I happen to love my strong and pretty. He was soft capped to EVERYTHING except psi (~17%) by level 40 and doesn't have any problems with most things (running at x8). His one true weakness is -def, but with a relatively quick recharging heal/endurance recovery power, I'll take it.
Perhaps share your build and what specific problems your having and I bet we can help.
The Porcelain God - DarkKinetics Corruptor
Meat Juice - DarkDarkSoul Brute
Pretty and Strong - Do you really have to ask?
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When an attack is performed, the game rolls for a chance for the attack to land. This is directly dependent on the target's defense value. So the higher your defense, the less likely you'll be hit in the first place.|
Originally Posted by Fista
As I understand it when the game attacts it checks as to wich value (def or res) is higher and does it's calculations against that value. So either confirm this is correct or explain how my understanding is wrong. Then tell me how to make the best of it in either case.
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If an attack does land, the damage it does is reduced by the target's resistance to that type of damage.
So they both work at the same time, they just do different things.
Energy Aura is pretty much a purely defensive set with two tricks. One being stealth that doesn't suppress in combat, and the other being Energy Drain. It restores your endurance, drains the endurance of the mobs it hits, and heals for a little bit. The heal component is only worthwhile when surrounded by a bucketload of mobs (ideally 10 or more).
So to survive with EA, you'll want to get 3 SOs worth of defense buff enhancement into your defense toggles, and some heals into Energy Drain if you can spare the slots. That, and pick your fights wisely because you should be able fight half a spawn without the other half noticing you if a spawn is spread out. That's moot in a team setting, however.
Once you start using IOs, you should slot for defense, simple as that.
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When the game makes an attack roll, it checks the attack type and position of the attack (so, for example: smashing, cold, and ranged for Ice Blast). |
Originally Posted by Fista
As I understand it when the game attacts it checks as to wich value (def or res) is higher and does it's calculations against that value. So either confirm this is correct or explain how my understanding is wrong. Then tell me how to make the best of it in either case.
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It then checks your character for those types of defense, and uses the highest defense value you have available - in Energy Aura, this is likely Cold defense if you have Power Shield, since its base defense is 15% to Cold compared to the base 12.75% Smashing defense in Kinetic Shield, and you only get Ranged defense through Energy Cloak at 3.75%.
Once it decides which defense to use, it subtracts that from the mob's base to-hit and adds in any to-hit bonuses. That number is then clamped to a minimum of 5% chance to hit, or a maximum of 95% chance.
Next it applies accuracy modifiers that are specific to the power, mob rank, and relative level, all of which are multiplied together and then by that 5-95% number from before. So Citadel was attacking you with Energy Transfer in the last mission of the LRSF, he'd be a +3 (1.3x) Hero (1.5x) using a power with a 1.2x modifier. Even if you were soft-capped at the 5% minimum chance from above, he still has a 11.7% chance to hit you. This value is also clamped between 5% and 95%.
Then the determines a random number from 0.0-100.0%, and compares this to the number calculated after accuracy modifiers. If it's less, you just got hit and your defense is done doing anything but your resistance is just getting started. If it's higher, you were missed and your resistance just sits there waiting for something to get through. Let's assume that it's lower, so we can move on.
Going back to the first example of Ice Blast, it has two damage types: Smashing and Cold. These may or may not be different than the attack types - most of the time they line up but not always. Each type of damage is resisted by its appropriate resistance, not the highest: so the Smashing portion of the attack is resisted by your current Smashing resistance, and the Cold portion is resisted by your current Cold resistance. So if that Ice Blast was supposed to do 80 Cold damage and 50 Smashing damage (made-up numbers), and you had 10% Cold resistance and 25% Smashing resistance, you'd take 72 Cold and 37.5 Smashing damage, for a total damage of 109.5 instead of 130.
That should take care of how the attacks work. As for making Energy Aura useful, your best bet is to layer on more defense to try to get that chance to get hit minimized. If you do that, Energy Drain can keep your hit points topped off from the hits that get through most of the time. But really, its claim is to being a pretty defense set, not a sturdy one.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Not a correction, just wanted to add, for me it was:|
Originally Posted by Exxar
Once you start using IOs, you should slot for defense, simple as that.
