Lord Mayhem

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I'll just add, I know from long ago that tough as a power had it's attributes reduced a fair bit and some of the Bruting world say that it is not worth taking anymore, I suppose some protection is better than non but I am nervous about taking it for that reason.

I can just about fit boxing and tough into my build. I'm not that sure about build up but I suppose it is nice to toggle it when I'm on a some sort of boss.

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I find Tough is a noticeable increase in survivability on my F/F brute, but the downside is the big endurance cost. You certainly know when it's running on top of your other shields/aura/acro/cj. 1-2 EndRdx necessary.

Build up is something a lot of brutes avoid. I took both build up and fiery embrace and tend to use both before triggering Fire Sword Circle (or on a AV/EB/GM fight before Greater Fire Sword, Incinerate and my usual attack chain) - even with full Fury, ten Fulcrum Shift buffs (from my duo partner), 3 damage SOs in all my attacks, plus BU & FE I'm still not at the damage cap for brutes (850% ?) because using a red insp will still produce an even higher damage number.

Damage is what we're about, so get as much as you can - yes it's true that usually Fire Sword Circle with all of the aforementioned damage boosts will instantly kill everything you hit up to a +3 lieut/minion near you, and take a big chunk out of a boss as well, but for those AV/GM/EB fights the more damage the better. And I love big orange numbers

I've only used Op Gloom for about half a level on one of my brutes but already I can see it's great (and he's Super Strength primary so with Op Gloom and Foot Stomp, plus all his single target knockdown, plus the all-round resists and full heal from /dark, he's easily my most survivable brute).

It seems fairly accurate with just one Accuracy SO in it. Actually I might leave it with just one Accuracy, because I still like to have some enemies beating on me for Fury-building, and in that respect Op Gloom would be good just for reducing some of the incoming damage in situations where you really need that.

End cost is negligible (not worth slotting for EndRdx imho) and it mentions a health cost in the description, but with Health (just the base slot) I don't lose any HP while running it.

On a /dark Scrapper I'd probably go mad and slot it 2xAcc, 3xDisorient Duration though, as you'd want to mitigate as much incoming damage as possible.

As for brute patron powers, I'm avoiding everything except Web Envelope (Black Scorp) which has it's uses. Heard nothing but bad reports on pretty much everything else for brutes.

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* Aid self = not much usefull for a /elec brute, coz /elec is based in resistance, not in defense, and u will need to stop the battle, go away from it, heal urself and go back... I dont think it is usefull for the brute concept...

[/ QUOTE ]Nonsense, the interrupt time is short enough to work just fine with resistance set, especially with few slots.

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With the caveat that it will always fail you by getting interrupted when you need it most. That is why I despise Aid Self, even though I realise that I can't do without it on my EM/Elec.

You can't even queue it up because it's interruptible - it's very twitchy if you're DoTted and being attacked by more than a couple of enemies - and when it fails in combat you'll be tempted to spam the button until it works (that's if you're still alive after it fails ), especially in lag, but you can't because it would burn a lot of End and possibly crash you. Usually you have to be very careful with your timing (which the current server lag will mess up), or run round a corner or do something else to buy time to use it (my SS/Elec friend often used Handclap to buy time to use Aid Self - in fact those were about the only times he used Handclap).

On my EM/Elec I tried my 6-slotted Aid Self with 3 IntRdx and again with 2 and noticed very little difference between them - still very twitchy. All I know is that if it's a life or death moment and I desperately need a heal then I'll use a Respite because I have no confidence in Aid Self. It just makes me really miss Healing Flames, Dark Regen and Reconstruction from my other brutes and scrapper.

With a set that had Defence (/Invul brute running Invincibility, /EA brute, /SR scrapper etc.) then I'm sure it would be much more tolerable.

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This is the build I am going for

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I don't see too many problems with your build - I assume you'll be using Brawl as an auto-power to fill the gaps in your attack chain (in which case I'd recommend Fire Sword instead of Scorch).

