The heavy handed history of hammering Brutes...

[Snarky]

Going back to the mists of time...  Does anyone have the breakdown and dates of all the Brute Nerfs we have shouldered over the years?

[Gobbledigook]

4 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Going back to the mists of time...  Does anyone have the breakdown and dates of all the Brute Nerfs we have shouldered over the years?

Also a list of all the times Brutes have reminded us of said nerfs 🙃

[twozerofoxtrot]

The book of grudges!

[merrypessimist]

1 hour ago, Gobbledigook said:

Also a list of all the times Brutes have reminded us of said nerfs 🙃

Wouldn't that be the first number multiplied by ten thousand? 

[Erratic1]

1 hour ago, merrypessimist said:

Wouldn't that be the first number multiplied by ten thousand? 

 

That is a finite number. The question is which order of infinity are we talking here...countable or uncountable?

[tidge]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

Going back to the mists of time...  Does anyone have the breakdown and dates of all the Brute Nerfs we have shouldered over the years?

 

Issue 1: The level cap for Tankers is increased to 50; the level cap for Brutes remains unchanged.

[BZRKR]

So I went through the Homecoming Wiki's "Issues" pages and did a simple search for "brute" and noted what was found. Below is a simple cut and paste or summary of what I saw. This may not be everything, and I leave the "heavy handedness" of the entries to the reader. Please take a look yourselves if you think something is missing.

+++

Issue 7

Visual f/x for Brute Invulnerability powers changed. They are now darker and more villainous.

 

New Power Sets: Brute Primary - Electric Melee, Brute Secondary - Electric Shields

 

Tanker, Scrapper and Brute Taunt powers will now accept Accuracy Enhancements. Note that these enhancements will have no effect in PvE, as the powers automatically hit PvE targets. The change is made strictly for PvP purposes.

 

Brute Patron Powers added

 

Issue 8 nothing

Issue 9 nothing

 

Issue 10

Added Brute buffs to Kheldians

 

Fixed an issue with Brute Energy Punch which could cause it to generate Fury much faster than designed.

 

Issue 11

Gave Brutes Willpower

 

Issue 12

Gave Brutes Battle Axe, War Mace, and Super Reflexes

 

Issue 13

Gave Shield Defense to Brutes

 

Issue 14 nothing

Issue 15 mothing

 

Issue 16

Gave Brutes Claws

 

Issue 17 nothing

 

Issue 18

Brute Fury: Upper end Fury generation made more difficult to achieve, however, the loss of Fury at the lower ends was slowed down so that the Brute was more likely to keep some amount of Fury up. Higher rank foes help generate more Fury.

 

Issue 19 nothing

Issue 19.5 nothing

Issue 20 nothing

Issue 20.5 nothing

 

Issue 21

Brutes get Katana, Broadsword, Regeneration

 

Issue 21.5 nothing

Issue 22 nothing

Issue 23 nothing

Issue 24 nothing

 

Issue 25

Mercurial Blow for Brutes no longer applies Bruising on the target.

Super Reflexes for Tankers now has the correct taunt duration in the Evasion power. The Brute version was already correct.

Scrapper and Brute Quills.Barb_Swipe should now play the correct animation on the foe hit when using customized Spines.

 

 

Issue 26

Changes to Tankers and Brutes including inherent powers Gauntlet and Fury.

Brute:

Ranged and Melee damage modifiers are now equal at 0.75.

Damage buff cap lowered from 775% to 700%.

All Brute and Tanker Epic pools now use ranged damage modifiers.

Note that due to the above changes, Epic Pools should see no damage change at all.

 

Beta Decay (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Blaster): the "first target" 10% recharge buff should no longer erroneously stack for all foes in range. The 2.5% per target recharge buff will continue to stack as expected. Max recharge buff with 10 targets should be +35%.

Brute > Fury: Fixed a bug where some auras would passively grant the brute small amounts of +Fury.

Fixed the Tanker and Brute Global Taunt Proc not triggering on aura powers.

Staff Melee > Precise Strike: Brute version should no longer list twice that it accept Taunt enhancements.

A strange Fury power should no longer show up in the Brute enhancement slotting screen.

Fix bug where Brute PunchVoke was not triggering on aura powers.

 

Brute Melee > Battle Axe > Cleave: Max targets reduced from 10 to 5

rute > Katana > Golden Dragonfly: Max targets reduced from 10 to 5

 

Tanker and Brute inherent taunt procs now generate a combat message for the caster, to help determine if the taunt proc is currently working.

