Circuit_Boy

Auroxis, unfortunately, it doesn't. Lightning Field ticks every 2 seconds, and it only drains 2% Endurance when it ticks.

However, endurance recovery ticks on a different schedule (I forget what that is), and so foes will regain some endurance before the next tick of Lightning Field.

The only way to keep mobs' endurance floored is through -Recovery Debuffs; Short Circuit, Tesla Cage, and Thunderous Blast all have a 100% chance to do -100% Recovery Debuff.

Angelofvalor, I believe you have, in your haste, mistaken the point I was trying to make to you. I suggest you go re-read what I wrote, so that you're no longer aiming your lance at windmills.

I never suggested "blaptrolling" is neither fun nor useful. Never.

I suggested it's not the only route, which you seem dead-set on. You're the one who has said it's the only way to play E^3. All I said was that there are other ways that are just as fun and just as useful.

Volty only has one attack, so there's nothing to chain.

If they let it cycle between that and Lightning Bolt, or gave it an AOE like Ball Lightning or Short Circuit... and made it last longer than 45 seconds...

Assault would add +10.5% Damage to all your powers, and it requires no slotting at all. It's not much extra damage, but on Fire/Fire/Pyre, damage is your real mitigation.

If we're talking a build with just SOs or common IOs, then either Recharge or Accuracy would be worthwhile.

You're right that you can gain Recharge in a lot of other ways, but the Recharge gained by the Alpha Slot is on top of set bonuses, Hasten, and other non-Enhancement sources of Recharge. Since your slotting above has minimal to no Recharge slotted, you'd get the full benefit, and it seems like it'd be universally beneficial, since Aim, Build-Up, and Hasten aren't fully slotted for Recharge.

That said, I went for Damage, even though most of my damage is capped anyway. With the right combination of HOs, frankenslotting Set IOs, and common IOs, most of my powers have Accuracy, Damage, and Recharged maxed already, and E^3 doesn't need Endurance Reduction.

[Meredith Grey voice] Also... ...Provoke on a Fire/Fire/Pyre Blaster? Seriously? [/Meredith Grey voice]

Voltaic Sentinel is really good for solo boss fights and for team AV fights... other than that, it's just parallel damage, which has its uses. Resummoning it is annoying.

I can't think of an earthly excuse for Lightning Clap. 50% chance to stun minions only? Knock foes out of your own Endurance Drain radius? Pop them all out of your Tank's taunt aura? Extended Warranty? Where do I sign up?!

I've taken and dropped EM Pulse. Big drain but no -Recovery Debuff to go with it, plus it's got a -Recovery crash. Super-long recharge. You're not going to use it very often, and in most situations you'd want to, Thunderous Blast would be a better option (as much Endurance Drain, plus, you know, it kills things). It's an AOE Stun, so it won't stack with Elec/Elec's Holds. That's mildly disappointing, too.

I think your final statement is the key. Fire/Fire/Pyre really has no secondary effects to boost in any significant way--not across a series of powers, anyway.

Recharge would work out just as well for Char, too, because it helps close the Hold Duration / Recharge gap, and it would probably benefit most of your powers.

There are also plenty of threads about how using Elec/Elec as a ranged set* is perfectly valid, and I've written plenty of times in the past about how the sets have great synergy at range, too.

If you want to dismiss peoples' points because of some perceived "attitude", that's your prerogative... ...and your loss. You can choose to learn something here... ...or not.

It's really no skin off my teeth either way.

I'm going Damage, but it's for ulterior motives. The third tier Alpha Slot also includes Endurance Modification, which affects Stamina, all of my Endurance Drain powers, and all of my -Recovery Debuff powers. For E^3, that's pretty much every power I use.

Recharge would be perfectly reasonable, too.

Tin_Soldier, in each of those fights, the statement you're picking out holds true: I picked my own battlefield in each one. Did I move into melee? Yes, I did. I never said I didn't. But ranged powers work in melee range just as well as they do at range, and in several of the fights--if you're paying attention--were one-shot Zapps followed by a two-shot Lightning Bolt -> Charged Bolts combo. And that was the point. Meleers can't one-shot foes without taking the alpha strike. Your interpretation is that it's "about Shocking Bolt", but in reality, it was about not taking any shots and it was about taking out the first two minions in a spawn in three hits, taking minimal (if any) damage in the process. You're looking at a minority of the time--1/3 of the foes--when I was in melee range with foes. In several of those situations, if I had closed into melee range, another spawn was close enough to perceive me and I would have had two spawns on top of me.

