Can we readdress KM/SD?

I'm still liking my Kinetic Melee / Shield Defense brute, and have managed to get him up to a level where he's in real need of a respec. He does reasonably well in close quarters, even with nothing but SOs, but it's time to take it to the next level. Not having the hours available to crunch the numbers myself, I turn to the forums for inspiration. Unfortunately, in this entire forum, I've found all of 2 post-Fitness builds for this powerset, and one of them is from someone who never made it past level 12.

So, I realize it's not a farming fire/SS/elec/whatever set, but can we get a little love for the KM/SD? Who's got a build they can show off?

Thanks. There certainly does seem to be much more chatter about this combo in the Scrapper section. So what sort of things need to change switching from Scapper to Brute?

(Interestingly, this character was originally a Scrapper, but by lvl 15, I didn't like the way he was shaping up, so I switched to Brute. From all accounts, I should have stayed where I was.)

You know you don't have to follow the herd, especially if you like the brute playstyle and the look and feel of the toon. Why change?

Your buff numbers would be higher on a scrapper but I think it will do just fine on a brute. Who knows IO'ed out you might discover there is something to the brute that makes it superior.

Off the top of my head, high hitpoints, and more team friendly for buffs since your resistantce caps are so much higher might make the difference. Especially since you get a hitpoint buff power, add in some regen bonuses and it might be suprisingly good on a brute.

Gloom seems to be worth it on a KM brute, due to the lower benefits of Power Siphon on a brute Gloom's damage make up for having a smaller amount of stacks.

Before Reactive, you're still looking at sub 200 DPS at perma-hasten levels of recharge, though. Which is, mind you, respectable and enough to solo AVs and such, but a bit disheartening compared to the 250-255 DPS a KM/SD scrapper would reach with the same investment.

Running a KM/SD Brute that just dinged 35 as the server maintenance hit.

Quick Strike: This attack is freaking fast and is the closest I've ever come to feeling like my fingers were wearing out in CoH. Was good filler at low levels for building fury and Power Siphon points though.
Body Blow and Smashing Blow: Practically the same damage and cast time and stun proc, sheesh! Decent enough I guess and synergy with the stuns.
Repulsing Torrent: Didn't take as I'm told it does KB and I want to keep stuff in AOO.
Taunt: Yep.
Burst: Augh, if only it was a tad quicker or more damaging or SOMETHING. It's really your go to attack in a lot of ways as I noticed many attack strings seem to leave foes with a very small amount of life (more than a Brawl but less than a Smashing Blow etc.) and this lets you knock them all down at once efficiently. Why no KB sets allowed?
Focused Burst: Little more damage than Smashing Blow but with a teeny bit o' range but the darn cast time is... actually not that long but in a set with stuff like Quick Strike it seems long. About as long as Knockout Blow, in a lot of ways similar but not in the DAMAGE category!
Concentrated Strike: Even LONGER animation and nearly twice the damage of Smashing Blow. Keep expecting this to one shot an LT but it doesn't. Could really use a guaranteed stun on this. The t9 power just seems lacking on a Brute.

Hmm, maybe not the most useful insights but there they are. The set damage seems frustratingly low. KM just seems mushy. Hitting stuff while a good rage amount, Power Siphon stacks and some AOO you would think does some decent damage but... bleh. Also, I've never struggled so much to find a decent attack chain/pattern while soloing door missions. While there is a certain synergy with KM/PS and rage it also means your damage fluctuates wildly as that synergy aligns and fades.

Enough "feelings" talk though. This thread has some great numerical points about KM on Brutes vs. Scrappers. Additionally, the problems of Shield Charge on Brutes vs. Scrappers are well known (Scrappers do more damage) to many. It just seems that both sets are tailor made to be "worse" on Brutes. It's not that a KM/SD Brute won't be pretty kick *** and clear missions fine, it's that old Inequity Aversion (kinda) going through the back of your head saying, "This would just be better on a Scrapper..."

On a general level, the pairing has some sound ideas. SD Shield Charge helping with the AoE light KM, especially as many seem to skip Repulsing Torrent making KM even AoE light-er. PS and Rage Bar work similarly enough for simple synergy. Stacking KM res debuff working in concert with all your Rage and AOO damage buffs. Even more AoE attacks in Patron Pools. A lot of this is available to Scrapper too though. :-/

Edit: One thing that has been bugging me. I've been able to consistently queue an attack after Body Blow that will fire off on a dead target. Now, firing at dead targets has been a lot more prevalent ever since the i3(4?) server changes but I don't think I've ever been able to do it on a melee toon before. Usually a Blaster/Ranged attack where you can get a second attack launched before the first lands is where you see this. Maybe the damage dealing timing on Body Blow could be moved ever so slightly forward in the animation to prevent this.

Edit2: Another great thread with numbers.