Ice Melee > Frozen Fists (Brute/Stalker/Scrapper) Power Description should no longer say it adds -res.

 

Gauntlet and Punchvoke changes:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Issue_26_Page_4#Tanker_&_Brute_Changes

 

Katana (including Brute Katana) gets "no redraw"

 

Shadow Maul (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Stalker) is now a much larger, faster cone that's actually capable of easily hitting multiple targets - especially on tanks!

Arc increased from 45 to 120 degrees

Recharge increased from 8 to 11 seconds

Cast Time reduced from 3.07 to 2.35 seconds

Damage lowered from scale 2.156 to 1.6184

DPS reduction is minor, it has only been lowered from scale 0.653 to scale 0.645

Target Cap increased from 5 to 10 for Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers

 

Issue 27

Added taunt slotting to many PBAoE's

Scrapper | Brute > Energy Aura > Energy Cloak > Fixed a bug where the stealth was not suppressing in combat, preventing the taunt aura from working

Brute | Tanker > Martial Arts > Eagle's Claw: Damage buff from this power should no longer be affected by enemy level

Brute > Regeneration > Fast Healing: This version of the power should no longer ignore healing enhancements

 

Invincibility (Tanker/Brute/Scrapper) - This power now adds a 1.67% toxic and psionic defense for the first target, and 0.33% for additional targets (total 5% against 10 foes, Tanker values).

Resist Energies (Tanker/Brute/Scrapper) - This power now adds psionic resistance.

Energy Protection (Brute/Scrapper) - This power now grants Psionic resistance.

Overload (all ATs) - This power now grants 33.75% toxic and psionic defense (Brute values).

Tank & Brute/Stone Armor/Granite Armor: Now suspends the other Stone Armor armor toggles in the set while transformed instead of deactivating them. Also will suspend travel toggles (Run, Jump and Fly). Suspended toggles cost no endurance while running.

 

Brute/Radiation Melee/Atom Smasher: Was using Smashing Attack, this is now set to Toxic Attack. This power doesn't do smashing damage.

Brute/Stone Armor/Earth's Embrace: Changed the +Max HP effects' stack type to Replace.

Brute/Titan Weapon/Defensive Sweep (Slow): Was missing its endurance cost. Now set to the intended 5.356

Brute/Dark Melee/Shadow Punch: Description fixed.

Battle Axe power order changed

Brute > Melee: Fixed a sorting mistake in with the Spines powerset listing in the character creator.

 

Brute > Fiery Aura > Burn: Fixed a bug while using Fiery Embrace that unintentionally created additional patches

 

Soul Mastery/Summon Widow (Brute/Tanker): Can no longer slot ToHit Debuff Sets.

 

Brute/Radiation Melee/Taunt: Now hits 5 targets (was set to 10 before).

 

New Epic Pools were added for Brutes

Many Epic Pool Adjustments

 

Issue 28 nothing

 

+++

 

[tidge]

1 hour ago, BZRKR said:

So I went through the Homecoming Wiki's "Issues" pages and did a simple search for "brute" and noted what was found. Below is a simple cut and paste or summary of what I saw. This may not be everything, and I leave the "heavy handedness" of the entries to the reader. 

 

Thanks! This is basically what I did (years ago) to try to understand 'nerfs to Brutes'.

 

The biggest one I see is the top value for Damage Buff... I'll leave it for others who routinely and consistently crossed from 700% towards 775% to say how they were affected.

 

I remember many people being upset about 'massive nerfs', and maybe those players favored Brutes? The items in that category are (from memory):

 

1) Defense (& attack) typing changes which meant players chasing single resistances (for example S/L or F/C) became vulnerable to content that they had not been vulnerable to previously.

 

2) Fire melee set changes (that came to include Defense Debuffs), which was most noticeable for fire farmers

 

3) Changes to the in-game rewards, like scaling rewards of Empyrians, lvl 49 XP->Inf going away, conversion rates of Vanguard merits, etc... many of these were targeted at AE (and some non-AE) farm-ish activities for the economy of the game and nothing to do with performance.

 

 

 

It's not a secret that in the early days of Homecoming, 'Farming with Brutes' was typically the default advice (for those who wanted to farm). I'm wondering the 'nerfs to farming' have gotten confused with 'nerfs to Brutes'. None of the three changes I listed were targeted at Brutes, although #1 had a larger impact (from my memory) on ATs that were capable of exceeding a very high resistance cap.

