I always find a cold dom helpful. The + defense, +hp, and debuffs are just great.
Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.
"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality
Kin and Cold are both very good with a Brute. But, since you plan on playing both, Sonic is a good choice for the shields and the ease of toggling Disruption Field and not having to worry about it again.
[U][URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251594"][/URL][/U]
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Agreed. Play a /elec brute and youll be smashing through most of the game in no time.
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Originally Posted by Fiery-Enforcer
Kin and Cold are both very good with a Brute. But, since you plan on playing both, Sonic is a good choice for the shields and the ease of toggling Disruption Field and not having to worry about it again.
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I am actually playing a SS/Fire Brute and he is insanely awesome 
I like the thought of sonic though. Is that -res shield really noticeable?
"I have always been a fan of science fiction. It all started when my parents forced me to go to church when I was a child."
The shields would provide ~23.5% resist to everything (except psi), and the bubble shield an additional ~17.7. You would be walking around with 41% resist to everything (-psi), plus your additional shields, which would put you at or near the resistance cap on all that stuff.
You would be nigh unkillable, as long as you don't stand in -res fields. 
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
No, I meant that sonic shield that makes the enemies res go down when I cast it on the brute. Is that noticeable?
"I have always been a fan of science fiction. It all started when my parents forced me to go to church when I was a child."
aaah, I can't say for sure. I mean in theory it would be like slotting a -2 SO of extra damage (pre-ED) to all of your attacks, so it should make a noticeable difference. I can't honestly say I have ever been on the receiving end of that buff though.
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)
I won't dig into number but from experience (my friend has a AR/Sonic wich I helped level to 50) id say yes, its VERY noticeablle. It makes any EB/AV feel soft to the touch paired with the single target debuff. It adds a lot of awesome to the smash.
Beware what lurks in the Shadows
I find corruptors are the best for brutes. Masterminds can be functionally as awesome, if not better in some cases, but that comes from themselves being great, and they can actually overshadow a brute.
From the brute standpoint, corruptors are the best. The corruptor benefits from the brute getting the spotlight, as they are susceptible to high damage, while the brutes like the fury from the spotlight and the buffs/debuffs their squishy compadres bring. Also, corruptors are excellent at finishing up for any damage spread around. (Via scourge.)
The sets, as I see 'em: (in order, form the brute standpoint)
1. Kinetics: the only way a brute will ever reach its damage cap, with a great heal, a means of giving endless endurance, and makes good attacks come back fast. The downside? No survivability. (Outside of the heal, which can possibly miss, or die with its target) This one's a fave, but if the brute is not built for toughness, they might have trouble as this set gives little to boost life expectancy outside of KILL STUFF FASTER!
2. Cold: gives the defense and HP that makes a brute think they're a tank, along with some great debuffs to make stuff die faster, and hit softer. Also has a longish endurance booster. No heal, but still so god you won't need that much. (just have a few greens on the side)
3. Radiation: stuff dies faster, hits less and softer, and can boost damage/recharge/endurance. With a crazed brute, the toggles might die often, though. Has a heal, but that's gravy. Destroys 'Hero' class foes.
4. Sonic: makes good use of those high resistance caps, bring the 'hula hoop of doom' a magic ring about a brute that greatly boosts their damage. Great at softening hard targets as well. No heal, however, so best for brutes that can heal themselves. Also great for a debuffing primary, as there's plenty of time for the corr to help out damage-wise. (I would recommend sonic blast for extra -resistance, or dark blast for the groovy immobilize and some -to hit.)
5. Dark: stuff lands hits less, takes more damage, and goes slower. Toggle issue, and some controls might slow enemies a bit. Still good, and has a monster heals. Very good vs. Heroes.
6. Thermal: The shields are good, the heals help, and the debuffs are good one single hard targets. Has a damage boost there too. High maintenance at times, though.
7. Pain: good extra damage and resistance, and healing as well. Maintenance is there, though.
8. Traps: a nice forcefield, plus many tricks to weaken foes. Problem is, it doesn't mesh well with the 'damage on the go' brute attitude as well.
