you should try asking in the blaster forums. maybe a mod can move this for you if you can catch them.
I think my elec/elec blaster only has one melee attack. I did pick up stealth and invisibility to help with her survivability. I also took both end drain powers and it can seriously hinder a mob's ability to fight back against you. I have flight and hover, but if you take super speed instead you can get full invisibility with just stealth. You may want to look at the medicine pool so you have a heal. Hope some of that helps.
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Yeah, check out the blaster forums, as other folks have said. You can probably get better advice there, maybe some specific example builds.
That said...
If you're not taking the melee attacks, what's left in the secondary are Electric Fence, Lightning Field, Build Up, Lightning Clap, Power Sink, and Shocking Grasp.
Now, we're forced to take Electric Fence and most blasters would take Build Up for damage reasons. So those are probably givens.
Lightning Field's utility is mainly for melee-centric builds that also emphasise endurance drain. Probably not a great idea for a ranged build.
Lightning Clap isn't a bad keep-away power - it's not a fantastic disorient, but it's a nice knockback for a blaster. I don't think it's that amazing though. For an Elec/Elec, endurance drain is better mitigation.
While Power Sink is a point-blank AoE, so is Short Circuit from the Elec Primary. Using Short Circuit + Power Sink means that the blaster needs to duck into melee range, but I think it's worth it because endurance drain on an Elec/Elec is excellent mitigation.
Moreover, having Power Sink's a great boon for a blaster - most blasters run out of end very easily, and the nuke drains all your end anyway... having Power Sink allows a player to pop a single small blue, fire Power Sink, and be back up to full.
Also, the Elec Blast nuke, Thunderous Blast, is a massive end drain on enemies. So you can use Thunderous Blast, and then hop in to Power Sink any survivors (probably bosses or LTs) -which will leave them helpless.
Shocking Grasp is pretty good to stack with Tesla Cage on bosses. It's less necessary if you have the Elec APP as well, which grants a second electric-themed ranged hold. But personally I like having three holds, in case one misses.
Ultimately, Elec/Elec as a power combo doesn't have a lot of raw damage potential. Elec Blast is a bit light on damage. The real strength of the combination is in the utility powers, so they're worth looking at...
...if they fit your concept, of course.
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While Power Sink is a point-blank AoE, so is Short Circuit from the Elec Primary. Using Short Circuit + Power Sink means that the blaster needs to duck into melee range, but I think it's worth it because endurance drain on an Elec/Elec is excellent mitigation.
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What I learned the hard way was that Short Circuit is a mediocre endurance drain all by itself. Draining End as a tactic requires that you get the baddies to Zero Endurance, or they will still have enough End to put some serious hurt on you.
So kids, don't try End Drain Tactics until you have Power Sink, pure and simple. I never had enough oomph in Short Circuit, no matter how I slotted it, to drain baddies to zero, but with Power Sink, I usually do. My preferred sequence is to Ball Lightning a group (get them twitching for a few seconds, a smidge of End Drain), run into melee range and trigger Power Sink (massive End Drain) and then Short Circuit (enough End Drain to take everyone to Zero.) By that time, Ball Lightning is back up, and I re-apply it. I found that Short Circuit takes too long to fire to be the lead-off power; Power Sink is faster and gives Short Circuit some time to fire off, often while everyone is still twitching.
You also have to know your enemy groups. The Warriors are sheer murder in melee, for example, and if you miss draining someone to zero, they will put a world of hurt on your squishy self. If you miss several, you are headed to your reserved bed at the Hospital. 
What Elec/Elec really lacks is another ranged power that does substantial damage, preferably another AoE like Ball Lightning, that is readily available, but all there is left like that is the nuke. Thunderous Blast is a great nuke, especially since it works from range, but it is often not quite powerful enough to finish everyone off (although watching a group writhe and drop to the ground in unision is fantastic fun 
Try it on a group in Perez Park that you know will be wiped and enjoy the show!), so you may want to apply Ball Lightning first before TB. Or after TB, you may want to pop a blue, run in and Power Sink the survivors (refilling your blue bar) and giving them Short Circuit/Ball Lightning to finish them.
All of this is well and good once you have all of the powers mentioned. In the lower levels, I found that I had to be very careful about the aggro, pick my moments to zip in and engage ONE TARGET with my melee attacks and zip out. Elec/Elec just does not have enough ranged options to take out groups in the lower levels. Lightning Field would seem to require taking up residence in melee to be truly effective, and while I might try it out in my 40s now, since I am in there Power Sinking and all that, it did not seem to provide enough damage to offset the constant end drain on me nor the added aggro, so I gave up on it back in the day.
I am at 45 with my Elec/Elec, and I played Elec/Fire to 50, so I enjoy Elec a great deal, but it does take some finesse.
