The problem with ELA is that it has two layers of mitigation-- resistance and endurance drain. Only resistance is functional 100% of the time. The second layer, endurance drain, is only noticeable once a MOB has had its endurance reduced to the point where lesser tier attacks are used or they simply can't attack at all. You are stuck with a single layer of reliable protection and a second layer of binary protection that does nothing until a MOB has had its endurance reduced dramatically. Even worse, the skill that drains endurance comes at level 35, so you are SOL until then.
This is a HUGE flaw in the design of ELA. During the vast majority of game play, ELA is basically running around with a single layer of protection totalling 42% Sm/L/Fire/Cold/Psi, 31% Neg, 0% toxic and 90% energy. This is a joke compared to any defense based set. You're basically playing a toon that has roughly equivalent mitigation of 21% defense to SM/L/Fire/Cold/Psi, 16% Neg, 0% Toxic, and 45% energy with no second layer of mitigation unless endurance drain has kicked in. That's worse than Ninitsu's mitigation against all but Energy, and Ninjitsu has a 50% heal, AoE confuse/sleep, Caltrops, and Smoke Flash as additional layers of protection.
Global defense bonuses and defense boosting Pool Powers are also so prolific that any defense based toon can easily push their total base mitigation value to the equivalent of ELA in Power Surge. Resistance bonuses are, unfortunately, largely forgotten in the IO system.
Now, ELA does have some perks-- namely limitless endurance and and immunity to endurance drain. Unfortunately, these perks are largely mollified by the IO system. A soft-sapped defense toon has up to 95% endurance drain protection just by causing misses from Sappers and Carnis. Endurance issues are also largely solved by a great many IOs, further reducing the value of Power Sink and Conserve Power.
ELA is very tough against enemies that rely heavily upon energy typed attacks, and truly shines against Rikti.
Amazingly smart answer, thanks very much for putting that all into perspective. So its safe to say that EA is pretty worthless unless your fighting Rikti eh? Sounds like a bad design to me.
Amazingly smart answer, thanks very much for putting that all into perspective. So its safe to say that EA is pretty worthless unless your fighting Rikti eh? Sounds like a bad design to me.
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Amazingly smart answer, thanks very much for putting that all into perspective. So its safe to say that EA is pretty worthless unless your fighting Rikti eh? Sounds like a bad design to me.
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Yea...basically.
In a separate thread I made some "suggestions" which the dev's should probably take a quick look at for improving ELA's performance, I'll paste them below:
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I think that if ELA is to be based around "draining endurance" then it needs to do a slightly better job at it, in both pve and even pvp. Seriously, if it's "protection" is based around a mobs endurance levels, then it really should be adjusted and work better. Right now, most mobs (especially Boss's and EB's) can STILL pop off some VERY devastating attacks, even if they only have 5-10% endurance! That right there is very discouraging for any ELA Brute...
My suggestion would be to up the endurance drain of Lightning Field for starters. Not a huge increase, but right now it's "base" end drain is -0.03% on a mob, which is basically -3 end per second. Unslotted, most mobs don't even notice the drain of this power...and to notice it, they have to be firing off ALOT of attacks...like crazy, which sort of defeats ELA's "end drain" defensive options.
I suggest this:
[u]Lightning Field[u]
<ul type="square">[*]Endurance -0.06 per mob (pve only). [*]Endurance -1.0 per player (pvp only)[/list]
Basically, I'm asking to simply "double" the amount of endurance drain that Lightning Field currently does. Once slotted, this would have at least a decently significant impact on most mobs you'll be facing in pve, and it'd even be slightly more helpful in pvp (though not hugely helpful in pvp). It still wouldn't do hardly anything to certain EB's and most AV's (ELA would still suck there) but at least for the majority of the "pve" game, it'd be alot of help. This means that once slotted, you'd see around a [u]-10 endurance drop[u] on mobs every 2 seconds, which would definately help and add up alot faster than it currently does (more effectively negating thier +recovery) which would give ELA a pretty decent survivability boost.