9. Storm; Excellent debuffs, control via chaos (knockback) but may compete with the brute at times. Has a minor heal, which helps, I guess.
10. Trick archery: debuffs stuff in areas, but this shares the 'stationary' problem with traps, sans the shield generator.
That would be my list.
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I play like this myself sometimes and I find a /sonic corrupter works best for resistance based defense sets. The only time you will have to alt tab is to apply new shields, the rest of the time just turn on toggles and set to follow. If you are running a defense based brute then go with an /FF Mastermind and set the pets on aggressive and the MM of follow. Makes for very fast soloing and all you have to do is alt tab to the mastermind every 4 minutes to reapply shields. Another thing you can do is skip most of the attacks on the corrupter and take the leadership pool for even more buffs.
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Originally Posted by Jharber
I was just wondering which combo would be best to team with a brute?
I am thinking kinetics, but since I am playing both toons it might be very annoying to keep alt tabbing to FS. I was thinking maybe just a toon with shields and heal? Any suggestions? I am open to Corruptors and Masterminds since they can both get sets that help a team. |
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Lets remember that -Res is very different from +Dmg. If you boost a base 100 damage that has already been enhanced to 200 (using round numbers), a 30% damage boost makes the final damage 230. A 30% -Damage Res would make the final damage 260. -Damage Res increases the damage they take, not the damage you deal. A fine and significant distinction.
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Originally Posted by Kinrad
aaah, I can't say for sure. I mean in theory it would be like slotting a -2 SO of extra damage (pre-ED) to all of your attacks, so it should make a noticeable difference. I can't honestly say I have ever been on the receiving end of that buff though.
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I'd say that it depends on the Brute and you as a player. Double boxing makes playing a MM hard unless you're using Bots, who kind of run themselves. With doms, you'd have to switch back and forth a lot, retarget, and reapply holds and debuffs, which may not look good. |
Originally Posted by Jharber
I was just wondering which combo would be best to team with a brute?
I am thinking kinetics, but since I am playing both toons it might be very annoying to keep alt tabbing to FS. I was thinking maybe just a toon with shields and heal? Any suggestions? I am open to Corruptors and Masterminds since they can both get sets that help a team. |
As for Corrupters, just take a look at what their secondaries do and pick the one that does what you want. You'll probably find it.
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The difference between +dmg and -res becomes even more important for Brutes, who normally walk around with a huge damage buff from Fury on top of their damage enhancements. That same 100 base dmg attack would probably do more like 350 damage on a brute, 80% fury and 3 damage SOs - potentially much more than that, if the brute has something like Build Up or Rage or Against All Odds running. A 22.5% -res debuff (like that a Sonic corruptor would put out with Disruption Field (corrs get weaker #s than defenders, but still nice) would actually add around 80 damage, not 22.5 damage. Not as much of a dramatic difference as a target-capped fulcrum shift, but it's a hands-free toggle, and against single hard targets, the sonic will add more than the kin.|
Originally Posted by Wiggz
Lets remember that -Res is very different from +Dmg. If you boost a base 100 damage that has already been enhanced to 200 (using round numbers), a 30% damage boost makes the final damage 230. A 30% -Damage Res would make the final damage 260. -Damage Res increases the damage they take, not the damage you deal. A fine and significant distinction.
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If you're going to be dualboxing the brute/corr duo, taking a resistance-based brute (your favorite flavor) and adding a sonic/sonic corr would give the brute an extra ~41% resist all, which should cap resistances to everything so long as you stay in the corr's large bubble. In addition, you'll get potent -res on all the enemies (I chose sonic blast so he can auto-fire Howl into the crowd for an extra -15% res), and do so with an absolute minimum effort to control the corr (two buffs every 4 minutes, auto-follow the brute to stay in buff range with an attack on auto) when you aren't in the mood to seriously play both. Sonics don't get a heal, but if a resistance-capped /fire brute is having trouble staying alive long enough to kill everything while spamming Healing Flames and chewing insps as they drop, then you're probably in way over your head anyway.
