Are you planning a Brute squad duo, or are you looking for an AT/set that would compliment you're friends EM/ELA?
How important is concept? You could be mirror image twins, one EM/elec, one elec/EA. As funny as that is, I sense that one of you might be getting the short end of the stick.
A Brute duo would be cool. IIRC EM isn't the best AoE set, maybe that is a gap you can fill? Perhaps you want to be able to stack stun onto your partner's stun, SS or WM? He'll have a heal, so you might also need one (unless you both take the medicine pool to be able to aid each other as well as yourselves). Come to think of it, is your buddy locked into using EM? Weren't there changes to it that make it less of the monster it was several issues ago?
Other ATs? Pick anything I guess. Maybe a buffer/debuffer (I like teaming with Rads personally, although many brutes are still hooked on Crack.. er I mean Speed Boost)? Defenders/Controllers, Corrs/Doms - all of those have great choices as a Brute's partner. Blaster is probably too dmg focused, and a tank would almost be redundant, almost. Scrapper would be interesting. Brute soaks the alpha, Scrapper nails the hard target, and the rest is just cannon fodder for you both. If both of you can manage your own blue and green bars, you'd literally tear through most missions. Maybe not as efficiently as brute + debuffer/buffer, but still damn good I'd imagine.
I'd be inclined to pickup the AoE slack, but I've never been able to play support roles very extensively. Deep respect for those that do though. A Corr might be an interesting choice. Focus on your secondary and take some choice attacks from the primary - be the debuffing AOE monster or something.
Since you are going Goldside, you have all the ATs (except for HEAT/VEAT) at your disposal. Go nuts. It depends on your playstyle and how you guys want to run the duo.
Brute squad idea isn't bad. I have a 50 SS/Elec that was just a monster. Might look into it. Last I remember EM was the single target king of the Brute primaries. Don't know it that has changed at all since I last played.
I was also toying with the idea of a Fire/Kin or Fire/Dark corr. Though I have played /Dark a ton. I love it but think that I could use a little diversity.
Was also thinking of a Master mind of some sort but couldn't come to any kind of a decision on what to use for a primary and a secondary. Have a Thugs/Dark in his 40's that I liked. Tried Ninjas back in the day but the AI made them so hard to use, they just wanted to stand back and throw Shurikens all day :/
How is Kinetic Melee? It looks interesting and I like the animations. Don't know how it stacks up to anything else though.
My friend and I are starting two new characters after being away from the game for about 7 months. He wants to make an EM/ELA Brute. We plan on Duoing together and probably steering clear of groups unless we get stuck. My question is what would be some good builds to complement him. We both have going Rogue and will be starting in the new area as Praetorians (sp?)