Highest Brute DPS Primary

See, this introduces a possible problem. If Fiery Melee doesn't do more damage in general than the other primaries, we may need to hit up the powers team for possible buffs/nerfs, simply because of the lack of any mitigation in that set.

Another thing to consider when DPS isn't straight numbers, no scenario is perfect. Rage gives the benefit of +To Hit which destroys any enemy with defense. Double stacked rage and if you use IO's can give you a perma 52% to-hit buff allowing you to slot more procs or whatever in your attacks for added DPS.

Ever seen a Paragon Protector hit MOG? You won't whiff on them.

I have far less math to support my statement, but I'll add what I know about Brute DPS.

From everything I've heard Kinetic Melee is not very good on a Brute. I'd avoid it.

Stone Melee is certainly a contender, but it lacks a -Res debuff.

I think Street Justice, with it's debuffs and combo mechanic, would provide the highest DPS. However, I'm not really sure how the combo bonus damage works. That means I have no idea how Fury mechanically interacts with the bonus damage. IIRC that damage is not enhanceable. That being the case, I would expect it to be a flat amount of damage that is added to the attack and would bypass the occasional problem of being up against the damage cap (not terribly common, but with inspirations, Combat Readiness, and full Fury certainly possible).

I'm pretty sure Dark Melee has a surprisingly effective ST attack chain as well on high end builds but for the life of me I can't remember what it is.

Super Strength without Gloom, I expect, would need a huge amount of global recharge to be the best ST DPS. The combination of SS/Fire/Soul is insanely powerful mainly for AoE damage and can probably be surpassed in the ST department. A SJ/Fire/Soul, for example, would sacrifice some AoE damage potential for more powerful ST damage.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

The OP has made it clear that we are not talking about synergistically creating the highest DPS brute. The OP wants the highest DPS Primary. This leaves out vet attacks to patch the SS Rage hole. It leaves out the effect of SS Rage on secondary and Epic pool damage. As well as many other favorite (and accurate) build tricks that really work in PvE.

You might as well ask which single attack from a Brute primary does the most damage. Don't use any Buffs/tricks/etc. It is an isolated question, asked for its own merits. PS, does anyone know that one off hand?

I'd use Shadow Punch. You could trick it out with a lot of procs and use it to afk solo AVs.

BTW, street justice's combo system adds damage to the base of each power. That damage is enhanced by +dam buffs, but not by FE from fire. The combo can be very damaging on Brutes, and outside of /fire characters it may be top-tier.

Then it should just flat out-damage them in AOE potential.

Yeah. I love SS. SS is on my new main, a tricked out SS/Invul. (thank you Scene EU for the Bones of the build) But SS is not the best DPS Brute Primary. there are people who look at arcanatime, look at optimal attack chains, and do spreadsheets on this stuff. I do enough bookkeeping at work lol. I make cool characters and mash buttons. But after 4 years in the cities, seruiously well over a year of that time on one SS Brute or another, I can tell you, it aint the best. I would look at Claws, Fire, or Dark. But again, that is just word on the street. I know Claws and Dark come in real close to the top I know, Fire I threw in cause its best everywhere else. I use Dark myself quite a bit, and its a mean little set. But I am unsure exactly what is the best, just know it ain't SS. (Now if we could get the Devs to axe the drop...)

This is another thing that goes away from your discussion, because it's not a primary thing, but I think it might add to the discussion. SS is much better for Vets than non vets. And the longer the vet, the sweeter the set. I have 3 high damage attacks to use during Rage drop. So, my DPS does bot suffer significantly during that time. (Except in huge combats where I may miss the tells I am in Drop time...) Also, as was pointed out earlier in the thread, the constant +ACC in Rage allows you to take that off the table of what needs to be enhanced in a strong build. Very nice.

But every set has little things like this that if you know how to use their strengths you will benefit much more than someone just throwing it on and mashing buttons. Except that set...(doesnt say it, wont take the flak lol)