Rad_Avenger

I have a Fire/Cold Corr that I could bring, would love to join up

Wow.

I mean, wow. the character export feature is just ... words fail me

I'm not sure you'll ever use or need Focused Accuracy and Aim. If you're taking them for the set bonuses, then by all means go for it, but Sleet debuffs defense so ridiculously well, that I literally never used either Focused Accuracy and Aim once I had Sleet well slotted for recharge.

I need to import your build to look at it, but at first blush S/L defense looks to be way over the soft-cap (but that could be an artifact of your E soft-cap goal, which is a worthwhile goal IMO).

Have you considered how you'll be playing your Fire/Cold? I've found that in combat with decent groups, I usually have time to drop Sleet, RoF and Fireball. Blaze on a boss. The major build goal that I had was max uptime with those four powers - I recommend an extra recharge IO in RoF and Fireball specifically as the Posi Blast set just doesn't have enough (I'd recommend a purple set but the Ragnarok set is just ridiculous).

Your build should do well. It wouldn't work for me personally as the build takes and heavily slots a number of powers that I don't use in practice (Aim, Focused Accuracy, Frostworks) but that's more a matter of taste than anything else.

Specific recommendations, YMMV:

- More recharge in the AoEs , RoF in particular.

- Taking the disruptor bot and slotting with Expedient Reinforcement is nice for set bonuses (6.25% recharge) and the pet is actually useful, particularly after you've buffed it up.

- I personally would slot Heat Loss a little differently (3x Performance Shifter, 2x Efficacy adaptor) as that saves a slot and gives 3% HP, but you may need the 5% recharge bonus more.

- For your shields - any reason you went with the HOs? I probably would slot something with a set bonus if possible (3x of the set of LOTG in Glacial, a 3x of Serendipity in Ice) but then again that's likely my HP bias talking again.

- If you're spending on HOs, then Infridgidate is a power that can benefit with a Cyto (I think) instead of common acc.

- I personally liked having access to Flares ... lower levels pre-Sleet are very tricky. You have access to great AoEs, but not enough mitigation or damage buffing to really use them well. I found myself (as a lowbie, and when I exemp) using single target attacks quite a bit (scourging for a brute is a big one) and avoiding AoEs. Taking Flares in place of something else (Foc. Accuracy?) would let you 6-slot Thunderstrike for 3.75% Energy defense and avoid a lot of other slottings you've done elsewhere for the energy defense set bonuses.

- Another item to consider as you apparently have some cash to burn (a Miracle, 5 LOTGs ...) - taking the patron immobilize and slotting with the purple set is nice and not as expensive as the other purples (the purple proc for a hold is sweet too).

Good luck, enjoy your fire/cold! After 35 its the most fun in the game IMO

I actually run slightly below soft cap (44.8ish I think). I agree with you that in 99% of most situations the difference is probably going to be non-significant (particularly in a 2,000 HP with access to green inspirations world).

You're correct - you are seeing the same numeric (i.e., one hit point) benefit from a 0.1% increase regardless of where it occurs on the defense spectrum below the cap.

But I disagree with you regarding the intellectual honesty comment nevertheless. For toons that operate near the margin consistently (i.e., at 44.8% in very high damage world), the difference in total damage mitigated can be meaningful, and that I think you're avoiding that a bit. When I added a Taunt IO set that took my Brute from 44.2% to 44.8ish% Melee Def, I noticed the survivability impact (it sounds trivial, right? but it wasn't in practice).

But its not worth arguing about, to be honest, given that most toons aren't farming or solo-ing missions set to 8. but I like math, even though I'm bad at it.

I am a bad person. I have mids on my home computer not at work. I have an Excel version, but when I post that sort of thing it peeves some folks. The keys to me:

- 3-Slotting Devastation in two attacks. 2 x 2.25% = 4.5%

- 3-Slotting Numina's in Health. 1.88%

- 2-Slotting Touch of Lady Grey in Infridgidate and Sleet. 2 x 1.50% = 3.0%

- 3-Slotting Perf Shifter and 2-Slotting Efficacy Adaptor in Stamina and Heat Loss. 2 x 3.0% = 6%

- 3-slotting regen tissue in Health. 1.5%

- Kinetic Combat in boxing. 1.5%

- 3-Slotting Shield Wall in Weave (+ LOTG +Rech). 2.25%

- 3-Slotting Karma in Combat Jumping. 1.5%

- apocalypse set in Blaze. 3%

- 3-slotted LOTG in Ice Shield, Glacial Shield and Artic Fog. 3 x 1.13% = 3.39%

- 3-Slotted Serendipity in maneuvers and Scorpion shield. 2x .75% = 1.5%

That takes you to +30% HP. Add in accolades and you're at 1,606HP

Your point re: 2,000 hp brute is well-taken btw

My only comment would be re: your 500 DPS example.

