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EA has a psi hole and a toxic hole.
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Lets not forget a vulnerability to negative as well as to tohitbuffs, as well as to defencedebuffs.
Also, remember that even against things that you're good at dealing with?
3 slotted rest is probably better.
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Have you ever played an EA or a defense toon at all?
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um, actually, yes I have.
Fighting Rikti arn't all that of an issue for an EA, like90% of the damage coming from Rikti is energy/smashing with a little leathal. only the monkeys really through any psi into the equasion.
why don't you go watch your combat atributes while fighting, oh say Shivans. see how much defense you have after that. or even maybe some romans. lots of defense debuffs from them.
I've been playing EA since early beta of CoV, my 50 EM/EA brute was made on the 2 day head start when CoV launched. and in my expericance EA suffers the most from Psi, Toxic, Fire, Cold, defense debuffs, and to high tohit/acc. the later more in PvP than PvE
Please Don't come in here and insult myself or anyother person discussing the issues of EA just because you have no issues with your brute/stalker. while how well EA performs is subjective it still doesn't invalidate the point of this thread. which is that when compaired to other brute secondaries EA is Subpar and here are some player Ideas to increase the performance of the set.
So lets stay on topic and leave the weakness of other sets out of the argument
V-Tronix - Angry Angels
V-Tron Elec/EM - V-Tron X EM/EA
To Build a Better Hero #53098 [Newly edited and looking for Feedback] - Renegade Robots: V-Tron's Task Force # - A Summer Song and A Winters Tail #104106
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EA has a psi hole and a toxic hole.
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Lets not forget a vulnerability to negative as well as to tohitbuffs, as well as to defencedebuffs.
Also, remember that even against things that you're good at dealing with?
3 slotted rest is probably better.
[/ QUOTE ]
Have you ever played an EA or a defense toon at all?
[/ QUOTE ]
um, actually, yes I have.
Fighting Rikti arn't all that of an issue for an EA, like90% of the damage coming from Rikti is energy/smashing with a little leathal. only the monkeys really through any psi into the equasion.
why don't you go watch your combat atributes while fighting, oh say Shivans. see how much defense you have after that. or even maybe some romans. lots of defense debuffs from them.
I've been playing EA since early beta of CoV, my 50 EM/EA brute was made on the 2 day head start when CoV launched. and in my expericance EA suffers the most from Psi, Toxic, Fire, Cold, defense debuffs, and to high tohit/acc. the later more in PvP than PvE
Please Don't come in here and insult myself or anyother person discussing the issues of EA just because you have no issues with your brute/stalker. while how well EA performs is subjective it still doesn't invalidate the point of this thread. which is that when compaired to other brute secondaries EA is Subpar and here are some player Ideas to increase the performance of the set.
So lets stay on topic and leave the weakness of other sets out of the argument
[/ QUOTE ]
How about you not come in here and tell me what I can and cannot say? There's no need to come at me with your pedigree either. You were not the target of the question.
I honestly did not think of shivans because I have not encountered them in an eternity. But Spirit Chaser's tired old list of complaints about EA could be applied to just about any defense toon. But defense is balanced and effective in CoX.
Stay on topic and leave the weaknesses of other sets out of the argument? How is that not on topic? All sets are balanced with strengths and weaknesses. EA's strengths and weaknesses MUST be compared to those of other sets in order to determine if it is balanced.
My original point stands. You are all wrong about EA being broken. EA will never be buffed because it is not broken.
the point of this thread is to discuss ideas that can bring EA into it's own balance. The set needs to be balanced with it's self befor we can say it's balanced vs. anything else.
while these lists may be tired and old doesn't make them any less valid.
V-Tronix - Angry Angels
V-Tron Elec/EM - V-Tron X EM/EA
To Build a Better Hero #53098 [Newly edited and looking for Feedback] - Renegade Robots: V-Tron's Task Force # - A Summer Song and A Winters Tail #104106
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Have you ever played an EA or a defense toon at all?
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No, never played one, er... oh wait, maybe I have...
