Understanding Brute (and generally building for melee)

[Bunnysmack]

Hi everyone.  I'm semi-new to the game.  Never played in live, only have one character I've spent more than an errant hour on, my Blaster, but I'd also like to make a decent melee tank, in case my friends need that role in a team at some point.  I notice that a lot of the builds here don't take a taunt power, and wanted to know why not?  I thought drawing aggro was an important part of the AT's role on the team?  This seems to be one of those areas where I probably don't understand what I'm not seeing here, and I'd rather have a decent idea of a build before I spend a bunch of hours to possibly end with a character I dislike.

The flavor for the character I want to play fits StJ/Willpower well, but I'm struggling figuring out which powers are must haves for that primary/secondary, which can be ignored, and what power pools/ancillary should be taken.  At this point I have a decent idea of how to build Blasters, but I have very little idea about how much durability will be required in order to take on a more front line role, and what powers should be slotted more heavily to accomplish that job.

[Werner]

Many people play Brutes as a tough melee character, not to fill the Tanker role on the team. It can fill that role if desired, but a Tanker can usually fill it better. Also, City of Heroes is pretty lax on building for roles on a team. Most any team can work.

 

For Street Justice, I would take Heavy Blow, Rib Cracker, Spinning Strike, Shin Breaker, and Crushing Uppercut. That leaves you with only two single-target attacks for a long time. You may want to take Initial Strike and/or Sweeping Cross to fill in the gaps, then possibly respec out of them later. Most people would probably recommend Combat Readiness as well. And if you want to play the Tanker role, then Taunt as well. And that's your whole primary. But I only took the five powers I mentioned on my Street Justice/Super Reflexes.

 

For Willpower, I suggest taking all but the last two powers.

 

I would add Tough and Weave, and either Combat Jumping or Hover. I would also typically add Hasten, Maneuvers, and Tactics, but I feel those are more optional.

[Without_Pause]

I would take everything for WP outside of the rez and Strength of Will. I would take everything from StJ outside of Taunt and Combat Readiness while picking one of those depending upon what you want your role to be. I say this in terms of leveling. Once you hit 50 and want to finalize a build, Initial Strike would likely be the one power to drop. WP's taunt aura isn't the best, but it will be enough and a lot of the alpha issue can be dealt with merely being the first character in. I'm not ignoring the art of actual tanking. My SG on Live took pride in that art form. I am saying I was doing this on a scrapper on a TF with two brutes and had a teammate sent me a tell giving me compliments. So I don't think Taunt is really needed for a brute, but if you feel the need, by all means. I also rarely get comments about my brutes not having Taunt. I have slowly taken up the idea for making a team build and thus adding it in. Solo build? CR all the way or even still by default. While CR offers more than a damage boost,  I feel like so much of brute's damage comes from fury to where a build up type power is less needed, see Werner not taking it at all.

 

Outside of those, travel powers. I default SJ/CJ on melee. Kick/Boxing with Tough and Weave. Maneuvers and Tactics although Tactics is a lesser need. You are really using Maneuvers to help with building your def up. Add in whatever Epic you want. I went Body for more end recovery and regen and it fits their theme. (Grumbles about Lore) This way I could look elsewhere when doing Incarnates.

 

Hasten could be a good add. WP doesn't need it, but it would help StJ. It also helps two level 50 recharge is about all it really needs.