Looking for opinions on Brutes' SM, Claws, EnA, & Bio.

[Seroster01]

I'm thinking about making a brute for my next alt, and there's 2 primaries & 2 secondaries I'm thinking about for him. Primary would be either Savage Melee or Claws. Secondaries in consideration are Energy Aura & Bio.

 

I've got a ton of Bio characters cause I like it a lot on Scrappers, Stalkers, & especially Sentinels. I'm not sure it would be as big of a deal on a Brute given that Offensive Adaptation seems like it would be a drop in the bucket after factoring in Fury. OTOH, some of Bio's stuff seems like it may work better on a brute since it's got a significant amount of things that would work better w/ higher max HP. EnA is a set I've wanted to play quite a bit on some character, but I haven't found a build that really thrilled me with it as a secondary. So, how does Bio stack up for Brutes vs. the other ATs? Is EnA as well rounded here as it seems to be for the others?

 

I have a SM/Bio Stalker that I think is my most powerful character ever & I really want to try SM on another AT. I read some things saying that it wouldn't work out very well on a Scrapper bc most of the powers don't interact well with Crit. I then considered a Tanker, but it wouldn't get Leap until 38, so ultimately I didn't care for that option. By process of elimination I was left with Brutes. Im really interested in feedback on Brute SM, since I really haven't seen much positive talk about SM for anything other than Stalkers & as a result I've been hesitant to pull the trigger on a brute with it. I also have a Claws Scrapper that I like pretty well & I've heard some good things about Claws Brutes, so I'm curious to hear if people think it has any noticeable upsides/downsides compared to the Scrapper version of Claws.

 

If I had to sort the combos this creates by relative interest I'd say SM/EN>CL/EN>SM/Bio>CL/Bio. I'm really curious about what folks have to say on this, please give me y'alls impressions of these sets!

[Darkir]

 

[Gauntlet_Prime]

55 minutes ago, Darkir said:

 

Darkir is up there preaching truth.  I made a Savage/Bio after that post and he is crazy fun.  Bio gives splendid adaptability and savage feels like the name says; wild-ass lunatic animations just rending EVERYBODY around you.

 

Oh and a point on the offensive stance.  I don't use it all the time.  Ussually I am in the efficiency stance and slot my power for lots of recharge to stack with the blood recharge to result in maximum uptime on shred and rend.

Edited March 12, 2020 by Gauntlet_Prime

[Seroster01]

Thanks for the responses! SM sounds like a good option, I love to hear that. Does anyone have experieqnce and/or an opinion on Energy Aura for Brutes?

 

I hadn't thought much about the bonus toxic damage from Off. Adaptation & how that would likely make a noticeable impact on SM's purely lethal damage output. Seems like it'd certainly be the better option for damage output... but I'm having a hard time finding a slotting that I likefor SM/Bio, largely because the 6-set bonuses for brute ATOs seem very nice on the survivability front (those are some big chunks of Resistance). Unfortunately if I go for a 6-slot then I can't double-slot the 3p bonus for 10% total S/L defense & thus end up well short of the softcap, or even 40% to cap it with Barrier Destiny. I will say that I'm not sure if one of these procs is a global, and I can't recall which 6p goes w/ the 5% S/L. Examining those factors closer might change my mind a bit, but I'll have to look at it tomorrow. 

 

EnA seems like it may be more survivable because it has pretty high DDR combined with much higher defenses & is thus a lot easier to cap & to cap multiple (most) damage types. but for multiple reasons I think Bio will have a significant advantage in damage output & maybe even survivability after factoring in Bios advantage in Regen, max HP, & Absorption.

 

Not sure which route I prefer at this point. I'll have to think about it...

[Vea]

1 hour ago, Seroster01 said:

EnA seems like it may be more survivable because it has pretty high DDR combined with much higher defenses & is thus a lot easier to cap & to cap multiple (most) damage types. but for multiple reasons I think Bio will have a significant advantage in damage output & maybe even survivability after factoring in Bios advantage in Regen, max HP, & Absorption.

I think I have to disagree with you here. Bio is probably more survivable too. 

 

Defense is just one layer of survivability, you will still be hit through soft-cap defenses. I'm not eniterly sure how much resistance you can get with EnA but I'm pretty certain it's not much. When I was building my brute I originally started with EnA and ended up with Elec just based on the resistance numbers.

 

The saving grace of EnA is that you don't need end drain or the T9 so that's two one powers spare, where in comparison Bio you kind of need to take all of them.

 

I'm an advocate of SM. So for me it's SM/Bio. SM/EnA if you are bored of having too many Bio toons!

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by Vea
I forgot end drain gave defense. It's a little low but still better than powersink which is the power I was getting confused with.

[Darkir]

So if you look further down in the thread I posted, there is a build that I made that has fair resistances. I took both of the full 6 slotted superior brute ATO sets for more resistance and it still has pretty good defense. It is softcapped to melee even in offensive stance, it has around 42-43% defense to e/n/f/c in defensive stance, and it has perma hasten. It also takes pyre mastery in order to get melt armor to help out the team more. It's difficult to die with this build because we have 3 sources of heals/regen on top of decent resists and good defenses. Due to the offensive nature of bio, how its added toxic damage works with savage leap, and the -res aura, we have good damage too. 

 

Sooooo, yeah, I think SM/Bio is what the OP is looking for. 

Edited March 13, 2020 by Darkir

[Seroster01]

9 hours ago, Vea said:

I think I have to disagree with you here. Bio is probably more survivable too. 

 

Defense is just one layer of survivability, you will still be hit through soft-cap defenses. I'm not eniterly sure how much resistance you can get with EnA but I'm pretty certain it's not much. When I was building my brute I originally started with EnA and ended up with Elec just based on the resistance numbers.

 

The saving grace of EnA is that you don't need end drain or the T9 so that's two one powers spare, where in comparison Bio you kind of need to take all of them.

 

I'm an advocate of SM. So for me it's SM/Bio. SM/EnA if you are bored of having too many Bio toons!

 

I was playing around this morning with an SM/EnA build & I had it at softcapped to the normal damage types, 50%-ish S/L resist & I think 30%-ish to F/C/E/N. The S/L resistance  is only about 5% less resistance than Bio after taking Off. Adaptation into account, and Bio offers no res for any of the other damage types (which are further hurt by the hit from Off. Adaptation.) Combine the above 74% DDR & it'll be pretty hard to kill when fully built.

 

The counter argument is that it has no HP or regen until it picks up Energize at 35, and even then it will end up with less max HP, a lot less regen, and no Absorption. I think Bio may win out in a lot of circumstances, but it's always gonna be very susceptible to CDFs, which is about the only thing that kills my characters these days anyway. 

 

Taken as a whole, the offensive bonuses are probably a big enough difference that I think Bio will probably be the better option. Gonna have to brainstorm on how to get him closer to softcap in Off. Adaptation, since that's about my only concern there. I'll fiddle with it when I get home...