Twilight_Snow's Maximal survival guide for fiery melee/energy aura brutes guide has some pretty good info on Energy Aura.
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wow that is a nice guide and even addresses the SO build version which is hard to find these days. thanks for putting me onto that.
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard.  Never change, E_L! |
On the upside - Power Sink gives you pretty much unlimited endurance, and you get a Stealth power that doesn't suppress during combat.
On the downside - your defences are a bit sup-par, and you have virtually no protection against Psi and Toxic.
Say you want to make a character with a Personal Force Field that protects them from harm, you could go Energy Aura or Super Reflexes.
Super Reflexes with SOs will give 31% defence to everything except untyped Psi attacks like Mind Control. It also gives almost complete resistance to defence debuffs.
Energy Aura with SOs gives you:
26.5% vs Smash/Lethal
33% vs Energy
22.8% vs Negative
30% vs Fire/Cold
6% vs Psi and Toxic
and some small resistances (which also give you a place to stick the Steadfast IO in)
and you have to be invisible to get 6% of this, which may be a concept-breaker.
Energy Aura has a new advantage over SR, in that the Kinetic Dampener temp power adds to its defence (+16% S/L), very handy as a low level god mode if you craft one.
But, the unlimited end in very nice. So think of it as a more offensive less defensive variant on SR.
yeah an offensive set is plus to me with the concept I have in mind.
My SR scrapper by programming personality concept stroyline is defensive counter striker.
(also rolled one soon after making this thread at level 5 few bars from 6 so far solo. Mated it with DM as it's another one I never did and the closest thing to the concept I could use. So far so good. I think it's 50 material. Probably solo as this roll goal is to actually do the mission story arcs and see the story lines that at low level is usually passed over)
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L! |
Energy Aura works... it just often feels off. Especially on a Brute.
My issues with the set:
1) Visible Aesthetics - I'm not talking about the 'pretty glow.' That's fine. But if I wanted to play my character's silhouette, I'd have played a Stalker in the first place. Considering how much Energy Cloak plays into the set, skipping it isn't smart... but I really like to, you know, see my character. I'm hopping the Devs, when they eventually look at this set again, give this the same treatment as Cloak of Darkness, and give us the choice of turning off the transparency effect.
2) The Department of Redundant Redundancies Department's visit - Conserve power really is useless to the set. Okay, sure, it can be used for a Stamina-less build (but as a Defense-based set, you'd want Health anyway) or for recovering from the Overload crash (but if you're in such a bad situation that you can't take 20-30 seconds to recover, then you'll probably die before you can actually use the full trick.) But overall, this is still a waste of a power. Again, we can hope this gets a reworking like the Electric Armor version did.
3) Too much Multitasking in one power, not enough elsewhere - They've made Energy Drain into such of a catch-all grab bag power, that slotting the thing is neigh impossible. Furthermore, it's overall effect... isn't so good. Okay, sure, it'll refill your Blue Bar fast and easy... but the heal is pathetic (YES, it can heal up to 50%... with 10 mobs in range. In my experience... if you aren't at the soft cap for whatever those enemies are throwing at you, the heal is simply never enough) and the Taunt will likely wear off long before the power recharges, meaning that on any team, this Brute will fail at aggro management.
On the other had, we've got two auto powers that provide a pittance of resistance (and I do mean a pittance. The resists given by those alone are worthless), and a toggle completely dedicated to Mez protection... and nothing else. At the very least, the Auto powers should get tweaked like ones from Invulnerability were. Give us a reason to take them, as their resist values certainly won't do that alone. I'd also say give something enhanceable to Entropy Shield, but that would probably break the Cottage Rule.
Finally, (4) Where's the Punch? - Energy Aura is nearly unique in that it has no way of adding to a Brute's offense while covering its defense. No damage aura, no buff/debuff aura, no +Recharge passive to increase their attack rate... only Willpower is in a similar strait (It does have a way to boost the player's offense, but only in its self rez, making that dubious at best.) And Willpower, with its multiple layers of defenses on top of a regeneration boost, offers more overall protection than EA does.