In Ball Lightning -> Static Discharge -> Short Circuit, there's very little time lost due to repositioning, sometimes none. Short Circuit has a huge radius (20')--it's not melee range. You can stand in one spot and throw Ball Lightning -> Short Circuit and hit the same foes. You can throw Ball Lightning -> Static Discharge, and a short hop into Short Circuit range to hit the rest. Maybe 0.5 seconds, tops. I do it all the time.

Regarding movement suppression vs. ED, both were a long, long time ago. Forgive me if I didn't check ParagonWiki before making an irrelevant misstatement. And I'm thoroughly aware that jousting is possible without travel powers--that Sprint doesn't suppress. However, the point I was addressing was regarding SuperSpeed, which DOES suppress, and everyone who used to Joust before suppression--like I did--knows that what people call "jousting" now is a pale facsimile of the original.

Siolfir, yeah, I'm aware of that, but I wouldn't rely on any power with any chance of -Recovery Debuff below 100% to get the job done. I have an Electric Melee/Electric Armor/Mu Mastery Brute, and it's not nearly the same as having full suppression. In any event, I think it's those Endurance Drain powers--that lots of people have--that leads some people to think "Endurance Drain sucks and it can't keep anything at 0, so they can always hit you". If one's only experience is with powers that have unreliable or no -Recovery Debuff, that's an understandable perception. False, but understandable.

*LOL*

Okay, now that's just damn funny, Angelofvalor.

I've played since Day One, solo and in groups. Circuit Boy is my main. I've been lecturing on this board about Endurance Drain for six years, so don't tell me I don't know its value. Did you pause your tirade long enough to actually look at the build I posted? It has far more Endurance Drain than any other build posted to this thread. You're attacking a straw man of your imagining there, dude. I've been this board's most vocal proponent of Endurance Drain as a technique. I have no idea where you've gotten the clearly-mistaken idea that I think it's "subpar". I don't think that. I've never said that. I would never say that. I'm infamous on these boards for saying the exact opposite. Repeatedly. For years.

However, everything I said about ranged attacks and melee attacks is true, both mathematically (which doesn't lie), and in-game. It's not "nuts", and if you'd pay one iota of attention to what I'm saying instead of writing knee-jerk responses that completely misunderstand what I'm saying or, worse, ignore it out of some perverse sense of contrariness, then you're only hurting yourself. I've given my reasons, and those are borne out of years and years of experience playing E^3. I've respec'd into--and out of--Lightning Field three times; I've respec'd into--and out of--Voltaic Sentinel just as many times. I've respec'd into--and out of--Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Thunder Strike, and even Lightning Clap (though, honestly, I can't find any rational reason to take that sorry excuse for a power). Everything I said about melee's disadvantages is patently true, and anyone who's actually played the game--instead of City of Theory, which so often gets played on these boards--knows it to be true. The melee powers' DPS is weaker. That's just the truth--you can't fight that. Their DPA is also lower if you spend any length of time closing into melee or chasing your foes. That's also patently true. In terms of attack chains, a ranged chain is going to net more actual damage than a melee one once recharge comes into the equation, say against Bosses, Elite Bosses, and Archvillains/Heroes. This is also simple fact, and undeniable.

Here, I'll show you what I mean. I did this video almost three years ago, when my build was more or less settled. It's a Rikti War Zone mission in less than 6 1/2 minutes, and that's with a fairly ridiculous amount of time being spent showing the build in the first place. The mission was set on Invincible, which would now be "+2 Level / x1 Heroes". Notice I didn't fall under 50% health, and most of the time, foes didn't have much time to respond before they were dead?

If you're blapping on teams, then you're not doing your full potential for the team. Period. As I've shown above in this thread, the amount of AOE potential far outstrips single-target melee damage to the tune of two-to-one damage-per-second. And, unless you've discovered the secret to activating two powers simultaneously, you do have to choose to do one or the other. I don't know about you, but my recharge is so fast that I can do Ball Lightning -> Static Discharge -> Short Circuit -> Recycle. If I throw a melee power into that, all I'm going to do is lower my damage-per-second.

You mentioned Superspeeding in and out. I've had SS for... well, years. After ED, however, all movement powers suppress if you actually attack. You are aware of that, right? "Jousting"--a technique I was involved in inventing to leverage Shocking Grasp--is still viable, but in City of Heroes (rather than City of Theory), you get stopped about 10-15' away from your opponent, and SS is suppressed for 4 seconds. If you'd actually played the game recently, you might know that.

