It's a set that's perfectly fine and valid as a choice when played by the 95%ers running on normal difficulty with just SOs.
For any variety of power-gamer it's inadequate.
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To make a tough /Energy Aura brute you'll probably need to take everything except Conserve Power and Overload. You'll also need to take Tough and Weave, and buy a lot of expensive IO sets to soft-cap S/L defense.|
Originally Posted by jose2390
Can anyone explain to me in detail what exactly is energy aura, including the advantages and disadvantages of that set. Also, I would like to know which powers I should stay away from. Thanks!!
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Overload crashes spectacularly, so even though I've taken it I never use it. Using it will usually get you killed unless you're guaranteed the fight will be over before it crashes, or you can just run away before it does.
While Energy Aura is okay when fully IOed out, it doesn't do anything better than other Brute secondary sets. The only power of note is Energy Cloak -- that lets you be a sort of stealthy brute. I've been able to stand a few yards away from one mob while pounding on another without attracting any aggro. But most players of brutes don't see that as an advantage.
Basically, Energy Aura is a good alternative if you want to run a stealthy single-target brute. But most people want to run brutes like high-damage tankers against large spawns. If you want the latter, you'll probably want to avoid Energy Aura. Go for something like Willpower, Shield, or Invulnerability if you want to be tank-like.
You'll probably still need to take Tough and Weave, but with I19 it'll be a whole lot easier to fit everything in.
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Originally Posted by jose2390
Can anyone explain to me in detail what exactly is energy aura, including the advantages and disadvantages of that set. Also, I would like to know which powers I should stay away from. Thanks!!
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Energy Aura mainly gives Defense, with a little bit of Damage Resistance backing it up.
You get a stealth power that doesn't suppress when attacking, you get a power that gives you more End and Healing depending on how many guys it hits, and you get a godmode power that caps out your Def and HP and has only an End crash no Health crash.
It's a good set for not running out of Endurance.
It's probably a little weak against Psi and Toxic.
Also, I've heard it's Strong and Pretty.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
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Originally Posted by Rodion
Overload crashes spectacularly, so even though I've taken it I never use it. Using it will usually get you killed unless you're guaranteed the fight will be over before it crashes, or you can just run away before it does.
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I think you might be thinking of something else, Overload crashes drop your End not your Health. Right before it crashes you can eat a purple and hit Conserve Power. Right after it crashes you can eat a blue and hit Energy Drain and toggle up. Not really sure why you should die from that since my Invuln scrapper and PB usually survive their crashes, and my SR toon always survives his...
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
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Fixed.|
Originally Posted by Wavicle
It's probably very weak against Psi and Toxic.
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Energy Aura uses Typed defense. It has a tiny, miniscule amount of defense to Psi, and Toxic defense doesn't even exist.
Arachnos are bad news for Energy Aura.
Otherwise I find it to perform adequately while solo or duo on default difficulty settings using only SOs. I seemed to have more endurance problems than normal while leveling up, but Stamina helped as usual, and Energy Drain fixed it right the hell up.
And yes, it is strong and pretty.
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As an unrepentant powergamer, I disagree. My /EA is my favorite character I've ever built in this game. I have complete control over every aspect of my gameplay (how much aggro I generate or do not generate, what mobs to target first, how to manage my endurance and health) and with a sufficient investment* have made it so that I only ever need Overload when I'm teamed and facing (a) mobs with large defense debuff capabilities or (b) substantially higher-level AVs. I walk around with over 2000 hp and am over the soft-cap to all types except psi (and toxic, which there is no defense against other than positional elements), and even my psi is in the low-mid 20% range. Most of my positionals are there, or above.|
Originally Posted by Talen Lee
It's a set that's perfectly fine and valid as a choice when played by the 95%ers running on normal difficulty with just SOs.
For any variety of power-gamer it's inadequate. |
It's taken a ton of iterations to get him to this point, and I've probably logged over 2000 hours playing him, but I've not got another character that is as much fun to play. From a powergaming perspective he's also been the most enjoyable; anybody can take a stone tank and make it hard to kill; this took a little work and planning. /EA plays relatively well out of the box, but to make it really shine takes a lot of investment of time and resources. It's worth it, though. It's crazy-fun.
