PunchyTom

Another question for people with the Reactive proc. Folks with Rains and fast ticking damage auras are reporting that the iproc is firing with every tick instead of the usual every 10 seconds. Anyone with the Reactive iproc notice if its going off with each DoT tick from Fire Blast (or other any other DoT sets)?

Been playing off and on for over three years and for the first time ever one of my Scrappers got turned down for a TF. Tin Mage was looking for two more, I sent a tell, and got back "Sorry no room for a Scrapper" or something to that effect. Then I see in Broadcast that person is tossing out ITF looking for 2 more, prefer tank, heals or MM.

*shrug*

I went and ran a tip and came back to the RWZ joined a team of three Scrappers, three dominators and two controllers and ran the Tin mage. Director 11 was a pain, but the rest of the TF went well. No tank, no healzor (the controllers were both Stormies).

I've never actually run into AT discrimination before. And as my subsequent Tin Mage showed it really is uncalled for under any normal game circumstance. You want to run a Red-side respec, maybe a little picky....really want that Master of *whatever*? You might want to be a bit selective. But short of trying to Duo a Mother Ship Raid, or something equally bizarre you just don't need to be selective in this game. Thankfully ; )

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The playerbase has spoken.


Look out for I14: Bouncy bouncy

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Made a level 40 electric melee/Dark armor brute on test. Snuck off to run PvE missions to get a feel for the set.

My impressions:

Compared to other Brute sets Electric melee is sub-par damage. You have a few small AoE attacks, but since 3 of your attacks are doing knockback you only get one attack that will hit multiple targets. Then you're pretty much attacking single targets since everything is scattered.

The single target damage is pitiful, the animations are too long to really build up decent fury quickly. I would start most fights with Build up & Lightning rod, then the smaller attacks till the mobs would stumble back into the fight, then use Thunder strike when I could hit more than one mob at a time. I used Chain induction and Jacob's Ladder as single target attacks and considered the occasional 2nd mob a bonus. Bosses take forever, I can't imagaine anything like an soloing one of the tougher EBs.

Didn't do anything scientific, but I'm sure my Dark melee/Electric armor cleared missions far quicker. With all single target attacks.

I was worried that Electric melee wouldn't have enough secondary effects for damage mitigation, but it sure does. I think I used Dark Regen once. Unfourtunatly the KB and disorients that are the electric Melee sets damage mitigation also cancel out the set's only highpoint... AoE damage. You're paying a premium to cancel out your only benifit.

Might be better in groups than solo, with greater mob density, but you'll be about as popular as energy blasters with the scatter your decent attacks cause.

Lightning rod could just as well have a 10 second recharge, still wouldn't be cool enough to balance out playing this set for 31 levels. The timing of Electric melee's attack chain is horrible. 1.5 second plus attack animations and slightly long recharges mean you need lots of attack chain filler and fury builders. Either slot heavily for recharge, or pick up a couple pool attacks to keep a continuos attack chain.

I'd rate electric melee as the worst of the Brute primaries. Its best attacks would be considered skippable in other primaries. Electric melee has no specialty that it can claim superiority in. No one attack stands out as particularly bad, but none are all that good. Why play a set of all mediocre attacks when there are several Brute sets that have some very outstanding powers?

Lightning rod... damn cool looking. Still pretty sucky compared to Footstomp or Greater FireSword circle. Hell, with that silly 90 second recharge, Whirling hands is better DPS, and whirling hands is skipped pretty frequently. Says something when, if you just use one attack, Whirling hands will defeat spawns quicker than your tier 9, struggled for 31 levels to get, set-defining-power.

I feel this set should be improved in one of two ways:

1. More damage, and earlier. Either bump up several attacks a bit, or quadruple the damgage of chain induction, or something. Flat out add more damage. Don't care where or how.

