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Each power listed as doing end drain will always drain the amount listed, it is independent of the endurance return. The endurance returned is enhanced by end mod enhancements,
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a small correction/clarification: both aspects are improved by EndMod enhancements.
Thanks for the heads up I fixed it
Great Guide. I now have a level 23 Brute that I made after reading this guide. The only thing I can add to it is my opinion regarding this powerset. It is awesome. I love the sounds of electrical arcing. I love the visuals. I love the damage it does. I love the fast recharges. I truly feel Super playing this toon. I have Willpower as my secondary and so far it is working out well. My health tends to stay pegged to full and I never run out of endurance. I can kill, kill, kill and never stop. Quick recovery helps out a lot with this. Anyway, I am so glad I chose this Electrical Melee set and it is by far, my favorite. I am surprised I don't see it more online.
This guide is going to be divided into the following sections
1. Set Overview
2. Power Info
3. Commentary
Written July 4th 2006 (I7)
Information was obtained through self testing, and from NoFuture which all the info comes from datamining of sorts. So I'm going to treat them as accurate. Also I'll be using both BI and DS numbers for damage.
Other sources of interest
Foo's Brute Guide
BI-is the damage of an unenhanced power divided by the damage done by an unenhanced brawl
DS-Damage Scalar (Brawl is a .36DS) Found Here it's a bit intense so look at your own risk.
Im not writing this guide to tell you how to play this set. Id like it to be as unbiased as possible, keeping to straight facts and leave opinions largely out of it.
Set Overview
Electric Melee is a set of that deals a split of Energy and Smashing damage. The powers are largely from blasters electric manipulation secondary, but the graphics have been changed to be red lightning (think Mu).
Each power listed as doing end drain, will always drain endurance; it is independent of the chance to return endurance. The endurance returned and endurance drained are enhanced by end mod enhancements, but is never high enough to gain endurance for using a power. In my experience with other electric sets the end return is a nice benefit but its only in the first 2 attacks and happens 10% of the time (its not good enough to skip stamina). Over time even slotted with 3 end mods youd get 1 out 10 attacks free giving a 90% attack cost over time (and drain 14-20% of end in PvE). If youd put 1 end reducer in your attacks youd get a 75% discount.
Also this set provides no way to halt end recovery of opponents beyond the random chance built into the powers. So once you drain an enemy they can still do little attacks as they gain endurance.
The set contains both single target and AoE powers, and can be tweaked to do mainly single target damage or AoE damage.
Pros-
-Endurance drain
-Non smashing/lethal damage type
-2 AoE powers by level 8
-Secondary effect with moderate chance to take effect.
-Most powerful final Brute attack (as stated by _Castle_ )
Cons-
-One attacks over 5.5 BI (2 DS)
-Slow recharging final power
-Chain Induction reduces xp of targets it hits. (Partial/Full fix is in the works)
Power Info.
I don't really find the power descriptions in this game helpful so I'm going to leave them off and just put the info for the powers.
Damage for powers will be listed as Smashing/Energy BI (Smashing/Energy) DS
Minions have mag 1 status resist
Lieutenants have mag 2 status resists
Bosses have mag 3 status resists
If you status effect is greater than (but not equal to) the critters status protection. The status will take affect.
Accuracy of a power is normally 100%, unless its penalized like certain AoE status effects or buffed similar to Martial Arts or drawn weapon sets. Attacks that do not have an endurance returned line will not return endurance.
Charged Brawl: (lvl 1)
Click: Melee single target
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 1.389/.944 (.5/.34)
Activation Time: 1.07 seconds.
Endurance: 4.368
Recharge: 3 seconds
Endurance Drained: 7% (1.25 end vs. players)
Endurance Returned: 10% to return 2.184 end
Other Effects: 10% chance for 6 sec of mag 2.38 sleep (PvE), 10% chance to reduce recovery by 100% for 2 sec.
