Two questions: is your brute already level 50, and do you plan to exemplar often? Level 50 IOs are generally the easiest to find on the market, but the set bonuses won't follow you down if you exemplar. If you don't exemplar much, then we can get level 45-50 IOs, save some time waiting for items to show up on the market, and get higher enhancement percentages to boot. If you'd prefer to keep your enhancement bonuses at lower levels, how low do you exemplar? IOs in the 30-40 range can cover most TFs you might do and still keep decent enhancement percentages, albiet they'll be harder to find on the market.
As for which IOs to look at for budget builds, take a look at this page. Any IO that has a yellow bullseye icon (pool A uncommon) or blue and grey shield icon (pool B) should be cheaper on the market. Anything with a orange bullseye icon (pool A rare), large grey shield (pool C/D), or purple bullseye or hero/villain symbol (purples and PvP) will be much more expensive and should probably be avoided.
This is what I would consider a budget build - aside from the uniques you were planning to get with merits, almost everything else is pool A uncommon or pool B. For now I used level 30s, but you could do 50s too. While I'm more familiar with the hero market than the villain one, and I'm sure you'll still shell out a decent amount of cash for some of this, I think I managed to avoid most of the expensive stuff. For any unduly expensive salvage, AE tickets work well. I didn't change any of your power choices, but I did move around a few slots.
It's tough to get good amounts of multiple types of bonuses on a budget. In this case, I mostly went for defense - about 15% extra smashing/lethal and 12% extra energy/negative (and as a side effect, you're at about 17% total ranged to blunt psi blasts a bit). There's also 15% recharge, but no real recovery or +end. The net endurance use is about the same as before, but I think that once you get those recovery uniques you shouldn't be having nearly as many problems. Your attacks do have drastically better enhancement values, however. It should be much easier to make attack chains, and they're slightly more endurance efficient as well thanks to having max damage slotting.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Ulfangir: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Battle Axe
Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Beheader -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg:30(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx:30(3), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg:30(3), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(5), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(5), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(7)
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- ResDam-I:50(A), ResDam-I:50(7)
Level 2: Chop -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg:30(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx:30(9), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg:30(9), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(11), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(11), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(13)
Level 4: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:30(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:30(13), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:30(15), Dct'dW-Heal:30(15), Dct'dW-Rchg:30(17), Tr'ge-Heal/Rchg:30(17)
Level 6: Temp Invulnerability -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:30(19), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(19), RctvArm-ResDam:30(21)
Level 8: Swoop -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg:30(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx:30(23), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg:30(23), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(25), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(25), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(27)
Level 10: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(27)
Level 12: Resist Elements -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I:30(A)
Level 16: Unyielding -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:30(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(31), RctvArm-ResDam:30(33)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(21)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:30(A), EndMod-I:30(33), P'Shift-EndMod:30(33), P'Shift-End%:30(34)
Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(34)
Level 24: Whirling Axe -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(36), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg:30(36), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:30(36), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(37)
Level 26: Cleave -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(37), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg:30(39), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:30(39), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(39), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(40)
Level 28: Invincibility -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:30(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:30(29), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:30(29), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:30(31), RedFtn-Def:30(34), RedFtn-EndRdx:30(40)
Level 30: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Pendulum -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:30(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:30(42), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:30(43), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:30(43), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(43), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(45)
Level 35: Tough Hide -- DefBuff-I:30(A), DefBuff-I:30(45), DefBuff-I:30(45)
Level 38: Unstoppable -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(40)
Level 41: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:30(42), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(42), RctvArm-ResDam:30(46)
Level 44: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:30(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:30(46), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:30(46), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:30(48), RedFtn-Def:30(48), RedFtn-EndRdx:30(48)
Level 47: Resist Energies -- ResDam-I:30(A)
Level 49: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:30(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:30(50), Mocking-Taunt/Rng:30(50), Mocking-Rchg:30(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
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Set Bonus Totals:
- 4% DamageBuff(Smashing)
- 4% DamageBuff(Lethal)
- 4% DamageBuff(Fire)
- 4% DamageBuff(Cold)
- 4% DamageBuff(Energy)
- 4% DamageBuff(Negative)
- 4% DamageBuff(Toxic)
- 4% DamageBuff(Psionic)
- 14.9% Defense(Smashing)
- 14.9% Defense(Lethal)
- 3% Defense(Fire)
- 3% Defense(Cold)
- 11.8% Defense(Energy)
- 11.8% Defense(Negative)
- 3% Defense(Psionic)
- 8.94% Defense(Melee)
- 11.1% Defense(Ranged)
- 3% Defense(AoE)
- 1.8% Max End
- 4% Enhancement(Heal)
- 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 15% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
- 5% FlySpeed
- 50.6 HP (3.38%) HitPoints
- 5% JumpHeight
- 5% JumpSpeed
- MezResist(Held) 2.75%
- MezResist(Immobilize) 14.3%
- MezResist(Sleep) 4.95%
- MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%
- 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery
- 10% (0.63 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 5.67% Resistance(Fire)
- 5.67% Resistance(Cold)
- 3.13% Resistance(Negative)
- 5% RunSpeed
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
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He is 50, yes, and he'll be exemplaring down to about the 30 range from time to time for various SFs. Most of his playtime is spent on ITFs/LGTFs as a 50, though. I suppose it'd be a good idea to shoot for level 30 IOs, as you suggested. Thanks for the link, as well. I'll check it out!|
Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
Two questions: is your brute already level 50, and do you plan to exemplar often?
