Fire/Fire - Tank or Brute? (PVE)

Hello everyone,

I'm currently unsure of whether fire/fire would suit me well as a brute or a tank. I am looking to play a char that can hold the attention of my enemies, and do a fair amount of damage in return. Normally, I'd say the Brute would fit my choices better because Brutes are probably capable of doing more damage than a tanker - and they can hold the attention of enemies fairly well in the process.

I know that Fire Melee for tanks comes with Combustion, which is not available for Brutes. I'm not quite sure if that alone will make a fire/fire tanker perform better than a fire/fire brute in terms of damage output and survivability tradeoff.

For example: I know that as a rad/sonic defender, there's better damage output and survivability than a sonic/rad corruptor due to the values of the debuffs from the defender versions of sonic attacks than the corruptors.

Is a fire/fire tanker going to be a better damage dealer than a fire/fire brute because of Combustion?

I'm gonna delete my 50 fire/fire brute. Not having combustion sucks.

No, it is not. It is a marginal attack. It does good AoE damage, but I do not miss it on my fire/fire brute at all.

I have had a fire/fire tank for a very long time. Have earned 10 million prestige with it just in the past year, and I can tell you this - built properly, it's a wonderful tool.

However, the damage it does pales in comparison to the brute. I didn't believe it at first. I had to make one myself.

The leveling journey with the tank, in my opinion, is faster. You get burn at 18 on the tank, and at 28 with the brute.

The tank is more survivable, but not much more. The threat levels are the same, so you can taunt just as effectively as the brute - and possibly better because of the increased damage.

They are both fun. Make one of each.

It is a marginal attack but people who play a fire/fire want AOE fire damage and it does that. Breath of Fire is a cone and not that useful for a tanker surrounded by enemies. So you are left with fire sword circle.

Have 2x the aoes is a lot better than just having 1x the aoes.

It is your call but I think you will be disappointed.

Thank you for the information

I'll be honest. On my fire tank, with burn, fsc and fireball, I rarely use combustion. The animation is too long and damage too minimal for the effort. (for me, anyway)

I like Combustion mostly due to the massive area it covers.

I think of it like this... running a fire/fire tank is like having a v6 Mustang. Its quick enough, looks good and does it's job well enough. Sure, it isn't going to outpace that Corvette over there, but you certainly won't get put down by the mom driving her kids to soccer practice in the mini-van.

A fire/fire brute is more like having a Mustang Cobra ... You are considerably faster than your brother with two fewer cylinders, sound better, and are more lethal in general. Flashier, more likely to catch the attention of the police? Sure. But you can hang with the Corvette in most areas and maybe even show him out.

A fire/fire tank with a well planned build is fast in killing, true. A comparably endowed brute is supercharged and just plain nastier. The only reason I can think to go with the tank over the brute is the increased HP and damage resistance. Admittedly, it is reason enough if you are looking to have a sturdier toon.

In the end, it comes down to what priorities you have...

If damage is first and survivability comes later, choose the brute.

- and I will echo some comments about combustion: I don't miss it at all on my brute. It is slow and not that great in my eyes.

If survivability is critical and damage isn't as important, choose the tanker.

If all your going to do is farm fire....stop reading and go make a brute.

But if your going to do other content. The fire tank is the squishiest tank growing up. (Brute is worse) It has resistance armors, no knockback protection at all and zero defense in its primary. (before IO's you had to take acrobatics)

Assuming no inventions:

You resistance to smash/lethal will be about 70% for the tank and 55% for the Brute. Fire of course caps...

Toxic can be built up with healing flames 20% (each) and can be keep at 60% with enough recharge...and its a fast recharge and big heal - but it doesn't boost hitpoints like dull pain.

Meaning your max hitpoints will be lower. Regen will also be lower because of that.

But it really is a good heal...and it is NOT affected by the regen debuff from Hami and associates...So makes a pretty good Hami tank if enough knockback protection is added. (requires 12 points at least).

Now all that said - the tank can run 5 pbaoe sets of obliterations (combustion, FSC, Burn, Consume and Blazing Aura)

With Cardiac I have zero endurance issues..and it boost my resistances S/L to 82% (used +3 resist PvP IO).

The new ATO proc caps my smash/lethal (just short on one - easily maintained with 2 hits)

With weave, maneuvers, combat jumping, kinetic combats in single target attacks I have 47% melee defense. But that take both defense +3's to get there.

With other sets my regen is about 210% but I only have about 45% recharge.

Before I built in all the defense the romans just ate my lunch...I got pissed watching the High Defense) scrappers do stuff my tank couldn't.

Initially I still had issues with cascading defense failures from the -def hits but the Ageless destiny fixed (corrected) that issue..or max barrier but I prefer the Ageless for the recharge.

Can you build a Brute to max the defenses? Probably but its going to be tougher to do...

The only attack I didn't take were Fire sword and Breath of fire. But 5 six slotted attacks, 6 slotted heal, 3 five slotted single target attacks with 4 or 5 slotted armors makes for a very tight build. I kept Firey Embrace 3 slotted...it isthat good these days.

All that said I have main tanked all content blue side and most of the Trials...not done some of the latter ones...Soloing the early missions of the ITF was a goal of the build and it now does so easily...