Taunt and i19

Having done an informal survey (I asked you, or did I?) it is my understanding that most Brutes currently do not take Taunt.

With the free Fitness pool available in i19 that will open up 3 new character power picks for most of us Brutes. How many of you are going to be adding Taunt to the mix that did not have it before? and if you add it, why? as in, how you gonna use it? why do you think it's useful? (Please do not say i am going to stand at a distance and taunt)

Taunt keeps people around me attacking me which builds Fury...

Simple..

I have enough AoE that I don't need it. I plan on taking Boxing/Tough/Weave.

What is nice about taunt, above all else, is there are some really nice IO set bonuses you can get from taunt. I used to pick it up for brutes that needed the extra aggro (such as my strong and pretty one)...but there is the nice side benefit of IO bonuses that should be considered.

I couldn't fit Taunt with the Fitness line and all of my goals, but now I can.

I will:

• 1)-- Use the -range debuff to draw in pesky flyers or better clump foes (solo or teamed).
  
• 2)-- Use it on teams to feed Fury.
  
• 3)-- Use it on teams to maintain agro from a distance when chaos causes foes to break into the buffer/ranger lines.
  
• 4)-- Use it in PvP, particularly the range debuff.
  
• 5)-- Use it to recieve 2.5% SM/L defense at 4 slots. I view this as better than muling Kinetic Combat into Boxing or Brawl for defense, because Taunt is actually a useful skill. I'll take the lower defense value in exchange for enhancing an ability that I'll actually use, and use often when teamed.

Pretty much all my Brutes (seven of them) will take Taunt. Main reason why they couldn't before is not enough power choices (personal survival is generally considered before team survival for many villain alts).

With three power picks, I have to take into account if I can move slots around to make up for these powers and if they're fine with their base slot. My SS/SR brute, for example, in her i19 build, added Combat Jumping, which means she can take out a Red Fortune set, freeing up two slots, which in return, went into Dark Obliteration. With a saved up Gladiator 3% added into Tough, she removed two more slots from yet another Red Fortune set, and converted both of those into Luck of the Gambler 4-slot sets, increasing her recharge, and dumping the extra slots into Dark Obliteration again. And finally, the third power is Taunt, which works fine on its own, but with a Mocking Beratement Taunt/Rech/Range. Taunt has global recharge to feed off, and probably the Spiritual alpha slot as well. :3

Yeah. It makes me wish they'd give Scrappers Taunt as well, instead of Confront. Hell, I'd be happy if Confront was an AoE, with -Range. *sigh*

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In the words of a certain Mortal Combat fighter;

"GET THE **** OVER HERE!!"

I always take it

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I take taunt on my brutey brutes (opposed to the ones who are really beefy stalkers).

I use it to draw spawns into spawns so I don't have to do as much running around.

I am adding leadership with my new power choices.

I currently take Taunt on most of my Brutes also. What I will be adding is a travel power pool again. I quit taking them when Ninja Run came out, but now that I have to add 3 powers in I will be looking for ones that don't require much slotting. Travel powers normally are fine without slots.

Yeah now that my Brutes have to compete with tankers as well as other brutes for my "fury fuel" taunt is even more of a no-brainer for me.

It really depends on how many slots I have left over but I will probably take epic power pools. I just can't see brutes as tankers :P Run in, take the alpha, sure but not everything, sometimes the taunt aura is enough

Yea, I wasn't able to fit it into this last respec I did with my Claws/WP brute. With the changes coming up, I'll pop it back in there. My tray feels empty without it.

Correct. I'd like it if Confront wasn't ST.

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I love taunt when I can take it... but I all too often find that on Brutes I couldn't fit it in... much rather have something that actually assists with either doing damage, or keeping me alive while doing damage.

Now, with 19... I have the need to fit in more powers, without more slots. And hey! Taunt is just fine with its initial slot! And hey, it's a very effective way to pull enemies to me.

This is generally called a 'no-brainer.' All my Brutes will be getting to know the awesome of Taunt...

With the access to Blueside Epic pools you might have some nice new options open to you.

I intended to take taunt, but ended up taking superjump, hasten, and weave instead on my sm/wp.

However, my gut feeling is that hasten bringing my global recharge from 55% to 125% isn't really affecting my damage much. My four single target attacks are seismic smash, gloom, heavy mallet, and stone mallet... and without running hasten it's rare I get a chance to autobrawl before one of those comes back up, especially now that I've slotted a spiritual alpha boost. Then again, I *can* bottom my blue bar out when hasten is running (two perf shifter procs and 4.0 end/sec recovery or not) whereas I can't dent it when its not so I *have* to be attacking faster, despite perception.... don't I?

Maybe a numbers guy can figure it out. I'm seriously considering respeccing hasten for taunt as it stands.