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Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
It's tough to get good amounts of multiple types of bonuses on a budget. In this case, I mostly went for defense - about 15% extra smashing/lethal and 12% extra energy/negative (and as a side effect, you're at about 17% total ranged to blunt psi blasts a bit). There's also 15% recharge, but no real recovery or +end. The net endurance use is about the same as before, but I think that once you get those recovery uniques you shouldn't be having nearly as many problems.
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As for the end usage, you're probably right. I'll invest some time trying to get the +HP and +End accolades. Those, in tandem with the other Uniques, should sort out his End problems. Using Unstoppable once a mission to regain Endurance is a risky business!
Anyone got any critique for Muon_Neutrino's build before I jump in with both feet and spend a load of Inf?
You're welcome.
Yeah, I would hope that we could get some additional input, I'm sure there's at least one or two things that could be tweaked further - there always are. There don't seem to be very many budget builders around, though. Most builds I see on the forums are the expensive kind.
One other thing is that I think I should explain some of the reasoning behind the choices I made. Having the build is only one part - knowing how to get there is the other, and it'll help if you want to tweak it later, or for the next build you make.
There are 4 places where you had 3 SOs in a power, and I replaced them with 2 level 50 generic IOs. The reason for this is that at level 50, 2 generics actually offer about 85% as much enhancement as 3 SOs do, and oftentimes that difference is small enough that the slot you save is worth it (it let me slot taunt up a bit, for example - mostly for the def bonus, but the extra enhancement might come in handy someday too). In the case of buildup, hasten, and unstoppable, you actually ended up with about the same recharge as you started, thanks to the 15% global recharge I added. For resist physical damage, the difference was about half a percent of S/L resists, which I thought was negligible. I didn't do this in tough hide, though, because I was trying to build up defense as much as possible.
One thing you have to watch out for in IO builds is the 'rule of 5' - you can only have 5 copies of any given IO set bonus. In this case, between the 3 sets of reactive armor and the two sets of crushing blow, you have 5 '1.25% energy/negative defense' bonuses. If I had slotted a 3rd set of crushing blow into pendulum, the defense bonus would not have taken effect, which is one of the reasons I used 4 pieces of scirocco's instead.
The other reason I used scirocco's was for the 9% accuracy bonus. The slotting on the attacks has very slightly less accuracy than before, and the 9% bonus makes up for that. I deliberately avoided the pool C (acc/dam/end) recipe, but I think these are still likely to be some of the more expensive recipes used. If you find them hard to find or too expensive, you could instead get a kismet (defense set) 6% tohit IO and put it into tough hide (if you change the other two IOs to level 50 you'd keep almost all of the defense). In that case, I would personally slot pendulum with a full set of multi strike for a small amount of smashing/lethal defense.
Finally, a general tip for buying things on the market, especially the villain market: Don't be afraid to let your bids sit for a few days. This is going to be a gradual process no matter what, and putting out reasonable bids and then waiting can often get you your recipes much cheaper than if you simply kept increasing your bid until you purchase it. Of course, if something doesn't fill after a week, then you probably should bump up your offering price a bit.
