A. Faqs
B. Powers
C. Techniques & Tips
[u]A. FAQS[u]
1. Why am I writing this?
Simple. There arent enough guides to Electric/Devices out there, and I'm sick of fire blasters telling me how gimp I am.
2. Robot Kombat?
When I created my character I did so blindly, with NO research. I tried to make a character that is a cyborg, blasts, but doesn't use guns. Elec/Devices was a natural pick.
3. Why Elec/Devices?
Why not? I can't stand playing scrappers and tankers, spamming 3 attacks over and over again is boring. Electric/Devices gives you a wide array of powers and abilities. Alot of other blaster specs are one sided, from AE to Blapper to Blastroller, I wanted something that was fun solo, or in a group. Something with damage, survivability, and utility.
4. Why are other people wrong about this spec sucking?
I hear it all the time, I don't do enough damage, I die too much, I don't have any good AoEs, The Sentinel sucks. More on the sentinel later, but most people have the conception that electric = single target end drain. After Enhancement Diversification, there is very little you need to slot for, so you can slot for damage, and end drain, and forget accuracy because you always have target drone on! As for AoE? I can walk into a group of 7-12 white/yellow minion/lieutenant and chain Lightning Ball + Short Circuit + Thunderous Blast and everything dies, and if something happens to survive, it is completely useless and drained of end.
5. Why are other people RIGHT about this spec sucking?
Well First off, Enhancement sets! Accuracy and End cost go to hell, we need end drain =( currently most sets give accuracy and only 1 horrible set gives end drain. Slot carefully.
Secondly, Our Damn Good Abilities have damn bad downsides. Our uber powerful ability leaves us completely drained of end and unable to continue fighting....and there is absolutely nothing to do about it except eat blues. Auto Turret is rarely useable in a tough battle, because it takes aggro and dies easily and takes way too long to recast.
Third, We are vulnerable. 1 stun/mez/sleep/anything to knock toggles down can sway the battle immensely. The defiance bonus as of Issue 10 still isn't enough to help sway the battle back in our favor. I remembered wanting devices to make up for lack of Aim, thinking a toggle would be better, yet the toggles get knocked down so much, it seems almost like a casted buff.
Fourth, Our abilities DO NOT synch well together. Zapp is a snipe, yet Voltaic Sentinel will sometimes pull for you....or not even attack at all. We are not meant to battle up close, yet Caltrops and Short Circuit require us to get right in their face. Bombs/mines and turret require a lot of time to place and are all interruptable, so by the time you zapp, the pet timer is already half used, or you're ready to place more mines.
ALL OF THESE can be overcome with a little planning and intuition. Remember. We are a UTILITY blaster. We do a little bit of everything, so use strategy for every fight and these little annoyances won't seem so bad.
[u]B. Powers[u]
Charged Bolts - Your Secondary Attack. Deals crap damage, but with a recharge as fast as this, it will be the one you use the most.
Lightning Bolt - Your Main attack. Deals nice damage and end drain. It can usually finish easy minions if zapp didn't
Ball Ligntning - Your Main AoE. Crap damage + Crap Dot = moderate overall damage. You find yourself using it as a single target nuke more than AoE though.
Short Circuit - ONLY TAKE THIS IF: A. End drain is a major part of your strategy and/or B. You expect to fight robots constantly. Nice to use at low levels and then respec out of after you are done with all the clockwork/council content. The damage is just too low against everything but robots.
Aim - You got Target Drone. If you don't want to be utility, its ok to take for the damage buff, but personally I like having 4 pools including epics. Basically take this if there is nothing else you want. (more about this in tips section)
Zapp - Snipe. Great damage, Superior range. Use this to pull apart enemy groups and just get 1-2 enemies or if you have hover to stay out of reach of enemies and pick them off one by one. If not in an AoE or assault rifle interrupt effect, then you usually can get these off in normal combat as a 3rd single target ranged attack.
Tesla Cage - I almost didn't like this until I got to harder missions. Now I always use it to cage the Lieutenant until I pick off all the minions. It's also handy if you have a melee enemy in your face and you know it's going to hurt if they hit you. Enemies can't do anything while in the cage. You can also use it to keep them from attacking until you get their end drained. If used right, you can take 1-2 oj/red minion/LT without ever taking damage because they will always be either caged or ooe.
Voltaic Sentinel - A big debate on these boards about this one. I say if you don't take it, go ahead and reroll something else. This thing hurls charged bolts constantly, it does use alot of end, but not a HUGE amount, not as much as if you were to cast all the charged bolts its gonna cast, not to mention it can take one down while you take another one down. Three things about it though, it stays behind you so you have to be close enough to the targets for it to be in range, it's not its own being so it can't take aggro, you take any aggro it gets, it CAN pull on its own which can be a good or bad thing depending on how foolish you use it.