Rule number six of an empathy defender is NEVER underestimate a blaster's ability to die. I don't care if he has CM, Fort, both RAs, bubbles (both FF and Sonic), and is fighting next to a Storm defender with hurricane on. If there is a way to die in that situation, the blaster will find it.
Brutes do great when paired with a Corr or Dom.
There's alot of synergy both ways. Either "Buff/heal me while I beat up these guys" or "lock these guys in place while I beat them up".
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Ran a SS/Fire Brute with a Rad/Sonic Corruptor... resistance was almost capped on the Brute which complimented his self heal very nicely... moreover, the -def from Rad made sure the Brute hit more often and the -Res from the Disruption Field combined nicely with Rage and Fury to deal some wicked damage. Fiery Aura was scary, and Footstomp was downright wicked.
Pretty much any Corr will compliment a Brute. BUT if I had to choose just 1, I'd take a Trick Arrow. Why? Quite simple- the TA can minimize some of the FEW annoyances a Brute can have, Namely.. missing and Runners.
Just have the TA drop a Glue Arrow and a PGA and or Acid arrow then go to town. The Corr just debuffed the mob enough to make anything a non-threat to you. Any runner gets away from you.. the TA will lock it down with a Entangling or Ice Arrow. And.. pairing a Oil Slick Arrow with a damage aura.... holy...
"Well, there's going to be some light music and a short note of apology saying, 'The universe ended last week, we're really sorry, we don't know what you're doing here, didn't you get the message?'"- Steve Moffat
It depends on what kind of Brute you have. A SS/Shield, for example, will not gain much benefit from a kinetics corrupter, becuase they already have large +damage bonuses, and a well IOed SS/Shield could already have a large amont of +recharge. I have actually gotten my solo SS/Shield up to the damage cap and kept him there for half of a mission by merely chugging and converts inspirations to reds. However, a sonic would not only increase damage by a large amount (due to -res being multiplicative, rather than additive to damage), they would also increase survivablity a large amount.
TW/Elec Optimization
SS/Shield not benefiting much from a kin? Are you serious?
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Originally Posted by Fiery-Enforcer
SS/Shield not benefiting much from a kin? Are you serious?
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While Combat was certainly overstating things a bit, as getting to the damage cap is always a good thing, I think the basic point is sound. Until fulcrum shift (at L38) a kin is going to be adding a lot less to an SS/Shield brute who is already going to be better than halfway to the damage cap than a /sonic would. A reasonably target saturated SS/Shield brute is going to be at roughly +450% damage (say, 7 targets in AOO for 130% from AAO, 80% from rage, 90% from enhancements and say 150% from fury) so a 22.5% resistance debuff is going to add 123 damage for every 100 points base damage, where it would take another 123% damage buf to do the same. Sonic siphon will double the damage increase on larger hard targets - a kin will ONLY exceed this if they can get the brute up to the damage cap and even then they won't exceed it by much, as there is only 300% more to go to the cap and sonic dispersion + sonic siphon is like having a 250% boost on top of the numbers above.
Add in the extra resistance from sonic and you get a lot of extra damage and survivability from a very early level where kinetics is basically going to only add a 20% damage boost and a 20% recharge boost (which you wont' get until L20). While transfusion is an awesome heal it is one of the harder to use heals and with a potential for 55% resistance to all plus shields defenses you get a lot of survivability with a lot less effort.
Obviously if you only care about end game farming then a kin is your best bet. If this where a blueside combo with a scrapper and defender I would be more tempted to recommend the kin - getting speed boost at L12 makes a HUGE difference in leveling as you basically don't have to worry about end any more, but for a shield brute (if that is what you want) the extra resistance will probably make a HUGE difference in low level survivability - which is what has always kept me from trying out a shield brute.
Darn, I may have talked myself into dual boxing this combo now :-).
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
I was just wondering which combo would be best to team with a brute?
I am thinking kinetics, but since I am playing both toons it might be very annoying to keep alt tabbing to FS. I was thinking maybe just a toon with shields and heal? Any suggestions?
I am open to Corruptors and Masterminds since they can both get sets that help a team.
"I have always been a fan of science fiction. It all started when my parents forced me to go to church when I was a child."