Why Electric Blast?

The thought of draining my foe's endurance like a sapper was really appealing to me. I made my elec/dev blaster way back in i6ish. I pushed him to 50, even though I didn't enjoy him, and now he sits. I am not much of a toon delete kind of person, so he sits.

Here is my problem--big deal that he drains end. He doesn't drain enough. NPCs seem to need just a sliver of their end to be effective. So I can drain all but that sliver, but I didn't gain anything.

I am not a numbers player, but the damage seems to much less than other blasters--is this true?

I guess if I played with another end draining toon it could be fairly effective, but I don't want to be tied to that.

I have a couple of /elec defenders that were made early on, but I don't mind them as much because I don't build a fender for the blasting. I wouldn't choose /elec on them again, either, but I do play them.

So those of you with electric blasters--why do you enjoy them? I truly want to know. I am not bashing, I am curious what would make someone like them. What are reasons I should choose elec/ for another toon?

It will certainly perform, as it were, with IOs in place, as will any set in CoX ... but, yeah, elec blast has long been a topic of complaint for many players (and also features a core of die-hard "leave my set alone there's nothing wrong with it dammit" supporters) as a set which doesn't quite spread the mustard the way other sets do.

And no it doesn't really sap an enemy to uselessness by itself - it helps to pair it with more elec or power boost or some-such. Unfortunately for you, you paired it with dev, a set which was never a top performer even *before* ED and which possibly suffered more than any other *due* to ED (its distinct advantage was allowing one to six-slot damage to make up for a lack of BU: ED gutted that but gave it no advantage to replace it) - so you're running on two cylinders.

But, like I said: the game is really easy as far as content goes - with a beefed up IO set or two you should still be able to plow through with relative ease, even if other blasters might plow through faster.

I've got an electric/electric blaster that can effectively drain mobs. It does take Short Circuit and Power Sink to drain them to zero, but if you go in stealthed, they're down to zero within seconds.

The downside is that you're in melee range. My build isn't soft-capped for anything, so I get hit right away, and usually stunned. Thus, my current build isn't really very good for solo sapping, but on a team you can really do a number on their end.

Once you've drained them initially, Short Circuit can recharge fast enough to keep them that way, especially if you're hitting them with Ball Lightning constantly.

The real problem is that once they're drained the mobs frequently run away. And by frequently I mean all the damned time. Freak Tank bosses are the worst cowards. Drain them to zero and they run for the hills.

I've also got a SS/Electric brute that is pretty effective as a sapper, and between Lightning Field and Power Sink, you can drain most mobs and keep them that way. Throw in the end use from their attacks against you, Ball Lightning and Electrifying Fences and you can keep them that way permanently, plus they can't run away.

If I were to redo my E/E blaster for solo sapping I would aim for S/L defense and recharge. It's possible to softcap an E/E blaster for S/L using Weave, Combat Jumping, Scorpion Shield, two sets of Kinetic Combat and Rectified Reticle, and one set each of Enfeebled Operation, Obliteration, and Reactive Armor. I would also get Stealth or Superspeed and a Stealth IO to allow you to sneak into mobs and sap them.

When Hasten is active Short Circuit is up every 7 seconds, and Power Sink is up every 20, meaning that even on a fast-moving team you can totally drain every spawn with just Short Circuit and Power Sink.

I'd suggest that you make a Mids build that implements the necessary power selections and slotting, but not buy the expensive sets yet -- just reuse your existing sets as they'll fit, or make a second build that just has SOs but is set up to take the expensive IOs as you get them. Then I'd run with a team and see how well you can sap.

If you like the performance on a team, putting in all the IOs will just make it better. Adding S/L defense will protect you from most melee attacks, but it won't protect you from a lot of the AoE stuns and some damage attacks that go along with being in the middle of melee. So you'll always need to carry a lot of break frees.

In the end, though, I don't think blaster sapping is ever going to be as effective as you want it to be. Your best bet might be to get permanent Domination on an Electric/Fire dominator. That would combine sapping with a high-damage attack set.

A lot of peolpe like the idea of being a "sapper" and draining your foes end and electric blast does a good job of it--but better on a defender than a blaster. Yes, as a blaster, you are a more effective sapper by teaming with someone else who has end drain as well. But personally, I play/build my blasters for damage rather than end drain. If I want a sapper, I make a defender instead.

I've always found the damage of elec blast to be decent but not top of the line probably because energy damage is one of the top 3 most resisted damage types (along with S/L). But I've never had a difficult time killing anything either.

