1. Shield Defense can be end heavy- so be prepared to slot very carefully and spend lots of money to make your consumption manageable.
2. Shield defense won't farm many things well outside of AE. I am sure there are some things it is good for, but if you take your defense based meleer to mop up Nems, you are in for a rude awakening.
3. Shield defense is one of the most costly secondaries to work into a beast. If you don't have sizable liquid assets already, you won't be able to soft-cap a shielder very easily. Shield defense is powerful, but it ain't cheap. (14 mill will barely get you started for a good shield defense build)
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
SS/Fire might be more up your alley. /ELA is also an option, and the easiest on end management. The heal in /ELA is on a longish recharge though. You could also look at /WP if you're strapped for cash, but AoE damage will be a wee bit lacking. Even on a /WP footstomp & patron AoE makes a lot of corpses. Look me up if you are rolling of Freedom >shrug< @Krukut. I'd be glad to help you level a bit.
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That's pretty funny. I just finished taking my 41 Elec/SD Scrapper through the The Eternal Nemesis arc, and the only problems I had were when 3+ Snipers were slamming me with their AoE Gas Bombs, and when I faced Nosferatu. Build Up + Lightning Rod + Shield Charge will take out a +1 Fake Nemesis.|
Originally Posted by magikwand
2. Shield defense won't farm many things well outside of AE. I am sure there are some things it is good for, but if you take your defense based meleer to mop up Nems, you are in for a rude awakening.
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Now, maybe it's because I was on a Scrapper instead of a Brute, but so far, I haven't found any mob that I can't handle... *shrugs*
As they say, YMMV.
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SS/Fire.
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Starting at 0 infamy, SS/WP. You'll be able to run just fine on SOs and generic IOs.
Once you've got some infamy built up then if you want something that farms better move on to a SS/FA or SS/SD.
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An arc is not the same as a farm. When you have nemisis mobs set for 8 with stacked veng going off right and left they tear through you in a hurry if you are defense based. |
Originally Posted by Kheldarn
That's pretty funny. I just finished taking my 41 Elec/SD Scrapper through the The Eternal Nemesis arc, and the only problems I had were when 3+ Snipers were slamming me with their AoE Gas Bombs, and when I faced Nosferatu. Build Up + Lightning Rod + Shield Charge will take out a +1 Fake Nemesis.
Now, maybe it's because I was on a Scrapper instead of a Brute, but so far, I haven't found any mob that I can't handle... *shrugs* As they say, YMMV. |
While that combo may work with a scrapper to take out a boss, it will not work on a brute unless their fury bar is close to full. It would however kill alot of LTs giving the remaining bosses a huge +to hit +def and +damage bonus.
My vote would have to be SS/ WP, Fire, Elec/MU for farming. All 3 of those have decent ways to deal with the endurance hit during the rage crash. (unlike shield)
Not saying shield sucks, just that it does not do well vs large groups of nemisis, at least not solo.
With /SD versus Nemesis farm-sized spawns, you either wipe them all out instantly or they blow you to bits once Veng'd up.
As long as you don't fight bosses Elec/SD or SS/SD can work. If you do run with bosses even with BU both telenukes won't kill bosses. So you'll have one or two very, very cranky Veng'd up Warhulks and Fakes. GL with that.
Even with saturated AAO and BU, LR+SC will not kill a +1 Fake Nemesis, unless you had your difficulty set to no bosses so it was scaled down to a Lt.
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Ah, good point. I rarely run at +8, so I forget about that option. |
Originally Posted by HelinCarnate
An arc is not the same as a farm. When you have nemisis mobs set for 8 with stacked veng going off right and left they tear through you in a hurry if you are defense based.
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Quote:
Most runs I do on a Nem farm map are at least +2/x8. If I am feeling spunky, I will do plus three. However, this is really only done on a /FA and not a /SD. As Silas pointed out, you might wipe out an entire spawn before they manage to land a hit on you. More often than not, they will finish you off with their Vengeance. If you want to do Nem map as a solo farmer, you simply don't pick up /SR or /SD if you plan on living long enough to make a profit.|
Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Ah, good point. I rarely run at +8, so I forget about that option.
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I am not saying that /SD is weak, but I think it is balanced enough to not be overpowered doing everything it does.
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
Just out of curiousity, why do so many suggest SS over ElM? Wouldn't more AoE's be more helpful in farming situations? Or is it that KOB helps with bosses and lt's that are left?
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
Because most people who farm villside with Brutes run Liberate TV on a difficulty setting with bosses. Elec Melee sucks for bosses compared to SS.
Outside of LR which is only up every 26ish seconds Elec sucks for AoE.
Footstomp is just that good.
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Thunderstrike doesn't do well enough? I only ask because SS would be highly resisted in most of the game.
