Thougts on EM/SR?


magikwand

 

Posted

Has anyone played this combo?

I'm trying this mainly for ccharacter concept reasons. I like SR because it's easy to softcap Def and I like the extra movement speed. I have several SR Scrappers that I enjoy, so I basically know what to expect, and plan on playing this toon more like a Scrap, zipping around from target to target, rather than a Tank.

I am a little concerned about a few things. I'll probably have lower HP than other Brutes, and with no heals, this may be problematic for use of Energy Transfer. And having never tried SR on a Brute, and EM's poor AoE ability, I'm not sure how fast Fury will build.


 

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Originally Posted by Sir_Lionheart View Post
Has anyone played this combo?

I'm trying this mainly for ccharacter concept reasons. I like SR because it's easy to softcap Def and I like the extra movement speed. I have several SR Scrappers that I enjoy, so I basically know what to expect, and plan on playing this toon more like a Scrap, zipping around from target to target, rather than a Tank.

I am a little concerned about a few things. I'll probably have lower HP than other Brutes, and with no heals, this may be problematic for use of Energy Transfer. And having never tried SR on a Brute, and EM's poor AoE ability, I'm not sure how fast Fury will build.
It'll build damn fast if you're fighting enough mobs. Remember, Evasion is your taunt aura. Love it.

As for EM, the health drain from ET is negligible at best. Carry a few greens, or even better, purples for turning on temp-godmode.


My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."

 

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Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim View Post

As for EM, the health drain from ET is negligible at best. Carry a few greens, or even better, purples for turning on temp-godmode.
I have played this combo and I must say that I disagree wholeheartedly with the above statement. Although I suppose it depends largely on how much you plan on using ET, but that attack takes constant and notable chunks out of your health bar. I absolutely despise my EM/SR. Namely because of the EM part. I don't have any problems with SR really, but the pairing lacks any synergy.

Without any means of recovering health outside of carrying greens (not reliable) or taking aid self, SR is probably one of the last secondaries I would recommend to pair with EM. EM does much better with a secondary that gives the user the ability to regenerate health instantly (Dark Armor, fiery aura) or passively (WP or energy aura). Believe me- the constant dings to your health will become an issue if you use ET a lot. And with that being of the heaviest hitters in the set, why wouldn't you want to use it as often as possible?

I would recommend taking anything else/SR. Yes, I said anything/sr. Anything else will likely give you more DPS, AoE, and utility. Sure, it hits hard on a brute. Is it worth it? No. If I didn't feel so bad about it, I would roll a KM/SR brute to replace my EM/SR. Too bad stripping her down would be so costly.


Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.

"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by magikwand View Post
I have played this combo and I must say that I disagree wholeheartedly with the above statement. Although I suppose it depends largely on how much you plan on using ET, but that attack takes constant and notable chunks out of your health bar. I absolutely despise my EM/SR. Namely because of the EM part. I don't have any problems with SR really, but the pairing lacks any synergy.

Without any means of recovering health outside of carrying greens (not reliable) or taking aid self, SR is probably one of the last secondaries I would recommend to pair with EM. EM does much better with a secondary that gives the user the ability to regenerate health instantly (Dark Armor, fiery aura) or passively (WP or energy aura). Believe me- the constant dings to your health will become an issue if you use ET a lot. And with that being of the heaviest hitters in the set, why wouldn't you want to use it as often as possible?

I would recommend taking anything else/SR. Yes, I said anything/sr. Anything else will likely give you more DPS, AoE, and utility. Sure, it hits hard on a brute. Is it worth it? No. If I didn't feel so bad about it, I would roll a KM/SR brute to replace my EM/SR. Too bad stripping her down would be so costly.
Thanks. Can I ask what your Regen rate is, and if your EM/SR is at soft-capped Def? I don't mind so much about the drawbacks of EM, just trying to get an idea of the survivability.


 

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Originally Posted by Sir_Lionheart View Post
Thanks. Can I ask what your Regen rate is, and if your EM/SR is at soft-capped Def? I don't mind so much about the drawbacks of EM, just trying to get an idea of the survivability.
Well the defenses at the soft-cap obviously make it pretty awesome, but when you do start to lose health it gets finicky.
It has the same "more res as you lose health" as widows do.

Energy Transfer will help you get to those resistance numbers, but it may also carve your tombstone too.

It's powerful having soft-capped defense and sitting at over 50% resistance around 5% health, but you won't be using energy transfer that low and big hits are the thing you have to fear.


I think energy melee should be good, especially with the stuns happening often enough, but I would possibly think about skipping energy transfer and relying on total focus.
Total focus isn't that slow. I deal with the same thing with kinetic melee and concentrated strike with no quick nuke like energy transfer.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir_Lionheart View Post
Thanks. Can I ask what your Regen rate is, and if your EM/SR is at soft-capped Def? I don't mind so much about the drawbacks of EM, just trying to get an idea of the survivability.
Not sure what the regen rate of my mr em/sr is, but she is well into the softcap range. Her stats put her above 48% defense in all 3 positions. The main problem I have with this combo is that the heaviest hitter in your arsenal will cause you to take consistent and notable damage. I have died probably about 10-15 times while using ET. (Cool concept, I suppose, using the last of your own life to take out an enemy, but definitely not cool when the enemy survives and you don't.) Sure, it was a bit of negligence on my part, but the problem is still there. If you are planning on using ET a lot, SR will suffer because it just doesn't have a way to dynamically regain lost HP. SR survivability is superb, but coupling it with EM is not the best plan, IMO.

If you can do it- why not roll an EM/SD? At least with AAO boosting your offense, ET will hit harder than it does with SR. I have only seen one EM/SD, and the person said he liked it well enough.


Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.

"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by magikwand View Post
If you can do it- why not roll an EM/SD? At least with AAO boosting your offense, ET will hit harder than it does with SR. I have only seen one EM/SD, and the person said he liked it well enough.
I'm definitely enjoying working on my shield brute, and I tried EM with shields before. I abandoned it because of the click mez protection of shields, but am now back.

I've also switched to kinetic as a primary because of the guaranteed debuff, which helps survivability some, and it has a lot of the good of energy melee with some new tricks.

Kinetic melee has become the new energy melee. :P
It does have about the same speed and some stuns plus now having knockback(really down because of low magnitude).