[Erratic1]

12 minutes ago, tidge said:

he biggest one I see is the top value for Damage Buff... I'll leave it for others who routinely and consistently crossed from 700% towards 775% to say how they were affected.

 

I remember many people being upset about 'massive nerfs', and maybe those players favored Brutes? The items in that category are (from memory):

 

I don't think anyone routinely crossed that short of being on teams featuring serious damage buffs ala Fulcrum Shift stacked with others.

[tidge]

9 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

I don't think anyone routinely crossed that short of being on teams featuring serious damage buffs ala Fulcrum Shift stacked with others.

 

That was my guess, but I know there was a lot of discussion earlier in the HC life about how to 'gobble reds', so I wasn't sure if some combination Inps+SelfBuff+Incarnates of solo builds were doing it. 

 

Any guesses as to why the cap was dropped? This feels (to me) like something that might have been included to make "Hard Mode" types of content (where a couple of Kins and large spawns might appear) moar hard.

[Erratic1]

23 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

Any guesses as to why the cap was dropped? This feels (to me) like something that might have been included to make "Hard Mode" types of content (where a couple of Kins and large spawns might appear) moar hard.

 

My understanding is that at cap a Brute would outdamage a similarly capped Scrapper. The oft stated claim was that dps is all Scrapper brought. 

[DrunkFlux]

On 6/3/2025 at 4:20 AM, BZRKR said:

So I went through the Homecoming Wiki's "Issues" pages and did a simple search for "brute" and noted what was found. Below is a simple cut and paste or summary of what I saw. This may not be everything, and I leave the "heavy handedness" of the entries to the reader. Please take a look yourselves if you think something is missing.

+++

Issue 7

Visual f/x for Brute Invulnerability powers changed. They are now darker and more villainous.

 

New Power Sets: Brute Primary - Electric Melee, Brute Secondary - Electric Shields

 

Tanker, Scrapper and Brute Taunt powers will now accept Accuracy Enhancements. Note that these enhancements will have no effect in PvE, as the powers automatically hit PvE targets. The change is made strictly for PvP purposes.

 

Brute Patron Powers added

 

Issue 8 nothing

Issue 9 nothing

 

Issue 10

Added Brute buffs to Kheldians

 

Fixed an issue with Brute Energy Punch which could cause it to generate Fury much faster than designed.

 

Issue 11

Gave Brutes Willpower

 

Issue 12

Gave Brutes Battle Axe, War Mace, and Super Reflexes

 

Issue 13

Gave Shield Defense to Brutes

 

Issue 14 nothing

Issue 15 mothing

 

Issue 16

Gave Brutes Claws

 

Issue 17 nothing

 

Issue 18

Brute Fury: Upper end Fury generation made more difficult to achieve, however, the loss of Fury at the lower ends was slowed down so that the Brute was more likely to keep some amount of Fury up. Higher rank foes help generate more Fury.

 

Issue 19 nothing

Issue 19.5 nothing

Issue 20 nothing

Issue 20.5 nothing

 

Issue 21

Brutes get Katana, Broadsword, Regeneration

 

Issue 21.5 nothing

Issue 22 nothing

Issue 23 nothing

Issue 24 nothing

 

Issue 25

Mercurial Blow for Brutes no longer applies Bruising on the target.

Super Reflexes for Tankers now has the correct taunt duration in the Evasion power. The Brute version was already correct.

Scrapper and Brute Quills.Barb_Swipe should now play the correct animation on the foe hit when using customized Spines.

 

 

Issue 26

Changes to Tankers and Brutes including inherent powers Gauntlet and Fury.

Brute:

Ranged and Melee damage modifiers are now equal at 0.75.

Damage buff cap lowered from 775% to 700%.

All Brute and Tanker Epic pools now use ranged damage modifiers.

Note that due to the above changes, Epic Pools should see no damage change at all.

 

Beta Decay (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Blaster): the "first target" 10% recharge buff should no longer erroneously stack for all foes in range. The 2.5% per target recharge buff will continue to stack as expected. Max recharge buff with 10 targets should be +35%.

Brute > Fury: Fixed a bug where some auras would passively grant the brute small amounts of +Fury.

Fixed the Tanker and Brute Global Taunt Proc not triggering on aura powers.

Staff Melee > Precise Strike: Brute version should no longer list twice that it accept Taunt enhancements.