---or---

2. Make Jacob's Ladder bigger, turn Thunder Strike and Lightning Rod into Knockdown, and reduce Lightning rod to a 20 or 30 second recharge. Then (after 32 levels) you can open with your two PBAoEs and go to town on stuff.

I prefer #2. You'd be doing less AoE damage than fire melee, but you would have damage mitigation to make up for it. Not causing scatter so you can actually use multiple AoEs back to back would do wonders for this set.

This sure got rambley, and I applaud anyone who stuck it out to the end here.

Happy smashing!

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I can't say this enough. There is no need to plea bargin better powers for this set, it is underpowered. We should be getting something to bring it up not trading away our unique qualities to cover a hole.


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*shrug* Higher resists than Fire armor or Dark Armor, more niche protection than even Dark Armor. Couple spiffy utility powers. I really don't see this set getting more utility. I would like to see some re-ordering of the set. A run speed boost at lvl 24? uh... why? Energy Drain at 35? Ugh. I'd really like to see the passives open up very early in the set... like tier 2 tier 3. Energy Drain at 24 or 28 at the latest. Why have the set differentiators so late? You're playing Dark or Fire armor with different FX till the mid 20s or so. Why?

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While from a Tank's perspective the set may be sub-par (not sure), the Brute's premium on run-speed and endurance-use makes this look like a winner, overall... so far.

Thanks,
-> Scott.

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QFT

Brutes get the most damage mitigation from knocking down/stuning/debuffing (touch of fear FTW!!)/defeating mobs. If you want Uber Defence in a toggle, Stone armor and head for Granite, or Dark Armor and run your 9 or 10 toggles and be untouchable. I'm all for it. Its not how I play my Brutes, and I suspect those who prefer active defence over passive defence will like ELA just fine. Those looking for the Uber defence juggernaught will load up on Pools and like ELA for the high resists and skip on some of the Utility, or try and get by on 4 attacks.

Till I see numbers on the whole set its tough to say, but on paper it looks like a decent set, that'll do very well in the late game.

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Well said Tal_N. I pretty much agree with everything you said.

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I second that. I am getting annoyed at the shere volume of people who are demanding for a generalized nerf of the better aspects of this secondary in return for something "eveyone else has...to a certain degree".

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/thirded.

More options = Better.

Ways around "gaps" in the Electric Armor set.

Immobilize:
1. Combat Jumping
2. Weave
3. Teleport

Knockback:
1. Acrobatics
2. Hover/Flight

The leaping pool sure is effeciant for covering those holes, but Hover/Teleport or Hover/Weave or Hover/Combat Jumping will do it as well. Lots of ways to fill in the gaps in your protection if you choose to.

Anyone who feels "pigeon-holed" into the leaping pool, can look at other options. Several exist, pick your favorite.

Aid Self is a supperior heal to many of the self heals in other Brute secondaries, 3 slotted health is decent + regen.

I'd really like to see Conserve Power and Energy Drain swapped in the ordering. Gets Energy drain availible at ?30? instead of 35. Makes skipping the Fitness pool much less painfull.

Anyone been whispered the end cost of the toggles yet?

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Reference for Corruptors...

Soul Drain
* Unenhanced damage @ lvl 40: 38.2 (N. Energy)
* Self +DMG, +ACC
* Range: PBAoE
* END: 20
* Recharge: 240 secs

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I'm hoping these numbers will be expanded upon somewhat. First thing I noticed looking at the Ghost Widow plaque was that Soul Drain doesn't give numbers for how much damage/accuracy are buffed nor for how long the buff lasts. I can assume that these stats are the same as the Dark Melee version, but isn't the point of the plaques that all information is provided to the player? In any case, I bugged the lack of completion.

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If that's the information from the plaques I am wildly unimpressed. That is radically insufficient for choosing among power pools when the choice is permenant and unalterable.

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Well, it does give me enough information to go *bleah*. 4 min recharge on Soul Drain. Ugh. Isn't the Scrapper/Brute version 2 min base time? With 3 rch in it its up pretty much every fight. Weren't the PPPs suppost to be better? Defenders get build up in one of the APPs, is it on a 4 min timer too?