* = I don't want to think about how much it would cost to re-create his build from scratch.
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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This is pretty much what you can expect out of EA:|
Originally Posted by jose2390
Can anyone explain to me in detail what exactly is energy aura, including the advantages and disadvantages of that set. Also, I would like to know which powers I should stay away from. Thanks!!
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...enshot1_01.jpg
It's SO pretty.
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However, if you had sunk that investment in anything else, you would have certainly had a more powerful character.
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Originally Posted by EarthWyrm
As an unrepentant powergamer, I disagree. My /EA is my favorite character I've ever built in this game. I have complete control over every aspect of my gameplay (how much aggro I generate or do not generate, what mobs to target first, how to manage my endurance and health) and with a sufficient investment* have made it so that I only ever need Overload when I'm teamed and facing (a) mobs with large defense debuff capabilities or (b) substantially higher-level AVs. I walk around with over 2000 hp and am over the soft-cap to all types except psi (and toxic, which there is no defense against other than positional elements), and even my psi is in the low-mid 20% range. Most of my positionals are there, or above.
It's taken a ton of iterations to get him to this point, and I've probably logged over 2000 hours playing him, but I've not got another character that is as much fun to play. From a powergaming perspective he's also been the most enjoyable; anybody can take a stone tank and make it hard to kill; this took a little work and planning. /EA plays relatively well out of the box, but to make it really shine takes a lot of investment of time and resources. It's worth it, though. It's crazy-fun. * = I don't want to think about how much it would cost to re-create his build from scratch. |
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That's the same as saying, "Some sets are naturally more powerful than others," which is pretty much a truism. You can take any set and make it good with IOs, but it'll still be worse than a better set with the same amount invested in it. With zero investment, picking one set over another gives you something that is more powerful or less powerful. That's the way the game is designed.|
Originally Posted by Talen Lee
However, if you had sunk that investment in anything else, you would have certainly had a more powerful character.
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I never said that EA is the most powerful set, which is about the only thing that your statement would seem to disprove. It's not the most powerful set. It's not even the second-best defensive set available to brutes.
EA is a fun set to play, and offers a good amount of "trade-off" decisions - and unlimited endurance. For me, it's been the most fun. If I want to play "Most powerful" I'll log my stone tank or my kin/sonic defender or my ill/rad controller. Given the option, though, I go for the SS/EA brute. I have absolutely powergamed him, and found doing so more rewarding than powergaming any other character.
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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Not true. My DM/EA has had less of an investment than say my BS/Regen, but is SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful. And that's saying something as I've logged approximately 20 times more playtime on the BS/Regen and spent untold fortunes trying to get her to the levels of my DM/EA Brute and Fire/Shield. |
Originally Posted by Talen Lee
However, if you had sunk that investment in anything else, you would have certainly had a more powerful character.
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*/EA simply isn't weak. IMO, it's better than Electric and even the buffed Fire Aura and probably equal to Invul. It does have weaknesses, but they are not a dire as they are made out to be.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
That is absolutely the best thing about the City of.... Absolute customization to your grand plan. (There are limitations of course, but it is better than most)
My recent abomination required stripping all my other characters of 90% of the stuff I had in the game to make one grand brute. I will not say it is the best, and I just 50'd him, so I need to test a lot of stuff. But heck, he is definitely my creation, and I plan to have lots and lots of fun draining my foes of their life force (and treasure lol)
Cya in the cities.....
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This was my judgement based on the numbers.|
Originally Posted by EvilGeko
Not true. My DM/EA has had less of an investment than say my BS/Regen, but is SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful. And that's saying something as I've logged approximately 20 times more playtime on the BS/Regen and spent untold fortunes trying to get her to the levels of my DM/EA Brute and Fire/Shield.
*/EA simply isn't weak. IMO, it's better than Electric and even the buffed Fire Aura and probably equal to Invul. It does have weaknesses, but they are not a dire as they are made out to be. |
It might be a little difficult sometimes to leverage Energy Drain properly, but the same could be said of Dark Regen or Soul Drain.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
Quick look at the weaknesses:
Most (though not all) attacks with Toxic damage have either a smashing/lethal component or an energy component.
