Suggestions to fix energy:
Add a minor Mez affect to Electric Field and/or Power sink. Mezzes minions, chance to Mez LTs.
Add a +regen bonus to Conserve power and call it Overcharge or something similar. Make similar changes to other versions of CP.
Give Mu brutes/SOAs a version of EMP as the "Epic power" an alternative could be Electric Shackles/Tesla Cage.
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
I agree with the customizability, it's very nice in the set. And yes, you can build a very nice toon from it. But like others have said, the set falls flat against anything not energy-based. Castle himself mentioned Fiery's issue of having to take Fighting and Leaping just to close the holes. I'm not saying to remove ElA's Achilles' heel, but deciding on what said heel is can be a different issue altogether.
Is its weakness Smashing and Lethal damage? Or is it the lack of a heal or health benefits of any sort? Maybe even the reliance on Grounded or going fully Leaping?
Like you said, anyone can take Aid Self. Even if a heal was added to Power Sink, I'd STILL take Aid Self. Why? I believe Electric Armor's weakness is it's resistances. So, instead of overstating said weakness, I propose enhancing EA and ElA's specialization: Effect.
The sets' effects are Drains/Utility and Evasion/Utility. Stone and Invuln are kings of alpha. Willpower is the steamroller. Dark's utilities work because it has A LOT of them to function together. I'm holding to the thought that ElA and EA should be somewhat like Ele/Ele or Ele/EM Blasters, in that, instead of relying purely on damage (Or in a Brute's case, Damage/Survivability), the two sets would rely on Effects to mitigate.
Moving Conserve Power to Mu Mastery and adding in Power Boost (We shouldn't do Power Build Up, because that gives a 80% damage,+10% ToHit buff, which switches EA and ElA to damage sets instead of utility...), would still be an optionally passable power, and wouldn't change the basic function of the set. Granted, it IS a very tempting power, but so are most of the powers in the set.
I wouldn't want anyone to HAVE to take every power in the set. In the end, most sets don't have to. I am drawing a blank as to what sets sort of force you to, besides maybe Super Reflexes...
Perhaps just replacing Conserve Power with Power Boost would be enough to really bring ElA and EA in line. It's still sort of odd that a Defense based set, which can pull off an interruptible self heal very easily, gains a self heal in its endurance tool...while the resist set gets nothing.
Something someone else addressed was how painful the 1-36 grind can be. I can't really think of anything that wouldn't unbalance the set at low levels. You basically suffer for over half your career to get decent, then to live in Power Surge for the rest of it.
Hey, at least Power Surge recharges quickly 
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Suggestions to fix electric:
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Fixed. It may look minor, but you need to get the set name right if I'm going to believe you know what you are talking about. I'm inclined to believe you haven't played the set. The same thing applies with the next word in bold.
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Add a minor Mez affect to Lightning Field and/or Power sink. Mezzes minions, chance to Mez LTs.
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1) Lightning Field is a taunt aura that deals damage. It helps keep my enemies near me so I can SMASH. Mezzing minions makes them do the drunk walk away from my SMASH.
2) Minions are the least of my worries as an Electric brute. They might add up, but I rely on their attacks a lot for ease of fury generation. When I have trouble on an electric brute, it's facing a +3 boss that hits very hard.
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Add a +regen bonus to Conserve power and call it Overcharge or something similar. Make similar changes to other versions of CP.
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Electric Armor needs more consistency in its survivability, not another long-recharge click power. I have powersurge (if I actually take it) for survivability. The power you sound like you're suggesting is Regen's instant healing. As cool as that power is, I wouldn't want it. I'll repeat what I said - Electric Armor needs a more consistent means for survivability.
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Give Mu brutes/SOAs a version of EMP as the "Epic power" an alternative could be Electric Shackles/Tesla Cage.
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So if I roll an electric brute, I have to chose Scirocco as my patron? The issue at hand is that when Electric Armor gets ported blueside, there will be access to two Conserve Powers. Removing conserve power from electric armor solves this issue. The only issue is what to put in its place. The last thing I would want there is a mez - especially something like EMP Pulse.
I suppose I should put forth something new. The issue with Electric Armor is two-fold:
1) For Soloing, electric armor does not have the health gain to maintain fury once you run out of greens. On a team, you WILL definitely run out of greens. Soloing, the same thing does happen. Therefore, a method of recovering health will do much in this respect.
