Something with decently fast recharging and ok AoE, such as Fire Melee or Superstrength, would be good. I have a fire/stone myself. Mind you, she doesn't get played anymore, pretty much ever, because the other secondaries are close enough in durability once IO'd to make losing the ability to jump really unappealing. That's personal taste, though - it's still a really tough brute from the moment you step into granite form. You can even build a solid brute that doesn't ever shift into Granite with IO sets - though in my opinion if you're not rocking the granite you really might as well be an Invulnerability brute with similar inf invested.
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My guess would be super strength. The lack of vertical movement on my stone tank made me delete it and roll a shield - best decision ever!
If you just want to be a hulking monster roll a warshade and go try-form.
Thanks for the replies, I think i'll try both your suggestions.
Would you consider a Tanker instead? The extra resistance to energy damage makes a major difference in many situations. You won't be doing much damage on the Brute due to the recharge and damage penalties of Granite Armor.
I would go SS or FM honestly. If you have a lot to spend then go SS and then you can IO to deal with the rage crash + running mud pots, tough+weave, and possibly maneuvers ... The rage crash is not so bad and the hasten crash is not so bad, but both combined with a lot of toggles can really suck sometimes. Just getting to def caps on brute SA is not all that difficult, but you need def caps + recharge + sustainable end. The great thing about SS though is it is SMASHtastic and you can throw the +recharge proc in foot stomp which is awesome on SA.
A lot of people just build for +recharge and then end up face-planting against anything with de-buffs ... IMO I think you should build for a good balance ...
If you choose FM then you have no rage crash and FM does insane damage also and DoTs benefit from fury which is great. I think FM/SA is an excellent combo and also very thematic since you can make your armor look like magma.
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I would go Fire Melee.
SA is end heavy enough as is, and Fire Melee requires much less recharge to get a decent chain going than SS does.
It also requires less overall endurance (for typical attack chains + no rag crashes), has pretty fast animating attacks to help with fury, deals partial exotic damage which is useful since you already have a damage penalty and don't want to add enemy resistance to smashing on top of it.
I like Mace with my Stone Armor Brute, the PBAOE has a 2 second longer recharge than Fire Sword Circle but you also get a 180 degree cone and a narrow small target-number cone to go along with it. Mace also has mitigations in stuns and knock down that will let you stay out of granite in situations Fire/ will not.
Man I'm surprised how many overlook dark melee in regards of brutes. It makes my stoner pretty entertaining. But of course I have pretty much every primary for stone secondary except for mace and axe.
Dark does have a lot of tools for creaming baddies. At least you'd be unique to say the least.
Hiya folks, i'm looking to make a Stone Armor brute, what would be a good primary to go along with it? Stone melee was my first idea but if I remember correctly it has alot of long recharge attacks.
Any info appreciated!