Claws or SS to pair with fire for my new farmer? (or other suggestions)
I would advise against building for the S/L softcap on a FA. Why? Namely because it isn't needed and most builds aiming for such will likely be gimped out in one way or another. Shooting for around 30%-32% defense is more reasonable. You would be amazed at how much versatile mitigation mid to high 50% s/l resists, 30ish% s/l defense, and a fast recharging heal provides. Moreover, if you are around 30% defense, you are about 1 purple away from the s/l softcap in most situations.
As for the primary, both would go well with FA, but I think SS might give a smidge more mitigation via footstomp, kd, and stuns. If you choose to take Handclap, you can also have a second to take your breath or pop an insp or hit your Healing Flames.
Claws is lighter on end, sure, but you won't be dealing with a particularly endurance heavy secondary. Consume isn't the fastest recharging end recovery tool I can think of, but it is rather handy still. On top of that, you will be dealing with powers that have potential knockback, and /FA benefits from having spawns packed closely on top of it. So your Blazing aura and Burn Patch, if you take it, won't be quite as effective.
My opinion- SS/FA is the way to go. Claws is still quite workable, but SS has a lot of synergy with /FA; especially on a farmer.
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
I have a Claws/Dark and a SS/Fire/Soul. For farming purposes I'd certainly go with the SS/Fire and build for recharge first and foremost. I'm nearly permahasten with mine and I destroy Nemesis. If you're going to primarily just farm Nemesis, I wouldn't bother building for defense. Although, I built my Spines/Fire with defense in mind and it works great against enemies that don't make defense a joke.
Now, Claws looks really good on paper, but it suffers from having a small radius in spin. To really get the most out of spin you usually have to herd them up because you will notice a huge difference between the 8' radius of Spin and 15' radius of FS. Like magikwand said, Claws is still a good set, but I would still take SS over it for farming.
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So, I'm looking for people with experience (especially with claws) to help me decide/steer me in a direction for a new brute.
Claws has the higher dmg and recharge, but idk if that little radius will slow me down more, whereas SS has the rage crash but a bit of mitigation (though fences + burn gets rid of kd)
I'll probably be building for the s/l softcap unless hp/recharge will benefit me more for a farmer (maybe AE, but probably liberate or the family one / nem base / snakes) esp since nem will destroy my def anyway
Wouldn't turn down build suggestions, but it's mostly deciding on sets atm