Official Thread for Brutes: Electric Shields

As with the electric melee I am going to try and summarize most of the posts to this point.

Electric Armor - overall the set works well, but it does have a few issues with it.


Power summary:

charged armor - ok as is

lightning field - ok as is

conductive shield - ok as is

static shield - ok as is

grounded - knockback/immobilize protection are limited to the point of still requiring acrobatics - seriously needs a buff.

lightning reflexes - ok as is

conserve power - ok as is for the power - but could be switched with power sink to give end recovery sooner

power sink - ok as is - maybe moved up a notch in the list

power surge - the buff of the power is wonderful, but given that this set has no heal - taking a hit on your endurance and health is a bit much.

Overall issues - too many holes currently to be a "good set"
* no hp boost
* no self heal
* knockback/immobilize are too llimited

This set will not take much of a boost to make it good - without making it uber.

Let's not forget the Toxic resistance (those toxic tarantulas actually hurt), No Defense, and no Repel protection.

Overall issues - too many holes currently to be a "good set"
* no hp boost – Who cares really? Team with a /cold corruptor that has frostwork, covers that.
* no self heal - Aid self…you can fit it in your build and be effective.
* knockback/immobilize are too llimited – Imob will be the only problem you have if you take grounded alone and take something silly like jump kick. Lightning reflexes paired up wit h3 slotted hurdle or cj will give you all the mobility you need to counter any slow/webnade in PvE or PvP. Take web envelope and they will be on your level easy as that. Furthermore, KB is easily solved with acro.

As for power sink, it functions exactly like its blaster counterpart which is just fine.

Though I am disappointed with elec melee, I hold elec armor in high regards. I’m still rolling an /elec because I did well in PvP with SS and EM. Just have to pick one I want to roll….and I’d be ecstatic with either.

I was going to add that toxic damage is my only concern but I’ll deal with it.

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Overall issues - too many holes currently to be a "good set"
* no hp boost – Who cares really? Team with a /cold corruptor that has frostwork, covers that.
* no self heal - Aid self…you can fit it in your build and be effective.
* knockback/immobilize are too llimited – Imob will be the only problem you have if you take grounded alone and take something silly like jump kick. Lightning reflexes paired up wit h3 slotted hurdle or cj will give you all the mobility you need to counter any slow/webnade in PvE or PvP. Take web envelope and they will be on your level easy as that. Furthermore, KB is easily solved with acro.


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As for power sink, it functions exactly like its blaster counterpart which is just fine.

Though I am disappointed with elec melee, I hold elec armor in high regards. I’m still rolling an /elec because I did well in PvP with SS and EM. Just have to pick one I want to roll….and I’d be ecstatic with either.

I was going to add that toxic damage is my only concern but I’ll deal with it.

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You completely fail to miss the point of the fact that you say combat jumping and acrobatics will solve the issue. Taking Leaping, Medicine, Fitness(optional yes but many will find that it is needed) limits your travel power for one and how many primary and secondary powers you can take. Also next time you quote someone do not type your own comments in the quotes because number one that person did not say it and it will confuse some and get the other person yelled at for something you said.

I’m sorry the bold text wasn’t clear enough. I took it out of quotes just for you

And I don’t believe I failed to mention anything, if you take grounded alone, any time you jump you will get imobed or knocked back taking cj and having hurdle or cj slotted with jump will limit your mobility a lot less than just taking grounded by itself. Acro will prevent kb while in the air where grounded won't. That's what I meant.

there is the option of take combat jumping, sj and acro and getting super speed. Sure, you won't be able to heal yourself but you rock like nothing else with your ability to travel using super speed ")

While I am thankful Grounded having the added passive resistance to immob/KB as an attempt to somewhat fill one of the two crucial holes Electric Shields has... the manner it is executed still makes it fall short to how it was intended.

