I wouldn't say either one had better "synergy" with Invuln, but they'll both do fine with it. War Mace has slightly lower recharge attacks in exchange for a little less damage, so it's really preference.
I think you should level up both for a while then pick your favourite or just go with one that you think will be the most fun!
@Fail (Used to be @Tux) and @Tuxedo Infinitus Defiant/Freedom/Champion
Favourite Toons: Prosper [Ill/Rad] Controller :: Infinitus [Fire/Elec] Blaster :: Pocket Dynamo [Fire/Shield] Scr :: Fast [Cold/Sonic] Def ::
Inspire [Plant/Storm] Controller :: Quality - SS/Fire Brute :: Double Down [DP/Kin] Corr :: Pwnz [Fire/Cold] Corr :: Fail [Fire/Son] Corr
by synergy I should have said better DPE cus of the whole brute-invuln-energy crisis 
Well, WM is pretty end heavy when you consider your only swingin a stick. But I much prefer WM over Axe. Tons of Mitigation in the set, and there is not much difference in the sets, but WM is just better IMO.
When i wanted to make a "weapon" brute, i compared both sets too. I don't exactly remember what were the results, but i ended up picking WM because it had better single target DPS.
BA only have Knock up/down for secondary effect, while WM have knock up/down as well as disorient.
For the DPE, i really don't know wich is better. (and too complicated for me to calculate) But i've had a few invulns. With stamina, numina and miracle uniques and the accolades, you shouldn't have to much problem, as long as you don't spam hasten. =)
"It's a scrapper. If he can't handle it, no one can." -BrandX
War mace and battle axe are very similar overall. In particular, both sets have exactly the same damage per end, as that is one of the normal balance metrics for attacks. Nearly all sets do, in fact, barring powers that are exceptions to the rules for one reason or another.
I think what you're more thinking of is total end use over time. This is more determined by the interaction of damage and animation time. However, since battle axe and war mace are so similar, again there isn't much to choose from here. Battle axe has slightly quicker animations on its identical attacks, but clobber from mace uses more end than swoop and animates faster. On the other hand, cleave and pendulum do more damage and use more end than their identical animation time counterparts in mace. Overall, mace might be *slightly* lower on end use, but if so, it's by a small margin.
As far as other differences, well first off axe does lethal while mace does smashing. They're both commonly resisted, but I think lethal is probably resisted slightly more often.
Axe, though, has much more consistent secondary effects, having a good chance to knockdown on every attack. Mace has a somewhat more disjointed mix of knockdowns and stuns as its secondary effects, although some of them are guaranteed (clobber's stun and crowd control's knockdown) where axe's KDs are only chances.
Mace probably has somewhat better AoE damage than axe - whirling mace has a bonus 0.14 DS over whirling axe for the same recharge and end, shatter has an (imo) more usable cone than cleave, and crowd control has a 1 foot deeper cone than pendulum as well as a 10 target cap instead of 5. At very high recharge levels axe's higher DPA on cleave and pendulum might close the game somewhat, but overall I'd give the edge to mace.
ST, both sets have roughly similar attacks. Axe has better DPA on everything except clobber, but clobber is so massively good that I wouldn't really give either set an edge here. Axe has better ST mitigation, though, with its consistent knockdowns.
Really, though, there really aren't very many mechanical differences. Mace has slightly better AoE and a somewhat less often resisted damage type, while axe has slightly better secondary effects. They'll both do very well overall, and I honestly would just pick whichever one you think is cooler, fits the concept better, has more interesting customizations, or whatever non-mechanical criteria you might have.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
Neat, so its essentially a matter of flavor then?
While both are commonly resisted, there are a lot more common factions with at least some mobs that are vulnerable to smashing... robots, in particular, are popular throughout the Council/5th Column, Rikti, and Arachnos (though I don't know if the arachnos bots are vulnerable to smashing. They are, however, brutally resistant to lethal). War Mace (super strength, stone melee) *wrecks* these units. I had an arc up filled with robot units just for the joy of seeing all the pretty explosions as my stone melee brute leapt in. Lethal vulnerability side there's the Banished Pantheon (rare red side), Vahz (rare and quickly outleveled), and Carnies (painful).
Like others have said, it's not a big deal overall... but I do hate seeing my 50 broadsword scrapper *crit* a Council robot boss for 360 with headsplitter where my stone melee brute does 500+ with seismic smash. Since I fight a lot of Council (doesn't everyone?) I've got an unhealthy dislike for lethal damage as a result. (Though the nearly 800 damage crits against Carnies from the scrapper are funny).
Weight training: Because you'll never hear someone lament "If only I were weaker, I could have saved them."
*Just a side not. Check out the Custom weapon skins available on www.paragonwiki.com
If your costume/theme is important they may play a role in which you choose.
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Weapon_Customization
currently reading: A Mighty Fortress (David Weber)
BA has more consistent and plentiful mitigation during leveling due to the way the KD effects are interspersed over the attacks, but that changes at the high end because Crowd Control has a 100% chance of KD vs 10 targets, and Pendulum has only 50% vs 5 targets.
