Farming but not really

[Aeroprism]

Hello beautiful people!

 

I've been playing with all melee types lately. Developed a really powerful love relationship with stalkers, for those who recall my funny topic.  But this here is a brute vs scrapper question.

 

I love me some alts but money is not easy. I'm currently playing the Market game and thanks to awesome people like @LuminaraI'm getting quite good at it, but it takes significant time to amass enough founds to deck out ONE character properly and I want to deck out so many of them: I'll need a character that will be able to solo crowds and loot all sorts of happy things. 

 

A sugar daddy, if you will.

 

But the last thing I want is a one trick poney like a spine/fire brute, designed to play one and only one mission.  Also, spine is by far the most visually offensive powerset in the whole game and /fire's damage aura gives me headaches.

 

I'm a special snowflake.  Aren't we all.

 

So I'm looking at a Elec/Shield because AoE galore, (Yes, I understand bosses will be hard).

 

So the question is, brute or scrapper?  In terms of flat damage, a scrapper is about 160% of a brute, which means the brute needs to be at 80 rage to keep up.  80 rage seems to be the easy to reach ceiling.  Beyond that, you need a lot of thing taking trying to beat the tar out of you.  Then, as soon as the scrapper starts critting, it out-damages the brute.  But the brute is a lot more solid.  But I'm told that a semi-well decked scrapper at 50 is pretty much unkillable.

 

I. CAN'T. DECIDE.

 

Could you guys please give me opinions and info? Correct my above statements if they're wrong etc.

 

Also, I'm not looking to know which one is better once they have fifty shades of incarnates and six billion spent on them, I want to know which is better naked, in the street of Steel Canyon on a cold rainy night.

 

You know. The usual.

 

You're all awesome.

[Troo]

Brute.. unless you really like Scrappers

 

This answer is in response to not having cash to burn and wanting a multipurpose character. (scrappers fully kitted can absolutely do great stuff = $$$$)

[macskull]

Scrapper in this situation, Brutes don't get the full benefit of their higher damage cap with Shield Charge/Lightning Rod and the higher Scrapper damage modifiers make Against All Odds work way better on a Scrapper.

[Luminara]

Staff/Rad/Energy Mastery brute.  Scads of AoE.  SCADS.  Status protection on a toggle instead of a click, +Recharge and -ToHt on your taunt toggle (taunggle?  TAUNGGLE!), resistance, regeneration, extra Melee/Lethal defense and -Res in Staff (stay in Form of the Body), yada yada yada.

 

Take all of that with a grain of salt, because I don't care to or need to farm, I just adore my Staff/Willpower brute and noted that Rad has extra AoE.

[Aeroprism]

SCADS and TAUNGGLE are awesome words which I will gleefully add to my functional vocabulary.

 

However, with three different answers, my quest for an easy way out is nowhere closer to completion.

 

I guess I'll have to play the game like a filthy animal and make an opinion for myself.  The times we live in, I tell you...

[InvaderStych]

Scrapper.

 

Elec/Rad/<Blaze, Mu, or Soul to taste/needs>

 

Lightning Rod -> Ground Zero -> Rad Therapy -> (Epic AoE if applicable) -> (commence cleanup) -> Repeat for profit.

 

Love /SD and Scrapper Shield Charge is bonkers, but the self-heal and recovery tools on top of strong resists in /Rad are excellent for soloing QoL on a Scrapper.

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by InvaderStych

[CaptainLupis]

Spines/fire is far from a one trick pony, I ran mine through the Maria Jenking AVs and DA at max with no major problems. But I actually prefer my claws/rad tank or brute (honourable mention to claws/fire but you don't like /fire so I won't go into that). Admittedly it doesn't have the damage auras, which makes it a bit more hands on, but spin and shockwave, plus the procced out radiation therapy (if you want to go down that route), ground zero and even eviscerate too if you want, gives it a lot of AoE options. It's a lot of fun, for me at least.

 

I won't give you any build advice as mine was very experimental (I deliberately didn't pick up any def, just what came from sets I was planning to use for other bonuses anyway, for example) but considering how well it works for me in practice I think you'd be hard pushed to make a build that doesn't perform well.

[Doomguide2005]

 Hmmm, I've done a lot of both Brute and Scrapper and for running around pre 50, pre Incarnate, well unfortunately I'd say it really doesn't matter (from the POV of choosing one AT over the other).  Your power sets probably matter more.  Haven't tried it since Live but I'd like to try DM/FA again.  Self heal, changes to SM, end recovery tools.  Mine was a scrapper for what that's worth.  The real difference especially for a hobbyist farmer sugar daddy probably aren't that great until tricked out and incarnated post 50.  

 

[Aeroprism]

I don't hate /fire THAT much, I can get used to it if I color it properly.  I played a lot of /rad and I agree that it's ... well, rad.