My only request on changes for the powerset is for Grounded: Allow the protection to work no matter what surface you are on so as long as you are on the floor somewhere. It is way too limiting for to work only on a flat surface and I'd wonder what Stone Tankers/Brutes would react if their Rooted functioned in this manner. I think its balancing enough with that restriction as still with any other travel power that sets them above the ground including a simple jump, will deny them of it.

Doing this will hopefully allow others to have simply a *choice* to be able to grit their teeth for the limited but adequate level of protection Grounded offers, and be able to pick a travel power other than Super Jump.

I am just going to list what I see as the weak spots of the set. In other words, I am going to list what I see as being problem areas that will require either a teammate to plug a hole or specific build consideration. Note, many other defense sets share ONE of these weaknesses.

1. Lack of toxic resistance.
2. No defense to make up for the hole in resistance.
3. Incomplete mez protection against common mez faced by the enemy in PvP and PvE.
4. Lack of an HP boost.
5. Lack of a Healing power, be it HP Boost or standard healing.

In exchange for these weaknesses, the Elec set gets.

1. All resistance based set, albiet with a resistance hole.
2. A +speed power.
3. Endurance drain protection.

Any wonder players see the set as lacking a bit?

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1. Lack of toxic resistance.

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According to Hero Builder, Power Surge with 3 Res SOs will provide 70% Toxic Res. (unless that is wrong)
With Hasten and Lightning Reflexes it can be up a little over 50% of the time.

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1. Lack of toxic resistance.

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According to Hero Builder, Power Surge with 3 Res SOs will provide 70% Toxic Res. (unless that is wrong)
With Hasten and Lightning Reflexes it can be up a little over 50% of the time.

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So, run Power Surge 50% of the time, and crash down to 1hp between each recharge? Yeah, no thanks =P

Invuln and Energy have their uber armors too, ours is already balanced out with the nuts penalty at the end (which the blinky icons should help with, but trust me, you'll die a few times from it hah). You can't justify weakness in the set by its end power.

Personally, I think given the number of weaknesses, at the very least they need to make grounded work even when you're not on the ground, if only because the game handles determining what the ground is so poorly. The weak magnitude is enough, having it not work because the game engine sucks at figuring out when you're actually on the ground is too much of a penalty on the skill.

Edit: Oh, and another thing. Adding 3 resistance SOs into Power Surge is a bit of a waste of slots, given that with this power base + your other shields you're pushing or at 90% resistance to everything else, why use 3 slots just for Toxis resists? 1 I could see, as it'll ensure you max out resists, but 3, nah.

OK people YOU ARNT LIMITED TO A TRAVEL. how many times does it take to get it through your head. YOU can choose your travel SO u dont get KB/immob cause u take SS and not leaping. Gosh YOU can choose diff TRAVELS now GET it through YOUR HEADS.

Electric Armor rocks in PvP. I played an EM\ELA for over 12 hours in the RV event.

I did very well (167 pvp rating) without acrobatics (because I *thought* grounded would protect me in the air, )

I also didn't have Power Surge.

I think ELA is awesome.

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So, run Power Surge 50% of the time, and crash down to 1hp between each recharge? Yeah, no thanks =P


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Power Surge's crash drops you to 0 end and 10% hp just like Unstoppable.

Overload (EA's) power drops you to 0 endurance.

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1. Lack of toxic resistance.

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According to Hero Builder, Power Surge with 3 Res SOs will provide 70% Toxic Res. (unless that is wrong)
With Hasten and Lightning Reflexes it can be up a little over 50% of the time.

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I feel that the best way to answer this comment is to point out that the final tier powers for defense sets are meant to be panic button powers. The developers said so when they changed Unstoppable and the other tier 9 powers and kept them from being perma.

So, other than extreme situations the set should be looked at as if it didn't have a tier 9 power at all. Which means there is a Lack of toxic resists in Electric Armor. If there any other issues with the list that I made, I'll be happy to correct or explain the list.

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10% hp just like Unstoppable

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That is the part I'm questioning. It sure didn't look like I had 1/10th of my hit points left. More like 1/100th. I haven't seen anyone come up and give a definitive answer to this and since I was running for the hills everytime it dropped I never had an actual chance to check it out myself.