You yourself admitted you haven't played in two years. I've been playing--and posting about Electric/Electric/Electric--for over six years.

Thanks for the laugh, dude.

With your major damage powers being Ball Lightning and Voltaic Sentinel, how do you intend to do any damage?

Charged Bolts and Lightning Bolt are only single-slotted for Accuracy, Static Discharge is slotted for Endurance Modification (it only does 5% End Drain and no -Recovery Debuff). You've slotted Shocking Grasp for Holds, so it's not going to be doing much damage, either.

The only major powers slotted for damage are Ball Lightning and Voltaic Sentinel. And although I'm the board's foremost proponent of Volty (meaning, I have and use the power, and I don't hate it, but I have an off-and-on again relationshiop with it), it's really not worth six-slotting for any reason. The 10% Resistance is to pets--and Volty doesn't count as a legitimate pet, or even a pseudo-pet. It can't be targeted or hit, so nothing you have will actually benefit from that 10% Damage Resistance, not even you.

To answer your question about Stealth's +Defense, it's cut in half when you attack or are successfully attacked. In the numbers I included above, I used the broken +Defense rating, not its unbroken rating.

Instead of Mids (or, at the very least, in addition to Mids), take a look at City of Data. It'll give you the low-down on every power up to I18.

And I've done that before, and it's yielded similar results every single time. The perceived advantage of the melee powers is largely illusory. (By the way, three +0 minions isn't much of a challenge, seriously. Rather, take on the paired Circle of Thorns Death Mage bosses hanging out outside Portal Corporation. I used to eat them for lunch when I got truly bored, back before recyclable Rikti War Zone missions, Police Band Radio missions, and Alignment Tip missions.)

I'm bringing up the math here because it backs up my (extensive) in-game experience. I've used every attack Electric/Electric/Electric has. I've had the melee ones, and dropped them for reasons outlined above. In-game experience has consistently shown me that the melee attacks are just as situational as the snipes are.

There's actually a fourth disadvantage that the melee attacks have that ranged powers don't have: you don't get to choose your battlefield. With the ranged attacks, you can position yourself in a spot more advantageous for yourself (near a corner, for example) or at least less advantageous for your foes (i.e., foes that spawn close enough to another spawn that the second spawn is guaranteed to see you if you close into melee).

You said there's no need to compromise between ranged & melee or single-target & AOE, but actually, that's not true, because we only have a limited number of powers we can select and, more importantly, a limited number of slots to allocate. Your own previous build is proof positive of that: you eliminated Short Circuit, which is one of E^3's AOEs and necessary to make Electric Blast competitive in AOE with Energy Blast (I've run those numbers and posted them to this very board numerous times). Without it, you are, most certainly, "gimped" in AOE--even moreso than an Ice Blaster, and their AOE potential (Frost Breath & Ice Storm) is piddly. If you want to do well with Endurance Drain and mezzing, too, then you do, indeed, have to choose.

Actually, there are disadvantages to staying in melee range.

First, you lose the alpha strike advantage. Properly slotted, with Aim or Build-Up, Zapp can one-shot a minion. With both Aim & Build-Up, Zapp can one-shot a +2 minion. Foes that are one-shotted do not get an opportunity to return fire. They're DOA. This is a massive advantage of ranged over melee. On +x/x1, where x=0-2, one-shotting a minion reduces incoming damage by 1/3 (there are typically three minions per spawn on solo missions set +x/x1).

Second, Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch lose their damage-per-activation advantage over Charged Bolts and Lightning Bolt if it takes you approximately one second (0.94 seconds for Charged Brawl, 0.85 seconds for Havoc Punch) to close with your foe or to chase down a fleeing foe. If it takes you more than about one second to close with your foes, the ranged powers have the damage-per-activation advantage. In City of Theory, it takes 0 seconds to close with foes, they never move out of melee range, and players never fatfinger keys; in City of Heroes & City of Villains, however, foes don't stand in one place for very long.

Third, if you count damage-per-second (that is, both Activation Time + Recharge Rate), the advantage goes to Charged Bolts (DPS 12.51) and Lightning Bolt (DPS 10.61) over Charged Brawl (10.06 DPS) and Havoc Punch (9.33 DPS).

