Louis_Cipher

I think Unstoppable is a trap honestly. When I had it, it was the only way i died was by using it. I traded it in for darkest night when powers were added to patron powers. Best move I ever made. I rarely used unstoppable and I rarely use Darkest night. Those rare occastion I do use DN is for herding more then anything but I think it alot better then unstoppable if you find you need extra protection. It also helps with Psi. More importantly DN does not just protect you, it protects all your squishies and unstoppable does not.

End is not a problems for me but i do have a very pricey build on my invul. My toggles cost is down to .89 end a sec. I run all invul toggles, tough, weave and CJ. I regen over 3 end a sec. I cant recall the exact number on that. I can fight nonstop thru most anything that does not have end drainers. Malta sappers or carnie bosses if they get luckly and land end drain on me, it becomes an issue but honestly thats true for anyone.

Enjoy,
Cipher

Ahh i dont believe I am about to say this. But you might want to consider DA instead of Fire. It comes with a stealth power. So you dont have to buy the power pool and that stealth power give immbolize protection so you dont need combat jumping for immbol protection. DA stealth power is really good stealth asell. Also has an AE damage toggle like blazing aura. If you skip the fear and stun toggles and just get the resist toggles, stealth, damage and the heal you should be good. The Dark regeneration heal is amazing. Also end monster but if you slot it right its better the Healing flame. Its a complete heal.

Or hey by a stealth enchancement and go with anything you like. There ya go.

Best of luck,
Cipher

Yea, Claw/invul will do get. You want look for S/L def first off. Kinetic combats if you got the cash. Over all just build typed def and recharge best ya can. Claws if fast and good damage. Follow up is great.

Enjoy,
Cipher

I have played with all the Patron powers on my SS/Invul brute. Currently I am using Soul mastery. Got to say its my favorite. I did use the Mace for a while. I decided to give it a try for the extra 100 percent recharge proc you can get with KB powers. Now the redraw did not bother me at all but KD drove me nuts with the mace. Similiar to WP, Invul you want mobs to stay close for more Def(wp healing clearly). The extra recharge proc was not as huge as i thought it would be because it overlap alot and newer buff would not overwrite the old one. Thats the reason I respec out of it. Having said that. The Mace AE hits 16 mobs so you would see the proc more consistantly pure activation. On the other hand FS has a fast recast time. Honestly, you going to get MACE put the 100 precent rec proc in both and see how you like. Its not huge but a nice bonus.

Finally I find if you have concept with a toon you want to stick with it. You can make it work. I liked the mace. Its not the power gamers choice but It will work well enough for you.

Best of Luck,
Cipher

I love invul but it some a tweeking to get right. Honestly, If your looking for a good versitile solo guy. I would go with SS/WP. Its an easy build Grab stamina and quick recovery. That gives you more end then you know what to do with. Then you can do both rage and hasten easily. You have to build up your Def and hp regen. You will be a speedy damage monster. At the top end I like Invul better then WP. Its just a high combo of cap def, resists and hp but you got to spend to get it there. In the end if you going to make your show peice and put the money and time into go with invul. If you want it fast and easy go with WP.

Best of Luck,
Cipher

Accually Fences has a good range. 10 is pretty average range on aes. The fact thats is targetable makes it generally more useful then some pbae 10 radius aes.a Now Ball has a max targets of 16 where fences has 10 targets and high damage so if you going with one, clearly ball is better. Everything else I agree with. Ball and FS will be all the aes you need. Soul master would be better for the Gloom to take down bubblers and Soul obiliteration upfront damage and extra acc debuff does stack nicely with the Def you were building. Even if not going with Def build, debuff is still cute just to help cut down a little on damage between healing flames.

Ditch Burn, pick up Haymaker. Burn nice for AVs and toe to toe PVP but for your pure farming its more annoying. For that matter if you go with MUs ditch Fences as well. I would keep temp protection but that also ditchable.

Best of Luck,
Cipher

50-SS/Invul. My fav for sure. SS speaks for itself and pretty simple to get right. Invul is a fine balance between def and resists. Get it right, your awesome. I use this toon to farm 2+/8 all day and never drop below 80 percent health. Stay away from unstoppable. Build you toon without it for a while. Then, if you want it as a fun click to toy with, buy it just to see yourself with capped resists. It amuses me to just up into a few of mobs watch all my typed defs cap then pop unstoppable just to see both def/resist capped at once. Gotta love it.

