Ah, Stone Melee. That smash-tastic set that shakes the screen, makes cool noises and generly looks cooler than all the other sets. Unfortunately it has the reputation of being an endhog and subpar damage to Energy Melee and Superstrength. And this reputation is true. Stone Melee will not outdamage Energy Melee or Superstrength, but what it WILL do is make you the king of protecting yourself and your team using combinations of Knockdown, Holds and Disorients. Using Stone Melee, you can control the battle almost as well as a Dominator, while dealing tremendous amounts of damage.
Stone Melee also has the advantage of very fast activation times. This allows it to build fury quickly, and allows it to PvP quite well.
Now on to the powers!
Stone Fist
This is a power that many people choose to skip, attracted to the more damaging Hammer attacks. However skipping this attack will cripple you unless you happen to have another fast recharging attack. Unlike most 1st tier powers, Stone Fist does moderate damage, inflicting as much as most sets 2nd tier power. Considering its relatively fast recharge time, this makes an excellent power to build up and maintain fury, as well as doing sizable amounts of damage. Be sure to take and slot this power well.
Stone Mallet This is your first major heavy hitter, and you have access to it at level 1. Like Stone Fist, this is practically a required power, doing very good damage as well as being the first power to show the real power or Stone Melee....Knockdown. Stone Mallet has a very good chance of knockdown and combined with other powers, can keep a boss flopping around the entire fight.
Heavy Mallet The 2nd part of your Knockdown combo, Heavy Mallet does about 50% more damage as stone mallet, and has an even greater chance of Knockdown. At low levels this attack can also 1-shot most minions on fury alone, although at higher levels you will need to combine it with other attacks to quickly mow through enemys.
Build Up I have seen recent guides advocating not picking up Build Up, and I could not disagree more. Build Up offers a damage boost that equals to about half of a bar of Fury. This means that you can either pop it when you have no fury to simulate having a bar of fury to quickly take down enemys, or pop it when full, for that extra boost of damage vs hard targets. Build up is also VERY important when dealing with high defense targets, or when you have your accuracy nerfed. Trying to bust through a Tsoo Sorcerers Hurricane with no Build Up is an exercise in pain. Build Up can be put off for a bit into a build, but I like to make sure I get it in the mid 20's.
Fault This, my brutish friends, is the true gem of the Stone Melee set. Now when you first look at this power, most people go "meh, no damage, its pointless...Im grabbing Hurl Boulder." Yes it does no damage. However, this attack is the deciding factor in what allows Stone Melee brutes to take an alpha strike for a team of 8 with +2-+3 mobs AND SURVIVE. This is actually a very short-ranged AoE attack, not a Player Based AoE attack. It causes instant Knockdown to everything(thus giving you some extra breathing room) as well as a 100% Mag 2 disorient, with a 50% chance of a mag 3 disorient. This is massive. This basically allows you to hop in a mob, take the alpha, than put 90% of the mob out of the fight for 10 seconds. On bosses, use this to keep the bosses knocked up while waiting for your Mallets to recharge. Its this power that allows us to become the Controllers for brutes, and makes Stone Melee one of the safest sets to play. Fault does drain a sizable amount of endurance, so until it is fully slotted, be careful of how much you spam this attack.
Taunt For the most part, I have never felt the need for Taunt while leveling. I can keep as much aggro as I want with my Aggro Aura, and with Fault. I would not recommend picking this up until very late into your build. I picked it up at 49 to use for the occasional Recluse Strike Force and Hami raids.
Seismic Smash Seismic Smash deals as much damage as Knock Out blow and Total Focus, and does its animation 2 seconds faster than both of them. Oh, and it comes with a hold big enough to hold Bosses. This power will bust through Acrobatics instantly, something that Knock-Out Blow cannot do.
Hurl Boulder One of the "Meh" attacks of the set. This power has an incredibly long activation and is simply not effective in the heat of combat. Its only uses are a pulling tool and to knockout flyers. Thats it. The damage, since it is rarely boosted by Fury, is not that great. I recommend skipping this power unless you really like it for concept.
Tremor Tremor is a decent AoE, but due to its long animation, it feels wrong in the incredibly fast-attacking chain that is Stone Melee. It does have a large AoE, and causes Knockdown. It is an easily skipped power, but it is better than say, Hurl Boulder.
Slotting
For Single-Origin Enhancement Slotting, I recommend 2 Acc, 2 Dam, 2 End Redux in all of the single-target attacks. When you first start slotting, Acc and End redux are the most important.
For Invention Slotting, I went for 5 Crushing Impacts+1 End Redux. This was to ensure that I have a very nice endurance reduction on my attacks, as well as good damage, acc and recharge speed. The +5% recharge from Crushing Impacts is a very good addition to the slow recharging Stone Melee attacks.
For exact slotting, I went..