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Defence --> recharge --> HP
Recharge because you really want energy drain up as often as possible and any good aoe attacks you may have. On my wm\ea brute my actual attack chain is whirling mace, shatter, and then crowd control (possibly adding in an epic aoe when I finally decide what I want). By the time I'm done with crowd control, whirling mace is back up.
For the most part, I feel like my Pretty and Strong brute (wm\ea) is exceptionally durable. I've tanked with him in 8 man teams (as the only meat shield) and even plowed through malta and carnies solo, which as a general rule everyone hates (not that it was easy mind you, but doable).
With EA, the trick is you need lots of baddies around you to stay alive (similar to other brute secondaries). Only 1 or 2 around and you really won't get much out of energy drain.
Also, a primary that has some form of AoE mitigation is really helpful (like war mace's crowd control) and makes a big difference.
The Porcelain God - DarkKinetics Corruptor
Meat Juice - DarkDarkSoul Brute
Pretty and Strong - Do you really have to ask?
I rolled a Kin/NRG just the other day. He's a BLAST.
I Mids'd his build and with mediocre sets and 60% global recharge, he was at 38% defense to everything but Psi and Toxic.
While it's true that NRG is weak when on SO's, it follows the path of Dark Armor.
That is, way back in the day before Inventions people thought it sucked hard because it was too difficult to survive with. Now, with set bonuses, both Dark Armor and Energy Aura can become veritable monsters of smash.
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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I think energy aura is not terrible by itself, but when compared to other secondary power sets, energy aura is probably not as effective. Hence, the comments that you typically read in the forum are relative to other power sets. People don't usually elaborate, and they may give you an impression that energy aura is trash on some absolute scale.|
Originally Posted by Fista
It seems as that as it is neaither fish nor fowl you can't get any meaningful damage mitigation. You end up with low def and even lower resistance.
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Originally Posted by Fista
Then tell me how to make the best of it in either case.
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I had a feeling Twilight Snow was going to post in this thread.
Anyway, EA isn’t the best secondary out there (in terms of survivability or dmg and whatnot) but it is actually quite good, if it’s built right.
"I have ridden the mighty moon worm!"
-Al Gore
Fiery Aura is only good for farming, I'm cereal
@Caucasiafro
I am enjoying my KM/EA brute. (more than my EM/EA stalker)
Once I added Weave and some IO sets, I am very near the soft cap (44.76% S/L) and this helped tremendously. I have a few more sets to add, and going for set bonuses at lvl 35, I will be over the soft cap easily to all but negative energy.
I also have aid self, which is rarely used an only has the base slot so far.
I wish the heal in the set was better though.
YMMV---IMO
Ice Ember
Energy Aura does NOT like Arachnos, Carnies, nor anything with a machine gun or sword thanks to its low defense debuff resistance. I have a dark melee/energy aura and she does Ok. Not good, not bad, kind of in the middle. Not what you'd expect from a softcapped defense build but yeah.
EA's largest problem at the moment in my opinion is that anything it can do Super Reflexes can do better (except use energy drain or hide their costume). For some that energy drain might be enough but for me keeping the defense level you worked hard to achieve trumps it any day of the week.
Then again since EA also has resistance perhaps a better defense set to compare it to is Shield Defense?
Weight training: Because you'll never hear someone lament "If only I were weaker, I could have saved them."
No more useless then using spell check. 
I enjoyed leveling my DM/EA, and playing him as a 50. Enemies with heavy defense debuff can be painful, but that just means you need to have a little strategy instead of the "bull in the china shop" mentality. Good use of IOs and inspirations goes a long way to shore up any weaknesses of any powerset, including energy aura.
Don't I know you???
After being with this game for 7 years (and still loving it), I am rich and full of hubris.
So I have begun to use my piles of money, and now apply my wealth to concepts that the forums assure me will totally suck and be nigh unplayable and make me break into tears and quit the game.
I was directed to Fire melee (No mitigation but great damage/Aoe) and Energy Armor (No damage boost, hard to keep agro, you will die fighting 40+ content!). To make it even worse I made it a HOVER MELEE. And to Top it off I decided to ensure that I took the FIRE BREATH, and devote 6 slots to it. Because Fire breath is useless in Fire melee!!!!!1111FAIL.
Sadly I have to report that the forums once again seems to have lied to me.
