My current main is Mace/Shield. Captain Hammergod! (An obvious mashup of 3 marvelous characters) ;)
It is fun, seems a bit more spread between defense and resist rather than focusing on one or the other, which I personally prefer but is probably less powerful when compared to something more straightforward like stone armor/invul/Reflexes.
However as with most things, unless you're going into hardcore PVP or trying to farm +4/x8 content, there's not really a BAD brute, just varying types and degrees of effectiveness.