Please. I would not be cutting up detailed suggestions about EA had I not obtained some meaningful experience. This is not an especially wise line of argument on your part.
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I play my level 50 EA brute daily with the combat monitors up and the defense debuffs just don't cause a problem. EA's defense debuff resistance is just 10% less than SR's. And the debuffs are not that common to begin with.
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my italics.
EA's defence resistance is not enhanceable by slotting. SRs is. that's not a 10% difference. In fact, it's a night and day difference between immunity and vulnerability.
Defence debuffs are uncommon? in point of fact they are the most common secondary effect in the game. I may be taking this out of context somehow as you've made a different statement as quoted below, no big deal either way, but we should be clear here.
Defence debuffs are not serious in magnitude? some are small, others, rularuu come to mind, are large. Ever had issues with PPD? watch your debuff monitor on base defence when you get nailed by some of those. Quicksand? even stacked Longbow def debuffs can be a problem if enough hit.
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They may be common on mobs
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you're right they are
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but generally those debuffs have to hit me once to cause the debuff, which they often don't, and when they do it's usually just by one mob, and the debuff does not last that long, and it only amounts to a few percent decrease.
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Take a look at the scramble mind debuff from those tarantula mistresses, or mask of vitiation. Large magnitude psi typed debuffs that you cannot defend against (psi) and which then murder the entirety of your protection. They are usually only from one mob? double tarantula mistress spawns are common, and i've certainly had two masks of vitiation stacked on me before.
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Go out and get a defense toon and look at the combat monitors for crying out loud. Defense debuffs do not spell the end of the game in 99.9% of cases.
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No they don't kill me in most cases. They are a significant and serious threat that needs to be managed, that is, I need to do something to mitigate the situation. They are a threat that has an analogue in resistance, but are more severe in the degree to which it is encountered, and generally in the mechanic by which most builds will resist them. In other words, I have to work harder with a defence toon to manage defence debuffs than I must with a resistance toon to manage resistance debuffs.
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Tohit buffs cannot be monitored by me on the combat monitor so I can't speak with the same specifics. All I can say is that in 99% of the cases my toon avoids and deflects the damage.
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The biggest offenders are Rularuu (observers) Nemesis (vengence) and DE (quartz crystals)
All of these can basically negate your defence, none have equivalents in the world of resistance, either in their severety or the mechanic by which they work. Fortunatas and some other mobs such as some PPD also have tactics or other tohitbuff powers.
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Now I recently respec'd to give my toon a little more defense and am running 43% smashing, 34% lethal, and 41% energy. So it's kind of hard for me to talk about EA's wek defense at this point. However, My I7 build had a 39% smashing defense from CJ, weave, and maneuvers, and I felt it was really overkill. I respec'd out of manuevers and went with 35% and that was fine for the game.
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I'm currently running two softcapped EAs, a SS and an EM. Both hit the caps for smashing, lethal, fire, cold and energy. negative comes in around 38 on both, and psi is 35% and 22% respectively. I also had a fire/EA that was close to softcapping but not there. I do not find the performance comparable to that which can be obtained by equivalent investment of pool powers or IO expenditure with other sets except at the very highest levels. Once def actually hits the cap, then performance is reasonably comparable defensively, and with enough IO recharge to repair the build, offence can be fine as well. A set that underperforms untill all the pools are used and all the IOs slotted will underperform for 80% of the playerbase, and for 50% of the game for the other 20% of the playerbase. (wild guess at those numbers but I'm sure the point is clear enough)
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My defense against negative is 28% and Mids is telling me I have a total of 3% set bonuses to negative. Negative is not a very common form of damage and it is just never a problem.
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I'm uncertain what you fight but I find 38% to be generally acceptable. The EA set does not provide even the 28% you have, and even what I have does not match the immortality line easily available to WP, fire, DA stone or... well anything except electrical actually. Even Invul can be made to do reasonably well here.
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The hole against psi is the hole against psi. If you are going to complain about it for EA then you need to complain about it for invuln, fire, and ice as well.
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Invul has dull pain, Fire has healing flames, Ice has hoarfrost. Ea has an expired jar of headache pills.
