Earth Mastery is great for annihilating your target's defense. It's not great for the offensive, but good for a little control and making your opponents easier to hit. I still prefer Energy for PP and SC.
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
Earth Mastery has three AoEs that have -defense, but according to Mids they can not be enhanced with defense debuff sets so no tossing Achilles' procs in them. 
I'd only consider taking it if you have trouble hitting things or want an AoE sleep for emergencies (or a cheap purple set). On a Brute I'd rather have more endurance or a fireball though.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
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Outside of concept, for SS/SD your best bets are the following:
- Soul: Great ST damage increase along with a decent TAoE.
- Mu: 2x TAoEs, although E-fences can interfere with the mitigation you get from KD (Foot Stomp & Shield Charge)
- Energy: Better recovery, pretty straight forward.
For general TFs & Grouping, my first choice is Soul for Gloom & Dark Oblit.
For farming, mu with E-fences & Ball Lightning hedges Soul out a bit.
I wouldn't personally build for Energy because I like adding more attacks to SS and I can leverage inspirations + recovery serums well enough, but I understand why others build for it.
Pyre mastery is good as well, but I personally have no use for a ST Hold or ST Immob, nor have the slots to make effective use of one.
I have the same issue with my level 41 hero SS/SD brute. I wasn't really planning on doing multiple alignment changes to take him over to the villain's side and then bring him back just to get a PPP. I would love to get another AOE attach that did some damage. Would people really advise that over the hero epic powers? I suppose that might be an interesting quest to go on, pretending to be a villain in order to learn their secrets, and then have to redeem yourself.
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That'd be an awesome story tactic. Plus, /Soul is great for Shield users since the massive -ToHit will stack nicely with the Defense Shield brings to the table. Dark Oblit is nice too; more -ToHit!
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Originally Posted by Jim_G
I have the same issue with my level 41 hero SS/SD brute. I wasn't really planning on doing multiple alignment changes to take him over to the villain's side and then bring him back just to get a PPP. I would love to get another AOE attach that did some damage. Would people really advise that over the hero epic powers? I suppose that might be an interesting quest to go on, pretending to be a villain in order to learn their secrets, and then have to redeem yourself.
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My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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I had E-Fences/Ball Lightning and switched to Gloom/Dark Oblit. Fences is nice but negates knockdown and I didn't like the DoT of Ball Lightning. Gloom's a strong ST attack and Dark Oblit is a solid AoE. With inherent Fitness and the Alpha slot coming (to help with my End), I'll pick up Darkest Night to use against tough spawns.
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Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus
For general TFs & Grouping, my first choice is Soul for Gloom & Dark Oblit.
For farming, mu with E-fences & Ball Lightning hedges Soul out a bit. |
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
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Hmm, that's an interesting observation. I am planning on getting my brute to the soft-cap on positional defense, although he isn't there yet. BEFORE he gets to the cap, then the -ToHit is very valuable since it eliminates a large percentage of the damage he would take. But AFTER the cap the value plummets since it is redundant, assuming he isn't debuffed. After he hits 50 I might want more straight AoE damage in which case Fireball is probably the preferred route. |
Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
That'd be an awesome story tactic. Plus, /Soul is great for Shield users since the massive -ToHit will stack nicely with the Defense Shield brings to the table. Dark Oblit is nice too; more -ToHit!
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I'll have to check some of the comparative damage numbers. I'll also have to see how much more effort and money it's going to take to reach the soft-cap. I notice that a lot of the people on these boards all seem to have soft-capped characters and treat it as perfectly normal, but it's taking me quite a lot of time and money to get that much defense into a character. I just hit 40% def on melee, and getting that last 5% is not going to be easy but it will decrease damage by 50%. Ranged and AoE are still well below that.
Currently I have energy mastery but I been thinking about trying the earth mastery.
I love physical perfection and conserve power but I would like to have more AoE attacks/holds.
Anyone can give me and advice about hows earth mastery?