Scrapper or Brute?

Since brute's have stronger defense, would a brute thats has regen, regenerate at a faster rate than a scrapper that is regen?

From what im reading from everybody is that brutes have better survivability but their damage is only really good if their fury bar goes up, while a scrapper can just dive in and try to get that critical hit. So my question is to put aside fury for brutes and critical hits for scrappers and look at just the hits they each give alone and both are same builds, who does the better damage output? The brute or scrapper, and lets say their both Broadsword/regen.

Correct me if im wrong but from what im reading from everyone is that brutes can take it but not dish it well as scrappers and scrappers can dish it but not take it well as brutes.

They're both good and some combinations are better on a Scrapper while others on a Brute. For sets that have damage aura's, I always go Brute because of the taunt component. SD I always go Scrapper for obvious reasons.

I'd only agree with mauk2's statement if it said "SS/Fire Brutes are still better."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31b_70kzfwQ I totally could not resist.

My personal preference is for Scrapper, but that's for a couple of reasons. If any of these apply to you, it might be a way to go:

I team a lot. While at 50 a lot of TF groups move quickly, in the levelling process a lot of them don't. Scrappers deal much more consistent damage when the team is running at less than top speed.

I often multitask while I solo. It's not uncommon for me to be missioning on a character, while RPing in MSN, or playing with my cat with a fishin' pole toy. Pausing to make my post or tease Velcro doesn't ruin my damage on a scrapper.

I have no interest in pickup tanking. On my brute, I'm often asked to tank, something I'm neither specced nor knowledgeable enough for. On my scrapper it isn't an issue.

Without the control toggles, I suspect you'll be right that Dark Armor will perform better than a similarly-spec'd Scrapper. I just see having one or both of the toggles as integral to the set. If I ditched those toggles, then I'd be more tempted to go with Fiery Aura, but there is a lot to be said for getting what you want the way you want it. Enjoy!

Opposing point of view here, to a degree.

KM heavily encourages a go, go, go playstyle with Power Siphon, regardless of the AT. If you don't use PS efficiently, the damage difference between scrapper KM and brute KM is significantly lowered (without PS, either AT do about the same damage with KM).

Stunned mobs walk away. CoF only stops minions. The lack of a taunt aura and having a damage aura will mean less damage and having to run after mobs.

I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who doesn't like chasing. I went from a KM/SR scrapper to a KM/SR brute because I felt the running away was too much on the scrapper, and ended up performing better on the brute, despite the (in a go go go playstyle) 40 DPS loss.

Your mileage may vary if you don't mind chasing or if you routinely play in teams with people holding aggro and always wait for them to jump in first.

That said, if you do play in teams, the brute can end up significantly sturdier through buffs (either resistance or maxHP making dark regen that much more efficient), and will generally be a better team player, bringing aggro control into the mix. KM isn't going to be a heavy damage dealer on either AT, so just bringing damage isn't so hot when you haven't got much of it, in my opinion. Yet again, it can be argued lacking damage makes it that much more important to grab all that you can, so going scrapper.

Obviously, all those considerations are purely in the sense of "KM/DA scrapper vs KM/DA brute, what is better". Either choice is perfectly fine and playable through the whole game.

I see a lot of repetition that "Brutes are better with resistance buffs, because of their higher cap."

While that's undoubtedly true, do you guys find a lot of resistance buffs on the teams you play on? Sonic Resonance is the king of resistance buffs, but it seems pretty rare and not well-liked. Increase Density, from Kinetics, is often skipped, and even when it's not, it seems to be infrequently maintained due to the short duration. I would guess that the most common ones I see are the "clouds" -- Steamy Mist, Arctic Air, and Shadowfall, but those give fairly narrow types of resistance, and the buffer would have to keep close to the Brute during alpha strikes for it to be consistently useful.

My Katana/Dark Scrapper is at 60% smashing/lethal resistance with Cardiac. I'd only need a 30% buff to cap a Brute, and anything over 15% would benefit the Brute. That includes self-buffing with Barrier, which I have. I'd also love to have more hit points, which for me seems a bigger deal than the resist cap since it's equivalent to always-on extra resistance.

But the main thing for me would just be the taunt aura. I'm happy with my Katana/Dark, but I'd be much happier with a taunt aura. However, the main thing I want a taunt aura for is to avoid runners, which waste time (and thus lower my damage output over time). I'd have to consider if the lowered damage from runners is worse than the lowered damage by going Brute. I haven't made any attempt to calculate. Mind you, I hate runners regardless of what the numbers might say.