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[ QUOTE ]
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While Power Sink is a point-blank AoE, so is Short Circuit from the Elec Primary. Using Short Circuit + Power Sink means that the blaster needs to duck into melee range, but I think it's worth it because endurance drain on an Elec/Elec is excellent mitigation.
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What I learned the hard way was that Short Circuit is a mediocre endurance drain all by itself. Draining End as a tactic requires that you get the baddies to Zero Endurance, or they will still have enough End to put some serious hurt on you.
So kids, don't try End Drain Tactics until you have Power Sink, pure and simple. I never had enough oomph in Short Circuit, no matter how I slotted it, to drain baddies to zero, but with Power Sink, I usually do. My preferred sequence is to Ball Lightning a group (get them twitching for a few seconds, a smidge of End Drain), run into melee range and trigger Power Sink (massive End Drain) and then Short Circuit (enough End Drain to take everyone to Zero.) By that time, Ball Lightning is back up, and I re-apply it. I found that Short Circuit takes too long to fire to be the lead-off power; Power Sink is faster and gives Short Circuit some time to fire off, often while everyone is still twitching.
You also have to know your enemy groups. The Warriors are sheer murder in melee, for example, and if you miss draining someone to zero, they will put a world of hurt on your squishy self. If you miss several, you are headed to your reserved bed at the Hospital.
What Elec/Elec really lacks is another ranged power that does substantial damage, preferably another AoE like Ball Lightning, that is readily available, but all there is left like that is the nuke. Thunderous Blast is a great nuke, especially since it works from range, but it is often not quite powerful enough to finish everyone off (although watching a group writhe and drop to the ground in unision is fantastic fun Try it on a group in Perez Park that you know will be wiped and enjoy the show!), so you may want to apply Ball Lightning first before TB. Or after TB, you may want to pop a blue, run in and Power Sink the survivors (refilling your blue bar) and giving them Short Circuit/Ball Lightning to finish them.
All of this is well and good once you have all of the powers mentioned. In the lower levels, I found that I had to be very careful about the aggro, pick my moments to zip in and engage ONE TARGET with my melee attacks and zip out. Elec/Elec just does not have enough ranged options to take out groups in the lower levels. Lightning Field would seem to require taking up residence in melee to be truly effective, and while I might try it out in my 40s now, since I am in there Power Sinking and all that, it did not seem to provide enough damage to offset the constant end drain on me nor the added aggro, so I gave up on it back in the day.
I am at 45 with my Elec/Elec, and I played Elec/Fire to 50, so I enjoy Elec a great deal, but it does take some finesse.
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This "twitching" you mention as being some kind of safety bumper is misinformed. It's merely the animation that plays when a foe has not done any animations and was hit with an electrical attack. For reference, get shot at by a Clockwork, but don't input any movement/power commands. You will start twitching.
The only thing I can think of, other than someone telling you otherwise, is that you attributed the mobs' seeming inability to attack you to the twitching when it is, in fact, the delay all spawns have when you're "spotted" for the first time. Every mob will stand for a about a second and look at your character when you've moved to aggro range. Once a spawn has been initially "alarmed" to your presence, this delay appears to go away so if you run off and they lose interest, when you come back they won't hesitate to fire at you anymore.
With that said, leading off with Ball Lightning (and finishing with it as well) is a good tactic regardless due to the -recovery. -Endurance means almost nothing without -recovery to keep their endurance down.
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Thank you all for all the helpful info on tactics and the additional information. I seem to be on the path in line with what the majority of you have said, he just seems to really suck at lvl 8.
I've been slotting for damage on the primary fast skills because I did notice that end drain at this lvl doesn't do squat.
What I do have is as follows:
Elec/Elec Lv 8 Blaster Build
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As a RANGED Elec/Elec specifically you'll find yourself somewhat lacking in overall damage output compared to other Blasters. I tried going that route, until I learned that Short Circuit + Power Sink == drained spawn in most cases.
IF you're going to not take most of the attacks in the /Elec secondary to pair with the Elec/ primary, at least consider taking the following:
[u]Power Sink[u] - for obvious reasons... combined with Short Circuit you can completely drain entire spawns of their endurance, and re-applying one or the other will keep them drained as long as they're in range. Also, each mob you hit with it (its auto-hit) transfers some Endurance to you.
[u]Build Up[u] - again, for obvious reasons... it adds 60% Acc and 100% damage buffs to your attacks for the next ~10 seconds, and after all, you're a Blaster.