2) For teaming, electric armor does not have the survivability to lead an 8 man team at relentless - if the team is not providing solid mitigation. To increase survivability, the resists of certain areas should be increased - particularly smashing and lethal. 5-7% should be enough, though this may cause some issues when ported over to Tankers with their better resist values (they'll probably then be able to cap S/L/E).
Therefore, I am suggesting two changes to Electric Armor:
Remove Conserve Power and put it in Scirocco's PPP and in its place is:
Ionization: You drain the defeated foes around you of their mental energies, refreshing your armor. The more powerful the defeated foe, the greater the strength restored.
Minion: 5% Heal
Lieutenant: 10% Heal
Boss: 15% Heal
60 Recharge
15 End
25 Radius
This ability allows electric armor to recover after the fight is over so that the downtime between fights is reduced.
Also, by increasing the S/L resists, the ability to build an electric brute to survive alpha strikes is much easily attained. Sure, one can invest in IO sets (I have two level 50 electric brutes that are heavily invested in), but it should not be necessary. Electric Armor with just SOs really does pale in comparison to the others.
The only other possible alternative is to remove the interrupt from Aid Self so that it can be used mid-combat. I don't see that happening.
Edit: for clarity.
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Suggestions to fix electric:
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Fixed. It may look minor, but you need to get the set name right if I'm going to believe you know what you are talking about. I'm inclined to believe you haven't played the set. The same thing applies with the next word in bold.
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Add a minor Mez affect to Lightning Field and/or Power sink. Mezzes minions, chance to Mez LTs.
[/ QUOTE ]
1) Lightning Field is a taunt aura that deals damage. It helps keep my enemies near me so I can SMASH. Mezzing minions makes them do the drunk walk away from my SMASH.
2) Minions are the least of my worries as an Electric brute. They might add up, but I rely on their attacks a lot for ease of fury generation. When I have trouble on an electric brute, it's facing a +3 boss that hits very hard.
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Add a +regen bonus to Conserve power and call it Overcharge or something similar. Make similar changes to other versions of CP.
[/ QUOTE ]
Electric Armor needs more consistency in its survivability, not another long-recharge click power. I have powersurge (if I actually take it) for survivability. The power you sound like you're suggesting is Regen's instant healing. As cool as that power is, I wouldn't want it. I'll repeat what I said - Electric Armor needs a more consistent means for survivability.
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Give Mu brutes/SOAs a version of EMP as the "Epic power" an alternative could be Electric Shackles/Tesla Cage.
[/ QUOTE ]
So if I roll an electric brute, I have to chose Scirocco as my patron? The issue at hand is that when Electric Armor gets ported blueside, there will be access to two Conserve Powers. Removing conserve power from electric armor solves this issue. The only issue is what to put in its place. The last thing I would want there is a mez - especially something like EMP Pulse.
I suppose I should put forth something new. The issue with Electric Armor is two-fold:
1) For Soloing, electric armor does not have the health gain to maintain fury once you run out of greens. On a team, you WILL definitely run out of greens. Soloing, the same thing does happen. Therefore, a method of recovering health will do much in this respect.
2) For teaming, electric armor does not have the survivability to lead an 8 man team at relentless - if the team is not providing solid mitigation. To increase survivability, the resists of certain areas should be increased - particularly smashing and lethal. 5-7% should be enough, though this may cause some issues when ported over to Tankers with their better resist values (they'll probably then be able to cap S/L/E).
Therefore, I am suggesting two changes to Electric Armor:
Remove Conserve Power and put it in Scirocco's PPP and in its place is:
Ionization: You drain the defeated foes around you of their mental energies, refreshing your armor. The more powerful the defeated foe, the greater the strength restored.
Minion: 5% Heal
Lieutenant: 10% Heal
Boss: 15% Heal
60 Recharge
15 End
25 Radius
This ability allows electric armor to recover after the fight is over so that the downtime between fights is reduced.
Also, by increasing the S/L resists, the ability to build an electric brute to survive alpha strikes is much easily attained. Sure, one can invest in IO sets (I have two level 50 electric brutes that are heavily invested in), but it should not be necessary. Electric Armor with just SOs really does pale in comparison to the others.
The only other possible alternative is to remove the interrupt from Aid Self so that it can be used mid-combat. I don't see that happening.
Edit: for clarity.
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I like the ideas in here. To start off, The idea of using the WS power, Sty--- Circle, would make the set heavily overpowered IMHO. A full life refill while having a full blue bar also won't be happening.
