Combat

I personally don't think willpower has a ton of synergy with TW, but it does work thematically and solves some problems.

I'm thinking agility. It will allow me to avoid putting much into DS or my defensive powers, and combined with Barrier it should be very easy for me to get to 32.5% to ranged and AoE, allowing me to use the majority of my slots increasing my damage potential. It will also help a little in sapping.

I'll have an alternate build that focuses on getting to 45% with Rebirth however, and I may take Musculature or Spiritual on that build.

I'd suggest skipping Titan Sweep, as the set already has tons of AoE without it (though I wouldn't skip it leveling up). Otherwise, I would consider, in this order: CB>AoD>BM

Really though, the only power that screams to be skipped is taunt, though I generally play scrankers if I play tankers at all.

I've done some work on the set's DPS. Basically, the goal is to use FT whenever it is up. I'm using a chain of RA-FT-CB/DS-AoD-FT for single target, which I calculated to be a base DPS of 82.32 using DS, 90.00 using crushing blow. Translated into scrapper numbers, that is a base of 101 DPS before criticals. In comparison, dark melee's chain of Smite-SL-Smite-MG is only in the 70s.

I could easily see the set's maximum performance setting records, though it will be very hard to leverage it because of the set's mechanics. Which is exactly the point.

The set also can use a large number of -resistance procs, potentially 3 in the chain above (2 achilles' heel procs and a glad -res proc). Combined with 7.5% from RA and the set could put out an average of 20-25% -resistance, greatly upping the damage. It's build up power is actually worth taking because it potentially doubles the length of momentum, which can increase DPS more than its paltry +dam % shows.

Oh, and I hear it has some AoE capability

A lot are going with /Ela, because it combines endurance management with resists (which allow for fairly high levels of survivability combined with Defensive Sweep and Energize) and even adds a little recharge. Willpower would also be an excellent choice, though it will not benefit as much from DS because it only adds to smashing and melee defenses, leaving a lethal hole. EA and SR are good sets, but don't take much advantage from DS.

I would aim for getting ranged and AoE defense and letting Defensive Sweep take care of melee. Smashing defense by itself isn't that useful, and you can't find just lethal defense in sets. My goal is to get either soft-capped to M/R/A or to 32.5 and still have perma-hasten/energize on my TW/Elec.

4 possibilities for new armor sets:

Power Shield: Either as a separate powerset with its own abilities or simply as /Shield rebranded so that two-handed weapons could be used with it (essentially, bubble armor)

Sonic: Probably would be resistance based, have a larger than normal amount of utility powers, and have a side affect of -res.

Radiation: I'm not sure what they'd do with it, probably another utility set with a combination of defense and resists with maybe some -def.

Psychic: High psionic protection, high recharge debuff protection. Side affects of mezzing and -recharge. Could do some interesting things, probably would have drain psyche added to it or psychic melee.

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.

Let's see:

First 50: Empathy/Dark Defender
Next: SS/SR Brute
Then:

Spines/Fire Scrapper
SS/Shield Brute
Dark/Shield Scrapper
Demon/Pain MM
Dark/Dark Defender
Street Justice/Energy Aura Scrapper

And next will be a TW/Elec Brute. Can you find a common denominator in that group?

Just to be clear, double-stacking rage means you are sitting out a sixth of the time (10 seconds of every 60). That means you can take your nice little double-stacked DPSs and multiply them by 5/6. And showing the base dps of various attacks and then double-stacked DPS of another is simply misrepresenting the damage boost, because of the way damage buffs work.

For instance, take SS versus fire. In your example, fire wins hands down. Here's the numbers if both SS and fire had 3 level 50 damages in each attack and 75% fury, and the SS double-stacked.

Scorch- 132.4
Fire Sword- 150.7
Cremate- 173.1
Incinerate- 197
Breath of Fire- 84.23
Fire Sword Circle- 93.75
Greater Fire Sword- 188.1

SS (Ragex2)
Jab- 109.4
Punch- 146.2
Haymaker- 202.9
Knockout Blow- 318.1

Note, this is without multiplying by 5/6 for the rage crashes. Now, this still seems to benefit SS, but if we look closer we realize that SS doesn't have a chain. KO Blow is great, but unfortunately it takes forever and a day to recharge, and meanwhile that fire melee guy is using incinerate, greater fire sword, etc, which will up his DPS up because he doesn't have to rely on punch or jab to make a chain.

SS does gain more benefit from Gloom than others, as I mentioned before, which allows SS/x/Soul to deal a lot of damage, but it still isn't top. In case you are wondering, Gloom has a DPS of 281.3 with double rage and 3 damage IOs. For the fire melee guy, it would just be 194.1. So the combination of Gloom, rage, and FE (and using burn as a single target attack) is what makes SS/Fire/Soul Brutes so damaging. However, that doesn't mean that they are necessarily the best, but they are still top-tier.

