Elec/Shield Critique

Hiya folks,

Been playing this character for a good amount of time and decided to pull his build up. He's got a lot of money invested in him, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best he can be. Which is what I want, isn't that all anyone wants?

Goal here was recharge and endurance, with some damage of course. Plays great, but always looking for improvement.
Anyone have any input?

Thanks in advance.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.94
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Advent Charge: Level 50 Technology Brute
Primary Power Set: Electrical Melee
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Havoc Punch

• (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance
• (3) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge
• (5) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (5) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (7) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (11) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/Endurance
• (13) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%

• (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
• (9) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
• (11) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
• (29) Red Fortune - Defense
• (40) Red Fortune - Endurance
• (40) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge

• (A) Miracle - +Recovery
• (13) Miracle - Heal
• (15) Miracle - Heal/Endurance

• (A) Empty

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (17) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (17) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (19) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (19) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (21) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (21) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (23) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (31) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (31) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (43) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
• (23) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
• (25) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (25) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (31) Hecatomb - Damage

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) HamiO:Membrane Exposure

• (A) Defense Buff IO

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
• (29) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
• (50) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
• (34) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
• (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
• (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
• (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
• (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (37) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed

• (A) Armageddon - Damage
• (33) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge
• (33) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (33) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge
• (34) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance
• (34) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (37) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed

• (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (42) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (42) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (43) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (46) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
• (48) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

• (A) Ragnarok - Damage
• (45) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
• (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
• (46) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
• (46) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown

• (A) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance
• (48) Titanium Coating - Resistance
• (48) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (50) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

• (A) Run Speed IO

• (A) Jumping IO

• (A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance
• (15) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
• (43) Numina's Convalescence - Heal

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
• (27) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
• (27) Performance Shifter - EndMod
• (42) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy

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As an Elec/SD Brute, your best AoEs (Shield Charge and Lightning Rod) are on the pet damage cap of 250%, if I remember correctly. Brute base damage is lower than Tankers and Scrappers due to Fury, so your two big AoEs won't hit as hard as a buffed Tanker and will pale in comparison to a buffed Scrapper. If you don't mind those flaws and wish to continue to invest in your character, I will offer my advice.

You should have 45% defense to all vectors. Your melee defense is too high and your ranged and AoE are short of the soft cap. Going past 45% defense does nothing in most situations. Changing your Touch of Death set to Mako's and 3-slotting Aegis in Tough will help without moving slots around, but you really need to rework the entire build.

Active Defense needs 3 Membranes if you want to reach 90% Defense Debuff Resistance. You should also take Active Defense as early as possible in case you exemplar for a TF.

Phalanx Fighting should NOT be set to allies in range and should not have a defense enhancement. A Luck of the Gambler or Kismet 6% to-hit is all you need in it. You should not be depending on teammates to soft-cap a Shield Defense character. Phalanx Fighting's 3.75% defense granted with no allies in range is unenhanceable.

Hasten should have 2-3 recharge enhancements if you want to keep it on permanently.

Enhancing the resistance in True Grit and Deflection helps some, but doesn't need to be a top priority.

Weave should be taken as early as possible so you can stack your defense sooner.

Assault is not a useful toggle for a Brute. Damage bonuses add to each other, including Fury's damage bonus. The extra damage from Assault will hardly be noticeable.



It would be a very good idea to look at other Shield Defense builds on the Brute and Scrapper forums so you can get an idea of how others are reaching the soft-cap and fitting recharge in at the same time. They don't have to be Elec/SD to understand the slotting of SD better.

In the future, please don't use long forum export. It takes up a lot of space on the page and isn't necessary. Short forum export or just the data chunk is fine.

Syntax,

The character has been around for years, he won't be switching archtypes anytime soon. =)

To defend myself slighty, while still following your advice...
--- Switching out "Touch of Death" for "Mako's Bite" and three-slotting "Aegis" in "Tough" doesn't seem to affect the buld much in terms of defense that I could tell in Mids, It does make me forfiet a bit of recharge though, which is one of the things I want high. Is there another way to reach the 45% cap you were suggesting?

--- I don't feel slotting active defense is necessary, as when I use it, I rarely, if ever get held, mezzed, confused, etc. And I do agree it could probably be picked sooner, It was a power I hadn't given much thought to until I began using it.

--- I'm a bit confused with your attack on Phalanx Fighting, I don't have It slotted for anything. I just threw a defense IO in it to have something there. It's an auto power and I don't think all my defense depends on it, and even if it did, He's a team player, so it's not the end of the world. But putting a "luck of the gambler" would be a good idea, I must have missed it earlier. Could you clarify your position a bit?

