Erratic1

Bio/Dark is a very interesting combo. You combine the very solid healing/recovery/damage boost to be found in Bio with more of the same from Dark Melee. I do not see any downside. If I were not currently avoiding Bio (its just too easy to lean on, and I have two Bio characters), I'd be sorely tempted to make one of these.

Shadow Maul at the door in Posi 1 is just too over the top.

That was my original Scrapper and third character Live. He was glorious. I really wondered back before proliferation how an Inv/Dark Tanker would fare. Guess I could find out....

Is there some offensive powerset not getting area enhancements on a Tanker, or is it Tanker hands down for every powerset? It might be, but thought I'd ask for clarification.

My first Brute was Dark/Electric. After playing it for a while and not seeing anyone else playing the combo, I came across another one doing some stupidly high level farming. I asked him why nobody else seemed to realize how good a combo it was. He replied, "No idea, but its our little secret." So its not really surprising to me that it works well on a Tanker. The Brute was nigh unkillable. Probably stupid good on a Tanker.

I have two Radiation Melee characters (Scrapper and Tanker) and the only attack I suggest skipping is Proton Sweep. Atom Smasher is slow as molasses flowing uphill in the winter but unless you're on a team able to kill quickly, it does eventually land. I typically resort to Cross Punch when an AoE is worth skipping (SS: Hand Clap).

Ahh. Misread. It is one of your highest damage/animation time abilities according to Mid's. It also gives you 8s on damage debuff, which beats out everything but Burst. And you might disorient your target.

It is a pretty minimal enhancement when dealing with groups as the only means of area application is Burst, though it does debuff 14% for 7 seconds. If the debuff stacks against single targets though, it would be a plus against bosses/AVs. It does boost your damage over five hits and the power lasts for 20 seconds. You should have time to max it and then make attacks at full value. Its as worth it as Build Up. The downside is it only grants 7.5% To-Hit.

Radiation hits like a truck dropped from orbit...but it takes about as long as a truck falling from orbit for blows to hit. It is not a fast-paced set but it does plenty of damage. Of course you can also go for a set with plenty of immediacy in your blows landing, but the faster ones tend to also hit for smaller amounts of damage. If you check out Mid's Powerset Comparison graph, you'll see Radiaton Melee is on par with Katana for damage/animation and damage/per second.... ,..well, ignoring Atom Smasher. Just ignore Atom Smasher.

I get perfectly well what you're stating. You on the other hand....

Fury decays sufficiently slowly that were a solo Brute resting between fights to full health/end, they are likely entering the next fight at 20-30 Fury (observations from a weekend of fighting things with the difficulty a little to high while making comparisons to the difficulty a Tanker I am also levelling). A couple of attacks (incoming and outgoing) and the Brute should be quickly back in the 80%+ range. Infinitum's 75% is probably more accurate, depending on length of fight, with the average likely running higher the longer the fights are.

A Brute's Fury bar passes through 50% but does not stay there. If its going upward it will level off up in the 80-85% range. Not sure what one would do to try to hold 50%.

Resistance sets do not have Defense Debuff Resistance. So if you load up on a bunch of Defense on Electric Armor, the moment something comes along with Defense Debuff, that defense you invested in will be stripped from you. Invulnerability, while often thought of as a Resistance set, is to my mind really a hybrid* one given it has DDR. Dark Armor, Fire, and Electric do not. But even if you want to call Invulnerability a resistance set, it is a singular exception. *I would also call Radiation Armor a hybrid set too, just it dabbles in the oft forgotten third method of melee survival--health/absorption.

Skipping Weave on my current go at a FM/EA brute as without it, not factoring in Energy Drain, S/L/F/C defenses are all at 50% in my current build plan. And I am eyeing Night Fall from the Dark Mastery epic mastery.

I am not aware of any primary which does not fit well with EA. EA provides endurance, healing, and +Rchg--things any primary benefits from.

That is talking about Damage Resistance debuffs, not Defense debuffs.

Kinetic Melee is something you should avoid unless you accept up front it will never give you the functionality of some other offensive set. I say that as someone who, for some unknown reason, is levelling a Willpower/KM Tanker. What can I say? I like challenges.

It is amazing just how often discussions in the Brute forum turn into Tank discussions. Fire/Fire Tanker was the original farmer.

Solo, probably not worth it. Definitely a team consideration.

No, but the 15% is additive, not multiplicative, right? Its basically half an SO for you and your team. And 15% is more than most ATs get. Only Defenders get more, and Controller and Corruptors get the same.

If you look at it as a single-target power which occassionally hits other targets, its damage is not horrible. Or you step backwards before using. But yeah, it is not PBAOE like Combustion

15% of base. You did it without damage enhancement slotted?

15% isn't it?

I have an SR/Titan Weapon Tanker. Had him for years at this point. Here is the thread from back in 2019 where I talked about him: And here is where @Hyperstrike talks about SR Tankers and not needing Weave:

Offered with not a shred of backing. Just going accept you conceding the point. No, I stated exactly what I was saying. And clarified after your first attempt to twist what I wrote. Oh, now its, "Whose keeping score is it?" AFTER Brutes have been nerfed. AFTER their position on a team has been undermined? Fine. Let's make an AT which does...oh roughly half Defender damage, is no sturdier than a Blaster...and I am sure, without keeping score, that will a design you can get behind because, "Who is keeping score?" As I have noted before, if nobody had been keeping scores there would have been no Brute nerf to begin with. So somebody has been keeping score. I have been assured up and down, including by you, that Tankers are perfectly fine. Why should they need a nerf? And do note: I am on record repeatedly opposed to the need for a Tanker nerf. That looks suspiciously like "keeping score" to me. I trust I must be misreading you there, given your earlier questioning of doing so. Doubtlessly there is little desire to advertise that fact in certain quarters. Last word is yours. I'm off to do something considerably less frustrating.