How to "Sure Up" the durability of Electric Armor?

I'm curious how to make Electric Armor as durable and strong as possible. I'm probably going to make a Claws/Electric Brute when they come out for Brutes.

I'm trying to make him as tough as possible. With an all resist set that can be pretty hard. There is a little mitigation in Claws, but not a lot and I want to make my toon as tough as possible.

What suggestions do you all have?

I'm told the best way to toughen up Elec Armor is to get as much IO defense bonuses as possible. It's also good to get Tough and Weave... as well as Aide Self. But until then... it'll be a very grindy experience.

*raises a glass of rootbeer* Here's hoping they try to make Elec Armor more survivable for i16.

The expression is "shore up"

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I'm curious how to make Electric Armor as durable and strong as possible. I'm probably going to make a Claws/Electric Brute when they come out for Brutes.

I'm trying to make him as tough as possible. With an all resist set that can be pretty hard. There is a little mitigation in Claws, but not a lot and I want to make my toon as tough as possible.

What suggestions do you all have?

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1. Get Tough
2. Get Weave
3. Get Aid Self
4. Get as much +Defense bonuses you can
5. Get Demonic Badge
6. Get High Pain Threshold Badge
7. Get Born in Battle Badge
8. Get Invader Badge

Good luck finding slots for everything because I sure haven't been able to do it.

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I'm curious how to make Electric Armor as durable and strong as possible. I'm probably going to make a Claws/Electric Brute when they come out for Brutes.

I'm trying to make him as tough as possible. With an all resist set that can be pretty hard. There is a little mitigation in Claws, but not a lot and I want to make my toon as tough as possible.

What suggestions do you all have?

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Make sure to get a nice chunk of +regen. If your only doing AE missions, +def will give you a nice advantage, but any real mobs will definitely cut through it very quickly due to defense debuffs. I found this out from personal experience. Tough/weave is a given. If you dont build for any defense bonuses, I would say dont even take weave, since only 7% wont help a whole lot.

As for aid self, I never really saw the advantage of it, unless you are gonna use it inbetween groups to decrease downtime. It takes several seconds to cast, and by the time its done animating, you will probably have taken as much damage as you healed if you use it in combat.

Just my two infamy. Good Luck with it, and lets hope i16 has something in store for us.

Slotting a lot of +HP and +regen has worked wonders for me. Understanding how much and which inspirations to use is also an incredibly important skill.

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The expression is "shore up"

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Lol... that is what I was going to say.

I'm not sure how much synergy there is between claws and electric armor. There isn't much mitigation to the set, and electric armor likes having extra mitigation, such as knockdown, stuns, etc. Then again, claws/stone armor sounds just plain silly.

I'm actually not quite sure what I'd want to pair with claws. Maybe even dark armor? I can't believe I'm considering that.

Anyway for claws/elec:

If you build for melee defense, you can easily get around 30% melee defense, so a single luck can cap your melee defense, which greatly increases your survivability. The only thing you want to watch with this is defense debuffs. The combat attribute monitor is a lifesaver - literally.

If you go the +hp/regen route, you're less prone to spikes with the RNG. This is likely a cheaper route to go as you can get some decent bonuses through frankenslotting.

As for why I even thought claws/dark:
-Uniqueness (I mean, who would roll one?)
-Lighter on endurance than other sets so the toggle-heavy dark armor is more friendly.
-It isn't going to be a FoTM anytime soon.
-Good health recovery tool.
-Stealth power offers some defense to stack with a defense build.

I just can't believe I just suggested Dark Armor.
*hangs head in shame*

I can't believe I'm probably rolling one in issue 16.
No, it won't be incredible. But it will be...entertaining.

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Then again, claws/stone armor sounds just plain silly.

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Only because you don't get a gigglesnort while thinking about a Granite Brute using Eviscerate.

I still want Stone Armor for Stalkers.

Oh, and to the OP:[ QUOTE ]
Understanding how much and which inspirations to use is also an incredibly important skill.

