Solo Brute Advice

[ajm603]

Hello,

 

I'm interested in creating a new toon that has the ability to solo large mobs as early as possible.  I would like to attempt this as early as when I can enter into the Hollows as Perez Park.  Do you think a Brute is a good AT for this?  If yes, what power combo (s)?  All suggestions and advice would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[Neiska]

If by large mobs you mean giant monsters/AVs, only some ATs and powers can, its mostly a case of bringing the right toolkit. You need some form of sustain, debuffs, but most importantly either a lot of damage or a good bit of -regen. AVs and GMs both regenerate a lot. I am not familiar enough with brutes to offer a specific setup, but I imagine Energy Melee might be great at it, its the strong single target set.

 

But keep in mind, the builds that are good at soloing the big targets often arent the best at other things, like speedy/fast teams or AoE stuff. To my mind its a kind of balance. A Robot/Traps MM can solo the big stuff, so can an illusion/radiation Controller, but those aren't really speedy or fast. Fantastic soloers though if you like big game hunting! There really isn't a single AT or power combo that can "do everything." But some come close!

[ajm603]

I'm looking to try and solo the mobs that are a mix on minions, LTs and bosses in the hazard zones like Perez Park.

[Neiska]

Oh, well many well built builds can do that. Brutes are likely great for that, Tankers too. You could make almost any of the top performing pairings work. Personally my best pairing was Savage/Bio, but its a bit of a late bloomer. 

[ajm603]

Which power combos have the best AOE?

[ZeeHero]

Biggest issue with soloing AVs is the AV regen, its completely ludicrous and requires you to constantly debuff it to make a dent.

[Maelwys]

6 minutes ago, ZeeHero said:

Biggest issue with soloing AVs is the AV regen, its completely ludicrous and requires you to constantly debuff it to make a dent.

It's only a maximum of about 102 HP/second. That's trivial to overcome even for a Tanker, let alone a Brute.

 

(30677.2*0.05)/(15) = 102.2573333 HP/Second regeneration for a level 54 AV.

 

Giant Monsters are substantially rougher, as they can regenerate ~353 HP/second before anything special. But there are still more than a few builds capable of Brute (hah!) forcing their way through that without Envenomed Daggers or Lore Pets.

 

[Maelwys]

47 minutes ago, ajm603 said:

Which power combos have the best AOE?

 

Firey Melee, Battle Axe, Titan Weapons or Martial Arts primary... with Radiation Armor, Shield Defense or Firey Aura secondary and the Mu Mastery patron pool.

[ZeeHero]

18 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

It's only a maximum of about 102 HP/second. That's trivial to overcome even for a Tanker, let alone a Brute.

 

(30677.2*0.05)/(15) = 102.2573333 HP/Second regeneration for a level 54 AV.

 

Giant Monsters are substantially rougher, as they can regenerate ~353 HP/second before anything special. But there are still more than a few builds capable of Brute (hah!) forcing their way through that without Envenomed Daggers or Lore Pets.

 

Experience fighting AVs while doing a few hundred damage a second says otherwise.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, ZeeHero said:

Experience fighting AVs while doing a few hundred damage a second says otherwise.

 

If you're dealing a "few" hundred (e.g. 200-300) DPS then an even-level AV will drop in roughly 3-5 mins even without any -res debuffs or regeneration debuffs in play. But anything over the 102 DPS mark will eventually kill them, and Brutes are well suited to weathering their damage and outlasting them.

 

I fully appreciate that not everyone is into min/maxing... but to put things into perspective; there are definitely non optimised Brute builds out there (like Radiation Melee!) that can drop a pylon (which unlike most AVs has a 20% resistance to all damage) in less than 60s without using Lore Pets or Inspirations. And if refillable temps are off the table too, then Ston's old write-up is a good guideline.

 

 

 

[Neiska]

10 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

 

If you're dealing a "few" hundred (e.g. 200-300) DPS then an even-level AV will drop in roughly 3-5 mins even without any -res debuffs or regeneration debuffs in play. But anything over the 102 DPS mark will eventually kill them, and Brutes are well suited to weathering their damage and outlasting them.

 

I fully appreciate that not everyone is into min/maxing... but to put things into perspective; there are definitely non optimised Brute builds out there (like Radiation Melee!) that can drop a pylon (which unlike most AVs has a 20% resistance to all damage) in less than 60s without using Lore Pets or Inspirations. And if refillable temps are off the table too, then Ston's old write-up is a good guideline.

