Some guidance please.

Hi all,

I've recently started my first Brute and would appreciate some advice to make sure that the decision that I've made is right before putting too much time into the alt.

I've been playing a Sheild/SS Tank as my main for quite a while and although it's been fun, I've found that with the release of Incarnates the disparity in survivability between Tanks and Brutes has diminished while the damage dealt has not, due to the caps of each.

I'm looking to make a Brute with good damage for standard PVE, I'm not looking to Farm or specifically solo AV's etc but if the need arises it would be nice to have the option.

The Brute that I've just started is a KM/FA, the reasons behind this choice are:
FA - Is the most damaging secondary. I've got a level 50 FA/IM Tank that I enjoyed playing at the low/mid levels but hated in the 40's due to all the Psi and End drain. I was torn between Electric Armour and Fire Armour here, common sense said Electric as it covers the holes that FA has, however I've seen posts saying that Incarnates and IO's make Psi and -End a non issue.

Of these two what is the damage differential and what is the survivabilty difference? Pros/Cons?

For the Primary:
Super Strength - ruled this out as I've played it to death on my SD/SS
Fire Melee - good damage but no mitigation, also I'm not a fan of Build up powers spike damage, I much prefer the constant damage boost in some other sets.
Weapons based sets - I believe that Burn (if I stay with FA) will cause redraw, ideally I want to avoid this.
Claws - weapons based but minimal redraw?, not sure on this.

This was the rough logic that meant that I ended up with a KM/FA Brute, currently he's only level 12 so I've got no problems rerolling him - just after some guidance.

Thanks all.

You have the gist of it. Fire is good at damage, Elec excels at keeping your blood pressure down with it's resistances to whacky and un-fun attacks (energy drain, psi, recharge slows, etc).

Once you're softcapped to everything (32%+ defense in as many things as you can and then pop a purple or use Darkest Night) most of the most annoying things (knockback, energy drain) go away for all intents and purposes. Any secondary can do that with enough money and once you do it's hard to not see how far ahead /Fire is when it comes to dealing damage.

That said I prefer elec. 5% chance to hit comes up often enough in groups of x8 for its superior resistances to shine, and I just hate when one bad sapper hit ruins my day. Power sink's recharge time vs consume is a factor for me as well, as those high def builds tend to be pretty endurance heavy (weave, maneuvers, running darkest night if you go that way).

Since someone always tells me that consume is "bugged," here is what it looks like to take down a malta sapper with only consume and blazing aura. My end bar stayed completely full the entire time.

Thanks for all the responses.
There have been no "nay" sayers so I'll assume that the combo is worth pursuing.

Thanks again.