I can understand your frustration with your blaster especially since you paired it with /devices. Devices is a very slow moving set and really doesn't synergize well with elec blast, imo. I think you would have been better off with with /fire, /elec, /energy, or /mental. Those secondaries have not only have better DPS attacks and utilities, they also have an end drain and/or -recovery power too (or power boost from /energy which enhances your end drain capabilities) to help you be a better "sapper."

For blasters, I have an elec/elec and an elec/energy. For Defenders, I have a storm/elec and a kin/elec. I enjoy playing all 4 of them. I like the concepts I've created for them, I like their powers, and I like what they can do solo or in a team setting.

Sorry you're not enjoying the elec blast set, but I really think it's because you paired it with /devices. If you really want to be a sapper, I suggest building a defender that doesn't require you to constatly buff, like a FF, Sonic, or Cold (which is buff every 4 mins) so you can focus more on draining end and being the sapper you want to be.

I love my Elec/Nrg Blaster. I was not too thrilled with her at first but once she was up there in levels... absolute joy. I currently have her with the first level Musculature Alpha and that has helped quite a bit. I tend to be a team oriented player and when paired with another electric the endurance of the enemy tends to disappear rather quickly. I opted to go the route of a long distance shooter and IO'd accordingly.

Why take electric blast? Well, its initial power (charged bolts) does more damage than most other tier one attack powers. Small perk, but hey, everything counts! I also notice much fewer endurance problems with this set - it does actually work to restore a bit of endurance per attack which makes a noticable difference in your stamina in extended battles. Yes, it doesnt do as much raw damage as some other blasting primaries (fire, ice, well hell - most of them) and the endurace drain is negligible - when a mob dies, his endurance drops to zero anyway so why not just kill it rather than drain it? Its a tough point to argue. It does have a nice hold (even if the animation is a bit long), but that leads to the REAL reason to get Electric Blast - THUNDEROUS BLAST!!!! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sure it comes with a full endurance drain. Sure its a challenge to avoid faceplanting if there are any survivors who can retaliate - toggles are for wussies anyways! (But lots of +ranged def sets are fair game and recommended...) But come on now - its the only RANGED full nuke in the blaster sets (not incuding Arrows and DP, which are more partial nukes) which means you do have a slim chance of escape after firing it since you dont have to be in melee range. Once you hit Aim + Buildup + thunderous blast and watch your toon charge up, fire off, and leave 12 mobs standing there convulsing in electrical agony before slumping to the floor there's no going back. Worth the price paid in debt every time to giggle like a loon every 90 seconds even if it means yet another trip to the hospital or giving the rezzers on the team a workout. After all, we dont want the defenders getting bored do we? Even better when paired with the /elec secondary as a single blue insp + power sink will fully restore your End bar, then its just a matter of racing to finish off the remaining mobs before they finish off you (as you WILL draw aggro). Who can argue with that kind of fun???

In all seriousness, I have to agree with Frozen Burn in that your secondary is not one that compliments your primary. I think to fully take advantage of Electric blast pairing it with Elec secondary is the only way to go. Short Circuit + Power Sink = an entire mob with zero endurance and that is something both you and your entire team can appreciate, as you can then wail on them with the electrical secondary's blapping powers with impunity and inflict some serious pain.

Let me clarify one thing. Of course I have been able to drain end from foes. But like my original post stated, they seem to need the very slightest, most minute end to attack, so, in the end, there isn't really much point to no end if they can quickly get that tiny amount and attack me just fine.

I've played for 300 levels of electricity over 6 different ATs, so I've sapped my fair share of enemies. I have an Elec/Elec Blaster, Brute, Stalker, Tanker, Scrapper, and Dominator (in that order). I play electricity more for concept reasons, but over the past seven years, I've learned a few things about electric blasting in general and the sapping strategy specifically.

With my blaster:

1) I (almost) never sap on a team. If the main tank is /Electric, I might jump in for a quick Power Sink or Short Circuit if things start to get hairy. It's like being a poor man's controller. If that's not the case, I focus on my prescribed role of damage and become an HP Sapper.

2) My favorite drain is incidental. While playing solo, any mob of just minions is getting Ball Lightning and Static Discharge'd to death. I have high enough global recharge (Read: Overkill) to get off both attacks twice during one Aim-Build Up duration. If the mob includes LTs, I'll throw a hold his way first, toss my AoEs and then finish off the sliver of LT health with a few melee attacks. In any of those situations, End Drain is a non-factor. When I'm fighting a Boss or EB, however, I usually open with my two ranged holds, close in once the Boss is secured and then cycle through my melee attack chain: Shocking Grasp, Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch. This keeps the Boss perma-held and IIRC Shocking Grasp does have some pretty good -Recovery. This leaves most bosses drained and dead in short order.

