Claws is a great primary that doesnt really need a whole lot of recharge, i would try sprinkling some defense, and hp to the mix and you should be pretty well off the only thing you really have to slot with recharge is energize.
Yeah I was looking at adding some defense but it seems like a hard road to go down to get decent numbers. I'm wondering if I should go for S/L defense via reactive armors and kinetic combats, stack tough and weave in there, see what else I can find? Positional defense doesn't look to be that easy to come by with these sets. Also Kinetic Combats are pricey, ugh.
The other option is to build for recharge bonuses but like Tweeks says claws doesn't need that much +rech to be awesome and I am wondering if it's really worth it to aim for recharge when only two powers are really gonna get mileage from it.
Are sapping builds decent even if your primary isn't electrical melee? Does Lightning Field take up the slack that Power Sink leaves?
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Sapping depends entirely on your difficulty settings. At +3 or higher, sapping is not effective. If you do decide to try sapping, make sure you pick up the mu patron attacks as well to round out your abilities.|
Originally Posted by Emberly
Yeah I was looking at adding some defense but it seems like a hard road to go down to get decent numbers. I'm wondering if I should go for S/L defense via reactive armors and kinetic combats, stack tough and weave in there, see what else I can find? Positional defense doesn't look to be that easy to come by with these sets. Also Kinetic Combats are pricey, ugh.
The other option is to build for recharge bonuses but like Tweeks says claws doesn't need that much +rech to be awesome and I am wondering if it's really worth it to aim for recharge when only two powers are really gonna get mileage from it. Are sapping builds decent even if your primary isn't electrical melee? Does Lightning Field take up the slack that Power Sink leaves? |
Building for melee def is doable. You just have to use Touch of Deaths Obliteration, and overslot some toggles with Titanium Coating. On the current market, this is the cheaper route over S/L def.
You could also consider building your /elec for +HP/Regen.
As a side note, I run my SS/elec with 39% S/L def. It works decently well, though I can still get debuffed by cims.
Electric Armor isn't really a top performer in terms of survivability on its own merits, at least not in the post-IO world of every defense set being able to softcap, but it will get a lot better in the mid-30s. You still won't end up in the "oh, phone call, time to go afk in the middle of this large group" mode that some sets will get you, but those sets also don't have damage auras, so it's a tradeoff. 
For my post-Energize build I aimed for a medium recharge build, since the +regen from Energize is probably as useful (or moreso, depending on how fast the damage is coming in) as the heal is; despite that, it's not worth sacrificing offense or other build concerns just to go perma with it - dead enemies don't deal damage at all. I took Tough (but not Weave) and tacked on a few +defense set bonuses but didn't get carried away with it: you don't have any defense debuff resistance, and those debuffs are all over the place (I think she's at 10-15% defense on everything). Simply having that extra bit of smashing and lethal resistance pushing your numbers to around 60% helps a great deal.
You asked about sapping builds, and my EM/Elec does a decent job at sapping, but she also has Mu Mastery (Ball Lightning helps with sapping, but was really taken for the extra AoE). It's definately noticeable when using Power Sink to open a fight - I'll take the initial attacks, hit Energize if I'm below 50% health, and then they only get to attack as their endurance recovers (which is typically a lot slower than otherwise). This has worked at up to +3s to completely sap mobs (with liberal use of Ball Lightning, admittedly), and I don't bother with +4s because the extra time taken isn't worth the extra xp - when Energy Transfer does more to me than it does to them even after accounting for Fury, it's just stupid to bother.
Now, will Electric Armor be a set that stands there as wave after wave of ambushes keeps charging in? Not really; Energize is nice but unless they're barely damaging you in the first place (all energy damage, for instance) it won't be up fast enough to maintain your hp indefinately with an endless stream of incoming attacks. But the time between spawns in regular missions, even as short as it usually is (3-4 seconds or less?) gives you extra time to regen and extra time for Energize to recharge, so it's usually up when you need it.
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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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I went for typed defense and darkest night. They stacked well, and the strong point of electric armor is having a lot of endurance, so you can use whatever exhausting toggles. In my opinion, I don't think you need to soft-cap defense as in a defense-based set. The incoming damage is a sum of your defense, to-hit debuff, damage debuff and resistance. You'll find that the mitigation is pretty close to a defense soft-capped build.
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Originally Posted by Emberly
Do I try to eke out some meager defense?
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I'll let the more experienced people give you the specific build advice, but I'll chime in with my personal experience here; I have a level 50 elec melee/elec armor brute.
Yes, it does get better--my guy was pretty squishy up through about mid-twenties, too. At 50, with some IOs, he can stand toe-to-toe with an elite boss and barely take a scratch. You'll like Power Surge (and looking like a Cap-au-Diable gremlin when you do it).
You will never run out of endurance (so take and run all the toggles you want) and you can do a fair job sapping. I would definitely recommend the Mu patron powers to help with that. That's actually a big help staying alive in a tough fight--you might not be quite as damage-resistant as other types, but the enemies have no juice to hit you with. 
Just my two cents. . .
On my SS/Elec, I currently have him focused on +rech and +HP, and it works out great from what I've done. I plan on doing some tweaking with him soon, when I get around to it, possibly giving some +melee def to help, but I'm still undecided.
You mentioned recharge not being important for claws, this is not quite true for your combo. Recharge is very helpful for /Elec alone, to get Energize and Power Sink up as often as possible. Recharge is great for claws in that you can get a very powerful attack chain going, with minimal power choices...even stacking Follow Up as well.
Just a bit of ideas from a different mind. Either way, I've seen this combo tear through mobs with ease. Enjoy!
Don't I know you???
What do I do with this set? I have never played a resistance set; I have always gone for defense. I checked the guides on the sticky but one is for i7 and doesn't address Energize, and the other one is some zany perma-Power Surge build. Do I try to build for recharge to leverage Energize and Power Sink (for sapping)? Do I try to eke out some meager defense? My primary is Claws so there's not a lot of mitigation there. Well, I could pick up Shockwave for some knockback. What's the consensus? I don't have a build designed at all, I am only in the mid twenties at the moment. Sure feels squishy. Does it improve? How do I make it better? I'm not willing to make some five billion inf build, but I am willing to spend a few hundred million and/or some merits on it. I really want to love this set.