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I am sick of these threads. I have been responding to them for years. The devs have not made one change to EA in the 2 years I have been playing my EA toon and you guys have been complaining about EA. The reason is that you guys are just wrong. This complaint about tohit buffs and defense debuffs just goes to show why. You guys must just be completely in the dark about ow EA actually plays. These complaints are off base.
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interesting point of view, I'm not quite sure exactly how I'm in the dark about EA but I might suggest you try leveling an /EA and a /WP side by side. Might I also suggest you select fire for a primary such that you can study the secondaries in better isolation?
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But I am just not going to get involved in this thread anymore. I have answered these questions a thousand times. The EA sucks threads will never go away. And EA will never be altered by the devs. So why keep this mad cycle going year after year?
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Well, I suppose someone had to say that. Well, at least we've got that over with and can move on.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
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And EA will never be altered by the devs.
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Slight nitpick, but the devs will have to adjust it when it's ported over to Tanks and Scrappers because of the double Conserve Power issue. It might be small but it does mean they will be doing something to /EA at some point, which I think some of us are hoping will open a window for more changes.
Kinetic Fusion - lvl 50 EM/EA Brute
Galvanized - lvl 50 Bots/Dark Mastermind
Umetrus - lvl 50 Fire/Kin Corruptor
Psychotropic Pstud - lvl 50 Mind/Psi Dom
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I would say that if they want to sit down and fix the psi hole for invuln and fire as well as EA, I would be all for that. The sets that have a psi hole are given no advantage for their psi hole. But this is a game wide AT wide multiple set issue. Not a problem unique to the EA brute set.
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The hole against psi is the hole against psi. If you are going to complain about it for EA then you need to complain about it for invuln, fire, and ice as well.
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I don't really have a definite answer regarding the psionic weakness that EA has. But I'll give you several angles that you can look at, a couple of them are game-design related:
1. What kind of powers have psionic protection?
In CoX, the powers/powersets that are dark or mind related have some form of protection aginst psionic damage, for example dark armor and willpower. Otherwise, psionic damage is usually a weakness of living creatures with a brain(unless you're Philip J Fry).
However, this rule is not rigid. If you scroll up this thread quite a bit, I collected the powers that have psi protection. Powers like mineral armor and static shield have their own reason to give psi protection.
For energy aura, it is obvious that it is not dark or mind related. So, the problem is whether there is a good reason for certain power in EA to have psionic defense. Most people suggest to add psionic defense to entropy shield. I find this interesting because I don't know what it means exactly to have a shield of entropy around a body. Maybe it does give psionic defense. Maybe some people with science major can come here to tell us some interesting theory.
2. Thematic weakness of energy aura
The thematic weakness of energy aura is negative energy. There is (positive) energy vs negative energy thing in this game. In fact, you'll find that dark armor is slightly weaker in energy resistance.
In principle, energy theme does not exclude psionic energy. Maybe the overall design of the power set has a sci-fi feel, that's why psionic defense is excluded(this is just my subjective opinion). So, it really depends on the person you're asking whether psionic should be another thematic weakness of energy aura or not, provided the set already has one(or two, if you count toxic).
3. Powerset balance
I believe this is what most people are thinking about. There is nothing wrong to have a weakness in a power set. In fact, it is intended because this is a mmo game. If a toon is perfect, it won't need a team. So, the issue is not really about having a weakness, but if a set has a weakness, does it have certain strengths to make up for it?
The answer is subjective. You for example, think that all the different weaknesses are minor and EA as a whole is great. Some think that the strength does not justify the weaknesses. And it also depends strongly on what you fight, your playstyle and your friends. Therefore, you should expect various kinds of answers, ranging from EA is horrible all the way to EA is awesome.
One thing I'll like to mention is that when we talk about balance and strength vs weakness, we try just to talk about the powerset by itself. So, inspirations, IO set bonus, outside buffs and mitigation provided by your primary set are not included in the discussion. Including these things complicates the discussion as everybody is a bit different.
