JuliusSeizure

I have a feeling that AE serve two purposes. The first you have alluded to-- the ability for players to create content. The second purpose was to create tools that the developers could use themselves to more rapidly create content. I read that missions used to be created in a very cumbersome fashion that also employed spreadsheets. The AE tools most certainly will have more powerful developer-excusive counterparts, and the AE "investment" will probably pay dividends for Going Rogue development and future content.

LOL, it would be hard to get Smashing/Lethal resistance of 7.5% from the entire IO system, which is the equivalent of what one Kinetic Combat grants through its 3.75% Smashing/Lethal defense.

Every regular attack has the 850% (+750%) cap, as far as I can tell. If you are viewing 655% damage in your monitoring window, then you are probably at the cap due to having 95% enhanced damage in your attacks; that's the only thing that I could think of with your issue.

You still want to take it, as you don't always have 90% Fury when its used. It functions well with every other attack that you have, and it also provides valuable +ToHit.

The damage cap issue is more prevalent with /Shield defense and SHield Charge than it is with Lightning Rod.

Health has 45% regeneration. Numina's and Regenerative Tissue offer 45% combined. Place both into Health then add 3 level 50 Heal IOs, and you get 180% regeneration rather than 135%.

The two procs have their regeneration multiplied by the Heal IOs associated with the skill.

CK needs to back off, take a breather, and stop pretending to be a friend when he's a love interest lurking.

Here's my experience with women-- if you've been thuroughly relegated to the friend zone, there is nothing that you can do to leave it. She has to begin to feel romantically about you of her own accord, and any effort on your part to shift her will be both creepy and could ruin your friendship. Then again, true friendship doesn't harbor hopes of romance.

If CK wants her affection, the best action would be to pull back, give her space, and to further his own personal goals and agenda. Truly move beyond her, stop gazing in her direction, and if there is any chance of romance from her perspective, this distance will make her heart grow fonder.

That is all.

Yeah, Spines is poo when it comes to single target damage. I almost never use Assassin Strike on a team unless a Sapper or other target absolutely needs to be eliminated. Spines pretty much should use Placate and Hide on teams for dealing criticals with its AoE attacks.

Stalkers are not Brutes/Tanks; they are not clumping foes on their person and thus benefit far less from PBAoE attacks that only have a 7' radius. AoE damage is more about the geometry of your attacks than it is about DPA. DPA only matters if you have a completely fluid attack chain for AoE attacks, and one second of animation can effectively be replaced with another second from a different skill with higher DPA. Stalkers don't really have the ability to pony up 100% fluid sustained AoE chains, so targeting geometry is more important than all other statistics.

Spine Burst is a 360 degree PBAoE that has a 15' radius. There's nothing in a Stalker primary that compares to this outside of Lightning Rod. If there is a spawn with 10+ targets, Spine Burst will likely run a hit check up to its target cap. You say Spine Burst has poor DPA, but it actually trumps Thunder Strike in this metric (Thunder Strike is doing 53 points in 3.3 seconds, while Spine Burst is doing 63 in 3 seconds).

The other skills for Spines are arguably the best. Throw Spines is a 90 degree cone with 30' of range, and it does more damage than Shock Wave while causing no scatter from knock back. This skill's geometry, ignoring the power of range enhancements in cones, again lets it run 10 hit checks nearly every use. Ripper does nearly as much damage as One Thousand Cuts, but has less radius and a 5 target cap. This skill beats Jacob's Ladder in every single statistic.

A Spines character will trump nearly every set in AoE damage, most certainly beating out Dual Blades and possibly even Electric Melee in sustained AoE damage. Lightning Rod is undoubtedly the king of AoE burst damage, and ELM also has some descent AoE attacks to back it up, but every skill outside of Lightning Rod is thoroughly beaten by Spine Burst and Throw Spines for AoE damage, and then there's Ripper for clumps of Lts. and Bosses.