--- Hasten is almost perma- without being slotted, so I feel the slots could be better delagated elsewhere. But I'll play around with it for sure, see the numbers.

--- The powers you suggested to take earlier (Weave, Active Defense) will also be something to look into, see what I have to sacrifice to get them earlier.

--- Assault was a power to take over Manuevers. 15-18% damage boost I thought was more effective than a 2% defense boost, thoughts on that decision?

And the long-post is helpful for people at work who don't have access to Mids' and still want to help out. =)

Thanks.

Small numbers make a big difference. Here's how:

Suppose you have 45% defense. Base to-hit is 50% and the minimum to-hit is 5%, so we aim for 45% defense. That makes it so an even-con minion will have a 5% chance to hit you. Higher level and higher ranked foes will have a higher chance to hit you but those are almost always accuracy modifiers and more defense won't help. So if you're fighting a large pack of minions and they would do an average of 1000 damage to a character with no defense in 10 seconds, you would take an average of 50 damage because of your 45% defense only allowing 5% of the hits to get through.

Now, lets suppose you only have 40% defense. Those same minions will now hit you 10% of the time and you take an average of 100 damage instead of 50. That is double the damage, but only a 5% difference in defense. At higher levels and against AV's, it is very important to have soft-capped defenses so that you aren't taking significantly more damage than you should be.

If you still don't understand why 45% defense is important, try reading Arcana's Guide to Defense. It explains defense, accuracy, and to-hit very thoroughly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by obscureent --- Switching out "Touch of Death" for "Mako's Bite" and three-slotting "Aegis" in "Tough" doesn't seem to affect the buld much in terms of defense that I could tell in Mids, It does make me forfiet a bit of recharge though, which is one of the things I want high. Is there another way to reach the 45% cap you were suggesting?

I'm not seeing how either of those suggestions make you forfeit recharge bonus as Touch of Death and Titanium Coating do not have recharge bonus. The "small" defense bonus gained is actually quite large as I pointed out above.

Quote:

--- I don't feel slotting active defense is necessary, as when I use it, I rarely, if ever get held, mezzed, confused, etc. And I do agree it could probably be picked sooner, It was a power I hadn't given much thought to until I began using it.

The slotting suggestion was for you to increase your Defense Debuff Resistance. Have you fought critters that debuff defenses? Maybe you aren't paying attention to it, but Cimeroreans debuff a TON of defense and will hit you hard if you don't have your defense debuff resistance as high as you can get it. Double-stacking Active Defense with 3 Membranes in it is the easiest way to almost completely negate defense debuffs.

Quote:

--- I'm a bit confused with your attack on Phalanx Fighting, I don't have It slotted for anything. I just threw a defense IO in it to have something there. It's an auto power and I don't think all my defense depends on it, and even if it did, He's a team player, so it's not the end of the world. But putting a "luck of the gambler" would be a good idea, I must have missed it earlier. Could you clarify your position a bit?

In Mids', right-click on the Phalanx Fighting power. Now, look at the Info tab on the left side. See that "Allies" slider? You have it set to 1, which means you expect 1 ally to be in range to increase your defenses. Set it to 0 so your defense will show what it really is when nobody is near you, like in a farming situation.

Quote:

--- Hasten is almost perma- without being slotted, so I feel the slots could be better delagated elsewhere. But I'll play around with it for sure, see the numbers.

Perma-Hasten usually allows you to run the top DPS attack chain, and ensures your powers always recharge at the same rate. Doing the best attack chain possible ensures things die as fast as possible. You want to be efficient at your job, right? Getting Hasten's down-time to less than 10 seconds is much better than having a 30+ second downtime that you appear to have.

Quote:

--- Assault was a power to take over Manuevers. 15-18% damage boost I thought was more effective than a 2% defense boost, thoughts on that decision?

Fury gives you about 150% damage bonus, depending on how high you can get it. Powers can be enhanced for about 95% more damage bonus. This means a 100 damage attack will do 242.5 damage. Adding Assault's 10.5% damage bonus brings that up to 253 damage, which is really a 4.3% increase in overall damage, depending on Fury levels. For the endurance spent to run Assault, it usually isn't worth it. Tactics is also not necessary because you can obtain a capped hit chance of 95% without it.

Quote:

And the long-post is helpful for people at work who don't have access to Mids' and still want to help out. =)

Suggesting a change to a build without being able to see how it affects the numbers produced by Mids' is very difficult. It is not too difficult for builds involving only single-origin enhancements, but invention sets make it far too time-consuming to manually calculate a change in the sets. Short forum export shows enough that people can copy the build if they don't have Mids'.