Another thing is that abilities like endurance management is only indirectly related to survivability. While endurance management is a strength of the set, it does not really make the set multi-faceted in terms of survivability. For example, when the mobs overcome your defense or hit your weakness, sucking part of their end away does not really help. This is the main reason why people like to suggest various tricks to supplement EA. Or simply patch up some of the weakness if it's not convenient to add the tricks, since adding tricks usually involves removing a power.
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I'm uncertain what you fight but I find 38% to be generally acceptable. The EA set does not provide even the 28% you have, and even what I have does not match the immortality line easily available to WP, fire, DA stone or... well anything except electrical actually. Even Invul can be made to do reasonably well here.
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Immortality line? You are still using that tired old argument?
immortality line is irrelevant with regards to a heavy damage-dealing AT.
'Immortality line' actually has REST as being more powerful mitigation than any brute secondary. That simple fact alone should be enough to clue most people into the fact that the 'immortality line' argument, while perhaps relevant to a stone tanker, is clearly flawed when dealing with brutes, stalkers, and scrappers.
I stopped arguing that /EA was working fine a LONG time ago, and quietly got my 3 EA brutes, and 2 EA stalkers to 50. claiming that subjective experience is not relevant is...a poor argument.
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I'm currently running two softcapped EAs, a SS and an EM. Both hit the caps for smashing, lethal, fire, cold and energy. negative comes in around 38 on both, and psi is 35% and 22% respectively. I also had a fire/EA that was close to softcapping but not there. I do not find the performance comparable to that which can be obtained by equivalent investment of pool powers or IO expenditure with other sets except at the very highest levels. Once def actually hits the cap, then performance is reasonably comparable defensively, and with enough IO recharge to repair the build, offence can be fine as well. A set that underperforms untill all the pools are used and all the IOs slotted will underperform for 80% of the playerbase, and for 50% of the game for the other 20% of the playerbase. (wild guess at those numbers but I'm sure the point is clear enough)
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No, the point is not clear at all. You don't have any clue what the 'average' experience is for a player. pulling numbers out of your... wherever, does absolutely nothing to make a point other than look like extreme hyperbole.
Not that I am against buffing EA, I would like a buff to EA just like I'd like a buff to super strength. It probably doesn't need it but I'd certainly ENJOY it. I find /ea a LOT more survivable than willpower outside of a psi fight. (My ea brute laughs at nems, arachnids, cims, and banes. all of which kill my /wp regularly)
In short, PLEASE come up with your own arguments instead of quoting something Arcana said. The reality of the game is that most non-av/eb fights are over in less than 30 seconds. and EVERY brute and stalker set is similarly capable of surviving 30 seconds outside of an av/eb fight. it's what you do between fights that really determines how 'survivable' each set is.
Right Spirit Chaser. Your comments are exactly the reason that I have been coming on these forums for years saying that I have no idea what the problem is with EA. They are exactly why I poke my head in regularly and talk about how much tail kicking my EA does on a regular basis.
Your comments are exactly why nobody would ever play an SR toon or an ice toon or a ninjitsu toon. Those defense debuffs are just so incredibly common and insurmountable that, like my EA brute, no defense toon is worth playing ever.
Actually, the long and exhaustive post and the seemingly wire tight logic of spirit chaser would be more than enough to get playing a defense toon in CoX banned by any normal court of law. Of course it does not translate into real playing experience.
Yeah. Nobody has problems with masks of vitiation at all except EA toons. We need to buff EA.
The ONLY hole I find unacceptable in /ea is the 'aggro hole' which is the same hole I find in willpower. That's why most of my suggestions have basically boiled down to giving energy drain a taunt component. That's all I want.
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Right Spirit Chaser. Your comments are exactly the reason that I have been coming on these forums for years saying that I have no idea what the problem is with EA. They are exactly why I poke my head in regularly and talk about how much tail kicking my EA does on a regular basis.
Your comments are exactly why nobody would ever play an SR toon or an ice toon or a ninjitsu toon. Those defense debuffs are just so incredibly common and insurmountable that, like my EA brute, no defense toon is worth playing ever.
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Keep in mind that of EA, nin, SR invul and Ice, only /EA has the high level of vulnerability we're talking about here.
