Why no SS/SD brutes?

I remembered a while back when SD came out making a SS/SD toon and I loved playing him. I then started mesing around with mids with a build and wow well it looked insane to me. The defense numbers and recharge was staggering, now I have been reading the post on the best farmer and I don't even remember the SS/SD AT ever being mentioned. Does the build not work like mids is showing it should or are their problems with the toon that I am not seeing? Or is /fire just that much better? Talk me out of rolling this toon because It is going to cost me a fortune to build!

I'd guess either people are scared off by the rage defense crash (tho that's only a problem til you get it double stacked) or more likely endurance issues - /fire has the refill power. Shield is already pretty end heavy, especially leveling, without adding another crash to the mix.

I've thought of rolling one myself but just haven't gotten around to it and really, the last thing i need is another toon

I like my SS/SD, he can farm rather decently. But I haven't bothered ever timing him or comparing against SS/FA or Elec/FA or whatever /FA flavored farming brute.
Mine is a cheap-ish build though. I have an "expensive" version planned for him for more recharge and a much better endo management, but haven't gotten around to that just yet.

It is most likely the current state of the game.

I have an IOed out Super Strength/Shield Defense Brute and he is an absolute beast! Right now, however, the 'in farms' are fire ambush farms. While my Shielder can handle it, he is inferior to my Super Strength/Fiery Aura Brute in terms of efficiency in the farm session. Getting defense (Purples/Vengeance/IOs) on a Fiery Aura is loads easier than getting Resistance (Oranges/some IOs) on a Shielder.

Also after the Shield Charge fix and the Burn Buff, Fiery Aura is back on top for offensive capabilities, meaning it is that much better.

Why you don't even see it mentioned? I've noticed that when "what is a good farmer" is asked, many people stick to one combination per AT. I've heard good things about Claws/Fiery Aura (Good, but no where near SS/SD or SS/FA)*, but I never see them mentioned either because people assume that if you are choosing a Brute you will be choosing the top combination offered.

Don't let that get you down though. Super Strength/Shields is still a very competitive combo!

*Untrue apparently...change it to Energy Melee/Fiery Aura. I KNOW Billz won't call me out on that one!

Thank god there's more to this game then just farming. Even then, if one build is 0.2 mil per minute slower than a top farmer, it doesn't mean it's a bad build to farm with. Let's say AAO and SC equal FE and Burn. Shield has no counter to BA and damage auras tend to be the best sources of damage. They should be when farming.

If you find a build you like and it looks good on paper, then roll it. I just got my 8th level 50 last night. Of the 8, I can say that only one of them was done partly due to the influence of the forum and that was mostly in finding what pairs well with the primary which I wanted to try out since I was so clueless about it. Two of my next 50s will be an Ice tank, which is considered the red headed stepchild of tank armor sets these days and a Dark/stone tank, which is widely know for significant end issues. One of my favorite ATs to play right now still gets "lol stalkers" comments. Whatever. I'm having fun.

As was mentioned upthread, SS/SD is no longer the ultimate farmer (due to nerf of Shield Charge + Burn buff and the ability to set up AE ticket farms that are 100% fire damage) but it's still terrific combo and my favorite brute.

One downside to my SS/SD was that it was extremely expensive to give him a really first class build, primarily due to a couple of PvP IOs. But it's all just play money and I've had a ton of fun playing him.

He used to have a weakness in that due to extremely high recharge he is able to crank out AoEs like mad and drain his blue bar pretty fast. But when the Alpha slot came around, his endurance woes became a thing of the past.

So while SS/SD may no longer be absolute top dog, it's still an incredibly fun and potent combo.

...and if I'm not mistaken, Spin doesn't have the damage mitigation "potential".

I'm convinced my Claws/FA could beat my SS/FA but my alt-account doesn't have GR so I can't get any of the incarnate stuff that my SS/FA has access to. I'm also not willing to spend the influence/time it would take on an account that I often let lapse for months/years.

As for a happy medium between SS/Fire and SS/SD... How about Elec/Fire? I'm running it on a Scrapper, and while I haven't played every powerset/AT/combo in the game, I haven't found anything that can put out as much AoE burst damage in a similar time frame.

My SS/SD Brute was an endurance nightmare until I was significantly slotted. This was before Stamina was inherent. That said, it is a monster. Just not as fast as SS/Fire in terms of AoE output.

I enjoy my SS/SD immensely, and prior to GR, he was my main go to brute. Now, I have shifted back to my FM/FA. There aren't a lot of issues with ss/sd besides it being thirsty and not having end recovery options built in, but once you add in Energy Mastery and maybe Cardiac Alpha powers, it is a playable and worthy combo.

As far as farming goes- classic redside farming would utterly destroy a /sd farmer. The good old Nem farm would wipe out a shielder's defense in moments, whereas a good /fa would wipe out a spawn in comparable (if not better) time.

Just because there are no guides written on it doesn't mean that there are no people playing the combo. I say roll it and see what it has to offer. But I will warn that shield is trickier and more costly for scrappers and brutes to softcap defense.