Need Input

Hello Everyone.
I am sort of new to redside, and have made a vow not to play my beloved scrappers until I get a Villain out of Sharkshead...not real sure why I picked Sharkshead as a goal, but I did

I have been playing about with various Villain ATs, and have come to the conclusion I might have better luck getting to my goal with a Brute.

My highest Brute is a Brute with powersets which should not be put together. She was my first Brute and I got her to level 21 before I went looking for a guide, and all I found was people saying they would never make another

I saw a high level one, level 35, in WW one day, and asked him/her what they thought about it, and the response was he/She did not like it. He/She said it was weak, and died more than his/her other Brutes.

So, not wanting to delete my first brute and my redside friend, I just stopped playing her.

That was maybe a year and a half ago.

In the meantime /Elec received Energize, and I find myself wondering if the addition of this power might make my Brute, err, roadworthy so to speak.

Her name is Cinderwatt, lives on Protector, and she is a Fire/Elec Brute.

Before I discovered she was unplayable I enjoyed her. We badge hunted together, trapped Pirate Ghosts to unlock the contact, learned how do Mayhem missions....I would like to keep on exploring Redside with her.

I took her out of mothballs yesterday, gave her a makeover and new clothing, then took her out into the streets of Sharkhead where she gleefully defeated those guys wearing overalls and flannel shirts . .forgot what they were called.

So, what do you all say. Is a Fire/Elec playable solo in the higher levels? Any tips, advice???

Dang it all.. even if she is a sorry excuse of a Brute, I still want to play her....if she is unplayable for most of the game, and I want to play her anyway, any tips on how to do that? I have never had a bad scrapper at level 35, so I am very much at a loss here.

Lisa-Rising to the challenge

You have fun with her, right?

Then she's more than playable


But let's take a look at the numbers so we see how can you make the most of her. The primary/secondary combo is a bit uncommon, mostly because /ElA is somewhat squishy early on and FM/ doesn't have any sort of mitigation (knockback, mezzes etc) but only damage damage and more damage. So you have a super high damage primary, and a secondary that is tough enough but a late bloomer. Between 20 and 28, when you get Energize, you'll feel the squishiest. After that, it gets much better, especially once you get Tough.

Once you get Energize, slot it asap with at least 4 slots in total, and I really recommend that you frankenslot it for heal and recharge. You'll save a precious slot or two that way, and you really need both to be maxed. At 35, get Power Sink and frankenslot it for recharge and endmod, and all your endurance worries will vanish forever.

Once you have Energize and Tough, you'll be quite robust. If you take Mu Mastery as your patron pool, you'll get another survivability layer in endurance drain - jump into a mob, fire off Power Sink, Electrifying Fences and Ball Lightning and their endurance will be emptied.

But you have a problem, and that's too many powers to take. If you take all of your attacks except Breath of Fire (which is a common practice for a leveling build), all the useful stuff you need from your secondary, Stamina and a travel power, you won't be able to start dipping into the Fighting pool before 38, getting tough at 41. That's late. What I suggest is skipping one of the first two attacks (I'm not sure about it but people say it's better to drop Fire Sword because Scorch makes for better attack chains without big amounts of global recharge) and skipping Grounded while slotting a -KB IO (Steadfast Protection into an armor toggle, or IMO better, Karma into your starting CJ slot if you go the jumping route). Then you can get Tough at 30 if you take Lightning Field early, or even at 14 if you postpone Lightning Field to 30 instead. I'd recommend the first choice, however, as LF is a great source of damage. And since you are FM/, you should capitalize on it.

But since you say this is your first villain, you probably won't be able to afford a -KB IO unless you get lucky. An alternative is not to take a travel power and make due with temp travel powers (raptor and zero-g packs) or Ninja Run if you have the Martial Arts booster.



As for the endgame... You'll be both an AoE and ST beast. I have a fully IO'd SM/ElA myself, and he's a real monster. Soloes +1/x8 without any problems. You'll be somewhat squishier since you lack the massive mitigation SM/ offers, but you'll do more damage. So if you intend to IO the toon out - go for near permahaste, and then about 20% defense. I miss a few seconds till permahaste and have melee defense at 25% with other positions at 18%. No purples, but I do have 2 LotGs.

Just a quick 2c from me as I have a high level fire\ela brute. While not a complete game changer I have gotten more survivability after I slotted the chance for stun IO from the energy manipulator set in lightning field. While it certainly doesn't stun an entire spawn...it generally tags a handful which reduces the incoming damage while I'm dishing out the some damage. For a combo that has zero damage mitigation (aoe)...this really helped me.