50-DM/FA. A close second. I dearly love all the tools in this build has: two heals, two damage buffs, two end boosts. Jack up S/L Def, global recharge, hit the KB protection ios, combat jump and your good to go. MU is sweet with this set. You get two targetable raduis AEs to make up for the lack of good recharge AE in the primary. I built this is a toon to solo avs. Basicly designed to fight forever with heals and end recharge. I found out with Mus he makes a great farm toon as well. I do 2/8s with him when I get bored with my moster above. Pop Feiry embrace, then soul drain, Mu lit ball, Elec fen. Ton of damage. Its amazing how much damage blazing aura is.

50 fm/fa. I love the damage on this guys. I built him orginally to be support damage to a buddy of mines Stoner. Since they I Kinetic combat'ed him out. Hes has very impressive tanking with high S/L defense, while still maintain impressive single and ae damage. Hes not quite at the level as the other two but he is a ton of fun.

50 Dm/Wp. When Willpower came out I jumped on it. In my mind I had him surpassing my DM/FA build but Wp just lacks the damage and aggro I love so much with my DM/FA. However he does make a fine tank type. I have him tricked out with High Typed Def and I use MUs the Aes. The regen with siphon life nice. Over all a tough build. I jack Global recharge with LotG and purples to get the damage but damage is still disappointing. Tank wise I would rate him 3 or 4th of all my brutes. The damage his just so much better on my ss/invul and DM/FA that mobs die so much faster. He can do 2/8 pretty easy enough just not nearly as fast as others.

50-SS/FA. Ok, I made this guys when it was all the rage for farming. Gotta say I like the other builds better. I dont know what it is. On paper it all adds up. I have jack up S/L def and global recharge. I have built him similairly to my other FA builds but damn its tough on end even with consume and I would think with the KB in footstomp it would be more durable then he is. I dont know I guess it got talked up so much that when I built it and played it I expected better. I was disappointed. I did find he is ALOT better group build then solo. The extra group buffs really help him out. There is a edge with this toon. Once your in a good group you step over the edge and Then its does become the Monster but solo it just lack luster.

50-DM/DA SIGH. Man I try. I have respec this guy more times then i can count. I hit him hamis in toggles, i have frankienslotted. I have done everthing to make this guy the well round monster I felt he could be. When I cant sleep at night sometimes I puzzle over how to make this guy. His current incarnation, I just made him at tank. I use the PBAEs to jack up eng/neg def, taunts IOs to get some S/L and Fire/cold def and kinetics to get the SL up. Current he has like 43 defs s/l, 35def Eng/neg, 30 fire/cold. With very nice resists he makes a great tanker, ie not much ae damage. Its well known that end is just a massive problem with DA. I did grab mircle and Nums as well but nothing seem to cut into the mass end eater.

I got a bunch of 30s and 40s brutes. The only one that looks particually promising is a FM/WP. I think that combo could have some real potential.

Best of Luck,
Louis Cipher

Dm/fa was my first Level 50 brute and I still love him. What I found to be most effective for me in more respecs then i care to count is this. Siphon Life, I went with Hami 3 acc/dam and 3 heal/end. I rely on global recharge and haste. Second, def set bonus I focus on S/L and allow the two heals to cover the rest of damage. If you get both consume/DC I would suggest 4 slots mocking beratment for S/L(note the massive radius on Consume great agro control), Kinentic combats for your attacks, reactive armor for your fire shields. Dont forget to leave room for KB protection enhancements. Remember you can hit up a travel power for KB protection in the universal travel set if your to tightly tied up w/your enhancements. Finally MU is your friend. Since DM has such long recasts on the aes, MU's lightnight ball and elec fences are an absolute must have in this AE age. Then you end up poping feiry embrace, soul drain, then drop the hammer on w/ lightning ball and Elec fences.

Now with Elec fences and Lightning ball you can go two differences ways. You can frankienslot em or you can spend the money on the purples and get your global recharge up. I suggest building global recharge because of the long recasts on Fiery embrace, Soul drain, Dc and consume.

Well enjoy the toon its a great combo. Since the Combo has so many tools it is easy to make the most of them.

Best of luck,

Louis Cipher

Ps...Dont forget Kismet 6 percent to hit. I cant tell you how much that helps you hit. That and good ole soul drain allows you skimp a little on ACC if you need to.