[u]Shocking Grasp[u] - technically, its a melee attack, but it almost doesn't look like one. Besides the fact that it does good damage over time, its also a Mag 3 hold. Sure its a melee hold, but it animates very quickly, and combined with Tesla Cage from the Elec/ primary, you can lock down a boss (or two Lieuts, or a Lieut and a Minion, or two Minions).
As far as taking Lightning Clap goes... if you're going all ranged... I guess it would make sense to have LC as an OSB, but be VERY wary of using it AT ALL on teams. In most cases you'll just tick off rest of the team, particularly aggro managers and toons who's buffs/debuffs/attacks are best-used on tightly packed spawns.
As an Elec/Elec, I tried out different ways to play the combo (it was my first toon in CoH, actually) and eventually found a mix of blasting/blapping worked very well. Once Electric Mastery came out for Blasters, I was absolutely ecstatic, as I was able to include a third hold (Shocking Bolt, a ranged hold attack) to go with Tesla Cage and Shocking Grasp, and nice Cone attack (Static Discharge) to flesh out a somewhat respectable AoE chain (along with Ball Lightning and Short Circuit).
Thx for the info and ideas.
I'm not too concerned with how I will affect teams because I solo. I just need to be able to lock down multiple mobs and kill them without getting hit. The end drain seems to be the way I should focus the build, since without end there can't be any incoming damage. I also want to maximize the way I can hold mobs because that is paramount I think. I haven't decided yet if clap is something I will get or not. In a pinch it seems like a good way to keep mobs off when i'm waiting for recharges.
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[ QUOTE ]
Thx for the info and ideas.
I'm not too concerned with how I will affect teams because I solo. I just need to be able to lock down multiple mobs and kill them without getting hit. The end drain seems to be the way I should focus the build, since without end there can't be any incoming damage. I also want to maximize the way I can hold mobs because that is paramount I think. I haven't decided yet if clap is something I will get or not. In a pinch it seems like a good way to keep mobs off when i'm waiting for recharges.
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I have to say, once I started using End Drain as my main mitigation tactic, it was pretty awesome. There are a few mobs/mob types where you will have a harder time though. Offhand, Cimerorans come to mind. The have pretty decent Defense, which means that at least a couple will get missed when you fire off SC unfortunately. Also, they tend to hit easily and regularly too thanks to the inherent acc bonus they get from using handheld weapons and that their secondary effect is a Defense Debuff.
Also, if you're only going to solo, then yeah, LC could come in handy in a pinch to get mobs off your back. It would be detrimental for your PBAoE drains, but if you didn't have time to fire them off or were waiting on recharges like you said, it could work out well to have that in your toolbox, so to speak.
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This "twitching" you mention as being some kind of safety bumper is misinformed. It's merely the animation that plays when a foe has not done any animations and was hit with an electrical attack. For reference, get shot at by a Clockwork, but don't input any movement/power commands. You will start twitching.
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You may very well be right on that. I know that certain Electrical attacks mention incapacitating the foe by "leaving them writing in agony," and it looks like that is what happens with Ball Lightning. However, it is sometimes the case that the animations do not jive with what is actually going on, and I could not say that I know for sure that the twitching signifies anything. All I know is that if I jump into melee range and hit Short Circuit, I get all kinds of incoming on myself, but following the sequence of Ball Lightning, Power Sink and Short Circuit typically results in little to none. I usually chalk up any attack I do receive to missing with Ball Lightning, but I will try and watch this closely. Maybe I am just lucky, in addition to dashingly handsome!
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With that said, leading off with Ball Lightning (and finishing with it as well) is a good tactic regardless due to the -recovery. -Endurance means almost nothing without -recovery to keep their endurance down.
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I was thinking it was Short Circuit that did the -Recovery, but the more the merrier if Ball Lighting is the one. Your point is very well taken-- even if you drain the buggers to zero, if they quickly recover enough to launch an attack, your noggin will get dented in short order.
I might add that hitting Aim before launching Ball Lightning is helpful, since missing folks when you will be at close range is likewise hazardous.
BTW Laxx, have you ever run Lightning Field on your Elec/Elec and found it to be worth it? I have not, as I said, at lower levels, but may give it a spin in my 40s if it is effective.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
[ QUOTE ]
BTW Laxx, have you ever run Lightning Field on your Elec/Elec and found it to be worth it? I have not, as I said, at lower levels, but may give it a spin in my 40s if it is effective.
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I will say that lightning field was sucking more endurance than it was helping kill stuff. I just deleted him and remade him skipping Field this time and I'm going to try just ranged skills instead of including that toggle skill to see if I end up with a bit more stability in my tactics.
If it is useful, it isn't for any build until after Stamina is slotted for sure.
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Lightning Field is not useless, but it has limited utility for an Elec/Elec blaster. It won't help you kill stuff as such - don't expect it to be a major part of your damage.
