all of them. You can do that with this one because this is just about the only one you will ever have that will do just fine without stamina. As long as you watch the blue bar. And trust me, with DC, ED, CP, and overload, you just about can't go wrong.

My DM/EA is my main, he's a born survivor, damage isn't half bad either. I'd stick with stamina, and have found the fitness pool worthwhile. I also have combat jump. I cut shadow maul, I have a nice chain of smite, shadow punch, siphon life & midnight grasp as well as the occasional kick for good measure. Energy Drain is excellent and from the patrons I have gloom and darkest night.

Not able to post my build - oh well