Ninjitsu has a heal, ice and invul get dull pain and/or resistances. SR gets massive debuff resistances. EA alone has no way to recover from damage and limited resistance to debuffs.
EA is no more vulnerable to tohitbuffs than the others, but it has other vulnerabilities that the other sets do not. SR hasn't got the psi holes and again, invul and ice can recover. So can Ninjitsu.
Should sets have vulnerabilities? there's no reason why they shouldn't. The question is should a set have far more vulnerabilities than another without corresponding compensation. I think the overwhelming weight of logic is that it should not, and the overwhelming weight of evidence that /EA currently exists in that state.
A last note: EA can be made strong. I know this. It's possible to put all your build focus on defence and end up with something very durable indeed, so much so that it's in the top tier of performance, right up there with IO'd DA and IO'd WP, even up there with moderate stone builds.
This is no-longer EA. The build I've used on pylons, the build I've used to solo AVs or the respec trial isn't EA. It's /EA+Pool+IOs, and it's neither cheap, nor especially important for balance concerns.
Yes the outliers of what is possible do need to be considered for balance, but they are radically removed from the most important balance considerations with regard to what a set is capable of, the capacity of the set itsself.
Does EA lend itsself more than some sets to enhancement with pools and IOs? yes more than some, less than others. This needs to have some small weight, but nothing like the weight of the simple fact that base EA is less durable than three slotted rest.
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Actually, the long and exhaustive post and the seemingly wire tight logic of spirit chaser would be more than enough to get playing a defense toon in CoX banned by any normal court of law. Of course it does not translate into real playing experience.
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I'll assume you ment that in the nicest possible way.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
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'Immortality line' actually has REST as being more powerful mitigation than any brute secondary.
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I'll deal with the rest of your argument if and when you get your facts straight. The above statement is false, you might wish to look into it.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
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Does EA lend itsself more than some sets to enhancement with pools and IOs? yes more than some, less than others. This needs to have some small weight, but nothing like the weight of the simple fact that base EA is less durable than three slotted rest.
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since we are trading falsehoods, apparently.
But do keep lying. It's amusing.
Actually base EA is weaker than Rest for all the damage types.
With brute modifiers, only Base Electric comes close to this, being weaker than rest for all but energy. Base SR has a handfull of environments where it's weaker, and Invul and Ice have one or two such environments.
Other sets outperform rest everywhere.
Is this the end all and be all of set comparisons?
Certainly not. It is however rather embarrasing to find yourself defending the virtue of a set that gives you less chance of surviving than kneeling before your foes yes?
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
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Actually base EA is weaker than Rest for all the damage types.
With brute modifiers, only Base Electric comes close to this, being weaker than rest for all but energy. Base SR has a handfull of environments where it's weaker, and Invul and Ice have one or two such environments.
Other sets outperform rest everywhere.
Is this the end all and be all of set comparisons?
Certainly not. It is however rather embarrasing to find yourself defending the virtue of a set that gives you less chance of surviving than kneeling before your foes yes?
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I like how you keep repeating this Argumentum Verbosium as if it's true. One thing you fail to take into account, and the basis of your lie, is that rest is better than /ea (and electric armor, and regen if it's ported to brutes, and SR, and stone armor outside of granite) is that it gives you -1000 resistance and -10000 defense.
But, by all means keep displaying your ignorance, it makes every other fact that you parrot without understanding suspect, and does more to help my case than yours.
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One thing you fail to take into account, and the basis of your lie, is that rest is better than /ea (and electric armor, and regen if it's ported to brutes, and SR, and stone armor outside of granite) is that it gives you -1000 resistance and -10000 defense.
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Um, why on EARTH would you assume that this is not accounted for?
3 slotted rest is "superior" to base EA even with the defence and resistance debuffs.
well you can't move or hit things as you surrender yourself to the tender mercies of Statesman's fist, but you can't have everything.
EDIT: while cycling through another reply and getting even more distance out of this point might be entertaining, it'd also be most inconsiderate of me, and probably not worth doing. The point isn't THAT important. As such when you check, please remember to factor in the appropriate floors for resistance and defence, otherwise you'll get the wrong answer.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
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And the debuffs are not that common to begin with.
