Erratic1

Or maybe rather than being terrible advice I make better builds which do not need to pop Ablative Carapace and DNA Siphon on every spawn.* Btw, Parasitic Aura's base recharge is 270s. Most people who build for recharge build to reach perma-Hasten and no further. Assuming +100% Recharge through slotting of the power that puts them at a divisor of 3.75, bringing the recharge on the power down to 72s. I will also note that a person is not always engaged in killing the hardest things they can survive. Case in point, last Sunday a guild member was short five levels of being able to run the TF the guild was going to be forming teams to run that night. I invited them to party with me as I ran +3x8. I can do +4x8 but for purposes of generating xp for the fellow guild members I picked a level where (a) they would not be dying all the time, (b) I would be able to be pretty lax in paying attention to survival. Admittedly, at that level it is not really that Parasitic Aura as going to see a ton of use in any event but that is a reason to not be increasing notoriety settings. *Edit: It occurs to me I typically play Bio on a Brute so perhaps more hp/higher resistance cap allows for less use of aforementioned powers.

I do not disagree, but that does not change that the goal is to not be defeated or that there is embarrassment when it occurs.

What follows is what you get when you take my SS/Bio's build, swap the setting in Mid's from SS to Rad, then swap a few powers around to accommodate Radiation instead of SS. No doubt it could be refined some: | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1435;694;1388;HEX;| |78DA65945953134110C76793898190881C31C17019EE2B108F7745E0018904289E5| |36B1860356C7013AAF43368A980C79355E0F10990C3F3C90F23A756F9A455D6DAD9| |FE6F81C55625BFED9EEE7F777A6692BA3F149C9D1DB926B48A1B39BD50C80C5A4B4| |5E59FCA1ACACC2A414F68DACCE6CD7B4BCAD26FE7949F3C312726935239A51293FA| |8CA1178DBCC97613AF0DA95965165462D0C867C6AD39DD34B299EBD642DE12A1743| |E9F4B8C1873F345C39C0B3AD698D217C90838C6D4A25233151C952B85550F2F1AD9| |C4B06E15E73329BD5054D6832875D14A9F87EDF4A595BA14B657A40971293C13E02| |4534E31375A8E83A518A0B7242D5E669EB90226890D529445988FA882E656D050A1| |0C1502A81040058DA6E31508F69682A352042798672741046F523B3E28FB7CB55CE| |E5C18FC2D1C56FF01FF326B6F7A9D362354C98F64E18FB1F309F55AEE2A963F958E| |B37699797E055C65469F3193CF995BD44E0592EDF764845CA5D077968FEE322FEC8| |387CCFA3DF080E9A5DE2ADD395762CE8D4910736EBCCA6CBEC449CBD47B154627AA| |7A84E3FC446DD468CE9ED9DE1A283543A9193B77118A8F4921EC8E246CD3233E527| |E04A2323286F814788BD9320EA6992BA453E7FEF6BA356EAF659DD9FA1A7C03BE65| |B6BF637EA68A3174EC89ED799C4D6B3F000F999206D4800A9E8623CEECF80586B98| |D556AA3894F9E2D9B7639B3178A7DFB2094FBA0FC85CAC75DE538923A10D485A0AF| |14D4C637C1F6B5CD7B9C725D067887D97D17CC810BCC55EAB21323F574BEE27DEA5| |D03D799BB41217ADCCDECE967E70BCA4CB8C722B1C1CEFE4D700BDC66267798711A| |D50094B4011C8B2438229D0B3DED1CD97A29DCC72ED9B4FD63A75D69E9FE05904B7| |35C8781E31B0ED7D169D78FFF5CA3F4D621C5CF134E4D5BE109055F32BF75D31545| |297BB4867CEEEDDA295D357765FBA4F1E1A4F10FB51EE5F7| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

It will function on a scrapper, just you stand to be dissatisfied when you are swiping at a target and another player comes along and one-shots it because your crits do not apply to the DoT portion on your damage. That will happen to the Brute too occasionally but not as often because the DoT portion of their damage gets boosted by their Fury bar. Because of this you will want to build to keep your fury bar up, so you will want to be durable and endurance efficient so as to not have to rest often to recover health or endurance. I went Savage/Electrical, but I certainly do not see a problem with Invulnerability--you should reach health durability easier with Invulnerability but will probably have to focus on ways to be endurance sufficient. You can find more details at:

Is there a reason to play a Scrapper rather than Brute, given Scrapper Savage DoTs will not get crit bonuses and Brute Fury will impact both direct damage and DoTs?

While I understand why it was changed and fully support that change, I kinda miss the original version of the respec trial in Terra Volta which was hard to succeed at unless you had a good team with good builds... ...the precise type of builds which did not need a respec.

Frostfire was regularly run, announced and recruited for on Torchbearer until it seems half the population ran off to Excelsior.

