Brutes vs Tanks for surviveability

Im returning after a bit of a hiatus, ok a pretty lengthy one.
I have a tank that Im thinking of re rolling as a Brute.
The idea of a tank doing real damage appeals to me, but not if he ends up being squishy. So my question is, how much surviveability does a brute lose to get his damage?
Is it gonna suck in the high levels when I get dropped by stuff that my tank could have stood up to? Or is that not really a problem with Brutes?

Brutes doesnt tank much better than scrappers... unless they are buffed and end up doing almost as good as a tanker (Same cap for res/def, even if def doesnt matter at some point, lower hitpoints but still over everyone else.)
Brutes doesnt do much more damage than Tankers... unless they are buffed and end up doing almost as good as a scrapper. (slightly more sheer damage at cap +dmg, crit pushes Scrappers abit forward).

Now on small team or solo the scrapper will do MUCH more damage and the tanker will be WAY tougher.

But I havent faced a situation when the brute in my group (I mean TF/Trial) wasnt enough to tank the content but the game is not hard enough so it makes a diference (its not a complain its a statement).

Um actually they fall somewhere between Tanks and Scrappers. They have more health than scrappers so they do take longer to fall. So while they can't tank huge groups they are still more survivable than scrappers. It would help a bit if you could let us know what power sets you are using because regen based defense is awesome on brutes.

The tank is INV/SS, I was going to have the Brute be the same, SS/INV

That'll be fine you can take em down quick so will take less hits than your tank.

/Inv is probably one of the best secondary for a "tanking" brute. I generally prefer /Elec for some reasons but it takes much much more to get it competitive. Granite may be impressive on tankers, but it is quite counterproductive on brute's gameplay.
Psy damage will cause you troubles. More than on your tanker since you will have abit lass hitpoints to cover it. As for the rest /invul brute can pretty much handle everything that the game has to offer. And yes, Brutes do can tank huge groups.

SS is arguably the best primary. The damage potential on brute comes from their high damage cap. While Rage is pretty much rendered useless on a tanker whenever Fulcrum Shift hits, on a brute its almost always amazing.

You will probably take Soul as Patron power for Gloom and eventually Dark Oblit and Darkest Night.

Much appreciated.

Hey What Gives?! I cant make any new characters!?
Hmmm must be some server or maintenance issues going on. Drat I already deleted the tank!

Well, you are right with some of it.
But a brute is only slightly less tough than a tank and only really does slightly less dmg than a scrapper.

It all depends on your perspective of what's more important. Let's take a quick look at Inv/SS:

The tanker will have about 20% more HP and 20% more resistance to S/L than the brute. While the HP difference isn't all that big, the difference between 70% S/L resistance and 90% S/L resistance is.

Let's say you get hit by 1000 Smashing damage. The tanker receives 100 damage while the brute receives 300 damage, that's 3 times more survivable before the HP difference. Meanwhile the brute deals about 20-50% more damage, which isn't even close to 3 times better.

But that's just pure numbers. In reality, the need for extra survivability is situational, while extra damage is always handy(though one can't discount Bruising's contribution to a team).

Brutes have the same resist cap as tanks (90%), but it takes more work to get there.

Consider Mids for a moment. In one example, we get a Shield Defense/Electric Melee Tank and an Electric Melee/Shield Defense Brute. Same numbers, right?

Nope.

Without Tough, Weave, Combat Jumping, Hover, Maneuvers or any other defense or resist adds, the numbers for are, 1 slot, unfilled, in each of the Shield
BRUTE
Defense:
Melee: 15%
Ranged: 15%
AoE: 15%
Resistance:
Smashing: 11.3%
Lethal: 11.3%
Fire: 11.3%
Cold: 11.3%
Energy: 11.3%
Negative: 11.3%
Toxic: 11.3%
Psionic: 0%
TANK
Defense:
Melee: 20%
Ranged: 20%
AoE: 20%
Resistance:
Smashing: 15%
Lethal: 15%
Fire: 15%
Cold: 15%
Energy: 15%
Negative: 15%
Toxic: 15%
Psionic: 0%

Are these huge numbers? At this level, no, but in the end game the difference can be significant. Just to see for yourself, take your tank's power sets and put them in Mids as a brute and see the difference. Yes, Fury means dropping foes faster, but you have to spend more inf on a brute than a tank for resist and defense.

The damage numbers cannot be underestimated either: 300% for a tank (I keep seeing 400% written, but it is 300% on my tanks) versus 775% for a brute.

Nor can the max hitpoints: Tank (3434) Brute (3212.7)

The brute is tougher than a scrapper, surely. And, here is where the scrapper thing falls short. Brutes have a taunt aura and scrappers do not. Brutes have taunt (single target) whereas Scrappers have confront (much weaker). If you want to do something SORT OF like a scrapper but you want to do so infront of your teammates, then you can do so as a brute.

I love tankers. I love scrappers. I love brutes. All have their uses, their advantages and their drawbacks. You just need to see if these affect the game for your playstyle.

Good luck!

Just out of curiosity have any tankers noticed the bruising effect has greatly reduced the time they spend taking out foes?
Because of my play time I frequently end up solo, so I frequently end up playing a scrapper.
My tanker was only level 16 but he was taking forever to beat foes down and at 16 his surviveability wasnt all that great anyway so killing faster would end up making him more surviveable (thats just my opinion not backed up by any maths etc). Characters dont stay level 16 forever and given that they will spend more time levelling at the higher levels you need to take into account how they perform at the higher levels not just as lowbies.
Hence the Brute vs tanker surviveability question in the first place =).