Suggestions??

First, allow me to preface my questions with a decleration of partial insanity and stupidity based upon lack of sleep. Now that we have that out of the way, here goes!!

BANZAI!!!
GEROMINO!!!

So, most of the time, I build for survivability in my toons. I have never had one with a damage toggle. I like the idea of the extra damage, just were always a little squishy for my taste.

But now with IO's, ATO's, and incarnate powers, I may be able to deal with it.

My current main is a Fm/Inv brute. Love it. Absolutely freaking love it.

Now, to the point of this post. If you had to pick, which damage aura toon would you make? If you could, please list pros and cons. Also, if not to much of a bother, which primary would provide a good mix of st damage along with AoE.

Well, my favorite is Dark Armor. Layered mitigation with status effect toggles. End use can be a problem lvling if you try and toggle up and forget, but with proper slotting and smart toggle use, the set is a beast. If something can't kill you in the time it takes for your Dark Regeneration to recharge, you almost can't be killed. And when you do die, you get to inflict a mag 30 stun on surrounding enemies. The nerve of them KOing you! The lack of KB protection is mildly annoying, but a single IO fixes 90% of that and for three you can have almost all of it negated. And then there's the status effect toggles. You can either stun or fear all the minions aroung you and if you combine it with a set that inflicts those effects, you get to hit lts and bosses (EBs if you're lucky).

As for sets to pair it with, my favorite are sets that stack with one of the status effect auras. Kinetic (I took it to 50 on a tank & loved her), Stone (cause fault is stupid good), Energy (if you hate AoE), War Mace (because hitting things with bats is fun), & MA (cause you want to look super awesome while cloaked in darkness) to stack with Opressive Gloom. Dark Melee or Stalker Assassin strike from hide for stacking with Cloak of Fear (which has a stupidly BA animation). Being able to take out problem bosses or LTs is awesome. Really, as long as you're smart about your blue bar, you will be awesome with the set. IOs fix the issues with the set like they were taylor made for it. If you add some extra defence from IOs, you are now stupid survivable and for when you do faceplant, you just get back up and make them do it again.

Though of course, Dark Armor sucks...

I absolutely LOVE my Staff/Ela Brute. Great AoE, mediocre ST, but awesome utility and survivability.

Only one of the sets with a damage aura can be said as being squishy and that is fie, but you can still slot them and make them pretty good.

Electric and Dark are both great sets and get even better when slotted and toward the end game.

I wish all the sets had a damage aura since they help so much with keeping agro and not having to waste attacks on mobs with lower health.

All of them are good sets for their own reasons.

My personal favorite is Electric Armor, as it seems the more balanced, and has capped resistance to one of the most common non S/L damages.


You might also consider Energy Aura. It's got awesome Defense, some Resistance, and largely the same utility as Electric, with improvements.

The taunt aura also gives you +RECH for each nearby foe, not a small amount at max stacks.

No damage aura, though in truth the damage aura in itself isn't a HUGE damage add. (Granted they have the potential for amazing damage per cast time )


If you want a tanker, Ice Armor can also be pretty good, but it's not the offensive powerhouse that Fire is.

So, after much internal debate, I have decided on 2 new brutes.

1st will be a fm/fa brute. I know fm has the single target damage for hard targets, and will be even better with burn. The addition of a damage aura, and burn will def boost the lack of AoE.

For my secnd one, I am thinking /ela. Now the only question is what to pair with it. I know ss has rage and fs, but how is the st dps? Will I feel lacking when I run across an eb or an av? What about tw? I hear the st dps is good there, along with the AoE. Truth?

My vote would still go for dark armor personally...because it has the best composite resists in the game, and a +Defense power...but, I digress...

If you roll Elec Armor, I would say try out Street Justice or Titan Weapons, both are end hungry...do good damage...and would work out well...also may try MA...

For lots of AoE try Elec Melee, for good ST with a built in heal in the attack chain try Dark Melee...plus soul drain is flat out awesome.

I'm thinking of doing something I always wanted to do. When this game first came out, I was big into DBZ, not so much now, but back then, Oh yeah!

I always wanted to make a saiyan. I guess now I can.

Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, sorry!

I'm just bitter because the Tanker version is way better.



I've got a couple of Ele/Ele brutes (two different servers, they have radically different builds at least!) and can verify their awesomeness. Electric Melee's not the king of ST or AoE as far as Brutes go, but it's a nice damage type, and has some absolutely awesome powers, such as Chain Induction (now that it's been fixed!) and Lightning Rod. Can build a decent ST attack chain with several quick animation powers, if you go the recharge route. Not a bad decision with /ElA.