DB/WP question

I'm thinking of rolling a new character soon, and I'm sorta stuck deciding between rolling either a DB/WP Scrapper or an SS/WP Brute. Basically, I'm looking for something that is going to offer me superb aoe capability on top of great single target damage and survivability. I know that Scrappers are suppose to generally do more damage than Brutes, but out of these two setups, which would people here think is best for what I want? I'm mostly focused on raw damage output and killing/arresting potential btw, so I don't have to be the zomgmostestsurvivable toon out there, as long as I'm survivable enough to deliver my damage output without too much hazard.


I do know that DB pairs well with WP in alot of ways, especially Weaken Debuff + RttC debuff stacking when surrounded, but Brute SS pairs well with WP as well and offers FootStomp+Rage on top of plenty of KD mitigation and stuns. This sorta things make it very difficult for me when trying to decide between the two sets. I even tried to use "best concept" to lure me to a decision but BOTH primaries I have some AWESOME and fun concepts for!!! LOL! So I'm really really stuck at this point!


So please, any informations, suggestions, insight, and experience between rolling a DB/WP Scrapper or an SS/WP Brute would be very helpful. In fact, is DB even good on a Scrapper? Never tried it to a high level, so maybe I shouldn't even roll DB? Ahh!! Anyways, thanks in advance!!

I haven't run any numbers on Brutes, so I don't have any hard facts for a comparison. But I do have both a DB/WP Scrapper and a SS/WP Brute at 50. Both were loads of fun to level, even though I'm not a fan of the Rage crash. I suspect that the Scrapper does better single target DPS. The Brute will have better survivability due to higher hit points, but it probably isn't a massive difference, and both have plenty of survivability for normal play and beyond.

Honestly, I don't know which has better AoE. I played the Scrapper mostly single-target, skipping the major AoE attacks in favor of running Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals, plus Power Slice at the end when Hasten was down. There's a little AoE in that chain, but not much. The Dual Blades has more AoEs, but Super Strength has Foot Stomp. Foot Stomp! I love that power. I really don't know that I can call it for one or the other.

I think I fought further uplevel on my Brute as I leveled, but I also remember dying a lot. I suspect they're about equal on survivability, with the Rage crash canceling any advantage the Brute would have had.

I enjoyed the Dual Blades/Willpower the most, but I also prefer the Scrapper mechanics to the Brute mechanics (fury chasing), and I hate the Rage crash, so if you like Brutes in general and don't mind crashes as much as I do, you might like the Brute. The Brute was still plenty of fun.

So yeah, not sure I'm much help, but I think it's probably because they're so comparable. It's hard to go wrong with either. Both are classics.

Do you have a build you were thinking about using? Just remember about the fitness pool becoming inherent in I19...so you'll have a few more powers to add soon.

I have a DB/WP Brute that before the changes to fury, I played a lot. I still have it, and I'm playing with the build for i19 in Mids, in hopes to revitalize it. I used a pretty straight forward attack chain. BF -> Attack Vitals into Ball Lightning or Mu Lightning against foes that resist lethal damage, also using the Sweep combo when needed.

In terms of AoE, SS's Footstomp is still king. A high recharge build basically can spam it over and again. Footstomp will always beat the Sweep combo in terms of mitigation, because part of the sweep combo could miss. I've been debating of dropping the combo all together, I'm just not sure if I personally can take using the same attack pattern over and over again. Also when the extra damage I need to do with Attack Vitals is dependent on each attack landing to complete the combo for the extra DoT, its nice to fall back on 1000k Cuts for damage and mitigation.

But having Vengeful Strike, 1000k Cuts, and the Sweep Combo for knockdown, adds yet another layer of protection to WP's very diverse defenses. With IO's I have roughly 35% S/L Defense and 32.5% E/NE Defense without Kinetic Combats. (I'm choosing not to use them for now, my defense is good enough to pop a small purple when I need to to be capped.) That, added to the +HP, Resistances, and Regen should keep you very alive. Strength of Will is a good panic button.

So for a DB/WP Scrapper you will have a very survivable build, the only trade that I see is that you'll have slightly less HP than the Brute would, no double stacked Rage, and they'll hold aggro better.

Probably the most recommended approach is Blinding Feint -> Sweep -> Attack Vitals, or at least having all those attacks. I have more tolerance for lack of AoE than most people. I also have more tolerance for pressing the same three attacks over and over than most people (four or five for my Dual Blades). Weaken and Empower are generally ignored. In regards to Weaken, I simply never care about mild debuffs, because I'm generally hunting uplevel, or AVs, and the debuffs are much less useful in those cases.

A big advantage to Foot Stomp is the 15 foot radius. That's much better than the 8 foot radius of Typhoon's Edge/Sweep. You can pretty much jump into a crowd and Foot Stomp and hit most everyone. Typhoon's Edge would take more work. If you're doing Sweep, though, probably everyone will have gathered pretty close before you hit it, at least if you're solo.

I'd give a damage comparison, but my Mids' has gone insane, such as reporting fire damage for Foot Stomp on a SS/Dark Brute, and I'm too lazy to look it up in game.

I don't know which would be better. I'm just pointing out one of the big advantages of Foot Stomp is the radius, by which I'm saying that the stated damage isn't the only thing that matters with an AoE. I do suspect the Scrapper will do better DPS. But again, I've run no numbers, and I can't really tell seat of the pants from playing both.

From my experience with SS/WP brute, DB/WP scrapper, and DB/WP brute it comes down to the PPP/APP. For SS/WP, soul mastery takes it over the top for AOEs.

I tried soul mastery with DB but the redraw is so annoying even with using the soul mastery aoes first.

In the end. When you use AV + Sweep, you end up using more attacks and doing more positioning to get the same outcome of jumping in the middle of a mob and firing off Dark Obliteration + foot stomp.

Not to say that cutting up a large mob with your blades isn't satisfying.

As far as weaken and empower, I had weaken and empower on a high level and found that I was forcing myself to use them. The time attempting them could be spent using sweep and av. Its not hard to run either of those back to back.

I look at it this way: Why spend time trying to lower their to hit when I can knock them down and stop them from attacking all together? Or why waiste time with two un buffed attacks in order to get a long buff when BF+AV can be run over and over thus staying buffed?