One Tough Brute

Bare with me, just sharing a few thoughts into the process!

This all started just after Going Rogue was launched. I had seen the inherent flaws in Shield Defense as far as tanking goes. Even with 55% melee and ranged and 50% AoE as well as about 380% regen, my Shield/Elec tanker was getting into situations that would defeat it, even on the well played ITF's . The lack of natural resistance and a heal proved to be its undoing. I had used Aid Self on a number of characters in the past, but never found it that useful. About the best use I got out of it was on a blaster, quickly running back behind a wall, healing up then rejoining the fray.

But now we could start a lvl 1 villain Archtype in Praetoria and come out into Paragon City on the other side, I thought... What about a brute?

Now, to be sure, I always made very tight Tanker builds. I always wanted the best defense I could get out of them without sacrificing too much damage, hey I had to have some fun you know!

Immediatly I hopped onto mids (wonderful program TYVM for keeping it going!!!) .
I looked at Invulnerbility, Willpower, electric, A little look at shield, hoping for some way to add more healing without taking Aid self (yeah i've been a little turned off that power I guess).

I could never really find a build I liked, after all, this had to take the place of a Tanker. Using sets that I really dont like to use a lot of to get defense or recharge bonuses out of, leading to builds that fell just short of that softcap and didn't look appealing as far as how much damage I had to give up! Now having said that, my other brutes are only in their 20's . I see little action Redside, the wife and most friends ingame do prefer hero side, oh what a wonderful change GR has made, as I do like many redside archtypes. (still thinking about that heroic master mind).

After a while I thought, well... how about the toughest set of all, the immovable object.. Granite!

So once again I went through mids. I am on the side of thinking that Stone Armor, is fairly sub par until granite. Its not bad, decent defense and some regen, with a self heal. But that big rock monster is where its at.. so.. why not build to run almost entirely in Granite?

Now being in granite most prefer the only travel power that works in it.. Teleportation. Having gotten a stone/fire tanker to 45, I am familiar with how it works. Should I go fire again? lots and lots of AoE goodness! especially with the new epics available. This time, I went Electric (again right! ) for the simple fact that lightning rod, offers its own mini teleport! Total score there!

The biggest Issue for me was run speed, without a kin 9.3 mph (even less with Rooted) can be somewhat annoying. I know in the past the thing to get rid of the -recharge was hasten.. but now we have set bonuses.

So i went to work. I picked all the powers to boost his defense, Tough/Weave, Maneuvers, then tackled the task of making granite, play more like a regular melee character!

And so it is done.

He is softcapped in granite, with enough set bonuses to negate the -speed and -recharge that come with that armor. Thanks to Fury, about 3 attacks overcomes the -damage.

It was a tight build though. But one that is so far lvl 42, and has a few set bonuses already. He's quite fun to play. thanks to the extra defense powers, running around in just Rooted and Rock Armor is quite survivable. If things look nasty, pop granite and slug it out. Team needs me to tank, no problem.

One pleasant surprise through all this has been damage output. Now I have been playing a long time but had little experience with brutes, I had no idea their damage cap was that high! Playing with a kin controller on an ITF I often saw my damage capped at 675% and often took that opportunity to Lightning Rod the nearest group of romans.

I knew there would be more damage but not that much more. All in all I am thrilled with my new *Brute* I even updated his build on the modified version of mids where fitness is inherent (I hope its really like this) , I picked up Assault just for lols and Hasten, the 3rd power I dont know yet, maybe vengence just for the sake of it

But looking at his post I19 build..... I think I came up with the worlds first farming Granite!

I had never done anything like this before, and tend not to go off other peoples builds or examples. Its one thing to achieve the desired bonuses you want, you can do that many ways, its another to match a playstyle. I think I did well.

Included is his regular Issue 18 build. I hope any part of it is useful

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Conductive Earth: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Electrical Melee
Secondary Power Set: Stone Armor
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Havoc Punch -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Dam%(11)
Level 1: Rock Armor -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(13), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(13), GftotA-Run+(15)
Level 2: Charged Brawl -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(17), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Mako-Dam%(19)
Level 4: Earth's Embrace -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Rchg(21), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(21), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 6: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 8: Thunder Strike -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(27), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(27), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg(29), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(29)
Level 10: Stone Skin -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Aegis-Psi/Status(31), Aegis-ResDam(31), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(31)
Level 12: Recall Friend -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 14: Teleport -- Winter-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng(A), Winter-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx(33), Winter-ResSlow(33)
Level 16: Rooted -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(33), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(34), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(34), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 18: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 20: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(36), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(36), RctvArm-EndRdx(36)
Level 22: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(37), GftotA-Run+(37)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39), LkGmblr-Def(39), GftotA-Run+(39)
Level 26: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(40), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(40), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(40), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(42), Mocking-Rchg(42)
Level 28: Chain Induction -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(42), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(43), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 30: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Lightning Rod -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(43), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(45), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Oblit-%Dam(46)
Level 35: Minerals -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), GftotA-Run+(46)
Level 38: Granite Armor -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48), Aegis-ResDam(48), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(48), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(50)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(50)
Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Vengeance -- GftotA-Run+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 1: Swift -- Run-I(A), Run-I(7)
Level 1: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 1: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Heal(3), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(3)
Level 1: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(5), EndMod-I(5)

Is granite a tough cookie? You betcha! Probably one of the cheapest IO'd toons to actually make tough, since out of the box, it's tough as hell to take down.

Do people ever refer to Granite as a "stone" anymore? That should say something too. Stone sucks. Period. Till granite.

However, no. You won't be farming with a granite. Granite is slow (No matter how many GotA's you put in it, it's still slow. you have basically sprint speed, and need IO's to get there. ugh.) And, curbs defeat you unless you lock into the TP pool

I didnt look too deep into your build, just the basics, and...it's granite. Nothing major. However, leadership on a brute build is a waste imo. I'm a huge advocate of Invul>Granite. With IO's, an Invul can do just about anything a granite can do, but better. That includes walk up curbs, jump up ledges, hit over 45% def (with one in invince. Mine sits at 38% with nothing in invince), no damage penalties, no recharge penalties, etc.

Not saying you should roll invul. It's a lot of cash to invest to get incvul to that level. Like I said, out of the box, Granite is great at what it does. Forget who said it, but granite is pretty much "King of this spot right here"

You are obviously not a new player. But after reading these boards for quite a while I am greatly amused by your post.

Yes, brutes do more damage than tanks. Wow. I know, right?

hehe, I was going for amusing with my post. I just never got a lot of time redside to experience it before. I was kinda joking about farming with it. It was mainly an experiment to see what can be accomplished.
I went over on the defense on my shielder simply because of debuff, and the fact that defense bonuses came so dam easily.

I went with Maneuvers as an easy way to get a small defense bonus applied to all positions. I already have several invul characters, but only 1 other granite.

I also like going with builds not often thought of, for example, a shield/elec tanker instead of a scrapper for a bit of farming. I know the tank wont be as efficent, but it will be stronger than the scrapper for managing agro, so now I like to see what I can do with combos that might be a little bit off the beaten track

I actually got into an agrument once with someone who said that elec/stone was the best farming brute.

I've farmed many times with my ss/stone armor brute. He was decked out heavily with IO's but most mobs I wouldn't have to use granite. Back when we could farm all bosses, ss/stone reigned supreme. It's funny watching bosses die while I was afk just from my damage aura.