FUBARczar

I'd rather have a great player on a T1 😜

Definitely a good and natural combo. But of you have a problem with bouncing heals off something, how do people feel about no heal? I think it's fine because of the extra damage that storm brings. Another good match is Kinetics to help with the endurance drain and damage. Cold and Thermal also have synergy with -End/recovery. Other than that Elec body is good enough on its own to pair with anything.

I often am asked about what to build for the harder content. So, just to put this out there and to welcome the contributions of others, here are my recommendations for buff/debuffs sets for Relentless Aeon and Invincible ITF: 1. It's good to have more then one of these as either a Corr or Defender so you can dress appropriately according to the needs of the team Depending on the team any one of these sets can be good, and fit in well. But truth be told not all sets were created equal for Relentless and Invincible. 2. T1 Sets typically are looking to buff and debuff and heal. Cold - absolutely fundamental +def for team along with great debuffs Dark - adds a little Def, resist, stealth, and AoE heal & Rez. Also strong -Regen, -res, -acc, and -dmg Kinetics - debuff enemy DMG and +DMG, +rech for the team and strong AoE heal that promoted the team staying a bit tighter. Nature- very strong team buffs, adds absorb shield, Regen, resistance, tohit, DMG Thermal - does everything, buff, debuff and heal. T2 - does something really well while weaker in other areas. Elec Affinity - sure it's strong but most players either fall into the buff too much/ not stacking enough trap (b/c of the flashiness?) Or the bus are poorly/never placed. But @Voltak you are welcome to bring yours 😛 Pain - like thermal but with limited debuffs and slightly better healing. Poison - strong debuffs Rad - solid and useful but not as much to offer survival as T1 Storm - Sone debuff and adds to Dmg Time - great buffer, +Def, tohit, recharge, recovery. Mediocre heal and debuffs Trick Arrow - strong debuffs T3 - Limited more than T1&2 in either strength, utility or diversity Empathy - Awesome healer, no debuffs, usefulness is there but scope is narrow FF - strong +Def and that's it, narrow in scope Sonic - only resist shields, not even the best -resist debuffer Traps - limited, slow (the force Fields should be a back pack)

Yeah the Brutes ATO went to tanks 😳

Dual Blades do they ..do it all? What helps DB the most? +Recharge? Or something else? Thinking of pairing with EA or Stone

So scrapper.... Or stalker of you scrap the combo system...?

From your two groups I would encourage you finalists to be: Claws/SR DM/Invuln WM/EA From there go with your personal preference. They should all be really good for all content. Personally I would give bonus points to Claws and WM for style points, and Fun Factor. SR will likely offer the most flexible builds. You shouldn't miss things with DM/Invuln and I can vouch for it being a breast and be at home surrounded by mobs. EA had they highest potential. Or of these three I would pick WM/EA. My personal forever scrappers are TW/Bio, Claws/Stone, EM/EA, Psi/Ninja

Is it a shame that I have never played.... Dual Blades? Are they best on Brutes?

So far my favorite runs are on my Fiery Aura / Energy Melee Tank. No joke! With a couple of Cold Domination on the team (the whole team gets much needed +def). And that works better than me running on SD (with Thermal shield support) or invulnerability. The key is the fast and powerful heal and doing more damage. And the off chance I die, I can immediately get back in the fight with RoP.

Clarification: What I was meaning, is outside of Electrified Net Arrow, Upshot, Eagle Eye, & Gymnastics, all others are up to prayer preferences. my personal preference is just those 4 + Oil Slick.

Yeah I really enjoy my psi/fire and psi/Bio on Aeon and ITF!!!

So which AT had the best Claws experience? I have a Claws/Bio Scapper and a Claws/SR Tanker, but no Brutes .

So Rad melee? I wish Stone (and Ice, at least) had decision trees/choices. In this case for the T9. I'd rather have Geode and Icy Bastion for their respective sets.

