Tanker v Brute

[K0ntrol]

I'm wanting to roll a new character and I'm torn between Tanker or Brute. I wanted to get the opinion of some experienced Tankers on how they feel about this subject. It seems to me like Brutes are simply just a stronger pick and can fill either the Tank or DPS role well enough, but with a much higher potential for damage dealing.

 

What are some of the benefits of rolling a Tanker over a Brute? Do they get any additional bonuses on the defensive side of things that a brute would never be able to achieve with a fully min/maxed set of IO's/powers? How easy/hard is it to achieve a reasonable amount of DPS on a tanker whilst still maintaining your survivability? Conversely, how easy is it to maintain your survivability on a Brute while still keeping your DPS output relatively high?

[Infinitum]

That varies a lot and this is largely my opinion, but I prefer certain sets as brutes, and others as tanks - but I play everything with a tanker mentality.

 

If I can cap resistance or get close with a brute by io and incarnate I roll that as a brute, if I can't and survivability is sketchy I roll it as a tank.

 

My rad/rad, rad/Elec, and em/Elec are brutes.

 

My invul/ss, invul/em, sr/kinetic, and triple fire are tanks.

 

My goal is always a damaging highly survivable tank in the end.

[honoroit]

There are differences in some sets.

 

Look at dark melee for tanker vs brute, tank has aoe touch of fear etc.

 

Others don't, I couldn't see a diff in rad melee for example.

[Justaris]

The main differences are the AT modifiers and Gauntlet vs Fury, though as mentioned there are a few cases where the powersets themselves have differences between the two ATs.  Tankers have higher resistance caps and can usually reach a given mitigation goal more easily than a corresponding Brute.  Where it gets complicated is in the details, of course - how much that edge is worth in practical gameplay is a debatable point and you weigh the extra latitude you have in the build from not having to invest as much to reach your defensive goals on a Tanker against the higher overall damage potential of a Brute.

 

Personally I tend to prefer Tanker most of the time, but that's my own preference for having excessive survivability. 

[Xaeon]

The main differences are the AT modifiers and Gauntlet vs Fury, though as mentioned there are a few cases where the powersets themselves have differences between the two ATs.  Tankers have higher resistance caps and can usually reach a given mitigation goal more easily than a corresponding Brute.  Where it gets complicated is in the details, of course - how much that edge is worth in practical gameplay is a debatable point and you weigh the extra latitude you have in the build from not having to invest as much to reach your defensive goals on a Tanker against the higher overall damage potential of a Brute.

 

Personally I tend to prefer Tanker most of the time, but that's my own preference for having excessive survivability.

Tankers and Brutes have the same 90% resistance cap. Tanekrs just get higher scalars for protective powers.

[Heraclea]

With me, the deciding factor is mezz protection.  No matter how long you have to wait for the power when you take the set as a secondary, it will be available sooner if you take it as a primary.  When I want to experiment with an armor set I haven't used before, I roll a tanker.

 

If you roll a brute, you generally face a juggling act.  Build for a sustained attack chain (i.e. build for endurance) or build for survivability?  Rolling a tanker simplifies this.  You build for endurance, since survivability is a given. 

[K0ntrol]

The main differences are the AT modifiers and Gauntlet vs Fury, though as mentioned there are a few cases where the powersets themselves have differences between the two ATs.  Tankers have higher resistance caps and can usually reach a given mitigation goal more easily than a corresponding Brute.  Where it gets complicated is in the details, of course - how much that edge is worth in practical gameplay is a debatable point and you weigh the extra latitude you have in the build from not having to invest as much to reach your defensive goals on a Tanker against the higher overall damage potential of a Brute.

 

Personally I tend to prefer Tanker most of the time, but that's my own preference for having excessive survivability.

Tankers and Brutes have the same 90% resistance cap. Tanekrs just get higher scalars for protective powers.

 

Interesting. I didn't realize Tankers received better scaling on their defensives. That's something I'll have to look into further.

 

Appreciate all of the replies so far though, it's definitely helped me paint a better picture of which direction I'd like to go. I'm still leaning toward Brute right now, considering SS/WP, I feel like I probably value the inherent damage from Brutes a bit more than the survivability that tanks offer right now. But this thread has definitely given me some ideas for a Tanker alt as well!

[Erratic1]

With me, the deciding factor is mezz protection.  No matter how long you have to wait for the power when you take the set as a secondary, it will be available sooner if you take it as a primary.  When I want to experiment with an armor set I haven't used before, I roll a tanker.

 

If you roll a brute, you generally face a juggling act.  Build for a sustained attack chain (i.e. build for endurance) or build for survivability?  Rolling a tanker simplifies this.  You build for endurance, since survivability is a given.

 

With two exceptions, a Brute will have access to Mez protection by level 10 (as opposed to level 6 for a Tanker). I am not thinking it is going to make much difference that one picks up protection on their third DFB run as opposed to their second.

