The Stone will cost less to get to where you want it to be
The Invul will be more flexible and adaptable and damn near stone survivability anyway considering the IO's you can use. And that's even before the corrs/fenders/trollers buff you to the gills.
Invul, hands down, gets my vote.
Why not make a tanker? Their armor sets have higher base values, making it easier to reach high levels of survivability, and they can do it much earlier than other melees. You don't have to worry about doing tons of damage or maintaining fury, which also makes tanker builds cheaper to be effective. If you would rather tank and have a character capable of doing damage solo, I can understand that.
I think Invulnerability is overrated. It can soft cap damage types (not psionic) and it has a good amount of S/L resistance (around 70% for Brute) but tanking anything other than S/L damage makes Invulnerability no better than other defense-based sets.
Team with more corrs/fenders/trollers and the best brute will be whatever can hold aggro and do good damage. (since if you have good support your survivability will be shot through the roof)
In this case your /shield is fine. AAO holds aggro extremely well.
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Originally Posted by Syntax42
Why not make a tanker? Their armor sets have higher base values, making it easier to reach high levels of survivability, and they can do it much earlier than other melees. You don't have to worry about doing tons of damage or maintaining fury, which also makes tanker builds cheaper to be effective. If you would rather tank and have a character capable of doing damage solo, I can understand that.
I think Invulnerability is overrated. It can soft cap damage types (not psionic) and it has a good amount of S/L resistance (around 70% for Brute) but tanking anything other than S/L damage makes Invulnerability no better than other defense-based sets. |
I assume the OP is in the Brute forums, asking for advice on Brutes, because, well, he has decided on a Brute.
Your point about Invulnerability is very good. Almost too good, my main is an Invulnerability. My last main was a Willpower. I chose Invulnerability this time because of more resists, the heal, and because I did not need the end. So Invulnerability beat Willpower for me this time.
BTW, what Brute Secondary do you prefer?
if he knew what secondary he prefered he'd be able to decide on stone or invul himself 
As for invul hurting against exotic, just grab some huge insps from the BM. 2 helps neuter numina's psi attacks rather well.
Like Dread said, it's really the support that matters the most. I know I've 'tanked' the LRSF and STF with my SS/Fire with good support behind me. Although, if you have to choose between the 2, I'd go with Invuln because Stone is gross.
[U][URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251594"][/URL][/U]
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ATM, no preference. I would guess that I need a secondary that has a good selection of single target dmg for the bosses and aoe for the mobs. I tried stone melee and didn't like it much. It seems to kill slower than elec melee for mobs. However, Elec melee is a bit lackluster for single target. I'm leveling a couple of brutes with SS to see how that works out.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
BTW, what Brute Secondary do you prefer?
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Also, I don't have Going rogue, so I don't have the option of bringing a tank from blueside.
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Originally Posted by crayhal
ATM, no preference. I would guess that I need a secondary that has a good selection of single target dmg for the bosses and aoe for the mobs. I tried stone melee and didn't like it much. It seems to kill slower than elec melee for mobs. However, Elec melee is a bit lackluster for single target. I'm leveling a couple of brutes with SS to see how that works out.
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Attack sets are primaries for Brutes. I was wondering what defensive set was your preference for Brutes?
I haven't played enough brutes to form a preference. I can only say what worked and didn't work for me. So far, I have:
* lv 50 elec m/shield: great on lv 20-40 SFs, ITF, but can die from alpha strikes in RSF even with Darkest Night. Decent AE farmer, bad against Nemesis
* lv 50 stone m/stone a.: taunt magnet, slow as molasses and kills slower than elec m/shield. Didn't pass my longbow test at +1x8.
* lv 39 elec m/ elec a.: ok on lv 20-40 SFs, but I seem to pop more insp compared to elec m/shield
Thanks all for the replies. Invul seems to have a lot of votes. Anyone else have experience with other armors for RSF?
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Do you pop oranges?
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Originally Posted by crayhal
* lv 50 elec m/shield: great on lv 20-40 SFs, ITF, but can die from alpha strikes in RSF even with Darkest Night. Decent AE farmer, bad against Nemesis
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As others have stated it is much more about the rest of the team and also your knowledge of the sets. I came along for damage on my SS/Fire brute on a RSF and a newbie stoner tank kept dying vs any psi damage. I have no psi protection and lower HP but keeping a few purples and oranges for those fights made the difference and I stayed alive where a stoner failed.
The easiest would probably be Invuln, but any set can be used with the right team. With decent defense buffs, elec, dark and fire benifit and with resist buffs, sets like SR shields and lol Energy benifit. Or there is WP that benifits from pretty much anything but has crap aggro control. Invuln beifits from just about any buff as well but has a much better taunt aura.
I only left out stone because I hate the speed issues and the need for either TP or a kin.
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I stock up on luck before a mission and will use oranges when they drop.
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Originally Posted by DreadShinobi
Do you pop oranges?
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Theres your problem. You should be soft capped on your defenses: ie you dont need lucks. Oranges on the other hand will help you tremendously.
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Originally Posted by crayhal
I stock up on luck before a mission and will use oranges when they drop.
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Both purps and oranges are good to bring, Posi's debuffs can floor a persons defense right through the debuff resist.|
Originally Posted by DreadShinobi
Theres your problem. You should be soft capped on your defenses: ie you dont need lucks. Oranges on the other hand will help you tremendously.