I am going to take a shoot at the so called best. SS is always a nice but then everyone knows that. DM is also great balance with Invul. You get a fast recharge heal and a end rechage which Invul lacks. Dm and Invul work well togother. Now Dm does not have a great damage AE so I would pick MU patron power and grab Fences and Ball. This will give you to nice damage radius aes. Those two with Soul drain will do very nice AE damage. DM is a great fury builder and its single target attack were upped a while back so you can do very nice single target dps as well. But if you want a true monster, the superman build w/ SS/invul is still very sweet.

Best of Luck
Cipher

I got to say I am a big fan of Dark Obiliteration. On my SS/Invul I use FS and Dark Obil, they own everything. I aslo have Darkest night as well. I will say I rarely use DN, these days. I bought it more to round out my toon for those rare occassion I might want it for higher end PSI mobs. Honestly, I have never been in the need it for that but I did find it useful in herding mobs in AE. But now that the AE expansion got scaled back I almost never use it but I suppose its just nice to have.

I will say with my DM build I always go with Mu. I like having Fences and Lightning Ball it balances out DMs lack of true AE. I guess I have to lose style points for going with Soul mastery for a most of my other builds and Mu for DM builds.

Best of Luck,
Cipher

Yea,
With FM/FA you want to hit the Kinetic combats. Grab 5 sets. Get your major single target attacks 5 or 6 slot and use 4 slot kinetics there and round em out with crushing impacts or Makos. Remember you also have boxing and brawl you can 4 slot if your build does not have alot single target attacks, its well worth it. Get steadfast +3 def. Then use combo reactive armor, Taunt, PBAE IOs to round that S/L to the point were you are happy. Dont hurt yourself to much in the damage department. If you want to spend the billion plus you can get the Glad +3 def. You can grab Soul mastery for Dark obiliteration which will stack on nicely with the to hit debuff.

Once you get around 35 S/L def on a Resist/heal set like FA you will be extremely solid. I like layered toons with good def, good Resists and solid healing better the extreme Defense or resist or regen builds.

Best of luck
Cipher

I am big a fan off both Dm and Invul. Together then can make a really nice toon with nice set of tools and very tough, but built badly it just ugly. Ya got to keep the passive. I know it hard to justify because they dont look like much but they are. You want to get tough and weave. Get your SL resist up 70ish. Get your set bonus focused on S/L def-Kinetic combats are king for the this. You want about 35-40 Def to leathal smashing and invincibility will get you the rest of the way easy and give you some insurance again debuffs. You can get high if you want but realisticly you dont need to. Then build set bonus for Fire/cold/eng/neg. You cant get those both to 30 def without much difficultly. Once you are well over 30 def in all the damage types with 20-30 resists to fire/cold/eng/neg and 70 s/l you have very nice layered toughness. Then its all about building your global recharge time. Lotg Recharge and purples where you dont have def.

Finally the down side to DM is PBAE recharge time. As damage dealers DC/SD suck. You can balance this out nicely with MU. Lightning ball and Fences are very nice aes. Add Soul Drain damage and damage buff to the mix and you have alot of effective damage. I am not a big fan of cones, Over all they are generall less effective then Target Radius AEs.

That brings us to shadown maul. Ditch it. With good Global Recharge time and Mu you would not need it. Having said that your stick with Shark cones and get your playing style it could be very effective. I would see it as a Pita but if you like angling your powers for biggest effect go for it.

End game though you are looking to cap your specific def and use Invincibility as debuff insurance. 25-30 resist c/f/eng/neg, 70+ resist S/L with 80+ global recharge.

Once your there or close you will find unstoppable useless because you will already be unstoppable with out the crash and a spare power.

Well I have a Dm/Fa which I have a few billion into. The way to do it right is to go with mu. Lightning Ball and elec fenses are very good aes and alot better recharge time then Dark consumption and Soul Drain. With High global recharge you can get Soul Drain and Dc off one per group of mobs in a fast moving team. 30-35 sec recharge. Then with Soul drain & Fiery embace buffing you pop off Mu Aes. Keep in mind that elec fense target Ae root w/ burn can be a nice combo as well. So between Blazing aura, Mu aes, burn, Dark consumption, Soul drain and Fiery embrace + damage you can do a ton of ae damage in a very short time. Also consume is a nice toy if you have room in your build, 20 radius ae, which can be decent if you put a lot of proccers in as well as good taunt to keep mobs nice and close.

Overall the build can be a ton of damage but it aint cheap. The down side is you aint building tank for sure. That the up side with Soul Mastery, you get alot of proctection which FA lacks with no def. So loading up acc/dam debuffs on darkest night is a very nice tool to have.

So once again do you want a nicely balanced toon or a monster.

