AnswerTron's Guide to AR\Energy
Introduction: Why AR\Energy?
One day, I was sitting around, playing my Fire\Dev toon, and I had just thrown my third or fourth smoke grenade trying to make it stick on a group so I could hop in and set down a trip mine, when it occured to me that this was so boring it made me want to poke my eyes out. So I decided it was about time to roll up a new toon, one who would be faster paced, a little flashier and different, yet still solid. I arrived at AR\Energy because I felt that AR was the most solid on it's own, e.i. the less likely to suffer by not choosing /devices. I felt energy was the best secondary choice for this, mostly because aside from the end conservation and the buildup (that most blaster secondaries had), it also had strong melee which in turn provided some form of defence, be it disoreint or knockback. This is important, because while you might do more damage with fire, or slow them a bit with ice, or take their end with electricty, if you get into melee range with a mob and you don't have some way of covering your tail afterwards that mob is gunna cut you in half. Plus, sending a LT flying with power thrust and then buildup->sniping him while he's trying to get up is just plain
fun.
I do realize that ice manip has some decent CC options too, but none of them do any notable damage, so I felt that would just take away from the blaster feel I was going for (and also, ice manip doesn't have an endurance drain\conservation power).
I'm not looking to replace the fire\dev status quo build here. I'm quite confident that with both the high damage and great utility that /dev has, it's still the strongest secondary (despite even the major SG nerf in issue 2). This build is just for someone who is looking for something a little bit different, yet still effective. It's also rather slow leveling. If you feel after reading this that it levels too slowly, I'd say to try to work buckshot and\or m30 into the build, and simply respec out of them at 24. I don't like either of those powers, so I decided to just tough it out untill 18, but it's up to you
The Template
Ok, so next I'm going to list my recommend powers order up to level 38, and give a brief description of what the powers do and why I chose them.
Level 1: Slug and Power Thrust
Woot, here's another great reason to take EM over the other secondaries; it's the only secondary who's mandatory first power isn't just some peice of crud immobilize! Power Thrust is a fun ability. The damage isn't too horrible, the recharge and animation speeds are quick, and the knockback is fun. It's a great little move that get mobs off you, or off a defender or controller who's drawn some aggro. It's also a great way to finish off an opponent when you're low on end, and it's just a fun power to use. Put and accuracy and then damage if you want to slot it up (I chose to slot it up for my toon, but mostly because she has a robotic right arm so it fits her character very well). Plus, following up a power thrust with a snipe is an effective tactic that will help you take down single bosses or LTs your whole career.
Slug is like your basic attack. Does great damage, fast recharge, quick animation, long range, etc. Very versitile ability.
Level 2: Burst
Don't get Energy Punch, trust me, it sucks. if you need a fast attack, use brawl, it isn't much worse
Burst, unlike just about every other primary out there, is one of the few "quick" attacks that is worth taking. This is because AR only has two instant single target attacks, whereas every other primary has at least three (usually a quick long range, a meduim long range, and a heavy short range attack). Normally, once you get always-on hasten, you can rely upon the latter two attacks and ditch the quick one altogether, but you can't do that with AR. Plus, burst is fast (unlike say, flares), and does good damage, and has decent range.
Why not Buckshot you ask? Buckshot does mediocre damage, has a narrow angle and range, and has knockback, which isn't always a good thing. I chose to skip buckshot (and M30) because later in the game, Buckshot doesn't compare to Flamethrower or Full Auto, so for the most part you won't find a use for it. If you plan on respecing at 24, then go ahead and take them both, but I prefer to just stick it out and save my respecs for major patches\CoV\etc.
Level 4: Buildup
Buildup is one of those milestone abilities in your build. It's a quick boost to your attack and accuracy, that only lasts a couple seconds, but man it's a ton of damage. I've read that the damage is +100% of your base damage, which is pretty sick, especially if you tack on a few damage insps just for fun. With buildup and a six slotted snipe, you can oneshot LTs, and still have enough time to oneshot a minion with burst. Once you get your aoes, this ability is extremely good. It also takes almost no endurance to use, so use it liberally.
Level 6: Combat Jumping
Not alot to say about this ability except that it offers decent defence and doesn't take much endurance to run. Always a good idea to having running during a fight.
I'd also like to point out that I took the jumping route instead of speed mostly because I'm sick to death of superspeed. I still feel that superspeed is the better travel ability, but it gets so bland after awhile that I had to just try something different. Combat Jumping is a nice ability to have anyways.