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This. I don't have Tough or Aid Self on my Elec/Elec/Mu - nor did I have either while I was levelling her prior to IOs. She does fine on Relentless but you're going to learn that you need combat mobility to mess with the stupid AI and knowing how to use inspirations - you can't just stand there in the middle of a huge group and button-mash without a lot of help from IO set bonuses, Tough, and/or Aid Self - but just little 3-5' shifts in position will often get the AI to stop attacking even while they're still in melee range as it tries to run through routing paths to get to the same position it was at relative to you before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

I've had good luck pairing electric armor with a set that has knockdown in it, and air superiority for extra. Keeping your opponents on their backs helps cut down damage by quite a bit. Electric melee, super strength, stone melee (take fault!), etc.

In general, I wouldn't say "use inspirations" since that isn't really specific to a certain set. A blaster could use inspirations and tank with little difficulty in most situations.

As for "pairing with knockdown", the OP wanted claw/elec info on how to improve the survivability.

Honestly, without a set that provides constant knockdown you will not be able to consistently survive spawns solo. I'm not even sure knockdown will save you. My fire/elec brute will be similiar to your claw/elec, and i'm telling you now that you will struggle to survive, or constantly use inspirations(Which I hate to rely on). My brute has some regen and 36% melee defense, and about 21% ranged def, but still struggles due to defense debuffs. Just a little insight for the future.

Take off and reroll it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

WARNING: I bold names.

Stone Melee / Electric Armor is very, very survivable.

Claws lacks soft control, so you'll likely be better off with something else. Like Willpower, or Dark Armor, or (lol) Energy Aura. >_>

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Claws lacks soft control, so you'll likely be better off with something else.

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Umm, there probably isn't much better soft control than Focus and Shockwave.

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Claws lacks soft control, so you'll likely be better off with something else.

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Umm, there probably isn't much better soft control than Focus and Shockwave.

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Tremor, Fault, Footstomp, Lightning Rod, Thunderstrike.

Focus is a single target attack. Shockwave is a cone. There are much better AoE KD powers available for pairing with /elec.

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I'm curious how to make Electric Armor as durable and strong as possible. I'm probably going to make a Claws/Electric Brute when they come out for Brutes.

I'm trying to make him as tough as possible. With an all resist set that can be pretty hard. There is a little mitigation in Claws, but not a lot and I want to make my toon as tough as possible.

What suggestions do you all have?

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Basically, the resistance sets did not gain as much with IOs as the defense sets did. This is elec's primary downfall. You can't up the resistance like a defense brute can with defense set bonuses.

Trying to toughen a resistance brute with IO defense set bonuses is not going to be very effective. You get more bang for your bonus when you already have defense and you are just working on making a small hole between your stats and the cap even smaller. Going from 0% defense to 10% is going to give you paltry results. Going from 30% defense to 40% is going to give you phenomenal results. Unfortunately, you are in the former type. I have heard of some, mostly blasters, getting up to very high levels of defense with nothing but bonuses. But this will trash your build and cost a ton. I would not recommend it. The same can be said for going for regen and HP. Yeah, if you can get those bonuses, go ahead and take them, but don't pay billions for them because they are not going to get you to a point of uberness that will really affect your playstyle. That's pretty much why elec has fallen to the bottom of the barrel in terms of favored secondaries.

I recommend the following. Pretty much just old school thinking.

1 - Get tough and/or aid self. Really, you need both, but I am working on a build with just tough.

2 - Take a primary with mitigation. Stone, SS, Elec, etc.

3 - Learn to use inspis. Orange ones can get you a ton of mileage. If you take tough, a couple of small oranges will make you practically inviulnerable to most damage.

4 - Team. Particularly with thermals and pains. Some brutes, namely SR and EA, are great for soloing. Some are better for teams. Stones like to pair with kins. You like to pair with thermals. Elecs are great for taking alphas and holding aggro. They can be very tanky, and they are very team oriented. You just have to play within the limitations of the set.

When picking set bonuses, I would prioritize HP and then regen. Recharge is always impotant no matter who you are, and if you learn to develop survivability from the primary, then recharge can go to the top of the list. But I really would not try to build the toon on bonuses. Pool powers, teaming, and playstyle are the way to have fun with an elec brute.