One option for L30 is Boxing (could replace Brawl as auto-power, with however many slots you can spare), then you could take Tough in the 40s. Extra smash/lethal resists are very handy when your ideal place to be is in the centre of a crowd of melee'ing enemies so you can hit them with FSC.

Another option is Incinerate which adds up to very nice damage for not much End against big targets like AVs - it's very efficient because it delivers its damage over time, so isn't that useful against minions/lieuts (die too fast for it to be useful/efficient).

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is Dark best for patron powers as a F/F

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If you mean Ghost Widow's Soul Mastery then I would say no. The only brute patron power I regard as useful is Web Envelope (Black Scorpion's patron pool) - I've taken it on my F/F and will probably be taking it on my other brutes too, but nothing else from patron pools.

Brutes generally don't want to waste time with ranged attacks as our ranged damage modifier is pitiful and we're much better in melee - Web Envelope does no damage and is as much a debuff as it is a control tool. It will add several handy tactics to the repertoire of an F/F brute:

1) even if the enemy cannot be immobilised in one hit (bosses and above) their movement will still be slowed by it (-spd debuff).
2) it is very good for holding enemies in place while you use Burn (which I took at 47, after web envelope at 44).
3) it is a targeted AE, not a cone (like Mako & Ghost Widow's immobilises) so you can use it in melee against something and it will affect everything around you - brutes don't want to be wasting time getting into the best position to use a cone attack
4) it doesn't block knockback/knockdown (like Scirocco's AE immobilise does), so you still gain the benefit of Air Superiority's knockdown against webbed targets
5) It has a -rchg debuff, so enemies affected by it will attack you less
6) it has -fly (and -jump I think) so apart from the obvious PvP applications (stopping players escaping from you) it is also very useful for bringing down flying enemies in PvE (especially longbow chasers/eagles which are very prevalent in lots of missions in the 40s, including the first LRSF mission).
7) it at least gives you one power that the Megalomaniac accolade affects

And all you lose is the pathetic damage and very minor debuffs that the other patrons' immobilises have. In fact the only complaint I have is that the animation time is just a smidgen too long (because of the draw time of the mace), but against flyers I tend to open with it so that is of little consequence.

Very nice - I especially like how you've placed the rope bridge across to the raised platform - is that your power room? (our base has mainly tech items so I'm not so good at identifying the arcane stuff).

I was tempted to have a rope bridge in our base but I couldn't justify the space for it

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The word limit is normally used to mean a limit, upper or lower

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Heh, and you can't have less than 0 items, can you? Therefore lower limit with all auxiliaries is 0.

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At that point I was talking semantics, not about in-game systems

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Erm you mean that room/plot limit always overrides the item limit. Ie if main item allows for 6 add-ons and room 4, then 4 is what you can add. The word limit is usually used in reference to an upper limit.

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The word limit is normally used to mean a limit, upper or lower

But I see your point, I should have been clearer. Basically the room, plot and item will/can all have limits on the maximum number of auxiliaries (and mains) allowed, but it is always the lowest of those limits that applies.

Basically on a normal (not secured) plot you can have one main control item, and then as many auxiliary control-boosting items as the room-size allows:

Main control: Mainframe, Supercomputer, Monitor Bank, Autonomous Expert System, etc.
Aux +control: Databases, (Advanced) Terminals & Corner Terminals, Holodisplay, Megamonitor, etc.

The SG Mission Computer counts as an Auxiliary Control item as well, so it takes up one of your aux slots in the room, but it uses control rather than supplying it.

Some of the main items may also have a limit on how many Aux items they can have connected to them, which would override the room limit. E.g. I heard the AES can't take any Aux items at all, but it gives so much control you shouldn't need any (though it's a pain if you're not on a secured plot and want an SG mission computer too).

There's a list of most functional base items here, although I think that page is lacking a few details.

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tankers need to have a mindset to TANK! get back to the brute section and stay there

be gone!