Mystic_Amethyst, the author of the "Blaptroller Guide", and I are good friends.

However, "blapping" isn't the only route. Electric / Electric is perfectly viable as all-ranged. On teams, "blapping" is going to put you at a disadvantage, for reasons I've already outlined in this thread regarding AOE damage output versus single-target melee attack damage output.

You'll have to pry Short Circuit out of my cold, dead hands.

With all due respect, Nemu, you didn't actually answer Fortress_NA's question. He wasn't asking if an Electric Blaster could have "both non-gimped offense and defense". He asked can an Electric Blaster be "both be a good Sapper (able to solo EB's), and be 'big-time AOE damage'?"

Your build fails the first question completely. It doesn't have Short Circuit, which you absolutely must have for a sapper build to begin with, and the slotting on Power Sink is... abominable. It manages an awful +53% Endurance Drain and a miserable +26.5% Recharge Rate. You're not going to be sapping anything with that build, I'm sorry to say.

Second, that build is a lot more "gimped" than you think, particularly offensively. The Recharge Rates (+22%) on the AOES are ridiculously low, even with the +77.5% global recharge. The lack of Hasten makes it doubly so. The lack of Short Circuit robs the build of its third AOE power.

All of this to chase a soft-capped +Defense vs. Ranged Damage, which is all well and good on an outdoor map where one can Hover, but not so hot in an office map, a cave map, a sewer map, a laboratory map, or approximately 98% of the mission maps in the game. That's not even considering that some of the most annoying NPC powers are typed AOE, not Ranged: Malta Sappers' Endurance Drain, Longbow's Flamethrowers, and Carnie Illusionists' Flash all spring to mind. Furthermore, that doesn't consider the plethora of foes who either have -Fly powers (Malta, Knives of Artemis, and Banished Pantheon all do) or who Fly themselves and therefore negate the Ranged +Defense (Tsoo Ancestral Spirits being a particularly irritating example).

Six-slotting Boxing--with a non-Damage Stun Set, no less--just to get 3.13% Ranged Defense and 6.25% global recharge strikes me as especially dubious, particularly when fully slotting Weave, Combat Jumping, Hover, and Stealth yields a similar result (+2.92% Defense), freeing up five Enhancement slots you could put elsewhere--like Power Sink.

In fact, it's this very kind of build I'm talking about. Mids has misled you into thinking it's "not gimp", but it's got a lot of problems.

Well, if you want to go for +Defense... whatever. I don't think what you're going to give up is worth it. I don't have any +Defense aside from that given by Stealth (when I turn that on) and that from the Thunderstrike IOs (which isn't much). Solo, I've never had a problem, but I also don't set myself on +2/x8. +18% Defense is fairly insignificant. If you're not at +45% or very, very close, you're probably going to get hit more than you want. You could pick up either Frozen Shield or Scorpion Shield to give you +10.5% Defense (slottable to about +16.38% Defense) vs. Smashing/Lethal Damage. Even if you took that, and took Weave (+3.5%), Combat Jumping (+1.75%), Hover (+1.75%), and Maneuvers (+2.275%) for +Defense, you'd have +19.775% Defense to Smashing/Lethal, slottable to +30.849% Defense to Smashing/Lethal (and +9.275% Defense to non-Smashing/Lethal Damage, slottable to +14.509% Defense). Respectable, yes, but you're not going to feel like a Super Reflexes Scrapper or Shield Defense Tanker with that level of +Defense.

Dechs_Kaison has an excellent guide about how to hit the +Defense "Cap": http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=185167

Personally, solo, I use my array of Hold powers (Tesla Cage, Shocking Bolt, and Shocking Grasp) as well as my Endurance Drain/-Recovery Debuff powers (Short Circuit, Power Sink, and Tesla Cage) as a form of "active defense".

It's too bad you gave up Static Discharge. It's the power I use the most on teams.

Yes, one can do both AOE and draining well, even without purple Set IOs or HOs. In fact, it's my contention that, with just regular ol' IOs (common and a few set ones), you can build a better Blaster over all. If I had to replace the HOs, I'd put regular Set IO Acc/Damage in the place of each Nucleolus Exposure, I'd consider Shocking Grasp and Shocking Bolt to be primarily damage powers (though if I could come up with a "Frankenslotting" scheme to get damage & hold on each of them with Set IOs, I would), and I'd consider Tesla Cage as primarily a hold power (maximizing Hold Duration & Recharge Rate).

Don't let Mids do the thinking for you.

