I haven't yet reached the point where I have 5 or 6 pieces of Classified for any gear set type. So my go to build is Tacticians with a Barrett chest. That allows me to solo most anything on Challenging, but it does get a bit boring after a while. The other night I grouped with a friend who recently hit 30, and wanted to do something a little different. I had a 4 piece Final Measure set that was originally designed for PvP, and decided to run with that. We ran a 1-phase Underground mission on Hard and it worked out pretty well.
A few days later I had some time to sit down with the build and really optimize it. I paired it with 2 pieces of D3-FNC, for a total of 30% Protection from Elites. Rolled everything I could to max out Firearms (now just over 7000, was closer to 5000 before), while keeping Stamina and Electronics above 3832 for talents like Ferocious and Destructive, which I have on a M870 shotgun. The gloves have SMG damage on them and I'm hesitant to roll anything on that piece yet, so I decided to embrace the short range concept. My other gun is an Aug A3P, modded mostly for CHC, but also with +49% Optimal Range. The talents on the Aug aren't perfect, but I'm working on finding a better option. I even considered using an Eir/Hildr pair with the set, but that M870 is perfectly tuned for this build so it stays for now.
In the end the SMG has 50% CHC and 61% CHD, and is effective across a medium sized room. The shotgun destroys everything in range, but can be hard to use effectively when runners get in close. Part of that is from always aiming for the head since the shotgun has Brutal on it also. When I don't miss, it really does tear up those melee NPCs.
For the Abilities, I ran with an Immunizer Station and a Shock Turret. That combo really allows this build to shine. Get up close, drop both abilities, kill anything that moves. Talents were supportive of the build, extra defense on cover-to-cover moves, headshots may not consume the bullet, kills while a skill is active extend the skill. I forget what the fourth one was.
After tweaking everything I ran a 2-Phase Underground mission on Hard. The first phase took forever, and kept my heart pounding with all the chaos. The second phase went much quicker, but I had to do the final fight a number of times. At first I kept dying, and then I finally beat all the NPCs a few times but kept forgetting to blow up the ammo dump. Eventually I beat it, and felt pretty good about the build.
Running with Tactician keeps you looking for cover and a place where NPCs can't sneak up behind you. This set keeps you running into the middle of NPCs and furiously shooting everything. I don't think I could solo a mission on Challenging with it yet, but maybe eventually. Either way, the next time I group with my friend, we're going to try something on Challenging and see how crazy it gets.
Are there any other good brawler combos out there? Not glass-cannon builds, but something that can take a few hits and still dish out damage? And of course something that can do that without 5 or 6 pieces of Classified...
EDIT: I should add that I used to have a 4-piece D3-FNC build but the change from Electronics to Stamina broke it, and the pieces are already rolled in ways that prevent me from fixing it. I'm working on getting new pieces to rebuild that set. The Aug A3P in this build is actually from that build originally.
I've found a few more D3 pieces with Stamina on them recently so I'm getting closer to rebuilding that set. Might even buy a few caches for it during the GE, but haven't decided yet. D3-FNC and Final Measure are the only sets with Protection from Elites on them. Both can go to 30% and neither set can be stacked together to get past 30%. So they really are the only ones that allow you to go toe to toe with NPCs without needing them all to die very quickly. Obviously the shield gives D3-FNC a huge advantage in that department, but Final Measure does pretty well from cover when you aren't surrounded.
My friend and I ran some Challenging missions the other night during the Blackout GE and this Final Measure build really shines. It doesn't hurt that every shotgun blast is a guaranteed shock, and that runners tend to cluster up... We'll see how it holds up when the GE is over.
As far as improving this build, I really only see two paths. Either the same thing with 5-6 pieces of Classified, or a Ninjabike combo with FM, D3, and maybe Alpha. Could give up the 4th piece FM bonus to add one other 2-piece bonus, or get a 3-piece bonus from the 3rd set.
D3 is the only tank build in this game. When you get your pieces make sure you get 9000 stamina and 125k skill power. You can achieve this by rolling skill power as a major attribute on three pieces plus one gear mod with skill power on it. Then you can invest purely into Stamina and Firearms and not have any Electronics at all.
I'd also recommend putting Predatory on your primary weapon.