Should I take Short Circuit and Lightning Field?

The title really sums it up, Im an elec/elec blaster and Im curious if you guys think the powers are worth taking.

If you're goal is end drain as a method of control, then short circuit is a must.

I like LF as a damage aura because of the radius. It will also tick a bit of end off the targets it hits.

I find Lightning Field to be a complete waste of a power, but as the other poster mentioned if you plan on draining endurance then Short Circuit is a power you should take.

Pretty much everyone bashes on Lightning Field; I've almost never heard it really recommended it in the past 5 years. The general complaint is that it's a damage aura on a squishy blaster instead of an armored meleer, without any of the control aspects something like Hotfeet would provide. Many blasters would consider it crazy to stand in the front lines with a dozen angry villains ready to rip you apart for extended periods, even if they were willing to joust in for a split second to lay down a Bone Smasher or something.

However, let us assume that our blaster is fearless, and thrives in melee range to beat people upside the head with Havoc Punch and the rest of /elec's beefy attacks as often as possible. They have been buffed to the gills by their fellow Forcefielder, their tank has never ever lost a shred of aggro in his life, or they are confident in their ability to sap their enemies' endurance to nothingness, or they just like being different. Whatever the reason, the tactical hazards of sitting in melee for all/most of the battle are accepted. Lightning field has an impressive radius for a damage aura (20ft) so it'll hit pretty much the entire enemy group unless they're spread across a large courtyard. It has effectively the same damage-per-endurance as any other single target attack with one target in range, and much better DPE assuming a large crowd. The damage looks puny, but slotted up it's dealing a hair above 9 damage per second. Assuming we are on an efficient, higher level team battling sensible foes (not +5s to half of the team or an all-boss AE farm or something equivalently silly), the average battle will probably last 10-15 seconds. In real terms, using Lightning Field to its fullest is effectively doing an extra AoE attack's worth of damage during the battle, for about half the endurance. It'd really be more like full endurance though, unless you're compulsive about toggle management.

Additionally, it will sap enemies of one endurance per second, unslotted. This is generally of less utility, since Short Circuit or Powersink alone are insufficient to fully drain a spawn. You'll need to use both (or SC twice) to finish the job, and Short Circuit has a 10 second recovery freeze which can ensure that once they drop to 0 they will stay at 0. If you wanted to rely on it as an artificial form of -recovery rather than recast SC as needed, remember that a single tick of endurance is often enough for them to get a basic hit off. The difference between full endurance and almost 0 is less dramatic than the difference between almost 0 and 0. For the extra drain ticks from Lightning Field to become meaningful, the opponents must either be significantly higher level so they resist a large portion of the initial drains.

Anyway, since it's long since become apparent that I'm tired and rambling: Lightning Field exposes you to much greater risk in battle in exchange for an extra AoE attack worth of damage that does not take up activation time. If you are going to embrace the Blapper mentality wholeheartedly and practically put the tank on follow, it's probably worth it. If you are going to stay a reasonable distance out of the center of the battle and occasionally run up to punch something, skip it.

Lightning Field makes you look cool as hell.

Short Circuit is a pretty good PBAoE. If that style of power fits your tactics, it's worth having just for damage, in my opinion. Also, even if you aren't built for endurance drain, it's such an effective beast that if you team with anyone who is built for end drain, you can help them out considerably.

I think Lightning Field has value for an endurance drainer. I have an AoE end drain build: Short Circuit and Ball Lightning are slotted entirely for acc/end drain/recharge. Lightning Field is slotted for acc/end drain/end reduction. The only damage slots I have are in the punches, which I use between waves of SC/BL. I notice a difference in endurance remaining after the first wave if LF is not running.

If you're intending to mostly play from range, maybe skip Lightning Field unless you want it for concept or appearance. Also may not be that useful if you're planning to go melee but stay single-target. I don't think Elec/Elec is particularly well suited to either of those approaches, though. Without the standard short-range high-damage ranged attack in the primary, I tend to prefer to use Elec/Elec as AoE and melee damage, whether you go for the end drain or not, and therefore would grab and slot up both of those powers.

My take on the OP's question.

Short Circuit is definitely worth it. Since it can be slotted for damage
and/or drain, it's effective either way.

I definitely take it, use it, and enjoy its benefits on my E3.

Lightning Field is a bit odd and optional based on playstyle (imho).

It IS cool to look at. I've used it most in Atlas Park (for the looks it gets)

Because it's an aura, you can also hit those AI wingnuts that still occasionally
get stuck in the geometry.

Somebody mentioned dmg over a 1 minute duration - I have mixed thoughts
on this.

First, unless your aggro management skills are poor, or you're fighting an AV,
everything you're fighting will be long dead in a minute, or you will be.

If you're a Blapper/Sapper build, it can put out enough damage to be helpful
(at a significant endurance cost), but I'd still bet it won't take that long
to beatdown the baddies.

If you're a ranged shooter, LF's value will be substantially reduced, and I'd wager
that there are probably better choices.

In the end, I kept it on my E3 (even post respec) but I only took it at L49 for the
show value. I use it very rarely, but at that level it didn't prevent me getting
the powers I do use frequently, like Short Circuit, which I took as soon as it
was available.

Basically, it all comes down to playstyle - LF can be a good power if it fits
how you like to play your blaster. I think SC is a good power for more styles
of play though.


Regards,
4

With Frankenslotting Short Circuit is great. You can get good acc, dam, endmod, and rech all at once.

This is what I came up with for mine, but perhaps someon^]cwFulmens has a better idea.

Damage
Damage
Performance Shifter EndMod
Performance Shifter EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge
Performance Shifter Accuracy/Recharge
Performance Shifter EndMod/Recharge

With level 40 enhancements, that's roughly +40% Acc, +75% Dam, +80% EndMod, and +65% Recharge, nearly 8-slots worth of enhancement value.

I love Short Circuit. It's seriously one of my favorite powers. But I found that Lightning Field is too big of an attention draw due to it being a toggle. Maybe it's just my preference, but a big initial blast works better for me than an aura.

I'm sort of anti-lightning-field... I haven't made it work for me, but I'm willing to believe that someone, somewhere, might have a style that is both efficient and effective using it. It is, as mentioned near the beginning of the thread, a TREMENDOUS tool for gaining aggro. 20' radius is larger than most of your teammates' aggro-grab tools, and since it ticks every two seconds you're constantly REMINDING people that they're mad at you.

For Short Circuit, my belief is that it's better to get 90-95% Rech and 95% End Drain and lose a little damage, if needed. I like Space Goat's slotting better than anything I could come up with, but here's my suggestion:

EndMod/Acc/Rech and EndMod/Rech from both Efficacy Adaptor and Performance Shifter, EndMod/Acc (or EndMod/End- there's already a high acc on Short Circuit) and Dam/Rech. That's 95%+ on EndMod and Recharge, 23%-ish Dam, 23%-ish End Reduction and 36% Acc with roughly level 35 IO's.

If you pvp, Lightning Field is great for popping stalker invis.
I wouldn't bother with it for regular PvE though, not worth the drain, and not worth sacrificing a more valuable power for.

For a blaster, I think Acrobatics is overrated, as you can always get off lower level attacks while held/stunned/etc.
An enemy can dramatically activate Domination and stack all the holds they want, they won't ever be safe while near you.