Scrappers and Brutes

[Canine]

I always saw scrappers as a class that brought balance to the team, whether getting rid of the boss or quick jumping out of the thick to get rid of some unwanted aggro on the squishier chars, when not under the effects of scrapperlock, of course... 

Being able to jump out of a melee, scrag a mob that's threatening a squishy and then jump straight back in without dragging a load of aggro onto the squishies due to lesser aggro holding on Scrappers was an underrated ability.

Of course, this was only likely to happen on the trained 'team scrapper' which could be a rare breed...  The far more common 'Feral scrapper' wouldn't care what was happening to the rest of the team once the scrapperlock descended.

[Thunder Glove]

Some have said that Brutes held aggro better, and that's true, and the reason why was two-fold: they automatically Taunted every target they hit (similar to Tankers, but without the AoE), and they had a Taunt Aura power in their secondary (exactly like Tankers).

Scrappers had a harder time keeping aggro.  They had nothing to keep enemies from running away, and their Taunt-like power (Confront) had a chance of missing.

In fact, that was the main reason I always preferred Brutes to Scrappers.  I never had to chase anyone down with a Brute, but I did with a Scrapper.

Their powerset choices were also slightly different.  Scrappers didn't have access to Super Strength, Stone Melee, or Stone Armor.  (Before Issue 21, Brutes didn't have access to Katana, Broad Sword, or Regeneration; while Scrappers didn't have Battle Axe, War Mace, or Energy Aura)

[Canine]

... and they had a Taunt Aura power in their secondary (exactly like Tankers).

So did several Scrapper secondaries.  Willpower, Shield Defence, Invulnerability are the three I recall offhand.  Brutes had more taunt aura options (and pokevoke on melee hits as you mentioned), as IIRC, some secondary powers were slottable for taunt on brutes, but not scrappers.  But that's only a vague memory now, and I may be wrong.

[silvers1]

I always preferred playing scrappers because they were good to go from the first moment of the fight to the last - I absolutely hated having to build up that fury bar.

The only brute I really enjoyed was my SS/Fire farmer, and he was only at his best in the specialized farming missions.

[Felderburg]

I didn't play much of either AT, unfortunately. I will say, that for me, because my scrapper was a Dual Blades, my scrapper lock was less about a general "gotta get 'em all!" mentality and more about "gotta hit the next power for my combo!" sort of thing.

[Kronox]

Browsing old topics...

In case anybody is curious about numbers, brutes have the lowest base damage of all the melee AT's, but their fury bar lets them get up to 300% base damage. So with that in mind, (Not including enhancements) a Brute must stay at 30% Fury to have the same base damage as a Scrapper. Scrappers land critical hits though, so for a Brute to have the same damage as a Scrapper's crits, 90% Fury. So there's still 10% left for "higher damage" but that's not accurate either.

Even with the same enhancements, Fury doesn't modify the damage post-enhancements, it's a % buff to the base power damage, so having a damage enhancement on a Brute power vs a Scrapper power, the Scrapper will get even more damage increase than the brute, so the more enhanced a power is, the more fury the brute would need to match the Scrapper's damage, until it's not even comparable late game, especially with Incarnate stuff.

Of course, they do have higher health and higher caps and taunting mechanics, but still not AS GOOD as a Tanker. Everything else people have said is true, too, of course, but I prefer Scrappers over Brutes personally. Then again, I would rather play a Tanker than a Brute too for that matter. Brutes are fantastic farmers, I had one myself! But on a team I'd prefer either a Tanker or Scrapper. Simply for the fact that while a Brute can fill the role as a Tanker, he can't hold aggro as well. A good blaster will pull aggro off instantly, even with a competent Brute. A Tanker will hold aggro better, and the damage isn't HORRIBLE. A Tanker actually has higher base damage than a Brute, even. It gets overshadowed by Fury, of course, but the gap isn't THAT big, and I found having enough damage on the team isn't typically the issue.



I know nobody at this point was really wondering anymore, but I thought I'd throw some number game analysis at it.