Best App for a Brute?

I tried to do a search but couldn't find any solid info on how good each set is. Which in your opinions are good sets and which ones should be skipped? I was thinking about going with energy mastery for the endurance powers mostly. How effective are those powers?

It depends. Seriously. On many factors. As much as I love Energy Mastery, it may not be necessary for every brute out there. For example, a claws/wp brute may find Energy Mastery redundant and not needed. You may decide that Quick Recovery and stamina pushing a relatively light end usage primary doesn't need further endurance help. You might decide Pyre Mastery is more your speed.

On my SS/SD, the best thing I could have done was grab Energy Mastery. Superior conditioning allows me to have more endurance and Physical Perfection allows me to gain my endurance points back faster and more reliably than I could have imagined solo. With a thirsty primary and secondary like that, or maybe dark armor, it is a dream come true.

So... there is no single "best" APP. It depends on what your primary, secondary, playstyle and slotting. For what it's worth, Energy Mastery has powers that complement bruting better than most of the other pools. (IE- assisting you to live the SMASH lifestyle you've always dreamed of without running short of endurance.)

Thanks for your feedback, my brute is Em/Invuln and currently he is an end sucker. I am leaning toward Energy Mastery for the endurance help. It is good to hear that you enjoy those powers and that they work well. How damaging is pyre? Did they really water down some of those powers to the point where they are not worth taking? Are they pretty affective with fury and buildup?

Magi's right (is it wrong that I always read his name as "Magi Kwand"?). You can't say which Epic is best for any AT without knowing which primary and secondary you're working with.

Energy is a good set. Brutes live or die by their blue bar, so the endurance powers can be a godsend. But some don't really need it. The blasts are great, but so are the blasts in other sets, and not everyone needs or wants more attacks.

For Energy/Inv, Energy Mastery is both an effective and thematic choice. But before you go respeccing, go buy a Plasmatic Taser recipe and craft it. I think you'll like it. Energy Torrent is the same thing, but Knockdown instead of Knockback.

Considering the APPs...

Arctic is only really good for its slows. This might have some value if Brutes had access to either Ice sets, but as they don't... there's nothing to recommend this set. Take it for concept reasons, maybe, but otherwise, leave it alone.

Earth is very control based. If you want to be a kind of controller-Brute, go for it. To be honest, though? All those controls are going to murder your Fury. (Frankly, they should have replaced Salt Crystals with Stone Spears... A control-oriented APP made sense for a Tank, but doesn't for a Brute...)

Energy is good for its utility... or if you want to shoot lasers from your eyes. The real gems are Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection - the first raises your total endurance, the second gives a small boost to you Health Regeneration and Endurance Recovery rates. These can be a godsend to Brutes with an endurance heavy Primary/Secondary combination. Heck, Stone Melee alone can warrant picking up one of these - it can easily run even a /Willpower Brute down on Endurance. The powers are also attractive because you don't need many (if any) slots in them...

Pyre is for damage. You want to throw fire around, you grab this set. Unfortunately, getting to the power you WANT (Fire Ball), means getting two other powers, at least one of which you probably don't want. But hey, Fire Blast and Fire Ball!

ALL these sets suffer a lot from being designed for a different AT, and just kludged onto Brutes. As it is, barring concept reasons, I could only recommend Energy or Pyre on a Brute... and Pyre is kinda iffy. Energy, at least, fills a niche that makes it attractive to certain Brutes, maybe even over the PPPs. Still, overall, the PPPs are much better choices for a Brute...

Unslotted, Physical Protection adds less recovery than a Miracle: +Recovery. Slotted with two EndMods, it adds less than Numina's: +Regen/Recover and Miracle together. As you can tell, it is quite possible to make your build in a way that you don't need Energy Mastery no matter what power sets you take.

Unlocking the villain epic pools can have its advantages too. For example, you can not get a good AoE power from the hero epic pools without taking two other powers first. Mace, Mu, and Soul Mastery offer AoEs as a second power choice. Leviathan offers a cone AoE as a first power choice. This can be good for when you are tight on power choices in a build but need an AoE power to make up for not having one in your primary power pools.

Epic pools are meant to fill in gaps in your build. Pick the one that you feel does that best. If you are having endurance issues, don't have the INF to buy Numinas and Miracle, and you don't need and AoE damage, debuff, or control power, Energy Mastery is a good choice.

I have a hard time not going Soul with all my brutes. Gloom is just amazing, there's an AoE power (that I've never taken ) and Darkest Night is fricking great. That said I have an Invulnerability brute that is looking at the energy pool with lust.

Thank you all for the feedback it was all very helpful. I decided to go with Energy it best fit my needs. So far I am loving it!

It does really depend on your build. Thanks again for the help.