What made the Brooklyn role distinctive?

Was the Brooklyn class intended for a different role from other US Navy cruiser lines?

Yes; it was especially suited to backing destroyers with heavy gunfire while those destroyers supplied the formation's torpedo attack.

Brooklyn-class cruisers were intended to bring heavy rapid gunfire behind American destroyer attacks. Their guns could suppress Japanese light cruisers and prevent them from breaking up the destroyers before the torpedo run. The Brooklyns did not need their own torpedo battery because the destroyers supplied that weapon inside the combined formation. The role helps explain a design that emphasizes volume of fire over independent cruising equipment.