The BEST Brute

If a scrapper could get gloom, then it could crit off of it. As they can't, it's kinda a moot point.

Edit; just read the post above. It is a burning question whether or not side-switchers will switch epic power options. A crit gloom would be pretty awesome.

I recall the Scrapper forum numbers stating something like Brutes having a %3 damage lead over Scrappers. I've always felt that Brutes do far more damage, but I think this is perception. Overtime, crits and the higher base damage seem to match up pretty well with Brutes' and their Fury. Gloom though, will do a ridiculous amount of ST damage that Scrappers currently just can't match. Outside of that, the Scrapper-Brute damage issue is less apparent.

Of course, a Brute does have higher HP and higher resistance caps, which are nice. Especially on teams, with external buffing.

One problem I've occasionally had though, is when there are more then one Brute on a team. Sometimes generating enough aggro to help along the Fury bar can be a bit challenging depending on powersets and the other player's Brute. I've noticed that my /WP brutes sometimes have a harder time generating Fury when there's say a /Shield or /Inv Brute that just sucks up all the aggro. Attacking of course still generates Fury, I've just personally noted that sometimes the amount of Brutes on a team can end up having lowering the amount of Fury generated because aggro is still important to keeping a high amount of Fury.

Oh, and for the OP's question, for both PvP and PvE, I'd have to say that something like an SS/Fire Brute would be best. A bit squishier than other Brutes, but they have high damage, can farm, and are one of the best options for PvPing. SS/Inv is a good choice as well. Ultimately, the PvP aspect is the clincher. Most Brutes are not the best option for PvP, though that doesn't mean they can perform admirably well.

Purely out of curiosity, what sort of numbers have people seen on their Brutes via Shield charge? I haven't done any tests on my Scrapper but i've regularly seen it hitting in the 1700's when we have kin and heavy debuffs on the ITF teams, i'd imagine Brute players would have experienced similar as i doubt it's unusual and with the higher damage cap i'm wondering just how high it gets.

I know this has nothing to do with overall DPS etc, it's really just to satisfy my random curiosity.

I don't have any numbers, but I believe that because of Brute's lower base damage numbers, Shield Charge does lower damage than the Scrapper version. Pseudo pets like LR and SC have a lower base damage cap than Brute's do, so it's likely that the damage dealt will hit that cap and won't go above that. Unless they changed that. Or at least that's my understanding of how it works.

Ah thanks for pointing that out, i hadn't known that they get a lower cap on the power than scrappers. I know that without debuffs it seems to cap out at around 800 ish on a scrapper and had seen some folks bandy numbers like 600 for Brutes around but i'd wrongly assumed they perhaps just weren't using it right, but if it's capped lower then that explains it.

I almost went with shield on the Brute i just made but changed my mind at the last minute due to having played my scrapper version too much and went with willpower instead, glad i did now that i know that.

As a solo player who likes to experience game content, I've pretty much given up on /Elec, although there is so much to like about the set. I've gotten both an Energy/Elec and Elec/Elec to 38 and can't bring myself to go any further with them. They are just way too squishy outside of very specific situations. Energize is sweet, but IMO a poor substitute for the fact that you're always getting hit, debuffed, etc....even if not for as much as other secondaries. And heaven help you if you get anywhere close to anything with Toxic damage.

I could "fix" these toons by doing one or more of the following 3 things, but none of them appeals to me much. I've seen Elec/Elec farming monster builds that use all 3...but they still only work against just the right type of mobs (e.g. Rikti).

(1) Get Tough/Weave: Much hate for this option...3 powers down the tubes, two very End hungry toggles. Power Sink keeps you going, but it seems like a high price to pay. I go from not worrying much about my blue bar to constantly worrying about it. Besides, IMO these should be reserved for turning a beast into a total monster if you really want to...not to prop up a secondary that can't cut it on its own.

(2) Stack +def IO set bonuses: Not only is this ridiculously expensive--because everyone wants to do this on their melee toons--but you can still only go so far, since you're starting from 0 Def To All. Also, I'm playing the game to, uh, play the game...not to endlessly grind farm grind farm grind farm to afford the sets. And/or to stand at the black market trying to figure out how to trick it into coughing them up for less than stupidly high selling prices.

(3) Take Soul Mastery: Lots of juicy -tohit here. I have nothing against this PPP; my reasons for hating this for an /Elec Brute are mostly conceptual. I can't quite figure out how a hyper-charged lightning beast suddenly has access to the souls of the dead, no matter how cozy he might get with Ghost Widow. Besides, who else is going to take Mu Mastery?

Maybe all purely resist-based secondaries must suffer this same doom. It's hard to see making any kind of comfortably survivable (solo) melee character in this game without at least some decent amount of defense. Even with Elec/Elec's sapping potential, you have to survive long enough to floor your opponents' blue bars. It mostly works. Mostly.

One more random gripe about /Elec: Power Surge Yeah, woot!, god mode. But then...no health, no end, no <$#@!!> toggles. Time to pray you're in a totally safe spot. Might be useful if you really need to run away (or if you're absolutely positive you're gonna kill that EB in under 3 mins), but it's way, way too hard a crash for me to want to use this regularly...or at all.

On the plus side...getting back to the OP's original topic...my SS/WP/Soul Brute pretty much glided in to 50 with only common IO's. He struggles somewhat with some +2/+3 EB's, but is otherwise fine in +2/2 player mode for most anything you can throw at him.

Piggy-backing this thread: I thought that DM/SD had the highest ST DPS at the moment, so I'm surprised to see less recommendations for that. Is it because SD falls down in PvP or because ST attacks work poorly for tanking?