My FM/EA has:
Perma Hasten at 50 (hasten was taken at 49. I ALWAYS TAKE IT AT 49)
SMASH/LETHAL 50%, ENERGY 60%, NEGATVE 46%, FIRE/COLD 50%.
Psi is low, but to make up for this I have 26% ranged defense (1 luck pushes this up to respectable levels notice).
I have 28% Smash/Lethal resistance to fall back on as well.
200%+ Regen
I run 8 toggles+can add darkest night, While running FLY, and never lose endurance.
I also can skip the end crash on overload via careful timing of Energy Drain.
This brute is also a full exemplar complaint build: That is every power is slotted with the correct level IO so that I get the maximum bonuses while exemplaring down. I am soft capped to smash lethal to level 20 or so. This means if I switched to all 50 Ios. I could push those numbers even higher.
I play solo at +1 x8 With bosses on, and I love tackling Malta and Carnie Misisons. I frankly tear them up. I have zero endurance problems. I have never had a problem with HP when I am surrounded by foes since Energy Drain returns SO MUCH HP when at the target cap.
I hit 10 Targets with Fire Breath pretty much every time (Slotted with Ragnarok and a 50 IO range+ Paragon Cardiac its 22.5 feet).
This EA brute which is supposed to be paper has tanked recluse in the STF, and tanked the freedom phalanx on the RSF. Overload+Sturdies or support makes EA in T9 mode the most survivalble brute in the game imo.
I have no problem keeping agro with Fire breath (22.5feet LOLZ) Fire Sword Circle, and Taunt. The fact people say combat Stealth hinders than helps is a lie. Its wonderful.
YES THE 5% BB GUN OF DOOM DOES KILL ME SOMETIMES, THAT THAT IS THE NATURE OF DEFENSE SETS. THIS HAPPENS TO SR TOO.
I Hate that the forums mislead me into rolling this Fire breathing FM/EA expecting delicious failure and anguish, only to have it become the BEST brute I have ever run. Maybe my backround of playing stalkers gave me insight on how to make the most of EA. I dunno. But the set doesn't suck and is quite competative with the rest of the sets.
EDIT: CAVEAT- I have spent ridiculous amounts of imfamy on this toon. Money was no object, multiple PVP IOs 4 purple sets etc. Your mileage will likely vary.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
I much prefer Energy Aura to Super Reflexes--it at least has some form of slottable damage resistance, making it more survivable in the early game. And though it's true that EA does have a gaping hole against Psionic damage, it also has superior endurance management and a self heal. It's basically the half way point in between Super Reflexes and Willpower (or rather, the forebearer of Willpower), and I can respect that.
I've got high hopes that it'll get proliferated to Scrappers and Tankers in the next round of Powerset Proliferation, and will welcome its arrival with open arms as-is.
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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Your caveat is a big one, Test-Rat. Money fixes all armor sets problems.
(That said pre-Energize Fire/Elec was the combination that would have you weeping tears of bitter agony and anguish. Roll one of those, skip Energize, and only use SOs and enjoy your masochistic crawl to 50 2007 style. 
Weight training: Because you'll never hear someone lament "If only I were weaker, I could have saved them."
EA has one of the best T9 in the game in my opinion.
- It can propel your HPs and regen to unseen levels for a defense set.
- It adds alot of defense too, some defense debuff resist, and will negate most of the defense debuffs for its duration.
- The crash doesnt affect your hps and should be negated with a blue inspi and an Energy Drain.
It's a defense set with no endurance issue, a few welcome resistance numbers, and a self heal that becomes far from insignificant once you get surrounded by tons of mobs.
To be perfectly honest I havent played it yet, could never come with a good concept build for it. But what I could do on Mids with this powerset looks really pretty to me.
On the other side, if you don't work on your defenses early, I can imagine it's not the most survivable to level with. It can certainly be painful with SOs. But I'm pretty sure it has some endgame potential with the right sets
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It's true. Arcanaville has said soft-capping Super Reflexes is like kissing your sister. Well, soft-capping Energy Aura is like kissing your brother. Kissing your brother is worse than kissing your sister, you see. You sister is at least soft and lovely. Your brother...not so much. That's Energy Aura.|
Originally Posted by TheBruteSquad
I have a dark melee/energy aura and she does Ok. Not good, not bad, kind of in the middle. Not what you'd expect from a softcapped defense build but yeah.