 

Most people aren't even bothering with slotting enhancements at that point aside from random SOs which happen to fit in somewhere.

[Infinitum]

With me, the deciding factor is mezz protection.  No matter how long you have to wait for the power when you take the set as a secondary, it will be available sooner if you take it as a primary.  When I want to experiment with an armor set I haven't used before, I roll a tanker.

 

If you roll a brute, you generally face a juggling act.  Build for a sustained attack chain (i.e. build for endurance) or build for survivability?  Rolling a tanker simplifies this.  You build for endurance, since survivability is a given.

 

With two exceptions, a Brute will have access to Mez protection by level 10 (as opposed to level 6 for a Tanker). I am not thinking it is going to make much difference that one picks up protection on their third DFB run as opposed to their second.

 

Most people aren't even bothering with slotting enhancements at that point aside from random SOs which happen to fit in somewhere.

true that, I don't start slotting until 17 or 22 then I revamp at 32 then IO out at 47.

[Kruunch]

I'm wanting to roll a new character and I'm torn between Tanker or Brute. I wanted to get the opinion of some experienced Tankers on how they feel about this subject. It seems to me like Brutes are simply just a stronger pick and can fill either the Tank or DPS role well enough, but with a much higher potential for damage dealing.

 

What are some of the benefits of rolling a Tanker over a Brute? Do they get any additional bonuses on the defensive side of things that a brute would never be able to achieve with a fully min/maxed set of IO's/powers? How easy/hard is it to achieve a reasonable amount of DPS on a tanker whilst still maintaining your survivability? Conversely, how easy is it to maintain your survivability on a Brute while still keeping your DPS output relatively high?

 

Tankers will allow you to be "tankier" faster (think 20s) whereas you don't start seeing that on a Brute until the 30s for the same type of content.

 

Brutes will always have better DPS assuming you manage your Fury bar well. They actually start out at less damage potential at 0 Fury than Tankers do.

 

You will never come close to Scrapper/Stalker damage with either. What you consider "acceptable" DPS between Brutes and Tankers is entirely subjective in feel. Brutes should always be higher numerically, but "feel" wise, I've always felt that Brutes just have a little better DPS (not categorically superior as do Scrappers/Stalkers). They are both on the same tier of damage (one farming build aside).

 

As for slotting schedule, I tend to level up to L22 and slot L25 IOs. This gives me a feel for the build and i don't have to worry about those slots for awhile. In the 30s, I will start fitting in attuned sets as slotting allows. This method is obviously expensive, so adjust according to your means.

 

Having played Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers, I think I tend to prefer Brutes for a mix of toughness and DPS, although I default all high end content to my Tanker when I have a question of survivability.

 

Hope that helps.

[Hyperstrike]

Tanks have a general survivability edge over Brutes.

Brutes kill things faster, negating some of the need to rely on that survivability.

 

In a "stand there and just take it" contest, unless the RNG gods are REALLY angry with you, the Tank will outlast the Brute.

Not terribly LONG.  But it'll survive longer.  (You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the next guy...)

 

But for most of the content, they're more or less indistinguishable, save that the Brute kills stuff faster.

[Xaeon]

Brutes are the "mario" of melee ATs. They can do either DPS or tanking pretty well without being top class at either. They harken back to an earlier phase of MMO class design (along with Corruptors and Dominators) when the trinity was Support, Tank, Control with everyone also supposed to being able to do DPS (which was phased out in later MMOs for Healing, Tank, DPS later because many devs found buffing/debuffing and crowd control too hard for them to balance and wanted classes to be more laser focused) as opposed to the more interdependent blueside ATs.

 

This is why Brutes are generally preferred over tankers for soloing as tankers can feel slow at clearing out mission maps while Brutes are basically always running with at 100% extra damage since you can get to 50% fury by just existing (something I dislike. Fury at once is too easy to get and lose, and yet doesn't really feel as impactful as it should be. It's a mechanic that's supposed to be "the madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets!" and yet practically you're basically always running at 50-75% so it's just a taken for granted 100-150% extra damage which is...boring) and if things are getting really interesting you can push up to 150 or even 200% extra damage. 

 

In team games, Tankers are of course better than Scrappers and Brutes at aggro management (when was the last time you saw a scrapper with Confront as anything but a set mule?) and when buffs aren't in play; at survivability. And while tanker damage is worst in class for melee ATs, it's still not bad damage at all. Melee powers tend to have superior stats to ranged powers as compensation for not being able to fight at a safe distance, and Tankers still get 0.8 melee damage scaling, which is superior damage scaling to defenders, corruptors, and controllers (though corruptors and controllers have bonus damage mechanics) and a Tank should be perfectly able to defeat things.

 

Of course at lategame and when buffs are involved that see people having way more stats capped than they'd ever be able to do themselves and when Scrappers and Brutes are running auras that let them pull aggro by just being around; that's more when Tankers start feeling less special.