Need some clarification on Tankers vs. Brutes

So I was thinking about either building a Tanker or Brute. The first thing I noticed was this:

Tanker:
Hit Points: High
Damage: Medium
Primary Powers: Defense
Secondary Powers: Melee
The Tanker can take it and dish it out all at once. The Tanker primarily can absorb vast amounts of damage, and hold his own in a fist fight. But the Tanker lacks any long range punch. The Tanker would prefer just to charge straight ahead anyway.

Brute:
Hit Points: High
Damage: High
Primary Power: Melee
Secondary Powers: Defense
Brutes live to fight, and as a Brute you revel in hand-to-hand combat. With strong offensive power sets to inflict pain and impressive defenses to take it, you're the best there is in a straight fight. Protracted battles only makes you mad, and the madder you get, the more damaging your attacks become. You do lack ranged attacks, which could leave you vulnerable to hit and run tactics without some allies to cover you.

Neither of these descriptions tells me much. Though one has Melee as the Primary and the other has Defense as the Primary.

Can we say these guys are the same but one has more damage potential? Forgive me in advance if I am reading this wrong but if one gives Medium Damage and the other gives High Damage,...hmmmm. Can someone help me make a better choice on this should I decide to build one of these guys? The bottom line is I want a toon that can flat out clobber it's foes, so pure unadulterated knock to the floor damage is what I need.

Tankers and Brutes are actually quite different, besides the fact that one is a hero and the other a villain.

A Tank has the highest hit points of any AT in the game, and they're the only AT with a defense primary. In practical terms while Tanks & Brutes share many of the same powersets a Tanker's armors are inherently 25% more effective by virtue of being PRIMARY sets instead of secondary. A Tank has damage as his secondary set, while a Brute had damage as his primary. As you'd expect a Brute deals more damage.

Brutes are actually much more comparable to a Scrapper, both AT's have a damage primary and a defense secondary. Scrappers have higher damage than Brutes, but a Brute has Fury... this is a mechanic where the longer a Brute is in combat the more damage he does. Think "Hulk Smash!" with the Brute, the madder he gets (more Fury generated) the more damage he does. Brutes & Scrappers have very similar defense numbers as well; both are roughly 75% as effective as Tankers. Both Brutes & Scrappers will easily outdamage a Tanker... by a considerable margin.

Team role frequently differs with Tanks & Brutes also... a Tanker primarily protects the "squishy" members of the team by attracting and holding the attention of all the enemies so that they all shoot at the Tanker instead of the rest of the team. That's the reason a Tank has the most hit points and the best defenses... he can survive things that turn most other AT's into a grease spot on the floor.

The Brute on the other hand is your basic melee fighter... he's capable of taking hits and protecting the team like a tanker but his primary purpose is simply to smash the enemy.

I hope this sheds a little light on the subject for you; and remember that for now if you choose to play a Hero you can't be a Brute, and if you choose to play a villain you can't be a Tank.

Welcome to the game, and enjoy your stay. You've 12 character slots per server available to you so by all means try out several different AT's and powersets.

i prefer brutes because tankers feel insanely weak offensivly and scrappers feel weak defensivly.

IMO, brutes have good HP and defenses along with strong offenses, the brutes deal better dmg than scrappers over time, since scrappers do static dmg with no bonuses over time, they just have chance for crits which gives them high dmg, but it doesnt improve over the fight, brutes deal lower dmg right off the bat, but can easily out-dmg scrappers in longer fights.

For a first timer, I'd recommend Invulnerability or Willpower. They are the most basic, straightforward sets in addition to being the toughest (Granite notwithstanding). For a secondary War Mace, Battle Axe, Super Strength, Stone Melee are all fairly straightforward and effective.

Yeah, the "lower damage" thing is a) pretty set specific and b) depends on playstyle. While it is true that most tanks do less damage than some of the other ATs, there are a few combinations that will make your team mates stop and go "Wow!".

A Shield Charge (from the Shield primary) that has been fueled up by both Against All Odds (Shield primary) and a good dose of Soul Drain (from the Dark Melee secondary) will wipe out all of the minions, and most of the Lts in one hit. Granted, you can only pull that off every 45-60 seconds depending on your build, but still.

So don't go into tanks thinking that you won't be contributing to the damage at all. "Less damage" doesn't mean lousy damage at all.

This thread made me think of the possibility of having a Tanker - and honest-to-god Tanker, not some beefed-up wanna-be Brute - on the LRSF. It could change everything.

Brutes are nice, but they are not now nor never will be Tankers.