This has likely been done to death... but beating dead horses is fun.

[GhostDawg]

Seriously, taking the recent tanker changes at face value... which is better Fire/Fire Tanker or Brute?

[Obsinious]

For fire farming the brute is still better due to how fast you can munch red candy to stay damage capped.

 

For literally anything else the tanker should be better.

 

Edit: Better meaning it gains more by giving up less.  The brute will still likely solo clear a map faster, but not by much.  The tanker will do it much safer.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Obsinious

[GhostDawg]

On 4/13/2021 at 7:11 AM, Obsinious said:

For fire farming the brute is still better due to how fast you can munch red candy to stay damage capped.

 

For literally anything else the tanker should be better.

 

Edit: Better meaning it gains more by giving up less.  The brute will still likely solo clear a map faster, but not by much.  The tanker will do it much safer.

Yeah I don't really farm. So I guess I'll tank it.

 

[Hjarki]

On 4/13/2021 at 10:11 AM, Obsinious said:

For fire farming the brute is still better due to how fast you can munch red candy to stay damage capped.

A Tanker has a 500% damage cap and a Brute has a 775% damage cap. However, a Tanker has a 95% damage scale while a Brute has a 75% damage scale. Without any reds, your Tanker is probably at 225% damage while your Brute is at 400%, for 213.75% vs. 300% (40% more for Brute) If both are at cap, you're looking at 4.75 vs. 5.8125 damage scale (20% more for Brute)

 

To get to that cap, the Tanker probably starts from 225% and needs 11 reds. The Brute probably starts at 400% and needs 15.

 

For damage from Fiery Aura, that's the whole story.

 

For damage from the melee set, there's also the issue of arc/radius/target caps. There's no definitive number I can throw out for how much better the Tanker AEs are than the Brute AEs, but I can guess from experience.

 

In a situation like a Fire Farm with constant enemies and a build designed to feed a steady supply of those enemies, my rough guess is that Tanker Cone attacks are twice as good as Brute Cone attacks due to the arc/radius/target caps. On the other hand, 360 degree PBAoE are probably only about 20% better because the increased radius isn't doing much for you and you can't keep 16+ mobs in your radius for very long.

 

Indeed, Cones are so much better on a Tanker than a Brute that your Cone damage is likely to be a 'free' bonus because you wouldn't even take the Cone on a Brute where it becomes one of your highest dps contributors on a Tanker.

 

Presuming you're willing to accept my admittedly vague guesstimates about the effectiveness of the arc/radius/target cap changes, this would mean that Fire/Fire would almost certainly be preferable on a Brute since it doesn't gain anything from Cones. However, traditional builds like Fire/Spines or Fire/Radiation are likely to be a lot closer - and potentially favor the Tanker - due to Proton Sweep and Ripper.

[Obsinious]

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

A Tanker has a 500% damage cap and a Brute has a 775% damage cap.

 

Brutes actually have 700% cap on Homecoming.

Edited April 20, 2021 by Obsinious

[Hjarki]

41 minutes ago, Obsinious said:

 

Brutes actually have 700% cap on Homecoming.

When I was running the numbers, the 20% surprised me a bit because I had a dim memory of it being closer to 10%. Didn't remember the change in Brute cap.