Level 8: Swift
Again, not much to say. Swift is generally prefered over hurdle for SJ users (seeing as you'll cap your jumping once you get Sos). If you decided to take superspeed instead, go with hurdle here.
Level 10: Hasten
Should I even bother going off about hasten? Well... considering all the folks I've seen lately who take flurry instead of hasten, I suppose it's worth going into. If you already know about hasten, go ahead and skip this next paragraph.
Hasten, in a nutshell, increases the recharge rate of all your abilities by about 60% or so. Outside of a nutshell, it's not so simple, with the diminishing returns of recharge abilities and all that, but basically all you need to care about is that it makes your stuff recharge almost 60% faster. It's a huge ability, and until further notice, it's considered mandetory for basically all builds. It also increases your defence, but it also lowers your endurance regen rate while it's active (hence the reason for stamina, which we'll get later). If you're smooth, you'll have it six slotted right as you turn 22, so you can put six recharge SOs in it, which is enough to have it always active (control+right click and it will automatically fire).
Level 12: Sniper Rifle
Huge, huge, huge damage, along with a major accuracy boost, make this power uber. Use it combined with buildup to start every major battle you enter till you get full auto. Get it six slotted asap, all with damage because the inherient accuracy bonus is enough to not require an accuracy slot. In a 1v1 fight, hit em with power thrust and then snipe them as they get up. If you're feeling tricky, go ahead and try to sneak one in between mobs attacks. I use this ability all the time, whenever I can. But be careful, this ability takes awhile to go off, so if you're hit or if the mob moves out of line of sight before it goes off you'll lose the endurance but not take the shot.
Level 14: Superjump
Hop from rooftop to rooftop, up to raised highways, out of cavernous gorges, etc etc. This is your travel power. You can't have it on while you have combat jumping running, so make sure to switch to CJ before a fight. You can also use superjump to run away from fights gone wrong, just make sure to use short quick hops if you're indoors.
Level 16: Conserve Power
Here's the other main reason to go EM. Conserve power is a buff, kinda like hasten, which lasts for one minute and has a ten minute recharge. During that one minute, every ability you use costs 50% less than it normally would. Six slot it with recharge SOs, and when running always-on hasten you can drop 8 minutes off the recharge time. Combined with Stamina, this power is very effective at keeping you up and running. It's especially great to use when you're out of endurance. So long as the buff is running, you can just about regain as much endurance as you use with your abilities.
Level 18: Flamethrower
Thank god, you finally made it to 18 and got your first AoE. This AoE is spectacular. Much like fire breath from the fire line, it's a fairly wide cone AoE that hits as a 4-5 hit slow DoT. Setting it up might be a bit difficult at first, but here's a bit of advice; when lining up the cone, make sure to target the mob furthest away from you, so that you know you're in range of everything you want to hit. The only problem with this ability is that it has a fairly long animation, so make sure you're not going to need to egress before the animation is done.
Level 20: Health
Just a prereq to stamina. Not very helpful, but you'll get alot more out of it than you would hurdle.
Level 22: Stamina
Stamina is the other power pool ability that is considered "standard", like hasten. What it does is increases your endurance regen rate, and six slotted with end SOs, this regen rate is no small thing at all. This ability not only makes up for the endurance penalty of hasten, but even provides a healthy chunk of regen on top of that.
Now, some people say that Conserve Energy is enough, and that stamina is a bit overkill. I've always been of the school of thought that you can never, ever have too much endurance, and that if you never run out of endurance, that means you're not using enough attacks
You might argue that taking up a power pool and 3 abilities is a bit much when you could get by on conserve energy, but this build has the skills to spare.
Level 24: Bone Smasher
Bone Smasher is a very nice melee ability, which not only does enough damage to justify getting into melee distance with a mob, but it also provides a nice disorient effect to cover your hide after you do it. The only problem with the ability is a relativly slow animation time, so using it can sometimes be a bit of a gamble.
Level 26: Acrobatics
I decided to take Acrobatics instead of Power Boost here, because power boost doesn't last long enough for the effect to be worth it. Basically, power boost is much like Build Up, only it increases the effectivness of your utitlity powers (hold, immob, disorient, knockback). I've also heard it increases run speed, jump speed, and defence, but due to the short duration those effects aren't noticable enough to be worth it.
