Trying to decide the best primary for my solo */WP brute

Been away from the game for a little over a year, finally come back, finally figured out what I want to solo with...and still lost for my primary. I've been browsing the forums and see a whole lot of builds but I have no idea what I want for this one.

I've seen stone recommended a lot but I kinda think stone is ugly (although I could more than likely get over this one). I've also seen super strength as being suggested a lot for willpower but being reliant on hasten drives me bonkers, I don't want to build a super fast recharge build to try and keep hasten and rage perma-up, I would much rather focus my IO's on pumping my regen as high as it will go. I know how nasty SS can be but it drives me up the wall having to deal with two different sets of crashes.

I already plan to have a WP/Fire tank to duo with my girlfriend (although I still don't know if fire or SS is technically better AoE) so having a Fire/WP brute would be kinda end up boring me.

I dunno, after a year away from the game trying to re-learn all this is making me dizzy :P Any ideas?

[edit] And no, I'm not looking for a farmer build, just a brute who can pretty much solo and survive, well...anything.

[edit2] Wish there was a delete button after your post has been there for a while. I didn't even know we had a new powerset to play with, so... Kinetic/WP it is! Thanks if you took the time to read this ~_^

You don't need Hasten to play Super Strength. Three Recharge SOs will have Rage back up before the crash wears off. Three common level 50 Recharge IOs will have it back before it crashes. That's with no set bonuses. Getting extra recharge to bring up KO Blow and Foot Stomp more often is a good thing, but not mandatory in any sense.

I'm working on a Stone/WP right now, and I've played SS/WP in the past too. Both are very good. Fire and Claws are also good pairings for it. Honestly, Willpower works great with pretty much any brute primary.

As the others have said, you don't need Hasten for SS. I also agree with WP working with just about anything. Mace or Axe also work, since they're somewhat more end-heavy primaries which isn't a problem for WP. They also have some AoE KD which helps in mitigating alphas which can be problematic for WP.

That question of alpha mitigation is why Stone and SS are such good pairings with WP. Fault and Footstomp are great for giving your regen time to work. Fire works well too, it just doesn't have any mitigation beyond killing stuff fast. Claws I personally wouldn't go with because one of your best AoEs (Shockwave) is gonna KB stuff out of RttC range.

DM might work well because you want stuff surrounding you for RttC so you'll also get good Soul Drains. The -tohit and SL also help your survival. Only problem is that as WP you don't really need Dark Consumption and you'll have almost no AoE until 40+ with Patron/Ancillary pools.

So I guess I'd say look into Mace or Axe, if you don't want to go Stone or SS.

So far I'm enjoying Kinetic Melee, but I do think something that synergizes better with /WP may be in my near future. I must say though the set is very, very nice to look at. Could easily work as "air" melee for people who have been wanting air powersets if you color it right.

At the moment my brute appears to be in a perma-duo with my fiance, not sure which powerset will work best for it, I just know I'm keeping my Willpower :P

Also did not know you could change SS's animations, they don't look nearly so clunky now...maybe I will try it out.

If you're duoing (or even soloing) I'd recommend stone melee/wp.

Fault and Rise to the Challenge have great synergy, and it does double duty in that it protects your team mate as well.

I always take hasten. Its even more practical now since they made fitness inherent. I also take Tough and Weave to round out willpower. It doable because you get quick recovery from wp, I three slot that and stamina and also stack the physical mastery recovery powers as well. I know I am fanatic about stamina, however I like to be able to keep going without stopping my rage doesn't drop.

I dunno, I might suggest Invulnerability over Willpower for all this endgame stuff available now.

However! As many have stated, Super Strength is a wonderful pair with WP. I might suggest dark melee, Kinetic melee (you seem to enjoy), dark melee (wow, did I suggest that twice?), Stone Melee and Energy melee.

To toss in my two cents:

I think one of the very best synergistic combos available on a brute is fire/wp/soul.



Fire melee is the best damage set a brute can use, because the extra dot is boosted by fury.

Willpower is excellent on a brute because of the large base hitpoints.

Soul gives both excellent single target and an effective AOE damage mitigator.


The combo combines attack and defense in a very potent way. It isn't the 'best' damage, it isn't the 'strongest' defense, but it's very high on both scales at the same time, making for extremely effective characters.

Plus I think it looks kinda cool.

It is hard to go wrong with a Willpower Brute. I had a SS/Will as my main for almost a year. Another option is Dark/Will. This gives you a heal, big ST numbers, and the buff is 30 seconds with no crash. I think you mentioned haste, which brings the buff up even more often. AND, since running haste, the PBAoE endurance bar filling power is nice as well.

I'm also in the Stone/WP brute camp. I started mine in Praetoria, and soloed much of the content there with very few issues. Did a couple of farm runs last night with him and he was soloing +2 mobs of battle maiden's minions with absolutely no problems what so ever. Granted i've so far managed to get his S/L defense tp 29.68% and his energy def is 28% and change (which means i beat the hell outta rikti). My first toon ever to try and boost my defenses with. I was damn near out-tanking the WP tank we had on the team...course...he had no IO sets, he was either generic IO'd or SO'd.

Stone Melee is very ST oriented but hits like a 10 ton truck when it gets going on a brute. I'm going Stone/WP/Earth with mine. May not be the premium build...but i think i'm gonna like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

I'm having a lot of fun with my Claws/Wp Brute.

I have multi toons with SS, and Stone... welll. Just didn't fit what I was going for with my WP brute. Midigation certainly is great with WP.

Of course I wanted to go for a brawler type brute, so I used Widow Claws and Valkyrie Gloves so it looks like hes just punching people.. ala SS light. Only weridish thing is the slashing sound effect *shrug*.

My 1 biggest conceran with SS and WP is the Def Crash on Rage. So if your looking for all around set, with midigation biuld in that pairs well with WP, I would have to go with Stone as well.

PS - Shockwave looks like a super Upper cut on my toon. I had to take it dispite the knockback