On a side note, if momentum cancels out redraw, then TW/Fire/Soul might put out some EXTREME numbers. For instance, if you use BM-SA-FT-Gloom-CB-FT-SA-Gloom-FT as your chain (BM being Build Momentum, this chain is only used during the extended momentum period), with musculature and FE active and good slotting/procs, it is patently ridiculous.

For instance take follow-through. It has a base damage of around 104 for a Brute, and has an activation of 1.188, for a DPA of 87.62, which actually even better than Gloom. If you put a total of about 357% damage buff through enhancements, BM, and fury (357% is just the number I get in my spreadsheet with a certain enhancement loadout), that damage increases to 474, for an astounding 399 DPA. With similar numbers in the chain used above, the total damage goes to 3731 in 10.56 seconds, for a DPS of 353 under Build Momentum.

Now, if we remove musculature that number will go down a little, to roughly 290ish. And that's okay, because that is 265 without FE, without procs, without reactive, and without -res. Adding in all of those, we get 530ish, assuming an average -resistance of around 20%, which is easily possible if we consider reactive's -res, crushing blow's proc, fire aura, and shatter armor.

What would that be like with Musculature? 680 DPS. You read that right.

Now, of course, this is while under Momentum, and it isn't a sustainable chain. The chain I'm going to use for sustainable isn't much better though: SA-FT-CB-Gloom-FT. That chain deals 1987ish damage in 7.66 seconds (using musculature again), which translates to 388 after everything is accounted for. Which is over 500 with FE up.


So yeah, I fully expect TW/Fire/Soul to be the new damage king of the brute world. However, the numbers I posted are completely unreasonable in the real world, and would require a build basically focused only on offense. Still, I suspect great things out of that combo.


Edit: fixed some numbers

SS/Fire/Soul will be very high, but not the top. The key in that combo is the fire/soul, not the SS. SS is actually pretty bad for DPS, with rage taking a ton of damage away during its crashes and having a fairly lackluster attack chain. SS/Fire/Soul is a great combo however, dealing amazing AoE damage and great single target damage, but it shouldn't be the best, despite being able to use a buffed Gloom without causing redraw.

I would highly look into TW/Fire when that combo is available. It would take a lot of recharge, and probably wouldn't be incredibly sturdy, but it should be tops for DPS from the numbers I'm been running. However, I would warn that Gloom may actually slow the DPS because of the redraw.

It has a chance, but the mechanics of the set and lack of rage may make it a non-contender. However, it is possible the amount of time lost through Momentum will be equal to the amount of time lost through Rage, so they may be equal. Think about it this way:

If you can activate 3 powers per Momentum, you lose roughly 1 seconds worth of momentum damage per cycle. That would be a 2.5 second attack followed by three 1-1.5 second attacks, or 4 1-1.5 second attacks and 1 second of pause. That means you lose 1 second a cycle at least, or a loss of one second's worth of damage every 6ish seconds.

Assuming double stacked rage, you would lose 10 seconds of attacking every 60 seconds, or a lose of 1 seconds worth of damage every 6 seconds.

The difference is the +damage from Rage, and the ability to use patron's AoEs without the redraw penalty.

So TW should get close, but not overcome SS.

My DM/SD can solo at this pace, but I usually am too impatient for it, so I set his level at +1. What I mean by +4/x8 is:

Bosses On
AVs On
Any faction except Rularuu without inspirations. He can take Rularuu, believe it or not, by using his T9 and one orange to get to 75% resistance to smashing/lethal and relying on his 110 hps. DE have the potential to be harder, but I've found them to be manageable.

He usually solos at a decent clip, but because of the lack of AoE he is limited basically to Shield Charge and Fireball, with Shadow Maul used when applicable. Judgement doesn't come up every fight, so it isn't part of the regular attack chain. My strategy is simple. 45% to M/R/A, decent resists to capped resists with liberal use of OwtS (and oranges/Demonic Aura), combined with high regeneration from Destiny and SL allow me to basically survive anything. I have high recharge, with large numbers of procs in my attacks, which supercharges my single target damage. If I encounter a troublesome AV or GM, I summon Lore pets to get the fight over quicker. So far I've soloed every level 50 arc at +2/x8, AVs, and done a MoITF in under an hour at +1, as well as beaten all the normal GMs.

What this does is reduce the effectiveness of low level brute farms. Other ATs, with lower damage caps, will still be able to cap damage and defense, but brutes will be severely limited. Higher level brutes can use more reds because they will have more effective defenses. I personally have used a barely IOed spines/fire scrapper in AE farms (yeah, I'm evil), and I've never used inspirations before I zoned, because I gained no benefit. Higher level farmers will be able to switch to demon farms or whatever, so they shouldn't be horribly impacted (and they will probably do better with a chance to get purples).

