Tankiest Brute Builds?

[Dark Juggernaut]

So I am pretty much out of the loop with everything. I came back like a week ago and have been playing a Dark/Energy Dominator but I want to make a tanky character... except I prefer the idea of a Brute rather than a straight up Tanker.

 

I don't really want a Dark theme again because I feel I will be rehashing the same design as my dom however out of curiousity, if you believe a Dark build is the tankiest then feel free to post it. Realistically I am just looking for some base builds to develop into my own 🙂

[Erratic1]

Something involving Invulnerability would be my guess. At least, that is what I am working on.

[Grimm2]

Probably Invuln, Stone, Rad, in that order? 

 

I haven't fully built out Brute Invuln or Rad, but can speak to Stone. In a build without Winter sets, I hit defense #'s of 50% s/l/e/n, 45% psi, and 25% f/c. Resistance reached 60% s/l/f/c, 30% e/n. 2.2k hp, boosts to 3.1k hp under Earth's Embrace, regens 40-60 hp/sec.

 

I fear cascading def failure even with my little cushion, slows can be annoying. But not much else though. Feels good to not fear Carnies for a change, but Arachnos (read: Tarantula Mistresses and their debuff) still require some strategy. 

Edited November 26, 2022 by Grimm2
A word

[Oysterhead]

Ice/Invuln would be my vote.

Invuln is just always good from a raw numbers perspective. Ice Melee will give you consistent knockdown with Ice Patch which is huge for survivability on its own, then -recharge on most other attacks, and even some sleep in Frozen Aura. Some other sets can do similar, anything with KD, but Ice Patch is probably the largest increase to tankiness in the melee sets. 

[twozerofoxtrot]

Dark/Bio

 

Absorb

Self Heals for Days

Absorb

Attacks Debuff ToHit

-Dam Aura

Defensive Adaptation

Absorb 

[Dark Juggernaut]

With everyone saying Invul is strongest, I'm leaning into that. Primary wise I'm looking at Staff because of the resist and defence buffs plus I think I have a theme idea.
 

That being said, from a game perspective are you able to comfortably main tank on a Brute?
 

Taunt wise, back on live I remember pretty much always needing the Prescence taunt as well, is this still the case?

 

Are there any Staff skills that can be skipped except for the first one without sacrificing too much?

 

Of course, if you want to go one step further and suggest a build it would be greatly appreciated.

[twozerofoxtrot]

13 minutes ago, Dark Juggernaut said:

That being said, from a game perspective are you able to comfortably main tank on a Brute?

 

Yes. There are Regen Brutes who main tank on Homecoming. 

 

13 minutes ago, Dark Juggernaut said:

Taunt wise, back on live I remember pretty much always needing the Prescence taunt as well, is this still the case?

 

Absolutely not. Between Taunt, Punchvoke, and your Aura the only thing pulling agro off of you is a Tanker or maybe a very punchy Bio Scrapper.

Edited November 26, 2022 by twozerofoxtrot

[Gobbledigook]

Super Reflexes has proven to be very tough for Tankers. Yes they get the ATO bonus to resists and better health but a Brute may do well with SR also as they have higher health than the other non Tanker AT's, allowing the scaling resists to work a little more.

[Snarky]

Dark Invul

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1778&c=724&a=1448&f=HEX&dc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

[Snarky]

Dark Invul is the most tankiest combo there is.  The synergy is insane.  We all know Invul needs to be considered in "tankiest" armor contests.  When paired with Dark and build a certain way you just get laughably strong performance.

[Gobbledigook]

For pure tanking MA/Granite would be pretty tough. Second build could be non granite stone armor.

[agentx5]

16 hours ago, Dark Juggernaut said:

So I am pretty much out of the loop with everything. I came back like a week ago and have been playing a Dark/Energy Dominator but I want to make a tanky character... except I prefer the idea of a Brute rather than a straight up Tanker.

 

I don't really want a Dark theme again because I feel I will be rehashing the same design as my dom however out of curiosity, if you believe a Dark build is the tankiest then feel free to post it. Realistically I am just looking for some base builds to develop into my own 🙂

Of what I consider the top 5 tanky players on HomeComing, they either use Bio Armor, Invulnerability, Stone, or Shield  Bio Armor in particular is arguably OP in the right hands, just like how a skilled tri-form Warshade is insanely powerful -- the key lies in the versatility, in knowing when to switch mode.  I would agree with @twozerofoxtrot in that you should give BioArmor serious consideration, and if that's not enough consider that he highest Veteran Level in the entire HomeComing server group uses Bio Armor (with Titan Weapons).

As far as the attack powers, honestly it's whatever you like.   Sure the -toHit of Dark is excellent, but so is the knockdown/knockup of War Mace or Titan Weapon or Staff.  Or the -DEF of Rad.  Or the DoT of Stone.

Also speaking of Stone Armor, that's very viable in HomeComing because of changes to the teleport pool (especially [Fold Space] which brings them to you)

Shield also gets a lunging charge (teleport with PBAoE damage) and what is essentially a taunt aura

Edited November 27, 2022 by agentx5

[agentx5]

9 hours ago, Gobbledegook said:

Super Reflexes has proven to be very tough for Tankers. Yes they get the ATO bonus to resists and better health but a Brute may do well with SR also as they have higher health than the other non Tanker AT's, allowing the scaling resists to work a little more.

