Taunt? -seriously

Out of my 4 50 Brutes, only one has Taunt. Why? Because I picked it up at 49 and was the best power pick for default slotting.

Brutes can maintain a high Threat rating without the need for Taunting (save for /Stone Brutes). Which means aggro will stick to them pretty easily.

Let's see, I have 3 lvl 50 Brutes (Dark/Fire, Stone/Fire, SS/Elec), a lvl 42 EM/Will, a 38 Mace/Will, a 24 Elec/Dark, a 22 Claws/Invul, and baby SS/Shield and Elec/EA.

I have never taken taunt on a Brute and unless I have a build where I do not need/want anthing else I doubt I ever will. I have never been asked to taunt, asked why I do not have taunt and if I was asked I would promptly show them why I do not need it. As has been mentioned above brutes taunt by kicking things in the face, in rapid succession.

In an emergency you can often pull a foe off a squishy with mutagen or throwing knives etc and never leave the mob you are fighting. Or one of the Vet Staff powers if you have those. I can see the arguement for Willpower but I simply have not had aggro retension problems with mine so far.

Besides, you can dual build now. If you regularly team with people that can't live without a taunting brute then make a build with it and a second build that is more bruty smash smash.

I guess I'm the only person that lives and dies by taunt. I frickin love it. My attitude toward playing brutes is tank 1st, SMASH! 2nd. But I tend to play tanks and brutes like I play my trollers and doms. Basically I use aggro as my controlling power. Thus, the harder I work to get aggro and do crowd control, the easier my teammates can do what they do. Heck, on my tanks I don't even get attacks... they are all primary, taunt (and just taunt) and pool powers (fighting and medicine).

If I am doing my job to my standards and I am tough enough/have enough support to handle the aggro and make sure no one else gets attacked then controlling powers really aren't needed on my team, just buffs/debuffs and damage. Just simply getting and holding aggro might not be fun for most but I simply can't get enough of it.

Also, due to this style my fury is always sky-high, which isn't my goal but it is nice.

Myself I take taunt on every brute. Sometimes it gets fit in a bit later than I might like but its always there at some point.

Sure I can hold the majority of the agro without using it and the little that slips through the team should be able to handle.

Of course if I do take taunt and go that extra mile to maintain full agro that means the other 7 members of my team do not have to hold back not to mention that the buffers who help me do even more damage are safe as well and instead of only buffing me and hiding they can buff me and then chip in on damage.

So what it boils down to is are you the selfish glory hound who begs for sb the moment it goes down because the kin is too busy trying to fight off the agro you let slip or are you the brute that slows down a touch to hold agro and letting the kin stack his fulcrum shifts. . . .

Now as far as corner herding im 50 50 on that one. Some people do it way too often. Ive always prefered to go mob to mob if the groups a bit shaky or herding ahead into the next mob however sometimes there are rooms that due to mob placement you know more than one group is going to be agroed. So instead of being the glory hound who laughs that only he survived I would probally corner pull a group or two before rushing in.

Thats probally why I get contacted by alot of buffer type players when they are doing SF's. They know that I understand that there is no I in team.

Some builds its tight, others like SR just are not suited to be agro magnets. Whatever your reason for not taking it Im fine with it. Just let the team know before you start the TF that you do not concern yourself with their saftey. That way they have the option to either prepare for that or find someone who does.

I never seemed to do that very much, not sure why, just doesn't seem apparent really.

I find taunt pretty useful on my WP brute. I'll be laying out some baddies and getting annoyed at the few jerks who refuse to get in melee with me. So what do I do? I just whip out around and taunt 'em. Now they have to get in my RttC aura.

"With great moustache comes great responsibility" - Zee Captain

Taunt?

Yea seriously. If you play a brute with a taunt toggle with a good taunting toggle like FA or Invul then you taunt is very skippable. If your playing a one without a good taunt ae then you will find that taunt will up your dps greatly in teams.

You build alot faster by getting attack by a bunch of mobs then you could possibly do by punching. If you are low agro build in a group your not going to be anywhere close to your damage potential because mobs die alot faster in group and your fury building will not spike like if your tanking. Your ability to build Fury fast is important in dishing out damage. Hit taunt right away, mobs attack you, your fury spikes=higher brute damage when you fired off your aes. If you burn you big aes in getting the ae agro and well thats one round of aes that went significantly less damage. And in many group i have been in, one round of aes from the team and the vast majority of the mobs are down.

So taunt can be a very useful tool in maintaining your high damage in groups. With going rogue and teaming with scrapper and tankers more, taunt may very will become alot more useful in building your fury and therefore, damage then many brutes think.

Best of Luck,
Cipher

i dont let brutes without taunt into my SFs, TFs or PVP teams.

you really have to be a mentally damaged to skip out on it unless you have a lolRP build.

I always have it but I think its optional, Brutes can vary and still be nefarious. I agree with taunt being a good skill for PvP teaming.

I've never had trouble building Fury on ITFs with my Claws/Elec Brute, even with a tanker around. It uses lots and lots of attacks instead of Taunt.

My Axe/SR Brute mostly runs solo. I dunno why.

Sure, taunt is nice if you can fit it in your build. Pretty much all of mine don't.