Sovera

Radiation Melee is #1 on a Brute in my book. Not that it does the best ever damage, but seeing it from all angles. Exemplars well with an early AoE, forgiving and easy ST rotation, built in heal (won't do miracles, but it does top off HP that's being whittled). For a new player I would recommend Stone Armor since it achieves greatness, but if wanting to go offense then Fire Armor. It's squishier but can be made sturdy and survives on the merit of killing stuff before they have the time to kill you (not joshing. Dropping Burn is enough to kill half a spawn with that one click). Energy Melee hits the hardest but has a more complicated rotation, gaps in the rotation, weaker AoE, and, capital sin in my book, exemplars worse. It's what I would recommend when desiring to always play at max level though. CoH being what CoH is you'll probably just make and play them all.

Made one. Same ST as EM/Fire, worse AoE, much sturdier.

As Pulverizer (sorry man, I can't make myself misspell the name :D) said I've a Fire Armor/Stone Tank in my signature. Fire is pretty sturdy though it mainly works on kill first instead of 'go in and AFK in the middle of things' like most tanks like to brag about. It was not the combo I liked the most (though I loved the lava skins in Stone since it made the combo so visually thematic) but it has built in CC and good sources for Force Feedback procs which further help with survival.

My own build for pointers. I've taken to use it as my 'main' due to how exemplary it exemplars despite EM/Fire being brute damage without -res finnickyness. It does behave better in the Trapdoor test than the EM version though. I did not pick Shockwave though. Burn and Spin is all the AoE the build needs (IMO) with Shockwave actually slowing down the arresting. It has value for mitigation with the KD but I don't feel that I need it and I noticed the skill was just gathering dust, hence it is not picked. Your build does reach the mitigation values needed and wanted but it lacks some QoL like procs in Burn which elevate the damage from warm breeze to blowtorch. Regardless pick what slotting seems useful and incorporate in your own build.

Something like this? One free power to take whatever. Taunt, maybe?

Something like this. I keep trying to like StJ but the damage being funneled to Crushing Uppercut and removed from the builders does not make it very satisfying to me.

Indeed. Just look over the Brunker thread.

I don't math like that. I hit something while Assault is up. Then I turn it off and hit something again. Then I use an online math calculator to see the difference. That is how I saw Assault was worth 4-5% and Musculature 45% is worth 15%.

Alternating Meltdown and Hybrid might have worth.

Claws/Rad Scrapper. I did this test a few days back on an unprocbomb-ed build. 5:44 5:45 An improvement on the 7 minutes of just Spin and 7:33 adding Shockwave. 3:01 on the pylon. Improvement of about a minute from adding procced RT with its -res to the rotation. Claws/Fire Brute is still ahead.

I know.

Grabbed @Microcosm's EM/Rad Scrapper and 'polished' it. I put 'polished' in quotes because my best pylon time with it was 1:50 where Micro got as low as 1:35. Not sure if I messed with something or it's just RNG. But mid way through the Trapdoor test I got blinded even with the +perception and went nooooooooooooooope, not playing something that gets blinded and thumb twiddles until it elapses, so unfortunately not times for that.

MA/Rad Brute. Wanted to see if Rad Armor could replace Fire Armor (in my heart). I've also wanted to level a MA Brute for a while but the lack of AoE until 26 kept me away. But with Radiation Therapy at 16 I went and gave it a try. Also it can follow the Brunker's gimmick of FF in Dragon Tail pushing the build. But RT ain't Burn. It almost kinda gets there but isn't enough to stand on its own as an AoE due to pushing for no recharge despite FF procs and Beta Decay (both visibly helping though). The lack of a damage aura was also infuriating with mobs surviving on a sliver from taking five procced RT to the face but then needing to be taken down one by one. Did the 'Yin test' and it took 49 minutes (record holder being Claws/Fire Brute with 38 minutes). Made the character in the test server and took it to Trapdoor for 5:40. Took down a pylon while at it but even with two -res procs it took 3:34. No endurance problems without even Particle Shielding. RT used on CD since it has a blazing animation and carried a -res. Overall not a spectacular performance but its sturdy and safe. It may indeed contend with Fire Armor since two damaging AoEs in the secondary augments what the primary brings and it can be pretty bursty. This particular version got the mini nukes back fast thanks to the FF in the AoE. I'm intrigued enough to consider other combos, even Scrapper. I'm thinking an EM/Rad Scrapper as a high end build, or Claws/Rad Rad that exemplars better. The Claws would have a FF proc to help the recharge and a much stronger AoE to clean up what survives RT + GZ.

Burn is enough for immobilizes. The self buff effect lasts way longer than we go without dropping a Burn. And a single -KB is enough for me, but, I do use Evasive Maneuvers. But I -still- only used one before EvM was a thing. That said, yeah, Rad Armor has (probably and only until procs are nerfed) replaced Fire Armor. I'm currently running a Brunker version with Martial arts both for the 7.5% defense (allowing to ease up on the slotting) as well for the synergy of Dragon's Tail providing a fertile ground for FF procs to make up for the lack of recharge in Radiation Therapy. I'll make a post about it later, but this combo's gimmicks are synergizing well.

And just like with the pylon build we learn from the community sharing their tricks and tips and what worked (proc bombing rad is nothing new, but, now we are showing numbers it has proven itself Fire Armor's rival) and what doesn't (as much vaunted as -res is in AoEs it really showed no improvements (unless in IG)). Which is really nice y'know? I dig this community. With some extremely rare exceptions, who hide their builds so they won't be shared, everyone from build makers to market gurus is just eager to share stuff that works.

There was talk about inspirations use around the start of this. People use yellows to avoid blinds and use their epics for more damage while some use their epic for FA to avoid blinds but don't use reds to make up for it. Obviously the inspiration use favors the epic pool used for damage. But, and this is important, this is not a race with a winner and prizes and scantily clad @Luminaras. It's a test of our builds. I'm content with my sub-five on the EM/Fire/Energy Brute who also has 2:30 pylon times. It's generalistic, does not depend on inspirations, and scoffs at blinds and -tohit even if grabbing another AoE would help things along. ...even if Rad Armor may yet be the new Fire Armor with proc bombed Radiation Therapy doing damage, healing -and- replenishing endurance. T9s only wish they could.

Use the Trapdoor test to check it out. My own experience is that it does not matter. But it did matter when slotted into Irradiated Ground shaving 10 minutes off a Yin run. So obviously id does matter, except when it doesn't. 😄

'Crimemora', really? 😄

Listen, I get what you're saying, but either we do it or we don't do it, and if we do it we do it well. The concept that robots are immune to mental powers or fire elementals are immune to fire is nothing new to the genre. But just slapping a semi random % to mobs that isn't even consistent remains nothing more than an annoyance at best. And it STILL does not explain why robots get affected by mental powers or fire elementals get hurt by fire. This is another artifact from D&D like the 5% chance to miss. Fortunately it is not a hill I would die on.

Several weak minions or one strong minion I know which one I'd take.

More please.

I really dislike resistances. It should be nominal at best and roleplayish, not dumb numbers like 30% and above. We return to the whole 'what does this add to the game?' and what it adds is more time whittling enemies down.

All the time. Sometimes people don't even know how something is bad, undertuned, or that they are missing a synergy. But once having told them and if they insist it is what they want then I give them the 👍

...yes, but I specifically said the odds of it happening twice in a row. The numbers would change if I said three times in a row. And then four times in a row. And yeah, happening twice in a row is definitely not 5%.

But what are the odds of rolling 5% twice in a row? Some googling says it's a 3% chance of getting two 5% in a row.