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Those defense debuffs are just so incredibly common and insurmountable that, like my EA brute, no defense toon is worth playing ever.
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First you said, Defense debuffs were not that common, now you're saying they are? Which is it?
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The hole against psi is the hole against psi. If you are going to complain about it for EA then you need to complain about it for invuln, fire, and ice as well.
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Invul has dull pain, Fire has healing flames, Ice has hoarfrost. Ea has an expired jar of headache pills.
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Something no one has pointed out yet, is that Ninjitsu comes out on top (in my subjective opinion). Sha, your self heal, give toxic resistance. Rin (status protection), gives 29.14 resistance to psi (numbers taken from the combat attributes on my stalker). I'll also add, Rin can be double stacked with hasten and 2 recharge IOs. That's 58.28 resistance to Psi damage right there. Which I've managed to double stack it for about 45-48 seconds. Pretty good resistance to Psi if you ask me. (Not to mention you get mag 20 resistance to confuse, fear, etc while it's double stacked)
This is completely irrelevant, but if I team with a VEAT all they have to do is pop mind link and my Res to psi is capped out at 75%. The Psi hole is basically completely negated in my opinion.
According to what you said,
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no defense toon is worth playing ever.
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I'd beg to differ. Nin seems to a pretty damn good defensive set.
Especially when you put it side by side with EA.
Nin is able to heal up lost HP, resistant against Psi, SR has the scalable resistance (which can be enhanced. Let's also not forget to mention it's a heck of a lot easier to soft cap an SR than it is a /EA imo), invul's got dull pain, Ice's got hoarfrost (res to toxic), Fire's got healing flames (which also has resistance toxic).
What does EA have to handle toxic or psi?
Jack [censored].
I'm well aware of overload granting extra HP, but before someone calls me out on that one, does that extra HP, really mitigate the incoming psi/toxic damage as well as other sets? The way I see it you were able to increase your max HP.......great. But unlike dull pain or hoarfrost, you didn't heal any of your current HP. The extra HP granted from overload is not good enough to use as a mitigating factor in the set, against Psi or toxic(in my opinion).
Frost...uh....he's messin with you
V-Tronix - Angry Angels
V-Tron Elec/EM - V-Tron X EM/EA
To Build a Better Hero #53098 [Newly edited and looking for Feedback] - Renegade Robots: V-Tron's Task Force # - A Summer Song and A Winters Tail #104106
For defense debuff, it is actually more common than you thought. For example, the gun shot from council and family has -def. Defense debuff is in fact common, and often comes as a secondary effect of mob's attacks. Usually, one or two defense debuffs are not noticeable, but they can stack up pretty quickly if you have the aggro.
It really depends on your playstyle and your team. Energy aura brutes are pretty stealthy, they have to make an effort to draw aggro. If you just play a stealthy brute, you most likely grab the aggro of a mob or two. In this case, you probably won't notice the debuff much. There are some people who do play an aggro brute, then all the little defense debuffs can be significant.
There is a good reason that super reflex has good resistance against defense debuff. Because the set is a one-trick pony. The defense debuff resistance and scaling resistance are added such that if the defense are going to be overcome, super reflex still have some tricks in its hand.
For energy aura, it is technically not a one-trick pony. The powerset has defense and passive resistance. And you can argue that stealth helps. I think it's not an unreasonable request for EA to have similar defense debuff resistance as SR. Because passive resistance is kinda small, and not every EA brute has a stealthy playstyle.
Make the Cloak Offer Positional Defense(20% unslotted maybe)
Double the Passive Resists.
I think those 2 things alone would fix a lot for EA.
JJ
I delete more 50s, then you'll ever have.
http://www.pandora.com/people/jjdemon
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And the debuffs are not that common to begin with.
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Those defense debuffs are just so incredibly common and insurmountable that, like my EA brute, no defense toon is worth playing ever.
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First you said, Defense debuffs were not that common, now you're saying they are? Which is it?