Depends on what you consider endgame. If running regular level 50 missions and taskforces at modestly boosted or less levels is your thing you will be fine. If you want to solo +4×8 ITF, you may need a bit more. I have a 50 Tanker who I have not yet started the set IO process on who is perfectly fine soloing +2×6 radio missions in Peregrine Island. For harder content I would break out his fully set based big brother.

Having come across the assertion Savage Melee is better for brutes than scrappers (killing the SM/Shield red side scraper I had just made), I decided to give a Savage Melee/Electric Armor brute a whirl. I picked Electric Armor because I wanted a damage aura and the other sets with one had issues I did not feel like wrestling with and Electric Armor also brings +Recharge to the table. According to City of Data 2.0, Blood Frenzy rewards you with 4% Recharge and 6% Endurance Discount per stack. At max stacking that should be 20 Recharge and 30% Endurance Discount. While you do get 20% Recharge, in game I do not recall the Power Monitor showing more than 23.6% (or so) Endurance Discount. 20% Recharge from Blood Frenzy at max stacks combines with 20% Recharge from Lightning Reflexes for 40% Recharge, which applies to every power and is quite noticeable. Faster cycling attacks would normally have the downside of increased endurance expenditure but the Endurance Discount of the Blood Frenzy stacks mostly negates it--140% attack rate (7/5) at 75% endurance cost (3/4) = 21/20 = 105% actual expenditure. The points above really drive a Go, GO, GO!!! style of play since you want to maintain Blood Frenzy stacks and you want to maintain Fury. When health or endurance forces you to rest, typically you are able to maintain 35% Fury though you do lose your Blood Frenzy stacks. Blood Thirst compares poorly to Build Up, giving only 10% To-Hit and 33% Damage compared to 20% To-Hit and 80% Damage. That being the case I use Blood Thirst AFTER spending full Blood Frenzy attacks on Rending Flurry. Rending Flurry gets damage boosted by spending the stacks, locks you out of gaining stacks, then Blood Thirst gives you full stacks. So you maintain your Recharge bonus and Endurance Discount. When another melee with Super Strength, Energy Melee, or whatever powerset with a massively hard hitting attack rolls up on the foe you have been 《SNIKT》 《SNIKT》 《WHACK》 《WHACK》 working down and one-shots it you will wonder what possessed you to waste time on Savage Melee. Keep in mind that is front-loaded damage and the power used is not on a short cooldown. Knockout Blow has a base recharge of 25s. Total Focus has one of 20s. There is a joy in dispatching a Freakshow before there can do their heal or laying low Paragon Protectors before they can get off Moment of Glory--both of which occur with enough damage over time flowing while you apply direct damage. You also get to steal killing blows surprisingly often while the other hero's power animates or they are waiting for an attack to cycle.

There are definite differences in difficulty depending on where your character's weak spots are. I suspect nobody has trouble with The Council. For my primary brute Carnies are only dangerous if multiple Master Illusionists are involved that can override his mez protection and drive detoggle him. But Arachnos are deeply unpleasant because he spends so much time blind they can nickel and dime him to death. Crey, Malta, and Nemesis aren't big problems. For others brute build I am sure the difficulty spread would be different.

If you can't just snap your fingers when you enter a map and defeat everything you're obsolete. More seriously, is there any AT which cannot solo +4x8 at this point?

Claws/Energy Aura -- Follow Up wants recharge and in a crowd you'll get plenty to start up the Cuisinart. Dark Melee/Invulnerability -- A classic Dual Blades/Super Reflexes Energy Melee/ Shield Defense -- 《BAM》 You're Dead! 《BAM》 You're Dead! 《BAM》 You're Dead! Katana or Broadsword/ Radiation Armor Martial Arts/Dark Armor Staff Fighting/Ninjitsu War Mace/Bio -- This could tradeoff with Energy Melee/Shield with primaries swapping secondaries.

People complain about Bio being clicky (I disagree, but people do), and this sounds like the land of clicking.

I had an AR/Poison Corruptor back on Live. While Pain would probably be worse, that's almost cheating.

It is pretty minimal as is. Invulnerability, which nobody complains about, is on the same order when running Unyielding.

Electric does not do anything against Toxic, something Unyielding provides Invulnerability and Energy Protection provides Energy Aura already. The fact that you use the word, "except" means Ninjitsu doesn't cover everything. Its status protection is a click power with longer base recharge than its duration so (a) you must spend slots to get to permanent coverage which most other sets have and therefore do not need to waste slots on, (b) if you do so you have to set it as your auto-click power--again something auto/toggle sets do not have to do, and (c) when it triggers its animation will interrupt anything else you were doing, let trying to beat opponents into submission before they do so to you. Last I looked Scrapper are a popular AT. You do not see a wealth of Ninjitsu scrapper running about. Heck, I am not even sure you see a wealth of Ninjitsu Stalkers running about. The reporting in this thread suggests otherwise by people who have tested it. Or maybe I missed the, "I got wrecked" posts because of all of the, "Not a big deal posts" by those who have tested.