Enhancements Accepted: Accuracy, Damage, Recharge Reduction, Sleep Duration, Endurance Reducer, Taunt, Endurance Modification
Havoc Punch: (lvl 1)
Click: Melee single target
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 2.22/1.44 (.8/.52)
Activation Time: 1.5 seconds.
Endurance: 6.864
Recharge: 6 seconds
Endurance Drained: 10% (2 end vs. players)
Endurance Returned: 10% to return 3.432 end
Other Effects: 30% chance for 8 sec of mag 2.38 sleep (PvE), 30% chance to reduce recovery by 100% for 4 sec.
Enhancements Accepted: Accuracy, Damage, Recharge Reduction, Sleep Duration, Endurance Reducer, Taunt, Endurance Modification
Jacobs Ladder: (lvl 2)
Click: Cone (5 ,50 deg., 5 targets)
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 0/4.16 (0/1.5)
Activation Time: 1.67 seconds.
Endurance: 8.528
Recharge: 8 seconds
Endurance Drained: 7% (1.25 end vs. players)
Other Effects: 10% chance for 6 sec of mag 2.38 sleep (PvE), 10% chance to reduce recovery by 100% for 2 sec.
Enhancements Accepted: Accuracy, Damage, Recharge Reduction, Sleep Duration, Endurance Reducer, Taunt, Endurance Modification
Build UP: (lvl 6)
Click: +80% base damage, +20% to hit
Activation Time: 1.17 seconds.
Endurance: 5.2
Recharge: 90 seconds
Duration: 10 sec
Enhancements Accepted: Recharge Reduction, Endurance Reducer, To Hit Buff
Thunderstrike: (lvl 8)
Click: AoE (7 , 10 targets)
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 2.78/2.86 (1/.96) *energy portion is also AoE damage*
Activation Time: 3.3 seconds.
Endurance: 10.192
Recharge: 18 seconds
Other Effects: 50% chance for 5 sec of mag 3.57 disorient (PvE), 40% chance to reduce recovery by 100% for 4 sec., 80% chance for KD (at 2 levels KD changes to KB)
Enhancements Accepted: Accuracy, Damage, Recharge Reduction, Endurance Reducer, Disorient, Knockback, Taunt
Taunt: (lvl 12)
Click: AoE (15, 5 targets)
Accuracy: 100%
Activation Time: 2.67 seconds.
Endurance: 0
Recharge: 10 seconds
Range: 70
Duration: 20 sec (PvP) 5 sec (PvE)
Other Effects: Artificially directs agro to you for the duration of the power. In PvP that means that a player hit can ONLY attack you (while affected) unless someone else taunts them.
Enhancements Accepted: Recharge Reduction, Endurance Reducer, Range, Accuracy
*While this power accepts accuracy it is auto hit against critters (PvE) but now requires a to hit check in (PvP)*
Chain Induction (lvl 18)
Click: Melee Single Target with a chance to make 4 jumps.
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 2.22/1.44 (1.95 jump damage) (.8/.52) (.7 jump damage)
Activation Time: 1 seconds.
Endurance: 10.192
Recharge: 14 seconds
Endurance Drained: 10% (2 end vs. players)
Other Effects: 30% chance to reduce recovery by 100% for 4 sec.
Enhancements Accepted: Accuracy, Damage, Recharge Reduction, Endurance Reducer, Taunt.
*The jumps that are done after the initial hit are not affected by fury. They also count as damage done by a different team (July 4th, 2006) Meaning if a jump does damage equal to 10% of a critters hp you will receive 10% less xp for that critter. There is a fix in the works for this effect, but it may not solve the problem.*
Lightning Clap: (lvl 26)
Click: AoE (15, 10 targets)
Accuracy: 80%
Activation Time: 1.23 seconds.
Endurance: 13
Recharge: 30 seconds
Other Effects: 100% chance for 8-second Disorient of strength 2.38 versus critters only; 50% chance for 8-second Disorient of strength 1.19 versus critters only; 100% chance for 5.34-second Disorient of strength 2.38 versus players only; 100% chance for a Knockback.
