Not_Nimrod

SS was always my favorite brute primary on live and it carried over to Homecoming (I have three SS brutes and a WP/SS tank, all Level 50)... but about 6 months ago, I created a Stone/Invuln brute and he has become my main smasher-upper when I want to play a melee powerhouse. I've spent a lot of time weighing the pros and cons of the two! The following is just my opinion... man. Your mileage may vary. Note: I'm comparing SS/Invuln and SM/Invuln so I can't speak to synergy with Bio, but it seems the real question is for the primaries. Rage vs Build-Up: Rage crash sucks. Hard. I can't tolerate it anymore. Even without damage bottoming out, the penalty to defense can really ruin your day if you're tanking Bobcat and Neuron or somesuch and you can't find your mouse pointer in all of the flash/bam/pow to click every inspiration in your tray to avoid a dirtnap. There's absolutely no penalty for defense or recovery with SM, and the attacks never stop. Build-up recharges every 25ish seconds for me, and coupled with Seismic Smash, it's pretty outstanding. I feel like I can get through my attack chain (Seismic Smash, Heavy Mallet, Stone Mallet, Stone Fist) twice with each round of Build-Up. Footstomp vs Tremor: Footstomp is the greatest PBAoE in the game, IMO. Just one or two of those and it will clear out every minion and sometimes the LT's within an arm's reach. Tremor, by comparison, is completely outclassed. It's just weak. I really miss Footstomp when I'm solo'ing on my Stone Melee brute. One or two Footstomps really thins out a mob. Tremor just doesn't get much done. (Note: Before my disgust with Tremor led to my removing slots from the power, I slotted both the same. Even so, Footstomp always seems to do 2.5x the damage.) Handclap vs Fault: These are both total throw-away powers, IMO. The more time they spend stunned, the less time they're wailing on you, the less Fury you're building/maintaining. But with KB to KD IOs, they're admittedly fun. (But even without KD... why scatter? Gimme that Fury! My preference.) Wrecking Faces: Stone Melee's attack chain seems a lot faster, though. I haven't timed it or crunched numbers, but the animations are very fluid and happen quickly. My Stone Melee brute destroys bosses, EB's, AV's, pylons, etc faster than my SS brutes ever did. There's no loss of momentum (Rage), Build-Up is up every 25ish seconds, and I feel like I can complete a chain of 4 or 5 single-target attacks in the same time that it takes to Punch, KO Blow. Cool Factor: Super Strength is just classic, comic-book cool. Even if they're a little slow, the animations are fun and it sounds cool, too. My Preference: They're both going to get the job done. Ultimately, I prefer Stone Melee but mostly because Rage started to seriously impact my enjoyment for playing melee sluggers. The AoEs for Stone Melee are largely ineffective, IMO, but it shines with single-target damage and speed of attacks. If Rage crash doesn't bother you and Footstomp rocks your world, however, go with SS.

Crap, this game is back in my life again?! I was definitely not @Nimrod on Virtue. And I was not in the Rogues Gallery or the X-Patriots pretty much the whole time.