Let's talk about Incarnates

[Darkeshade]

So I never really got around to running the Incarnate mission "before" so it was a new experience for me this time around.

I like many made a spines/fire to farm and make the monies. I finally got to experience the Incarnate power and man, it's pretty great.

 

So I wanted some opinions from the experts and to discuss the powers and why one may be better then another...seems on many peoples posted builds there's some discussion.

For example...some like Musc. as their Alpha while others want resilience or Agility or Cardiac.

Some choose Core while others, Radial.

 

Alpha, Judgement, Interface, Lore, Destiny and Hybrid. Where do you stand on the "best" for Brutes and why?

 

Appreciate the suggestions!

[marcussmythe]

Well, its hard to give 'best for every brute answers', but heres what I tend to like:

 

Alpha Slot:  Probably Musculature (the high damage version).  Unless Im leaning more to the tanky side of brute, or just want more QOL from an easier perma-hasten and softcap, in which case agility.  But probably musculature.

 

Judgement:  Pick what fits your character.  I like the Dark one with the -Damage as a debuff, but Moar Damage is never wrong - PBAOE fits me as a brute, because I want to draw a crowd.  Dont like cones for melee characters for Judgement.

 

Interface:  Generic Answer is Reactive, DOT version.  Theres some arguement for the -Max HP version for breaking down AVs.  Problem in Incanrate Teams is most people go reactive, and I dont think the dots stack - so if you team alot, dont be afraid to go with an unusual choice.

 

Destiny:  Ageless, either Recovery (to decide you dont care about END anymore ever), Debuff Prot (for reasons that endgame makes obvious), or one of the Barrier (not so much for me, but it keeps your Lore pets, and your teammates, alive when suddenly stuff goes bad).

 

Lore:  Personal choice.  Look at buffs provided.  If all you want is DPS out, Cimmerorans for single target, Storm/Polar for AOE.  I kinda like Seers (their buff pet casts fortitude), and Demons (cause.. summoning.. demons.  Nuff said)

 

Hybrid:  The 'meh' incarnate slot, for us.  Probably Assault Doublestrike, for more damage, cause more damage is.. more?  If your still squishing, maybe Melee.. but your a deep incarnate brute, if your still squishing, something else is the problem.

 

[nihilii]

It's going to heavily vary from build to build and even personal taste. But as rough, very rough guidelines, personally this is how I see it:

 

- Alpha: if end is an issue, Cardiac on a RES build, else Vigor. On a defense set with end management, Agility is great. Spiritual is also useful if there's no great need for anything but recharge. Musculature is harder to justify on Brutes unless you're really not struggling for anything else, due to Fury the damage boost is relatively less than on other ATs (although it still boosts your Judgement and Lore as much).

 

- Judgement: Ion, Ion, Ion. Not having to aim makes it invaluable (to me, ymmv). Honorary mentions for Pyronic (fast animation) and Void (PBAoE with strong damage debuff).

 

- Interface: Degenerative -maxHP, it's slightly better than Reactive on bosses and above, and everything below melts too fast to care. Plus, most people still go for Reactive, and interfaces don't stack even from different players.

 

- Lore: Longbow cataphract for taking down AVs and even tougher targets. Storm Elementals for versatile extra damage. I don't bother with support, even Adrenalin Boost isn't all that impressive compared to the damage output the right Lore pets can add in the right situations. I'm not a big fan of Cimerorans, melee range means they're likely to die in many situations where I actually need their help.

 

- Destiny: Barrier as the default choice, thanks to the brute resistance cap it's almost always useful (if you're a resistance set you're probably lacking in defense and defense debuff resistance, and if you're a defense set you can use the resistance). Sometimes Rebirth to plug a heal hole, i.e. on SR. Ageless can help with end or generally be used in content geared to your strengths, i.e. farm maps.

 

- Hybrid: Assault doublehit, accept no substitute. OK, you could also get the Melee +regen +res. It's really offense vs defense. In my opinion more damage is always useful, while more defense can be overkill.

[marcussmythe]

It's going to heavily vary from build to build and even personal taste. But as rough, very rough guidelines, personally this is how I see it:

 

- Alpha: if end is an issue, Cardiac on a RES build, else Vigor. On a defense set with end management, Agility is great. Spiritual is also useful if there's no great need for anything but recharge. Musculature is harder to justify on Brutes unless you're really not struggling for anything else, due to Fury the damage boost is relatively less than on other ATs (although it still boosts your Judgement and Lore as much).

