Erratic1

Well, he flew through the Protean arc, melting things pretty quickly.

I cannot believe Flamewar was open.

Hmmm...would I have started the FM/EA brute last night had I seen this first? Doesn't the logic for FM hold for every other damage set: Tankers get more area, Scrappers get more single target damage? I had decided I was going to make an Energy Aura brute, partially because Tankers don't get EA and partially because I had not played the set on a brute since Live. For primary, Battle Axe, FM, and Katana were considered, and theme came to me for FM. Of course, low level Brute play is always fun. I've got my eye on Dark Mastery (which Scrappers don't get), in particular Tar Patch. Took some flack on the forums over the years for not loving every AT having the sake powersets due to proliferation, but really feeling justified in that view just now.

Thought about this on the drive to work this morning and find myself in agreement with @Yomo Kimyata to the extent there is no overriding consideration greatly favoring one AT over the other--lean Scrapper for damage, Brute for survivability.

Figuring out where to put ATOs is activity? Is that not a one time activity?

Electric is weak for everyone. I try and try to play it, I am drawn to it, and it invariably disappoints (not as much as say Kinetic Melee, but really....). Electric is a one-trick pony: Lightning Rod. Its a nifty trick but still a singular one. Damage. 525 damage, followed by 525 damage, followed by 673 damage (or thereabouts)...at level 40, with two IOs slotted (the +3 Defense ones) and everything else SOs, solo play. Blasters have to use their T9s with Build Up or snipe for high damage, Brutes have to get a head of steam going, and Scrappers...just have to keep swinging and the magic happens. And as noted above, you get more reliable in churning out the damage. Now, back to my baby Brute....

Pointing to surviving a Pylon (something Scrappers, Dominators....well, any AT can do) as some sort of hallmark of survivability is a notion a person can buy into if they wish. Actual missions, taskforces, and trials are what the game is comprised of. Maelwys gave a quite clear and concise statement on the state of Brutes vis-a-vis the latter game. Doesn't mean you cannot have fun levelling one, playing TFs, etc. But you're not there to tank, and certainly you don't do the best damage--other ATs have those preserves exclusively. You're along for the ride. If you're fine with that, no problem.

The notion Brutes cannot be built for both survivability and damage is erroneous, as demonstrated by dozens upon dozens of builds posted in these forums. No sacrifice has to be made to achieve one at the expense of the other.

Electric is better in a Brute than on a Scraper. Electric is not better than Energy on a Brute. It is different, with other benefits and negatives.

To expound on this, there are foes which lower defenses. Defense sets have various levels of protection against that. Resistance sets do not. You take Weave on a Residence set only for IO slotting reasons.

Short answer: No. Longer answer: Depends on the content you are going to play. On their own, none of the armor sets gets you to a place which cannott be improved upon by having at least one of Toughness or Weave. If you plan to push further than SOs, both powers, on top of their obvious benefits, offers valuable slots for IOs as well. Electric or Energy you should fully enhance the powers of the set, then get Toughness or Weave to further push your Smash/Lethal resistances in the case of Electric or Weave in the case of Energy. For content as you level, at normal difficulty, you won't need IOs or utterly maxed values of defense/resistance. Those become your focus as you push difficulty settings (which you can start early, but are not obligated to ever do).

Energy is a wonderful set. You will want to up your defenses up to a good value (35%+) quickly to really enjoy its protective benefit and to make use of its scaling +Rchg when foes are near. To that end, even if you are not planning to IO out your build (until later or at all) it is still worth purchasing the two +3% Def IOs and slotting them. Not something you need to do immediately, but as you move into your 30s.

Because I only have active presence on two servers, with most of that tilted towards one. In addition, to the extent there is a crossserver community, I have a global name which spans servers. Others may operate differently.

If you are in combat and using your other attacks, the extra range of the snipe is useless on those targets. And.... ...if there are still targets in range to be fought, something at snipe range almost certainly isn't aggroed on you or your party. Otherwise it would not be sitting there waiting to be sniped. But I suppose there is some reason for, "Oh wait, hold on...going to ignore all the guys here fighting my party so I can snipe some guy down the hallway (and hope his death doesn't trigger his spawn to come running)." Most people are not relentlessly observing everyone on the team to see how efficient or not they are being. Its a kind of trust the other guy to be doing something useful thing and so long as they stay at a level where being less that optimal is not noticed, nobody cares. There is a fairly wide bit of latitude most people are willing to grant. "Oh, maybe he's hurt and trying to stay alive. Maybe that is why he is running away."

If you want to spend sniper's wind up time waiting for its damage, please be my guest at doing less dps. Sorry for assuming you would want higher dps.

And here I would have put Spiderman down for Super Reflexes since with his spider-sense he is able to dodge most attacks. Most attackers cannot land hits on him.

You can snipe all you want when not in combat. In combat, though, the power does not just sit there uselessly.

Bio and Rad are hybrid sets. Arguably so too is Invulnerability. Also looks like Energy Aura got left out. For that matter, Ninjitsu too.

Found it, and I misremembered. It was Savage/Shield Scrapper vs Savage/Electrical Brute in their mid-20s. Scrapper edged Brute, 13s to 16s.

DoTs do not scale with crits do they Damage over time scales with Fury. I forget if there is a mechanism scaling crits to damage over time or not. I do know I made both a Savage Melee/Electric Scrapper and Brute. I think after testing Brute performed better but let me get home and confirm before I say for certain.

So your original response should simply have been, "I'd go with scrapper", or, "Scrapper, because I don't like Brutes".

Fury builds because you are attacking or being attacked. Fewer things attacking you due to being focused on other players and spending time moving because your target got killed faster due to others attacking your target is less Fury. The reason Brutes move off on their own is often due to a team denying them Fury opportunities.

You are positing it being easier to keep fury up on a team?

I was fighting Tsoo and against Mr Cyclone was whiff, whiff whiffing. Someone using Build Up might just have gone ahead, popped it, used a big attack and been done with the matter. Is there any upside whatsoever in building up a damage bonus over time? Particularly on ATs with no reset mechanism?

How do you know what people are doing with posted builds? I've looked at dozens upon dozens of builds over time to see what someone has done (in this game and others) and have NEVER copied a build. As goes COH, there are a couple of slotting tricks I've picked up.