A strange Fury power should no longer show up in the Brute enhancement slotting screen.

Fix bug where Brute PunchVoke was not triggering on aura powers.

 

Brute Melee > Battle Axe > Cleave: Max targets reduced from 10 to 5

rute > Katana > Golden Dragonfly: Max targets reduced from 10 to 5

 

Tanker and Brute inherent taunt procs now generate a combat message for the caster, to help determine if the taunt proc is currently working.

Ice Melee > Frozen Fists (Brute/Stalker/Scrapper) Power Description should no longer say it adds -res.

 

Gauntlet and Punchvoke changes:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Issue_26_Page_4#Tanker_&_Brute_Changes

 

Katana (including Brute Katana) gets "no redraw"

 

Shadow Maul (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Stalker) is now a much larger, faster cone that's actually capable of easily hitting multiple targets - especially on tanks!

Arc increased from 45 to 120 degrees

Recharge increased from 8 to 11 seconds

Cast Time reduced from 3.07 to 2.35 seconds

Damage lowered from scale 2.156 to 1.6184

DPS reduction is minor, it has only been lowered from scale 0.653 to scale 0.645

Target Cap increased from 5 to 10 for Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers

 

Issue 27

Added taunt slotting to many PBAoE's

Scrapper | Brute > Energy Aura > Energy Cloak > Fixed a bug where the stealth was not suppressing in combat, preventing the taunt aura from working

Brute | Tanker > Martial Arts > Eagle's Claw: Damage buff from this power should no longer be affected by enemy level

Brute > Regeneration > Fast Healing: This version of the power should no longer ignore healing enhancements

 

Invincibility (Tanker/Brute/Scrapper) - This power now adds a 1.67% toxic and psionic defense for the first target, and 0.33% for additional targets (total 5% against 10 foes, Tanker values).

Resist Energies (Tanker/Brute/Scrapper) - This power now adds psionic resistance.

Energy Protection (Brute/Scrapper) - This power now grants Psionic resistance.

Overload (all ATs) - This power now grants 33.75% toxic and psionic defense (Brute values).

Tank & Brute/Stone Armor/Granite Armor: Now suspends the other Stone Armor armor toggles in the set while transformed instead of deactivating them. Also will suspend travel toggles (Run, Jump and Fly). Suspended toggles cost no endurance while running.

 

Brute/Radiation Melee/Atom Smasher: Was using Smashing Attack, this is now set to Toxic Attack. This power doesn't do smashing damage.

Brute/Stone Armor/Earth's Embrace: Changed the +Max HP effects' stack type to Replace.

Brute/Titan Weapon/Defensive Sweep (Slow): Was missing its endurance cost. Now set to the intended 5.356

Brute/Dark Melee/Shadow Punch: Description fixed.

Battle Axe power order changed

Brute > Melee: Fixed a sorting mistake in with the Spines powerset listing in the character creator.

 

Brute > Fiery Aura > Burn: Fixed a bug while using Fiery Embrace that unintentionally created additional patches

 

Soul Mastery/Summon Widow (Brute/Tanker): Can no longer slot ToHit Debuff Sets.

 

Brute/Radiation Melee/Taunt: Now hits 5 targets (was set to 10 before).

 

New Epic Pools were added for Brutes

Many Epic Pool Adjustments

 

Issue 28 nothing

 

+++

 

 

You missed one.

Brute max damage was 850% before fury changes in issue 18.  Every min/maxer was flatout saying brutes were the ultimate class up till then, we weren't kidding then.

[Psyonico]

On 6/2/2025 at 5:16 PM, tidge said:

 

Issue 1: The level cap for Tankers is increased to 50; the level cap for Brutes remains unchanged.

I know you’re just joking, but at CoV launch, villain ATs were limited to 40.  I think Grandville was released in i7

[LightMaster]

On 6/3/2025 at 1:27 PM, tidge said:

 

Thanks! This is basically what I did (years ago) to try to understand 'nerfs to Brutes'.

 

The biggest one I see is the top value for Damage Buff... I'll leave it for others who routinely and consistently crossed from 700% towards 775% to say how they were affected.

 

I remember many people being upset about 'massive nerfs', and maybe those players favored Brutes? The items in that category are (from memory):

 

1) Defense (& attack) typing changes which meant players chasing single resistances (for example S/L or F/C) became vulnerable to content that they had not been vulnerable to previously.