[u]Power Sink[u]
<ul type="square">[*]Available: Level 28 (as opposed to the current lvl 35)[*]-1 Recovery for 10 seconds (80% chance) (pve and pvp) (10 seconds as opposed to the current 4 seconds...)[/list]
Ok, basically, for powersink, the only two changes I'd like to see for the "Brute version" is that first off, it be moved to lvl 28 vs. lvl 35. I just think that if "end drain" is suppose to be one of ELA's "boons" to damage mitigation, it should be available ALOT sooner than 35. That is just foolish to have our primary means of mitigation placed so late in the game. EA get's Energy Drain at lvl 28, and I feel that [u]ELA should get Power Sink at lvl 28 as well[u]. It just makes sense.
Furthermore, I think that Powersink should provide a "higher" chance to cause -recovery. Right now it's a 30% chance, which while not bad, isn't enough imho for a set that pretty much lives by endurance drain. Even with Lightning Field on, mobs have been able to regen enough endurance to fire off plenty of attacks on my ELA Brutes. The -recovery is invaluable to this Brute's survivability in that for a short while it would protect against those mobs recovering endurance and attacking too often. On top of that, I also think the -recovery should last alot longer than 4 seconds...that's measly and almost useless. I suggest that the -recovery last at least 10 seconds. That would make it alot more useful to the Brute, whithout being too powerful either, imho.
Furthermore, I really do think that ELA is warrented at least a "minor" +res increase to the damage types it currently protects against. I'd like to see a minimum of a [u]5% increase to the base[u] resistance values of it's toggles. Sure, it wouldn't be an astronomically "huge" increase, but it'd definately help to somewhat "pad" the damage that is coming in before you get a chance to drain a mob dry of endurance. That, or a slight HP increase in Grounded, the same values as True Grit.
Anyways, those are my ideas for ELA. Imho, these changes would not only help ELA in pve, but even in pvp. Granted, in pvp it wouldn't help all "that" much, but it'd definately be more helpful than it is currently.
Not "worthless" but Id call fire better all around just due to healing flames. Electric armors 41% resists just are not enough to keep you upright against anything that actually hits hard. You need a heal. Aid self helps if you slot it up and learn to get it off in combat.
The End drain helps too, but can be finicky. For me, the set teeters on that ledge between "good enough" and "more trouble than its worth".
ELA is definitely not worthless, but is is a bit finicky and offers pretty poor levels of mitigation-- particularly in a team setting. Unless a MOB is drained of endurance and using lesser tier attacks, it is without a doubt the worst secondary in the game.
I like Darkmaster's suggestions above. Moving Power Sink to level 28 would be a great QOL improvement.
To play ELA properly, you pretty much need to use Power Sink at the beginning of a fight and let Lightning Field and the ensuing attacks from the MOBs drain their endurance. This play style would be very conducive to adding a per-MOB +resist or +regen to Power Sink, similar to what has been done to Energy Absorption from Ice Armor. Energy Absorption adds +defense per MOB hit, and is a form of protection that scales with the amount of enemies around you, similar to Invincibility or RTTC. This would address ELAs survivability on large teams but not overpower it against single targets. It also fits the natural play style of ELA, having to lead with Power Sink as soon as possible in a spawn.
It's a shame they can't get rid of Conserve Power and create a power Similar to Invincibility/Rttc that does a consistent mob end drain and buff your resistance (like how RTTC has a tohit debuff and gives you regen)
i would rather have Conserve power taken out and be given at Least a Dull Pain that would help tremedously the survivalbility of Ela Brutes.
As far as end drain goes slot it up i can drain Gm's fairly quick with Power Sink on Auto.
also if you take the toggle From Ghost Widow it gives you a To-hit debuff to give you more mitigation btw.
Other than that i would love to see more Damage be given to Elec Melee.
good luck and enjoy your version of 'SMASH" 
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The issue generally comes from IO slotting. Post ED and pre IO - pure resist sets were considered superior to def. sets due to the "always on" nature of resist. /ELAs resist to oddball status effects (End drain/Slow/-Recov) and middling resists to psy also made it particularly suited to Grandville bruting.
With IO's however, the devs took back thier stance on perma elude numbers and trivialized positional def. slotting. On the same hand resist sets got boo for slotting. Adding def onto resist sets wouldn't even be a bad idea were it not for the sheer number of -def debuffs in the game that you will have no resist to.