BA should theoretically also have a bit better ST damage, but Clobber brings that awfully close. WM has way better AoE because Crowd Control has a damage cap of 10 vs 5 of Pendulum, and Shatter can actually be used as an AoE since it has a decent cone arc of 45 degrees, vs 20 of Cleave - and I can tell you from first hand experience that catching more than one mob is either pure luck, or too much time spent on positioning. BA has a bit better AoE damage though, but that is simply overwhelmed by the fact that WM can catch much more mobs in its AoE attacks.
So these days, there are no reasons I'd take BA except for concept.
i actually have a 50 WM/invul half io'd, and a ss/invul completely IO'd. my ss/invul is a beast and can pretty much do anything, i can do +3/8 liberate farm map and even +4/8 but requires more attention to health and t9 usage and demonic aura to mitigate the crash.
So with my WM/invul im keeping the same basic invul build exept on this MIDS one i increased the s/l def by 10 to softcap it but doing so also lowers my end recovery to 3.49. On my ss/invul my recov is 3.97 with .64 drain. and even then it can still be a lil end heavy with constant attacking.
I always take aid self with invul becuz i personally believe it really helps with the down time between DP. Its saved me many times and its also a benefit because then u only have 4 toggles insteada 6 with weave/cj. keeps the end drain down significantly. and also is great in pvp.
So heres the build, hope it helps
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Level 50 Natural Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Fighting
Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1: Pulverize
(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35
(23) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge: Level 35
(31) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35
(50) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance: Level 35
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage
(A) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance: Level 40
(11) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge: Level 40
(48) Reactive Armor - Resistance: Level 40
(48) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
Level 2: Temp Invulnerability
(A) Reactive Armor - Resistance: Level 40
(3) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance: Level 40
(3) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge: Level 40
(46) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
(46) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance: Level 50
(46) Aegis - Resistance: Level 50
Level 4: Jawbreaker
(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35
(5) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance: Level 35
(5) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge: Level 35
(43) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35
Level 6: Dull Pain
(A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal: Level 50
(7) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(7) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
(13) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 50
(13) Miracle - Heal/Recharge: Level 40
(37) Miracle - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
Level 8: Clobber
(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35
(9) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance: Level 35
(9) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge: Level 35
(11) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35
Level 10: Hasten
(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
(31) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
Level 12: Hurdle
(A) Jumping IO: Level 50
Level 14: Health
(A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal: Level 50
(15) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
(15) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 50
(36) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration: Level 30
(37) Miracle - +Recovery: Level 40
(37) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 50
Level 16: Unyielding
(A) Aegis - Resistance: Level 50
(17) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance: Level 50
(17) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
Level 18: Build Up
(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff: Level 50
(19) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge: Level 50
(19) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance: Level 50
(25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance: Level 50
(36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance: Level 50
(36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up: Level 50
Level 20: Stamina
(A) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 50
(21) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge: Level 50
(21) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
(23) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy: Level 50
(25) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 50
Level 22: Super Speed
(A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points): Level 50
Level 24: Resist Energies
(A) Reactive Armor - Resistance: Level 40
(40) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance: Level 40
(42) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge: Level 40
(50) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
Level 26: Shatter
(A) Obliteration - Damage: Level 50
(27) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
(27) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(31) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(39) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
Level 28: Invincibility
(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
(29) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
(29) Gift of the Ancients - Defense: Level 40
(42) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance: Level 40
(43) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Recharge: Level 40
(43) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
Level 30: Aid Other
(A) Healing IO: Level 50
Level 32: Aid Self
(A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal: Level 50
(33) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
(33) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 50
(33) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(34) Interrupt Reduction IO: Level 50
(34) Interrupt Reduction IO: Level 50
Level 35: Boxing
(A) Damage Increase IO: Level 50
Level 38: Tough
(A) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance: Level 40
(39) Reactive Armor - Resistance: Level 40
(39) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge: Level 40
(40) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
(40) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%: Level 30
Level 41: Tough Hide
(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
(42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50
Level 44: Crowd Control
(A) Eradication - Damage: Level 30
(45) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30
(45) Eradication - Damage/Recharge: Level 30
(45) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 30
(48) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
(50) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
Level 47: Resist Elements
(A) Impervious Skin - Status Resistance: Level 30
Level 49: Unstoppable
(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
------------
Level 1: Brawl
(A) Damage Increase IO: Level 50
Level 1: Sprint
(A) Run Speed IO: Level 50
Level 2: Rest
(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
Level 1: Fury
Level 0: Ninja Run
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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heyo Broots, Ive decided to make another forray into smashing things, yet Ive been rather stumped on which of these to pick:
The concept is a (weapon)/invuln Brute, and Ive narrowed down the weapon to the only two Ive never played...
What are the differences between the two, and how do they stack up with invulnerability?