Scrapper version works great. AAO + BU + SC + LR every 30 sec or so. Almost cheating, really.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
My Shield/Elec tank is still very much a lowbie, but one thing I've determined is that it is quite cheap to soft-cap a Shield build if you get Weave. (CJ helps too, but it's not essential.) And everything I've heard about Shield Charge (which you get at 26!) and Lightning Rod is all kinds of awesome.
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Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
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Mine just hit 45. The character has been a joy to play and has levelled up quite satisfactorily. Since I put primary and secondary before pool powers, I don't have Weave yet, but I saved up for the right sets and have just under 44% melee defense; soft capping this out should not be a problem. |
Originally Posted by DreadedByMoon
I've been dying to have electric melee on a tanker just for entertainment purposes but when you get down to the numbers I'm just wondering how well it actually does. If anyone has any comments on it and how well it does when you are next to broke when it comes to influence. I'd really like to hear about it. This has kinda been the thing I wanted to bring me back into this game.
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You will not want to skip Build Up on this.
T intersections in caves (like the familiar one in the first mission of the ITF) will pose no problem for you: you will know exactly what to do when you see them, and will not need to worry about where your teammates are.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
I played a Shield/Elec in the closed beta and it really was a nice combination. Even on straight SO's at level 50 it was able to easily solo 8 man/+2 missions and it could survive 8 man/+4 solo... it just takes forever for a tank to kill +4 mobs.
Be prepared for growing pains; you'll feel fairly squishy until your defenses climb above 30%. Once you get past 40% it gets really good and reaching the soft cap is almost too easy.
My impressions of Electric Melee were that it's very good AOE but a bit light on single target... bosses were sometimes a problem because of this. Minions & LT's die very quickly to the AOE leaving you with a bit less ST damage than you'd prefer to deal with the bosses. I thought it was maybe a touch stronger AOE than Fire Melee but considerably weaker in single target. As we all know there are always tradeoffs.
In any case, you won't go wrong with a Shield/Electric. It will do the job, and do it quite well.
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I'm only at lvl 9 with mine and I'm loving it so far!
I've noticed all of the high lvl builds skip Havok Punch...just curious as to why? Is it just the long animation time or?
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This is about as much downside as there is to the SD/ElM combo. However, due to AAO and the way that ElM attacks work, probably the best thing to do is to in fact not use SC + LR to start, but instead let all the minions and lts power up your normal attacks so you can take out bosses ASAP. After that you've probably done enough damage to the crowd around you that either SC or LR can take out most of the rest.|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
My impressions of Electric Melee were that it's very good AOE but a bit light on single target... bosses were sometimes a problem because of this. Minions & LT's die very quickly to the AOE leaving you with a bit less ST damage than you'd prefer to deal with the bosses. I thought it was maybe a touch stronger AOE than Fire Melee but considerably weaker in single target. As we all know there are always tradeoffs.
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Of course, this is assuming soft-capped defence, as you're going to be wanting to have full saturation of AAO.
This works well with ElM, because ElM is actually not a true AoE set: It's an almost exclusively ST-minded set with a load of collateral damage! I personally find that approaching it from that mentality works best.
Jacob's Ladder is a somewhat narrow cone, so with the "wider" attacks available with the set, a player should be unafraid to use it as an ST attack. As a Tanker, later levels will give you enough of a crowd that you'll be hitting "incidentals" (i.e. not aiming for them specifically) a lot, anyway. The best part is that Jacob's Ladder is a pure energy attack, which makes it a heavy hitter for your early-to-mid career. I just wish its animation was a bit shorter.
Chain Induction is the primary example of a single-target attack with collateral damage: the pseudo-pet spawn only works if the target isn't defeated by the actual attack. That's a bit of a downer, but CI's saving grace is that it is a quick activating attack, so at least has good (not excellent) DPA. Recharge benefits this power immensely because of that.
Thunder Strike is also an ST attack with collateral damage, as I'm sure some know that the AoE is centred around the target, not the player. In that way, it works like a ranged AoE, except in melee range. That fact, as well as wanting to hit multiple targets with Jacob's Ladder, means that you want to keep the big enemies (bosses, lts) in front of you as much as possible.
So the only "real" PbAoE attacks (which is what we're used to for melee sets) are Lightning Clap (meh) and Lightning Rod (yay!).
ElM's other attribute is its end drain. On most bosses, my Scrapper seems to knock as much off their blue bar as their green bar. On longer fights, with a Tanker against an EB or AV, this is far more significant.
It's not the most efficient set-up, which is why for pure AoE, Fire still trumps ElM (ease of use and extra DoT) and SS is so powerful (better ST burst damage, Footstomp is up more often than Lightning Rod) and even Stone Melee is practically comparable due to easier use. But ElM is up there with Dark Melee, IMO, as "the sets with the most fun toys" while providing significantly more AoE--incidental as it is--which I find much better, regardless of AT, for my playstyle.
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Mostly, it's the fact that tight builds require some secondary attack to be skipped. Given a choice between Havoc Punch and Jacobs Ladder, I'd still pick Jacob's Ladder despite the long animation. It is pure energy damage; and it occasionally can get a second or third mob in its cone, and given regular tanker play, those are worthwhile things to do.
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Originally Posted by Fantomas
I'm only at lvl 9 with mine and I'm loving it so far!
I've noticed all of the high lvl builds skip Havok Punch...just curious as to why? Is it just the long animation time or? |
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
Hmmmm, I'm going for an Elec/Elec build. I'm rather loathe to drop Havoc Punch, even though I'm taking every power in the Elec Secondary but Lightning Clap. Anyone know if it lowers your Single Target DPS much?
A lot of people seem to be going Shield/Elec, so I'm not sure how much people are noticing it around all the Shield Charging and Lightning Rodding going on. 
Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
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Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory
I like shield/fire a bit better for tanks as the aoe is superb and the st is very high as well.
That said tele-nuking is amazing and the only thing better than that is having two tele-nukes.
I'm leveling up an elec/shield scrapper myself because the new base numbers for scrappers on those nukes are insane, but the tank should be a force as well.
With the tankers finally getting electric melee and me being able to see it in action this weekend thanks to the account being activated I'm curious as to how well this works out. I've been dying to have electric melee on a tanker just for entertainment purposes but when you get down to the numbers I'm just wondering how well it actually does. If anyone has any comments on it and how well it does when you are next to broke when it comes to influence. I'd really like to hear about it. This has kinda been the thing I wanted to bring me back into this game.