 

2) Fire melee set changes (that came to include Defense Debuffs), which was most noticeable for fire farmers

 

3) Changes to the in-game rewards, like scaling rewards of Empyrians, lvl 49 XP->Inf going away, conversion rates of Vanguard merits, etc... many of these were targeted at AE (and some non-AE) farm-ish activities for the economy of the game and nothing to do with performance.

 

 

 

It's not a secret that in the early days of Homecoming, 'Farming with Brutes' was typically the default advice (for those who wanted to farm). I'm wondering the 'nerfs to farming' have gotten confused with 'nerfs to Brutes'. None of the three changes I listed were targeted at Brutes, although #1 had a larger impact (from my memory) on ATs that were capable of exceeding a very high resistance cap.

 

12 hours ago, DrunkFlux said:

 

You missed one.

Brute max damage was 850% before fury changes in issue 18.  Every min/maxer was flatout saying brutes were the ultimate class up till then, we weren't kidding then.

Don’t forget, Brute’s Fury affect all of the Brute’s damaging power, not just Melee. If the Brute AT retain their 850% or even 800% Damage Bonus Cap today, not even a well-built Blaster can keep it up in DPS because of the obscene combination of typical Melee pain, decently high survivability and on top of that, capacity of high ranged damage via Temporary Powers (Envenomed Daggers and Plasmatic Taser being two big examples), or from the Power Pool like Arcane Bolt and almost all of the PPP powers for the Brute.

 

Compare that to a Corruptor, the AT that just happens to be well-rounded yet deadly AT thanks to great DPS, decent survivability and aggro control, and of course Buff/Debuff secondary set. But not so immensively good that it made other ranged Archetypes redundant / useless just by existing.

 

And the Defender AT, while much less damaging than even Controllers, compensates with unparalleled buffs/debuffs, numerically at least. And their damage are still decent enough to finish off a job or get a random Minion off their back. So neither the Defender nor Corruptor overshadow each other completely either.

 

I don’t think even today Homecoming’s Tanker would be able to be a viable alternative if Brute can deal an obscenely high amount of DPS other than greater aggro control and better survivability.

 

EXTRA: Maybe a new thing exclusive to Brutes to take further advantage of Fury, is allowing them to pick at least two alternative Ranged AoE / Cone options from their Melee sets that is mutually exclusive with a true Melee one (i.e. Inferno instead of Greater Fire Sword), but are mutually exclusive so if you pick the AoE / Cone option, you can’t pick the Melee version from the same level availability. This is akin to Sentinel’s mutually exclusive Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler.

 

Flavor-wise, brutal fighters aren’t all about melee all the time, so they can and will throw things, shoot things, cause a ranged earthquake, etc. And in CoX, Black Scorpion, the Arachnos Patron that represents the Brute back in CoV, is armed with arm cannons and tail-cannon for ranged attacks, alongside his brute force and durable armor, despite player Brutes not officially having this capacity unless they pick an APP or a PPP.

 

While you may argue that giving more Ranged attacks to Brutes as “mutually exclusive options” for Melee counterparts will make it overlap with Sentinel, keep in mind that Sentinel are designed, or are in practice, made for DPS over survivability while focusing on Range, while Brute still have a big focus on Melee and, while not a top dog for Melee DPS, have second best survivability among ATs next to the Tanker. It’s more making the Brute the opposite of Blasters; big melee with capacity of using ranged powers without needing to access of Epic Power Pools.

 

As an aside Sentinel themselves don’t have access to Melee powers unless using an APP or a PPP so there’s that.

Edited Sunday at 02:20 PM by LightMaster
Added an extra

[tidge]

It would be too much of a change to the perception and mechanics of Brutes, but this would be my suggestion: if Brutes debuffed enemies in PBAoE as they built Fury instead of self-buffing damage, that would be a somewhat unique mechanic that would allow the Brutes to "hit harder" and have a place on teams. Obviously this wouldn't appeal to anyone who thinks one-dimensionally along the lines of "Hulk get angrier and hits harder", but in terms of game mechanics it would be an alternative to "melee DPS".

[SomeGuy]

I remember City of Brutes. I saw zero reason to play any melee class other then a Brute. I do NOT want to ever have CoB ever again. The slider went to far though. The Fury nerf and DOA ATO2 made sure Brutes were hurt even more. Then the seriously OP Tanker changes made Brutes pretty much irrelevant...Brutes brought nothing to the table that a Tanker or Scrapper didn't do better.  Brutes felt like they were in a place in between Tankers and Scrappers and that was really good. Now (before the impending tanker changes) there is no reason to go Brute over a Scrap or Tanker.

