Rageless Brute 2: Low Fury Boogaloo

In my last article, I showed how at high Fury a Rageless Brute build, far from being gimp, is actually very viable and enjoys various advantages to make up for damage output that is only very slightly lower. Now in this followup article, I examine what happens at lower Fury values. Does the Rageless Brute fair as well as at high Fury, or does the idea of a Rageless Brute fall apart? Follow me after the break to find out!

Let's examine what happens with a Brute at "average" Fury. The upper limit of Fury is around 80 Fury. So we'll consider "average Fury" to be 40 points of Fury, giving an 80% damage bonus. We'll again use 95% damage from enhancements, and look at Rageless, Rageless Assault IO, Rage and double-Rage Brutes.

Let's look at the standard Rage Brute first:


148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
80% of 148 = 118
289 + 118 + 118 = 525

At 40 Fury, the Rage Brute is doing 525 damage with Knockout Blow. Rage's activation/downtime costs us 9% of that, so we get:

525 - 9% = 478

Over time, the Rage Brute is getting the equivalent of 478 damage out of Knockout Blow. Rage's contribution to that is 25%. Now let's compare to the Rageless Brute:


148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
289 + 118 = 407

The Rageless Brute is doing 407 damage, just 15% less than the Rage Brute. Time to see what the double-Rage Brute is capable of:


148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
160% of 148 = 237
289 + 118 + 237 = 644
644 - 18% = 528

After downtime, the double-Rage Brute is getting 528 damage, of which Rage contributes 45%. The double-Rage Brute is doing 9% more damage than the Rage Brute and 23% more damage than the Rageless Brute. The advantage over the Rage Brute is negligible, but the advantage over the Rageless Brute is significant. But what if our Rageless Brute takes Assault (11%) and IO set bonuses for 20% damage?


148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
11% of 148 = 16
20% of 148 = 30
289 + 118 + 16 + 30 = 453

Our Rageless Assault IO Brute is getting 453 damage. This is 5% less than the Rage Brute, 14% less than the double-Rage Brute and 10% more than the Rageless Brute.

A very favorable comparison. One might very easily choose to exchange 5-14% damage for no downtime, no -Defense and no -Endurance. Even at "average Fury" the Rageless Assault IO Brute is doing virtually the same damage as the Rage and double-Rage Brutes, and has none of the aforementioned costs, especially downtime. The non-Assault IO Brute does not compare quite as favorably with the double-Rage Brute, falling behind a rather significant 23%, but this disadvantage does virtually disappear at higher Fury levels.

In conclusion, skipping Rage in a Super Strength Brute is not the major handicap most assume it is. In fact, even at "average Fury" of 40, a Rageless Brute that takes about 30% damage bonuses loses virtually no damage in exchange for some very significant advantages in no downtime, no -Defense and no -Endurance. ToHit is also a factor, but a Rageless build can also compensate for that. The Rageless build will not have the flexibility the Rage build has, however, it remains a viable alternative in PvE.