Tonality

I would recommend not taking both tier-1 attacks, because it really limits your room as you progress through the levels. Bash/Pulverize, Jawbreaker, Clobber, and your future attacks as you level later should round out your attack chain nicely. If you do take it now, plan to respec out of it later.

Also, if you drop one attack now, you have room for Battle Agility, which is certainly nice to have as it reduces the incoming ranged/AoE damage by ~25-40%, depending on your slotting as you level up, however as the bulk of damage will be melee it isn't too necessary.

Also, if you're not familiar with click-mez prots, you'll want to 3 slot it prior to IO's, or 2-slot it if you pick up hasten. With lvl 22 SOs, it will be perma this way.

You can hold off on Battle Agility for a while, though you'll notice that ranged attacks start hurting more around level 16ish. Personally, I'd go combat jumping/hurdle for the cheap 1.88% defense to stack onto it. I'd skip swift because you can hop around quickly then. I'm assuming you will be getting stamina at 20. The blue bar is our life-blood.

It is 3.75% defense with 0 allies in range, and then 2.25 base per ally in range (slotting this for defense only alters this value).

There is a bug in Mids (not sure if it includes brutes as I fixed it and forgot already) where it does not include the range defense in your total defense. You can check this by turning phalanx on and off and seeing if all positions are affected. If they are not, edit it by:

Menu->Options->Database Editor (window pops up)
Select "Main Database Editor"
Left Column: Single-Click Brute_Defense
Middle Column: Single-Click Shield_Defense
Right Column:: Double-Click Phalanx Fighting
Select the Effects Tab
Double-Click 3.75 Defense (Ranged) *to target* for... (if it has the stuff in asterisks it needs fixed)
Left Column, Affects: (Drop Down and change Target to either self or none)
Hit ok, save whatnot...
Now turn on/off phalanx, and it should work properly.


I mentioned this above. I'd personally drop Bash over Pulverize, as my guess is you'll have some decent recharge once you start looking at IO's.

I'm going to assume you mean Energy Aura, not ELectric Armor.

Shadowmaul, Soul Drain and Dark Consumption do not offer much viable AoE. You'll want to consider yourself a single target specialist. Actually, if you decide to go this route, you might even skip taunt and let your teammates know you aren't a tank and won't be holding aggro (no taunt aura too). Think of yourself more as a scrapper.

Where did you hear that? Some people hate shadowmaul, some love it. Some find great utility in touch of fear, some don't. Touch of Fear is great for you for leveling, as it applies a ~10% to-hit debuff to help with your non-IO'd defenses, as well as offering a mag-3 fear effect.

I'm going to post a leveling build 1-40 for Dark Armor/Energy Aura. If you meant electric, just take EVERYTHING in the secondary, except possibly the T9.

You can choose either Shadow Maul or Shadow Punch in this build. I chose shadowmaul, partly as a future spot to slot a nice eradication 4-slot set with scirrocco rounding it out.

Also, I would not recommend you play as "alpha tank" on this character for teaming, so I held off on taunt until later. Instead, think of yourself more as a stalker, singling out the hard targets and punching them.

I chose the powers based on what would work best for a single-origin build. If I was to use IO's, I'd grab tough/weave and work towards getting 45% defense to all types of damage (excluding psionic and possibly negative). That would likely mean dropping Darkest Night, Dampening Field and Energy Protection in favor of boxing/tough/weave. Also with IO's, I would move around some slots and work on efficiency.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Smite -- Acc(A), Acc(3), EndRdx(5), Dmg(7), Dmg(15), RechRdx(23)
Level 1: Kinetic Shield -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(17), DefBuff(34), EndRdx(36)
Level 2: Shadow Maul -- Acc(A), Acc(3), EndRdx(5), Dmg(7), Dmg(15), Empty(19)
Level 4: Power Shield -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(17), DefBuff(36), EndRdx(36)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- Acc(A), Acc(9), EndRdx(9), Dmg(11), RechRdx(11), Heal(19)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
Level 12: Touch of Fear -- Acc-I(A), ToHitDeb-I(13), RechRdx-I(13), Fear(39), ToHitDeb(40)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(43), Heal(46)
Level 18: Entropy Shield -- EndRdx(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Energy Cloak -- DefBuff(A), EndRdx(23), DefBuff(37), DefBuff(40)
Level 24: Dark Consumption -- Acc(A), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(31), EndMod(37)
Level 26: Soul Drain -- Acc(A), RechRdx(27), RechRdx(27), RechRdx(31), EndRdx(40)
Level 28: Energy Drain -- Heal(A), RechRdx(29), RechRdx(29), Heal(31), EndMod(37)
Level 30: Taunt -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- Acc(A), Acc(33), EndRdx(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(34), RechRdx(34)
Level 35: Dampening Field -- ResDam(A)
Level 38: Overload -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39)
Level 41: Gloom -- Acc(A), Acc(42), EndRdx(42), Dmg(42), Dmg(43), RechRdx(43)
Level 44: Dark Obliteration -- Acc(A), Acc(45), EndRdx(45), Dmg(45), Dmg(46), RechRdx(46)
Level 47: Darkest Night -- ToHitDeb(A), ToHitDeb(48), EndRdx(48), EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Energy Protection -- ResDam(A), Empty(50), Empty(50), Empty(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

If you want to play to invuln's strengths, you'll want to focus on what the set is great at: Smashing/Lethal Resistance and typed defense.

