I don't have Spines/Elec, but I do have Spines/Fire. The extra AoE (Burn) helps do more AoE DPS.
If you can get 32.5% defense to melee, ranged, and AoE, you will feel immortal. Pop a small purple inspiration and you are soft capped to almost every attack in the game. If you find it difficult to get that much positional defense, you can get by with 32.5% S/L and E/N which are the more common damage types.
Don't bother trying to "max" a resistance. Pick up Tough and Weave. That should put you high enough on S/L and E resistance in combination with your powers.
I picked /elec over /fire for these reasons:
Nearly unlimited endurance
Lighting reflexes
energy is more common than fire
some psi, end drain, and slow resist
The only thing I see that had fire had going for it was a quicker recharge self heal and burn.
Also, is 32.5 the next magic number if you can't softcap?
In time, I'll come to forgive you.
Endurance is not an issue at 50 for most players. On my Spines/Fire Scrapper, I only use Consume for the endurance drain resistance when facing Sappers.
Lightning Reflexes is nice, but I don't know if I would give up my most powerful AoE for what amounts to 2 purple sets worth of recharge bonus.
Energy is more common than Fire, but my heal recharges in less than 20 seconds. With soft capped positional defenses, none of the damage types bother me.
Yes, 32.5% is the magic number if you can't soft cap. A small purple is 12.5% defense. So, 32.5% + 12.5% = 45%. Most of the time, I find 32.5% defense to be enough. Often, a teammate will have defense buffs too.
Play what you want. I'm just trying to help you realize that you're giving up a good amount of damage from Burn in exchange for a small amount of recharge and some resistance that won't matter too much because of a faster-recharging heal.
I see what you are saying.
Is fire easier to reach that number? I'm having a little trouble with spines/elec in mids.
Does burn really add that much AoE? Doesn't everyone run out of the patch?
How does firey embrace work with quills and the other spine AoEs?
In time, I'll come to forgive you.
Fiery Aura and Electric Armor both have the same difficulty in obtaining high amounts of defense.
Burn was changed in I19. It no longer causes fear, which means enemies won't run out of it right away. Instead, they attack a few more times until the mob AI code tells them to move out of an AoE patch. By that time, they have taken most of the damage or are dead from other AoEs. Besides, the extra mitigation from them not attacking while running is usually helpful. The other change they made to Burn was the high up-front damage instead of the damage being spread out over the duration of the patch.
Fiery Embrace should work like a build-up for non-fire attacks. I'm not completely familiar with the mechanics of it. I just kill stuff.
Anybody have experiences/stories about this build they would care to share?
Also, what should I focus on when doing IOs?
What is generally considered good defense(numbers wise) with a resistance based set?
Should I look to max a certain type of resistance?
I generally play ranged toons and don't have experience with melee.
In time, I'll come to forgive you.