marcussmythe

Totally, in fluff/rp terms. I dont care for the run cycle, and ‘carries a shield’ isnt most of my characters. But mechanically, oh man.

Ive not looked closely at Staff. Maybe there are some interesting possibilities in combining it with bioarmor and essentially reconfiguring on the fly?

Damage Auras show relatively well on a Brute, because Fury has more overall 'uptime' in combat than do the clickie damage buffs that so elevate scrapper damage. I'm not sure if they themselves count for building fury, but the combination of auras on my spines/bioarmor brute has been heartwarmingly effective. However, we have wandered off topic, and if the OP is leaning more to scrappers, why dont we look at things that leverage scrapperdom most efficiently? Since scrappers enjoy one of the highest damage bases in the game (matching Blasters), I think the real 'winner' of Scrapperdom is further buffing that high damage base. Of the scrapper secondary sets, one has a massive built-in damage buff thats on whenever your in melee and better the more people you are in melee with - this would be shield. Of the Scrapper Primary sets, Fire is solid single target and AOE damage, while Dark lacks the AOE component but leverages the longest duration damage buff. So, for the Scrappiest of Scrappers, Id probably vote Fire/Shield (For phenomenal AOE early, growing late, and great single target damage), or Dark/Shield (for greater survivability and even higher single target damage, but less AOE and later blooming)

Some sets and combos strongly favor one AT over the other, and Elec/Shield is probably the one that leans the furthest. It's not obvious, but the way Elec/'s Lightning Rod and /Shield's Shield Charge work is by summoning pseudopets, and those are what deliver the effect while you're teleporting. The thing is that their damage is based on your base damage, which is way higher for Scrappers than for Brutes. Brutes' low base damage is offset by Fury, but that doesn't come into play with these abilities. What’s an example of a set that more strongly favors brutes if you don’t mind me asking? The specific example (Elec/Shield) refers to pseudopets (which work off damage base). The same would likely be true for leap attack (I assume it, being very closely related to the other two, also works off base damage and doesnt benefit from rage). Similarly, the other game changer for shield is the massive damage buff in Against All Odds. Brutes already have a low base and a laaaarge buff to make up for it, so the additional AAO buff from shield matters rather less. As for what would sing, and do so more on a brute than on a scrapper: 1.) Things that leverage the larger HP Pool. Regen and Willpower leap immediately to mind, also possibly Bioarmor. All are heavy regeneration-based sets, so the larger HP Pool is going to be an advantage. 2.) Things that dont result in downtime - anything with a good END recovery will shine here. Also (MAYBE!) things that can push up against the 90% resist cap. Most brute sets have trouble doing this without external buffs, IO madness, pool powers, or some combination of the above. But an IOed out Invuln Brute could get ludicrously tough. However, this would fail on point 2, above - and I think fails to respect the inherit qualities of the Brute AT. Brutes are all about the Fury Bar, which builds (as far as I can tell) more strongly if you attack, often. This suggests that a set with very fast attacks and little downtime between them would be a winner. Claws is a classic here, and thus my gut recommendation for making a character that best leverages the Brute's strengths (not to be confused with 'Best Possible Brute'!) would be a Claws/Regen, or (if you dont want to micromanage clickies so hard) Claws/Willpower.

Biggest differences: The Brute has more HP and a higher RES Cap, and a MUCH higher HP Cap, meanwhile its defensive sets are exactly as effective as a scrappers. Thus, -all other things being equal-, the brute will be tougher, and potentially MUCH tougher The Scrapper has a higher base damage, and crits. With no fury, the Scrapper will outdamage the brute. At low levels, with fury, the brute will outdamage the scrapper. The scrapper starts to catch up once things are fully slotted with 3 SOs for damage, and once they both trigger their buffs (build up, against all odds, yadda) the scrappers shoots ahead. The brute gets close to catching up in the presence of truly massive (external) buffs, but were talking things like double fulcrum shift. So: The Brute will level better, and is of overall greater team utility, though its unlikely to match the scrappers DPS even on a team with a lot of buffs to go around. The Scrapper will solo better, once it gets its SOs under it sometime in the 20s.

That is one nifty build. Im reminiscent of my time playing a DPS Druid in WoW (without the need to change forms) - very intensive mamangement, but all the more powerful for it, if you can pull it off. Impressive. Most impressive.

