I do fine with Chain Induction. Can't stand JL's animation.
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Chain induction--
Pros--better animation, fire off anywhere in a spawn
Cons-- do NOT slot any procs in it, if any target gets defeated-- chain ends there
Jacob's Ladder--
Pros-- can take some interesting procs
Cons-- animation sucks, it is a cone- have to move around a bit sometimes to max its targets
If it's an either/or situation, Chain induction is definitely the best bet. Though you can't slot procs in it without breaking the jump cycle, it animates very fast, does good damage, and can hit quite a few foes without too much issue. Unlike JL, which requires positioning to pull off and has a relatively long animation.
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Chain induction is way better imo.
Jacob's is slow animating and very hard to position if you want more than one target. It reminds me a lot of the old Shadow Maul.
Chain Induction ftw!
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My thoughts:
Jacob's Ladder is very similar to Bonesmasher, being just 0.17 seconds slower at animating than BS and doing similar damage (JL's 62.6 vs BS's 68.4 @50)
They have the same recharge in 8 seconds.
So, if you can get 2 enemies in the cone (which is easy with very little practice) you are doing better than Bonesmasher, and isn't that a bread 'n butter attack for EM?
Also, Jacob's Ladder does 100% energy damage, which is a huge plus when fighting against enemies that resist smashing but are weak to energy (ghosts, freak tanks). I find that Jacob's Ladder does more damage than Thunder Strike at those very same targets.
Chain Induction on the other hand is a very odd animal, in that it recharges in the same 14s that Head Splitter (tier9 for Broad Sword) and has the same target cap of 5 (for CI it's initial punch and 4 jumps), yet the power level of these two powers is way different.
If Brutes had Broad Sword, Head Splitter would do 124.73 damage base, and it'd be a great ST attack and hitting any other enemies in it (getting a 2nd one is easy with very little practice) would total you almost 250 damage base.
With Chain Induction, it does 55,1 damage base and each jump does 38.9 damage. It takes the initial hit + 2 jumps to exceed Head Splitter's total damage against a single target, and if you get all 4 jumps, it's doing about 85% of total damage done with a Headsplitter hitting 2 targets.
If you don't like me comparing CI to a tier9 narrow cone attack in a Scrapper set, it can be compared to real AoEs that recharge in 14s like Tremor and Whirling Mace and Whirling Hands. Those can hit double as many targets, for more damage, doesn't break if an enemy dies, and does the damage instantly (no waiting for jumps) and benefit from the 850% damage cap.
Bad thing about Chain Induction as a Brute is that it can't benefit all the way from damage buffs, so it caps at 400% instead of 850% because the jumps are summoned entities (pets) that do the jump damage. Chain Induction won't get much better after you have full fury (and the thing is slotted) If there's a Kin on your team, CI becomes a lot weaker compared to other attack powers.
Anyway, Chain Induction's advantage is that it requires little thought to get that AoE going and every jump is autohit (but on the other hand, if you miss your initial target you will not get any jumps either) and it has a fast animation, very cool one at that, too.
IMO CI should be boosted a little for its 14s recharge or the recharge must be lowered due to its low damage and not quite so good at AoE or ST nature.
Final words, I took both JL and CI on my elec/elec brute. Both are good/decent attacks, but if you'd have to choose, I'd choose JL because it has much more potential in the right hands.
I like Jacob's ladder. When you are in a big group on you,just target your nearest enemy. Then choose the guy right behind him and target him. you should be able to attack right through the front mob and always hit at least 2 mobs with JL.
JL's is one of ELM's best DPA attacks.
I thought they fixed CI's problem with procs as well.
I'd get both myself.
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I'm trying to decide which I should take; Chain Induction or Jacobs ladder.
Any suggestions, why?