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I've got two words for you...


BRUTE SMASH!

Yeah I much prefer the 1x4 control room to the 2x2 - you can fit in 2 extra auxiliaries (6 instead of 4) which is handy when you have the SG Mission Computer "wasting" an aux slot as well - imho the Devs should have made it so that the mission computer gave a small control bonus, at least equivalent to an advanced terminal; it IS a computer, after all.

Of course it all depends if you have the space to fit in a 1x4 on your plot. Fortunately we did - I found out that on the basic plot you can fit three 2x2 rooms (entrance, power and infirmary for us), two 3x4 rooms (workshop and TP for us) and a 1x4 room (control), and that pretty much fills up the plot with no room wasted, and lots of space to place stuff without it looking cluttered.

Oh and Scarlet, the reason you couldn't add control items to your second control room is that the usual plots are limited to a maximum of one main control item, and without a main item any auxiliaries placed in that room will do nothing. Secured plots can have two main control items, I believe.

EDIT - another trick I found if you're slightly short on control is to delete your teleport beacons then place them again at the end of your editing, last of all. They only need 5 control each iirc, but they seem to function whether you have enough control overhead for them or not, and nothing else in the base shuts down if its just beacons taking you over your control output. An icon will be displayed on the beacon in edit mode, to show it is un-controlled, but the teleporter the beacon is attached to will still show up that beacon's destination and will still work.

It's been a month since I last tested it, and I did /bug it (I know... but my conscience wouldn't let me keep quiet), but I haven't seen a patch note about it since. Might be handy if you're short on prestige and only lacking a small amount of control.

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I think your not alone there hence it had over 51 views before someone bothered with a reply.

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Yeah, it's the main reason I decided to reply, even though I'm a brute player and probably don't belong here

Sure a scranker might only be a brute-lite, but better the OP got some powerset-based advice from a brute-player trying to be helpful, than any anti-scranker snobbery from a tanker-player

/flee

SherkSilver's planner reckons Stimulant only has Hold, Immobilise, Sleep and Disorient/Stun, i.e. the usual four.

However I'm not sure it's 100% correct - while I was levelling my EM/Elec with a friend's SS/Elec brute we both had Stimulant as pre-req for Aid Self and I recall us using it on each other before engaging succubus bosses, so I have a feeling it has Confusion protection as well.

I'll have to check the next time I log-in.

I really like GFS - the damage seems about as good as EM's Total Focus, but it animates much faster, costs less End, is up more often, and in my experience fire(/lethal) damage seems to be resisted less than energy(/smash) at higher levels.

Once my Fire/Fire (Lord Mayhem) and EM/Elec (Powerbreaker) brutes are both 50 I'll have to run some tests with HeroStats running, but with GFS+Incin I don't think Mayhem's single-target damage against AVs/EBs will be that far behind Powerbreaker's TF+ET, over time - the faster recharge and the fact the DoT's have time to work against big targets certainly closes the gap between them for single-target damage, and Mayhem is way out in front for area damage.

Survivability-wise I don't find much between them either, except against Psi-damage or sappers (/Elec may have a few % more resists all-round, and end-drain protection, but Healing Flames is a lot more reliable than Aid Self). Admittedly my SS/DA feels safer than both (thanks to Oppressive Gloom and all of his knockdown attacks), especially against EBs and tricky bosses, but he also kills slower. But I think Fire/Fire is a fantastic combo for an all-round great brute - it's certainly my favourite out of my three brutes.

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Is Blazing Aura effected by Fury?

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Like Cynic says it doesn't build Fury (although in teams it will attract a lot of enemies, who will build your Fury nicely with their attacks), but the damage is boosted by Fury.