Also, don't be afraid to vary the level you bid on slightly. For level 25-32 recipes, for example, the enhancement values vary by less than 5%. If there are some currently for sale at 28, there's no real drawback to putting up some test bids and seeing if you can get those for cheap before you lay out your long term bids. Also, dropping to level 25 will in a lot of cases change the salvage required, and sometimes the new salvage might be cheaper.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
That's a very solid budget build. Because brutes have such high hit points I might try to pull one slot from somewhere and drop it into health to add the Numina's Heal, picking up extra effect in health and 12% regen as a set bonus on top. But that's not really a big deal.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Quote:
Again, this is solid advice. In general, look for the rare salvage, it will be 90% of your cost. My recommendation is to run some AE missions and buy any rare salvage that would cost 2 million or more in AE tickets. If you can get it under 2 million use Inf. If you're really patient, buy a pangean soil or whatever is selling for 4 million with tickets, sell that for 3 million, buy your salvage for 2 milllion and keep the rest as profit. =)|
Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
Also, don't be afraid to vary the level you bid on slightly. For level 25-32 recipes, for example, the enhancement values vary by less than 5%. If there are some currently for sale at 28, there's no real drawback to putting up some test bids and seeing if you can get those for cheap before you lay out your long term bids. Also, dropping to level 25 will in a lot of cases change the salvage required, and sometimes the new salvage might be cheaper.
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And check both crafted and uncrafted prices. Sometimes I have picked up a crafted IO for less than the recipe. This is because often someone will post a recipe at a high price and leave it there so the "last 5" are all reasonable, but the only one for sale is not. Eventually, if someone rich wants it bad enough, they will pay for it. Don't be that person.
Meanwhile, lots of people pull IOs out of builds during a respec and post them cheap. Or just have them in their base storage and are clearing out. Or don't know the value. So it gets posted affordably and someone lucks out on a dirt-cheap crafted IO. Try to be that person.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Quote:
Yeah, you could do that. Not sure where you'd get the slot aside from dropping tough hide to 2 level 50 generics, which I personally wouldn't want to do, but the extra regen could be useful.|
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
That's a very solid budget build. Because brutes have such high hit points I might try to pull one slot from somewhere and drop it into health to add the Numina's Heal, picking up extra effect in health and 12% regen as a set bonus on top. But that's not really a big deal.
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One last thing I forgot to mention. Level 30 generics are roughly equivalent to SOs. So, anywhere you see a level 30 generic in a place you already have an SO, you can easily just leave the SO there since you obviously don't need to worry about them expiring. I just put the generics there out of habit, mostly.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
This is all great advice, thanks very much! I appreciate the breakdown of the logic, I can see how I might go about slotting my upcoming Shield/Ice Tanker now! Awesome! I'm guessing I want to shoot for positional defence instead of typed, though.
I'll probably start throwing bids up over the next couple of days and start piecing things together. Over time I'm sure I'll acquire enough Inf to invest in one of those more expensive builds you were talking about, but this is a great and attainable place to start. Thanks again!
Quote:
Generics are often cheaper. Catwhoorg posted the cost of SOs from level 22 to 50. Works out to roughly 226k. If you can get a level 25 or 30 IO for under 100k, and you often can, you're really saving a ton of inf across your whole character.
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Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
Yeah, you could do that. Not sure where you'd get the slot aside from dropping tough hide to 2 level 50 generics, which I personally wouldn't want to do, but the extra regen could be useful.
One last thing I forgot to mention. Level 30 generics are roughly equivalent to SOs. So, anywhere you see a level 30 generic in a place you already have an SO, you can easily just leave the SO there since you obviously don't need to worry about them expiring. I just put the generics there out of habit, mostly. |
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Quote:
You will indeed want to shoot for positional instead of typed defense, but do remember the positional/typed pairings. Namely, a bonus to one type of defense provides half that bonus to a corresponding position and vice versa. For example, smashing haymaker provides 1.88% S/L defense, and therefore also provides 0.94% melee defense. Similarly, red fortune gives 2.5% ranged defense, and so also has 1.25% energy/negative defense. The last pairing is AoE def and fire/cold def. What that means is that sometimes it's still worth getting the 'wrong' kind of defense.|
Originally Posted by TensileSky
This is all great advice, thanks very much! I appreciate the breakdown of the logic, I can see how I might go about slotting my upcoming Shield/Ice Tanker now! Awesome! I'm guessing I want to shoot for positional defence instead of typed, though.