That's mighty low compared to the missions I run my SS/SR Brute through

lemme see ... +3/x8 Battle Maiden farm in AE, mob size averages 16, incoming attacks every 2-3 seconds, 3 bosses per spawn, avg damage from one of those <censored> axe hits has to be 1000+ (this is all off the top of my head, mind you), so I'm way, way above 500 DPS.

I dunno, man, your example is no doubt accurate, but I guess it depends on what type of missions you run. The 500 DPS incoming example appears to be highly misleading to me but probably would not appear to be so to the average player. (Although since I am an awful player, this breaks down quickly)

I'd call you intellectually dishonest, but I'm trying to stop being a dick, so I'll refrain.

Regarding slotting attacks ... I slotted two of my single targets as 3x Devastation, 2x Thunderstrike, netting the 2.25% HP bonus.

So I finished respec'ing my I10 - I12 Fire/Cold build ... this was once my favorite (and infact my only-played) character for a year or so. The build was good in the "I solo on Invincible!" world, but pales in a "My brute solo's +2/x8 without breaking a sweat!" world.

So anyway, final build has soft-capped S/L defense, +80% recharge without Hasten and Corruptor HP cap (that one wasn't easy). Many thanks to DSorrow for his Cold/Sonic build, which informed a few of my choices and to Silas for his many comments here and there. OMG the new respec is just plain beastly. Beastly!

As an aside, can't believe how much cheaper purples were six issues ago!

Hey Nimps, just wanted to add a couple of comments on your build that I thought were worth pointing out :

- Slotting the Mocking Bereavement Acc/Rech into Follow Up - I had issues getting the 4x Kinetic Combat in there with enough Rech and Accuracy to suit, but this solves things very neatly.

- Slotting the Winter's Gift IO - tried this recently and the combo of Lightning Reflexes + Winter's Gift actually makes caltrops patches semi-tolerable.

Nice build for what you're trying to achieve - a bit over slotted on recovery and end, IMO, but nicely put together.

Is the S/L cap necessary for your purposes? I run at 33% S/L defense and pop a small purple when necessary. In general, I don't find it necessary though (admittedly I only run at +1/x6, so not the highest of high end brutes, I guess).

Generally combat goes like this:

- Run Lightning Field

- Jump into mob, hit follow up on toughest mob.

- Power Sink

- Spin

(At this point most minions have a sliver of life ... )

- If things look ugly, jump out, Shockwave + Energize, then continue the beatdown

- If things are fine, keep wailing away, Spin when up, make sure bosses are Focus'd ... I dunno, generally that suffices for most encounters including Vanguard (although I toned the diff down to +0 / x5 for the Gaussian arc)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns +1
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga +1
Watchmen TBP +1

As in all things, the answer is almost always Fire/Cold. That is all.

The Widow has the survivability of a wet paper napkin, or at least that was my experience when I tried her on my SS/SR/Soul. Nice damage, but a hard poke in the ribs does her in (slight exaggeration, but not by much - when you're running at x8, the pet's survivability goes to zero). IMO, you're better off with Dark Obliteration.

Some thoughts:

- Need to slot your passives. LygerZero correctly noted that your defense-debuff resistance is enhanced by the passives. You'll get torn apart by anything with a gun (or a sword, hello Romans!). So slot those puppies.

- You overslotted Mako's and ToD in my opinion. Why not take and slot Combat Jumping for the 2.8%ish defense it gives instead of 6-slotting your attacks? This also helps solve your AoE defense issue (i.e., uncapped).

- I recommed Hecatomb slotting what you're going to use most often - i.e., likely not KOB, given its long recharge.

ANyway, hard to go wrong with SS/SR, but those changes will help your build considerably