Should I make an Energy Aura brute now?

So, should I make an energy aura brute now? Should I wait for I21?

People say EA is lame (albeit strong and pretty when combined with War Mace). Is it actually lame, or are they just whiners?

If you want one, make one. Your subs.

Energy Aura should be significantly better after the coming changes, but it plays just fine now. It is demonstrably subpar compared to other Brute secondaries, yes, but subpar does not mean unplayable. I really cannot tell you whether or not you should make one because I do not know what sort of player you are or what you enjoy.

It boils down to what New Dawn said above. If you want one, make one. Decide for yourself. I have one and I like him, and I look forward to seeing how he plays once the changes go into effect.

I rolled one as soon as I heard about the changes a few weeks ago. I figure by the time I get to the powers that are being changed, the changes will have already happened.

Might be rolling a Spines/EA scrapper as well. Need to figure out which of my seldom played lowbies are getting the axe.

I made a claws/EA brute and I've been fairly surprised at his survivability once I got SOs (I have the steadfast +3% def, weave, combat jumping in addition to /EA). One small purple to softcap him to S/L, very high e/n/f/c defenses to start off with. The heal in energy drain is unimpresive, but it helps. If it's getting a touch better with Freedom, then it should be just fine as a secondary from where I sit.

I don't find it lame. The non surpressing stealth is nifty, survivability is fine (not wonderful but fine). I agree with others who say it's "subpar". But it's not "unplayable" or "horrible". If you have a slot, make one. Play it a bit, play something else for a bit, then come back to it. Give it until at least level 22 (for SOs) or 25 (for Energy Cloak and some more slots).

I just made one this weekend, as a matter of fact. At the casual rate I level my soloing characters, I'll certainly be a lower level than the altered powers by the time i21 comes out (15 now).

This is my first /EA so I can't actually answer "is it lame" but on paper, the build I made looks sweet, capping s/l/e in the early-mid 30s (whenever I actually slot Kin Combats) and eventually caps all but psi. So, soft-capped def, a quick recharging heal, an endurance tool and as a bonus, a t9 that's actually regarded as helpful, with its +HP. So it doesn't sound lame to me.

I say roll one up. I have a WM/EA from when the strong and pretty thread started. He easily can solo +1/x8 now and after respeccing on test I have upped that to +2/x8, so definitely nothing wrong with the set.

I really enjoy my DM/EA Brute (I've had him since CoV Launch). He's softcapped against everything except Psi & Negative (Though only by a couple of % for the latter) and DM's -ToHit helps with that anyway.

I imagine he'll need a fairly heavy respec for i21 what with the +Def and +Rech buffs coming his way, but that can only be a good thing

[QUOTE=seebs;3827246]So, should I make an energy aura brute now?/QUOTE]

Yes.

The people whining, to use your term, are paying far too much attention to numbers and not enough to playing the game, IMHO. As far as survivability, I rolled one up as my first villain on COV launch, was my first villain 50, on SOs, and I was still fairly survivable - if I wasn't the last one standing on a team, I was the last one to have gone down (or had done something like turned off a toggle before something exploded.) Though I generally also played like a "heavy stalker" (and got yelled at for being a "stalker" in PVP zones more often than not.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

I agree with Bill that not playing EA now because you are waiting for the buffs is a bad reason - however, there are a number of good reasons to put off starting new characters for a bit:

1) You will be able to start any character but EAT's on any side you want - so you don't have to play a brute to L20 and then spend 4 days running rogue/hero tips to get to blueside if thats what you want, or start in preatoria and work your way to 20.
2) The new sewer trial (Death from Below) gives some sweet bonuses that make the low level experience much more pleasant - you can get a bonus to hit, damage, end recovery and def (which is not huge - but for a def based character like EA, helps a lot). The bonuses don't last past L20/21, so are no good if you are already leveled up.
3) Whatever your level of Vet rewards now, you will be at least slightly ahead with freedom, if not a lot. I find most of the vet rewards pay off in the lower levels, so this can be a big thing or nothing at all.

The new low level experience is a lot smoother with a lot better choices, so if you are in no hurry to start a new character, waiting might not hurt. If you are looking for a new alt right now though, by all means roll an EA brute - it will be a fun ride that will get even better with i21.

FWIW, I made the character just to see how it played, might reroll though. We'll see.