The cone and PBAoE issue is a matter of preference, especially when Shockwave is 90 degrees or arc. Of those skills, only Fault has 100% soft control. Shockwave and Focus are both 100%. There arguably isn't a better single target soft control skill than Focus in the entire game.

To state that Claws lacks soft control is wrong, and there's just no way to dance around it. Good try.

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The cone and PBAoE issue is a matter of preference, especially when Shockwave is 90 degrees or arc. Of those skills, only Fault has 100% soft control. Shockwave and Focus are both 100%. There arguably isn't a better single target soft control skill than Focus in the entire game.

To state that Claws lacks soft control is wrong, and there's just no way to dance around it. Good try.

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Compared to other sets, it does lack soft control, as the greatest thing the set offers is endurance efficiency, which is perfect for a more end-heavy secondary. Also, the majority of the attacks in the claws set offer no mitigation. Compare this with SS, or better yet, stone.

I've always preferred AoEs to cones for mitigation. When you like to play at the aggro cap, the cone will likely only catch 50%, unless you maneuver. You can do this, but it slows down the killing speed somewhat. Shockwave is also a mild knockback power, versus the knockdown of other sets. I like keeping my enemies easily within range.

edit:

I'd also like to point out that I did not say claws did not have mitigation. My point was that other sets offer more consistent mitigation throughout the levels. I will be rolling a claws brute, but I'm not pairing it with /elec.

Just a pointer, jump straight up with Shockwave, targeting an enemy close to you, and click the ckill at the apex. You will ragdoll everybody as if it were a PBAOE, throwing them against the floor, providing much more mitigation than knockdown does and limiting scatter. It's easy, it mimics a PBAOE, and with range enhancement it's a MUCH larger AOE than anything else you can have.

Claws has some of the best soft control, and ragdoll is far more potent than knockdown, by a factor of 3 at least.

I have to agree with Tonality on this one, although Claws does have its own soft control available in the set.

For Elec Armor I'd suggest Electric Melee or Stone Melee. Both have amazing soft control in the form of KD.

I'll be eager to try one then.

I'm still trying to decide on the secondary. I've been tinkering with claws/dark in mids for the past two days now.

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I'll be eager to try one then.

I'm still trying to decide on the secondary. I've been tinkering with claws/dark in mids for the past two days now.

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It plays very nice as a scrapper for what it's worth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

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Claws lacks soft control, so you'll likely be better off with something else.

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Umm, there probably isn't much better soft control than Focus and Shockwave.

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Tremor, Fault, Footstomp, Lightning Rod, Thunderstrike.

Focus is a single target attack. Shockwave is a cone. There are much better AoE KD powers available for pairing with /elec.

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Focus and Shockwave recharge fast enough that Claws provides the best control of any melee set I've ever played. You can literally put entire mobs where you want them with KB from shockwave and keep the hardest hitter of the bunch on his ars permanently by using focus in between. I'm not saying stone doesn't have good control, but recharge is an issue where it is not with claws.

Also, if your getting overwhelmed it's always fun to knock half a mob of the edge of a bridge or cliff.

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Just a pointer, jump straight up with Shockwave, targeting an enemy close to you, and click the ckill at the apex. You will ragdoll everybody as if it were a PBAOE, throwing them against the floor, providing much more mitigation than knockdown does and limiting scatter. It's easy, it mimics a PBAOE, and with range enhancement it's a MUCH larger AOE than anything else you can have.

Claws has some of the best soft control, and ragdoll is far more potent than knockdown, by a factor of 3 at least.

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Well for this case, Claws wouldn't be the best choice if this is the method of soft control you are using.

[Grounded]- KB protection that only works while you are on the ground. Jumping in groups will most likely knock you down quite often.

As for claws having best soft control. I honestly dont know if it is better soft control than Stone Melee. I have a 50 SM brute and he kept mobs on their back constantly. Granted, he did have some good recharge bonuses, but even without he was very effective. Fault is a ranged group knockdown, and tremor is another PBAoE knockdown that can be very effective. Tremor has a 15' range, and a fairly short recharge, so using it and fault is probably the best soft control.

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I'll be eager to try one then.

I'm still trying to decide on the secondary. I've been tinkering with claws/dark in mids for the past two days now.

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I'm going claws/EA. Should be interesting.