Erratic1

Damage Cap explained.

Beta Decay in Radiation Armor gives recharge based on the number of foes (up to 10) around you. At max it should be +32.5%--effectively an SO Recharge. The same power also lowers foes two-hit and defense.

You couldn't take Shield with Titan Weapons anyway and Bio is a good set.

I got my Ice/Time controller to 32 the night before last. Originally I had been running both auras but respec'd out of them because even at 32 it was unpleasant enough being in big groups and thinking on future factions one encounters at later levels I could only see things getting nastier.

I have a 40 Radiation/Psi Tanker and a 33 Savage/Bio Scrapper. Both have been quite solid in play, though nowhere near as flashy as something like Shield or Fire. I have not played it, but a Radiation Melee/Shield Scrapper might be interesting. Radiation Melee has a splash damage effect when you hit a target you've contaminated with a single target Radiation attack power. Irradiated Ground lowers foe's defenses, so hitting should not be a problem. Combine with Shield for the damage boost and area damage and you could have a quote potent character.

Matter of what you want to debuff. Debuffing resistance requires Sonic.

I played a Kin/Sonic Defender pre-shutdown and enjoyed him so much I am rebuilding him currently. I cannot give answers to all your questions, but here are my thoughts: (1) Repel has its uses, situational though they may be. I have prevented wipes before by going bowling--mobs knocked off their feet do not get to attack your party. Less flashy and dramatic, standing in front of other squishy ATs prevents a lot of melee from getting to them. Siren's Song is awesome because slept things don't mind you getting close and doing Fulcrum Shift. It also has wipe prevention possibilities. I am toying with slotting Shockwave for knockdown as another means of control but have not gotten there yet. (2) While you will want to and should be doing attacks, I find enough of my time occupied by buffing, debuffing, and healing that attacks are part of the mix, not a primary function and done as much to debuff the resistance of what is hit as to damage it. Obviously solo you will want to be dealing damage. 1 Accuracy + 3 Damage is as far as I would go, but that also relies on taking Tactics. (3) The primary thing about your Kinetic buff powers is you want them to hit and you want them to cycle quickly. While Tactics helps with this, for things that absolutely critically need to hit, 2 Accuracy enhancements is my go to. As example, Siphon Power had 2 Accuracy + 3 Recharge in it on my pre-shutdown build. (4) Tactics should have 3 To-Hit Enhancements, Assault I previously slotted for Endurance Reduction (what else are you going to put in that slot?). (5) I would imagine you might get more use from Combat Jumping and Acrobatics, but some things come down to personal preference. (6) Hasten, yes, Yes, YES! Your major perk as a Kinetic is you should neve be out of endurance so long as you have Transference up often enough. Stacking Power Siphon along with Fulcrum Shift should allow your team to mow through opponents. For that you want powers cycling as fast as possible. So on top of Siphon Speed, you want Hasten. And Recharge Enhancements in those powers.

Wouldn't you want to do Atom Smasher before Burn for the added Contamination? Will Burn leverage Contamination? I thought you only got damage splash from hitting contaminated targets with single target Radiation attacks. Allow me to note a mistake I was making. I had Irradiated Ground slotted for Endurance Reduction , which may be understandable given my endurance woes (also addressed in the respec). GET DEFENSE DEBUFFS IN THE POWER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Blazing Aura hits more reliably, you land more hits and hence you spend less endurance bringing targets down. I may have to reconsider dropping Proton Sweep (though Atom Smasher is up quite often with a single Recharge SO, so maybe not).

It can be endurance intensive until you slot sufficiently and you'll need to IO your knockback protection, but Rad/Fire makes me giggle with joy when I pop Fusion, Burn, and then Atom Smasher while in the middle of a group.

It strikes me as odd you call the set squishy and yet are trying it with another attack powerset. Having a Savage Melee/Bio Scrapper, I have repeatedly had the thought in the back of my mind that Savage/Bio might be at least as good on the Brute. Blood Frenzy stacks while held reduce endurance cost and I have noticed my scrapper is not bothered by endurance issues in the least. Sustained attack should enable a Brute to build and keep Frenzy. As goes squishiness, being a hybrid armor set, I think you're going to need/want to take Toughness and Weave.

I am up to level 32 on my Savage/Bio and no power has been poor enough for me to think, "Get rid if it when you next respec." Hemorrhage however doesn't get as much use as other attacks, so if you have to skip something, I'd consider it.

Think it was stated upthread the vulnerability bar fills based on how much damage you do. I know if I hit a lot of targets with Howl on my Sonic/Bio Sentinel the bar pretty much fills.

On attacks they make, but I was not attacking. Burn is implemented as a pet. https://web.archive.org/web/20140821103945/http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/powerset.php?id=Brute_Defense.Fiery_Aura

Sentinel Full Auto Cone is also a much wider arc of 90 vs the Blaster 20. Much easy to use and will hit more targets. Subject to the 10 target cap of the AT, I take it?

I thought Burn had its fear effect removed the last time they updated Burn pre-shutdown. Having a Rad/Fire Brute, I tested this morning on several groups of Freaks in Brickstown and not a single run ran from me as I stood in their midst using Burn.

Pre-shutdown I had a DM/Electric Brute which was totally awesome in term of survivability and sustained damage output because the combination has good resists, two heals (including one which is usable as an attack), an incredible self-buff via Soul Drain, and of course two sources of regenerating endurance. Toss in Hasten and it was an unstoppable machine. I once asked one of the few other DM/Electric Brutes I saw why so few people seemed to realize what an incredible combination it was and his response was that he did not know but he was fine with it being just the select few in the know. If it were not for the fact that I hate replicating powersets, when I got into playing Tankers I would have seriously considered an Electric/DM Tanker. Is is hard for me to see how it could not work out.

I am recreating my DM/Electric Brute and fortunately had a copy of it saved via Sentinel. But I doubt the xml save format would look very good here. I will try to get around to transferring it into Pine in the next day or two.

Sad thing is I saw the title of this thread and had an immediate sense of déjà vu.

Was there cross server grouping back in the day? I do not recall needing to transfer a character before.

Wormholes frequency of use depends on the group you're with. I have found memories of pulling things into corners with Wormhole for mass AoE spam. There us also great joy in dropping things into a corner guarded by Singularity.

If I did not know there was a Claws powerset, judging by the animations and scrch-scrch sound effects suggesting you are ripping through fabric and flesh, I would have thought I was playing Claws. You can read up on Savage Melee at this link: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Savage_Melee. I have not noticed any problem dealing damage with Savage Melee. If it's not performing to the level it should be, it's hard to tell.

Pre-shutdown I had an Ice Armor/Stone Melee Tanker who was pretty fun.

I am running a Rad/Fire Brute hero side (level 31 currently). He works well, but let me second that endurance can be an issue if you do not slot for it appropriately, and doing so while levelling involves other tradeoffs. People routinely forget their attacks are a primary source of endurance consumption. I have rounded the corner on endurance problems, but that was by slotting an Endurance Cost Reduction in each attack. Obviously this is a slot where a Damage enhancer could have been. Even so the damage is good. IOs should make things even better. TLDR: It will reach it's full potential mid-to-late compared to other builds but is never actually bad.

Whirling Hangs has a 14s recharge time. With SOs you could get that down to 7s or so. If you could swing perma-Hasten you would be looking at 5.28s roughly. Not sure that qualifies as spammy.

I have no experience with claws, but I am running a Savage Melee/Bio Armor scrapper and it is (at level 29) plenty of fun with nice, quick animations. I was running him through Brickstown this morning against oranges and yellows while on Offensive Adaptation and was surprised how well that worked.