Energy Melee: Make me love it

Hello, guys and gals

Sheer guilt of what I've just done storywise to my poor Peacebringer Awakened has made me want to give the guy another chance in the great "what if" playground that is Praetoria. As such, I'd be making a PPD brute with, I assume, Energy Melee as his primary and either Invulnerability or Willpower as his secondary.

However, while I may like the backstory, I'm uncertain of whether I'd enjoy playing an EM brute. From what I've seen of the set, it lacks both in the visual department and seems to have no interesting mechanics, either. Just a series of hard-hitting single target attacks.

Am I missing something? What is there to like about energy melee? Why do people choose it?

Although, which secondary has the better synergy with EM? Invul or Willpower?

Thanks in advance!

One of the very first characters I made, way back even before CoV happened, whas a Firey Aura/Energy Melee tanker. Still love to play her, even after years and years. But do note that my EM experience is all tanker-based; when I rolled her villain counterpart I made him FM/EA instead, for variety's sake.

Whirling Hands is a PBAoE; I don't actually rely on it, but I figured I'd mention that the set does have one non-single-target attack. One of the things I really love about EM is Energy Transfer -- more than twice as much damage per endurance as any other power in the set, or in any other brute primary set (with the exception of Dark Melee's Dark Consumption, depending on how you do the math). The stun may take a little getting used to; while they're wandering around stunned, they're not hitting you and that's one less contribution to your fury (but you can still hit them...)

Barrage makes this soft little "uh-oh" chiming sound in the background, right before the buhbump-buhbump of the power hitting. Which always makes me giggle.

Energy Melee is one of those sets everybody wants to love.

My namesake (Doctor Xaxan) is a Dark/EM tanker, and he's pretty cool. The set has one PBAOE and a ton of sweet single target damage. There are other sets that do everything it does, and does them better.

If you want to do it, just do it. If nothing else, you'll be a special snowflake in the sea of super strength and dark melee toons.





P.S. I love super strength, don't kill me.

But is it a straight-forward non-frustrating set? Will it feel smashy and get me in the groove of fury generation? This would be my first brute, mind.

My limited experience taking an EM brute to 10 was pretty painless and fast, but the set _felt_ slow and limited, and I ultimately parked the character and moved on.

Pairing it with Dark Armour is a really good idea. My only level 50 Tanker is DA/EM, I reckon this pairing would work on a Brute too.

Your aura is the inky blackness of space and your fists are, umm,.. the stars?

Well, the stuns from Energy Melee stack really nicely with Oppressive Gloom, and the damage aura in Dark Armour helps supplement your lack of AoE.

Do take Tough, don't take Cloak of Fear.

Gonna agree with Bill here.

My second Tank to 50 was an Inv/EM and my first villain was an EM/Elec Brute. Before the nerf (and we can certainly have this argument again if necessary blah...blah...blah, potato-pototto), they were my favorites. I spent a lot of time and money on both. Now...I won't touch either of them. Well...let me correct myself...the only time I pull them out is to respec good enhancements out of them (all the uniques and purples).

I also agree that EM still hits hard...in a vacuum...cause while teaming, it takes next to forever to launch your 2 biggest hitters (everything is dead before they hit). That's why I left EM...and ain't coming back until they restore it to it's former glory...which will NEVER happen.

As far as WP vs Inv...My Inv Tank was an Assault Tank. He had Tough, Weave, and Aid-Self. He could do some crazy stuff and put out some damage. My WP Tank...not so much...but I have yet to really IO him out. Brute-wise, I have both...they both seem a bit squishy. Again, haven't IO'd them out really good yet. I heard great things about WP on a Brute. I've seen Inv Brutes with perma Dull Pain which I'm sure helps their survival.

All true. To counter, because of fitness going inherent, Invul will be able to take hasten earlier for more DP up time on top of grabbing tough/weave earlier as well. Since we're talking brutes here, QR won't enter into the picture until level 20. Until then, it looks like invul has the better resists backed by hastened DP while WP has the obviously better regen but the resists aren't that hot.

So I've made up my mind to make this brute. I'm going to use him to solo through the Loyalist Responsibility arcs, so performance before level 20 is important. After that, we'll see where he goes.

The guides insist on not taking the passives in Invulnerability since they apparently offer very little. This leaves only DP, Temp Inv and Unyielding to defend myself with and it seems to me that I'll need to get mitigation from my attacks (i.e. by taking Air Superiority).

On the other hand, WP gets its mez protection at level 10 (which is very tempting) but you have to take all the powers to be swimming in +regen, since that's how it mitigates. Will this feel safe?

Temp Invuln, Unyielding, DP, and (later) Invincibility are you 4 core defensive powers, yes. That said, the passives aren't that bad. In one of Castle's semi-recent passes over the set, they got some handy debuff resistance, and a large part of why you would play Invulnerability (at least imo) is Temp Invuln. + RPD + Unyielding + Tough for the highest constant S/L resistance around. On tanks, Invuln can actually hardcap their S/L resistance at 90%, all the time, on top of their considerable defenses from Tough Hide and Invincibility (and ideally some set bonuses too). Brute numbers mean you're significantly squishier than an Invuln tank normally, but an orange insp or two (or some Lucks) can shore the gap up when needed.

Of note, Invulnerability probably fares better in Atlas/Mercy than it would in Nova on a brand new character, simply because Praetorian enemies (PPD and Clocks especially) have much larger quantities of non-S/L damage from right out of the gate. WP has High Pain Threshold and Fast Healing which provides a buffer against anything that comes your way.

WP has incredible regen, and given how brutes usually roll, being the energizer bunny and never stopping for anything is sort of awesome. However, it has noticeably lower resists to compensate and a weaker taunt in its taunt aura. With WP you can fall back on inspirations when facing harder packs, but it has no emergency clicks from the set other than Strength of Will at L38. Either you can handle something, and be in the green all the way, or you can't, and you'd better hope you're packing mitigation from your primary. Either approach is viable, and each have their problem spots.