1 Acc/Dam, 1 Dam/Rech, 1 Dam/End/Recharge, 1 Acc/Dam/Recharge, 1 Acc/Dam/End, 1 Endurance Redux IO.
For Fault, I slotted 2 Acc, 2 Disorient, 2 End for SO's.
For Inventions, I slotted 5 Stupefies+1 Endurance IO. I went with Stupefy mainly for the +6.25% Recharge it grants.
My exact Slotting...
1 Acc/Recharge, 1 Acc/Endurance, 1 Stun/Range, 1 Acc/Stun/Recharge, 1 Endurance/Stun, 1 Endurance Redux IO.
Build Up should be slotted with 3 recharge SO's for the most of your career. After I reached 50, I began slotting it with Membrane Hami-O's.
Tremor I respec'ed out of before Inventions, but a mixture of Multi-Strikes and Scirrico's Dervish can produce a very nice mixture of Acc, Dam, End redux and Recharge.
Pool Powers
The Fitness line is an obvious requirement for Stone Melee. In addition to the Endurance bonus from Stamina, Health allows you to slot those very precious IO's like Miracle and Numina uniques. These 2 IO's should be on every Stone Melee user's wishlist, as they help migate the endurance drain Stone uses.
Air Superiority can fill in attack chains in Stone Melee, and allows you another Knockdown tool to keep bosses in Knockdown. Heavy Mallet and Stone Mallet are not quite enough to keep a boss totally flipflopped, but Air Superiority helps solve this.
Hasten is a very usefull power for giving Stone Melee that extra boost of Recharge when needed. Be warned that it may cause you to drain out your endurance fast, so make sure your slotting is good! Thanks to IO's, Hasten can also be made Perma, or near Perma.
Combat Jumping/Superjump. I mention this because Combat Jumping allows you to slot some of the Defense IO's that are so usefull. I love my Kismet+Acc, and my Luck of the Gambler+Recharge.
IO goals
The main goals with IO's you are looking for is +Recharge and +Recovery.
Because of this, you want sets that boost your recharge, such as Crushing Impact, Stupefy, and Doctored Wounds, as well as any Luck of the Gamblers you come across. When you get your Patron Powers, you can also slot Decimation in your single-target ranged attack, and Positron Blast in your AoE for even more +Recharge.
The Numina and Miracle Unique are the two most sought-after IO's in the game, and it is no different with Stone Melee. Getting these 2 IO's will help your endurance a great deal.
The Kisment+Acc is a very handy power for Stone Melee, as it actually gives a +6% To-Hit Buff, not Acc, which is much better. Considering how much endurance and recharge Stone Melee takes, making your attacks HIT in the first place is very important.
Secondaries
Invurnerability Inv is a bit of a endurance hog for Stone Melee, but when combined, it makes an excellent tanking Brute that can handle large amounts of aggro, and still stand strong. Inv has the advantage of excellent Defense and S/L resistances, as well as a wonderful Tier 9 power, and Dull Pain. Stone/Inv makes you feel *tough*, and a real bruiser. But it does have endurance problems, especially in the late game, when you face alot of endurance draining opponents.
Electric Armor An excellent combo with Stone Melee, Electric Armour offers stone a +Recharge power, Endurance drain protection, and the +Endurance of Powersink. Meanwhile, Stone Melee offers Electric Armour unmatched damage mitigation. This is quite possibly the most synergistic combo for Stone Melee.
Energy Armor Similar to Electric armor, it offers Stone Melee great endurance, while Stone gives it great mitigation. This blooms a bit earlier than Electric Armour, as Energy Armour receives their endurance powers earlier. However Energy Armour does not have the endurance drain protection or the +Recharge of electric armor.
Fire Armor Thanks to the boost to Healing Flames, Fire Armor is a very attractive Resistance/Regen secondary. It offers excellent damage with Blazing Aura, Burn, and Fiery Embrace, and decent damage mitigation through its shields and Healing Flames. It does tend to be an Endurance Hog, and Consume only goes so far. Fault allows a Fire Armor brute to use Burn without fear of the enemies running away from the Burn Patch.
Dark Armour A Stone/Dark brute is the king of damage mitigation. By combining Fault+Oppressive Gloom, most of the mob will always be stunned, and Cloak of Fear adds even more damage mitigation. Be warned though, Stone/Dark is a TERRIBLE endurance hog, and requires a good deal of special slotting to be fully functional.
Stone Armor Stone/Stone is the most *tankish* of the brute combo's. Stone Melee gives Stone Armor even more damage mitigation. However, this tends to be a very *slow* power combo, and I can only recommend it to players who enjoy teaming allot.
Well I hope you enjoyed my guide, no doubt I will be updating it when Willpower is released during i11.
I welcome any feedback, comments, flames, angry mobs, etc.
