Feedback Request: Super Strength / Energy Aura Brute Revitalisation

[MrWallace]

Hey folks,

I could use some advice on my namesake toon, "Mr Wallace," a Super Strength / Energy Aura Brute. This is my badge toon and one of my all-time favourites, but lately I feel like the build just isn’t cutting it. With the new 27/28 content, I’m struggling more than I’d like, and it feels like the build, which once worked great, is struggling a little bit more (maybe it's pilot error).

What I’d love to do is revamp the build so that it works better for both team play and solo play. My goals are:

• Handle +3 x8 difficulty for most stuff

• Be able to solo some of the lower TFs

• Overall, just feel tougher and more effective with the current game balance.

 

Below is  my Mids build here so you can see where I’m at. Hoping to get as much feedback as possible, slotting ideas, power picks, IO set tweaks, and even playstyle tips (in case I am just driving him wrong).

 

This toon means a lot to me, and I would really like to breathe some new life into him.

 

Any thoughts are welcome!

 

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Mr Wallace SS Ena Brute - GLM DN Tactics.mbd

[Warshades]

It's a pretty good build, there are certainly ways to add a tiny bit more resists and/or defenses at the cost of damage output and recharge, but I would ask what enemies are you struggling against with those conditions? As it is, it should be able to handle +3/8x against "most" stuff. A few general points:

• Are any difficulties surviving tied to the -20% defense from rage crash? If so, popping 1-2 luck insps should easily fix this. The one unfortunate thing with pairing a defensive based set with SS is that rage crash can significantly impact your survival. 
• What specific enemy groups are you struggling against? Energy Aura does have some inherent weakness to toxic and psi, both because of having low inherent resists and lack of typed defense buffs to toxic and psi. You can get more resist by doing some full set purples for the 6% boost along with doing 5 piece sets of Unbreakable Guard in resist powers.
• How much are you really needing Leadership pool in the build? The reason I ask is that you could consider going for Sorcery pool to get RoP. While it's not a permanent resist buff, it can help for any situations that you can anticipate being difficult to handle. 
• Ageless Radial is certainly helpful in providing debuff resists, but you can consider changing to Barrier Core. It can function both as having a permanent 5% resist/def boost as well as saving it for emergency situations for the first 30 seconds of it's duration.
• I don't know what you picked for your hybrid incarnate slot since it's not in the build, but Melee Core can provide a solid resist boost and be interchangeably cycled with RoP to increase the uptime of having high resists.
• Consider adding Haymaker to be able to 6 slot Superior Unrelenting Fury (6% resist to s/l/e/n/f/c on final bonus slot) and possibly Hand Clap as well (can be 2 slotted with Sudden Accel KB to KD and FF +rech) which helps to add some additional soft control through knockdowns. HC can be left towards end of the build as the incarnate level shift and double stacked rage will help significantly with the required accuracy for it to hit without additional investment.
• By taking the Agility alpha, you're going to be hindering your proc chances because of the recharge buff on it. Consider taking Nerve (accuracy will further help with HC and it also has a defense buff) or else Musculature to further boost damage. 
• I think you could consider in procing your attacks more. Dead things can't hurt you and that is especially applicable to SS which doesn't suffer from ignoring dmg/acc slotting because of it's ability to double stack rage. This will come at a cost of lowering some of your resists, but you would kill enemies faster by slotting Fury of the Gladiator -res in FS, Annihilation -res in Dark Obliteration, and generally slotting a lot of damage procs in powers like KO Blow, Foot Stomp, and Dark Obliteration. You can essentially 4 proc these powers and leave the remaining 2 slots for the acc/dmg and acc/dmg/end winter set pieces which will also give you a solid slow resist boost.

Without knowing what area you're specifically struggling against and need to improve, it's hard to suggest what needs to be changed.

[MrWallace]

Thanks a lot for such a detailed reply, I really appreciate the time you put into breaking down the build and pointing out options.

The problems I am running into are mainly in the newer stuff, like the new Homecoming Cimerora arcs that lead to hardmode ITF, the Kallisti Wharf arcs for I28, and the newer task forces like Aeon. The remastered enemy groups like Circle of Thorns and Council also seem a lot nastier than before. What I notice most is very fast cascades of defence debuffs, which drop me quickly. The point about rage crash is a good one and definitely something I need to watch out for more closely.

 

The other thing is that my damage output feels slower in level fifty-plus content than it did 18 months ago. Mobs take longer to go down, which makes solo play on high settings drag compared to how the build handled old live content. The character is still fine in the older parts of the game, but it does not feel tuned for the newer endgame material that Homecoming have added.

Your ideas about trying different incarnates, maybe adding Sorcery for Rune of Protection, and slotting more procs all sound like good routes to test. If you have any other tips based on the issues I have shared, I would love to hear them.

 

Thanks again for the advice. I will give some of these changes a try and see how they feel in the new arcs and TFs.

 

[Warshades]

6 hours ago, MrWallace said:

Thanks again for the advice. I will give some of these changes a try and see how they feel in the new arcs and TFs.

 

This makes some sacrifices on fire, cold, toxic, and psi resist and slightly lower defense totals, but should output a lot more damage by procing out your attacks while taking RoP and melee core hybrid incarnates to cycle between to get higher resists to the most common s/l/e/n and make up for the lost f/c/t/psi resist from set bonuses. Energy Drain will help with making up some of the defense loss, but you'll want to watch out for the rage crash. Couldn't find room in the build for Hand Clap unless you're willing to use Mystic Flight as your travel and then you could replace Super Speed for HC. It doesn't quite hit 100% recharge debuff resist but should be high enough at 85% (you could also move the Rectified Reticle slot in Rage to kick and 2 slot Superior Avalanche to get it to 100%). Can always swap the levels at which you take powers as you need for whatever levels you exemplar to often, RoP is definitely picked up late on the build. CJ can be swapped for Maneuvers if you prefer as well. This build uses musculature alpha and reactive radial interface to maximize damage and provide more -res debuffs.

 

Definitely test it out on test server first to see if it works.

Brute (Super Strength - Energy Aura).mbd

[SomeGuy]

Here's my take on SS/ENA Brute:

 

 

 

https://api.midsreborn.com/legacy/download?uc=1645&c=728&a=1456&f=HEX&dc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
 

 

 

I always take Agility alpha on my Brutes. Makes it super simple to build. Although I was tempted to do Muscle on this one. I build pretty differently then most BTW. I want to get to, what I consider, "enough" survivability then chase killing things. Dead is the best CC. If someone is arguing that, then they are wrong. Dead things can't hurt you. Dead things can't kill you.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by SomeGuy