/ELA does need consistency to survive, not a long recharge click power. Previously someone wanted to modify Conserve Power to Give +HP's while it was active. We dont need something for half the time, We need a permanent Fix.
I Honestly think a + HP power would make the set much tougher. Adding a permanent 400-500 HP's after getting all the accolades would make for a brute with High HP's, and decent resistances. Along with the HP's, a slight +regen in grounded, almost as health, would help a lot to decrease the downtime, but I think that would be a little much.
As for the change, I also hope its something viable for pvp.
Also, for those who use defense to "fix the holes in /ela" stacked with darkest night: So many mobs in the game have Def debuff powers, that it basically eliminates your defense very quickly, leaving only darkest night and your resistances to defend you. Invul, WP, Sr, /shield, and /stone all have Defense debuff resistance, making +def bonuses GREAT for them, but very sub par for /ela. Give us soem defense debuff res and I would be happy. But, things aren't centered around IO's, so that wont be happening.
Good catch. I removed most of Stygian's ability by doubling the recharge and nearly halving the heal values. Perhaps a base 5% per dead enemy would be enough. That and removing the end-recovery. As it isn't that common of a power and dependent upon surviving until enemies begin dropping, there is potential for balance. I just may have left the numbers still a bit too high. Either that or instill a 3-4 target cap.
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Good catch. I removed most of Stygian's ability by doubling the recharge and nearly halving the heal values. Perhaps a base 5% per dead enemy would be enough. That and removing the end-recovery. As it isn't that common of a power and dependent upon surviving until enemies begin dropping, there is potential for balance. I just may have left the numbers still a bit too high. Either that or instill a 3-4 target cap.
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Idk, I think the overall Idea may just be a little much for a brute.
/EA gets a group heal that does just 3% per enemy, and it can miss (IIRC). Getting the recharge on that power down to 30sec before IO's could make it usable twice a group. It would have to be interruptable. I could see my brute running in and using FireSwordCircle, and instantly killing minions, and using the power halfway through a fight to get full life, and then again after cleaning up the LTs and/or boss. The power would have to require a target cap, or a heal cap. It would have to equal /EA's heal. I like the idea, It would be hard to balance for a brute though, without gimping it or making it OP'd.
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/EA gets a group heal that does just 3% per enemy, and it can miss (IIRC).
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Power Sink and Energy Drain are both auto-hit.
The catch with any buff to ELA being attached to Power Sink is that endurance drain is the set's second layer of mitigation. Power Sink must be used as early as possible in combat so that Lightning Field and enemy attacks will cause them to bottom out on endurance. Power Sink also must be used early so that a second application can be applied if necessary.
This dynamic basically means that a heal attached to Power Sink would be bad-- the skill must be used early in combat but heals are generally required later. Adding +regen or +resist to Power Sink, on a per target basis, would be much better for ELA. These effects would synergize well with the need to use Power Sink early in combat for endurance drain purposes.
As a pretty experience player, and I played my fair share of /Electrical Armor when I was soloing Arch Villains with my Brute with SS/Elec and EM/Elec when I made them FOTM. Electrical armor is fine with SO's. /Elec has two problems, one its synergy with IO's is poor and thats why it falls behind other sets. Two, its Energy resistance is EXTREMELY good and the trade off is the rest of the set.
/Elec is one of the few powersets that can tank an Arch Villain (Hero) like Positron INDEFINITELY with SO's + Aid Self. (I know cause I soloed him) The energy resistance this set gets is too good and the trade off is too harsh.
The problem is you have a lot of resistance and no hitpoints. If you are going to give a set no avoidance (See: Dodge, Misses, etc) you have to stack Resistance and HP as they are exponential factors off one another.
Ultimately, what I would do is cut the Energy resistance this set gets in half. (Currently it can cap Energy at 90% with Brute HP modifiers... when this set is ported to Tankers it will be even more useless). This would give the set a base 36% energy resistance. (Enhanced around 60%)
As for the rest of the set, give grounded a static HP bonus that is unenhanceable but is 20% extra hp.
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As a pretty experience player, and I played my fair share of /Electrical Armor when I was soloing Arch Villains with my Brute with SS/Elec and EM/Elec when I made them FOTM.
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LOL, while I pretty much agree with your views on ELa and such, your next challenge is to make modesty FOTM.
