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Is it really as bad as people think?
[/ QUOTE ]No. (Will elaborate if this thread devolves into another retarded EA rantfest, too busy atm)
It's easy to play /EA badly. I should know; I do.
Plus, tricking out the defence takes time and money, two things I'm chronically short of.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
When you have the time i would love to hear what you think about the set.
Okay. First of all, why people think it sucks. The main reason, as was the main reason with Shield Defense when it came out, was that it's not SR.
SR lacks any utility whatsoever. It's pure defense, with some passive +recharge thrown in for fluff. The scaling resists are rather low and only take effect at low HP, so they don't change this much. Because of this, SR has higher defense numbers. It should not be used as a yardstick for comparing other defense sets to, because it -has- to be better in terms of pure defense numbers.
Another reason is that it has holes, due to being typed and not positional defense. Actually, typed defense has always been unpopular, though there's much, much less reason for this at this point. Without sets, neither SR nor any of the typed defense powersets could softcap themselves anyway. Now, positional defense set bonuses used to totally outclass typed ones. They've now been equalized. Granted, there's still more sources of positional defense than typed defense, but we can assume that as new sets come out periodically, this will also equalize over time.
EA has three 'holes', which isn't really that big of a number considering most other sets have two, or one at the least. Ice Armor has Fire and Psi. Positional ones have a partial hole to Psi. Invul has psi, Granite has psi... (Taking into account non-defense sets as well, almost all of them have a psi hole, so this isn't anything uncommon.) Energy has a weakness to Negative Energy (which makes thematic sense; Elec shares this strength vs energy and weakness vs negative, though it is resistance based), and a total hole against Psi (very few armor sets lack this hole) and Toxic (lacks a defense type). It has access to some toxic resistance, though the number is somewhat low, and in my opinion could use a buff to match Force Fields.
Now, Energy's strengths. The heal looks tiny at first glance, but pretend you're in a fairly sizeable team as opposed to soloing. Using it with 10 mobs in range, assuming you've enhanced for the heal and recharge (which you should), it'll heal 40% HP every 30 seconds. This is without Hasten, of course. Comparable to Reconstruction, though it'll also give you endurance. Hasten and global recharge bonuses are recommended if you're a Brute, because this power has a taunt component.
This brings up another weakness of Energy Aura - the lack of a taunt aura. It is the only Brute secondary that lacks one. This may or may not be changed in the future - we can only guess, but my best guess is that this has been only the start of EA changes. Anyway, that's beside the point.
Not all Brutes are meant to be Tanker-wannabes. Elec Armor can tank the LGTF, sure, but it's rather non-tanky in general. It lacks a heal, regen, maxHP or any other health management power. However, it has a damage aura and the best endurance drain power in the game, so it works very well for a damage dealer playstyle. Energy Aura is similar - it won't pull too much agro onto you, and keeps your HP and endurance topped up. Being defense based and having a heal, it actually lets you survive in the chaos and do your own thing with your attacks.
Sure, I'm conflicting what I just said earlier - you'll want to spam Energy Drain to taunt -some- mobs onto you for Fury, at least. With an AoE heavy primary, against mobs that don't do negative or psi damage a lot, you could probably be a good tank, too. Brutes deal more damage than Tankers and have a single target Gauntlet, so AoE attacks will grab agro onto you just fine if you want/need it. Adjust playstyle according to situations.
Another strength is Energy Cloak, the stealth power. This is the only stealth power in the game that does -not- suppress in combat. This does not mean you can smack a mob without it hitting back, of course, but it -does- mean your agro radius remains reduced when you enter combat with a spawn, which means you can kill spawn 1 with spawn 2 nearby without agroing spawn 2. Combined with the lack of a proper taunt aura, this makes EA currently the safest secondary to use in agro-sensitive situations.
It's no squishier than any other defense set, though. As for its tier 9, it's one of the best in the game, if not the best +defense based one. It caps your defenses, gives you a hefty +MaxHP bonus, and only has an endurance crash.
Another upside to EA, though unimportant in terms of strict game mechanics: It's pretty. Though opinions may vary, it's often considered one of the most visually pleasing and attractive armor sets, if you care for such things.
So, to sum up, it has lower defense numbers than SR (but so does every defense set other than SR), has negative (sightly)/psi/toxic holes so you'd probably want to avoid mobs that are heavily based on those damage types, has a great longevity power in the form of Energy Drain, has a very strong tier 9 power, has the strongest stealth power available to Brutes, is shiny.
Softcapped to regular types and with decent psi protection, it'll outperform SR in nearly all situations, really. Except keeping agro.
It gets three and a half thumbs up from the Colonel, out of five - good set, room for improvement which is likely in the uncertain future. (SR gets one and a half, for comparison)
Nitpicking time! 
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Another strength is Energy Cloak, the stealth power. This is the only stealth power in the game that does -not- suppress in combat.
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Cloak of Darkness, Shadow Cloak, Shadow Fall, Steamy Mist, Arctic Fog. None of those suppress during during combat either.
Otherwise Col. pretty much summed up the set there.
It now has a small self heal that doesn't take the new healing sets but that isn't why i made this thread.
I'm currently looking at a build with over 45% defence to all but psi. Psi is 21%, also have over 30% to all positions which isn't necessary.
Is it really as bad as people think?