 

- Judgement: Ion, Ion, Ion. Not having to aim makes it invaluable (to me, ymmv). Honorary mentions for Pyronic (fast animation) and Void (PBAoE with strong damage debuff).

 

- Interface: Degenerative -maxHP, it's slightly better than Reactive on bosses and above, and everything below melts too fast to care. Plus, most people still go for Reactive, and interfaces don't stack even from different players.

 

- Lore: Longbow cataphract for taking down AVs and even tougher targets. Storm Elementals for versatile extra damage. I don't bother with support, even Adrenalin Boost isn't all that impressive compared to the damage output the right Lore pets can add in the right situations. I'm not a big fan of Cimerorans, melee range means they're likely to die in many situations where I actually need their help.

 

- Destiny: Barrier as the default choice, thanks to the brute resistance cap it's almost always useful (if you're a resistance set you're probably lacking in defense and defense debuff resistance, and if you're a defense set you can use the resistance). Sometimes Rebirth to plug a heal hole, i.e. on SR. Ageless can help with end or generally be used in content geared to your strengths, i.e. farm maps.

 

- Hybrid: Assault doublehit, accept no substitute. OK, you could also get the Melee +regen +res. It's really offense vs defense. In my opinion more damage is always useful, while more defense can be overkill.

 

Good point on the Longbow Cataphract.  I may try to whip one up before I take another shot at soloing Lannaru the Mad.

[HelenCarnate]

For sets that have +HP go with Spiritual for alpha.  The recharge is great and the bonus to heal adds even more HP to sets like Bio or WP. Otherwise agility is best most of the time.  You can go for more damage but personally I would rather attack more often for slightly less damage each time than hit slightly harder but not have a fluid attack chain. Now if you have a fluid chain and have no end issues then musc is the way to go.

[jack_nomind]

For example...some like Musc. as their Alpha while others want resilience or Agility or Cardiac.

Some choose Core while others, Radial.

 

depends on secondary, other incarnate choices, primary, and play style, roughly in that order.

 

Alpha, Judgement, Interface, Lore, Destiny and Hybrid. Where do you stand on the "best" for Brutes and why?

 

somewhere else.  there are 286 different brute primary/secondary combinations, even assuming epp was irrelevant, and i'm not making 286 tier lists.  anything else you get is going to be very circumstantial.

[Chance Jackson]

- Lore: Longbow cataphract for taking down AVs and even tougher targets. Storm Elementals for versatile extra damage. I don't bother with support, even Adrenalin Boost isn't all that impressive compared to the damage output the right Lore pets can add in the right situations. I'm not a big fan of Cimerorans, melee range means they're likely to die in many situations where I actually need their help.

On Live, I found the longbow support spamming the empathy Healing Aura very useful on my Bots/Traps/Mu especially when Soloing the BAF Turrets & the Spawns inside of BAF but I agree a brute probably wouldn't get much out of them.

[ApesAmongUs]

Since alpha is mostly affected by ED at lower levels, slotting them varies depending on how you already have the powers slotted.  If you're already deep red ED on all your attack powers, the first level of musculature isn't going to do much, but the higher level ones still will - although they will lose a little from the percentage shown.  So, if you have all your powers with max damage, but lacking in recharge, that might be better for you.

 

One good thing to look at is whether your attack chain is already all good powers, or if you are elec/shield where you have 2 great powers you want to use constantly.  In the former, straight damage is great, but in the later, it might make sense to run one of the ones with recharge to get those great, long recharge powers back faster if you didn't max out recharge already.

 

The same holds for any other aspect.  If you have end drain on your attacks, but didn't enhance that, then it can be beneficial to take the radial that enhances that. Anything that hasen't been enhanced already is going to get the full 33% boost from the radials, while a 33% damage instead of a 45 is really only going to be 30 vs 22 (getting 66% of the total with the rest being lost to ED), which might not be as noticeable.

[Darkeshade]

All great suggestion!

Yeah, a couple seem more a no brainer for brutes, such as Ion and Barrier.

But with Lore and particularly Interface...much less cut and dry to me...and you're right, its more of a feel and see.

 

 

[Sidious]

I got musc for my latest brutes Alpha, but given how my normal group dynamic is, I'm considering switching it to Resil. He's been doing way more "Main tanking" lately anyway.

 

Does anyone have the number comparisons for these two?