With my /kin partner the usual technique is that I run into a big spawn, or more preferably I herd up a couple of spawns using a corner to bunch them up - then I use Fiery Embrace and Build Up if they're available, as the enemy swarm around me (their attacks topping off my Fury, which is usually still high from my last fight) - then my /kin friend uses Fulcrum Shift boosting my damage further, then I use Fire Sword Circle - most minions and often lieuts too will fall over dead from that - anything left alive will die in one or two ticks of Blazing Aura, which kicks out great damage with all of the damage buffs from Fury+BU+FE+FulcrumShift. In a usual spawn the only thing I'll need to give single-target attention to will be bosses/EBs etc. and my damage-boosted FSC will take most bosses below half health anyway, so an Incinerate+GFS will kill them.

Last night as a duo we chewed through massive spawns of Nemesis in Black Scorpions arc - dozens upon dozens of them lined up in parade ranks - and we just cut a swathe through them (my survivability aided by the aggro-cap, Demonic, Lucks and Transfusion ). Wish I had a good screenshot, but I was kinda busy at the time - this was a quieter moment near the end, but it should give you some idea of the carnage - sadly FSC is capped at 10 targets like all AEs (you can probably pick out 10 corpses near me on that screenie - I think I'd just used FSC), but I guess if it was uncapped it would be really silly

Scirocco's Electrifying Fences is supposedly the only AE immobilise in the patron sets that blocks knockback (I know the Ghost Widow and Black Scorpion ones don't block it - not sure about Mako). I can see how it might be handy with Hand Clap, but then again it would also block the knockdown on all of Super Strength's other attacks, and Foot Stomp is pretty good for control and mitigation of incoming damage.

Admittedly I haven't used Hand Clap before, but it was my understanding that it isn't a guaranteed disorient, and that it doesn't last very long either (8seconds base on even con minions according to SherkSilver's planner & would be less on higher level/rank stuff) - I certainly don't recall seeing too many disoriented mobs when my SS/Elec duo partner used it. In that respect I think using Elec Fences + Hand Clap as a regular combo would be a bit of a double-edged sword - it blocks your main secondary effect (knockdown) on the offchance you'll get a disorient. If it IS a guaranteed (or at least a high chance) disorient on everything that it hits then I agree this combo probably is worth it as an extra control option.

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But I disagree about the 1st Patron Power. The single target ranged attack is really good and can help you with your attack chain in case you get a -recharge debuff

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My friend slotted Scirocco's Mu Lightning with 3xDamage SOs (and 2xAccs) and he complained many times that it's damage was really pathetic, before he respecced it out. Not really surprising as brutes have the lowest base ranged damage modifier (50%, like tankers/scrappers).

When we duo'd I saw him use it just a couple of times: Once to pull (not something a brute does often) and once to attack a minion that was stuck in a ceiling and wasn't attackable in melee (in the end I ran across the room to kill it for him, because it was taking him so long). Sure it gave him a ranged option, but not a credible one. I think it would only be useful if you're a very cautious brute who likes to pull...

If you needed a filler while under -rchg then you might as well use Brawl, or pick up any other attack from your primary/power-pools. Quite frankly Hasten makes for a better power choice to counter -rchg.

Brute-wise the only single target ranged attack I'm considering is Mako's shark one for my SS/DA, just because: a) it's another source of knockdown to go with Punch/AirSup/Haymaker/FootStomp, so in that respect it fits him thematically, b) I have a feeling it will look cool, c) I'm struggling to find powers worth taking for him, d) Mako is the only contact in CoV I have never done (otherwise I'd probably be taking Black Scorpion for my SS/DA instead). I'm expecting it to be very situational though (i.e. I'll hardly ever use it, or remember I have it).

Excellent guide, Sar

I wonder if Chelsea has seen it <cough>

Yeah I've run into the same problem as both of you on my EM/Elec and SS/Dark brutes for the 40s. On the EM/Elec in particular I can't take Boxing/Tough (though I wish I could) as I've run out of pools and don't want to drop any of the following: Speed (Hasten), Flight (AirSup & Fly), Medecine, or Fitness.