Grrr.... really. I've gotten a few hero's into the APPs and they flat out rock. Usually there is at least one *WOW* and then one or two really good powers in each APP. I've yet to see anything in an APP that is a clearly better choice than a skipped Primary/Secondary power. Or even some standard pool choices. My Brutes normally pick up tough, and skip Weave.... well, do I want a (another) 2 or 3 BI attack, or Weave? My corruptors and Dominatiors usually skimp on pool picks to grab as much from thier primary/secondary as possible. So I'm looking at (for example) leadership picks or PPPs, and so far Leadership looks better.

I understand the need for balance but clearly PPPs are pure flavor picks. Minimal Utility, long recharges, and low power attacks. Feh, I say. Feh, and Bleah.

Wow. You like numbers don't you.

Thanks btw. You make my min/maxin' and powergaming self all warm and fuzzy. Me and the time spent crunching your charts would like to thank you for all the test work and reporting you do.

Thanks!

My Sonic Blaster takes 3 shots to take down one even con minion, while my FireBlaster takes down 3 minions in 2 attacks. My Sonic Blaster is still in DOs and not fully slotted yet, while Frosteburn's attacks are fully slotted with SOs so I may be spoiled. The Brawl Index numbers I've seen others put up for the Sonic set are in line with other Blaster Primaries. So, no it does not to too much damage.

I haven't been overwhelmed with the damage, especially since sonic blast is lacking in AoE damage. The set certianly has a niche in teams though, and as a Defender set Sonic Blast is dang cool, but no more powerfull than Radiation Blast.

Trick Arrows was marginal in its effectiveness before the 7/28 change. Most of the power effects were recycled from other Powersets, but it offered a different 'feel' than other defender sets. This round of adjustments makes the Trick Archery set sadly underpowered for a defender primary. As it stands you could put Trick Archery in as a Blaster Secondary with very few changes. I was looking forward to the Archery sets, but since the defender primary is "dah gimpzorz" and no Bow based Blaster Secondary I'll be giving it a pass. At least the Sonic sets are ok.

Very disapointed when I think of all the labor hours spent on the animations and creating whole new powersets that will only be used by misdireded Fantasy gamers and hard-core Green Arrow wanna-be's. If Trick Arrows does not get some love before it goes live TA Defenders will be about as common as Ice tankers.

Wasted time and wasted money.

I agree with Erratic, as a Blaster Primary this set is not overpowered. If the Defenders think the sets too good for them, then nerf the Defender's set. The BI numbers I've seen for the Blaster Primary look in line with every other set. I play Blasters a lot, and I see this set as being quite challanged in the higher levels. No AoEs and no snipe, imagine tangling with Malta, Carnies, or even Tsoo with this set. Yes you can two-shot Hellions and Skulls, Fire-Breath + Build-up will take out every white to Yellow minon you can get in the cone, they'll run around burning and shooting for a bit first, but you'll take out 3 or 4 of them.

To take out 3 minions with Sonic Attack you'll need to cycle 6 attacks give or take. Most Blaster sets can arrest 3 minions with less clicks, so the endurance costs will need to be low and the attacks will need to cycle fast or a solo sonic blaster will be toast.

That said I really do like this set as a "Boss-Killer". I can see Sonic Blasters being heavily recruited for AVs or being great in small teams for taking down the key bad guy mobs in a hurry. When I've teamed with Sonic Blasters on test I usually target through them and try to get the rest of the team to do so as well. They work great in teams, and start fast with the damaging powers being front loaded in the set. I'm less than enthused about the higher tier powers in this set, but YMMV.

I've only gotten my Sonic/Nrg Blaster up to 6th, but my Archer characters are in the teens and have teamed with lots of Sonics. I don't see the Sonics numbers being any bigger than mine, and Damage is what Blasters are all about.