Specifically looking at Arachnos (probably the greatest source of Toxic damage in the late game): The vast majority of toxic attacks from Arachnos mobs are going to be attached to melee attacks with a s/l component or ranged attacks with an energy component.
EA will defend against those attacks. I'd imagine a few spiders probably have ranged attacks that are purely toxic. Vazhilok have been left way behind in the early game. What else is there?
Against Psi, is EA really any worse off than Invuln? You get a little Def bonus from your Stealth power. You get Healing from Energy Drain. You get +HP from Overload.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
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> Insert manditory comment wrt synergy between DM and any def sets|
Originally Posted by EvilGeko
Not true. My DM/EA has had less of an investment than say my BS/Regen, but is SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful. And that's saying something as I've logged approximately 20 times more playtime on the BS/Regen and spent untold fortunes trying to get her to the levels of my DM/EA Brute and Fire/Shield.
*/EA simply isn't weak. IMO, it's better than Electric and even the buffed Fire Aura and probably equal to Invul. It does have weaknesses, but they are not a dire as they are made out to be. |
> Make annoying, non relevant and somewhat out of date reference to having leveled a lot of EAs
> Add remark about how DM/SR (low cost) and DM/SD (high cost) can be even better
> Make slightly incorrect and ill remembered quote about how secondary sets should first and foremost be judged on their own merits
> Attempt to appear balanced by citing the counterpoint that blue side, EA is much stronger than red side.
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
It seems that /EA is a brute-only set. What's it pair well with? I was sorta thinking I wanted to have a brute, but I haven't found a mix I like.
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Mine is KM/EA, and is doing ok. A friend of mine runs an Elec/EA and jokes that between the two, he makes sappers look silly.
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Originally Posted by seebs
It seems that /EA is a brute-only set. What's it pair well with? I was sorta thinking I wanted to have a brute, but I haven't found a mix I like.
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Stalkers have it too, fwiw.
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Originally Posted by seebs
It seems that /EA is a brute-only set. What's it pair well with? I was sorta thinking I wanted to have a brute, but I haven't found a mix I like.
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Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
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rofl!
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Originally Posted by spiritchaser
> insert manditory comment wrt synergy between dm and any def sets
> make annoying, non relevant and somewhat out of date reference to having leveled a lot of eas > add remark about how dm/sr (low cost) and dm/sd (high cost) can be even better > make slightly incorrect and ill remembered quote about how secondary sets should first and foremost be judged on their own merits > attempt to appear balanced by citing the counterpoint that blue side, ea is much stronger than red side. |
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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Energy Aura is an endurance hogging, under performing set and probably one of the worst sets you could ever think of using.
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Originally Posted by jose2390
Can anyone explain to me in detail what exactly is energy aura, including the advantages and disadvantages of that set. Also, I would like to know which powers I should stay away from. Thanks!!
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What do you think it would take to "fix" it?
It is NOT endurance hogging. It uses almost exactly the same endurance than any other standard toggle defense set.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
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Don't forget ". . . and has some of the best endurance management tools you'll find in an armor set."|
Originally Posted by Wavicle
It is NOT endurance hogging. It uses almost exactly the same endurance than any other standard toggle defense set.
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EA has flaws. Not a few of them. Endurance issues are not included in that list, though.
TEH WERDZ ON SKREEN HURTZ MI BRANE!
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Baseline, other defense sets (SR, SD) run about .72END/sec running their toggles. EA runs 1.04END/sec running its toggles. But it has high endurance management tools. Other sets with some endurance management being Elec(1.25END/sec) and WP(.89END/sec) aren't much better off. If you can't some how not be shooting END out your ears playing EA, you're doing something wrong. Honestly, it has a 100% endurance discount click (that drops the cost to .45END/sec) and a full blue bar every 30sec with slotting. The endurance cost should be the least of anyone's problems with EA.
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Originally Posted by Wavicle
It is NOT endurance hogging. It uses almost exactly the same endurance than any other standard toggle defense set.
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Can anyone explain to me in detail what exactly is energy aura, including the advantages and disadvantages of that set. Also, I would like to know which powers I should stay away from. Thanks!!