For you I would say that Lightning Field would be good - when teamed I find that auras are my highest damaging attacks over time on all of my brutes (or so HeroStats tells me), and they are especially useful in a team to keep aggro on you and away from the squishies.

I wanted to take Scirocco for concept reasons on my EM/Elec but nothing in it appeals to me - my EM/Dark friend took all of the Scirocco powers except the pet and respecced them out at 50 because they were all rubbish and he just wasn't using them. I may go Black Scorpion instead because Web Envelope at least has some uses for an /Elec brute who doesn't want to leave the ground (Grounded) - i.e. bringing down flying enemies.

Another option is Taunt - my EM/Dark friend took that solely to use on the LRSF and it seems effective. If you team a lot or plan to do the LRSF then you might get some use out of it - I'll probably take it.

What turns me away from Hand Clap on my SS/DA brute is that it's knockback, not knockdown like Foot Stomp. Although I guess it can buy time to use Aid Self - my friend uses it like that on his SS/Elec.

I think my EM/Elec might end up taking SuperSpeed as well, because he already has Fly for vertical movement (I had Grandville in mind when I chose his travel power), but SS is so much faster for getting around most of the time. However it just seems a waste to me having two travel powers on a character (except for my stalker who had Fly and TP for tactical PvP reasons). But as I've selected all of my pools I don't see any other option.

Honestly the patron pools for brutes are just shamefully bad - web envelope is really the only power that I would say is particularly useful.

Yep Burn is really not worth it on a brute until you have an area immobilise, because enemies will just run out of it. On my Fire/Fire I've delayed Burn til 47 (I took Web Envelope at 44) and even once I get it I'm not sure how useful it will be, as I duo with a /kin so very little survives Fire Sword Circle and a couple of pulses of Blazing Aura. Your mileage may vary with it.

Other things that spring to mind about your build:

1) Slot both Fire/Plasma shields with 3 Damage Resists - End Reduction isn't needed unless you have a couple of spare slots and nowhere else to put them.

2) Damage SOs in Consume are a waste - it does poor damage. You might want 2 accuracies in it so its more reliable against smaller groups, but otherwise 3xRchg and an Acc works fine (it's what I have in mine and you just need 3 hits to fill your End bar from near-empty).

3) Your attack slotting is fine - exactly the same as I use on my Fire/Fire (but then I have my duo partner's Tactics buff to make sure I don't need a second accuracy, and he's a /kin so I don't feel the need for Hasten). However, even with Brawl on auto, you'll struggle to build Fury with just your 3 attacks (Fire Sword, Cremate and Incinerate), especially before you get Hasten or when Hasten is down.

You might want to consider Boxing from the Fighting pool (then later you could get Tough if you wanted) or Air Superiority from the Flight pool as a filler attack. The latter is very good - the knockdown from AS gives you something you don't have from your primary, an attack with an effect that will help you mitigate damage on a boss fight.

I actually use Cremate, Fire Sword, Boxing (on auto) AND Air Superiority as my continuous attack chain - I just use Greater FS on bosses/EBs/AVs/GMs when I have high Fury - and I just picked up Incinerate again at 41, after dropping it in my last respec, to use with GFS on those big targets (and you'll meet plenty of EBs/AVs at 40-50) as a second big attack.

On lieuts/minions Incinerate is a bit inefficient to use as a normal attack - rarely will the target live long enough for Incinerate to apply all of its Damage-over-Time ticks. I picked it up again because Incinerate's pure fire damage is fantastic against most AVs/EBs. Smash/lethal tends to get partially resisted by a lot of things at high level (and most fire attacks have smash or lethal as part of their damage), but fire damage tends to only be resisted by "fire-type" enemies like Infernal, Baphomet/Arch-A, Bat'zul, etc.

I recently realised that Incinerate's damage-over-time nature actually works in your favour sometimes - both Fake Nemesis and Council Ascendent Archon bosses tend to go into a PFF-type power at low health (around 25%) which makes them extremely hard to hit for 30secs or so - drop Incinerate on them at low health, before they go into that power, and it's often good enough to kill them on it's own, after they become very hard to hit (because if the first tick of Incinerate hits, then every other tick will automatically hit).