In the end the Elec brutes all cry Foot Stomp cant be better then all my AEs. Well It is and that goes for Dm/Fa as well.

But its alot more fun to have alot of good cool powers then just one or two great ones. And DM/FA gets alot of great tools which in the end do balance out.

I love Sp. I liked it more when it was a .5 activation time instead of .8 but hey. Load up on proccer and it is great damage and even better SMASH.

On invul end I will get flamed for this but I skip unstoppable. I have developed a serious hate for that power. I think its the eye Candy that makes many Invul brutes...well suck. Its honestly a trap. IF ya ditch it. You wont miss it. And you will build your toon to survive and kick *** without it.

Shadow Maul and Unstoppable imo skippable.

PS

I really hate unstoppable.

How in love are with Shadow Maul? Thats one I always skip. Hate the log activation. its nice when it hits 3 or more mobs but honestly I keep sands of mu for when I see that opportunity and I rarely use it. With Mako you got a some nice aes. Mu would be better ae wise but your fine with either. Clearly I would drop Shadow Maul grad the passive resist. Give it a try I am sure you will be happy.

You can get very high typed def with Invul. S/L is pretty easy to cap with Kinetic combats. Then Aegis is nice for fire/cold. That just leaves Neg/energy to go and you pick up nice high end def set bonus on those with travel powers, ranged attack and alot of other areas. You can cap em all nicely and have high resists all over. Huge hp with Dull pain. Down side no damage aura or damage booster invul so you want to take a good damage primary like well WM. Which you choose.

You can make Invul completely untouchable with Def and have exceptional Resists. Best of both worlds.

Devilprince

I always found it amusing that MM's were envisioned to be "damage takers". Orginally it was designed to send the pets in and take the afla strikes and kill pets not people. Thats was a total failure. Just really slow resummoning pets. Then they came out with the body guard option. By then I already had my MM to 50. That made masterminds much more survivalable but did nothing to protect them from stuns and such. Finally It was just settle on to let brutes be the general damage takers. Brutes had always been built to take a beating. Certain Secondary's such as Stone and Invul became tank oriented leaving other secondary's like fire to be more damage based. When IO came out brutes saw a massive jump in their capability to take and aviod damage. More so the many other because with fury being where they primailly get damage they could focus on survivability and rechrage time set boosts. Recharge set boost were so common that a brute could get a fast building attack chain easy and also blow up def. They suddenly a pricey brutes was an exceptional damage taker and dealer.

DM/invul. You will love it.

I go Wp at 50 with capped def and Inv at 50 with cap def. Both are potent. At the top end I would say my Invul brute is better same def, more resist and high hp but the wp leveled better.

I go with 2 acc/rec IOs, 1 rech IO and 3 hami dam/rang on it. It seems pretty effective to me.

Well Ya got alot of Forced Feedbacks in your attack chain. I love it in FS. In the single targe attacks I think you would benefits from a nice 26/26 recharge/end IO. You can find them in Taunt IO and in KB IO sets. I think it would just give you consistantly better Recharge across the board and better end management.

I have a Dm/Wp. I dont bother with staminia. I did get Dc for those instances were i get below 50 percent end. if I run low on end pop it and all better. With Dark consumption and Quick recovery which is better then staminia you will not miss it. Finally, Health regen is nice but with Siphon Life in you attack chain, I find it pointless.

I would pick up Tough and weave and use the extra power pool to get more def. With Dm debuff and High def you will have an extremely potent toon.

The work around the +hp damage bug is, Get a Mission, Find a mob you can have toggled rest infront of so the hits do massive damage but dont kill you. The mob needs to have a slow enough recharge attack chain that rest keeps you alive. Then go to bed.

I have an em/fire. I just really like healing flames. Blazing aura rocks for ae damage. I use Whirling hands alot. Sure more Range would be nice but honestly I say that with every Pbae I have on my brutes with the single exception of FS so. Now Whirling hands is only an 8 range but thats the same as Blazing aura and that works great. It just depends on how you use it. Whirling hands works very will if you have good agro. I often use Consume with its 20 range to pull mobs in nice and close. Blazing aura keeps em there. You can still only hit 10 mobs with any of the pbae, so if you have good agro it should not be a problem.

Hmm maybe they could change Whirling hands to more of a shadow maul pbae. Make it a cone, limit to 5 mobs, up the damage a bit and lower the recharge and end cost. hmm

Got to get a steadfast protection Def/Res in there. Maybe trade off one of the Ribosome for one.