I know right... On live I at least had a Dark/Stone. Dark/EA would make a healthy, robust combo

Brutes are generally great! They are in a fairly good place, but this is not the thread for that.... But I digress.... Please help inspire me and other players with your favorite pairings. Personally I have a fair number of brutes, but not all that diverse when it comes to sets, both primary and secondary. My most commonly used sets with their pairings are: Primary Rad/ SR, Fire, Elec SS/ Bio, Fire EM / Bio, Fire (want to make EA) Psi/ Fire, Bio, WM/ SD, EA Spines/Fire MA/ Regen KM/ Rad Fiery Aura isn't just for farming, and it truly is one of the best sets. How about you? And I really want another Energy Armor but what should I pair it with?

DP procs well. So yeah I'd add in procs for sure, but don't under-slot acc & damage at the same time. At least two is a fair minimum of procs as a rule of thumb but you'll need to find balance between procs and desired/needed set bonuses.

It has some impact on slotting sure, but it all too often becomes a moot point, especially on Resist based tanks and on teams with a Nature, Sonic, Pain, Therm, etc. or when they activate their T9's. Defense based tanks still generally need to chase +resist. I think that it is a bad ATO, design-wise. It's also not as powerful and universally useful to all powersets as say ATOs for Stalkers, Scrappers, and so on.

Maybe they knew that Relentless Aeon and invincible ITF would be a thing... Hmmm, I wonder 🤔... Besides the tanker ATO isn't all that. Not really.

Is this for characters started? How about ones that reach 50? Also I am just speaking from my own observance. I run hardmode, +4/8 content, shortman duos & trios, etc. So for such content Fire/ and /Rad are not as optional as other sets, so I don't see very many of them at all personally. Personally I often look at Rad Em on mids, but always settle on a different option because others just give me more of what I want, and builds with other secondaries continually come out better. Fire is fine more or less. I have a fire/kin and fire/Rad but the Rad was stripped and retired to oblivion.

I have a number (10ish) of Sentinels. Notable combos have been Electric/EA, Beam/SR, Fire/Fire, and Psi/Regen. But my hands down favorite is my Sonic/Bio/Psi Sentinel operating in melee range with Mind Probe, PBAoEs, Nuking, stacking stuns, etc. It's great.

Scaling resist and status protection with furry doesn't sound like good ideas or fixes. I understand the concept, but Regen and endurance would be more universal for all defensive sets, as some can reach resist caps already. And adding status production doesn't really add anything to the AT. ATO improvement is needed for sure but it's not a fix for the AT.

I would place my bet on 8 rads over 8 poison.

Like I said, something to solidly place them between a Tank and Scrapper at base levels. The current max relative levels seem fine. Remember Brutes were designed to share both tanker and scrapper territory. That's why their defensive caps are tanker caps and offensively fully buffed they can run with scrappers. I think that there is value in adjusting base levels so a difference can be felt/noticed when soloing or when not on a big buff team. Which, BTW, when they are on a big buff team, it places them in Tanker and Scrapper territory simultaneously!!! And brutes are dead? The Tank AoE, aggro buff makes sense when you understand Brutes more fully. Tanks and scrappers are simply easier to play, reach higher levels without outside buffs. The irony is that a villain AT shines best when cooperating/teaming. A brute wants to team. A maxed out brute is both a tank and scrapper. It's a base level brute where the feeling of a brute has meaningful room for improvement. Understand the nuance? Or just want to be snarky? Wtf?

Both Fire/ and /Rad aren't as popular, so that combo is seen even less popular. I imagine it's for several reasons depending on the player: long animations, not a "healer", no defense/resist buffs, toggles, pets, and so on. I did make one but running everything at +4/8 means that the imps are pointless, always dead. So it was underwhelming. Honestly I only have three controllers in my repertoire now with a number of tried ones. Personally I still play plant/storm, illusion/Kinetics and gravity/dark in that order

IDK what all the fuss is about. I know Fire Brutes that soloed +4/8 ITF w/o deaths, temps or inspirations in the 1:15 to 1:25 range with defense less than 30 for M/S/L. Maybe you just think that you need more than you actually do. I went a little more defensive and finished a little slower. Brutes don't need that much. Just a massage of the defensive and offensive base numbers upward a smidge to put it firmly between a Scrapper and Tank. Then a sprinkle of a little extra aggro parity would be the icing on the top. Done!