The Brevent is really good in two cases: when there is powder up to your nose, or when most of the snow is gone. This is true for a number of reasons:

The off-piste is pretty limited, when it comes to off-pistes just off the edge of the pistes. Some hors-piste couloirs are conveniently located under the lift (time to get those sunglasses on, and be a bit of a show-off!), and those are quite easy to reach.
The Brevent really distinguishes itself in the off-pistes that are hard to reach. In fact it boasts some pretty exciting couloir action (Glen Plake already schussed down one of them!), such as the ENSA couloir. You can reach those from the top of the cable car (and you'll need the Cham off pistes guide...and have a deathwish).

There are easier off-pistes you can reach from the top, if you go left right after the first schuss off from the top (in between some large rocks). You can often find tracks there, and just follow them, to your own risk (yellow dots on the left of the map)!
There is also some nice off piste behind the Cornu lift, although, there has to be enough snow. Another good one is to go left from the top of lift (tracks), side-step up a steep slope up to an opening between the rocks which reveals a huge snow-bowl, where you can always make a track (yellow dots on right of map)!

For the pistes:
The Brevent has a good number of easy runs for beginners...

There is of course Le Mur du Brevent, which is quite famous, but it's lately been "enhanced", and there's now a blue run that swivels around it...sickening! Well, it's a red, but it feels like a blue run next to the Black anyway! It can be very good, if it's just snowed and there's powder or if the snow is slushy. Unfortunately it usually has its fair share of ice patches.
In the late season I often come back to the Brevent, as the pistes are really well-kept and the snow is often slushy (better than ice!).

There is now a new cable car which joins up the Brevent and the Flegere. The ticket for both resorts is more expensive then the single resort ticket, but then, you get two resorts! It's only really worth it if you're going to ski the whole day, otherwise you won't have the time to visit both!

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