Suggestions for Electric/Electric fix.

I have been trying to get Electric/Electric to work for almost 7 years now, but the mechanics are still flawed.

Endurance Drain and game mechanics: Works at the middle to end of battles and Bosses have very powerful attacks that require little endurance, so your toughest opponents must be held completely drained.

Range: Endurance Drain is a Melee effect and Blasters don't Melee.

Attacks: Ranged attacks get no secondary effect from minor Endurance Drain and have no special ranged attack like Blazing Arrow, Power Burst, Blaze, etc. Short Circuit is melee in gameplay, and Power Sink is only melee. Tesla Cage is a short Hold with a 2.17 sec activation (Freeze Ray is 1 sec). Voltaic Sentinel attacks weakly and randomly.

Changes that seem reasonable compared to other Blaster sets would be to make Short Circuit and Power Sink 25 foot PBAoE's in the Blaster versions. Add a DoT damage effect to ranged attacks. Voltaic Sentinel also Buffs or Debuffs in some way. Electric/Electric still would not be as good as other Blaster sets with these changes, but it might make the set playable in PvE.

Final note. I never see Electric Blasters anymore. Not saying no one plays it. Just that I haven't seen an Electric Blaster in over a year now.

Hi there, I've just come back after a cheeky 4.5 year hiatus and played elec/elec/elec blaster for 90% of my time.

While I agree with many of your quarms regarding the relatively short range of the PBAoE and the seeming lack of secondary effects, I would say that the drain and -EndRec effect are devastating both in group and solo PvE. With Haste and good slotting it's posssible to continuoulsy output massive damage, even without defender buffs. Not many blasters are as self sustaining, have as much continuous DPS and crowd control.

I've played in all sorts of groups, but I've never seen a blaster have as much effect on the group dynamic as an electric blaptroller IMO.

All that said, any and all buffs as per your suggestions would be welcome; VS seems pretty weak and the animation of Tesla Cage is certainly long compared with ice's holds.

Just my 2 cents .

Plight

Ah the DMs in Portal, good to practice on, not particularly difficult if I remember .

I ran a mission with a +1/2 Master Illusionist the other day and OMG I forgot how tough they are, I died SO many times! No fun.

Plight

Blasters do just fine in melee if you build'em properly, and a proper elec/ sapper is a lot of fun to play alongside.

What electric needs more than anything is a real third ST blast. Sapping is nice but at the end of the day it's a gimmick you can't always rely on; the lack of single-target killing power is what really hurts elec/. I would like to see zapp turned into a conventional short range/high damage blast.

A suggestion for Elec/Elec playstyle - wait 2 seconds, follow the tank into melee range, Short Circuit, power sink, ball lightning, the start using charged brawl, havoc punch, lightning bolt and thunderstrike until the cows come home. You will see a BIG spike in your damage output, and the mobs will be too tired to return fire so you swing with impunity. Refire off Ball Lightning and Short Circuit when recharged to keep the mobs drained and you're golden. Your team will love you!

Hello, Elec/Elec Blaster right here. I've been faithful to him even since 2004, too.

As an Elec/Elec Blaster, I think I am permitted to say this, but choosing Electricity powersets aren't all about endurance drain. Sure, that's the best part of it, but who says that Electric Blasters can't do damage? Most of the stereotyping population, but people who have Electric Blasters I'm sure will say that they can do damage.

I've looked through your post and seen that you use Voltaic Sentinel. My suggestion, don't. I've gotten that before, and all it's done is greifed me when I was preparing for a tough battle.

Now, to attempt explaining things in order.

The mechanics: This is not true. They can work at any time in the battle, and draining endurance at the beginning can be very helpful, even life saving. I'm not saying do this every time, because sometimes you'll need Power Sink in the middle of the fight, but you can use it whenever. Any time your enemy is gasping for a break is a good and happy time.

Range: The two main endurance drainers are indeed melee, but you can drain endurance slower with the ranged attacks. About the melee part, as a Blaster that tanked Lady Winter as an AV on an eight person team and have no one die, I think I am allowed to say that Electric Blasters can in fact melee, and I think Thunder Strike, Power Sink, and Short Circuit back this up. Those are the three best melee powers, and they do a lot with a little. Power Sink's endurance cost could be lowered a little, but that's my only complaint there.

Attacks: This I agree with this mostly. Electric Blasters drew the short stick with less strong attacks, but the endurance drain can make up for this, even if it's small. I say that Voltaic Sentinel should be replaced with a better power, like an attack.

Solo Play Tips: I have 2 suggestions on this:

1) Emulate team play, only eat a LUCK or some such, jump into a group of mobs. The luck should keep you alive long enough to fire off short circuit and power sink, then just clean up the mess by blapping while using ball lightning and short circuit to keep em drained. Fun stuff!

2) For 2-3 mobs at a time - Tesla Cage the LT, this will draw your initial aggro from the other 2 minions. Hit one with Charged Bolts and lightning bolt as they run towards you - that should about finish him off. Hit the next one with charged brawl and havoc punch, as it has likely closed to melee range = dead mob. About this time the LT should be waking up from tesla cage - refire it off and hold him again, then finish him off as you see fit. Rinse and repeat.

The */Elec secondary lends itself to Blapper gameplay, which is kind of like a race to see who runs out of health first. If you don't want to blap, then it's probably not that good of a secondary to choose. In that case, I'd probably also avoid */Fire. The other sets all offer something to keep a pure-ranged character happy.

If you really want to build a sapper-type character, I recommend Elec/Kin, Elec/Rad, or Elec/Therm Controllers or Elec/Elec or Elec/Psi Doms.

Thanks, guys. Guess I'll have to learn from experience what I can survive under what conditions.

Elec Blast doesn't suffer from the Psi Blast problem. Elec doesn't suck outright. Elec's problem is merely mediocre damage paired with blandness.

If we must increase Elec's damage (and I'm not sure we must), add a chance for CB, LB, and Zapp to do chain damage to a nearby target. Why should Chain Induction get all the fun mechanics? This will increase Elec Blast's fun factor without rocking the balance boat.

If we must improve Elec's debuffing (and I think perhaps we should), scrap the unpredictable +endurance idea in favor of more normal acting debuffs. This will make Elec Blast's debuffs act more like other primaries'. For example:

Current CB: -7% endurance, 20% chance of -100% recovery for 2 seconds, 30% chance of +2.6 endurance to self
Current LB: -10% endurance, 30% chance of -100% recovery for 4 seconds, 30% chance of +4.265 endurance to self

Note that enhancing these blasts for endurance modification is rare, since the base drain is small (laughable in PvP), the endurance boost to self is unreliable, and the recovery debuff is already 100% -- if it happens at all.

My wishlist CB: -7% endurance, -20% recovery for 6 seconds
My wishlist LB: -10% endurance, -20% recovery for 10 seconds

Now slotting for endurance modification becomes a little more attractive, as you can meaningfully improve the recovery debuff, and PvPers can no longer laugh Elec off as a total non-threat. The debuffs also gain the simplicity, non-randomness and modest stackability of other primary debuffs, such as Ice Blast's, good for the newbie blaster learning curve.

Your suggestion seems pretty solid.

What's the Psi Blast problem, btw?