So is FA -only- good for "pushover" farming?

I have an idea that someday I will create a /FA brute, I like the visuals of the armor and the board here has a ton of threads saying how amazing its damage is. I am probably going to end up pairing it with WM or maybe the upcoming broadsword, I haven't decided yet. I don't pay much attention to the /FAs I group with on trials, but got to group with a claw/FA in GV the other day and the outcome was eye-opening...

First few missions were just coucil mobs, and this /FA guy literally melted the map. He had the fire judgement and we must had plowed through the map in 2-3 minutes. What is funny is he seemed largely untouchable, and when I asked how /FA was he mentioned that having 45% S/L was was made the set so successfull for him. I thought to myself "ok... making one of these TONIGHT!".

Then we hit a malta map and the dude died probably 10 times. The gunslingers and robots were a nightmare for him, my elec/elec stalker was having more luck with just shadowmeld on tap for defense. It was great watching the first time he reznuked them, but the map seemed to take 15 minutes to complete... about opposite of what the council's performance was.

Then we hit a carnie map and he quit about 2 minutes in. He was getting absolutely shredded here. Yeah carnies are a tough group for a lot of folks, I know, but watching the psi damage and end drains killing him repeatedly was alarming: he'd reznuked once and then after he retoggled he was dead again.

So, I guess my question here is can a /FA brute be successful outside of council maps and AE farms? I was grouped with a guy who was IOed to the gills and he still had trouble with a majority of the mobs we encountered in paper missions. It seems the intent for a lot of people is to create them for farms, so am I going to hate using one for general PvE play? Thanks guys.

EDIT: Grrr, gonna be making one tonight and try and find out for myself. A better question would probably be "what groups should I just absolutely avoid?" lol.

The thing is that with IO's, Soul Mastery, and Incarnate powers, FA can be made survivable enough while still putting out the best damage.

Maybe not enough to take on things like +4 Carnies solo, but survivable enough for most content.

I do not have a FA brute, but I have a lvl 50 FA tanker and 2 lvl 50 FA scrappers. They are certainly less durable than other armored sets, although with just a bit of team support and/or smart use of inspires they are "good" for regular content.

From 1 to 20, it may be the most durable armor. From 20 to 30 it is very middle of the road. Past 30, it is on the low end of mitigation. The kill speed increase is noticeable and valuable, but you cannot just blindly charge anything and expect to live (to be fair, even most stronger sets cannot do that).

I think the set is fun and enjoy it very much. I actually quite enjoy fighting both Carnies and Malta. End drain is very easy to overcome with FA, although the Carnie bosses are tough (but they are tough for most everything). With Tough, I don't find Malta to a problem in general.

/FA is for most PvE content like playing a +RES build with a heal. While heavy recharge IO builds can still do well in most missions, you'll need some defense if you plan on grabbing aggro or trying to tank. Play it like a regen scrapper and pop some purples for alphas and you will do fine. I came back to game after a long hiatus and not even knowing what "cyborg fire farms" were, I rolled a /FA brute in Praetoria. I took him from 1-50 only hitting a farm or two in my late 40's. It's a great build for teaming, just dont offer to tank without some buffs.

I liked my WM/Fire for the most part, but the redraw drove me nuts eventually and deleted her at 50 w/ a rare alpha. It was just that annoying to me. It was very effective, don't get me wrong... but the redraw was just really, really annoying.

SS/Fire is good for most content *if* you don't plan on being main tank for AVs as they will absolutely shred you quite often. If you're IO'd out and have some good S/L defense then you will have few problems until you reach Praetorian content, and then you just need to carry some purples with ya and you'll do fine.

Simple answer...no.

But needs some hefty investment with IOs. Of course, NO toon currently in game meets my standards without IOs...so yeah

My Fire/Fire/Energy Mastery Brute is like a walking hand grenade. No farming needed.

Not really. The only enemy group as a villain that I have trouble soloing at +0x8 is high level PPD, and that's due to all the damage being energy and all of it inflicting -Def.

Arachnos, Longbow, and Carnies usually require me to pop a purple or an orange or two before each spawn. But nothing else slows me down. Except CoT with their confuses from Succubi and the occasional stacked holds that blow through my mez protection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by reiella Until I see something that states to the contrary, going to assume VK is right .

Every Brute has it's weakness. Malta and Carnies hit a lot of them against /FA.

Never, ever try to estimate performance of a powerset by looking at how a select few random people performs with it.

This is especially true with popular powersets, and doubly so for sets that are popular for farming, as mediocre players will flock to these.

Here's a true story for you. As part of an RP static team a few years ago, my character concept came up with an SS/FA/Fire Brute without ever knowing that it was going to become the farmer of choice right now. I can honestly say that I teamed and soloed from 1 to 50 with little trouble. There are times when he can feel a little squishy but that's nothing that some IO investment and some purple inspirations can't solve.

The reason it does so well as a farmer is because it can have capped Fire Resistance with only three powers so against fire farms, it rules. My build is a casual IO build with 25% melee defence and 45% Recharge and yet I can clear fire farms easily. FE-> Footstomp-> Burn -> Fire Ball and everything is dead. I shudder to think what an uber build can do.

In short, /FA is fine for PvE content. You have to pay attention to what mobs you're fighting and there will be times when you have to act like a Blaster i.e. chomp some purples, run in and destroy everything before they kill you but on the whole, it's a fun set. Fiery Aura - It's not just for farmers.

FA does well in most content in the game. Every set has a particular enemy group that they do not so well with. The faster you kill the enemy the less damage you take. Inspirations help and if you are running a team then you are likely to have a buffer that can increase your survival.

Carnies and Malta are probably my softcapped SS/Fire's biggest weakness. Both can be handled pretty easily with some strategic play Carnies can be handled pretty easily with smart play. Malta... I usually just avoid, they're not a lot of fun to fight.

Generally when I play my brute, I don't like to think a lot -- I enjoy blindly flinging myself into a giant mess of mobs. And I get away with that with most groups:

--Nemesis are easy as long as you don't get into a Vengeance cascade. A Vengeance cascade will kill just about defense-reliant powerset in the game
--DE are easy if you focus the emanators down.
--Knives are easy.
--Rikti sometimes need some insp use, but I can't remember the last time I died to Rikti.
--Council and Circle of Thorns are a joke.

Like people have said, every powerset has its difficult enemy groups. Carnies and Malta are difficult for many defensive powersets. In particular, both are able to land a lot of small hits that stack mez on you, and can punch through Plasma Shield (or almost any other toggle mez protection in the game). And since most Brutes don't carry Break Frees, things go downhill quickly if you're not expecting it. FA is a pretty good set across the board right now, but some enemy groups require a higher level of play than the general facerolling button mashing than many Brute players love.

FA is the squishiest of the resistance based sets and next to Inv and Stone looks downright fragile. That said it's just sturdy enough to get the job done, tougher once you slap some S/L Def in and what it lacks in ability to take damage it makes up for it by dealing it out by the bucket full.

It's a trade off, you will kill things faster and death is the ultimate debuff.