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For example, I might still slot your shield/ice's ST attacks with smashing haymaker, simply because it's the cheapest way to get some (albeit a small amount) of positional defense in your melee attacks. In this case, though, shields on a tank is easy enough to softcap (if you take weave, anyway) that you might not even need to bother. Fully slotted toggles/combat jumping/weave plus phalanx fighting and a steadfast 3% = 43% defense, so it's quite easy to softcap. 2 sets of red fortune and 3 sets of multistrike and you're sitting pretty at ~48%ish to all positions, leaving you free to put things like crushing impacts into your ST attacks.
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Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Generics are often cheaper. Catwhoorg posted the cost of SOs from level 22 to 50. Works out to roughly 226k. If you can get a level 25 or 30 IO for under 100k, and you often can, you're really saving a ton of inf across your whole character.
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@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
Quote:
Ahh, yes, of course. That totally slipped my mind! |
Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
You will indeed want to shoot for positional instead of typed defense, but do remember the positional/typed pairings.
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Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
In this case, though, shields on a tank is easy enough to softcap (if you take weave, anyway) that you might not even need to bother. Fully slotted toggles/combat jumping/weave plus phalanx fighting and a steadfast 3% = 43% defense, so it's quite easy to softcap.
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Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
I very often grab level 25 generics at 22 for exactly that cost-saving reason, at least for slots I'm not planning to fill with sets.
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As far as an update for my Brute goes, I must really have had luck on my side today!
Most of the bids I put up I thought were reasonable, and I had a good chunk of the rare salvage I needed for the recipes. By the end of the day, my bids had almost all come in, so now I'm sat waiting for 5 more enhancements and he's totally IO'd out! Woo! It only cost me about 55 mill, as well. Waaay less than I was expecting to pay. Happy times!
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With Generics you are better than a level 50 SO using a level 30 IO. You are superior to a level 53 SO using a level 35.|
Originally Posted by TensileSky
I tend to do generic IOs at around 32 based on advice from a friend, is it better to do it at 22 instead, then?
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Using the dirt-cheap sets you are superior to a level 53 SO using a level 24 Dual or a level 20 triple. So you might as well slot any decent level 24+ dual or 20+ triple and go with generics at 30 or 35.
By dirt-cheap I'm talking pulverizing fisticuffs, multistrike, serendipity etc.
You can get the full information here.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Quote:
Well, shields with just the stock levels of defense is indeed somewhat on the squishy side for a tank, and so, many choose to boost it. However, while the fighting pool is certainly the most common way to increase defense, it's not the only way. I've got a shield/mace that softcaps with maneuvers instead of tough/weave (about half of the extra end cost, and 2 fewer power picks), and I know some have pulled it off without any defense boosting pool powers beyond combat jumping (although they spent a lot more money, I bet). |
Originally Posted by TensileSky
See, there's the thing: I'm still undecided on how I'm building him. Shields is pretty offensive as a set, and I don't really want another situation where I'm scraping to find End in my Insp tray by having Tough/Weave running. On the other hand, without the Fighting pool, I can imagine he'll be pretty squishy. It's a bit of a dilemma!
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There are still enough cheap sets which boost positional defense that it's possible, albeit difficult, to manage it on a budget without the fighting pool. You'll probably have to dip into some slightly more expensive sets, but it's still doable. If you want, you can take a look at my current build for ideas:
Click this DataLink to open the build!
I had a version which softcapped without needing to take hover as a BoTZ mule, but that was before the reduction in BoTZ's defense values (now gives 1.25% ranged/1.88% AoE - not shown yet in mids, mentally subtract 3.75% ranged defense from the totals shown there). She's at 40 at the moment with almost all of the IOs bought, and I'd estimate she's spent less than 30 million (although she didn't buy the performance shifter proc or steadfast 3% herself).
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| I tend to do generic IOs at around 32 based on advice from a friend, is it better to do it at 22 instead, then? |
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As far as an update for my Brute goes, I must really have had luck on my side today! Most of the bids I put up I thought were reasonable, and I had a good chunk of the rare salvage I needed for the recipes. By the end of the day, my bids had almost all come in, so now I'm sat waiting for 5 more enhancements and he's totally IO'd out! Woo! It only cost me about 55 mill, as well. Waaay less than I was expecting to pay. Happy times!
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And yeah, it can really be that cheap. With all the talk of spending billions of inf on a single character, it's easy to not realize that you still can get quite decent builds for considerably less than a hundred million.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
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I'd also like to know. I slot up as I level so I'm curious how you feel the difference is. And yes it's always good to know how affordable patience and careful selection can make a solid build.