Electric Melee also lacks a viable option for dealing AoE damage from Hide-- this is why the geometry on Spine Burst and Throw Spines is so important. Spines is dealing a 50% critical hit to 10 targets, while ELM has no ability that can reliably hit this many targets from Hide.

Between just those two options, defense will offer more of a benefit because it's so ubiquitous in the IO system. I'd kill for 7.5% resistance to smashing/lethal from 4 slots, but that's the equivalent of what defense gets from Kinetic Combat. An expensive ELA IO build can approach 40% defense to Smashing/Lethal, while adding Darkest Night will effectively soft cap you against +4s.

Spine Burst, Ripper, and Throw Spines would like to disagree.

I used to feel the same way, but then all melee attacks had their range increased from 5' to 7'. This effectively doubled the AoE of this skill, and made it quite easy to hit 2-3 targets. If Shadow Maul hits 2-3 targets, it's a superior action most of the time. If you hit only one foe, it's a waste compared to other attacks. The 7' radius is basically what made it go from bad to good, as you can now reliably hit multiple foes even while teamed.

You also don't need to take Shadow Punch, as Smite, Boxing, Gloom, Siphon Life, and Midight Grasp are more than enough to create a single-target chain. You won't be using Shadow Maul constantly, but when it smacks 3 to 5 opponents for high damage, you'll be glad that you had it.

Stramina, Energize, and Power Sink are more than enough. I have a stamina-less build that runs with just Energize and Power Sink, but it's purpled and also uses procs in Health.

It's going to be expensive, but far less than grabbing a single set of melee purples. It's certainly within reason for a more casual player, something that can be built towards by simply running content and Strike Forces for merits.

The Kinetic Combat parts can cost you quite a bit. I happen to move scores of the Dam/Rech, Dam/End, and Acc/Dam parts on the market if you happen to be on Freedom. I can check my marketing toons. (The triple-parters that I have are reserved for some SG mates.)

Endurance Drain is a very important part of ELA's protection, and that's why the End Mod set is part of Lightning Field. Your damage aura is actually part of your damage mitigation, and will remove 6% of your foe's endurance per tick, which is why you want to lead with Power Sink as often as possible against tough spawns. This will significantly limit your foe's ability to use powerful attacks and can sometimes completely strip them of the endurance required to perform any action at all.

The heal and +regeneration in Energize (arguably) exist so that you can survive long enough for endurance drain to take effect.

A great elemental wizard would be a Ice/Electricity/Fire Blaster. You would have access to mez, debuffs, damage, a self rez, and specialize in three damage types.

I own a Mind/Fire Dominator that is a witch. This combination would never be allowed in a pen-and-paper game, as she is utterly potent at control and pumps out damage that can make Blasters, Brutes, and Scrappers cry.

I highly recommend a Fire/Dark Corruptor for a mage as well. This build is extremely potent but fits the demon-mage, soul pact theme as a villain.

Endurance modification in Lightning Field increases the amount of endurance drained from foes, while in Power Sink it increases both the amount drained and the amount returned to you. Having high values of endurance modification in each skill will let you drain your foes of endurance and limit them to using their lowest-tier attacks. Lightning Field will even keep some opponents at minion level from attacking for extended periods once they are drained. My Brute's Lightning Field current drains 5.75% of an enemy's endurance per tick of damage; this really adds up over the course of a protracted battle.

On particularly hard spawns, it's a good policy to lead with Power Sink whether or not the endurance is needed. A good habit to get into, when the difficulty level requires it, is to lead with Power Sink on every spawn rather than using it towards the end of a fight to refill endurance. Open combat with it, burn your endurance as you attack your foes, then refill on the next spawn while simultaneously getting the most benefit from the debuff.

Hamidon Origins are nice to pepper throughout a build. For instance, my DM/ELA is only able to add one slot to Darkest Night, so I employ Synthetic Enzyme Exposures. These offer the equivalent of 2 endurance reduction SOs and 2 ToHit debuff SOs for just two total slots. At two slots, it's not really worth it to employ set IOs, while at three and four slots they become more beneficial.