New Brute

So im looking to cure my most recent case of Altitus. I currently have 50 ss/fa 50 ss/wp 50 fm/fa brutes and they are fun... Kinda.... Im not a huge fan of SS or Fire anything anymore. SO i decided to come to the boards and ask the people that know best, what is a powerfull brute that will be able to take a beating. Its going to be spending some decent amount of time in Trials and fire farms. Im trying to make a one size fits all type of character. So whats your thoughts? Oh and would the 0% fire resistance gimp a /EA brute in a fire farm?

What kind of IO and Incarnate ability investment are you planning on putting into the character?

I was thinking about a good investment, my issue is i have the time and money but i dont want to waste my time with a character thats going to faceplant against 1/2 the things in the game. I was more less aiming towards a defensive set as a secondary only because i have a /wp a /fa and they are meh to me. I like the looks of EA just dont know how sturdy it can will be on trials and fire farms.

As far as ea goes, even softcapped to fire, which is easy, you're still going to see a lot of fluctuation and the occasional faceplant goes. Not that this happens often to me but having an ss/fire brute as well I can confirm its both slower and requires more attention. And to verify that, I have a claws/ea scrapper. You should be able to itrial softcap fairly easily.

Just a thought, run invul and do s/l farms instead. Or io out a dark for all the psi damage and end drain. Or io out an elec armor for great resists end drain/psi/recharge reduction.

After really thinking about it i decided to keep the /fa for farming but i still wouldnt mind running something for trials and end game content tfs and things. Is invul still the best choice or is there a more sustainable build that has a good amount of damage and is still sturdy?

Well I'd take a look at Dechs Kaisons Claws/Dark brute guide, it's really comprehensive and dark is a fun powerset. I actually was inspired to make my own DA brute and I came up with a couple builds that I like. It's got a lot of exotic resists and a really nice heal, is easy to softcap, and if you choose to use the auras, a fair bit of mitigation. If you softcap a shield you can't really go wrong either, you get some extra HP and damage out of it too.

Without any resistance to back it up, a defense based character will not be able to handle the fire farms. I've tried it on 3 different characters (fire/sr scrapper, dark/shield scrapper, SS/shield brute). All 3 were softcapped to all positions. All 3 were purpled. All 3 had their alpha level shift. All 3 faceplanted within a few seconds. /EA might fare slightly better due to having a heal, but I doubt it will make enough of a difference.

EA ought to be pretty good on everything else, though you'll want to avoid the Minds of Mayhem trial.

I'm a /WP fan myself, but some of it does require you to surround yourself with reverse leeches so your health gets generated better.

I'll have to roll a /dark and /EA one day and see what that's about, I keep hearing 'win' from those two, but as far as 'taking a beating', well... if it is any help, I'm running a Brawl only/WP brute around taking out 3 +2 bosses at a time... And lots of +3 bosses solo, and +4 and +5 even LTs, in my 30s. (Yeah, I know, I'm weird.)

With just brawl. With claws or SS, you'll be nigh upon an invincible whirling/stomping dervish in a lot of cases.

I like WP because it's a really well rounded defense set, with Psionics included... Psi critters HURT. Not many secondaries cover them all. That said, indeed, alphas can be an issue with WP. Strategy can be your best friend on this, in slotting things correctly to withstand the alphas. Then it's just stand there and smile as they try to take you down. Heh.

It's also got a lot of -tohit which helps a lot. If you are defensed, resisted, and to top it off they can't even hit you... well... yeah, it's a case for 'tank'.

In case that matters to ya. I'm sure I'll get shot down for this, but that's ok.