I can't disagree overall, what you said is true.
However, Super Reflexes seems to stand ahead of other defensive/resistive sets on a Stalker or Scrapper more so than on a Tanker or Brute.
This may be due to the stupid streak-breaker mechanic, where in if you've avoided being hit too many times in a row the "streak breaker" combat code will essentially force you to take auto-hits.  It can be infuriating and fatal when it happens, which it does without warning.  Then again with the extra hitpoints you might survive a streak breaker better too so... meh?

Edited November 27, 2022 by agentx5

[Uun]

Electric Armor is also very good on a brute. You can cap resists (or get pretty close) to everything other than toxic and negative, plus its got a good heal, end recovery tools and a damage aura. Completely immune to endurance drain.

[Erratic1]

11 hours ago, Snarky said:

Dark Invul is the most tankiest combo there is.  The synergy is insane.  We all know Invul needs to be considered in "tankiest" armor contests.  When paired with Dark and build a certain way you just get laughably strong performance.

 

So very much this.

 

Dark Melee "solves" what minor issues Invulnerability has by giving it endurance recovery (additional healing too when you're still at the point in your build where you're taking significant damage).

[aethereal]

3 hours ago, agentx5 said:

This may be due to the stupid streak-breaker mechanic, where in if you've avoided being hit too many times in a row the "streak breaker" combat code will essentially force you to take auto-hits.  It can be infuriating and fatal when it happens, which it does without warning.  Then again with the extra hitpoints you might survive a streak breaker better too so... meh?

 

This is a persistent myth.  Streakbreaker is irrelevant to the performance of SR or other defense sets.

 

If your enemy's adjusted chance to hit you is less than 20%, which it should be for even high-rank opponents with a built out defense set, then in order for streakbreaker to kick in, a single opponent must miss you 100 times in a row.  In practice, streakbreaker never kicks in for two reasons:

 

1.  Almost no fights last long enough for any opponent to attack 100 times at all.

 

2.  If for some reason someone does get 100 attacks on you, it is vanishingly unlikely that they will all miss.

 

If streakbreaker does ever kick in, that's a sign of huge durability, not a problem.  It would mean you literally took zero damage from an AV for several minutes.

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

 

So very much this.

 

Dark Melee "solves" what minor issues Invulnerability has by giving it endurance recovery (additional healing too when you're still at the point in your build where you're taking significant damage).

Dark's to hit debuffs add another layer of defense to Invulnerability's already mostly stellar performance.  

[Doomguide2005]

     I am a Huge fan of SR.  But Invulnerability is right up there and probably has the edge because ultimately SR's DDR while potent is going to be off set by the Max Health an Invulnerability can manage plus as long as Invincibility's aura is kept reasonably full it will tend to buffer against the increased risk of cascade failure from lower DDR.  Either would be hugely helped towards 'tankiest' by Dark Melee's Siphon Life.  Invincibility also has the to hit buff which against certain foes (Cimerorans) can help cut through their defense buffs.   Bottom line though is the real difference is going to be in who's at the wheel playing the build.

[Snarky]

I write sporadically about an insanely powerful Vampire.  Indestructible.  In game my model for this is a Dark Invulnerability Brute.  You may ask why not an Invulnerability Dark Tank.  The answer is simple…. For 99% content a Dark Invulnerability Brute is so Tanky you never realize stuff is attacking you.  The other 1% time you use Dull Pain and some inspirations.  So take the Brute and start doing more Damage.  Also…Redside, Bestside

[Snarky]

soooo i joined a pug 2 star itf.  i knew it would be tough.  2 blasters, three corr, a troller, a tank and me.  it was a super reflexes tank with only the alpha up and running i learned later.  good player, no way they were tanking rom.  so....  yep, i went from easy chair to hot seat.  

 

i can tell you the dark/invul can tank rom on the 2 star.  it needs to be built, mine is fully incarnated, and i needed a healer while i was kiting him around away from the team killing laser squids.  but it was okay.

 

i do a 2 star itf about every 3-4 months.  then remember why i dont do them.  but we finished.  and i was glad to be on this particular brute....

[ninja surprise]

On 11/26/2022 at 2:56 PM, Dark Juggernaut said:

With everyone saying Invul is strongest, I'm leaning into that. Primary wise I'm looking at Staff because of the resist and defence buffs plus I think I have a theme idea.
 

That being said, from a game perspective are you able to comfortably main tank on a Brute?
 

Taunt wise, back on live I remember pretty much always needing the Prescence taunt as well, is this still the case?

 

Are there any Staff skills that can be skipped except for the first one without sacrificing too much?

 

Of course, if you want to go one step further and suggest a build it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have one of these and it's a royal hoot. I even use the 1st staff attack because it has a good debuff and it's fast in the single-target attack chain.

I comfortably tank with it, even exemp'd down for low level task and strike forces.

Presence taunt is garbage. Invuln has plenty of built-in taunt, so do your attacks, and the actual Taunt power if you want it instead of just hitting someone with your stick.

[Snarky]

If you are planning on tanking take taunt.  Anyone can squeeze it on uses no slots and best control power in the game