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The hole against psi is the hole against psi. If you are going to complain about it for EA then you need to complain about it for invuln, fire, and ice as well.
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Invul has dull pain, Fire has healing flames, Ice has hoarfrost. Ea has an expired jar of headache pills.
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Something no one has pointed out yet, is that Ninjitsu comes out on top (in my subjective opinion). Sha, your self heal, give toxic resistance. Rin (status protection), gives 29.14 resistance to psi (numbers taken from the combat attributes on my stalker). I'll also add, Rin can be double stacked with hasten and 2 recharge IOs. That's 58.28 resistance to Psi damage right there. Which I've managed to double stack it for about 45-48 seconds. Pretty good resistance to Psi if you ask me. (Not to mention you get mag 20 resistance to confuse, fear, etc while it's double stacked)
This is completely irrelevant, but if I team with a VEAT all they have to do is pop mind link and my Res to psi is capped out at 75%. The Psi hole is basically completely negated in my opinion.
According to what you said,
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no defense toon is worth playing ever.
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I'd beg to differ. Nin seems to a pretty damn good defensive set.
Especially when you put it side by side with EA.
Nin is able to heal up lost HP, resistant against Psi, SR has the scalable resistance (which can be enhanced. Let's also not forget to mention it's a heck of a lot easier to soft cap an SR than it is a /EA imo), invul's got dull pain, Ice's got hoarfrost (res to toxic), Fire's got healing flames (which also has resistance toxic).
What does EA have to handle toxic or psi?
Jack [censored].
I'm well aware of overload granting extra HP, but before someone calls me out on that one, does that extra HP, really mitigate the incoming psi/toxic damage as well as other sets? The way I see it you were able to increase your max HP.......great. But unlike dull pain or hoarfrost, you didn't heal any of your current HP. The extra HP granted from overload is not good enough to use as a mitigating factor in the set, against Psi or toxic(in my opinion).
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Well I wasn't entirely clear, but basically about the defense debuffs, my opinion of them is that while defense debuffs are extremely common, in most cases it is a small number of mobs in the groups that have them, they are often fairly small and do not last long, and they generally require a hit in order to take effect, which they don't often get with a well-built defense toon of any set. Plus with the defense debuff resistances that defense sets have, they really are in most cases not a problem. What I meant to say was that instances where defense debuffs are a problem are not that common. There are indeed instances where they are a huge problem, but those really are not that common.
And I was being sarcastic about no defense set being worth playing. I thhink they are all worth playing. It's just that people constantly complain about EA being by talking about defense debuffs and psi. Well, defense debuffs affect a whole bunch of defense sets, and a whole bunch of sets have a psi hole.
So that's what I was talking about.
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For defense debuff, it is actually more common than you thought. For example, the gun shot from council and family has -def. Defense debuff is in fact common, and often comes as a secondary effect of mob's attacks. Usually, one or two defense debuffs are not noticeable, but they can stack up pretty quickly if you have the aggro.
It really depends on your playstyle and your team. Energy aura brutes are pretty stealthy, they have to make an effort to draw aggro. If you just play a stealthy brute, you most likely grab the aggro of a mob or two. In this case, you probably won't notice the debuff much. There are some people who do play an aggro brute, then all the little defense debuffs can be significant.
There is a good reason that super reflex has good resistance against defense debuff. Because the set is a one-trick pony. The defense debuff resistance and scaling resistance are added such that if the defense are going to be overcome, super reflex still have some tricks in its hand.
For energy aura, it is technically not a one-trick pony. The powerset has defense and passive resistance. And you can argue that stealth helps. I think it's not an unreasonable request for EA to have similar defense debuff resistance as SR. Because passive resistance is kinda small, and not every EA brute has a stealthy playstyle.
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Not only passive resists, remember the Godmode drains only endurance, which EA has an infinite supply of. I've crashed overload in the middle of AV fights and had no problems. I was back in the fight in under 10 seconds.