 

I'm PLing a TW/ELE brute in hopes that the changes make the class relevant again. A ELE/TW tanker is easy mode right now. Feels like there is zero risk/reward. Just all reward.

 

*The ATO2 is the biggest insult to the class there is. ATO1 for the class is "meh" at least. I had a solution years and years ago regarding that unique. Can't remember it now. Maybe something like give all incoming attacks for X amount of time to do x% damage back?

 

 

Edited Monday at 10:37 PM by SomeGuy

[Yomo Kimyata]

I would also make the argument (it's not a strong one, but it's an argument nonetheless) that tankers and brutes (post fury nerfs) are fundamentally the same AT with the same powers and epics pools, so that buffs to one and not the other make one of them comparatively weaker.

[Captain Fabulous]

You heard it here first folks, a true Hammer powerset coming for Brutes!

[Captain Fabulous]

5 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

I remember City of Brutes. I saw zero reason to play any melee class other then a Brute. I do NOT want to ever have CoB ever again. The slider went to far though. The Fury nerf and DOA ATO2 made sure Brutes were hurt even more. Then the seriously OP Tanker changes made Brutes pretty much irrelevant...Brutes brought nothing to the table that a Tanker or Scrapper didn't do better.  Brutes felt like they were in a place in between Tankers and Scrappers and that was really good. Now (before the impending tanker changes) there is no reason to go Brute over a Scrap or Tanker.

 

I'm PLing a TW/ELE brute in hopes that the changes make the class relevant again. A ELE/TW tanker is easy mode right now. Feels like there is zero risk/reward. Just all reward.

 

*The ATO2 is the biggest insult to the class there is. ATO1 for the class is "meh" at least. I had a solution years and years ago regarding that unique. Can't remember it now. Maybe something like give all incoming attacks for X amount of time to do x% damage back?

 

 

The thing is, Tanks, Brutes, and Scrappers were never meant to occupy the same spaces in the game, much like Corruptors and Defenders (the latter of which has been made largely superfluous by the former). The balancing problems are a direct result of proliferating Villain ATs to the Hero side.

[LightMaster]

As with the impending changes, the Tanker AT is gonna be reworked again so that they won’t be as potent for AoE as before, just more specialized for aggro control compared to other ATs.

 

I don’t think Brute will still have a serious place in teams other than “Oft-Tanking” since, as incredibly solo-friendly it is, it has some severe downsides that need to be addressed such as the below-average ATOs, Fury only increasing damage when attacking when other ATs’ inherent are more immediate or in Dominator’s and Corruptor’s case, far more impactful when conditions reached, and otherwise not bringing much to the table compared to other melee ATs.

 

I feel like a combination of these two may help the Brute stand out above the others, both of which involve Fury and make that mechanic more rewarding to keep up;

• Allow the Brute have access to two / three Ranged powers in their Melee power sets as individual alternatives (and not replacement) on top of the Ranged powers within APPs / PPPs, akin to Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler of Sentinel and a few more mutually exclusive powers in the upcoming Page 2. This makes the Brute one of the rare melee-ranged hybrids akin to Blaster and Dominator but as an option, so veterans won’t have to worry about Ranged powers forced upon them.
  • The reason why is because Fury boosts damage to every damaging Powers, including Temporary Powers, and not just Melee powers, as Fury directly grants Damage Bonus to the Brute. Even a Revolver (otherwise unnoteworthy) from a Brute with high Fury can deal some serious damage. Ranged Powers also allows Brute to consistently pin down fleeing foes, safely destroying an exploding object / foe, or finish off a cowardly foe.
• In addition to Damage Bonus, Fury also grants To-Hit / Accuracy bonus. A fictional character that is brutal or enjoys fighting a lot will eventually overwhelm an opponent that relies on dodging or deflecting moves, so the Brute will have To-Hit / Accuracy bonus to similarly being able to hit dodgy opponents, especially higher-leveled ones. This in turn makes Brute even more solo-friendly and early game efficient, as they do not need to buy Accuracy Enhancements thanks to Fury’s theorical new bonus.

This is up to the developers to figure out, but those suggestions can help Brute to stand out while still fitting the Archetype flavor and without strictly overshadowing other Melee Archetypes.