Battle Axe/ Shield Brute Help

[BladeShorty]

I am looking to try to build a brute that is build for END Game content. Not a fire farmer.

Saw someone smashing through missions with this and thought it was cool. 
Anyone have any build path ideas? I suck at trying to do mids

 

Thank you!

[Sanguinesun]

1. A Battle axe shield brute wouldnt be an optimal contender for fire farming anyway.

 

2. What specific "end game" contend are you wishing to build for?  That is a variable that has to be accounted for.

 

3. Learn to use mids.  There's a discord for mids and you can ask and learn more there too.  If you're not able to use mids, while people can provide build examples here (using mids often being the case), you'll perhaps not necessarily see fully the reasoning nor numerics as to whether their suggestions are effective for you or not. By learning how to use and understand mids information, this is going to help you in the long run.  Powers and slotted enhancers are one thing in these regards, understanding too how incarnates and more are apart of your build is just as important.

 

4.  There are lots of builds on here using shields and axe as well, you can then cross correlate the two to provide a build suitable for your play.  

 

5. Just because you saw someone "smashing through" missions doesnt necessarily mean that its as you perceive it.  A couple of weeks ago I had someone send me a tell on how a character I was playing was rocking it so well on a Perigrine Island 54 Radio mission.   I said, "thanks".   I didnt have the heart to tell them that the toon was level 15 at the time, and had nothing except the prestige enhancers slotted at the time(ie 5 damage enhancers only).  What was making me survive was the rest of the team's buffs and heals but I was far from smashing through anything as they'd percieved me to be doing.  

 

So what you saw may have been strong but it also could've been due to a host of variables that you're unaware of.

 

 

[Hyperstrike]

Ideally you want to bump your Resists and Defense up as much as is reasonably possible.
This should leave you with more than enough slots to fill out your attacks.

Basic brute-force (Heh heh heh) build.

 

Spoiler

This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Lemme AXE You A Question: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Battle Axe
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1:    Chop    
 (A) Superior Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage
 (3) Superior Brute's Fury - Damage/Recharge
 (3) Superior Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (5) Superior Brute's Fury - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (5) Superior Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (7) Superior Brute's Fury - Recharge/Fury Bonus

Level 1:    Deflection    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
 (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
 (9) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
 (9) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
 (11) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
 (11) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP

Level 2:    Gash    
 (A) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Accuracy/Damage
 (15) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Damage/RechargeTime
 (17) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
 (17) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (19) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (19) Superior Unrelenting Fury - RechargeTime/+Regen/+End

Level 4:    Battle Agility    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
 (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 6:    Build Up    
 (A) Recharge Reduction IO
 (21) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 8:    True Grit    
 (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
 (23) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
 (23) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
 (25) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime

Level 10:    Pendulum    
 (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage
 (25) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance
 (27) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
 (27) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (29) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (29) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown

Level 12:    Active Defense    
 (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 14:    Kick    
 (A) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge

Level 16:    Against All Odds    
 (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage

Level 18:    Swoop    
 (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
 (31) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
 (31) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
 (31) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
 (33) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (33) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 20:    Phalanx Fighting    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
 (33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
 (34) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
 (34) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage

Level 22:    Axe Cyclone    
 (A) Eradication - Accuracy/Recharge
 (34) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (36) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (36) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage
 (36) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance
 (37) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge

Level 24:    Grant Cover    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
 (37) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 26:    Cleave    
 (A) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage
 (37) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge
 (39) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
 (39) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (39) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (40) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown

Level 28:    Tough    
 (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
 (40) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
 (40) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
 (42) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (42) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
 (42) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)

Level 30:    One with the Shield    
 (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
 (43) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
 (43) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
 (43) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime

Level 32:    Weave    
 (A) Shield Wall - Defense
 (45) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance

Level 35:    Combat Jumping    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
 (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 38:    Maneuvers    
 (A) Shield Wall - Defense
 (45) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance

Level 41:    Char    
 (A) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold
 (46) Superior Entomb - Hold/Recharge
 (46) Superior Entomb - Endurance/Recharge
 (46) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance
 (48) Superior Entomb - Accuracy/Hold/Endurance/Recharge
 (48) Superior Entomb - Recharge/Chance for +Absorb

Level 44:    Assault    
 (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 47:    Melt Armor    
 (A) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Defense Debuff
 (48) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Recharge
 (50) Analyze Weakness - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
 (50) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
 (50) Analyze Weakness - Chance for +ToHit

Level 49:    Fly    
 (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%)

Level 1:    Brawl    
 (A) Accuracy IO

Level 1:    Fury    
Level 1:    Sprint    
 (A) Run Speed IO

Level 2:    Rest    
 (A) Interrupt Reduction IO

Level 1:    Swift    
 (A) Run Speed IO

Level 1:    Health    
 (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
 (13) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
 (13) Miracle - +Recovery

Level 1:    Hurdle    
 (A) Jumping IO

Level 1:    Stamina    
 (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
 (15) Performance Shifter - EndMod

Level 49:    Afterburner    
Level 50:    Musculature Core Paragon    
Level 50:    Ion Core Final Judgement    
Level 50:    Diamagnetic Core Flawless Interface    
Level 50:    Longbow Core Superior Ally    
Level 50:    Ageless Core Epiphany    
Level 50:    Assault Core Embodiment    
------------

 

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[BladeShorty]

Thanks for you advice Sanguinesun. As for your last line there, it was just me and him in the group because he typically runs solo and just saw me on at like 3am. 
At the time I didnt ask him anything specific about his build due to me focusing on my MasterMind, but was thinking about making a character that would help with my small group of friends of Missions and TFs.

Hyperstrike, this looks awesome. Although I do not know how to use mids by way of slotting enhancments and how to optimally do them, the stats, from what I can read, look fantastic. Thank you for your help with this

[Captain Fabulous]

I find Infinitum's builds are a good starting point. He has a Shield/Axe Tank, with a few tweaks it should work fine for a Brute.
 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by Captain Fabulous

[Hyperstrike]

2 hours ago, BladeShorty said:

Thanks for you advice Sanguinesun. As for your last line there, it was just me and him in the group because he typically runs solo and just saw me on at like 3am. 
At the time I didnt ask him anything specific about his build due to me focusing on my MasterMind, but was thinking about making a character that would help with my small group of friends of Missions and TFs.

Hyperstrike, this looks awesome. Although I do not know how to use mids by way of slotting enhancments and how to optimally do them, the stats, from what I can read, look fantastic. Thank you for your help with this

This is why I've gone back to flat text exports.

I've been unable to get the 3.5 version of Mids exports to work right.
So the flat text one gives you the level the slot goes in, the level of the enhancement and the enhancement itself.

[Zect]

On 8/9/2023 at 4:43 AM, BladeShorty said:

Hyperstrike, this looks awesome. Although I do not know how to use mids by way of slotting enhancments and how to optimally do them, the stats, from what I can read, look fantastic. Thank you for your help with this

 

The @Hyperstrike build is very low quality. And I'm not saying this because I have something against them; they're not important enough for that. I'm saying it because the build has mistakes and shows a lack of understanding of the powersets/AT in question. A post-mortem will increase your power levels, while educating you on build design basics.

 

First, a number of obvious errors:

• No double-stacked active defense
• No shield charge
• 10% regen bonus violates rule of 5
• Assault core hybrid

All shields should strongly consider double-stacking active defense (recharge <= 60s, though in practice it's not a big deal to be a couple off). The -def resistance it gives stacks with itself. 1 stack of active defense: 52.8% -def resistance. 2 stacks: just over 70%. 2 stacks and ageless radial T4: perma-95% -def resist - basically an SR. Always double-stack AD - it doesn't need a lot of rech.