See...while a damage aura is a big contributor to a tank or scrapper's damage, it doesn't really make a huge difference for a blaster.
But Lightning Field can work well as part of an end-drain strategy. Basically, once you have a spawn drained dry with Short Circuit + Power Sink, having Lightning Field will allow you to keep them at zero if you remain standing in melee range - since, y'know, it takes a little bit of end each time it ticks.
The thing is... since Power Sink only comes at 35, an end-drain build is a late-maturing one anyway. Until you get Power Sink, there's hardly any point in trying to drain end. You won't see the full benefits until you have Short Circuit + Power Sink.
Once you have THAT...you may wanna consider Lightning Field to keep things sucked dry. But it's really something to pick up late in the build, if you pick it up at all.
I don't have it and don't really miss it, but it works for some folks.
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[ QUOTE ]
But Lightning Field can work well as part of an end-drain strategy. Basically, once you have a spawn drained dry with Short Circuit + Power Sink, having Lightning Field will allow you to keep them at zero if you remain standing in melee range - since, y'know, it takes a little bit of end each time it ticks.
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That is exactly what I was wondering about.
Back in 2005, Lightning Field simply was another way on my lowbie to aggro every baddie nearby, and did not seem to be worth the End for the damage it did in any event.
But you have put your finger on exactly what I was thinking; thanks!
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I'm back up to lvl 7, deleted the previous build at 8 to refocus skills. So far I haven't come close to dying once. I doubt I'll be able to solo Frostfire at 9 however. I don't think I have any skillsets that will keep all his summons and his cronies off me long enough to put the hurt on him.
He has the Lead Shocker that is tied to his aggro, one other minion and all his pets.
I was able to on my Dark/Dark Defender because one of his skills has an aoe incapacitate. Once his pets woke up though, I had only a few seconds to finish killing him before they finished my defender. I threw off the last couple damage ticks and ran like you wouldn't believe til I saw his endurance bar drain to 0. Then I popped a respite and went after the last two mobs left.
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[ QUOTE ]
I know that certain Electrical attacks mention incapacitating the foe by "leaving them writing in agony,"
[/ QUOTE ]
Many electrical attacks, in addition to the end drain and proc for endurance return, have a chance to Sleep the target.
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I was thinking it was Short Circuit that did the -Recovery, but the more the merrier if Ball Lighting is the one.
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Short Circuit and Tesla Cage have -Recovery for more than a few seconds. (10 and 8 seconds respectively)
The rest have a proc of recovery debuff lasting between 2-4 seconds, with Zapp and shocking grasp doing the best at 4s/50% proc. Next up is Thunder Strike at 4s/40% chance, and Powersink has a 4s/30% chance to proc.
Lightning Field drains endurance, but has no recovery debuff (proc or no) and Lightning Clap doing no endurance drain OR recovery debuff.
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I don't actually have an Elec/Elec. I do have an Elec/Dev and I've messed with the Elec secondary on a couple characters, but Blasters are my favorite AT and pretty much anything about them I'm going to know . Lightning Field, as stated, is typically best used as a tool to keep mobs near you bottomed out on endurance.
After reviewing Leech's post, I double-checked on Ball Lightning since I didn't see it mentioned that it had -recovery. Now, according to Mids, Ball Lightning has a 30% chance to reduce recovery by 100% for 4 seconds. It's not entirely reliable (and I'm willing to accept that Mids may be mistaken -- it's been wrong many times before), but it's also not a waste to use for this purpose. Besides, it does decent damage on its own and as a Blaster, you're going to be needing that damage anyway.
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@Laxx
"You will bend to my will, with or without your precious sanity." --Dragon Mage
[ QUOTE ]
Many electrical attacks, in addition to the end drain and proc for endurance return, have a chance to Sleep the target.
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In my experience, this is limited to the melee versions of electrical powers. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any player ranged electrical power that has a sleep chance. I can't speak on the proc, however.
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@Laxx
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I overlevelled to 10, Frostfire was White and I whomped him pretty good. I opened up with aim. Dowsed him with Ball, kept hitting him with the two bolts. The min he charged in with a melee attack I hit him with short circuit and ball again. He went down so hard.
Level 11.5 at the moment and haven't been defeated yet so It seems like this is gonna work out 
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I can't find quite the guide I'm looking for, so I'm asking anyone who has experience with this to help me formulate a successful toon path.
I'm working on a Hero, that is MU based in concept, an Elec/Elec Blaster with no melee. So far I've see a run down on the Primary Elect tree but all the other Dual Elec guides I've found focus on melee to augment the build.
Does anyone have any experience with a Ranged Only, with possibly the exception of Thunder Clap, Electric-Electric Blaster build?
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