Most powerful blend for a brute!

So if fire does the most ST damage and has some solid AoEs... At what point does another primary become more effective?

I don't know what to go by with DPS because it seems the information they give you while making a character is pretty far off.

Personally I would go with an Ax/WP or SS/WP Brute.

They are seriously powerful one shot and have a nice couple AoE's. Mostly to pull the aggro I would take the rarely used Presence Pool and Provoke and even the nice fear powers. Adding those to the WP aura and Taunt along with your individual attacks you should be able to hold aggro from those fragile Imps.

Here is a little added suggestion:

Many controllers/Corrs/Doms open with a mass immobilization or large AoE attack and don't let the melee get good aggro. The key is to count to 4 or 5 after the Brute/Tank goes in before you try to hold the group. The normal thing I see is as I run in they slap an immob on and draw all the alpha to themselves. If they paused a few seconds they wouldn't draw so much aggro. Think it through you slap an Immob on that not only ticks them off it keeps ticking them off as the DoT hits for the next 10 seconds.

So the main goal is survival for the squishie and the saying I love to use is:

I can't tank stupid. If the squishie is randomly using DoT attacks without using line of sight tricks he/she will get dead quickly. Let's say the controller uses an Immob its fine if they hit only one corner of the group with the rest on of sight because then you only have to take aggro from 2 or 3 in the group so they don't hit the troller.

In a duo the pattern of play is just as important as the critters involved. I always count to 4 on my blasters/controllers before I attack a group - except Plant trollers because Seeds is the rare exception to aggro. I would even highly recommend a Plant/Kin controller as a more powerful partner for a Brute.

The Fire melee/Dark melee argument: Sure, Fire melee does more damage, but dark melee has less CAST TIME meaning firing off more attacks in the same ammount of time.

Here ya go:
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...etype.php?at=9

I'm going out drinking. Enjoy.

Both of you ignore one thing - The Fire/Kin!

I don't care what Brute you take if the fire/kin keeps opening with a group immob he is going to keep dying.

If you want to get aggro take taunt - its a good control power and since it drops range it can keep those controllers out of the line of fire.

You do not want Dark Melee to work in tandem with a Fire/Kin.


You want AoE damage, and Dark is without a doubt the absolute worst at dealing AoE damage in any situation where you have an aggro making machine like a Fire/Kin.

Dark Melee is the premiere set for the solo survivalist, but that's not what you're looking for since you have a permanent support partner.

For a Fire/Kin partner my personal recommendations would be FM/SD or SS/SD.

Both will have softcapped defenses, great AoE output, great threat generation, high ST damage + a kin to provide you with endless endurance and a ridiculous amount of +Damage.

For patron, you want Soul or Mu - either will work with either primary, but for SS I prefer Soul for Gloom to shore up the weak ST chain that SS has on it's own.

There are other options, these would be my first choices.

Another nice option for AoE would be Dual Blades coupled with Fire/Will/SR, based on AoE alone. Like any set in the game, get past 20 and you'll be fine.

Over the course of the game, I've played a bunch of brute with kin corrupter duos. I've been both the brute and the corrupter at different times. One unanimous bit is that fire seems like the best corruptor primary overall... as for the brutes, here are some thoughts from previous experiences:

Dark/Shield - Shields was great, but dark was so anemic in a group setting that I eventually had to reroll the character. It did ok in a duo setting, I guess, but even then I felt like I did meager AOE contribution (mostly through the PPP) and half-decent single target contribution compared to the fire/kin. Contributing solely through shield charge and the patron/epic pools seems like a stretch for saying that dark is great in a very AOE-centered game. It's a really nice soloing primary, though.

SS/Fire - Was strong before the buffs last issue, is pretty incredible now. Fiery Embrace now can push you past the double-fulcrum damage cap. Add to that blazing aura and the new burn, and you have something that will make you feel incredibly powerful offensively, if somewhat fragile if you're doing x8 spawns.

SS/WP - I consider willpower too boring when combined with a set like Super Strength. Could work well with a more "busy" primary, though. This brings me to...

Mace/Electric - I was really impressed by mace. At high recharges, you essentially have a continuous and very powerful AOE attack chain from the primary alone. The single target chain is also quite powerful. On top of that, I don't see a lot of people use mace. Electric secondary (and speed boost) helps with mace's endurance issues.

SS/Shields/Fireball - My current main character, and also my favorite character so far, after playing this game off and on from the start.

I still need to try fire melee. It seems to have a lot of potential, though I'd need to get used to losing the huge radius of footstomp. Rage won't be missed, though... I wish they'd replace it with something else. I hate the crash so much that I no longer use the power except in heavy to-hit debuff situations.

SM/DA Brute + Fire/Kin Corrupter = perma stunned mob that melts to RoF + Fireball and the brute will have limitless endurance.

Things will die so fast you don't have to worry about aggro.

Last night I started up a Claws/WP brute, based on the advice of this thread / forum. I'm really happy with it -it even starts pretty well. Players will (naturally) want to keep a store of green and blues in their inspirations, but if you use a red and yellow in conjunction, it feels like nothing can stop you. Anyway, kudos to you guys for helping someone out who's new to the brute scene!