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Ultimately, what I would do is cut the Energy resistance this set gets in half. (Currently it can cap Energy at 90% with Brute HP modifiers... when this set is ported to Tankers it will be even more useless). This would give the set a base 36% energy resistance. (Enhanced around 60%)
As for the rest of the set, give grounded a static HP bonus that is unenhanceable but is 20% extra hp.
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I don't like your idea.
And if grounded was given +HP, is SHOULD be enhanceable.
glares at a shelf'd lvl 50 elec armor brute...
Ignoring anyone is a mistake. You might miss something viral to your cause.
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As a pretty experience player, and I played my fair share of /Electrical Armor when I was soloing Arch Villains with my Brute with SS/Elec and EM/Elec when I made them FOTM...
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"Hello, you may remember me from such movies as:
'I soloed the AV'
'The AV Soloed Me'
'AVs, AVs, Everywhere AVs'
You may wonder how I keep my smooth and silky complexion throughout the years... I tell you an ancient secret, PEARL CREAM!"
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As a pretty experience player, and I played my fair share of /Electrical Armor when I was soloing Arch Villains with my Brute with SS/Elec and EM/Elec when I made them FOTM.
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You were just the first to boast publically about your ability to solo AVs with your /ELA Brute. Some of us don't find the need to brag about our accomplishments.
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As a pretty experience player, and I played my fair share of /Electrical Armor when I was soloing Arch Villains with my Brute with SS/Elec and EM/Elec when I made them FOTM.
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Who are you again? I see you did some movies about AVs... I watch alot of movies still not sure who you are. Then again Ive only been reading these forums for 4 years. Maybe you are new?
Speaking of movies you reminded me of a favorite movie qoute "My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. "
Did you invent the question mark? Are chestnuts lazy? Daddy is that you?
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As a pretty experience player, and I played my fair share of /Electrical Armor when I was soloing Arch Villains with my Brute with SS/Elec and EM/Elec when I made them FOTM...
[/ QUOTE ]
"Hello, you may remember me from such movies as:
'I soloed the AV'
'The AV Soloed Me'
'AVs, AVs, Everywhere AVs'
You may wonder how I keep my smooth and silky complexion throughout the years... I tell you an ancient secret, PEARL CREAM!"
[/ QUOTE ]
Lol! That was brilliant. Seriously, well done.
Who was that guy, anyway?
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Suggestions to fix electric:
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Fixed. It may look minor, but you need to get the set name right if I'm going to believe you know what you are talking about. I'm inclined to believe you haven't played the set. The same thing applies with the next word in bold.
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Level 48 Fire/Electric brute in point of fact. which I had just finishied playing him when I scribbled down these ideas. I was more interested in getting these ideas down, before I forgot about them.
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Add a minor Mez affect to Lightning Field and/or Power sink. Mezzes minions, chance to Mez LTs.
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1) Lightning Field is a taunt aura that deals damage. It helps keep my enemies near me so I can SMASH. Mezzing minions makes them do the drunk walk away from my SMASH.
2) Minions are the least of my worries as an Electric brute. They might add up, but I rely on their attacks a lot for ease of fury generation. When I have trouble on an electric brute, it's facing a +3 boss that hits very hard.
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I'm being realistic with my suggestions. Which means modifying existing powers slightly without radically changing the theme of the set. I'm think more proactive defense than reactive defense. I know Mezzing can cut down on Fury generation, bur Fury is of no use when about 8+ Longbow Minions and LTs gun you down in a hail of bullets, often through Power Surge. Bosses and AVs are still a problem, but then they're supposed to be.
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Electric Armor needs more consistency in its survivability, not another long-recharge click power. I have powersurge (if I actually take it) for survivability. The power you sound like you're suggesting is Regen's instant healing. As cool as that power is, I wouldn't want it. I'll repeat what I said - Electric Armor needs a more consistent means for survivability.
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It does, but there are limited ways to provide that and still have it make sense thematically. Your Ionization power is interesting, but it's not likely to happen since it's too much of a change.
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The issue with Electric Armor is two-fold:
1) For Soloing, electric armor does not have the health gain to maintain fury once you run out of greens. On a team, you WILL definitely run out of greens. Soloing, the same thing does happen. Therefore, a method of recovering health will do much in this respect.
2) For teaming, electric armor does not have the survivability to lead an 8 man team at relentless - if the team is not providing solid mitigation. To increase survivability, the resists of certain areas should be increased - particularly smashing and lethal. 5-7% should be enough, though this may cause some issues when ported over to Tankers with their better resist values (they'll probably then be able to cap S/L/E).