Acrobatics, however, is very nice, esepecially at the higher levels when holds are much more prevelent. Acrobatics is a toggle that raises your resistance to Hold and Knockback, but it provides no resistance to disorient, immobilize, or sleep. However, Combat Jumping does provide defence against immobilize, and sleep breaks when you're hit, so you mostly just have to worry about disorient after getting Acrobatics. Basically, as a general rule in CoH, if you're held you're dead. This goes double for us low defence blasters, so this ability is a must have.
Level 28: Stealth
At this point, it's really up to you whether to go with the concealment line or with the fighting line. I chose concealment so I could just turn on stealth and run through missions, and plus that extra defence is always nice. Swift and Sprint should just about counteract the speed decrease of steatlh, and it's easy enough to hop through a mission with superjump running. Plus, phase shift gives you a nice "oh <bleep!>" kind of ability which should save your skin at least a couple times.
But there are other options here. You could start the fighting line with Boxing, which by itself is quite useless, but it leads to Tough and Weave which are pretty darn good. I myself didn't take them because I felt that my character banging on her chest everytime she turned the toggle on was a bit out of character ;P
If you find you group with controllers alot, Ignite would also be a great choice, but otherwise I'd skip it for now. Unless the mobs you ignite are held, it's not very effective.
You could also take superspeed at this point and then get whirlwind later, I just felt that a second travel ability this early was a bit excessive.
Level 30: Grant Invisability
Or tough, or stealth if you took ignite, or whirlwind if you took superspeed. =p
Level 32: Full Auto
After days and days of leveling, dying, and running around, you finally got the guts to flip the switch marked "OMG DO NOT FLIP U NOOB!" Your gun just so happend to be pointed in the general direction of the entire Marauder gang. "I've never heard of this Marauder gang before," you might ask? Yeah, that's because they're all dead now. Every last one of them.
Ok, so maybe I exaggerate a LITTLE, but that's basically how it works. Full Auto is the pinnicale of the AR line, and unlike the other lines, it's not some "use only when the crud hits the fan, drain you of all your end" kinda ability. Full Auto is one of those "use every fight" kind of abilities. It's a very fast firing cone DoT, that hits a narrow yet deep cone of enemies. The damage on it is huge, and it has a small chance to do even more damage with a critical. The only downside is that the animation is very long, so make sure your back is covered.
Level 35: Boost Range
Boost range is a fairly nice ability, increasing the range of your attack powers by a very significant amount. Currently this ability doesn't effect cone powers, so its use is a bit limited. I won't be hurt if you decide to take ignite at this point, or another pool power, but sheesh, aren't you sick of taking pool powers? By level 30 you already have 9 of those suckers.
Level 38: Total Focus
This ability helps you focus, totally. Basically, it's like a slower version of bone smasher that does even more damage. However, even more so than bone smasher, the combination of slow animation and melee range leaves you vulnerable. But unlike bone smasher, this ability also has a chance to knockdown, along with a chance to disorient, so if it doesn't kill whatever you hit with it, it should still leave you covered.
Level 41-49: Whatever, Man.
The next four abilities, just play them by ear. I recommend getting Ignite, Superspeed, Whirlwind, and Phase Shift, in no particular order. If you decide to take something else, that's fine. Really shouldn't make a big difference after you get your core abilities established, although it would be kinda funny to take concealment but not get phase shift at some point.
Slotting
Not alot to say about slotting, save that you should get all your main attacks six-slotted. Conserve Power, Hasten, and Stamina should also be six-slotted. As for which enhancments to use, so far 5 damage and 1 accuracy seems to work the best. Despite AR's natural +5% to accuracy, I've found that it still needs that extra boost or the misses start to get frustrating. Obvious exceptions to this are Full Auto and Sniper Rifle, which both get huge inate accuracy bonuses. Those should have six damage enhancements in them.
As for cone range, I've found that 90% of all cone range issues stem from poor alignment rather than from your cone range being too short. So if you're considering swapping in a cone range increase, first try taking more time setting up your attacks.
Leveling
To level, try killing enemies or completing quests. Try to avoid dying. Beyond that, I'm sure there are a dozen great guides out there that will tell you exactly where to go at ever level, just keep in mind that as AR you won't level nearly as fast as say, fire. Also, untill you get your aoes goin you may find yourself relying on groups. I found that three person groups seemed to work the best, usually myself, a defender, and a scrapper. Anything more than that, at lower levels, is usually so disorganized that you end up dying more than xping.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my guide. If you have any questions or comments, go ahead and post below or PM me, or send me an email at chronocide2000 at hotmail dot com (take that, email sniffers!).
ttfn,
-The Ultimate Galvanized AnswerTron [who] Just Said No to Superadine!