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Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
Please do let us know how it all turns out in the end, and how much of a difference it seems to make. My own characters always IO up as they level, so if I'm going to have certain bonuses, I get them gradually and far before level 50. I'm curious how noticeable the jump will be to suddenly go from an SO'd 50 to an (even modestly) IO'd one, since I've never experienced that myself.
And yeah, it can really be that cheap. With all the talk of spending billions of inf on a single character, it's easy to not realize that you still can get quite decent builds for considerably less than a hundred million. |
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Quote:
This might be the route that I take, I'm not sure. Manuevers sounds like a good pick, in combination with CJ, but we'll have to see how his End bar holds up on the way to 50. And I'll have to find power slots somewhere...nevermind. Food for thought. I'd settle for near-softcapped, as I'm pretty poor on blueside, too. |
Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
There are still enough cheap sets which boost positional defense that it's possible, albeit difficult, to manage it on a budget without the fighting pool. You'll probably have to dip into some slightly more expensive sets, but it's still doable.
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I just can't play Tankers as all-out bastions of defence; I need some pretty decent damage in there, too. With the low population of the EU servers, particularly at the hours I play, I have to be prepared to solo. I know wanting good damage on a Tanker is probably counter-intuitive to the way the AT works, and it'd be easier to just roll up another Brute if I wanted to do both, but I like Ice Melee.
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Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
I'd also like to know. I slot up as I level so I'm curious how you feel the difference is.
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Firstly, survivability. Before, he'd struggle to take on much more than +1/x4 missions solo at 50. Now, he can quite comfortably take on +1/x6 (no Bosses, though I can do Bosses if I make use of Unstoppable). He could probably manage more, but I haven't had the chance for further testing with everything I have on at the moment. The difference in S/L defence in particular is very tangible. It's rare that I jump into a group, now, and feel as though I'm moments away from dying.
Next, SMASH!ing. I imagine that if I went back to regular SO'd attacks with no Recharge slotting, it'd feel like I was playing in slow motion. It really has made that much of a difference. Cleave and Pendulum in particular always seem to be up for when I need them. As an added bonus, I don't have to resort to Boxing to fill out my attack chain any more, which saves on redraw. Of course, the more frequent use of my big hitters means that his blue bar's dropping down pretty sharpish, but...it feels weird saying this, but it doesn't feel that way. It always feels like, yes, my End is dropping, but I'm never in serious need of it. My attacks do enough damage to level a mob before I'm in danger of running dry, and by the time the next one's herded up, I have enough End to level that one, too. Maybe his ability to stand toe-to-toe with most spawns has allowed me to take that extra bit of time to allow it to regen, I'm not sure. I like it, whatever it is.
Just waiting on my two remaining Scirocco's Dervish recipes to pop up on the market, and he'll be fully built. With the leftover cash, I'm probably going to start on my mid-30s Energy/Energy Brute (yeah, yeah, I know), then work my way up to Kinetic Combat recipes to replace the Smashing Haymakers on my BA/Inv. Everyone needs a goal! Shame I have about...fifty.
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I'm with you there. I have a ton of characters and none of them "finished". heh. Glad to hear it worked out!|
Originally Posted by TensileSky
Everyone needs a goal! Shame I have about...fifty.
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And I know what you mean on the endurance running low but not out. That's the effect the higher damage brings. You consume more but the fight endds faster so you're ok. My Fire/Shield brute is in that same situation.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Glad to hear that it's working out well for you.
Aside from those two scirocco's, do you have the two recovery uniques yet? They won't stop the bar from darting downward as you spam all those AoEs, but they'll allow it to jump back up much more quickly afterward. Also, the +end accolades will also help quite a bit as well.
Yeah, I have exactly... two characters with 'finished' builds, my two 50s. All the rest of my many many alts are works in progress. Some are getting close to 'finished' such as my shield/mace tank, some are a long way off. It's just the way things go in this game, it encourages alting to a large degree. Not that I'm complaining, mind you!
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
I don't yet, no. Some expert mismanagement of my free time has resulted in a fairly spectacular workload that's threatening to bury me, so aside from the odd hour here and there, I can't really afford to play my Brute much. I'll get down to the merit farming business sometime in June, I imagine. For now, in the time that I do have, I've been doing a couple more test runs.
