Erratic1

They quasi-disagreed on one, tiny aspect of how important Psionic resistance was and both gave good builds, either of which will serve you in upwards of 95% of the game. Psionic damage is a thing in the game, so if you want to cover all bases, go with Infinitum's. As for Tanker vs Brute, do you want to be better at taking down tough solo targets with a bit less survivability in the end but a must faster starting experience or do you want to be better and bringing down crowds with maximum survivability and don't mind a slightly less smooth start? If more the first then Brute, if more the latter then Tanker.

I am old enough to remember when "min-maxer", "powergamer" and "munchkin" had different meanings. And do not even get me started on "pay to win".

Perma-Energize be thy friend.

Tankers get higher values on their defensive powers than Brutes do, so you would not be able to simply copy a Tanker build and end up with a good Brute build. This thread has a couple of builds in it:

Lightning Field is a damage effect surrounding your character so long as you leave it turned on. It periodically deals damage to things standing too close to you. But its damage from a secondary set, and your primary set is how any melee character--Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, or Tanker--is going to deal most of their damage.

Arguably, you get more mileage out of Lightning Field on a Brute than either a Scrapper or Tanker due to Fury while retaining the higher resistance cap of a Scrapper. But Lightning Field is hardly going to be your major source of damage.

That is advice to someone who has a problem with general chat. People who do not have a problem have no reason to post their not having a problem.

Snikt, snikt, snikt... KRBW.mp4

If you got Mids and imported the build, it would be clear. Your other option is to make use of the wiki, and referring to this page: Enhancement Sets - Unofficial Homecoming Wiki

Not necessarily. Plenty of builds only reach the heights they do because of appropriate choice of set bonuses. While you are better off not having to fix a lot of problems in your build, by default there are things any primary/secondary combination is missing which set bonuses can help address.

Because saving endurance is not less important than staying alive?

Bio. No, really. Bio. Just set a stance and don't change it.

The only caution I would offer as goes Tankers is that while they are tougher, starting out they are not that much tougher. Tougher is tougher but where the problem manifests is that damage dealt per endurance spent is lower for Tankers when it comes to single target attacks. The improved area of their area attacks require you to have enough enemies to make up for other melee ATs dispatching things more quickly. But as I previously noted, you are not, starting out, that much tougher. Not a problem if you're not racing someone, which as a solo you are not. FWIW, I have a Bio Tanker designed to live in Offensive stance with Assault up who somewhat bent the above thinking a bit at lower levels. And on the upside, unlike on a stalker or Ninjitsu scrapper you won't have to fear your evil twin on that one story arc.

Have plans tonight IRL but will join the channel asap.

Trust that whenever Ston's posts come up there are invariably a ton of explanation from Tanker fans about how artificial and circumstantial the results are. To be fair, Trapdoor does have a fair amount of group combat where Tankers are going to fare well.

Radiation Melee/Dark Armor will quickly teach you what being out of endurance feels like.

This had -=BEST NOT BE TRUE=- given the assertions made over the last few years about how balance between Brutes, Scrappers, and Tankers is fine. Scrappers/Stalkers are top damage and lowest survivability (very survivable if built right, but should fold first). Tankers are best AoE damage and best survivability by far. Brutes are better solo damage than Tankers, better survivability than Scrapers/Stalkers. Any of the melee classes are fine choices, choose the flavor which appeals.

Looks pretty solid to me.

Invulnerability is great for any melee class, though more impressive on Brutes and Tankers for being able to reach resistance caps along with the defnsive boosts. EA comes with +Rchg and endurance gain--both things which benefit TW. For funs and giggles, I played an SR/TW Tanker because someone argued SR, being probabilistic, was a bad idea for a Tanker and I wanted to prove them wrong. Had fun with the character.

What do the final numbers look like? (No data chunk, so not easy to import.) I fooled around a bit and...well.... It annoys me not to crack 80% S/L Resistance on a Brute, but limitations of a Def set. I could get above 80% S/L resistance but it would have meant bad things to defense values. It also lacks perma-Hasten. You have enough attack to cycle through, though I admit there is something to be said for Shield Charge ever 21s and Pendulum every 3s. S/L/F/C resistances are a bit better for not much change to defense values. Dropped One With the Shield (hate crash powers), and left you with 5 slots to play with. Did you intentionally not take a travel power? (Fine if you did, some characters it is out of concept for.)

It's a good rule for testing anything. Developers know their own intent and while they may think of some things they want to limit, are not as likely to come up with every avenue players will in exploring the possibilities. I recall one game where we figured out how to make NPCs fight each other--no xp but the loot was worth it.

If it full set slotting were intended we would not be able to slot from multiple sets. It would be a trivial thing to code. And with different bonuses scattered between sets anyone remotely familiar with players, who were optimizing from the get go (I had perma-Hasten in the first month of release of the game), that players would mix and match was all but guaranteed. The only bit I suspect the devs did not foresee was proc monstering.

If "frankenslotting" is not getting a full set bonus, call me Victor. I don't call it frankenslotting until there is nothing more than a 2 slot bonus or two with four or more slots taken.

I am a big fan of Brutes and part of the reason I have been fairly absent from these forums for most of the past year is burnout and frustration at the state of Brutes (not getting into it beyond that), so understand what I say next is offered honestly.... You should play this as a Scrapper or Stalker. The damage will be eye watering. I have both a WM/Shield and a WM/Ninjitsu Scrappers. If/when I return I expect it will be to finish up on the Battle Axe/Ninjitsu Scrapper. The absurd chance to crit coming out of stealth on him is out of this world. Oh, and follow nihilli's advice. FWIW, my WM/Ninjitsu Scrapper. Now imagine making those juicy Axe attacks from stealth combined with the Scrapper ATO.

You posted this back at a time when I was not around much. But it looks like you still look in from time to time, so.... My signature character is an SS/Bio Bute. While he is on version 6a, what follows is the targeted 7b version of him (always tweaks and adjustments): The differences from his current 6a version are not massive--S/L Def is a few points higher and S/L Resist came up about 2%, Hurl is a bit more damaging.