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I do rank it above Electric Armor based purely on personal preference. At the very least Overload is the best tier-9 defense power in the game (tons of +HP make up for a host of sins).
Kinetic goes really well visually and mechanically with EA. The -Damage in Kinetic can be a real life saver. Don't listen to anyone who says not to roll Kinetic on a Brute. Kinetic is one of the best sets a Brute can roll. Easily in the top 3. And it does a fine job of propping EA up.
You do want to build for +Defense, yes, but it's critical to go for +Recharge, too. You want Overload up early and often. You want to live in Overload if you possibly can.
In fact, it'd be nice if they'd nerf Overload and distribute some of it over the rest of the set to bring it up to par. Make Overload about as powerful as Willpoower's tier-9 defense, complete with recharge immunity, and take a portion of the +HPs, DDR and +Defense and sprinkle it throughout the rest of the set.
Yeah, if I were Black Scorpion that's what I'd do.
Kinetic/EA is pretty and pretty.
The best comics are still 10�!
My City of Heroes Blog Freedom Feature Article: "Going Rageless?"
If you only read one guide this year, make it this one.
Super Reflexes: the Golden Fox of power sets!
WARNING: I bold names.
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It isn't the easiest set to softcap and you'll never 'cap the Psi notch without giving up a TON of capability elsewhere, if you even can ((now I'm curious. *loads Mids*)) but to be frank I have no real problem until I get into multiple Tarantula Mistresses and/or Queens with that dratted Mental Scramble defense-shattering power. That is /custom made/ to crush Energy Aura if it lands...a psi-based power with -50 defense or something insane.|
Originally Posted by Daemodand
*snippage*
You do want to build for +Defense, yes, but it's critical to go for +Recharge, too. You want Overload up early and often. You want to live in Overload if you possibly can. In fact, it'd be nice if they'd nerf Overload and distribute some of it over the rest of the set to bring it up to par. Make Overload about as powerful as Willpoower's tier-9 defense, complete with recharge immunity, and take a portion of the +HPs, DDR and +Defense and sprinkle it throughout the rest of the set. Yeah, if I were Black Scorpion that's what I'd do. Kinetic/EA is pretty and pretty. |
That said, my FM/EnA brute doesn't have a real problem with Arachnos. It's just the 'shotgun' class BB Gun of Doom. At worst, nom a purple, hop in, chop the Tarantula Mistress into tiny, scorched bits, Energy Drain for whatever dents she inflicted, and...all done. Mop up the rest of the spawn as usual.
Also, my EnA has gotten majorly more rugged after slotting (of all unloved things) a Nerve Partial Radial Revamp. Her defenses are as high as 50.7% (no suppressed part to that), and even Psi is 25% from some Scirocco's sets and Impervium Armor, and 15% Resist from Impervium Armor.
Having a few percent worth of 'reserve' defense before I lose softcap has made it far, far harder for BB's of Doom to collapse my defenses...though Longbow still manages it from time to time!
My FM/EnA solos quite happily against +3/x8/+Boss mobs of Rikti, Freaks, Longbow (with occasional "Eeee, eeee, my Lethal defense is negative! Run, run!" events, but a 28% resist to S/L lets me /do/ that)), 5th Column, Malta...the only ones I don't like, the 'problem children' for my set was the Carnival with their Dark and Psi-heavy damage, though I can still run it, just at +1/x5/+Boss...oh darn. I'm only soloing 62.5% of what a FULL GROUP OF 8 gets issued, all by myself, of my most-hated enemy group...
Well, actually for 'Most Hated' there's Rularuu eyes and the Devouring Earth Quartzes with their massive ToHit buffs, and of course Nemesis Vengeance. I need to try myself against Rularuu, but DE and Nemesis can be handled with a bit of tactics.
Stupid-easymode? "Toggle Healing Flames and walk away to get a snack"-easy? Nope, but it's a very capable set with a bit of work, and /amazing/ (I think, YMMV and all) with some set-work and softcapping.
...oh yeah, and it REALLY is amazingly pretty!
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That's either the best analogy I've read, or the worst. I honestly can't tell.