I remember when ElA was the darling of the Brute forums. I'm so glad it's in its proper perspective these days.
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The issue generally comes from IO slotting. Post ED and pre IO - pure resist sets were considered superior to def. sets due to the "always on" nature of resist. /ELAs resist to oddball status effects (End drain/Slow/-Recov) and middling resists to psy also made it particularly suited to Grandville bruting.
With IO's however, the devs took back thier stance on perma elude numbers and trivialized positional def. slotting. On the same hand resist sets got boo for slotting. Adding def onto resist sets wouldn't even be a bad idea were it not for the sheer number of -def debuffs in the game that you will have no resist to.
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Yeah, this.
Without IOs, I wouldn't put Electric last - it wouldn't be near the top either, but I'd personally put it above Shields, EA, and Fire (too much dependence on Healing Flames, which can be outpaced fairly easily due to frequency of slows, endrance drain, and psi damage prevalence in upper-level CoV).
Electric Armor with Aid Self used to be highly recommended, since adding a heal to it puts it near the middle in performance, with the exotic resistances to psi, slows, endurance drain, and -recovery along with the passive +recharge and unlimited endurance.
Then IOs helped sets with defense far more than resistance and made passive +recharge a minor bonus at best since you could get set bonuses that far exceed 20%.
Then Willpower came out as a nice little mixed bag set that had enough regeneration that you were essentially using Aid Self all the time while still attacking, Super Reflexes was ported making Lightning Reflexes not unique to Electric Armor, then IOs were changed so to make it easier to get typed defense and Energy Aura got a significant boost towards capped defense...
I'd like to see a small buff to Electric Armor in terms of hit point recovery (either a heal or +regeneration); it's going to get hit more often than any set other than Fiery Aura, and pure resistance is all well and good but you're still losing hit points with no way to get them back. Defense sets at least have the possibility of their natural regen outpacing incoming damage through sufficient defense; it's far less likely for that to happen on a pure resistance set unless you're capped, and that's not even a guarantee.
Now yes, you can make a very effective IO build with Electric Armor, but IMO it's better to just go with a high mitigation primary (or work with endurance drain synergy, like my Elec/Elec/Mu does for most of her mitigation) and let it take care of everything while you focus on recharge.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Out of the box, I think electric armor is ok compared with other secondary sets. I think the issue is that it is difficult to be enhanced by IO bonus as one of the posters mentioned, in particular you're comparing level 50s. For example, energy aura is not really better off than electric armor, but after softcapping defense with IO bonus, energy aura becomes a lot tougher.
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he still gets 3 or 4 shotted when it comes to 54 bosses and all around me I see Willpower/Stone/Shield/Invul brutes not even getting nicked.
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What kind of 54 bosses? Actually, willpower, shield and invul can be beaten pretty easily as well when they are facing mobs that nail their weakness. I have willpower and invul tanks (who are tougher than brutes), and I'm not quite sure that they will always do well in a group of 54 bosses.
Post deleted due to me not read so good.
So anyway, yeah, Elec Armor needs to be looked at.
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i would rather have Conserve power taken out and be given at Least a Dull Pain that would help tremedously the survivalbility of Ela Brutes.
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Wow...I agree 110% with that.
I would LOVE to see CP removed and replaced with Dull Pain. Boy would that work wonders for an ELA Brutes survivability. I would love that. Moreso than adding more end drain like I mentioned earlier (which I only mentioned because it looked like that's what the dev's "wanted" ELA's dmg mitigation to be...).
/signed lol
I remember the days when everybody used to talk about how much better ELA was than EA. My the times have changed.
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I remember the days when everybody used to talk about how much better ELA was than EA. My the times have changed.
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*shrug*
The devs did something about EA... several somethings, actually, if you include the typed defense IO set bonus changes.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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The other issue with endurance drain is it is less effective with higher level mobs - the exact thing Elec struggles with. This has been mentioned in many topics in the past.
Oddly, I think what the set needs more than anything is to have the interrupt taken out of aid self!
