Best brute armor lvls 1-20

Hey all.

What do you think is the best brute for soloing 1-20? I'm interested in experiencing the praetoria arcs and I want to get the best dmg and survivability for those lvls. I don't care if the toon is end game wimp. Gonna be retired after praetoria anyway. I'm most likely rolling claws for the early and powerful AoE.

Which armor do you think blossoms earliest in Praetoria keeping in mind the s/l/e dmg prevalence there?

I'm thinking fire armor for HF, but not sure.

Err. Let me add that I'm putting this in General ATs cuz I'm not set on a brute. Will another AT give me an easier time soloing Praetoria 1-20? Maybe stalker?

Electric armor is everything you want for 1 to 20 Praetoria. It has good resistances all around, including psi resistance, with excellent resistance to energy, a self heal, and a damage aura.

If you're just looking to get the job done I'd recommend something with early blooming damage, like War Mace, heavy control like Stone Melee, or high damage and a self heal like Dark Melee. Re-reading your post... yes, Claws will do nicely as well.

Any of those + electric armor will eat Praetoria for breakfast. If you were playing past level 20 I'd throw Superstrength for consideration as well... but other than the fun of knockout blow at level 8 the set doesn't really come alive until Rage at level 18 when you're almost done.

And go with the brute. At levels 1 to 20 before SOs they heavily outdamage scrappers and the durability between them and tankers is closest to even. After SOs scrappers will out damage them and tankers will out tank them, of course, but until then? No contest.

I might suggest DM/Shield. Good ST chain since you're going to be solo and the two sets go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Extra health in True Grit and extra damage/taunt from AAO. Once you get the aiming down on Shadow Maul you can routinely hit 3-5 enemies per use. I know you said it didn't matter to you, but it's also an end-game beast. And a mid-game beast for that matter...

I'd suggest taking Maneuvers early on to help get more defense.

from 1 - 20 I would have to go with electric as well. Before inherent fitness I would have recommended will power because then you could skip fitness and fit in more powers.

But now, it seems to be electric

Call me crazy, but I had a blast on my Claws/Dark.

If you're really only concerned w/ 1-20 and the story behind Praetoria, I'd suggest an energy/regen stalker. Oh, right: we have KM now... I'd suggest an NRG or KM/regen stalker.

I'm sure everyone and their auntie will bash me for saying it, but at such a low level, the usual "issues" with stalkers (as far as solo goes, the only issues is that they have a lower hp cap than scrappers) don't really have any effect, and as a stalker you'll have the option of insta-killing problem enemies or simply stealthing to the end of missions. On my stalker, I was able to run through both the Resistance and Loyalists arcs in one playthrough.

Ah, good catch on the self heal placement. I've got elec armor on a sm/elec brute and a elec/ss tanker - the brute respecced into it because she's existed *long* before the power did, and the tanker I remember grabbing it somewhere in the teens so I got a little hazy as to where it's placed. 28 makes perfect sense, as that's where conserve power was.

And I'll call Dechs crazy, despite my love for dark armor. It has, of course, great long term potential but the things that make it awesome don't come until the late teens when this 1 to 20 is almost done. On the run from 1 to 20 elec offers similar/superior resistances to everything, especially to energy which the PPD and Resistance just love slinging around.

Also, it has native knockback protection. Who wants to invest in a kb reduction IO for a throw away character?

Dark has its day, and that day comes SOON in a career - 16 (8 on a tanker) - but specifically for 1 to 20 then done forever there are better secondaries.

edit: All that being said all you really need is a high damage primary and a secondary with mez protection. This thread is a nice thought experiment but really claws/something with a mez toggle will *rip* Praetoria a new one. Spin is just that awesome.

Willpower or electric.

Call me crazy, but I think I would have to say electric armor or fiery aura. Really, moreso fiery aura for my taste. It gives decent resists at that level, you can pump out some damage with the damage aura, and you can even fit in one of the best self heals in the game before 20 with tough and some other key powers. Honestly- the -rech in the psi powers of Praetorians may be a slight issue for keeping healing flames up, but I still think it is a good choice.

I rolled a KM/DA stalker exclusively for doing Praetorian content. She worked pretty well for it, and I've even continued soloing her on blue side.

Regardless of powersets, i would strongly recommend a Stalker over a Brute if you just want to solo content. It is very easy to outlevel content, even solo, and at some point you will probably need to shut off XP. There are a lot of "Defeat this one person" missions, and at least with a Stalker, you can breeze past all the fodder.

Although the mission where you defend the TV station from hordes of Destroyers was... challenging on a stalker. Not impossible. Just challenging.

I've run both a brute and a stalker through Praetoria, and while for most of the time stalkers make it easy, when you get the wrong situation, it really does suck. The multitude of missions with hordes or ambushes really suck on stalkers.

I think it was an easier run on the brute to be honest.

The stalker was ElM/SR and the brute was KM/FA.

I actually haven't worked up an ElA since they improved it a bit and fitness went inherent.