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Agree on both points, but 5-7% won't do very much S/L-wise. My Fire/Electric had to take Tough to be more survivable, and he still can't handle S/L based enemeis very well. At least not on large team where he's expected to tank.
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Therefore, I am suggesting two changes to Electric Armor:
Remove Conserve Power and put it in Scirocco's PPP and in its place is:
Ionization: You drain the defeated foes around you of their mental energies, refreshing your armor. The more powerful the defeated foe, the greater the strength restored.
This ability allows electric armor to recover after the fight is over so that the downtime between fights is reduced.
Also, by increasing the S/L resists, the ability to build an electric brute to survive alpha strikes is much easily attained. Sure, one can invest in IO sets (I have two level 50 electric brutes that are heavily invested in), but it should not be necessary. Electric Armor with just SOs really does pale in comparison to the others.
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It's an interesting idea, but I'm doubt it's going to happen. It's too much of a change to the existing powers.
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
A base +5-7% S/L resistance would allow electric brutes to reach 70% resistance easily with tough/weave. Creative slotting could approach 80%. That is a big difference in survivability.
A mez in the taunt aura is the last thing I would do to change a set. For balance reasons, the endurance cost would likely need to be increased, which would annoy me as lightning field is quite the significant source of AoE damage, which in my in-game tests can comprise 1/4th the potential AoE damage, nearly equal to Ball Lightning. A stun effect would drastically cut down on my damage potential, as stunned minions do the drunk walk away from me. Now, I can use a power like electric fences to lock them in place, but that only solves the problem at 41+, whereas the power in question is available at 2, often not fully utilized until after stamina. Stuns without an immob or -speed are very annoying.
Conserve Power needs to go. In proliferating electric armor, the developers have a chance to do a serious change to the set - an opportunity they shouldn't pass up.
I just had idea. I think a fix to ElA can be provided in the form of an adjustment to Power Surge. From what I understand, the idea behind Brutes is that they have more difficulty in the early stages of leveling, but can eventually reach Tank-levels of protection later on.
So, I submit that Power Surge be changed into a Toggle, like Granite. It might not be as survivable as Granite, but it doesn't have to be. It's a more offensive form. I think that's an even trad-off for not getting a damage and movement penalty, like Granite gets. However, it WILL be like Granite in that it won't allow some/most of the other armors to be active along with it. The devs can decide if they want the Psionics hole or not by choosing if that armor can be active with Power Surge. Also, The endurance drain can be large than normal for Power Surge, if it looks like Power Surge will be too powerful. And to keep it similar, thematically, the 'crash' can happen when the power is de-toggled. This would still provide a penalty, but allow the player to control when and where it happens, resulting in a natural way to prevent your death (rather than having to rely on other players, inspirations or demonic aura to recover).
BTW: This is an aside to the idea of getting rid of CP. I think it's still a good idea to replace CP with another power. The Power Surge change was just another thought I had.
What do you think?
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A mez in the taunt aura is the last thing I would do to change a set. For balance reasons, the endurance cost would likely need to be increased, which would annoy me as lightning field is quite the significant source of AoE damage, which in my in-game tests can comprise 1/4th the potential AoE damage, nearly equal to Ball Lightning. A stun effect would drastically cut down on my damage potential, as stunned minions do the drunk walk away from me. Now, I can use a power like electric fences to lock them in place, but that only solves the problem at 41+, whereas the power in question is available at 2, often not fully utilized until after stamina. Stuns without an immob or -speed are very annoying.
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How about a sleep effect then? I know it sound self defeating, but anything that interrupts the enemies attack chain is damage mitigation.
I agree Conserve Power is lacking and needs to go.. somewhere else. I doubt that will happen when they port the sets over. Everything that's getting ported over this issue was "Minimal Effort" powersets, where you plug in the new ATs numbers and go.
Maybe when the get around to re-arranged the Epics and Patrons again they'll make some changes. I'm not going to hold my breath.
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
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I just had idea. I think a fix to ElA can be provided in the form of an adjustment to Power Surge. From what I understand, the idea behind Brutes is that they have more difficulty in the early stages of leveling, but can eventually reach Tank-levels of protection later on.
What do you think?