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Originally Posted by Daemodand
Kissing your brother is worse than kissing your sister, you see. You sister is at least soft and lovely. Your brother...not so much. That's Energy Aura.
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I'll pretty much concur with this statement. lol
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Originally Posted by Tubby
That's either the best analogy I've read, or the worst. I honestly can't tell.
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Please buff energy aura!
I won't argue against buffing my fantastic toon more
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
not completely...
but having to sink a billion or so into IO's (kinetic combat comes to mind)
and the psi and toxic holes really hinder vs high level mobs
vs your standard s/l mobs you are hard to hurt...
but psi and such just chew you to bits...
(and fear terror hole...)
i've got my build to capped defenses to smash, lethal, energy
45%+
Saber Spectre Inv / EM Tanker on Guardian
Wraith Scimitar EM/ EA Brute on Guardian
Attack of the s00p3rphr34k ID 49744
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I have a multi billion build but no kinetic combat!|
Originally Posted by Saber_Spectre
not completely...
but having to sink a billion or so into IO's (kinetic combat comes to mind) and the psi and toxic holes really hinder vs high level mobs vs your standard s/l mobs you are hard to hurt... but psi and such just chew you to bits... (and fear terror hole...) i've got my build to capped defenses to smash, lethal, energy 45%+ |
Some thing that I use to patch the psi (and terror) hole is getting 25% ranged defense on top of my standard typed defenses. This is easily supplemented by my team or a small luck.
I can farm Malta with my fm/EA.
Every build has a weakness, and someone has to be the bottom.
But I think the gulf between EA and the rest of the sets is claimed to be on galactic scale, when it is hardly noticeable.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
It's difficult for other people to know what's going on when there are comments on energy aura saying that it's great, while others say that it is terrible. Both have a point though, at least by looking at the power set from their perspective.
On the other hand, I think it is not entirely fair to say that energy aura is not good even if you invest billions on it. In terms of optimization using IO, the problem with defense-based power sets like SR and EA is that their performance is pretty close to its highest point after defense soft-cap is reached. Since EA doesn't offer extra regeneration, nor hit points (outside of overload) to start with, and recharge doesn't boost survival significantly for EA, rare and ultra-rare IOs don't help EA as much as other power sets. Recharge mainly helps on higher dps. Higher hit points and regeneration are good, just that the IO bonuses by themselves are not good enough without something else to stack on. All these just imply that the performance of EA can be improved more efficiently by other means, not by investing many billions on IO (apart from the kinetic combat).
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Originally Posted by Twilight_Snow
It's difficult for other people to know what's going on when there are comments on energy aura saying that it's great, while others say that it is terrible. Both have a point though, at least by looking at the power set from their perspective.
On the other hand, I think it is not entirely fair to say that energy aura is not good even if you invest billions on it. In terms of optimization using IO, the problem with defense-based power sets like SR and EA is that their performance is pretty close to its highest point after defense soft-cap is reached. Since EA doesn't offer extra regeneration, nor hit points (outside of overload) to start with, and recharge doesn't boost survival significantly for EA, rare and ultra-rare IOs don't help EA as much as other power sets. Recharge mainly helps on higher dps. Higher hit points and regeneration are good, just that the IO bonuses by themselves are not good enough without something else to stack on. All these just imply that the performance of EA can be improved more efficiently by other means, not by investing many billions on IO (apart from the kinetic combat). |
Against a group of mobs I have energy drain down to a 15 second 1000 point HP full endurance return. Because of this I can support 9 toggles, darkest night And run fly if I wanted to...
Recharge sure does increase my survivability.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
I don't really think that your endurance usage is that high to require 15 seconds recharge, even with darkest night which I'm using as well. As far as endurance is concerned, more recharge doesn't really help much. For heals, recharges does help. Against 1 mob for example. I don't think it helps even with 1 second recharge. For a group of mobs as you mentioned, I agree that it helps. Practically, do you really need to heal that many times to beat a group of mobs?
It seems as that as it is neaither fish nor fowl you can't get any meaningful damage mitigation. You end up with low def and even lower resistance.
As I understand it when the game attacts it checks as to wich value (def or res) is higher and does it's calculations against that value. So either confirm this is correct or explain how my understanding is wrong. Then tell me how to make the best of it in either case.
Something witty and profound