Lightning Rod: (lvl 32)
Click: Targeted AoE (20, 16 targets)
Accuracy: 90%
Damage: 3.7/2.6/2.6 (1.33/.94/.94)*
Activation Time: 2.57 seconds.
Endurance: 13.52
Recharge: 90 seconds
Range: 60
Other Effects: 80% chance for a Knockdown
*This power is affected by fury. Its a very unique power, when activated a target reticle appears you click where you want to appear. You will then teleport to that spot and perform that attack. There are 3 waves to the attack, the 2nd wave is either guaranteed or has a high chance. The 3rd appears to be around 50% chance.*
A useful bind from Valgrisk for this power is
/bind shift+lbutton powexec_name Lightning Rod
This allows you to hold the shift button and click where you want to attack.
Commentary
Alright so you like the red Mu lightning and you like to zap things. Youve chosen the right power set.
Like most Brutes you want to think about what youre going to do. Do you want to build fast fury solo, do you plan on playing with a team and being a quasi tank, or are you going to hang back a bit mainly scrapping once agro is established?
Brutes thrive on pummeling their targets to get fury. Fury increases like this 5 x the lesser of 80 or ((100-current Fury)/20)2) points each time you attack or 2.5 x the lesser of 80 or ((100-current Fury)/20)2) points each time you are attacked. This happens twice as fast against bosses/lieutenants and 3 times as fast against players, EBs, AVs, and Giant Monsters (against players portion doesnt currently work).
What that means in simpler terms is this. Every time you attack you gain fury, and every time an attack is made against you, you gain fury. Now you get 2 times the fury for attacking compared to being attacked so you attack for fury right? Maybe not. You can throw out an attack every 1-2 sec, but if you have 6 guys attacking every 1-2 sec THAT will build more fury than your attacks.
Electric melee has taunt and build up in common with almost all other melee sets. It is more geared toward AoE damage. I say this because you get 2 single target damage attacks (Charged Brawl, and Havoc Punch) then you get a cone attack, an AoE attack, an attack that jumps between foes, an AoE KB/disorient power and a targeted AoE. Looks almost like a blaster set for AoE.
-Now youve got to choose some attacks, if you plan on building fury through attacking take Charged Brawl because of the faster recharge, if you are just going for heavy hitters take Havoc Punch.
-Jacobs Ladder is a descent cone attack, with practice its easy to get 2 or 3 critters in the cone to hit them. Its all energy so it will do apparently more damage than similar BI attacks in the set, because energy is less commonly resisted than the smashing component of your other attacks.
-Thunder Strike is the best power in the set. Its your most powerful AoE attack until Lightning Rod, your greatest single target damage, and it provides fairly reliable control.
-Chain Induction has the problems noted in the 2 previous sections. The power has potential for good damage and has a fast animation time. The jumps between targets are slower than I expected. I was able to hit a critter with CI then hit another critter with another attack just before the jump would hit him.
-Lightning Clap .a knockback power in an AoE set. This power will do knockback to pretty much anyone you can hit with it. With the inherent accuracy penalty and scatter effect I dont really like this power. Its a good panic button if you want one for running away.
-Lightning Rod is THE BEST LOOKING POWER EVER...really its awesome, you get the one fist in the air MoG power up, followed up by a blaster Nova effect upon attack. Despite the ridiculously long recharge its a good attack. With the large radius you can easily hit all of a spawn.
The secondary effects of this set are sleep and end drain. The sleep is pretty reliable when soloing or on a single target heavy group. When you get into AoE heavy groups critters wake up almost as soon as you put them to sleep. This also applies if you take your damage aura. The end drain is tricky. Sure you could slot for it and drain more endurance for a safer fight, but if you put damage in there itd be safer because they are dead. Now end drain will show up more in Boss/EB fights because they are harder to kill. If you drain them they can still attack they just cant hit you with the really powerful attacks. Unless you have a full team of end drainers it is not going to work on an AV so dont try it.