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
thunderstike has a small radius...footstomp+ff rech proc is just that good
In my experience, Electric Melee is actually primarily a single target set that happens to do a lot of incidental AoE. The thing is, you can't rely on most of that AoE to be terribly effective. Even moving around to take full advantage of Jacob's Ladder, you probably aren't going to take out all the minions of a large spawn without Lightning Rod.
It's still a fun set to play, make no mistake. And it will chew through spawns faster than several other melee sets. But it's just not really effective for farming.
-This Space Intentionally Left Blank.-
Quote:
TDL, you'll understand if I never want to take your word for something.
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Originally Posted by TrueDarkLord
thunderstike has a small radius...footstomp+ff rech proc is just that good
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@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
Quote:
Good to know. Thanks for the input!
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Originally Posted by OneWhoBinds
In my experience, Electric Melee is actually primarily a single target set that happens to do a lot of incidental AoE. The thing is, you can't rely on most of that AoE to be terribly effective. Even moving around to take full advantage of Jacob's Ladder, you probably aren't going to take out all the minions of a large spawn without Lightning Rod.
It's still a fun set to play, make no mistake. And it will chew through spawns faster than several other melee sets. But it's just not really effective for farming. |
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
Not for farming, but I recently made a duo w/a RL friend for my first foray into red-side in over a year. Running a SS/SD w/my friend's Son/Kin corr. Pretty sick duo and I don't even have FS (nor he his FS) yet.
I made a thread asking which would be better for AoE goodness, SS/SD or ELA/SD and it was unanimous for SS/SD.
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But he's right, Footstomp+FF rech > all of elec melee AoE.|
Originally Posted by Rylas
TDL, you'll understand if I never want to take your word for something.
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And don't be surprised if your ELM toon takes so long to kill a boss that you'll end up draining all his end before he dies... That's why I stopped playing my ELM Brute.
Eh. I still love farming with my ELM/WP Brute, but I also enjoy doing it with my SS/WP Brute. Both are really fun to me.
Question: How will SS/ELA perform against Freakshow? I'm thinking that /ELA should almost negate the damge from Juicers, while providing some decent Resistance to the Smashing and Lethal attacks from the rest of the Freaks...
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I decided to go with a SS/WP build and I'm loving it.
Much more fun than my fire aura/stone meele tanker. Can solo +2/+2 missions without much problems (pop a few greens though) at lvl 18. Can't wait till I can double stack Rage
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I'm running a SM/ELA with 20% defense, near permahaste and specced for AoE. I jump into a mob, cast Power Sink, Electric Fences and Ball Lightning leaving them with 0 endurance, and then proceed to cycle Tremor, Ball Lightning and Electric Shackles with ST attacks during the gaps between the AoEs. Everything is dead pretty quickly and I emerge unscratched due to Energize. So I assume a SS/ELA is going to do even better (rolled one myself to see personally). SM/ELA can be more survivable because of Fault, but I don't use it often while running +1/x8.
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Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Question: How will SS/ELA perform against Freakshow? I'm thinking that /ELA should almost negate the damge from Juicers, while providing some decent Resistance to the Smashing and Lethal attacks from the rest of the Freaks...
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Interesting. And without any Set Bonuses, should still be pretty survivable?
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Slightly off-topic, but what are you slotting footstomp with? I am assuming 5 armageddon's with ff rech proc, but I'm a little poor on the red side at the moment |
Originally Posted by TrueDarkLord
thunderstike has a small radius...footstomp+ff rech proc is just that good
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i dont put purps in farmers...im runnin 5/6 obliterations (all but proc) and of course the FF proc...
I've come back after a 2+ years away and decided to go villains.
Starting fresh as a Villain and want to get a brute leveled up as fast as possible and be able to farm at the highest diff settings. starting at zero infamy
Having read a bunch of guides here, I'm thinking going with one of these:
1) Super Strength - Shield Defense
(a) read that it is the best farming brute (if built correctly) but may not be able to buy the pricy crafted sets till much later.
2) Electric Melee - Shield Defense
(a) Lighting Rod + Shield Charge looks like a fun combo, great animations too. But read SS does more damage with stacked rage + foot stomp.
(b) looks like a endurance drainer with downtime
3) Electric Melee - Electric Shield
Not as fun since I had a electric tanker but... Thinking about electric shield over shield because of the endurance recovery from powersink and heal from energize. Might be able to level up faster due to less downtime (and start farming).
If brute is not the best way to go (solo power level at cheap), what about mastermind robotics/dark?
Also have about 14 mil influence on freedom if someone wants to trade some for infamy on freedom or champion
My main goal is to level up quickly without constant endurance issues, solo bosses and groups of red/purple. I'm starting fresh so may not have enough infamy to buy crafted sets.