 

There's also no shield charge and no gaussian chance for BU proc in Build Up. You may not know that shield charge does extra damage to enemies within 5ft of the impact point. Axe/shield can use axe cyclone to vacuum up mobs, then shield charge into the group, hitting all of them with the extra damage. Combined with BU that has a very high chance of proccing the gaussian proc, this helps quickly wipe all non-bosses and decrease incoming dps and debuffs.

 

Secondly, looking at the choice of attacks:

My suggestion is to drop cleave because unlike most melee T9's, it has abnormally low DPA (lower than all but Chop) and is only worth it unless every use cleaves at least 2 targets. This will then give us a power choice and slots to invest in shield charge. We can still achieve a gapless or near-gapless attack chain by investing in rech, which will help with 2x AD as well.

 

Next, when you open up the build in mids this is what you see:

 

Note the uneven defense spread of 62.3/47.0/42.3 M/R/Aoe. This means that you are either severely undercapped to R/Aoe, or overcapped to melee (representing excess set bonuses that are wasted and should be diverted elsewhere for more benefit). When defense is your primary line of mitigation, you should pick an even breakpoint, as opposed to randomly picking up defense bonuses. Note also that aoe is undercapped even to normal enemies. While aoes are less frequent, a lot of the hardest-hitting attacks in the game are aoes (it's very common for AV's to have blaster nukes, for example). I sure hope you weren't expecting phalanx fighting to pick up the slack.

 

I personally recommend defense in the 46% to 50% range across the board, no more, to softcap and give a small buffer against debuffs. I don't recommend softcapping vs incarnate enemies on shield (requires 59.5%) , because the benefits are not significant enough to matter.

 

Now that we've established our build goals, we can look at the slotting.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Level 6:    Build Up    
 (A) Recharge Reduction IO
 (21) Recharge Reduction IO

 

Remember what I said about Gaussian's proc up there? If we decide to add that to this power, then a mere 3 extra slots gives us 7.5% def (+2.5% to each position), a massive slot-efficiency gain. This should clue us in to the fact that we can trim defense bonuses from elsewhere to invest in a 6x gaussians.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Level 22:    Axe Cyclone    
 (A) Eradication - Accuracy/Recharge
 (34) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (36) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (36) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage
 (36) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance
 (37) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge

 

This is 5 added slots spent for 3.19% ranged def and very little else. Pass!

 

When slotting 2 different sets in the same power like this, your slot-efficiency takes a hit. You spent 5 slots, but you only get 4 set bonuses. There are many valid applications for split slotting, but it should always be done carefully, and you should always ask if the same bonus can be obtained elsewhere.

 

6x eradication would give valuable aoe def that may enable cutting less-efficient slots elsewhere.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Level 20:    Phalanx Fighting    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
 (33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
 (34) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
 (34) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage

 

Defense enhancement in phalanx fighting only increases the bonus you get when friendly toons are close to you. It does not enhance the always-on portion. The build is overcapped on 10% regen bonuses anyway, so we can trim a slot of lotg here.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Level 26:    Cleave    
 (A) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage
 (37) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge
 (39) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
 (39) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (39) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (40) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown

 

I'm always curious what forumites see in Underwhelming Farce, a mainstay of lackluster builds everywhere. The proc itself is good, the full set is only competitive under very niche circumstances.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Level 44:    Assault    
 (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 50:    Assault Core Embodiment    

 

Assault is weak on brutes because of the low brute damage scalar (0.75). On the hardest hitting power, swoop, assault only adds 10 damage.

 

For the same reason, assault core hybrid should not be taken on brutes; you are better off with radial instead, since radial uses melee_tempdamage which is 1.0 on all AT's.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Level 47:    Melt Armor    
 (A) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Defense Debuff
 (48) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Recharge
 (50) Analyze Weakness - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
 (50) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
 (50) Analyze Weakness - Chance for +ToHitThis is some filler power text right here

 

I love how you stop short of the 6th piece bonus for 4.5% SL res. Forumites and passing up extremely powerful set bonuses, name a more matching pair.

