Need some ideas on SS/FA

Alright, I have played Scrappers, Tankers, Blasters, Controllers and Corruptors (Blaster and Corruptor being the only two I have completed), and I am now eyeballing a Brute. Brute's at first glance seem to be a good mix of Tanker and Scrapper, so I want to give it a shot. This mix is making me want to resurrect and old concept I had around Fiery Aura and Super Strength.

So, my question to anyone playing this combo: What kind of builds are being used? Is this combo effective for teams and the solo aspect? Can it go a few rounds with an AV?

Thanks in advance=)

SS/FA is not the ideal set for AV soloing. DM/SD or DM/SR would be the ideal set. This has to do with SS not matching DM's attack chain sustained DPS and FA not being softcapped to damage, so your heal, even though it will be up every 10 seconds or so, will not be enough to mitigate the extreme amount of damage.

Now, you could potentially build a SS/FA with around 30% S/L def and not gimp yourself. Stacking that will reduce the incoming damage by 60%, and is probably enough to get you to survive the encounter. Then the problem becomes endurance. While you have consume, expect it up around every 60-80 seconds. On a SS build, you will potentially burn through your end faster than that, if rage crashes during that time.

I find with most brutes, focusing on AV soloing intentionally gimps one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing a brute - widespread carnage. A SS/FA brute will cause a LOT of carnage, but you'll want a few things:

1) KB IO's or Acrobatics to deal with the lack of KB protection
2) Combat Jumping to offer immob protection. Burn isn't preventative protection.
3) Inspiration use or layered S/L or Melee defense to increase survivability.
4) Focus on recharge to get the heal firing frequently.

Also, it is important to note that FA does have very poor energy resistances, and will struggle against rikti. It doesn't mean you shouldn't play a SS/FA because of this, but that you need to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

I agree with everything that you've said. Especially the endurance part, on a high recharge build you'll eat through endurance fast along with the rage and hasten crashes. Also, Consume isn't that great against a single target, I find with my SS/Fire that 2 targets get me just below 100% end.

With that said, the damage you'll put out will certainly contribute a lot to taking down an AV. KO Blow + Haymaker + Burn + Gloom (if you go that route) is really good damage against a single target, not the best, but good considering the amount of AoE hurt you can also put out.

First off, thanks for the replies so far.

Now, the main focus of this toon wouldn't be to fight AVs, I am all about wide spread carnage, but we do get two builds, and I was considering using one build for that, and the other hopefully to try my hand at AV fighting.

That being said, what sort of resist levels are optimal for Brutes that do solo AVs?

I understand the negatives being thrown out about this combo versus AVs, but I am also intrigued with the idea of trying to create a build that might be able to handle the task...

IO sets do not offer much in the way of resistance bonuses. They do offer decent defense bonuses, which players on defensive sets use to hit the softcap (and therefore only get hit 5% of the time).

A resistance based set can stack a certain aspect of defense on top of a build in order to increase survivability. This is typically either melee defense or Smashing/Lethal. They use these IOs: (remembering off-hand so my numbers/names might be slightly off)

S/L Defense Sets:
-Kinetic Combat (Single Melee) - 3.75% at 4 slots
-Enfeebled Operation (Immob) - 2.5% at 4 slots (another 1.25 if you want it for the 6)
-Mocking Beratement (Taunt) - 2.5% at 4 slots
-Perfect Zinger (Taunt) - 3.13% at 6 slots
-Reactive Armor - 1.88% at 4 slots.

Melee Defense Sets:
-Touch of Death (Single Melee) - 3.75% at 6 slots
-Obliteration (PBAoE) - 3.75% at 6 slots
-Multistrike (PBAoE) - 1.88% at 6 slots
-Titanium Coating (resistance) - 2.5% at 6 slots

General sets for defense:
-Gaussian's - 2.5 to all positions and 1.25 to all types at 6 slots
-Steadfast Protection Res/Def Unique IO - 3% defense to all
-Gladiator's Armor Def/TP Resist - 3% def to all (but will probably cost you around 4 billion [with a B])

Also Melee and S/L defense sets listed are interchangable. They offer half the bonus to the other category. So, a 3.75% S/L bonus would also have included a 1.88% Melee bonus, but I listed which category they offered the best bonus in.

As for handling an AV, Castle was able to solo an AV on an invuln with a simple SO build. He was able to do this by intentionally glitching the AV to stick to ranged attacks in melee range to reduce the incoming damage. In other words, it's possible you can solo an AV on that build, but you will struggle a lot less using other sets. There will also likely be many AV's you will encounter on that build that you cannot solo.

This is because of how long AV fights last solo. The biggest concern once you've made sure you can live through the damage the AV puts out becomes actually having enough recovery to last the 10-20 minute fight.

Optimal AV Soloing builds have these characteristics:
-An effective single-target chain with no net loss of endurance (so enough recovery to support a sustained chain)
-A method of restoring health when you get hit by the AV. This can be an innate heal, or Aid Self (in the case of a claws/SR brute).
-45% defense against the AV's damage to reduce the chance of hitting you as much as is possible.

People are going to disagree with me, but I love the Entropic proc chance to heal. You can put it in any ST Ranged attack, which you will get 2 of. While not much healing ( and most people HATE hurl for its long animation) it might be worth a shot. Then you would have to hit HF less. Also blazing aura will help and Burn has the highest DPE of any of your hard hitting attacks (included KO Blow).

Just my 2 inf tho