 

So far I have a Claw/Bio brute that's surprisingly better than I imagined her to be.  Maybe I'll have a sugar mommy instead.

[fitzsimmons]

elec/sd is fun so here's an idea.  You can farm enemies without bosses +4x8 and the influence rate per minute/hour will be the same as with bosses (I tracked this on my spines/fire).  Drop rate will potentially be higher since you'll be defeating more enemies.  Give it a shot, I do it all the time when I have nothing specific I want to PL.

 

You then won't be spending cycles chipping away at bosses.

 

Regards,
Dave

[Aeroprism]

Having tons of fun testing brutes and scrappers lately, thanks so much for all the answers.

 

And now comes the obvious question:  Since there is no more limitation between Hero and Villain side, what are the cons and pros of Brutes VS Tankers in a nutshell?  They both look amazing to be honest.

 

In my quest to try every powerset, Looking at a Street Justice / Super Reflexes and a Savage Melee / Dark armor.  Can't decide if brute, tank or scrapper (though I am liking scrappers less and less as I experiment)

 

And why is super reflexes so unpopular?  It looks awesome! (on paper)

[Luminara]

16 hours ago, Aeroprism said:

And now comes the obvious question:  Since there is no more limitation between Hero and Villain side, what are the cons and pros of Brutes VS Tankers in a nutshell?  They both look amazing to be honest.

 

Tanks have a little more survivability, but lower damage output than brutes, who have a higher Damage cap and Fury as an inherent.

 

That's a rough generalization.  You can make a really tanky brute, and you can make a decent damage dealer out of a tanker, but the primary role differentials (archetype scale values and caps) ensure that they're not quite interchangeable with one another.  The tankiest tanker is always going to be tankier than the tankiest brute, and the most damage-dealing brute will always deal more damage than the most damage-dealing tank.  IO sets, procs and creative approaches to slotting can close the gap considerably, but they'll never be exactly the same.

 

If you solo a lot, or just don't like tanking, brutes are probably going to feel more like what you want.  If you like or don't mind tanking (taking Taunt to help lock aggro on yourself is a serious consideration for optimal tanking, so it means sacrificing at least one power you might otherwise take) and aren't eyeballing every 0.1% difference in damage output, you'll be find playing a tank.

[Aeroprism]

Lovely answer @Luminarathank you so much!

 

I find myself not really a tank person, at least not in big groups so Brutes might be best for me.

 

As for my powerset choices, any idea why no one likes SR? Is it outdated and underperforming?

[CaptainLupis]

18 hours ago, Aeroprism said:

Having tons of fun testing brutes and scrappers lately, thanks so much for all the answers.

 

And now comes the obvious question:  Since there is no more limitation between Hero and Villain side, what are the cons and pros of Brutes VS Tankers in a nutshell?  They both look amazing to be honest.

 

In my quest to try every powerset, Looking at a Street Justice / Super Reflexes and a Savage Melee / Dark armor.  Can't decide if brute, tank or scrapper (though I am liking scrappers less and less as I experiment)

 

And why is super reflexes so unpopular?  It looks awesome! (on paper)

I wouldn't say SR is unpopular, it just doesn't have any powers that boost damage or do damage themselves, which means it isn't a top pick for a farmer. My SR/MA tank had pretty much softcapped defence to all positions around level 10, using storm kick. Add in the uniquie IOs that give res and you are pretty damn solid.

 

If you are thinking of trying StJ/SR I would actually suggest a stalker, I had a ton of fun with that combo on mine.

Edited November 11, 2020 by CaptainLupis

[Luminara]

4 minutes ago, Aeroprism said:

As for my powerset choices, any idea why no one likes SR? Is it outdated and underperforming?

 

There's nothing inherently wrong with Super Reflexes, it's just been overshadowed by shinier toys.  The Defense is all positional and easy to cap, so it's viable against everything in the game, and it's got Defense debuff resistance, so it's less prone to cascade failure.  In the event that attacks do bypass Defense, it has scaling Resistance.  The only real problem is perception, in that other sets also allow capping Defense, and offer things like increased regeneration or a heal, or extra damage output, or other tools.  Capping Defense isn't enough to make a set stand out these days, so SR doesn't have the traffic it did in the past.  Much like Regeneration being the red-headed stepchild now that Willpower is here, SR lacks the appeal of other sets for similar reasons.

[Heraclea]

I have semi-retired my Fire/Dual Blades brute (can't generate tradeable empyreal merits anymore) and currently farm on a Radiation/Spines tanker.  I like Radiation on a tanker a lot; it doesn't have total holes to anything and brings debuffs and healing to the table.  Spines is very helpful for holding aggro.  Neither character is a dedicated farmer, and they both do well in regular content. 

[Aeroprism]

I'm really loving all of these!  I'm going to end up having way too many melee characters 😄