Frankly, the worst part of this is... the set only really needs a few more tweaks to be awesome... but we're probably not going to see anything changed until at least the next round of proliferation (if then!)
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going up in more levels so far I really like what I see. It's different.
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L! |
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There are those who will tell you that DM is about the best thing to pair it with. The to-hit debuffs from DM work nicely with your defenses.|
Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy
(also rolled one soon after making this thread at level 5 few bars from 6 so far solo. Mated it with DM as it's another one I never did and the closest thing to the concept I could use.
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I love my /EA brute. By far the most play hours of any character I've ever rolled in City.
My postings to this forum are not to be used as data in any research study without my express written consent.
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I am hoping that they address this soon or my EA brute might have to go on the shelf. They really need to drop conserve power like they did for Elec Armor and give EA a damage aura or damage buff aura.|
Originally Posted by OneWhoBinds
2) The Department of Redundant Redundancies Department's visit - Conserve power really is useless to the set. Okay, sure, it can be used for a Stamina-less build (but as a Defense-based set, you'd want Health anyway) or for recovering from the Overload crash (but if you're in such a bad situation that you can't take 20-30 seconds to recover, then you'll probably die before you can actually use the full trick.) But overall, this is still a waste of a power. Again, we can hope this gets a reworking like the Electric Armor version did.
Finally, (4) Where's the Punch? - Energy Aura is nearly unique in that it has no way of adding to a Brute's offense while covering its defense. No damage aura, no buff/debuff aura, no +Recharge passive to increase their attack rate... only Willpower is in a similar strait (It does have a way to boost the player's offense, but only in its self rez, making that dubious at best.) And Willpower, with its multiple layers of defenses on top of a regeneration boost, offers more overall protection than EA does. |
That being said, do my fellow brutes think that this change would almost overpower EA? And if so what else do you think should the devs consider putting in conserve power's place?
In today's IO environment, pure or nearly pure defense sets will never be overpowered...unless they're shield. Knowing the devs, they will not replace conserve power, though they might add to it like they did with energize, maybe give it +dmg or something for the duration as well as the end discount.
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That's honestly what I'm hoping for. Changing Conserve Power into something that gives a +Dam and/or +Rech boost as well as an Endurance Discount would cover two issues. |
Originally Posted by Ryuuk
In today's IO environment, pure or nearly pure defense sets will never be overpowered...unless they're shield. Knowing the devs, they will not replace conserve power, though they might add to it like they did with energize, maybe give it +dmg or something for the duration as well as the end discount.
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Then add Slow resistance to Dampening Field, and an Endurance Drain resistance to Energy Protection, and I think the set would be good to go.
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Sorry to hijack someone's thread, but I'd like to know what people thought of pairing Super Strength with Energy Aura. It seems like EA could mitigate the Rage end crash and the very expensive attacks, while the stealth aspect of EA lets you use the great ST attacks in SS on a manageable number of mobs.
It wouldn't be a great farmer, but it seems like a decent levelling/soloing combo.
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SS/EA is what mine is. It leveled well (all those years ago...), solos like a fiend, and is a good enough farmer (footstomp + dark oblit is not shabby) to keep me happy and well-fed. To be fair, I've also put tons of time and inf into his build, so he's soft-capped to all but psi/toxic and has over 70% global recharge in his current iteration (next iteration will take him over 80, I think, with an improved damage bonus from sets as well). You can soft-cap cheaper than the way I went, for sure.|
Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack
Sorry to hijack someone's thread, but I'd like to know what people thought of pairing Super Strength with Energy Aura. It seems like EA could mitigate the Rage end crash and the very expensive attacks, while the stealth aspect of EA lets you use the great ST attacks in SS on a manageable number of mobs.
It wouldn't be a great farmer, but it seems like a decent levelling/soloing combo. |
Hugely fun character, all told.
My postings to this forum are not to be used as data in any research study without my express written consent.
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Super Strength is a good match.|
Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack
Sorry to hijack someone's thread, but I'd like to know what people thought of pairing Super Strength with Energy Aura. It seems like EA could mitigate the Rage end crash and the very expensive attacks, while the stealth aspect of EA lets you use the great ST attacks in SS on a manageable number of mobs.