Electric/Electric/Electric lends itself to builds that Mids won't imagine for you (and neither will the anti-Electric sentiment on these boards).

Solo, you want Sapping. Period. That's what allows you to strip a boss or "true" Elite Boss (not a busted-down Archvillain) to 0 and eat him or her for lunch.

Personally, I wouldn't use the "blaps", but whatever. On a team, they're not terribly useful. Sure, they've got great single-target damage, but if I'm inviting a Blaster onto a team, I don't want single-target damage. I want big-time AOE damage--and Electric Blast can deliver that, if you choose powers and slot them well (Ball Lightning, Static Discharge, and Short Circuit). If you've slotted them right, you'll just be cycling them on a team, and your single-target attacks--melee or ranged--should be shelved, for the most part. A Blaster's job is to provide damage--lots of damage. You can choose to do 325 to one target... or 2000+ spread out over 16 targets. But if it were me? I'd want to be the guy slinging 2k damage.

[Aside: An E^3 AOEr who chains Ball Lightning -> Short Circuit -> Static Discharge, all slotted for damage, and hits the maximum number of targets (16 -> 16 -> 10) is going to do 4894.93 total damage over 6.24 seconds, while an E^3 "blapper" who chains Thunder Strike -> Havoc Punch -> Charged Brawl, and hits the maximum number of targets (16 -> 1 -> 1) is going to do 1512.48 damage over 4.883 seconds. The AOEr will be doing 784.44 damage per second vs. the Blapper's 309.74 damage per second. Just for perspective.]

As for +Defense... sure, go for it, but if you're robbing yourself of something critical somewhere else (and you probably are), it's not worth it. A lot of people twist and contort builds to chase 3% ranged +Defense here, or 1.88% AOE +Defense there.

A word about Shocking Bolt and Shocking Grasp: Peroxisome Exposures (Damage/Mezz) are your friends.
2 Acc / 3 Peroxisome Exposures (Damage/Mezz) / 1 Recharge maximizes things you really want those powers to do. Suddenly, they become high-damage, long-duration Holds.

Another word about Short Circuit:
1 Nucleolus Exposure (Acc/Damage) / 1 Efficacy Adapter (EndMod/Recharge) / 1 Performance Shifter (EndMod/Recharge) / 1 Scirocco's Dervish (Damage/Recharge) / 1 Multi-Strike (Damage/Recharge) / 1 Recharge.
Maximum Endurance Drain, Maximum Recharge, near-maximum Damage.
It's near-criminal for an Electric Blaster not to have this power. It's a 16-target AOE with an enormous area of effect (20' radius sphere--compare that to Ball Lilghtning's or Fire Ball's 15' radius sphere). Slotted as I suggested above, it does 1600+ Damage (provided you're on a full team) over 16 targets, and it recharges every 10 seconds. In addition, it drains those foes, too. Solo, it's one of the two tools (the other being Power Sink) that will bring a Boss or Elite Boss to her or his knees in 5 seconds.

Electric/Electric/Electric--and, really, most other sets--requires some creative thinking that Mids seems to mitigate against.

This is my current build. I'm working on a few sets (Sting of the Manticore & Positron's Blast, in particular). It's I18 and earlier:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Circuit Boy: Level 50 Mutation Blaster
Primary Power Set: Electrical Blast
Secondary Power Set: Electricity Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Electrical Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Charged Bolts

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
• (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (13) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (15) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (37) Decimation - Chance of Build Up

Level 1: Electric Fence

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 2: Ball Lightning

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (3) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (7) Damage Increase IO
• (13) Recharge Reduction IO
• (27) Recharge Reduction IO
• (37) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)

Level 4: Lightning Bolt

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
• (7) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (15) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (27) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 6: Fly

• (A) HamiO:Microfilament Exposure

Level 8: Aim

• (A) HamiO:Membrane Exposure
• (9) HamiO:Membrane Exposure
• (9) HamiO:Membrane Exposure

Level 10: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (11) Recharge Reduction IO
• (11) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 12: Swift

• (A) Flight Speed IO

Level 14: Health

• (A) Healing IO
• (50) Empty
• (50) Empty

Level 16: Build Up

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (17) Recharge Reduction IO
• (17) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 18: Tesla Cage

• (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (19) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (19) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (25) Recharge Reduction IO
• (29) Recharge Reduction IO
• (43) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 20: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
• (21) Endurance Modification IO
• (21) Endurance Modification IO
• (50) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End

