MayorOfAngrytown

Quoteworthy.

Well, combining position and s/l doesn't really gain you much; they are mutually exclusive rather than additive.

Generally you'd want to build for typed (s/l, the e/ne) or positional defense (melee et al).

Usually I see (with exceptions) builds on resistence sets go the "typed" line rather than positional because it's more slot effecient.

I've tried a few times to soft cap positional defense on things like DA or ELE or FAand just can't get there.*

* - At a budget level realistic for me, haven't tried at "no holds barred" budget levels.

I'd suggest having Mids, if only to open builds you find on the forums. Reading them in posts doesn't give you all the numbers, also most of the elite builders around here just drop data chunks, which you need to use Mids to get anything out of anyway.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Defense

Not sure if this is the best link, but check out the beginning of the article where it talks about "Attack Tags."

All (with a few exceptions) attacks are coded as either being Melee, Ranged, or Area of Effect. There is a defense to each of these, called collectively "Positional Defense"

Additionally, all (with exceptions) attacks are also tagged by type. Smashing, Fire, Negative, etc. These are called "Typed" defense.

When you are attacked the game looks at the attack and says, "Hey someone just threw a firey boulder at you. That is a Ranged attack with a Smashing and Fire damage type"

Then game then takes your *highest* defense value (Ranged, or Smashing, or Fire) and uses that to determine the hit roll. It is important to note that they don't combine in any way.

Because positional defense bonuses tend to come from the 6th slot in sets, most people without a ton of defense in their armor set (like fire) will build for typed defense. Specifically S/L first since that covers a wide variety of attacks.

Here's my opinion as another person who just can't do /SD with a non-weapon primary (secondary for you tankers). Captain America or not, it's just goofy. Tried several. Can't do it. Mental Block. :P

What you are seeking is a Mace/Shield brute: All the fun of a sword and board scrapper, without Broadsword (you mentioned you prefer Kat), a kick-*** t9 AoE attack, extra base HP (making TG and OWTS +hp bonuses more effective), and a variety of concepts to wrap him around. The only thing this really lacks is a self heal, and that can be taken care of as well. (Nothing against broadsword - I happen to like it - just noting the differences).

Will scrapper Shield Charge make you jealous? Maybe. Truth be told I never notice the gap on teams with /SD scrappers or tanks. The pseudo-pet cap may rob a Brute of a little of SC glory, but rolling Fury + saturated AAO is nothing to sneeze at either. Especially on a high recharge WM attack chain. No, you won't pump out ST DPS like a dm/sd scrapper. No you won't farm like an SS/FA brute. You'll slot nicely in the middle of those though.

Wait. You found a p/u team goldside?? Impressive!

Too bad about the noob though; most of the time this sort of thing is just funny to me, but then I've never actually been kicked in a situation like that. I think my favorite was the guy who insisted that we were doing the wrong WST, even after we finished, got our bonus xp, double merits, and the 50s got their Notices.

Heh. One other person on the team and I tried to explain it several times and eventually just gave up.

Ya, I want to say -60%, but it might be 50. TBH, with the option of up to 3 perf shifters and various end management iPowers, there are various ways to mitigate it. No worse than the hasten crash really, since it is much less often.

Having said that, I'm definitely dropping Ageless for Rebirth on my shielder, and already running Spiritual. If I added hasten to the build (currently doesn't have it) then it would be a bigger deal.

Never thought of it that way, but also true.

It is. Neither of them are affected by recharge enhancement, bonuses, or even buffs (SB, AM, etc) of any kind (as I understand it).

You don't build fury from "having mobs around you" directly; but the condition of being surrounded is good for fury.

Also, with some (relatively recent, but not the kind in your question) changes, it's basically academic for just about any brute to maintain 50-70% fury without expending much effort.

This.

I'm betting the answer is somewhere in here with respect to what's happening in rains; though it may be that it's hitting the limit, then one is ending and instantly another is starting.

Either way, it's wacky - but I'm not convinced the 10s rule is the answer.

Another great tidbit above.

I'm not sure if this helps you or not Calvin, but MIDS will let you setup alternate slotting for a given power. Then you can flip between the two and check out the different effects. I'd like to think this helps me in some way.

Like Werner's suggestion for swapping Doctored Wounds for Numinas, or for deciding what peices give you the nicest enhancement without regards to set bonuses. Say for example you are only slotting 3 or 4 pieces of a set. With alternate slotting in MIDS you can see the different enchancement numbers for different combinations.

I've only got two Incarnates at the moment, a scrapper and a brute. Aside from a lucky string of Rares on my scrappers first several trials, my experience has been pretty much that random is random.

I've done a trial where I thought I totally failed (lots of deaths, getting lost in the grenade warehouse, whatever) and pulled a VR. I've also done them completely on point, some of my best gameplay (which, in the grand scheme is probably still not all that good) and gotten commons. On both toons.

Admittedly I can't speak for the "I've done 200 trials each on 6 different ATs" crowd - but it seems pretty random to me.

/Cold corr's are great, and people are on the verge of realizing how good a dm/fire brute can get, happen to really like mine.

Also, WM/SD brutes are a load of fun once they get past a couple of hurdles.

Either way, welcome back and thanks for Serving!

This.

Competing reactives on a team, while still rediculous dmg output, do seem to be a limiter of a sort.

I ran the T3 75% dmg only version in sp/da auras on a team with a couple people with Rain of Fire and seemed like I was pretty drown out. The rains were stacking way too fast, not that it made much difference who's DOT's were melting those silly mindwashed goons.

I was wondering if anyone addressed this during the UStream; not much of a definitive though, heh.

I thought about Rebirth, but with the amount of recharge I'm looking at in Dark Regen, I pretty much have heals covered; Endurance is the big issue for this character. Ageless +rec would cover that, but then I loose the extra resistance from Cardiac. So it's sort of Offense (Ageless/Musc) vs. Defense (Barrier/Cardiac).

Also having a bit of trouble getting to a defense number I like for s/l (since I can't afford that pesky pvp +def unique), which makes Barrier appealing.

To make it tougher, my in game build still runs /blaze; having hard time giving up the fun factor for the more sensible /body.

Really the only certainty on this toon was Interface; t4 Reactive Radial got slotted last night. Epic Sea of Tiny Numbers.

Haven't even started thinking about Lore yet.

Much more straightfoward on my wm/sd brute: Spiritual core/Pyronic radial /Rebirth +regen/Seers Radial/Reactive Radial (might switch to the -regen one).

Yeah, I had those mids numbers in my head when I took blaze on a scrapper - then saw the damage in game as roughly half of what mids reports.

Still so much freaking fun. I could probably have a "better" build without it, but having a hard time dropping it because of the fun factor. Sort of the opposite problem. I want to go for the performance, but having the blast/fireball is so much fun.

Am ss/fire farming build pulled from the forums and tossed around like a cheap date at a Hell's Angels convention?

Perish the thought.