It wouldn't be a great farmer, but it seems like a decent levelling/soloing combo. |
Actually, anything that has some reliable form of additional mitigation is a good match, as Energy starts off pretty squishy. (only one layer of protection - defense - and until you can access SOs, or SO strength IOs, the values aren't really all that good.)
Super Strength, Battle Axe, War Mace, Dark Melee, Stone Melee, and I guess Energy Melee all help getting to that point.
Electric Melee has some benefits, as most of its attacks can drain End. Energy Drain and a few attacks, and anything still alive is probably waiting for its end to return. Of course, that doesn't work until after you get Energy Drain, and get it slotted up some.
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Claws too. Mine is a Claws/EA and I have to say, it's my most enjoyable Brute but I only have a few (Elec/Elec, Axe/WP, Stone/Shield). The bread&butter attack (Focus) pretty much means you can melee a ST without it fighting back. I use minions as fodder to feed the inspiration flow. Keep popping orange, red and green inspirations and keep the blender spinning.
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I dunno, I actually like the silhouette deal. Not particularly because it looks good (it's not bad) but because, when I turn it off, I get to enjoy my costume again. Sure, seeing your costume 100% of the time is dandy, but you get bored with it faster if you're looking at it all the time.|
Originally Posted by OneWhoBinds
1) Visible Aesthetics - I'm not talking about the 'pretty glow.' That's fine. But if I wanted to play my character's silhouette, I'd have played a Stalker in the first place. Considering how much Energy Cloak plays into the set, skipping it isn't smart... but I really like to, you know, see my character. I'm hopping the Devs, when they eventually look at this set again, give this the same treatment as Cloak of Darkness, and give us the choice of turning off the transparency effect. |
I like turning it off on teams when we're just chatting between missions so people can go "Oh! Nice costume!" That my Claws/EA is a werewolf and now has his wolf tail just makes me all the more giddy every time I play him.
And no, I only have the 1 werewolf character and most likely won't have another. He's the best werewolf you'll never see coming!
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That's fine. I'm just suggesting doing what they did with Cloak of Darkness... where we have the option to not have it completely obscure the character. We can, at the same time we are choosing colors, remove the transparency that so many people hated about the power (which was, admittedly, worse than Energy Cloak.)|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
I dunno, I actually like the silhouette deal. Not particularly because it looks good (it's not bad) but because, when I turn it off, I get to enjoy my costume again. Sure, seeing your costume 100% of the time is dandy, but you get bored with it faster if you're looking at it all the time.
I like turning it off on teams when we're just chatting between missions so people can go "Oh! Nice costume!" That my Claws/EA is a werewolf and now has his wolf tail just makes me all the more giddy every time I play him. And no, I only have the 1 werewolf character and most likely won't have another. He's the best werewolf you'll never see coming! |
That's what I'm asking for. Not a complete removal, just to have the option... which is not currently there.
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What sort of defense debuff resistance does EA have?
Thinking of trying a brute and undecided about going claws/sr or dm/ea. Obviously SR laughs at defense debuffs, is ea similar in terms of DDR ?
According to Mid's, EA has 51.9% DDR and 86.5% with Overload.
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It's got 51.9% Defense Debuff resistance... the same as Ice Armor, and just a smidgen more than Invulnerability gets. EA doesn't get the neigh immunity to Defense Debuff that Super Reflexes does, which is another issue. While both Ice Armor and Invulnerability have additional layers of protection to fall back on when they hit a cascade defense failure, EA does not. Unfortunately, I don't think they fix that without breaking the Cottage Rule, so I think that may be a SOL issue.
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Originally Posted by Death_Badger
What sort of defense debuff resistance does EA have?
Thinking of trying a brute and undecided about going claws/sr or dm/ea. Obviously SR laughs at defense debuffs, is ea similar in terms of DDR ? |
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What are the strengths of having energy aura and the weakness that is usually found with energy aura. Never made one yet and might be about time to.
-Female Player-
"Kick Rocks."
I laffed so hard.