More well-rounded? Invulnerability and Energy Aura are considered amongst the best sets in the game. Compare how often you see in game or in forum discussions Ninjitsu or Electric Armor and it's not even close because people far more gravitate to Invulnerability and Energy Aura than those latter two.

The toggles all have a minimal setting except Genetic Contamination, whose effect is pretty minimal anyway.

Should probably note, I tried to stay with your power choices in my offered build above. I think I would pick up at least another melee attack (Cross Punch) because other than Punch and Haymaker it looks like you would otherwise be waiting for an attack to cycle.

The slotting bothered me in place where multiple sets are used to get 2 piece bonuses (e.g. High Pain Tolerance, Fast Healing) but losing out on the extra bonuses which might have been had by staying within set (four slots for two bonuses in two sets versus three bonuses in three sets). So I decided to give a whirl at how I might go about things. I typically toggle off Hasten if it is not perma when evaluating a build and toggled off Strength of Will given its negative side effect when the power ends. So that is why the comparison numbers for your build may look different from what you had set. S/L Defense is comparable but Melee Defense on my build is higher. So people shooting at you will have no real difference in hitting you, people punching you will. E/N Defense is improved but nothing else meaningfully changes. S/L Resistance is higher. I also slotted Reactive Defense: Scaling Resistance so all resistance will scale up as you lose health. E/N resistance is a bit lower but keep in mind higher E/N Defense. F/C resistance is meaninglessly and T/P is basically the same. You generate 0.59 end/s less with my build but you also consume 0.79 end/s less (both with Tactics running) so in reality you're up 0.2 end/s for spending purposes. Global Recharge is boosted to 76.25% from 56.25% Regen is lower by about 52 hp/s +To-Hit (from Tactics) is lower by 3.64% There are three slots leftover in what is posted below. You could get To-Hit back to the same value (though if you're using Rage I am not sure Tactics is really necessary) or you could expand the Recovery gap.

Went ahead and filled in all the slots. Not sure it is sane but maybe it can be useful towards finding what you are looking for:

This is not a completed build but it goes down the line I am thinking of how on might go about SS/Shield on a Brute, which is to seriously overcap your Melee defense, so that when -20% shows up you are still in a pretty good spot. Won't help you so much if you're also facing defense debuff but.... With 21 slots remaining you have 59.18% Melee, 35.58% Ranged, and 38.08% AOE defense. S/L resistance is at 60.47%. You have +66.25% global recharge and +16% To-Hit with Focused Accuracy going. On your to-do list is: Address Recovery Raise Ranged and AoE defense values Raise resistances. I'd frankly focus on F/C/E/N since I suspect those are most likely to be delivered by ranged and AoE attacks. Raise global recharge Whatever else suits your fancy I did not proc monster because I was focused on getting Melee up to a suitable value. You might be able to monster proc to your hearts content by shifting things around.

Is there a reason to play SS if you're not taking Rage? Isn't the consideration the set underperforms without Rage? True, you have Against All Odd, but that is a candle compared to the bonfire that is Rage.

I never much cared for Blasters on Live and it was only on Homecoming I finally found a Blaster I could get out of the low 30s with and take to 50 (BR/MC fwiw). Having finally succeeded in taking a blaster to 50 I decided to try another one, this time Sonic/Trick Arrow despite the charts saying how miserably it compared to other blast sets. It helped to think of him as my support oriented blaster. I got him to 50 then put him aside as there were just too many, "...well the damage is not great but it's okay because..." moments that frankly just were not true. I came into CoH during beta playing Defenders, had a Defender as my first character to max level, and played Sonic on live and again here on Homecoming as a Defender. I appreciate the debuffing it does for Defenders but...the secondary effects of secondary powers should not be so central to a Defender. Yes, secondary debuff effects have always been better for Defenders than for other ATs but the primary powersets are "primary" for a reason. You put Enervating Field down or drop Tar Patch for an ongoing, big -Res effect. It is hard for me to see saying, "I cannot squeeze out ultimate value on a team due to the secondary effects of my secondary powerset" as a good reason for the set to be miserably behind the curve for when it is being used as a primary set for three other ATs. Perhaps the AT should never have been ported to Blasters (I get grief when I object to the notion that every powerset should be available to every AT) but that ship has sailed (bring on the Super Strength scrappers and Energy Aura tankers and let the good times roll). A blast set which trails all others at dealing damage should be improved in that function. This change does that.

Electrical Affinity is a perfectly good support/healing set but it also tends to be a bit needly timewise since for your chains to leap you want to build static charges--so either you need to keep using EA powers or you need to drop Faraday Cage which will build them for you but that means needing to drop it whenever your group moves. I would suggest looking towards a primary set whose impact will lessen your need to have to toss out healing. Seismic is a good choice because it comes with two area knockdowns (well, one is technically a knock-up but foes end up on their butts is the important part) with timers short enough you can cycle them and keep a group on its collective butts. Or knock the group down, spread some healing. I was sold on Seismic back when it was on the test server when my mid-20s level character took out an entire group in Talos without any of them hitting me one due to the knockdown.