Depends on if you go over the immortality threshold or not.
Which depends on the team also.
With enough Support a Brute is almost equal to a Tanker survival in absolute terms. And in most gameplay terms is effectively immortal at a much lower amount of support. Which was one of the reasons Tankers got buffed damage in the first place.
Well you can be moving while it animates
So if you time it right you can hit it before you get Alpha'd
I used it on my STJ/WP scrapper, but got tired of it.
Sort of?
Most the time Brutes/Scrappers/Stalkers have more than enough mitigation to handle anything they fight. So some of that Tank Mitigation is wasted a lot of the time.
I think actually Invul is probably the best Set for a Scrapper to skip Fighting Pool entirely.
Since you can easily cap the SR S/L Resit still. And you could definitely softcap S/L def without too much fuss.
Some sets will fare better without tough and/or weave than others.
I wouldn't want to rely on Shadow Meld as a primary means of mitigation, but if you don't mind the 3 second animation time, it is very powerful.
It takes such a short time to get to 50 even soloing, and I usually PUG which even casually takes less than 2 weeks, so I don't abandon them right at 50 unless I'm bored with them already. Which does happen.
I don't think anything /Martial is going to be the best DPS Blapper
It doesn't have the standard Blaster Melee scaling on its attacks. Its got scrapper ports.
ST compare its number to /Energy
ST+AOE compare it to /Electric
Two of the traditional strong Melee sets
While I like this idea
I also think too many people take leadership powers.
I don't need 100% defense on my blaster
So I'm kinda torn.
I guess I support the Idea though. Plus SOA and Widows really have no choice.
Really the added AOE damage a Tank does over the Brute is pretty widely overshadowed by even a casually built blaster. So on many teams its not going to be as noticeable.
Within reason and Animation time requirements
I favor this for all punching and kicking type sets
Super Strength
Energy Melee
Some of the Electric Melee
Some Radiation Melee
Some Dark Melee
and so on ..
The Animation time is the big one, you can't make it so you can string the alternate animations and do more Damage in the same amount of time.