Super Strength isn't very good with a defense set like shield because the Rage crash will take away almost half your defense if you are soft-capped.
It's not that expensive to make a soft-cap shield build either especially when you buy recipes using alignment merits.
I would recommend anything but super strength with shield. Rage will likely need to be perma which requires either hasten or set bonuses for recharge otherwise you'll suffer that bad crash. Rage is also another power you will have to click regularly when you already will have Active Defense on auto.
I'm actually liking kinetic/shield for a brute, especially since every time I hit an enemy their damage is debuffed by a certain amount for each attack which stacks.
It works very very well with Against All Odds.
It also gives you a ranged power in Focused Burst for those runners/flying enemies.
Check my thread down the list for a couple pretty good soft-capped builds that you can play around with to make perfect for you and give you ideas.
I personally think shields is better off on a scrapper because of the way damage buffs work, and I would suggest an elec/shield and a fire/shield (or kin/shield, I see some potential there even moreso with the damage buffs). But if you are dead set on brutes, I say go with one ss, and one fire.
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It's a matter of preference which archetype you go with.|
Originally Posted by Pyro_Master_NA
I personally think shields is better off on a scrapper because of the way damage buffs work, and I would suggest an elec/shield and a fire/shield (or kin/shield, I see some potential there even moreso with the damage buffs). But if you are dead set on brutes, I say go with one ss, and one fire.
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One has random chances for a 100% damage buff and one has consistent damage.
I find the brute's Fury better for quicker and possibly lower damage sets, like energy melee or kinetic melee, but the scrapper Criticals better for slower higher damage sets, like broadsword and mace.
I still do not recommend Super Strength unless you immediately can make Rage perma and don't have to worry about recharge debuffs slowing it down to make the crash worse.
Foot Stomp is great, but, with super strength being all smashing damage, the real focus of super strength is Rage.
The problem is you would be better off not using Rage with a defense based secondary because it will gut your defense badly when it crashes unless it reactivates before the last activation crashes.
By the way, Rage always crashes and brings your damage down to almost zero for at least 10 seconds. Even if you make it perma to avoid the defense debuff of the crash, you will still be practically useless while it crashes.
Rage is best made barely perma and no more because the more you stack it the more crashes you deal with and thus the more time you spend useless.
Barely perma leaves it susceptible to the recharge debuffs of psionic attacks and all sorts of other recharge debuffs also.
I love super strength, but only on resistance/regeneration based sets, not defense.
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Assuming you dont stack rage, which 3 recharge's do easilly. |
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
Super Strength isn't very good with a defense set like shield because the Rage crash will take away almost half your defense if you are soft-capped.
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SS/SD is a beast to behold. Truthfully.
And T is pretty correct in the fact that recharge debuffs will tend to screw up your rage stacking, however, at soft cap there isnt too much to worry about in terms of it. Not getting hit = not getting slowed.
Slot a winters gift in your sprint or something to give you a 20% resistance, and you'll be fine. With enough recharge (if going soft cap you'll probably use some +rchrg bonus anyway), 1 or 2 or like...4 slows won't gut your defense. Rage will pop before it gives ya the debuff anyway.
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The first part is incredibly over simplified. Scrapper's have a higher damage modifier so they benefit more from AAO (AND the numbers are higher) and Shield Charge will do more damage. For many powersets Brutes can maintain Scrapper level damage, but Shield to Shield, they simply can't... because AAO's effective damage increase over Fury is significantly less than what AAO will give Scrappers.|
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
It's a matter of preference which archetype you go with.
One has random chances for a 100% damage buff and one has consistent damage. I find the brute's Fury better for quicker and possibly lower damage sets, like energy melee or kinetic melee, but the scrapper Criticals better for slower higher damage sets, like broadsword and mace. |
This is amplified in scenarios that use Build Up, which is MUCH better on Scrappers than Brutes (it adds almost 2x more damage).
But the point about Rage is spot on (though I would add that I wouldn't use it for SR or Energy Aura either). Fire/, Kinetic/, and Stone/ would all be better.
@Gilia1
I play heroes on Champion.
I play villains on Virtue.
One thing I can say of Comparison in Elec/Shield Scrapper to Brute is that the Scrapper counter part after i18 feels like it does more damage than the brute counter part. Up until i18, I had always felt the other way around. Especially when the fight drags on, I would have voted Brute does more damage, but not anymore. Also noticeably, as a brute in groups people don't let you wait that long for your Fury to build to bomb with LR and SC. It's much easier as a Scrapper to jump in, Build Up, then commence bombs to kill.
My recommendation is Elec/ for AoE, Fire/ for both ST and AoE, Kin/ for ST. Dark/ if you have money to blow.
I have only leveled a /SD brute to 10 or so. I understand it is somewhat expensive to softcap. I don't have tons of infamy, my wife and I might have 2B between us. I don't want to spend it all on 1 or 2 toons.
But looking at the phalanx fighting and grant cover powers, if we take those as a duo that would greatly help us to softcap without having to delve into so many set bonuses for it.
With that in mind, I was thinking 2 SS/SD brutes. Once we get foot stomp and good recharge, that sounds like it would be quite devastating. But what if we ran up against an enemy that had awesome resistance to smashing? So I started thinking 1 FM/SD and 1 SS/SD. Probably still have enough mitigation with the 1 doing foot stomp, and the other perhaps doing even more damage with FSC and BOF.
I also have renewed interest in /SD because of fitness going inherant, so I would have power pools for both fighting and medicine, if I determined aid self would be useful.
So I am interested in comments about whether I should go 2 SS, or 1 SS and 1 FM, or some other combination. Once I determine which we'll go with, I'll throw some builds together and see what people think of those.
Thanks.