I honestly did not know that SR had such incredible defense debuff resistance. Now while I am sure that the devs were considering the godmode when they were thinking about whether to give EA enhanceable defense debuff resistance, I am not sure the godmode is a worthy substitute. Given the extra protection of other sets, I think EA should have enhancable defense debuff resists.
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Given the extra protection of other sets, I think EA should have enhancable defense debuff resists.
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This is one I'm not sure about. I'd like to see a few changes to EA, more than the debuff resistances increased, and I'm forced to wonder what I'd trade for better debuff resistances.
One thing that's worth considering though, is how incredibly common defence has now become on red side teams, courtesy of the VEAT phenomenon. Most well built teams always had more buffs than they needed, but now many random pickup groups do as well.
If everyone has softcapped def, what's to distinguish the defence based toon?
Defence resistance is one potential answer. If defence debuffs are sufficiently common, and they are, then equipping /EA with defence resistance is a bit of a distinguishing factor.
It's a little ironic that I'm actually thinking of defence debuffs in the context of how they might potentially be adjusted to ADD value to defensive sets.
however, would I take more defence resistance in preference to, say, a +health power, or a +regen power, or psi def? that's not clear at all.
Fortunately the people who ultimately do get to decide, if they decide anything, will get to test it.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
QR
To interrupt your arguing, and quote Castle:
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EA: How do you know it's not already on the schedule? You don't!
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Not very definitive (probably means nothing) but can we get a tentative woot?
Woot!
/e runs away before people get angry at a possible buff
@Bengal Fist - Freedom - Authority SG
Bengal Fist (SS/EA) - Thirt3en (Time/Elec) - Aussi (Elec/Shield) - Potamoi (Water/Time) - Parkr (Staff/Ela)
didn't babs get modsmacked... er, "posismacked"? for saying something like that about broadsword?
Although in fairness: /EA is very unlikely to be ported without being examined for performance and such. I'm still thinking that's the best chance.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
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EA has a psi hole and a toxic hole.
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Lets not forget a vulnerability to negative as well as to tohitbuffs, as well as to defencedebuffs.
Also, remember that even against things that you're good at dealing with?
3 slotted rest is probably better.
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Have you ever played an EA or a defense toon at all?
I play my level 50 EA brute daily with the combat monitors up and the defense debuffs just don't cause a problem. EA's defense debuff resistance is just 10% less than SR's. And the debuffs are not that common to begin with. They may be common on mobs, but generally those debuffs have to hit me once to cause the debuff, which they often don't, and when they do it's usually just by one mob, and the debuff does not last that long, and it only amounts to a few percent decrease. Go out and get a defense toon and look at the combat monitors for crying out loud. Defense debuffs do not spell the end of the game in 99.9% of cases.
Tohit buffs cannot be monitored by me on the combat monitor so I can't speak with the same specifics. All I can say is that in 99% of the cases my toon avoids and deflects the damage. Now I recently respec'd to give my toon a little more defense and am running 43% smashing, 34% lethal, and 41% energy. So it's kind of hard for me to talk about EA's wek defense at this point. However, My I7 build had a 39% smashing defense from CJ, weave, and maneuvers, and I felt it was really overkill. I respec'd out of manuevers and went with 35% and that was fine for the game.
My defense against negative is 28% and Mids is telling me I have a total of 3% set bonuses to negative. Negative is not a very common form of damage and it is just never a problem.
The hole against psi is the hole against psi. If you are going to complain about it for EA then you need to complain about it for invuln, fire, and ice as well. Being a defense toon, there is the bonus of being able to use energy defense against combined psi/energy attacks. All I know is my level 50 EA brute spends all day in RWZ and has no problems. Lady Gray - no problems.
I am sick of these threads. I have been responding to them for years. The devs have not made one change to EA in the 2 years I have been playing my EA toon and you guys have been complaining about EA. The reason is that you guys are just wrong. This complaint about tohit buffs and defense debuffs just goes to show why. You guys must just be completely in the dark about ow EA actually plays. These complaints are off base.
But I am just not going to get involved in this thread anymore. I have answered these questions a thousand times. The EA sucks threads will never go away. And EA will never be altered by the devs. So why keep this mad cycle going year after year?