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I like the idea, although maybe instead of a Granite-toggle approach maybe more something like what happened with Moment of Glory. Shorter Duration, Lower Bonuses, Shorter Recharge, but no negitive effects. Something more designed as an "Alpha Soaker" rather than a "God Mode"
Looking at Power Surge a Regen bonus might be appropriate. Since at that point you are effectively Electricity. Either that or get rid of the HP Crash and keep the END crash.
Before the Longbow Disruptor Grenades got nerfed, it was not uncommon to be killed in Power Surge mode.
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
What about granting a Fear aura in one of the toggles. I know I wouldn't want to get near someone that was spewing electricity. Dark Armor has a Fear aura, it aids in mitigation. I'd just want it in a toggle I could turn off and not miss.
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What about granting a Fear aura in one of the toggles. I know I wouldn't want to get near someone that was spewing electricity. Dark Armor has a Fear aura, it aids in mitigation. I'd just want it in a toggle I could turn off and not miss.
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Any additional effect in a toggle would increase endurance. Electric Armor thrives on Power Sink. Before this, endurance management is very similar to other brutes (providing we don't take CP).
The better question to ask at this point is under what circumstances does Electric Armor tend to crumple quickly. Once that situation is identified (I have my opinions), I think a fix can be addressed.
In the following situation, I've provided mitigation for various pairings of Electric Armor in the end game. Some brutes rely on knockdown, which vanishes the moment a dominator throws down an immob (those poor guys get a lot of ire from me at times). Others have good single target stuns, and very poor AoE mitigation, so they are less likely to wish to take the alpha (energy), which is why I didn't list all pairings.
I've used this technique against what I consider the worst possible enemy one could choose on an electric armor brute - Eldersnakes. Given the tremendous amount of toxic damage, and our toxic hole outside of Power Surge, other forms of mitigation are necessary. In this case, popping a few sturdies always helps, but the major form of mitigation in this situation is knockdown. Thus, a few noticeable sets begin to perform well at certain levels on an electric brute.
As I already said, knockdown is a great form of mitigation, but is not always available. When teaming with dominators, a brute should be clear to explain that throwing down an immob every fight (if the stun doesn't immediately follow it) will eliminate a major form of mitigation for the brute. I do enjoy watching early game dominators throw out their AoE immob and promptly die from it. This isn't to say dominators are evil, but that when poorly played, this is the one AT that can cause a quick death to a brute.
The Electric/Electric/Mu Brute: Endurance Drain
1) Open with Lightning Rod to mitigate the Alpha Strike.
2) Fire Power Sink to drain the minions of endurance, drop the LT's. Lightning Field (minimally slotted for end drain) will be enough to maintain the endurance drain, especially tossing out AoEs such as Ball Lightning.
3) Fire Aid Self if health has dropped to worrying numbers. Lightning Rod + Forced animation of Power Sink typically buys enough time to animate Aid Self following these two powers.
4) Rely on AoEs to slowly whittle down the softer targets while you focus attacks such as Thunderstrike on the boss, and cycle chain induction on whatever has the highest health for the greatest chance of a complete chain.
5) Mob is dead, onto next mob. Ideally, recharge is high enough that you can LR the next mob.
Super Strength/Electric: Knockdown Specialist
1) Superspeed in and Footstomp for Knockdown to avoid as much alpha as possible.
2) Fire Power Sink, same reasoning.
3) Aid Self has a potential opening at this point, and any subsequent footstomp.
4) Focus ST attacks on the hard targets, especially utilizing Knockout Blow on the boss to hopefully get some KD going.
5) Fire Aid Self again after fight is over to regain a bit of health and take off for the next mob.
Stone/Electric: Knockdown
-similar approach, using fault for KD to avoid the alpha, along with tremor for sustained mitigation. On this particular brute, an AoE immob such as Electric Fences isn't a very good choice due to the powerful mitigation of knockdown.
--There are additional sets that have good KD potential. War Axe/Mace have good cones with this form of mitigation. However other sets really suffer when paired with electric armor. Stone Melee has greater mitigation potential compared to both Electric Melee and Superstrength. It makes me want to roll one.
Dark/Electric/Dark: ST Specialist with a Heal.
1) Charge in and hit soul drain, followed by Dark Obliteration.
2) Maintain a good fury building attack chain, making sure siphon life.
3) Fire Powersink when endurance reaches about halfway. Given the +HP in siphon life, one of the most significant holes in /electric armor is sealed. The AoE -to-hit in dark obliteration does wonders. Darkest Night is handy, but often given too much credit.
