I'd say that energy cloak is most definitely not skippable. It provides just under 6% defence to all (slotted), so it benefits all your typed defenses as well as giving you a base to stack positional defense on to cover the significant lack of psi defenses. It doesn't suppress either, letting you safely attack enemies without alerting others nearby and you can ghost through missions easily if you want to.
On teams with significant defense buffs however, it's the power I switch off if I can. Being an invisible brute on a team can have its drawbacks - getting aggro from large groups and keeping it off your teammmates can be an issue without a taunt aura in the set, and it's better for quick fury building if you have all the aggro you can handle.
So, what to skip in EA then? Personally I didn't take either Energy Protection or Conserve Power. It's a pretty easy task to achieve high typed def numbers and reasonable smash/lethal resistance, which makes a fairly small amount of energy/negative and toxic res largely redundant, and Energy Drain should provide for all your endurance needs, and comes earlier in the set than Conserve Power anyway.
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Usually, it's not skipped. I believe you want to skip it just because of the stealth. If you hate stealth a lot, you can replace energy cloak by maneuvers. The defense will be lower. I replaced energy cloak by maneuvers in hero planner, and my build is still more or less soft-capped. I believe it is fine if you have a spare power pool.|
Originally Posted by beyeajus74018
is it the skippable power in /EA?
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If you're actually ok with stealth, but simply don't want to be transparent, maybe the dev can add the no-fx option for energy cloak in power customization.
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Originally Posted by beyeajus74018
once discovered, does it suppress like hide?
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So the def buff will not suppress? good stuff! I don't mind the stealth at all, being a stalker at heart. I was planning on skipping conserve power anyway, won't really need it. thanks for the info!
So def would be cappable then? Or would I need maneuvers?
Nope, manuevers is definitely not needed if you're willing to include Weave in your build and invest in some IO bonuses.
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
For kicks I'm adding Darkest Night to my /EA Brute. For extra protection, and herding/farming purposes 
Yea don't skip it, its needed if you plan to softcap.
DN would be helpful on the build, if you have the room.
I was able to softcap my Stone/EA to everything except psi.
My DM/EA/Soul skipped Dampening Field, Energy Protection, Conserve Power, and Overload... of those, the only one I'd think about adding would be Overload, and that's solely for the +hp. If nothing else, look at Energy Cloak as a savings on the build of around 100m worth of IOs (on the low end) to make up the ~6% defense to all.
She has Darkest Night on top of 44.2% (Neg)->54.2%(En) defenses, S/L/F/C at 47-48%, with positionals at 22.6/27/24.8 (M/R/A) and Psi at 17%. Those numbers combined with Siphon Life and, if really necessary, Energy Drain keep my hit points topped off against almost everything (DE Quartz are a problem, as are Earth Stone Casters - I don't run into much trouble with Arachnos despite the Tarantula Mistresses since they're less frequent). I could rearrange things to get better numbers in several areas, but I also tried to get at least some global recharge out of it (she's at ~124%).
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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is it the skippable power in /EA?
once discovered, does it suppress like hide?