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Brutes on RSF runs are nothing more then a distraction so the team can target Numina, Sister, and Posi. Once you got those Heroes down, the rest of the SF is a cake walk. Multiple sturdy brutes can help, but it depends on the build. Brutes with a high hp, fast self heal, decent regen, make for good RSF leads.
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Assuming there are no other +defense on the team yes, purples can still help. That said if your team isnt packing any +defense, you might want to look into that also. Oranges are still what will make the difference between a wipe and a sweep of the FP.
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Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
Both purps and oranges are good to bring, Posi's debuffs can floor a persons defense right through the debuff resist.
Brutes on RSF runs are nothing more then a distraction so the team can target Numina, Sister, and Posi. Once you got those Heroes down, the rest of the SF is a cake walk. Multiple sturdy brutes can help, but it depends on the build. Brutes with a high hp, fast self heal, decent regen, make for good RSF leads. |
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Oranges are hardly what makes the difference with wipes when it comes to playing a Brute. Build, Base resist/def, IO sets, and skill play much greater role then inspirations. With the task in question being the RSF, doubtful a couple of oranges alone will be the savior.
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Originally Posted by DreadShinobi
Assuming there are no other +defense on the team yes, purples can still help. That said if your team isnt packing any +defense, you might want to look into that also. Oranges are still what will make the difference between a wipe and a sweep of the FP.
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Actually, given the abundance of +defense buffs and the scarcity of +res buffs combined with the high Brute resist caps, oranges do make a big difference for Brutes on the RSF.
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Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
Oranges are hardly what makes the difference with wipes when it comes to playing a Brute. Build, Base resist/def, IO sets, and skill play much greater role then inspirations. With the task in question being the RSF, doubtful a couple of oranges alone will be the savior.
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Support Guides for all Corruptor secondaries and Fortunatas
The Melee Teaming Guide for Melee Mans
The Melee Teaming Guide for Melee Mans
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I'm not arguing that they don't make a difference, I'm saying its not the deciding factor. Many times while tanking an RSF with my brutes, I don't even need to pop insp. It all comes down to build and your team.
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Originally Posted by Silas
Actually, given the abundance of +defense buffs and the scarcity of +res buffs combined with the high Brute resist caps, oranges do make a big difference for Brutes on the RSF.
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For tanking RSFs I recomend Elec and Dark armor. Dark Melee can also help you survive while tanking with it's self heal, and Kinetic Melee can deal -dam debuffs through your AoE attacks
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I actually have an elec/elec at lv 40 right now, but I didn't think it was good enough and shelved it. It felt weaker than my shield. It's frankenslotted right now, so I'll give it another shot with better sets.
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Originally Posted by Silverado
For tanking RSFs I recomend Elec and Dark armor.
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For general PvE /Shield is generally a stronger set, but when it comes to RSFs /Elec is really amazing. The main damage types for the RSF heroes are Smashing/Lethal (Babs, States, Manti, Mynx, Valkyrie, Ms Liberty), Energy (Positron, Citadel, Synapse, Luminary, Ms. Liberty) and Psionic (Sister Psyche, Numina, Malaise, Swan). Elec resists all of those really well, especially Energy(capped). Some decent slotting and any good team should bring your defenses up to very respectable levels also. |
Originally Posted by crayhal
I actually have an elec/elec at lv 40 right now, but I didn't think it was good enough and shelved it. It felt weaker than my shield. It's frankenslotted right now, so I'll give it another shot with better sets.
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As Silverado said /Dark is also good for similar reasons (and dark regen hax which can help make up for the lower energy resists).
Then again i just tanked rsf on my fire scrapper and barely took any damage at all. I wouldn't reccomend using a fire scrapper because of how much effort you have to put in to hold aggro, but considering how squishy everyone seems to think /fire is...
I'm just posting to show that while certain secondaries can help you really dont need xyz build to tank the rsf (as long as you arent stone) cause it will boil down to the support on the team and as I said before oranges to cap out your resistances.
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Learn to build with the right IOs! I've got 35% psi def and 41% psi resist on my Invuln Brute. All that came from sets and I got perm DP as a bonus!|
Originally Posted by Syntax42
Why not make a tanker? Their armor sets have higher base values, making it easier to reach high levels of survivability, and they can do it much earlier than other melees. You don't have to worry about doing tons of damage or maintaining fury, which also makes tanker builds cheaper to be effective. If you would rather tank and have a character capable of doing damage solo, I can understand that.
I think Invulnerability is overrated. It can soft cap damage types (not psionic) and it has a good amount of S/L resistance (around 70% for Brute) but tanking anything other than S/L damage makes Invulnerability no better than other defense-based sets. |
My secondary is Axe. You'll see why when you start with IO sets...
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Id love to see your build if you wouldnt mind showing it
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Hi All,
My elec/shield does ok with RSFs, but I'd like to be more survivable. I'm leveling a SS/Stoner and a SS/Invul. I was wondering if other folks have other combo recommendations for RSF. My additional requirement is a budget of 1 bill to outfit the toon. I'm fairly new to the game, so I'd like to try out the build before pouring tons of money in it. So if a particular combo needs more than 1 bill to make it perform decently, I'd prefer not to use it.
After a bunch of RSFs and ITFs, if I can play it decently (note emphasis on possible user error), then I'll consider respecing it with purples.
Thanks in advance.