Brute or Tanker...SS - shield

What are the benefits of a brute vs a tanker...

I'm thinking if I get to the soft cap on defense, that means that they will be equal in the survivabilty column...

..will be mostly for PVE, groups, tf's that sort of thing.

Any ideas why tanker or brute is better...putting here and I didn't want to cross post, so I'm thinking I'm going to get a decidedly pro brute opinion, but try to be impartial.

thanks...

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I have a SS/SD. I love playing that character, as he is pure carnage. However, I would think about rolling a SD/SS over him for a few reasons. As far as tanks go, this option would be amongst the hardest hitting. Thanks to rage and AAo working in concert, damage buffs won't be lacking. I won't say you will be doing more damage than the brute version of the combo, but you will certainly be on the high end of tanker damage. For some people, that might be enough.

Another reason to think about the tanker version is the difference in HP. Sure, softcap is softcap for defense, but if attacks start slipping through, the brute will be in trouble faster than the tank due to the sheer amount of HP tanks now have. No matter how you stack it, the tank will be sturdier.

And of course, softcapping a /sd shield brute or scrapper will be tougher than capping a sd/ tank. I would venture to say it is even easy on a tank. If you don't want to spend quite as much cash, the tank is easier and cheaper to get to the cap.

With that said, very few meleers will hit as hard as a ss/sd fully juiced in Fury, saturated with AAo, and filled with Rage. So the choice here is similar to most brute vs tank conversations: do you want to be sturdy or do you want to rampage and kill things? The only difference is that both of these combos are in the upper echelon of damage dealing for their ATs.

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Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.

"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality

Normally I'd almost always give the nod to the Brute, but this combo is a lot closer.

While the Brute will do slightly less damage than the Tanker with AAO and Rage, once Fury comes into the equation the Brute does significantly more.

That said, the difference isn't that big so the benefits of going Tanker might be worth it for you. The main benefit is that SD Tankers are ludicrously easy to softcap, giving you much more leeway in your build for +recharge +hp/+regen and more recovery. And of course as magikwand said that Tankers have much more hp.

Brute would do more damage, Tanker would be tougher and slightly easier to build. Depends what your preference/priorities are, I'd say.

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One thing to note is that an SD/SS Tanker will get to the damage cap by himself very often, while the Brute will have a fair bit of room left for damage buffs even with fully slotted attacks+saturated AAO+double Rage+maxed Fury.

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Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster

I have a L50 SS/Shield Brute and a L32 Shield/SS Tank and I think it comes down to the amount of inf you have and are willing to invest in the toon. The Brute will be miles above Tanker in terms of damage capability once it's adequately slotted for soft-cap. A Tank doesn't take as much of an investment.

The journey from 1-50 is also more difficult on the Brute. I ran mine through Villain content but in order to deal with both endurance issues and his squishiness, I had to make some concessions like carrying purples most of the time and using the endurance recovery base empowerment buff. He definitely felt more difficult to level until around level 36 than any of my other Brutes. He was a ton of fun, however.

So I'd say:
Journey to 50: Tank
Low Budget: Tank
Sturdiness: Tank
Best Potential with Unlimited Budget: Brute

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