Scrapper vs Brute?

In this case, you won't fine the brute out performing the scrapper. And you won't find the scrapper outperforming the brute. The only real reason to switch once you've started one is to play different content with essentually the same toon.

Really, as far as survivability goes, the only advantage the brute will have is higher hit points. Once you're softcapped the only noticible difference you'll find is that enemies have to get lucky more times in a row to drop the brute.

This is assuming you're considering Fire/Shield for both characters.

I would just like to say this thread is fantastic

and I applaud all of you who have participated.

The information & opinions offered by you all in this thread are very much appreciated.

The simple answer right now i'd give you is, do you want to be the hero or the villian? Pick that and roll accordingly. You can't go wrong with either.

After GR, or heck, even now i guess, since you can just shift him later, it'll boil down to the machanics more then now. As it is now, brutes act as presto tanks red side, but after GR that won't nessessirly be true. At which point, IMO, the 4 melee classes in the game become more like 2 different classes. Tanks, and the guys that kill stuff in slightly different ways.

Brutes will be a smidge tougher, with higher HP and better caps, but have less burst damage, and around about the same sustained damage as a scrapper assuming they maintain furry. Much better damage if buffed. IMO making them better teammates as team buffs go further with them. (tanker level caps and 850% damage cap) AoE about equal to a scrapper since they share powers. Higher if buffed obviously. Well buffed brutes can tank like tanks if built for it.

Scrapper will become the middle all arounders. Good defence, good damage, both burts and sustained, and AOE. Good soloer, Good teamer. Just a good toon to play. Can tank, but isn't what i'd consider "good" at it.

Stalkers become the lower defence, higer burst damage dealers. Noone out burst damages a well build stalker. They suffer defencively as a result. As a result, I'd never consider even trying to tank with one.

With tanks being the meatshields. Lowest damage but highest defencive values. And, IMO, like stalkers, and kind of limited to one roll. While brutes CAN tank, and even some scrappers, tanks cannot match brutes or scrappers in terms of damage. Assuming of course you pair a well build scrapper/brute to an equally well built tank.

Since you can be a fire/shield in 3 or the 4 catogries, you have a real desision to make. Hope my prespective may help a bit.

It seems to boil down to who likes what. I dont have a brute, but i know soft capped, with nice rech, an elce/sd scrapper is awesome.

Scrapper damage for me goes like this: 850ish hp of damage dealt with Melt Armor+BU+AAO+SC. Then LR hits to clean up if anything is left standing. At even level cons, SC clears a whole mob x8.

How does a brute compare? What kind of damage are you seeing with them?

Yep brilliant discussion!

I am sticking with the Scrapper as my main melee character and hope to take him to 50. I have never had a 50 and i have clocked up almost 2 years vet rewards. The answers offered here are what gave me the motivation to stay with my best guy and not re-roll yet again

I cannot wait for GR when we get to see how it works with the melee classes being slightly different. I am interested in particular to see how Brutes like teaming with a real Tanker hehe. But, I will be there as a Scrapper!

Don't limit yourself to playing just one character. This game is built around being alt-friendly. Why not make a scrapper and a brute? I prefer melee, and I love both scrappers and brutes and I have tons of both.
I would also remind you that tankers and brutes have been able to team for quite some time in co-op zones, so there won't be to much change. I doubt it will be game breaking dynamics, because (unlike what many people believe) brutes are not tankers.

I'd also like to add the one and only reason I prefer Scrappers to Brutes...

Critical Hit!

Someone once put together a mathematical arguement that Brutes do, on average, 3% more damage than scrappers.

So really the difference between the two isn't so wide.

I just got my first brute to 50, and I gotta say that I'd rather have crits than maintain fury. Solo it's a wash, but when your in groups who never seem to run at my same pace or have other guys battling me for fury, keeping it full can be troublesome to say the least.

Crits > Fury

Every single DPS calculation I've ever done is based on a single target attack chain against a hard target.

When I'm playing either my scrappers or my brutes on teams, those single target chains mean precisely nothing unless we're dealing with +conned bosses, AVs, monsters and the like.

On Bill, on an 8man team, my chain is going to be followup, spin, shockwave, repeat. On Louis I'll be throwing out shadow maul and dark obliteration every time they're up.

The point? Burst damage doesn't mean much in a team anyway. Any halfway decently built team not run by incompetents is going to be steamrolling through content to the point that no one, and I mean NO ONE, would notice the difference if a DM/SD scrapper was suddenly replaced with a DM/SD brute.

The spawns aren't going to disappear any faster or slower either way.

It is ONLY when solo against a hard target that we can get into the nitty gritty of ST attack chains and average DPS.

There are two "Results" threads in the scrapper forum. The first one was based on fully IOed out builds with ridiculous recharge and an average 10% crits for scrappers.

The second was based on using basic IOs and a 7.5% crit chance.

In both threads, while brutes tend to come out on top, the differences are small enough to disregard.

Brutes are faster to solo pre-SO, they have higher base HP and can leverage inspiration use better due to higher mitigation caps. At the damage caps, they pull ahead further from scrappers, but how often do you really run around with 750 damage buff showing in your combat monitor unless you're runnin at x8 diff with a pocket kin?