Level 22: Short Circuit

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (23) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge
• (23) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
• (25) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge
• (29) Multi Strike - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Endurance Modification IO

Level 24: Super Speed

• (A) Run Speed IO

Level 26: Voltaic Sentinel

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (46) Damage Increase IO
• (48) Damage Increase IO
• (48) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up

Level 28: Assault

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 30: Zapp

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (31) Damage Increase IO
• (31) Damage Increase IO
• (31) Recharge Reduction IO
• (34) Recharge Reduction IO
• (48) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 32: Thunderous Blast

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (33) Damage Increase IO
• (33) Damage Increase IO
• (33) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge
• (34) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
• (34) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 35: Power Sink

• (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge
• (36) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
• (36) Endurance Modification IO
• (36) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 38: Shocking Grasp

• (A) Accuracy IO
• (39) Accuracy IO
• (39) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (39) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (40) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (40) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 41: Static Discharge

• (A) Accuracy IO
• (42) Accuracy IO
• (42) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
• (42) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
• (43) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
• (43) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)

Level 44: Shocking Bolt

• (A) Accuracy IO
• (45) Accuracy IO
• (45) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (45) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (46) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
• (46) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 47: Charged Armor

• (A) Resist Damage IO

Level 49: Hover

• (A) Defense Buff IO

------------
Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Celerity - +Stealth

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 1: Defiance
Level 6: Ninja Run

I'm not sure Maelstrom has Phase Shift. I've never seen him manifest that. It's possible, but then you'd get an "UNTOUCHABLE" message over his head when you try to hit him, just like the message over Carnie Illusionists and Master Illusionists when they phase out. I've never seen that message over Maelstrom.

The fact that you're seeing a ToHit number in the first place means it's not a Phase power. With Phase powers, you simply cannot hit. There's no roll involved. You're just denied from the get-go.

Rather, I think it's just incredibly high +Defense. This is not out of line, either. Advanced Rikti Drones have +35% Defense, and that's without triggering any special powers.

Beelzy, don't confuse player powers with NPC powers. Silent Blade's Kuji-in Retsu may be on a completely different scale from player Stalkers' Kuji-in Retsu; in fact, it probably is. Looking at the -Defense Debuff values of Defender Radiation Blasts (-25% Defense Debuff for half of the powers, -37.5% for another half, and -50% for Atomic Blast), I'm guessing NPC +Defense may be quite high in some cases. -25% Defense Debuff would take most PCs--even many +Defense-oriented Tankers--to 0%. I suspect NPC +Defense values are different from PC +Defense values.

Valence, tactically, I'd AS the Sapper, Placate Maelstrom, and take out the other Malta guy in that spawn down the hall. Then come back and try again against Maelstrom.

He kicked my butt on my Fire/Fire/Fire Scrapper, and a similar "bug" manifested after I was defeated. I used Rise of the Phoenix to rez myself, and he didn't aggro on me. He was still targetable, so he was still hostile. I may have been outside his aggro/perception range on death, though.

This is because both Maelstrom and Silent Blade have +Defense-based defenses, and some pretty fierce ones at that. People always claim ToHit has been nerfed for <fill in the blank>, and have been claiming that from release, but usually it's a matter of misunderstanding the ToHit equation in the first place.

You have a base 75% chance to hit even-level foes, and that drops precipitously as your foes get higher level. Against a 52, you've got a 56% chance to hit.

Stalker Build-Up adds +20% ToHit Buff, bringing that back up to 76%. Fully slotted (even with SOs--ED limits this), Stalker Build-Up will add 31.2% ToHit Buff (it's Schedule B, like +Defense). That brings your chance to hit back up to 87.2%. Call to Justice adds +10% ToHit Buff, unslottable. That would bring your chance to hit back up to 97.2%, though it caps at 95%.

Your foe's +Defense is going to be subtracted from 97.2% before the entire amount is multiplied by Accuracy (which is going to be ~2.0 with your slotting).

The real question is what is Maelstrom's +Defense, particularly the 52 version (not the 15-22 version found in Praetoria). If his +Defense is somewhere in the vicinity of +92.2%, he's going to floor your ToHit back to 5%. Multiplied by 2.0(ish) for Accuracy, that's just a 10% chance to hit him. He's a Going Rogue signature character, so it's not implausible for him to have a crazy-high +Defense on his Stealth, much like Captain Mako does.