Best Brute

[IronJuke]

I've tried several and I am finding Titan Weapons to be my favorite primary thus far.   I tried Spines/Fire and Electric/Shield Defense.  

 

I went TW/Radiation.  The playability is just of that combo is really, really great.  Radiation has Ground Zero, which I slotted with some Defense Debuff and I took Melt Armor from Pyre Mastery and slotted that out with Defense Debuffs as well.  

 

Highest Damage Brute would probably be TW/BIO Armor. 

 

I have an INV Tanker, and played one in the original game.  I am partial to that for Tankers, but it's less effective on Brutes, although can of course be compensated now.

 

I played an SS/Inv Brute in CoV.  Wasn't too enamored of the combo, and I felt squishy.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2020 by IronJuke

[Errants]

On 6/5/2020 at 4:11 PM, Generator said:

I'm curious, do you think an Ice Armor Brute gets more mileage out of Hibernate than a Scrapper does from Icy Bastion?  I've got a Savage/Ice lowbie sitting in the figurative green room, and when it came time to decide Brute v Scrapper, I ended up flipping a coin. It came up Scrapper.  😁

I main a Spines/Ice Scrapper, it is absurd. I had an Ice/SS on legacy, and always kinda got irritated at Hibernate for killing my killing/arresting. Icy Bastion feels a much better choice, adding surviveability when you're getting overwhelmed, without stopping your DPS.

[FUBARczar]

On 4/6/2020 at 7:19 PM, Obus Form said:

AE Farms

Spines/Fire is the undisputed champion of AE Fire Farming.  Spines is the only Primary Power set that has a damage aura, and /Fire's Burn AOE power hits everyone constantly.

if you want to make a farmer and do better in the End Game Content Rad will be much better than spines. 

[Hjarki]

11 minutes ago, FUBARczar said:

if you want to make a farmer and do better in the End Game Content Rad will be much better than spines. 

I think it really depends on your goals. The enduring popularity of Spines/Fire is because it's easy and effective. Maybe you can do a fire farm 10% faster with some other build, but most people aren't interested in hyper-optimizing their farming experience to this level.

 

At this point, I mainly use my farming Brute to level alts. If I just want to make some money, I can do farms just as easily on a Tanker or Scrapper that I actually play. So it's a lot easier to have a basic Brute that doesn't tie up a billion influence worth of enhancements and can fire farm just about as effectively as anything out there.

[FUBARczar]

having built, played and retired many.  To help you narrow yours or anyone's choices I would suggest one of the following Bio, DA, Elec, or Rad. 

 

For offense pick your poison.

[FUBARczar]

1 hour ago, Hjarki said:

I think it really depends on your goals. The enduring popularity of Spines/Fire is because it's easy and effective. Maybe you can do a fire farm 10% faster with some other build, but most people aren't interested in hyper-optimizing their farming experience to this level.

 

At this point, I mainly use my farming Brute to level alts. If I just want to make some money, I can do farms just as easily on a Tanker or Scrapper that I actually play. So it's a lot easier to have a basic Brute that doesn't tie up a billion influence worth of enhancements and can fire farm just about as effectively as anything out there.

Rad is just as easy as Spines.  You'll see more Spines (in AE) simply because people go with what they know and perception (of course it's still great for farming).  But you'll still see more Rad with people playing content.

Edited July 19, 2020 by FUBARczar
added ()

[Hjarki]

7 minutes ago, FUBARczar said:

Rad is just as easy as Spines.  You'll see more Spines (in AE) simply because people go with what they know and perception (of course it's still great for farming).  But you'll still see more Rad with people playing content.

Radiation's AE comes much later in the leveling cycle and to make Irradiated Ground worthwhile you really need a lot of procs in it. Spines also provides a degree of mitigation that Radiation does not. As a result, if you're just starting out and want to accelerate your progress, you'd probably choose Spines/Fire because you can just slot it with basic IOs very effectively.

 

I'm not sure I'd take either build into actual content at this point. You can build a full-featured Tanker who is just about as effective in a farm but is a lot more effective in actual content these days.

[FUBARczar]

If I were wanting the best Brute I'd narrow my selection down to...

 

/Bio, /Dark, /Fire and /Rad

 

and then select a Primary that has synergy

[Marshal_General]

Isn't the best Brute by Faberge?

[skoryy]

 

Oh, oh,  you said best 'brute'.  My bad.

[BigKahuna337]

Way late in responding to this post but I'll do so anyways. For Farming, I prefer Spines/FA but I know a lot of ppl like Rad/FA, I have both and wouldn't knock either. For general game play I gotta say /Rad is the way to go. I have Rad/Rad and WM/Rad and the latter is my personal fav. /Rad is just so hard to kill with the massive heal and absorb, each on short recharge times plus the ToHit and Def debuff. I know, I know no DDR but Ageless Radial and purps. Everything has some little hole that needs to be patched and I feel that /Rad has the best overall tradeoff and smallest hole to patch. Just my 2¢

[Ringo]

4 years is a leeeeetle late, yeah

[BurtHutt]

Better late than never!

 

I enjoy a variety of Brutes. TW/Bio is still good. I think my Rad/Stone is pretty good too. It's a fun AT and if you build it properly, almost any combo is great.