 

 

 

 

Not saying the data is wrong but I find it surprising. Energy is middle of the pack? And my Savage Melee is one of my best brutes. One of my best tankers is Fire Melee though. But am surprised to see that Martial Arts and Titan Weapons are on top for brutes. Much as I love the themes of Dark Melee and Spines, seeing them at the bottom makes me a sad Neiners. = (

[Spaghetti Betty]

46 minutes ago, Neiska said:

 

Not saying the data is wrong but I find it surprising. Energy is middle of the pack? And my Savage Melee is one of my best brutes. One of my best tankers is Fire Melee though. But am surprised to see that Martial Arts and Titan Weapons are on top for brutes. Much as I love the themes of Dark Melee and Spines, seeing them at the bottom makes me a sad Neiners. = (

It's not too surprising to me!

 

You have to think of it this way, Brute damage is incredibly backloaded and damage buffs aren't quite as impactful on them thanks to their lower damage scalar and relationship with Fury. This means sets that don't boast incredible up front damage or rely on some kind of buff to perform (Savage, Dark, Claws, Spines, Staff) or perform better on Scraps/Stalks because of crits (Energy Melee, Ice Melee) are going to lag behind sets with very, very good DPA (Martial Arts boasts some of the highest DPA on average across all ATs) since those sets don't need nearly as much propping up as others!

 

I think what's more surprising to me about that data is just how much better Dual Blades is over Claws when Follow Up and crits aren't carrying it!

 

 

To stay on topic, if you want a Brute that will boast early AoE and be tough enough to stand up, I think I'd probably go with a Staff Fighting/Radiation Armor Brute. It'll provide the smoothest levelling experience over all and only gets stronger as you progress. The damage will plateau as you inch towards 50, but it'll get going very soon and every handful of levels will feel like a new bloom!

Edited August 4 by Spaghetti Betty

[ZeeHero]

Definitely doing much more than the AV regen claimed here.

[Maelwys]

9 minutes ago, ZeeHero said:

Definitely doing much more than the AV regen claimed here.

 

It's really not. Regeneration ticks are always 5% of the critter's HP bar.

AVs tick every 15s, GMs tick every 10s.

 

A level 54 AV has 30677.20 HP.

(30677.2*0.05)/(15) = 102.257 HP per second.

 

An uncapped GM at level 50 has 70679.18 HP.

That's (70679.18*0.05)/(10) = 353.396 HP per second.

 

The only thing that boosts this is MaxHP buffs or Regeneration buffs, and only a few specific AVs (like Shadowhunter) have those. Versus a pylon you'll be working against 20% flat damage resistance; but their regeneration rate is standard.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

To stay on topic, if you want a Brute that will boast early AoE and be tough enough to stand up, I think I'd probably go with a Staff Fighting/Radiation Armor Brute. It'll provide the smoothest levelling experience over all and only gets stronger as you progress. The damage will plateau as you inch towards 50, but it'll get going very soon and every handful of levels will feel like a new bloom!

 

I'd probably go Titan Weapons instead... but certainly Radiation Armor is a good shout. Titan Weapons is almost as effective as Staff early on (due to Defensive Sweep and Titan Sweep) but it has a much higher performance ceiling later on and no funny stance shenanigans.

[twozerofoxtrot]

1 hour ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

I think what's more surprising to me about that data is just how much better Dual Blades is over Claws when Follow Up and crits aren't carrying it!

 

Blinding Feint does what Follow Up does for DB and Ston likely put a -Res proc in Ablating Strike.

 

If you compare the amount of -Res activations between the two sets that may account for why DB was pulling so far ahead.

[Erratic1]

4 hours ago, Neiska said:

 

Not saying the data is wrong but I find it surprising. Energy is middle of the pack? And my Savage Melee is one of my best brutes. One of my best tankers is Fire Melee though. But am surprised to see that Martial Arts and Titan Weapons are on top for brutes. Much as I love the themes of Dark Melee and Spines, seeing them at the bottom makes me a sad Neiners. = (

 

Keep in mind the use of Epic powers and extreme optimization.

[ajm603]

I decided to roll a battle axe/fiery aura toon. I hit level 12 running into mobs in Atlas and the Hollows.  I haven't been able to find more than 1 build with this combo, so if anyone would like to share one, that would be appreciated.