Thunderous Blast - Heavy AoE damage. Heavy End Drain. However it drains your end too...and you can't recover end for about 5-10 seconds. Keep blue skittles at all times when using this. Make sure you slot it for recharge redux.
Web Grenade - Piece of crap, but its mandatory being the first secondary. Chunk 1 accuracy in it and only use it when trying to kite multiple mobs in conjunction with Caltrops and Cage.
Caltrops - The most underrated ability in the game in my opinion. Causes most nonplayer enemies to slowly run around like they are stupid. Great for blocking doors, AoE strategies, and Kiting.
Taser - Anything that says minor damage, and doesn't do anything decent, has short range and slow recharge automatically goes in the reject pile. I've never used, and you won't either.
Targeting Drone - Just read the description:
Self Toggle +Accuracy, +Perception, +Resistance(Debuff ToHit)
If that isn't sexy to you, allow me to translate. You rarely miss and you can't be effectively web grenaded or stealthed against and it only needs recast when something knocks your toggles down. The only drawbacks are that sometimes toggles go down alot and Stamina (fitness pool) is a Mandatory when you have this (as if it wasn't without this)
Smoke Grenade - Very useful, however accuracy needs dealt with as this is an AoE that needs to hit EVERYTHING or it's useless.
Cloaking Device - Defense + Stealth. Don't get the Stealth pool.
Trip Mine - BOOM! My main complaint about this is the long recharge timer and interrupt. You can't cast it in battle cause of the interrupt, you dont really want to cast more than one beforehand unless needed because it takes too long to wait for.
Time Bomb - I haven't had the pleasure of using this personally, but I can tell it can be powerful in the right circumstances, especially when used with multiple trip mines.
Auto Turret - A nice interrupter An extra pet to deal damage, and can take extra aggro, but thats not always a good thing, the downsides are the recharge/interrupt, and the fact that it dies easily. It doesn't move either so you need to pull back to it, however it doesn't really last 2 whole fights (which isn't a problem for sentinel since you can recast it during a fight, this you can't)
Power Pools
Fitness is a must, Go either Super Speed or Fly for travel since you can get hover or hasten as a buff. Medicine is very nice if only for the ability to heal yourself (you will be doing a deal of kiting anyway, why not heal while away from enemies?) Leadership is a great bonus, but not needed, Stealth and Teleport are both horrid unless you only get teleport foe or try for grant invisibility/phase shift (which is a waste)
[u]C. Techniques & Tips[u]
Too many enemies?
First try to snipe, then cage/web/caltrops and kite. Also helpful if you can hover during outdoor fighting.
Too big of bosses?
Mines, Bombs, Pets. The downsides of these are the preparation time, however, no preparation time against tough bosses is too much. This is when pets and bombs shine. (also caltrops!)
WTF is Door-Fu?
Door-Fu is the term I gave to a strategy useable with Caltrops and a scrapper/tanker. Step 1. Place Caltrops in Door Step 2. Scrapper/Tanker gets in door. Step 3. Kill the enemies that cant get through the door.
Also handy, but not as powerful: Corner-Fu, Fence-Fu, and Safeguard-Fu where you pull the boss out of the bank in a safeguard mission, toss caltrops on it and help the cops kill it.
The classic Super Speed Cloaking Device stealth mission skip...do i need to go over this?
Smoke Grenade Trip Mine Foot Plant...see above..
Slotting:
Never, Ever put more than 3 of anything if its not a set piece. (duh) Never put in RANGE. Always get the powers that need more slots sooner rather than later (especially after lvl 30)
Get a good mix of Set bonuses, End reducers, and damage. Save the recharges for the really long timers.
Selecting Powers:
Get powers you need before powers that combo. This is what I meant when i mentioned Aim earlier. I personally have hover,fly,heal self, heal other, rez, health, stamina, and swift as my pools and still will have room for my epics (my epic will be fire for rise of the phoenix, nothing like rezzing yourself, then the team.)
When you spec, keep in mind that there are 5 different objectives for an elec/dev blaster. Damage/Aoe Damage for killing multiple weak minions fast, End drain for bosses and strong minions, bombs/pets for boss fights, Crowd Control (cage/web/caltrops) and defensive (smoke nade/cloaking device/hover)
You usually have to give up at least one of these strategies to have room for the others, but keep in mind that they are all powerful and are useful, do respec trials as much as possible to get a feel for each type of Robot Kombat.
Well thats all I have for now. Happy hunting and may the orange loot drop for you.