What that means is that tough will really add to your survival, as will picking IO's that offer good defense values on your typed defenses (and grabbing weave to help as well). Then, if you can manage enough recharge to make dull-pain perma, you will have heaps of HP, with layered defenses. However, a build that does this doesn't come cheap.

Your current build has some slotting issues. You won't need to 6-slot temp invul, nor does unstoppable need 6 slots.

If you do want to keep your pet and your patron, look at the recharge-intensive pet sets, as 4 slots will give you a recharge bonus.

Wow, it is 2010, and not 2009.

To quote Morrowind, "Die, Necromancer!"

I don't mean Leo_G, but Fuzz_JDC

Even if an enemy misses you with the attack, it still generates fury. Otherwise, defense sets wouldn't exactly be on equal footing with resistance sets, would they?

Waves of attackers would be a brute's dream come true. However, given that similar abilities to do similar things have been removed from AE due to the possibility of farming, I don't see this happening, even if it's ridiculously fun.

I loved wading through hundreds of mobs on my brutes.

Sure, the squishies screamed in terror, but meh...they shoulda rolled a broot.
(I'm only somewhat serious)

Hmm, dualboxing the forums!

I have two accounts. At first it was a mere convenience: being able to transfer inf between characters and do SG invites. I also used to use an extra account to pad a team so we got larger spawns.

However, it wasn't long before I started playing them together. I found it easier to run my laptop next to my PC and run both characters at the same time. It is quite the challenge. Try keeping two brutes at full fury sometime. It's pretty intense, as you wind up memorizing attack chains and you're just alternating between screens to navigate and target.

I might have listed about 100 scientific theories on the redside market last week for over 500k.

They might have all sold.

I didn't cause that shortage, but I certainly was happy to sell them to those that really needed them.

SS/WP is a great combo, and I know many people that call it their 'main'.

SS/SD really shines when you throw a lot of inf at it. You're looking at a tremendous amount of damage output and being soft-capped - nigh unkillable. However, even a low-end shield build is going to cost about 400 million inf to be as survivable as a SS/WP with just SOs, simply because you're looking at around 33% defense before IO's kick in. If you're willing to invest, there is no brute combination that can outperform the AoE output of a SS/SD brute.

Some drawbacks on the SS/SD:
1) 3 click powers: Active Defense, Rage, Hasten
2) Very endurance heavy
3) Expensive to kit out.
4) Squishy prior to IO's (reliant upon carrying lucks


I really can't tell you which brute to make your main, because I think what influences most players is which one they find most enjoyable. You might find that the best brute combo is your favorite - you might not.

I guess the only way you'll find out is if you roll one of each.

Excellent post.

There is intelligence blueside, though it's often obscured by the bad players. You don't notice all the good drivers on the road, but you'll remember that one driver that managed to drive the wrong way on the road.

If you're on a higher population server - you'll find even more bad players simply because there are more people.

You are also right in that redside characters do tend to be a lot more self-sufficient, in part due to how their powersets are paired.

For some reason I always forget that particular IO's number. Thanks for catching that.


I wouldn't consider it reasonable either, as I suggested the OP aim for a lower defense number and use lucks when needed.

However, one can potentially soft-cap S/L on a resistance build, and I wanted to suggest a potential path toward that soft-cap. I personally do not recommend it, and I don't use it in any of mine. Having that particular IO available (even if it practically isn't) does help achieve that soft-cap when I would otherwise have to gut the entire build's offense.

I'm not recommending it either - I'm recommending aiming for 32.5% defense instead of pushing for another 12.5% defense. I also didn't see a need to post another build since you both posted nice builds.

Here was my claws/inv I planned on rolling:
Claws/Inv


I went with this:
Claws/WP

As you see with the example builds, Kinetic Combat is a much better choice for S/L defense than Touch of Death. It is pricey, with the Dam/End/Rech triple selling for 100-150 mil redside. However, with 4 slots, you get 3.75% S/L defense, and you can use 1-2 more slots to round out your powers - especially accuracy.

Another good set to consider is reactive armor for your toggles. 4 of them will give you 1.88% S/L/E/N defense, which when slotted into tough and mind over body also adds some decent defense.

