Do you consider Brutes as tankers or damage dealers?

No wrong or right answers here of course. Brutes have a specific Taunt power, therefore it makes sense for them to use Taunt and hold aggro. However, Brutes also have Fury, an inherent that pretty much says "keep opening that can of whoopa**"

Just sort of a poll-ish thread to see what most people consider a Brute as.

Do you look for a Brute whenever your team needs extra DPS?
Do you look for a Brute whenever your team needs someone who can soak up the damage?

Or maybe you just don't even look for a Brute in either circumstances :P

Depends more on the build and player than the archetype IMO.

If we need/want a 'tankish-type' character, we will ask for that type of brute.

If we need damage we'll take just about anyone but a random MM. My list of 'do not group with' MMs is longer than all my other 1-starred archetypes combined.

Both.

I look for brutes, scrappers, or even stalkers for DPS.

Tanks when I know I need someone to get the **** kicked out them to protect the team.

Since tankers get their defensive powers as primaries, I almost always pick them when I need a "soaker" or "taunter" because they have their defenses sooner, and slotted better sooner as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic. Well done.

Damage dealers. Aggro management is simply a secondary effect of the brute doing its job: SMASHING.

I don't look for X when building a team. I can take any team consisting of anything and accomplish whatever I need to.

I've always looked at players that state "we need X and Y" as inferior players.

I tend to not really care about roles when I'm building a team. I just take whatever's available, so a Brute is as welcome as anything else. As for what I expect them to do? Jump into groups of enemies and kill them.

i think brutes are some form of combination between scrappers and tanks, and IMO i think brutes are better due to having the resists near tanker (and cap of tanker) and the dmg near or above scrappers due to fury, and i have brutes that can be dmg dealer, or tankers, or a combination

I consider Brutes as "That AT that needs team support to be as tough as my tanker."

This has nothing to do with other people's brutes. This has everything to do with my inability to play a brute efficiently. I don't know what it is. I cannot for the life of me get a brute to high levels.

Brutes are damage dealers that can also tank when needed.

Brutes aren't Tanks. They're more like Scrappers that enjoy foreplay.

Damage is thier Primary, and Fury is a game mechanic that rewards a frenzied "killkillkill!" playstyle. (Scrapperlock, anyone?)

If you're a Tank player that just can't get Brute-ing down, that's okay. It's not the same. If you're a Scrapper player that doesn't mesh well with the Brute way, I don't know what to tell you.

I view tankers as damage dealers that can be 'bribed' into being aggro control.

Many secondaries on basic slotting won't hold up to tanking duties, but if you have the means to buff 'em up, the brute will readily jump out front and play attention diva. The damage boost is great, so this is hardly a point of contention; they won't be able to carry the team all the time, however, so they'll often want you to chip in with greens, purples, oranges, bubbles, ice, shields, heals, etc as they take your hits for you.

When forming a team I assume that Brutes, like Scrappers, will charge into melee and start hitting things. I assume that Brutes will draw a larger portion of the spawn to them than Scrappers will simply because they have a taunt component to their attacks and are more likely to have a taunt aura. I don't presume it's their job to specifically hold aggro although when facing a single tough character (such as an AV) it's almost a given that one of the melee characters will do so incidentally.

I always look for brutes to fill a tankers role when possible. The main reason I do this is because I know the brutes I'm asking to do so do it and do it well. However, I would never ask some random brute that I didn't know to do so. That's asking for problems. Bottom line Brutes can fullfill the role but when choosing between an SO build tanker or brute to tank I would have to go with the Tanker. IO's play a big role in making brutes tank worthy imo.