--This is the one set that gets good damage mitigation at early levels. The AoE damage is not great, but Lightning Field's taunt aura and later patron AoE powers can help hold the aggro (or you could even consider taunt). It's beautiful.
Conclusion
Certain sets work well to close up holes in electric armor. Although it is important to focus on fixing the armor itself, many times players rely on the primary as a means to mitigate when the armor does not perform well enough on its own. Such is the case with Super Strength/Electric, or what I view as a better option Stone/Electric. Other sets rely on endurance drain (electric/electric), which works well with even-con enemies and softer targets, but fails to mitigate situations where electric armor truly suffers - high conning enemies and bosses. Dark/Electric is a unique blend that really works well for electric armor. You don't have the tremendous AoE potential, but having a heal built into the attack chain does wonders for survivability. You won't be invincible, but you are a force to be reckoned with.
What would help Electric Armor the most to sustain alphas and stay upright long enough to rely on other sources of mitigation the best? Well, popping a few oranges before a tough fight works (hence why I advocate 5-7% more S/L resists), but over that, getting the +HP accolades helps a lot. Having a passive or click +HP power that could be made permanent would help extend the lifespan of an electric brute to allow for teammates. Barring a +HP power, an innate heal does wonders as well. This is what helps fire armor out, though the comparably poor resists can still make that set suffer at times in spite of the heal. Therefore, I continue to assert that the solution for electric armor lies in a heal, +HP, and better resistance to common S/L damage. Let negative and fire/cold continue to be an Achilles heel for the set.
I really think they are going to change either numbers or powers in the set for Tankers. You can cap resistances (Energy) with a Brute. A Tanker at a full 100% (Brutes get 75% of a shield's value) would be so far over the cap it would be a waste in my opinion for what the rest of the set sacrifices.
I am really curious to see what happens.
I doubt they change the resistance values for Tankers - it's not like Brutes can't cap Fire resistance with Fiery Aura, and it was ported from Tankers.
Conserve Power will be redundant, so I'm hoping to see some changes to it but don't see that being likely either - I still like the Instant Healing idea... 41% resistance doesn't look so bad with 1000% regeneration (see: Willpower).
As for the earlier post by Tonality, one thing overlooked in your SM/Elec is that immobilizes hurt it far less due to the stun in Fault, and a -KB immob will allow the SS/ or ElM/ to use Hand/Lightning Clap more effectively. Now I agree that it's typically skipped, but in the 40s after you can pick up Electric Fences you can use that for mitigation without relying on other ATs to provide the -KB for you so it can be built around.
But the sequence you have for your ElM/ElA/Mu is remarkably similar to how mine runs, only I don't have (or often need, inspiration combining is a wunnerful ting) Aid Self on her.
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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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In my humble opinion, I prefer it when I have the option to choose a set that I have to take every power save for the godmode to be unstobpabble, and having to cope with tough bargains for pool/ancillary powers, and other sets that allow for much roomier build options.
For me DA/FA/ElA are such sets which in itself does not require you to take every power in the secondary but allow you to build a toon that is more flexible and different depending on your other power choices. I actually LIKE the fact that I can cover mitigation with three power choices and not six.
What I mean is with these sets which people usually consider underpowered, you can achieve great builds (albeit expensive) and have very flexible toons that play drastically different if you use the dual build option. They will each excel at a task and have their kryptonite nevertheless.
I dont think every secondary should have a heal, that is why aid self exists, I dont think every secondary should have end recovery power and I don't think every set should be compared to WP.
Simply because every set has a can opener, and if you build sets like ElA which are relatively IMMUNE to drains and slows, which kill most other sets dead, you are breaking the balance of the game further. How much longer will it take from that point until the WP people start whining about how their ElA friend can solo three scirocco/carnie mistress AVs in the AE but they can't?
I don't like to compare ElA's SL resitance to Stone/INV, or it's Fire resistance to /FA, that line of reasoning will only lead to identical sets with different visuals.
ElA, FA and DA are very similar in resistance numbers, they are all resistance sets that bring something to the table and take something away. ElA Brings speed and End, FA brings Healing and Damage, DA brings Healing, bases for pbaoe control and End Problems.
It is tough enough to even try to compare these three very similar ground sets to each other, they have bases on which you can build a totally different performing toon, that if you try to compare these sets to drastically different secondaries such as SD/INV/WP you are no longer comparing apples to oranges but a kiwi to a ribeye steak sure they are both food, but... =)