[Savage Melee/Shield Defence opinions?]

The synergy on paper is solid, but in practice there may be complications. Namely,  Shield's lack of a heal combined with Savage's total focus on DoT based offense. Typically, people favor /Bio for juicing up the primary. 

 

That said, it'd be crazy fun and put out good numbers. You'd be vulnerable to attrition, but not in any way that can't be fixed with inspirations and incarnates.

 

/Shield is usually considered subpar on Brutes (relative to other ATs) due to class modifiers and Savage is not the most popular, so that may explain the silence.

 

PS: As a diehard fan of Savage, Brutes, and Savage on Brutes... this is one of the few iterations I would consider rolling on a Tanker. Their version of Shield is seriously beefy and their enhanced AoE is nice for an attack set that claims sustained AoE as its most unique niche. It would still be great on a Brute, better in some ways, but for most Savage builds I wouldn't even look at a Tanker. This is a rare exception. 

[Savage Melee DOT and Meter questions]

A quibble: Rage is an ability in Super Strength, Fury is the Brute damage buff.

 

Yes, Savage's DoTs scale with Fury. No, they don't generate it. However, Savage's fast attacks, short cooldowns and native recharge buffs will help build Fury quickly.

 

IMO, Savage is strongest on a Brute due to its interactions with Fury. Best paired with a secondary that offers some damage of its own.

 

Savage/Fire if you want to play like this: 

[Kinetic Melee concept question]

Scrapper if you want to max out damage from your primary, Brute if you want to supplement it with self-immolation.

[Frenzy (Savage Melee)]

The Scrapper class mechanic works at cross purposes with Savage's design, whereas Brutes benefit twice:

1. Fast animations with short cooldowns and a recharge buff help build Fury
2. DoTs scale with Fury

IMO, Savage is strongest on a Brute, and especially with a secondary that packs some offensive punch. It *used* to be strongest on a Stalker, but crit Hemo got... fixed. Snip-snip.

[Savage Melee Secondary (/Energy, /Rad, or /Something Else)?)]

On 1/18/2022 at 10:28 PM, Darkir said:

I'd go savage/shield for what you are looking for. You get easy softcapped def, ok resistance, and another leap ability in shield charge that you can put a FF proc in it.

 

How would you rate this pairing on Brute vs Tanker? It seems synergistic, but Savage seems best on Brutes ( DoTs + Fury ) while Shield seems best on Tankers.

 

Do you feel the DPS gain of Savage on Brutes outweighs the durability loss compared to Shield on Tankers?

[Sav/bio]

Savage just isn't very popular. At the height of its popularity, it was considered best on a Stalker due to Hemo's interaction with crit mechanics. Now that's gone and Hemo is widely considered a garbage power across the board. It can still pump out some solid AoE, but the exhaustion mechanic is a hindrance the set doesn't need.

That said, it can be a lot fun and I think Brutes actually do best with the set because Fury scales up the DoTs. There was some discussion about Sav/Bio in particular a while back here.
 

 

[Very Powerful Archetype Sets/Combos]

53 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Stronger on damage output than other EM users? No. Stronger on mitigation than other SD users? Yes. Cuz of AT modifiers. An EM/SD brute would be "better" for 95% of the content since it would be killing faster and still have "enough" mitigation. Whether it could pull off the sillier stuff at max diff while solo is questionable.

I've been considering this particular combo for a while, and while I typically play Brutes I feel SD benefits from Tanker modifiers in a uniquely strong way due to its layered design. My suspicion, which I think you've just done the charity of confirming, is that -- in extreme content -- the innate toughness of the Tanker is more valuable than a Brute's Fury, because EM brings enough damage to bring to take down just about any hard target.

Edit: To clarify, my main goal is in building a melee monster capable of feats of extreme soloing.

[Very Powerful Archetype Sets/Combos]

11 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Shield/EM Tank is the most ridiculous thing I've built so far.

Do you feel this pairing is stronger on Tankers than other melee ATs?

 

If so, could you please elaborate why?