The only other problems I see in your build is that Temperature Protection is a waste of time (get your patron immobilise instead) and you may want to drop Stim/AidSelf for Boxing/Tough because Healing Flames is a very good heal and should be up often enough for your needs (especially with Hasten as well) - if it's not then you're probably in a team situation with corruptors/MMs who can heal you, or where you'd use Respites (because even with 3 IntRdx Aid Self is horribly unreliable, as I've found to my cost on my EM/Elec brute, who sadly has no other choice but to use it). And if you do take Boxing/Tough and are struggling for extra slots then your extra 2 slots in Health aren't doing an awful lot.

Otherwise your build seems fine

From his post I kinda got the impression that the OP is looking for a "scranker" more than a tanker. Not sure he sounds that bothered about tanking, just being hard to kill and being able to do the best damage possible despite granite's hefty penalties. Yep that would be very slow for soloing (or duo/small team) unless he has a Kinetic/ on tap, and useless to a full team who needed an actual Tanker, but each to his own.

If he does want a fairly solid scranker then Ice/Energy or Ice/Fire would probably be more his speed... or Fire/Fire if he cares most about damage... or ideally a scrapper/brute instead

I guess we need him to re-post and say exactly what he wants/needs, and how he'll be playing it, before we advise further.

I haven't played a tanker, but I've played several of their powersets on brutes, and know my way around Sherksilver's planner, and I can anticipate the answer will be:

- Fiery Melee, for best area damage (single target DPS is good too)
- Energy Melee, for best single-target burst damage (area damage is rubbish), but only from L35+ (ET & TF)
- Super Strength, for best low-to-mid level single-target DPS (Rage, gets KO Blow early) with nice enough area damage too, but at higher levels its pure smashing damage is more heavily resisted

Admittedly I do play all 3 powersets on brutes , but I did pick them for a very good reason - I love damage, and LOTS of it!

Battle Axe may be comparable to Super Strength (without Rage anyway), but Lethal damage is just as heavily resisted as Smashing at higher levels. Ice Melee and War Mace are supposed to be more control-based sets (Ice especially) so are lower damage. Stone Melee hits hard and has some control options, but is slow, and has the same smashing-only problems as Super Strength at high levels.

Farewell and take care, Kin.

Sad to see CoV Union losing another good player, but if the game is no longer fun for you then you're making the right choice. Good luck in all that you do.

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I've liked mind right off the bat, and mind/psi really seems to fit together concept wise. I remember seeing mind probe for the 1st time and thinking "wow! its like mr spocks vulcan mind meld on steroids". I dont think theres a bad power in mind, although some are a little situational. Currently my mind/psi is lvl 40 and I cant say its been too difficult.

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Yeah I've always liked Mind too. No pet doesn't bother me (prefer Confuse), and I like the damage and control in Mind.

I've played Mind to L10-14 with every secondary. Admittedly I liked Mind/Ice the best (although it stretched my concept and I had to use the dubious word "cryokinetic" in his bio ), but Mind/Ice was so End-hungry I sometimes found it hard to finish one spawn before I was gasping. And concept-wise I always felt I should have been Mind/Psi instead, or maybe Grav/Psi, as my concept is telekinetic (and Propel is really fun, although the rest of Grav/ doesn't appeal to me as much as Mind/ does).

I like that /Psi doesn't have that many decent attacks at low to mid levels (except the awesome Mind Probe, and the fast Psi Dart to fill gaps in attack chains), because Mind does so they complement each other. There are enough skippable powers in Psi that you can fit in pool stuff you need easily, then later both sets can get really powerful and fun stuff like Drain Psyche, Terrify, Mass Confuse and Psychic Shockwave.