 

This set is not bad if you take all 6 pieces (it would then give a respectable 1.35% Resistance Per Added Slot), taking advantage of the SL res to trim slots from Deflection. 5 pieces puts you in the same circle of sinners as people who slot 3x armageddon.

 

Finally: something that is not strictly a mistake, but should really be made clear when giving builds to other people - the hyperstrike build needs ageless to work. Without ageless, net eps is only +1.08.

 

* * *

 

And now, my fixes:

Spoiler

 

No, there is no datalink/build import. Knowledge belongs to those willing to invest effort, so open up mids, look at the enhancements, and think about why each one of them is chosen as you slot them in one by one.

 

Now that is a respectable amount of rech, and I didn't even need to toggle on any incarnate powers to inflate the stats! For 30% less regen, this build sports superior dps, rech and resistances, and has a more balanced defense spread backed up by solid -def resistance. It is designed to use the same incarnate loadout as the hyperstrike build: with ageless core T4, you will have nearly permahaste (~121s rech) as long as you always remember to click them both together as well as nearly-doublestacked AD. It can do a chain of chop > gash > swoop > (small gap after the first minute of ageless). Note that the eradications must be boosted +5. As a lv30 set, it has poor enhancement value.

 

I want to point out some subtle optimizations here, notably, the SL res in aegis. Often, investing in res set bonuses over enhancing the actual res toggles is a bad idea. However, shields always suffer some build tension in Deflection since they want the SL res but also need to fit a lot of defense sets. Using the SL res from Aegis allows us to spend fewer slots enhancing res in deflection. The loss of EN res by not slotting an unbreakable guard is made up by slotting 5x basilisk's. In turn, the aoe def and rech from both these sets dovetail nicely with our build goals above. Spotting synergistic interactions like this can be very helpful to achieving multiple build goals simultaneously.

 

Would I play this build myself? Nope! My own axe/shields are built around a different alpha/incarnate loadout. I recommend you trim back some EN res; there's not much difference between 61% and 51% EN res, or for that matter 44% and 34%, the numbers you'll get without owts on (which only has unenhanceable 33% uptime). With those slots, you could invest in a prevmed proc, a kismet, get some health enhancement in true grit, more regen etc. which will lead to overall more survivability. Doing so is left as an exercise for the reader. Hint: consider a travel power-less build (since you don't need slow res as much on a defense toon) and/or experiment with a different epic.

 

[Hyperstrike]

Again, the build is not meant as anything other than a very quickly thrown together example.  And YES, I missed things.
I was simply brute-forcing for Defense and Resist numbers in a time crunch (I was on a short break while at GenCon).

* Double Stacked defense  (My point exactly)
* No Shield Charge (My point exactly).  And I agree with your prescriptive fix here.
* Regen boost.  Build had other priorities. (Defense/Resist)  I'm sure with more time I could have hit the same results in another way.
* Assault Core.  Agreed, it was a mistake brought on by the speed of the build process.

Note on the unbalanced Defense.  Again simply because the build priorities don't conform to your personal preference does not make these "mistakes" or "wrong".

Use of OF is, as mentioned used SOLELY in the service of chasing set bonuses.
Though the little bit of KB Resist aside from AD is a nice little insurance policy.

Additionally, BA is a fairly one-note set.  It makes it extremely difficult to diversify for broader Defense.

In the end, the most common forms of damage have excellent protection and while it has DDR, the over-cap Defenses act as a buffer against the fractional Defense Debuff that DOES sneak through.

* Passing on Slot 6 for AW in Melt Armor.
POINTS TO RESISTANCE NUMBERS

 

I agree.  Your build is generally better balanced, and likely way more effective.
Then again, you've had a couple of days to dig down and correct/optimize things.

I didn't.