Neither is specifically good or bad with the Claws set in mind.
Willpower is generally "easy" mode. Virtually every power in the Willpower set focuses on survivability and is either a toggle or an auto power. Willpower let's you turn on your toggles and go to town. There's pretty much no buttons to press or anything to think about. Quick Recovery helps with the endurance and comes early. So Willpower is great for survivability and super for "I don't have to do anything".
Fiery Aura has damage potential but will require some effort to get it to work to full potential. Fiery Aura lacks knockback protection which means you will either want KB IOs or Acrobatics. Healing Flames is a big part of Fiery Aura's survivability. It requires you to push a button to use. You may or may not want to do so. Consume is a late power that gives endurance is also a button click. In general, Fiery Aura will be less survivability (which does not necessarily mean you will die more nor that you can't do the same things) as Willpower. In general, Fiery Aura will make you put forth more effort to get it to survive some situation where Willpower would have just stood there and survived. In compensation for making you actually do stuff, Fiery Aura gets a damage aura, Burn, and Fiery Embrace.
If you want to simply ignore your secondary and go smash stuff -- Willpower.
If you are willing to use inspirations in a cunning way, be quick and prepared with various click powers, and receive some cool bonuses to damage for your effort -- Fiery Aura
One thing will power can't survive that a set like fire can though is damage spikes....I love me some will power....but when I've died with mine..it's been due to damage spikes that I could not regen back from fast enough.
The Porcelain God - DarkKinetics Corruptor
Meat Juice - DarkDarkSoul Brute
Pretty and Strong - Do you really have to ask?
Both secondaries interact with claws in interesting ways.
Willpower is a fire-and-forget set where you turn on your toggles and go to town. As a claws/WP brute, you should clump the mobs in a pile around you to leverage Rise To The Challenge, and then Spin Spin Spin them to oblivion. You should be careful with Shockwave because it disperses the mobs and kills your RTTC, but sending the mobs flying can give you time to retreat and eat some insps in the most dire of circumstances.
Fiery Aura, on the other hand, requires constant attention to your green bar so that you use Healing Flames before you faceplant but not before it's really needed. Damage spikes and animations of your attacks can make that a bit tricky in the most critical situations. Similar (but somewhat lesser) care should be taken with Consume if you rely on it to manage your endurance. With FA, your mitigation doesn't depend on the close proximity of many mobs like that of WP so you can use Shockwave more liberally, but you still want to have the mobs clumped around you as much as you can to saturate Blazing Aura. Another thing to have in mind with Blazing Aura is that it is affected by Follow Up just like the rest of your attacks, so I'd really advise against skipping FU if you go /FA (I suggest you take FU no matter your secondary, but on brutes I consider it skippable in really tight builds that are not after the absolute top DPS). The only "problem" FA has with claws is that Healing Flames, Consume and Fiery Embrace cause redraw, although claws seem to have a much quicker redraw animation than other weapon sets so it usually isn't a real problem.
I am new to the Brute class. I have played the game for several years, but just got around to rolling a brute. I am currently testing two, both claws as primary (both for theme and endurance reasons). It is the secondary that I have questions regarding.
I am testing fiery aura and willpower. I was wondering which one had better synergy with claws. What are the pro's and cons of both? By the way, I am not interested in a PvP build as I don't do it frequently. I'd appreciate some opinions and facts. I am looking for damage potential and survivability mostly.
Thanks!
If you find that you don't agree with my opinions...it's because you're wrong.