There are two big threats to my Mind/Psi getting to decent levels, though: 1) I have a Fire/Rad at 27 desperate for a duo partner, so I'll be tempted to switch to him when my friend's dom and mine catch him up. 2) My friend also wants to play more CoH after I8, on Defiant (we have few Union slots left)... and I have a lowbie Mind/Kin over there I want to play, among other things.

Guess I'll see how it goes - so many characters to play, so little time

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Happy new dom day :O)

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Cheers

All my characters are concept builds, so I should have said I was hopeful for this new Mind/Psi because he's using a new concept (i.e. one I haven't played yet).

I swear my old main Dom concept is cursed - remade him as an MM and he still hasn't got past 14 before I tired of him

I know what you mean, Sar. If there are two brutes in a team and one uses an aura, then he will tend to have higher Fury than the other brute because he attracts more enemy aggro, and those enemies hitting him builds his Fury.

Especially handy for some brutes who have a primary with slow recharging/animating attacks that are hard to use in a chain with no gaps (Stone/, I'm looking at you).

It's not that easy to build Fury from your own attacks in a big team anyway. Solo/duo I rely on my own attack chain to build Fury, but in teams I find most of my Fury comes from being attacked.

That works particularly well with a damage aura because it attracts more aggro (hopefully not more than you can survive ), the aggro means you get hit more, which raises your Fury, which raises the damage of your aura, which makes sure you keep holding aggro even when other teammates are throwing AEs around, etc. It self-perpetuates.

Typical, I thought my post had a calming effect on the thread's health, then you guys try to get Chelsea all worked up again

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I seem to be able to pop off Aid Self no problem, even in the middle of a herd with LF going. I've got it slotted with 2 heals, 1 recharge & 1 Int Red and it's only rarely I can't get it off.

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I've said enough so I'm just going to comment on this. I hate Aid Self It always fails me at the worst times. I've tried it with 2 IntRdx and with 3 IntRdx and it's still unreliable (so I've dropped back to 2, because the 3rd made no noticeable difference).

My main problem is that damage-over-time attacks interrupt it so badly, as do location-based debuffs ALL the time (even if they do no damage like Quicksand) - put them both together in Caltrops when you're fighting KoA and you might as well not have it (thank goodness they're not that common).

Also an attempt to use Aid Self will burn its End cost whether it works or not. Sometimes when there is bad lag it will not fire, but you can't press it again hoping to queue it up or you'll burn double the endurance and still probably not get it to fire. In fact you can't queue it up at all, so it is inherently less useful than something like Reconstruction or Healing Flames. And of course you need to be stationary - in a team or large spawn a player or monster pushing against you is enough to interrupt Aid Self.

I'm sure it's much better in defence sets, but with my EM/Elec I mainly use it to top up between fights - if I need to absolutely rely on a heal then I use a respite instead.


I'd post my build for the OP, but I did most of the first 30 levels over the double-xp weekend so the powers are in funny places because I knew I wouldn't have long to wait for certain things like Stamina, and knew that my travel temps would last for ages (took my travel power at 30 ). Probably going to use my freespec on him soon, but am tempted to see how rotten some of the PPPs are first. And that's on the back burner because my EM/Elec has taken a back seat to my fire/fire at the moment - given a regular duo with my friend's /kin I knew I'd get better mileage and faster killing out of my Fire/Fire, and that my friend's /kin would be safer too (because fire/fire is an aggro magnet)

I found it easy to justify because /Elec seems to have far less End probs than most brutes.

But yeah, I can understand it not fitting your playstyle - a friend asked me to describe the difference between my 3 brutes - I said my Fire/Fire is like a heavy-blaster/blapper (kills lots of minions/lieuts very fast, but is pretty good with single targets too), my SS/Dark is like a heavy-controller (can keep a spawn/boss off its feet) but my EM/ElA is like a heavy-stalker (can obliterate a single target very quickly). In fact my EM/ElA is pretty much responsible for me not wanting to play my EM Stalker anymore - I think the brute can actually kill bosses/EBs faster, and he certainly survives better