There are good cases to be made for both. Ninjitsu seems to require less total powers - more ‘optionals’, and has a solid self heal. SR has some new (to me) under the hood bonuses, including (I have read) bonus Resistance as HP falls, and a power that gives some absorbtion - giving it a buffer. Also - SR now can have its mezz prot in toggles - one less thing to click. Both softcap to all positions relatively easily (with IOs) and to just range even more easily. SR can softcap with SOs, and does so more readily. Before its changes, Ninja would have been by go to. With the changes, I dont think theres a clear ‘better’ answer between the two. To further complicate the math - if you are interested in pure survivability, theres an arguement to be made for a resist based or health recovery based set that then goes on to softcap ranged defense (or typed defenses). If I did so, Id probably go for softcapping positional-ranged, as the effective cost of softcapping typed defenses is always higher than that of softcapping positonal defenses (IOs favor positional defense strongly). OTOH, Im leveling an energy/energy and planning on softcapping types damage, as I fined energy a low-maintenance set and I like the graphics. My personal recommendation is to focus on what you find the most fun to play, rather than what seems ‘most powerful’ in a hypothetical max-level best IOs Incarnated Out build - because when you finally get there, anything will be a powerhouse, and you probably will spend less playtime on your completed demigod than you do getting there.

Scaling resists? Non-clicky mezz prot? An absorb shield? This is a radical change to the SR I knew. Hmm.

It's always hit and miss for me. Honestly, I prefer being bumped to like 30ish, and then going the rest of the way naturally, because I don't much enjoy most of my hero concepts being... unable to do what they're supposed to, you know? For me though the investment is in the concept, not the time spent. :) There are times I wish there was a ‘start at 22 with SOs’ setting.

Im having a deep love affair with my spines/bio brute, and Ive a DM/Invuln Tank and a Fire/Ninja Sentinel begging for love as well. Once thise are done, it will probably be ?/Shield - Murchealagos build for DM/Shield is so perfect that Im tempted to copy it. May go fire or psi or an actual ‘weapon’.

Whilst I will not tell others how to play (server load concerns are a separate issue), my recollection is that I had a few 50s that were played up through doors and street sweeping, slowly and painfully, respecced as many times as possible to find that perfect balance for the character and my play. Those characters are still real to me and beloved, years later, and I have made new versions of them (Spines/Bio replacing claws/invuln, and DM replacing EM on an innvuln tank). They wont be IOed Incarnates tomorrow, but they certainly will be in time, because I love them. I also had a number of characters that I later designed, ‘perfect’ characters, all the math done to do exactly ehat I wanted flawlessly. They walked into farms, walked out at 50, were bootstrapped into their IO sets... and got driven around a few times before being forgotten. So, for me, I wont be doing it again.

Bio is hard to build for in Pines, as it doesnt seem to calculate the bonuses for offensive/efficient/defensive adaptation. Ive fumbled a build, but cant get a good one because of it. Leveling Ive focused on feeding Spine Burst, backed up by the accolade Shadow Maul Clone and Leap Attack - went heavy on my secondary other than slotting one attack and spine burst. Run a lot of -1/x4, and avoid bosses, once Ripper and Throw Spines come in its pretty amazing. Have to keep an eye on your defensive clickies - like Regen once upon a time, Im generally unharmed or in the hospital. If Pines gets fixed to start reporting all the forms, or if I get this one to 50 and decide to do it by hand, Ill try for a softcap build - offensive stance if possible, otherwise balanced or defensive, whatever it takes. I will note that Brute Bio seems to get a lot of mileage out of the efficient stance, as the end and hp income feeds the ‘keep moving’ of a brute, and the brutes low damage base and large fury bonus make the bonus from the offensive stance less valuable than it would be on another AT. Not a build, but I hope it helps.

This. Super easy to soft cap positional defense in your late 30's with IO sets. Offers resistance for layered mitigation and RttC offers a strong damage boost in large spawns. Plus.... Shield Charge. Shield/Fire can be a real AOE beast for tanking... I think it is safe at this point to exclude shield from any 'whats good' discussion, because assuming your willing to give up access to certain sets, accept the quality of life hit of clicky mezz prot, and are willing to look around for character concepts that include 'carries a shield', shield is always the right answer.

Defense is easier to get. Especially the case with Sentinels, because your mostly interested in softcapping range, with AOE a secondary concern. You might go for typed instead if your set gives typed defense rather than poaitoonal defense. (TYPED DEFENSE IS BOO. POSITIONAL DEFENSE IS YAY) That being said - even on a Defense set, softcap is a major build investment. One thing Im kicking around is going for a mixed res/def/heal set and only aiming for ‘one purple’ cap - something like WP or Invuln. Not sure yet.