I just hope the Dev's are listening to this and taking notes for future changed because im basically re-rolling a "better" brute due to the fact that the IO sets stink and the dmg resistance isnt a good way to do things..making it more like willpower where you step into a group of baddies and getting a stack of +res buffs would HELP ALOT.
Yeah, I've been leveling an Elec Brute. He's currently at 33 and it's just horrid right now. He can't take alphas to save his life.
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You'll be better off if you suggest to people that you either get protection buffs, or invite a primary brute so you can be the secondary brute. Unfortunately, /elec in the mid ranges is brutal.... for you, not the enemies.
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You'll be better off if you suggest to people that you either get protection buffs, or invite a primary brute so you can be the secondary brute. Unfortunately, /elec in the mid ranges is brutal.... for you, not the enemies.
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On my SS/ELA Brute the mid range wasn't bad at all. It was hitting the 40s and the ton of Arachnos missions and all that toxic damage. Such a huge gaping hole for set to have when you consider how ofter toxic is faced in the 40s on redside.
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I've played a DM/ElA brute to 50. I personally LOVED it. The Lightning Field power is so freakin' pretty, it's sick.
I think some of the previous posters' answers are correct. However, I think the DM primary makes for more of a unique case. If you slot up things right, you can be dropping some pretty potent PBAoE -ToHit debuffs on aggroed mobs, while sucking their end down. Take the Scirocco PPP for even more end suck.
And the DM set (where I was going originally with my train of thought) also helps to keep you upright by giving you the beautiful little heal-attack power. Yeah, it's not much-but slot up for +rchg bonuses, and spam your first 3 attacks and some Midnight Grasp on critters. You can stay up right nicely.
I think the issue with the OP was more 1 of 2 things-either:
1. A lack of good set bonuses to help out. I personally slotted up for as much defense as I could get. Even 10-12% in melee/ranged/AoE helps more than you'd expect on an all-resists toon.
2. Multiple bosses crashing in on him at once. Admittedly, it's tough to keep up the -ToHit on multiple +3 or +4 bosses for long. Slot that -ToHit up! Focus on the ones with AoE effects! Get your recharge going to spam them even more often!
I'm not saying ElA is perfect-the arguments above clearly show its flaws. However, I think the specific pairing of DM with ElA on a brute has a lot of potential. I really, REALLY enjoyed it for 50 levels, and still dust her off from time to time.
As always, YMMV. Cheers!
Basically too many 50's to count, but I'm generally a brute/scrapper/tank kind of guy.
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You'll be better off if you suggest to people that you either get protection buffs, or invite a primary brute so you can be the secondary brute. Unfortunately, /elec in the mid ranges is brutal.... for you, not the enemies.
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On my SS/ELA Brute the mid range wasn't bad at all. It was hitting the 40s and the ton of Arachnos missions and all that toxic damage. Such a huge gaping hole for set to have when you consider how ofter toxic is faced in the 40s on redside.
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SS played a large part in your survival. Trust me.
Which damage are rikti least resistant to?
If I were going to play an ELA brute, I would make him the ultimate Vanguard operative, and never leave the RWZ, except to serve as a pure damage dealer in a team that already had a tank.
There are alot of things you can do, focusing on rikti. You could carve out a very respectable niche for yourself as that kind of specialist..
I was running a few missions with my newly slotted DM/EA brute (level 50) with another 50 which was EM/Stone and another brute DB/WP, and some healers and such..my problem is this..
Why is it that electric armor is so so weak in comparison to ALL other armors (with DA being the exception because its just as bad with horrible endurance problems.) I understand that its all +RES and no +DEF..I even took tough and Weave to hopefully "help" with my situation but it seems that he still gets 3 or 4 shotted when it comes to 54 bosses and all around me I see Willpower/Stone/Shield/Invul brutes not even getting nicked. Why is this armor so incredibly imbalanced? and for what reason could all +RES be good? anyone care to shed some light on this i'm very interested in learning how this armor set could be beneficial to me.
P.S. even with power surge I can still be almost killed by these bosses all around me..plus why have the health/end drop when it wears off? other sheilds dont have that extreme of a drop besides Invul which basically doesnt even need unstoppable if you slot your toon right.