Farming Brute

I know this is the age old question "What is the best farming brute?", But that is also what I would like to know if everyone's opinions. Also, since I have heard that Elec/Shield is the best, is it worst making and investing inf in based on the nerfs at hand for i18? Will it be knocked off the supposed 'best' farming build when it is nerfed or will it remain the best? Thanks in advance.

Elec/Shield Scrapper is better than an Elec/Shield Brute. Because Brutes damage modifier is so low, AAO doesn't help as much would for Scrappers. I might have used the wrong words in there, but it's something along those lines. The Brute version is still nice though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murdok Your mom's real name is Castle.

^ Elec/SD is much better for Scrappers.

The best Brute farmer is SS/Fire. On a budget, SS/WP.

SS/Fire/Mu.

If you have some inf to invest: SS/Fire

If you are looking for a farmer on a budget: SS/WP

I prefer SS/WP, personally.

~Alpha

Any good SS/Fire/Mu farming builds? Mine just hit lvl 28 last night...still haven't picked a lvl 28 power yet.

Why /mu and not /soul?

With soul tentacles, you get an immobilize power that still lets footstomp do it's knockdown, so isn't that better than electric fences? And I also thought that gloom is better than mu lightning. So that leaves ball lightning as maybe being a little better than dark obliteration, but with the other two, particularly no knockdown prevention in soul tentacles, doesn't /soul work a little better than /mu for this combo?

I guess if you're not using lightning field and just taking mu lightning and ball lightning that comes out fairly equal to gloom and dark obliteration.

I've never farmed with a SS/Fire, so I don't know. I'm curious, though.

Soul Tentacles is garbage, the cone is pretty small. Mu is better for pure minion/LT killing, you'll be able to throw out more AoE than Soul and make better use of Burn. Although, I prefer Soul for going up against bosses, Gloom is super good.

Wouldn't /Elec be nearly as good? Better end management than /Fire, +rech. Or is the loss of FE too big a factor?

What do people usually slot for on those ss/wp budget farmers? I have a lvl 40 of that combination sitting around that I could finish leveling, but IOs don't seem to do much for WP. It would benefit from perf.shifter+end procs and miracle/numina uniques... after that recharge? hp?.

I'm more accustomed to builds that stack defense or need high recharge for a key power and WP doesn't really match those.

You could try for +health or +regen set bonuses, or even go for +defense even though it will probably be expensive to hit the defense cap, if it's even possible. Also +recharge is still nice for footstomp and KO blow, and +damage never hurts either.

Budget SS/WP: slot for +hp and moderate (50%ish) recharge.

Thanks for all the input guys. Was just wondering does anyone have any sample builds that they could show for an SS/Fire, only used for farming purposes? That would be greatly appreciated. Also, concerning the amount of inf I would like to spend on him, if you could make it less or right around a billion inf, nothing over and just plain ridiculous. Thanks!

Soul Tentacles isn't worthless....its just tricky to use.....I have combat jumping on my ss/wp/gw and I jump over the enemy group and throw soul tentacles in the air. Generally when I come down everyone except the bosses are immob'ed. Then I roll into the usual footstomp --> dark oblit double which kills the vast majority of the enemies. Roll into single target attacks for the boss(es) and move along.

For simpler (though a bit slower) farming I recommend /mu but /mu doesn't do as well with ss/wp.....I really prefer it with a secondary which doesn't benefit from the kd in footstomp so much. I think elec/elec/mu, ss/elec/mu, elec/fire/mu, ss/fire/mu, elec/inv/mu, or even ss/inv/mu would be good combos with mu. I have a ss/fire/mu myself and she was expensive as hell to build out but pretty damn solid against most enemies -- but I still have more fun and am more effective on my ss/wp/dark.

As shown here, even with bosses Mu is more efficient. Mu wasn't as much more efficient as I expected but 5-10% is quite noticeable in the long run. I'm interested in seeing #s that show otherwise if anyone wishes to provide them. Bosses are probably more difficult for most players with Mu instead of Soul. However, with practice, timing and experience a Mu user can achieve greater numbers than one with Soul.

Super Strength and Electric Melee are probably pretty darn close for putting up the highest #s. Foot Stomp's range makes it extremely effective. For secondaries Fire and Shield are also likely very close. Electric Armor, Dark Armor and other sets are also extremely viable. I put up the #s in the link above with Electric Armor. As mentioned above, Willpower is a fantastic budget build.

Some general tips and tricks:
1) Eat inspirations. If your inspiration tray is full and you are killing foes you are far from being as efficient as possible.
2) Move fast from pack to pack. I slot hurdle with 2 Jump IOs. You move VERY fast with slotted Hurdle.
3) Fire while jumping into the pack. Further minimize your time spent not shooting stuff by firing while jumping into the middle of the pack. Use Ball Lightning/Dark Obliteration while in the air and moving. After you land, Foot Stomp/Thunderstrike
4) Run herostats. Perception and feel sometimes lie. Numbers don't.
5) From running herostats you are likely to learn that mauling lower difficulties quickly is more efficient than defeating a higher difficulty at mere "normal" speed.

Finally got back to respecing my Brutes into Mu Mastery. Needless to say Leviathan Mastery's not nearly that impressive when Bile Spray has a 10-target cap. >.>

I took Elec Fences on my softcapped SS/Elec. I'll let you know how that plays out once I finish it. lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murdok Your mom's real name is Castle.

I started a SS/Fire Brute last night, and got her up to lvl 17. I must say I like the toon. Does anyone know what the exact damage modifiers are for scrapper, brute and tank? I was going to make a shield toon, but ended up going SS/FA instead. If the numbers are very different then I guess I can save SD for a scrapper.

Also I noticed I do a crap ton of damage when my fury bar is high. What is the best way to keep fury going? Does anyone ever use teleport as a travel power to just TP into the next mob to preserve fury? is that worth it at all?

Scrapper melee damage scale is 1.125, Brute is .750, Tanker is .800 and Stalkers have 1.0.

If you want to make a SD character, I'd recommend you go with a Scrapper as you're thinking about. AAO buffs base damage, so it provides the most benefit to Scrappers since they have the highest base damage.

Yup, Fury is great. Best way to keep going is never, never stop. Move fast, turn on your travel power between spawns, get hurdle/cj for unsuppressed movement.

Get into the good habit of eating inspirations. They drop like candy, eat 'em as such. Combine ones you don't need (like reds) into purples/blues/greens, depending what you need most.

While you could take TP so that you can port right into mobs, honestly the minor Fury decay you'll get moving between spawns is regained trivially. I'd stick with SS/SJ for your travel power. SS especially since it's easier for indoor missions and you can take Hasten as a prereq which is fantastic for SS/FA. Well, fantastic in general but you get my drift

The stealth in SS is largely a non-issue for Brutes due to how Fury works (alerts the mobs around you), so don't worry about it.

What you can also do is put Brawl on auto until your build is more fleshed out. It costs no endurance and will ensure you're constantly attacking to generate Fury.

Would any of you mind posting a decent-good mids for an ss/wp?