Scrapper or Brute?

Specific to KM I would just never roll a KM Brute. The damage buffs are so much better for Scrappers, plus the ability to instantly recharge PS is great. Brutes just don't get enough out of the set to justify it. It's probably still better for Brutes than Energy Melee, but that's not exactly the gold standard of Brute primaries.

If you're willing to let go of KM, but want to stick with Dark, then it goes back to my earlier argument. If you use the control auras, then Scrapper. If you don't, then Brute. CoF can effectively work like a taunt aura if you can shovel enough accuracy bonuses into the build and deal with the endurance cost. That makes this a closer decision than most, if you're choosing based on chasing down runners.

For Brute secondaries, I usually start by thinking FA. It is just that good for them. You get a nice self-heal (and toxic resist buff), a nice recovery tool, and gobs of damage that just happens to work best with the Fury mechanic. FA is to Brutes what Shield is to Scrappers. Where the secondaries are truly equal (e.g. nothing takes advantage of either ATs particular characteristics), then Brutes come out ahead due to more HP. This includes sets like WP, Regen, SR, Invuln and Energy. Dark and Elec are in that grey area, depending on your build and playstyle.

I suspect that the "run away!" mechanic was built with old data in mind, as opposed to the current state of the game. More people are playing buffers/debuffers now and damage jumped quite a bit with IOs, then quite a bit more with Incarnates. At this point I half expect to see a Pylon uproot itself and run off to the mothership upon seeing a lone Scrapper approach.

By the way, here's a non-Scrapper anecdote about how I think the critter running away AI has its priorities screwed up.

Right after Defenders got their solo damage bonus, I took my Dark/Psi Defender out and soloed Paladin. He ran around some, mostly because I fly and he kept trying to find ways to reach me. He would also run around whenever I hit him with Howling Twilight. That makes sense - HT (for some reason) has an Avoid affect.

Recently, I got that same Defender all tricked out with Incarnate toys and went looking for him again. Instantly, he was all over the place, running well away from where he spawned and climbing fire escapes to get away from me. (Which would be hilarious if it wasn't so annoying.) Same debuffs, and same attacks, except for one difference ... Reactive DoT. So this critter was willing to either try to find a way to reach me in melee, or at least stand still and shoot at me, standing in my debuff patches, letting a Dark Servant gnaw at his ankles, all while I plopped a debuff toggle on him ... but he bolts like a rabbit because I set him on fire? What the hell?

To play mauk2's advocate for a moment, the taunt aura thing does stand to become a more egregious issue if the new dev stance is "no taunt auras for scrappers in any new secondaries, precedent be damned," as we seem to be seeing with the EA port. It's rather silly to add a scaling aura to the set and not have it taunt for scrappers. That certainly would be a compelling advantage for brute EA! A shame none of the pay-for powersets so far have been defensive so we don't have any other evidence as to whether that approach will continue.

Ah ha, happened upon a Synapse post that corrected my misconception that the lack of it for scrappers was either intentional or still the case. Well, happy to be wrong about that.

If farming is the best metric by which AT strength is measured, Fire/Kin Controllers are the best Controllers.

In playing card terms, Brutes are "Kings" of damage and durability. They've got scrapper-like damage potential with tanker-like defensive potential. Scrappers are "Aces" of damage, but maybe only "Jacks" of durability; Tankers are "Aces" of durability but they only have middle-of-the-pack levels of damage.

Play a Brute if you just want the most powerful all-round melee combatant possible. Play a Scrapper if you want to be a damage specialist at a cost (hey, they're still miles tougher than most!) and a Tanker if you want to be a durability and taunt specialist at a cost.

Or if you just really don't enjoy fury.

this question hasn't been beaten enough has it?

lets beat it some more and ask in say 6 months when this question gets asked again?

"scrapper or brute?"

The last post in this thread before yours was nearly a year ago.

Was there a reason to necro up the thread?

Why do people not like it when someone brings a thread back from the dead? "Scrapper or Brute?" is a never ending question when it comes to CoH and this thread is full of good info. As for my previous post, yeah it was to poke fun