I guess the devs are trying to stop the low-level abuses because everyone has the capability of using them. I disagree with their decision, but understand why they made it.

What I can remember:

There will be AT IOs for the basic ATs, possibly the EATs but don't hold your breath.

These IOs will come in two flavors. One is more powerful and rare, but is unique, while the other is more common and can be slotted multiple times. I believe the images we have are the unique ones.

A large number of these have an 8.75% recharge bonus, but not all.

Here are my suggestions:

First, make sure you slot end reduction in your attacks (and dark regeneration). I usually try to make sure my attacks have the equivalent of 1 SO of accuracy and 1 SO of end reduction before I add anything else. Attacks are still going to be your primary source of end drain. Death Shroud counts as an attack. Also, don't run DS or use AoE attacks unless you are surrounded by enough enemies to make it worthwhile. I like to have 5+ enemies for damage auras and PBAoEs, and 3+ for cones. Some cones are counted as single target attacks, so the AoE damage is just icing on the cake. Use these attacks as often as possible for the best damage to endurance ratio.

Second, run the armors you need. If you are fighting Warriors, you don't need to use all of your armors and doing so will cost you extra endurance. Originally these armors weren't set to stack, and you could only have one on at a time. Sometimes it is beneficial to run the set like it was in the old days.

Third, slot Dark Regeneration well. I highly recommend the theft of essence proc even in a leveling build, as well as accuracy and endurance reduction. In my mind, after you have enough accuracy, you should slot it first for endurance reduction, second for recharge, and last for healing.

Fourth, don't bother with weave, maneuvers, etc. until you have the recovery to run them (an IO build). A case can be made for stacking Dark Embrace with Tough, but an SOed Dark Armor character probably shouldn't be trying to maximize their defenses because it takes so much to run the sets. Instead of grabbing power pools to increase defense, try picking up Oppressive Gloom and running it for minor protection. At very high levels of defense/resistance, OG's protection isn't worth the health cost, but at lower levels it provides decent protection.

Fifth, pick up the energy/body epic. It fits in most characters concepts and the endurance options are great. I personally like the brute's energy mastery pool a ton because I can slot 3 performance shifter procs and the 2 health uniques for very little slot investment. I recommend using hero/villain merits to buy the uniques while leveling, and you can get the miracle unique at 20 just by running the signature story arcs. The scrapper and tanker pools are also nice, though I personally find conserve power's uptime to be problematic for consistent results.

Sixth, pick up the endurance accolades as soon as possible. Not only will they give you a larger pool to burn, they also will increase your total recovery by 10%, which can be significant. A brute that has the accolades and superior conditioning will be looking at nearly 3 end/sec recovery just from 3 slotting stamina and SC (and that is not counting physical perfection).

Seventh, use your blues. If you have multiple inspirations you don't need, convert them to blues. Buy medium and large blues from the market. Email medium/large blues to yourself so you always have some. Burn a merit on a large inspiration or run some AE missions. Etc. There is no excuse for not having enough blues in today's game, as it is easy and profitable to gain access to large numbers of the larger inspirations. Don't neglect reds either. If you can kill something with less attacks, you will use less endurance to defeat them, so reds can act as a form of endurance reduction in that they increase the damage to end ratio. Also, using things like BU will help you defeat foes with less endurance.

Finally, slot rest. I'm not saying waste valuable slots on it that could go to your other powers, but at least put a recharge SO/IO in it so that it is up when you need it.


Those suggestions should help anyone looking to run a dark armor toon and worrying about endurance.

See defensive sweep for why AoE attack doesn't not = AoE effect.

I've run a few characters as Super-Naturals. This isn't supernatural, but rather is the effect of having a person with no "powers" with an incredible amount of natural ability. For instance, I have a Super Strength/Super Reflexes brute named Old Wippernapper that is an elderly boxer whose body simply doesn't age, allowing him to continue developing his speed and strength to amazing levels. Another brute, a SS/SD has a similar backstory. He was just a farmer working his field during the Roman times when his was forced into the army by legionnaires (I don't care about actual world history, so I'm free to invent). He wasn't given a sword or shield, and was basically sentenced to death. Thinking on his feet, he grabbed a manhole cover and used it as a shield. And after he survived the war, he kept the "shield" as a memento. However, instead of dying at the age of 30 like most people those days, he continued to live as a poor farmer for nearly two thousand years. Centuries of manual labor has crafted him into a nearly superpowerful being.

Neither of these characters uses high-tech gadgets, magic, mutations, etc. They are just very healthy. Imagine what would happen if an olympic athlete's body never broke down, never aged, and just kept getting better. Now, you could argue that this is mutation, but in my mind it is just the peak of natural potential. This concept works well for melee characters using weapons, martial arts, superstrength, or street justice as damage sets and willpower, super reflexes, or shield as secondaries, possibly even invulnerability if you hand-wave the flashes away.