3) The only time I go out of my way to spam my PBAoE drains are when I find myself utterly overwhelmed. I'll pop a few purples, fire off Short Circuit and Power Sink and that usually buys me enough time to either make my getaway or finish off the bad guys.

4) I invested in the Rare (soon to be Very Rare) Musculature Alpha Boost. I don't remember the name off-hand, but I know it boosts Damage and End Mod. That gives all of my attacks that can slot it an SO worth of End Drain that I would never otherwise slot for.

I realize I'm rambling so let me finish by answering the original question: Why Electric Blast? Because it's a heck of a lot of fun. My first 50 was Fire/Fire and the hardest tacticaly decision I usually had to make was to open with Fire Breath-Fire Ball or with Fire Ball-Fire Breath. My Electric Blaster was my third 50 and he's become my main and my favorite ever since. He's not as good at AoE or even ST as my Fire Blaster, but the mitigation of three holds and two drains makes him play almost like a Dominator. If they ever decided to take another look at Elec Blasters, I'd be happy with some buffs, but for now I'm perfectly happy with mine.

My main blueside is an E^3 Blaster.

As others have pointed out, you have to pair Electric/ with /Electric to really benefit from any substantial End drain. And most of it comes from the AoEs.

If you play the combo at range like most Blasters, you're doing it wrong. The combination of Ball Lightning / Short Circuit / Power Sink / Thunderstrike will completely drain(and decimate) almost any spawn. On teams, I'm two seconds in behind the Tanker, and I almost never faceplant.

/Electric is quite possibly the premier Blapper set. It's melee attacks are very good, as previously stated.

As also mentioned, it has three controls which make it a little Dominator-ish. Not as well as Ice/Ice does though.

I know this is the blaster forum, but I am playing a Elec/Storm Corr

I sleath in, hit freezing rain and then drain the bouncing crowd. It actually does help. And in some cases can mitigate a ton of damage thats hitting your team. You can't fire off your mega powers if you dont have the endurance, so many of the teams I have played on git hit with level 1 or 2 powers, and not much else.

I would imagine elec secondary is where I would have an issue. It's also good for sapping, but elec blast seems to do it well enough without secondary support sapping. Something with a different type, like Psi or Ice would be interesting, because not only are you sapping like mad, but you also have the secondary effect of Psi which slows recharge, mitigating even that level one attack drained foes have to use. Ice for similar reasons.

again I am coming from this from a Corr Standpoint, but I set up my elec blast with short cercuit, with endurance mods, and then my AOE Ball Lightning in the same format. So that I just really need to hit SC, and then fire off BL to drain everything.

I fooled around with end drain on the various characters I have Electrical blast on, but for me endurance modification slots have never felt like they pull their weight compared to real damage. Obviously, health drain is more efficient when it comes to producing rewards. The painfully slow animation for Tesla cage results in no damage, but hard control... Not that hard control stops Radiation blast or Ice Blast from getting noticable damage in similar powers. What's to like about the set, then?

To me it's two fast recharging 16 target AoE's that are both very proc'able - I like 4 set IO's + 2 proc's. Couple that with Static discharge from the epic power pools as a blaster and you have a very decent, sparkly, victim-frying ozone-producing AoE devastator. While the up-front damage may not be absolutely terrifying, stuff virtually melts in your path to feed you with insps as you go.

As /devices coupled with it, I'd just slot up proc-trops with Chance for knockdown/smashing/energy/lethal and call it a day. In general, stuff trying to run out of the caltrops won't hit you so much while applying (PB)AoE's. Slot the really slow powers from Devices with recharge just to use them as pseudo-build up if you have room in your build. Voltaic Sentinel from the primary together with Trip mine, Gun Drone and Time bomb can be considered so-so in themselves if you're mowing stuff down due to long casting times, but at least you get some free damage for building them.

I don't slot those attacks for End Mod either, but they still drain a lot. Slotting them as attacks is the best option all around. Slot Ball Lightning with Positron's Blast and fill Short Circuit with Scirroco's Dervish if you can. Your job is DPS, after all.

I too am fond of the E3 Blaster. It was my very first toon way back in
closed Beta (long before you could even get the "3"), and I'm still playing
it today.

He plays a much more controllerish and deliberately tactical style than
most other blasters I've dabbled with.

I can't stress enough though, that if you don't have the secondary to go
with the Electric primary, forget the idea of end drain - it simply isn't
practical or effective enough, and is typically more risky than helpful at
that point.

With the right build however, end drain is very, very effective, but *only*
if you can fully drain them, *and* keep them drained (which an E3 can
do). It's definitely an "All or Nothing" strategy. Either do it well and fully,
or don't bother with it at all.

Personally, I enjoy my E3 quite a bit, but I can definitely see how it may
be less appealing to other folks.


Regards,
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