Going Rageless?

The one and only thing I don't like about Super Strength as a set is Rage. It's a poorly balanced power and the crash is annoying. So I ask myself: can I go Rageless on a Super Strength Brute? What would I be gaining and what would I lose?

Join me after the break to examine the Rageless possibilities!


Let's use the Brute Super Strength power Knockout Blow. The base damage is 148 (decimals rounded for simplicity). Let's add 95% damage enhancement to that along with 75 (150% damage) Fury and Rage (80%):

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
80% of 148 = 118
289 + 222 + 118 = 629

So a Brute with 95% damage enhancement, 75 Fury and Rage will do 629 damage with Knockout Blow. Rage accounts for 19% of this figure. But that's not the whole picture. Rage also has an activation time and a down time totaling about 11 seconds out of every 120. That means Knockout Blow's damage over time is reduced by 9%, so:

629 - 9% = 572

The Rage Brute is effectively doing 572 damage with Knockout Blow over time.

Now let's take a look at a Rageless Brute. We'll still have 95% damage enhancement and 75 Fury, but no contribution from Rage:

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
289 + 222 = 511

A Rageless Brute is doing 511 damage where a Rage Brute is doing what amounts to 572. A difference of just 11%! Now let's mitigate the missing damage by taking Assault on the Rageless Brute. Brute Assault gives a rounded 11% damage bonus, so:


148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
11% of 148 = 16
289 + 222 + 16 = 527

Our Rageless Assault Brute is doing 527 damage. That leaves the Rage Brute doing only 8% more damage.

But that's not the only trick up Rage's sleeve! A common tactic with Rage is to double-stack it. So let's see what a double-stacked Rage Brute can do:


148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
160% of 148 = 237
289 + 222 + 237 = 748

With double-stacked Rage, our Brute is doing a whopping 748 damage with Knockout Blow! But here's the trick: the downtime is even more intense because we now have 22 seconds of downtime out of every 120, which is a 18% damage reduction over time, so:

748 - 18% = 613

That's 7% more damage than the single-Rage Brute, 17% more than the Rageless Brute, and 14% more than the Rageless Assault Brute.

Now let's see if we can push the Rageless Assault Brute a bit further by adding 20% global damage bonus (a very achievable amount of +damage) from the Inventions Origin enhancements available in the game:


148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
11% of 148 = 16
20% of 148 = 30
289 + 222 + 16 + 30 = 557

The Rageless Assault IO Brute is doing 3% less damage than the Rage Brute and 9% less than the double-stacked Rage Brute.

As we can see, at high Fury levels, Rage is not quite the damage-contributor you might think it is, and even double-stacked Rage is contributing only 17% more damage than a Rageless Brute, with 22 seconds out of every 2 minutes effectively wasted.

We can conclude from this a Rageless Brute build is surprisingly viable, especially in the presence of alternate sources of +damage. Such a Brute will also have no downtime and no -Defense or -Endurance to contend with. The downside is you are doing significantly less damage at lower Fury values, and don't have the slotting freedom that Rage's +damage and especially +tohit provides. Such a build is most likely best to be kept in PvE, as in PvP Rage's +tohit becomes very important.

In summary:
Rageless Brute advantages:

• No downtime.
• No -Defense.
• No -Endurance.
• 1 Fewer power pick.
• Virtually identical damage output at high Fury levels.

Rageless Brute disadvantages:

• No +tohit.
• Inferior damage output at low Fury levels.
• Probably not competitive in PvP.
• More restrictive slotting compared to Rage builds.