Hoping it is a bug.

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10% hp just like Unstoppable

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That is the part I'm questioning. It sure didn't look like I had 1/10th of my hit points left. More like 1/100th. I haven't seen anyone come up and give a definitive answer to this and since I was running for the hills everytime it dropped I never had an actual chance to check it out myself.

Hoping it is a bug.

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It takes you to 1 hp, then you die - :P

Voltaic Shock

you can hit Conserve power right before Power Surge drops and usually this will prevent your toggles from dropping (usually did for me) and unlike Unstoppable, you can slot it for Accuracy and Disorient Duration for the EMP and have plenty of time to Power Sink and Aid Self and you're back in business

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So, run Power Surge 50% of the time, and crash down to 1hp between each recharge? Yeah, no thanks =P


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Power Surge's crash drops you to 0 end and 10% hp just like Unstoppable.

Overload (EA's) power drops you to 0 endurance.

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Wrong that may be what the text says but from actually using the power it drops you to 1 hp.

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So, run Power Surge 50% of the time, and crash down to 1hp between each recharge? Yeah, no thanks =P


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Power Surge's crash drops you to 0 end and 10% hp just like Unstoppable.

Overload (EA's) power drops you to 0 endurance.

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Wrong that may be what the text says but from actually using the power it drops you to 1 hp.

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Yup thats how it was whenever I used it. Crash... no health at all... any minion can faceplant me. 0 end means all your shields shut off, so you're defenseless with 1hp, you're not gonna live long if theres anything near you. Ive heard sometimes you can get lucky and get an endurance tick exactly as the crash happens and keep shields, but all the same, 1hp...

Powersurge does fill in just about any and all problems with the set (it also grants amazing protection to immob/knockback =P), but its not something you can use all the time, its something you use when you have to and then wait somewhere safe for it to run out.

I don't know. The first few PS crashes on the first day of the RV event definitely left me with 1hp. Just no life bar AT ALL. Got me killed every time.

The second day I almost never used PS and made sure to have my dude in the Arachnos base moments before the crash so it wouldn't matter. For those crashes I never paid attention to how many Hit Points were left. However I know for a fact that there were a couple PS crashes that left me out in the wild with what appeared to be 10%HP. During one of these crashes I even ran into a Scrapper who hit me (red numbers and everything) and I survived. So it's not always a total crash to 1hp. Even with the EMP, that's way too severe a crash and must be some kind of bug.

Although I never checked to see if it was actually 10%, Power Surge always left me with a bit of life left during the autolevel event. Never 1 hp.

Well, with the fact that you can AS for close to full amount through PS, if I made an elec armor brute I may choose to wait until level 41 to get this power and either get grounded with acrobatics for added mez protection or pick up super speed along with CJ, SJ, Acro to be a speedy, hopping madman. As is, in any situation where you use PS, you will either die to multiple AS's or to a mob when you hitpoints drop down to between 1-10 hp...it is most definately far less than 10 percent of your life.

what does AS stand for in this post?

Not cool, that grounded only works some of the time for Immob/KB protection & that its probably only at best a Mag1-Mag2 Protection to such things.

Thus forcing people to Take Acrobatics(I don't mind getting immob'd, its the KB that drives me batty as a melee) Reason I avoided Fire Armor & Dark Armor, I feel as a the front line beef machine, you shouldnt be flung all over like a rag doll.

Bah, Hopefully they'll work on this or make it a toggle or move to a toggle power(At least the KB protection)

JJ

Wrong that's what I tested it to be. I ran into St. Martial with my lvl 40 Brute (1360 hp) with no badies around. I used Power Surge watched it crash and noted my 136 hp. (10%)

I don't trust the power descriptions, this was a controlled experiment by me. So unless I had a health tick kick in and raise me to 136 hp (after I set my info to appear ASAP) then I saw Power Surges crash to drop me to 10% of my health.

Just like I measured the end drain resistance in Static Shield to be 80%.