You can get around 36% S/L defense without gimping yourself using kinetic combats.

edit:

32.5% is the magic number for defense, because you can soft-cap yourself with a single luck. If you start focusing on achieving high defense numbers, you will reduce your overall performance because sacrifices have to be made to achieve that high level of defense. It is possible to achieve that high amount of defense, and I'll show you, but you're looking at spending about 4 billion inf. However, even with that kind of investment, you still won't softcap all types of damage, so go for S/L. That PvP IO alone is going to cost a fortune and is the only real reason why softcapping is feasable without seriously gimping your character.

Let's assume a few things:
Slotted Heightened Senses: 3.82 S/L, 15% E/N/F/C
Slotted Weave: ~6% defense
Steadfast Protection 3% Def
Gladiator's Armor PvP IO: 3% Def

Combat Jumping 2 slotted with LOTG: 2.65%
Tough/Mind over Body: 1.88 each (3.76%)

5 Kinetic Combats*: 3.75% each (18.75%)
Elec Fences: 2.5% at 4 slots
Rectified Recticle**: 1.88% def

Total S/L Def: 45.36%
Total E/Neg: ~39%
Total Fire/Cold: ~33%

*Slotted in Boxing, Brawl, Punch, Haymaker, and Knockout Blow
**Chosen over gaussian's in rage so I have more free slots

So, instead of trying to go this route, I'd change a few things:

1) Skip the PvP IO.
2) Go Soul instead of Mu and pick up gloom to slot with thunderstrike/devastation for E/Neg def and regen
3) Rely on Dark Obliteration's unenhanced -to-hit and slot it with posi or ideally a ragnarok.
4) You also could slot footstomp with 6 obliterations for some decent S/L defense, but I either usually go with armageddon/force feedback proc for the recharge or eradication/scirroco for the +end/HP/e-neg def/regen.

That's wonderful to hear!
I should clean up that post and make a player guide called "The Art of IOs: demonstrations on a SS/WP platform"

I might get to it this week.

First the question. I'm not sure which of these things you're asking, so I'll answer both:

There's a limit of five of one named set type (small bonus, huge bonus, ultimate bonus, etc). You can have 5 of each type in your build. The exception is named IO bonuses like LOTG 7.5, which is listed under its name, so you can have 5 LOTG 7.5's and 5 7.5 recharge bonuses (which you find in basilisk and kinetic crash). To find if you are over the limit in mids, click the "View Active Sets" button, which is just above the secondary power set drop down menu.

The other possible thing you meant was how to look up what sets have the maximum bonus of each type. To do this, go to the Window menu in mids and select "Set Bonus Finder". Here you can select any category and it will list the various sets available for each bonus type and filter them by strength. It also shows you how many slots you need to get that bonus. It's very handy to know about when you're working with unfamiliar set bonuses, such as one time I wanted to cap a scrapper's fire resistance without taking temp protection, so I needed to see what sets offered fire resistance.

Now, onto your build.

I don't find procs in toggles to be all that useful, and I'm really doubtful you'll notice much from that DW -rech proc in RTTC. I'm thinking that you'll be happier finding another spot for that slot.

Fast Healing is better than Health. You want to have better enhancement values on fast healing. Simply switching the two around yields 8% more regen.

Kinetic Combat is a great set, but it has terrible accuracy. You will benefit greatly from global accuracy bonuses on your build. One of the easiest things you can do to get global accuracy right now is change those 3 slotted LOTG sets to 4-slot sets for a total increase in 27% more accuracy. That should be a noticeable difference.

To do this, I'd swap out the generic defense IO out of combat jumping (it's only giving you 0.5% def), and move one slot to Indom Will, and take that dark-watcher proc slot to Heightened Senses. Then, take the generic end IO out of weave and replace it with the LOTG triple.

You aren't gaining any real survivability with that impervium unique in SoW. I'd slot up a generic resist IO, or throw the steadfast 3% here instead to free up a slot for something else.

You may find in-game that footstomp burns through a lot of endurance. You could change that Scirocco dam/rech to a dam/end for a slight decrease in rech. There are various slotting choices you can go with this set-combo that offer various advantages and disadvantages. I won't advise you to go with one specific choice with this set combo because each works well in various situations.

There are always things you can change about your build. Your build will perform well as it stands. Adding the few minor changes will enhance your capability, however deciding on slotting like footstomp and other things similar to this is where personal taste really becomes visible - and the line between 'standard' IO slotting techniques and personal taste is clearly visible.

I haven't looked at a tank too closely recently, but I seem to remember them having something called a gun on it. You're certainly welcome to play the game the way you want, and this playstyle actually would work with teaming, which just shows how flexible this game really is. I'm glad it works for you. I couldn't live without the SMASH.