[Maelwys]

2 hours ago, ajm603 said:

I decided to roll a battle axe/fiery aura toon. I hit level 12 running into mobs in Atlas and the Hollows.  I haven't been able to find more than 1 build with this combo, so if anyone would like to share one, that would be appreciated.

 

I have one (see the middle build here) that's a generalist PVE build that can both tank and farm.

 

It's main Schtick is Softcapped Melee positional Defense (and hard capped S/L resistance) whilst maintaining high AoE damage output. Note that chasing the Defense softcap in a character without any native Defense Debuff Resistance often gets frowned upon... however the build has sufficient other layers of mitigation (healing, knockdown, damage resistance, etc) that I don't find defense debuffs overly bothersome. That said, it's not designed to down Pylons the fastest (although it's quite capable of soloing AVs!) so if you're after extreme single target damage, look elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5 by Maelwys

[ZeeHero]

Hmm I may have been wrong although I clearly did remember what I said, I just beat down a couple archvillains doing solo DA missions (not at the same time) took a while of pounding n them, but it was fine. Energy/Invuln brute, pretty basic classic flying brick build, using laser eyes for an emergency attack/defense debuff.

[Takedaa]

On 8/4/2025 at 12:46 PM, ajm603 said:

Which power combos have the best AOE?

I would still vote for claws at low level- spin is awesome.  Other sets catch up later on but if you're looking for an early bloomer I would still say claws for soloing perez park/hollows fun.  By the time you get into dark Astoria,most of the combos ive tried can blitz through - especially if you focus the storm shamans.  As far as secondary, maybe electric?  It's a reasonably sturdy resistance set.

[Without_Pause]

Interesting to see all of the talk away from what the OP was asking. I would likely do something like Claws/rad as it will do the intended job, level up nicely after that, and still be good at 50. BA is going to be fine in the end, but it is slow to start. I'm not a fan of FA, but if you are just focusing on lower level content, then whatever. 

[ajm603]

I feel like I'm struggling in the 20's and may re-roll another build.  I've been happy with Battle Axe, but I'm not sure about fiery aura. I am staying away from stone and rad armor because I have 2 level 50 tanks with those sets.  Any suggestions for an early bloomer to pair with battle axe?

[aethereal]

3 minutes ago, ajm603 said:

I feel like I'm struggling in the 20's and may re-roll another build.  I've been happy with Battle Axe, but I'm not sure about fiery aura. I am staying away from stone and rad armor because I have 2 level 50 tanks with those sets.  Any suggestions for an early bloomer to pair with battle axe?

 

Okay, so Battle Axe is endurance-heavy.

 

Bio is an overall strong set that gets an early Recovery power (Inexhaustible at level 1), then Efficient mode and at 24 can get DNA siphons which is another endurance tool.  It also has a damage aura (albeit not until level 28) which is strong on Brutes and just generally a good set.  Its hole is dealing with debuffs/controls: it has holes in its mez protection to exotic mezzes and and has no debuff resistance.

 

Psi is a new set so you aren't sick of it yet, and it gets what's reported to be a pretty powerful endurance tool in Consume Psyche at level 10.  I've never played it and some people I think don't love it, but you might want to try it out.

 

Other sets with endurance tools are Willpower (overall simple set, I think it lacks some performance ceiling but comes together fine) and Regeneration (I think still weak unless you pair it with very specific pools and incarnate choices, but better than it was).  Electrical, Energy Aura, Ice, and to some extent Dark have good endurance tools eventually, but not by the 20s.

[Maelwys]

4 hours ago, aethereal said:

Okay, so Battle Axe is endurance-heavy.

...

Electrical, Energy Aura, Ice, and to some extent Dark have good endurance tools eventually, but not by the 20s.

 

Firey Aura gets Consume at Lv20, so I'm not sure that's the main reason for the struggling?

 

(Sure Consume's base recharge is a bit rough, but it doesn't require Accuracy these days for the +End aspect and once your build gets going during missions it's effectively a full Blue bar refill once every 60-90s. Even 1vs1 it allows my BA/FA to keep attacking full pelt indefinitely without Ageless...)

 

Agree /Bio is a very nice combo for it though if /Rad and /FA aren't your cup of tea. /Psi is powerful too but more of a late bloomer as IME you really want Acc/Mez HOs for maximizing Aura of Madness/Insanity.

 

Edited August 9 by Maelwys