+1/x6 versus Council mobs with Bosses turned on was actually quite a breeze, only needing to chew the odd blue Insp (of which there were loads dropping) and one use of Unstoppable when the game threw two Eclipse Archons against my fairly paltry Negative Energy resistance. They punched through my Defences with some very lucky rolls of the dice (I was sat near to 40% Defence to Negative at the time) while Dull Pain was down, but hey, that's what the Tier 9's for, right?
The same setting versus CoT was a little more trying, with high amounts of elemental damage being thrown around, but they also went down like a sack of bricks once the AoE's started rolling out. I didn't need Unstoppable, but the damage was consistently higher. Dull Pain was being used almost on every cooldown, where as I could sit in the S/L heavy Council packs for quite some time without worrying about my healthbar.
Across those two missions, I earned over 1 million in raw Inf, a couple of half-decent Invention recipes, a piece of rare salvage, and a couple of other odds and ends. So yes, I'm very pleased with the results so far! Thanks again!
Update: got used to the playstyle and ramped up the diff to +1/x8 + Bosses without any issues. Might try +2 for kicks!
Hey everyone! Long time reader, first time poster.
Code:
With Incarnate-level content around the corner, I've finally resolved to dump my Inf on one character in an attempt to beef them up a little. My choice for redside was my Battle Axe/Invulnerability Brute, because I just find him to be a fun character that stands to grow with some IOing out. Problem being, I don't have the foggiest idea about IOing! And, as if that weren't enough, I only have about 200 mill redside to play with. I could stretch it to 4/500 mill, but that'd take a while with the amount of time I can dedicate to the game.
I'm flicking through some guides at the moment to get a basic grounding, but I thought asking the experts might be a good place to start.
So, about the build: from what I've been reading, I want to prioritise defence and +recharge, as well as grabbing some +End and +recovery. That makes sense, because even with all attacks slotted for no Recharge and 2 EndMod, and all toggles slotted for 2 EndMod, he still sucks End like a vacuum. Plus, because he has no Recharge slotted, he has to take almost all of the BA attacks just to string together a chain!
Still, I've always found him fun and a (large) challenge. These days, he sees use as a tanking Brute on TFs. I rarely solo, but would like to have the option to solo efficiently when possible. I've already thrown him a Steadfast +3% Defence Unique, and a Performance Shifter Unique. I'm also working towards having enough merits for Numina and Miracle Uniques, so they don't factor into the cost of the build.
I'll enclose the vanilla + Unique build that I'm working towards at the moment. I'd like to keep Taunt if possible, and travel powers don't really fit with his concept. So, if anyone could come up with a build that worked around all of those crazy parameters, I'd really appreciate it!
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Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Ulfangir: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Battle Axe
Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Beheader -- Acc(A), Acc(3), EndRdx(3), EndRdx(5), Dmg(5), Dmg(29)
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ResDam(7), ResDam(7), ResDam(31)
Level 2: Chop -- Acc(A), Acc(9), EndRdx(9), EndRdx(11), Dmg(11), Dmg(13)
Level 4: Dull Pain -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(15), Heal(15), Heal(17), Heal(17)
Level 6: Temp Invulnerability -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(19), ResDam(19), ResDam(21), ResDam(21)
Level 8: Swoop -- Acc(A), Acc(23), EndRdx(23), EndRdx(25), Dmg(25), Dmg(27)
Level 10: Build Up -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(27), RechRdx(29)
Level 12: Resist Elements -- ResDam(A)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
Level 16: Unyielding -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(31), ResDam(31), ResDam(33)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(50)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(33), EndMod(33), P'Shift-End%(34)
Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(34), RechRdx(34)
Level 24: Whirling Axe -- Acc(A), Acc(36), EndRdx(36), EndRdx(36), Dmg(37), Dmg(37)
Level 26: Cleave -- Acc(A), Acc(37), EndRdx(39), EndRdx(39), Dmg(39), Dmg(40)
Level 28: Invincibility -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(40), DefBuff(40), DefBuff(42), DefBuff(42)
Level 30: Boxing -- Acc(A)
Level 32: Pendulum -- Acc(A), Acc(42), EndRdx(43), EndRdx(43), Dmg(43), Dmg(45)
Level 35: Tough Hide -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(45), DefBuff(45)
Level 38: Unstoppable -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(46), RechRdx(46)
Level 41: Tough -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(46), ResDam(48), ResDam(48)
Level 44: Weave -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(48), DefBuff(50), DefBuff(50)
Level 47: Resist Energies -- ResDam(A)
Level 49: Taunt -- RechRdx(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run