Electrical Mastery

Yes, it is different. The Radiation Emission version is a Mag 3 AoE hold with a 300 second base recharge while the Electricity Mastery version is a Mag 3 AoE DISORIENT with an 800 second base recharge.



I see no reason why it wouldn't stack, but my question would be what the purpose of doing so would be? Since this is a blaster nuke we're referring to, and assuming it's slotted up for damage, most of a spawn should be dead after you use it anyway. If there are any stragglers, it would make more tactical sense to me to pop a blue then use Screech.

I used to have EM pulse on my Fire/Fire before I re-worked his build, and while the power works decently, I found the recharge to be excessive. In the end, it ended up being a seldom used power on my bar, because the -recovery would hamper my attacking if I used it as an opener, and it likely won't save you if you get in over your head.

I would suggest looking at Siren's Song or Shocking Bolt from the powers you listed. Neither will stack with anything you can already do, but either will give you another control option, both of which can be effective with only 4 slots (possibly less, in Siren's Song's case.) Surge of Power could warrant a look-see as well. It has a long recharge as well, but while you have it active you'll have high resistance (for a blaster, anyway) to all damage but psi.

Of the 4 you list for a pure teaming build? Assault. EMP pulse has an EPIC recharge and gets a - recovery period that'll sap your end. It'd be used rarely, and hinder you damage. IMO, leave the aoe controlling to the controllers.

Siren's song is a god send solo, but in a team, it brakes so easily, pass.
Shocking Bolt is epic solo, and not a bad choice in all honesty, but a single target hold on a blaster on a team build IMO just feels like a waste of space. Your the blaster. You do the damage. Leave the controlling to the controllers, IMO. Plus you'd need to slot it up a bit to get good use out of it.

Assult is good to go right out of the box. add an extra endrad if you MUST, but if your endurance isn't a big issue, don't worry about it. It'll buff everyones damage, and on big teams that can add up, esspecally if other people have it too.

IMO, it's the best choice of the 4 for a teaming build.

None of them are "really" good options for a teaming only character.

Shocking bolt - no hold in the primary or secondary so it can't be stacked on a boss which is where you would need it on a team.

Sirens - can be proc'd (which would be of low value) or it can be slotted as a set mule with a cheap purple set. It's main use would be to stop a team wipe by sleeping an Add before it got to the group. Either way it's very situational especially when used while on an inexperienced team.

Assault - may be your best option if you can handle the end burn. It boost's your damage and the damage of your allies which synergizes well with the -res debuff from your primary.

EM Pulse - This too is a situational power but in the situations that you may use it, it can be a team saver.

EM Pulse + DP + Dreadful Wail can completely lock down an entire spawn that is loaded with bosses (think Crey and PPs). If your DP is slotted for end mod you can avoid the end crash entirely and pick stuff off in safety after Dreadful Wail. Even if you fail to avoid the end crash, proper slotting of Dreadful Wail and EM Pulse will keep the entire spawn stunned until after the end crash has expired.

When you're teamed Shocking Bolt will stack with any other character's hold to hold most bosses, so it can be extremely useful if you coordinate with a teammate. For example, a SS tanker's Knockout Blow is a hold, which means the tanker can charge in, use KOB on a Carnie Ringmistress, while you use Shocking Bolt, and BAM she's held.

Mine recharges in 7 seconds and has a 24-second duration, so once you hold most bosses you can keep them held. That also means you can hold most bosses in less than 10 seconds with two applications of Shocking Bolt.

Siren's Song and sleeps in general are better than most players give them credit for. If you do any soloing it's quite useful. Even on big teams you can let loose with Howl and follow up with Siren's Song, and the aggro you just generated starts snoozing. Odds are they'll be awakened by someone else and the other team mate will get the aggro. Depending the team makeup and attack sets, mobs can stay asleep surprisingly long. And until they wake up, it's as good as a hold.

Just a few quick points.

1) A Boss can kill a blaster in 10 seconds and PuGs with alot of new players tend to not cast their holds on something "it doesn't work on" so stacked holds on bosses don't usually happen unless the team has some experience. Not only that but if you are always teaming as the OP states your controller or tank will be handling that anyway and your job as a blaster will be doing damage.

2) Sirens Song and other sleeps aren't as good as you are making them out to seem. They are a hard control when you are soloing if you are careful about using AoEs, but teamed they are little more than useless (unless you are on a team of experienced players) wasting your casting time for almost no damage except in the case I mentioned. Damage Auras, AoE Immobs, AoE KBs/KDs (if your team lacks these it's probably a sucky team anyway) will all immediately break the sleep and sleep has no lingering after effects.

Additionally mobs that have a self heal can break your sleep if they had it queued up when you slept them.

3) Sleep and the aggro mechanics don't work like you seem to think they do. Sleep has no placate compnent in it unless you have the proc from the purple sleep set slotted. If someone else doesn't all ready have the aggro when you Howl you will have all of it. When you sleep the spawn you still have all the aggro the mobs just can't do anything about it. When the sleep is broken, if the player that breaks it isn't closer, doesn't do significantly more damage than you did and have a higher threat rating the mobs will immediately wake up and attack you and it is immediate.

Sleeping mobs aren't really sleeping. The AI is still fully functioning they just aren't able to act. Slept mobs that prefer range will have a ranged attack queued up on the target they are aggro'd on and the server tick after the sleep breaks that attack will fire. That's why sleep is not a good team control. Even soloing if you break the sleep by recasting Sirens you will get hit with all those queued up ranged attacks even though the mobs immediately go back to sleep (that's one reason Council are nasty for sleep using toons even solo). They finish casting those attacks in their sleep.

If the sleeping mob is melee prefering or had the melee AI on at the time they were slept they are still running at full steam in their sleep, they are simply unable to move because they are slept. If awoken they will continue to close, if they are all ready in melee range they will immediately begin animating their melee attack.

This leads to some amusing/annoying behavior.

In the case of a Sonic/ Blaster, if you use Sirens from range on a melee preferring mob, then follow up with Screech it will immediately be stunned but will still charge you at full speed due to the stun bug. As long as you weren't in melee range when you woke it up, it won't get it's attack off but, because it closed, you can whack it with one of your melee attacks. I tend to think of this as reverse kiting.

If the mob was all ready running away (because the run AI had kicked in) when you Screech it, it will charge away at full speed and not slow down until it has to due to being blocked by an object or until the mob trys to change direction. (Hence the annoying part.)

Plus you say you only have 4 slots to give. Basilisks gaze can be slotted nicely in those 4 slots in shocking bolt for a big recharge boost bonus. You will only end up with 55% ish accuracy and recharge from slotting on the hold, but if you build well you should have plenty of accuracy and recharge bonuses to up those numbers from IO set bonuses.

Its a solid pick.