If you can wait till Granite, and are willing to accept a lot of drawbacks - Stones. Failing that, Invuln is probably the toughest set overall. You wont be super-tanky fresh out of the box, but if you research how to build it, how much slotting, Invuln can be well-nigh indestructable wit just lvl 50 generic IOs - barring a huge hole where Psionic damage comes in, but theres not much psi damage. Set bonuses can patch that hole pretty well, and then Incarnate stuff can take you past ‘over-defended’ into ‘were just gilding lillies’ Thats true of most tank sets though, TBH. Tankers are, at 50 with sets, frankly tougher than they need to be and tougher than any content your ever likely to bump up against calls for.

Its long been considered a primer single-target set, primarily due to Energy Transfer, and the fact that it avoids the heavily-resisted lethal damage type in favor of the (somewhat) less resisted smashing and the MUCH less resisted energy. The secondary effect is meh.. but most secondary effects are meh, at the end of the day.

I'm finding it very hard to design a melee character that doesnt use shield defense. It offers positional defense, so its straightforward to softcap vs. all types. It offers a very powerful +DAM effect right in the secondary, which is in effect as long as you are fighting opponents - the more the merrier - while debuffing incoming damage. It offers resist baked into the set - not a phenomenal amount, but it helps - which gives you a solid base for further increasing resists with IOs. To top all of the above off, its only two real holes, lack of END and RES income, are cured by the selection of Dark Melee - which offers both. Even if you dont go Dark Melee, END woes are fading by late game, not to mention the impact of the incarnate slots, and you could always go rad. Or just carry a few green candy, since you dont need purple candy anymore. So, other than the fact that I dont want all my characters to carry a shield, how do we get away from it?

Not sure about ‘more durable’ - but certainly more active, with more ways to interact with the bad guys. I really like having more ways to interact with the game, and debuffs are historically far more powerful than any self-buff effect. Ivuln is power and slot intensive and not very active, but offers such a nice mix of resistance, defense, and a massive, permable HP buff that its hard to stay away from. Would be nice if the defenses were positional rather than typed (in general, capping positional is disgustingly easy compared to the suffering of trying to cap typed defense!) but its a very ‘old’ set and it shows, in comparison to later sets. That being said, aside from the Psi Reist Hole, Invuln sacrifices everything on the alter of being impossible to kill, and IMHO is still the toughest, barring stone.

Ultimately, early design choices with the Blaster rather restrict what can be done to the design space later on. Blasters get range and damage and little enough else, and thus anything that can do damage at range has to be carefully watched to avoid undermining their role on the trip up to 50. I think theyll probably still show real well on messy or imperfect teams at endgame. And in all fairness, on a ‘really ideal’ team, almost anything is useful - and pretty much everything is less useful than more buff/debuff would be. :)

Ugh. That seems unnecessary.

Axe, Mace, and Broadsword are very similar. Look at what attacks you want for your cycle (which will depend on +RCHG) and you can frankly pick for asthetic reasons as much as anything. Mace in my experience shows better compared to the other two than its numbers would suggest - Smashing resistance seems less intense than Lethal (Lethal damage sets get a onock due to the large number of enemies with resistance - particularly anything robotic)

Set and forget smooth to 50 Survival Focus with some damage utility - I think you want Willpower. Pretty low maintenance, no attacks in the set but it gives extra END ti let you do more with your primary. Good at all levels, and its broad span of defense types means you can IO it for a lot of survivial. Primaries to go with WP that are solid single target with some AOE - Psychic? Fire, maybe? Ive not played all the Melee Offense Primaries, and I tend to go all in on AOE (Spines) or Single Target (EM, DM?) - Ill bow to others to talk primaries.

Is your focus survival or offense? Do you want to set it and forget it, or have lots of buttons to mash that do things? Is your concern AOE, Single Target, or are you willing to give up maximizing either to be solid at both? Do you want smooth performance from 1-50, or are you willing to put off some things in return for more at the end?

What Von Kreiger said. Your big focus with IOs is usually going to be pursing the ranged damage defense softcap (pretty straightforward), and at the same time maximizing +RCHG mod. After that, its all a matter of priorities - Im a big fan of getting every HP:REGEn:REC bonus under the sun.

Very good and detailed information. Thank you.