SS/EA Build help

Miss_Judgement · 09-26-2011 02:38 AM

I've had an SS/EA brute forever but stopped playing it because EA was not so much fun. Now with the changes, it's a great set, but I'm having doubts about my build right now. So take a look, and I'd really appreciate suggestions on what to change about it - I mostly want to do well in itrials, TF's, and regular play. I would also like to keep room for growth, like adding a purple set to either KO Blow and/or Foot Stomp later on.

A couple things to note, I still have one slot to spend, and I'm using the lowest level available on the procs (performance shifter, Numinas, Miracle, Regenerative Tissue, Force Feedback)

Thanks for any advice!

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Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Super Strength
Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Jab

(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35
(3) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance: Level 35
(3) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge: Level 35
(5) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35

Level 1: Kinetic Shield

(A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
(5) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(7) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 50
(7) Red Fortune - Endurance: Level 50
(9) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge: Level 50

Level 2: Punch

(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35
(9) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance: Level 35
(11) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge: Level 35
(11) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35

Level 4: Haymaker

(A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
(13) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(13) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(15) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(15) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50

Level 6: Power Shield

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
(17) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50
(17) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
(50) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +3% Res (All): Level 50

Level 8: Knockout Blow

(A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
(19) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(19) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(21) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(21) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50

Level 10: Entropic Aura

(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50

Level 12: Hasten

(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
(23) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
(23) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50

Level 14: Super Speed

(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50

Level 16: Boxing

(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50

Level 18: Rage

(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff: Level 50
(25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge: Level 50
(25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance: Level 50
(27) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance: Level 50
(27) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance: Level 50
(29) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up: Level 50

Level 20: Energy Cloak

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
(29) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
(31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50

Level 22: Tough

(A) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance: Level 40
(31) Reactive Armor - Resistance: Level 40
(31) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
(33) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge: Level 40

Level 24: Weave

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
(33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
(33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50

Level 26: Dampening Field

(A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%: Level 30
(34) Aegis - Resistance: Level 50
(34) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance: Level 50
(34) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge: Level 50

Level 28: Energy Drain

(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
(36) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
(36) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50
(36) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge: Level 50

Level 30: Combat Jumping

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
(37) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
(37) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50

Level 32: Foot Stomp

(A) Obliteration - Damage: Level 50
(37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
(39) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(39) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(39) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(40) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge: Level 50

Level 35: Energize

(A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
(40) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(40) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge: Level 50
(42) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
(42) Doctored Wounds - Heal: Level 50
(42) Doctored Wounds - Recharge: Level 50

Level 38: Energy Protection

(A) Resist Damage IO: Level 50
(43) Resist Damage IO: Level 50

Level 41: Electrifying Fences

(A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
(43) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(43) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(45) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 50
(45) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50

Level 44: Ball Lightning

(A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
(45) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(46) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(46) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 50
(46) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50

Level 47: Super Jump

(A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50

Level 49: Overload

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50

------------
Level 1: Brawl

(A) Accuracy IO: Level 50

Level 1: Fury
Level 1: Sprint

(A) Celerity - +Stealth: Level 50

Level 2: Rest

(A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50

Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift

(A) Run Speed IO: Level 50

Level 2: Health

(A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 50
(48) Miracle - +Recovery: Level 40
(48) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration: Level 30

Level 2: Hurdle

(A) Jumping IO: Level 50

Level 2: Stamina

(A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 50
(48) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 50
(50) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50

------------
Set Bonus Totals:

7.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
7.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
7.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
7.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
7.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
7.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
7.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
7.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
13% Defense(Smashing)
13% Defense(Lethal)
7.38% Defense(Fire)
7.38% Defense(Cold)
5.5% Defense(Energy)
5.5% Defense(Negative)
3% Defense(Psionic)
9.88% Defense(Melee)
6.13% Defense(Ranged)
7.06% Defense(AoE)
4% Enhancement(Heal)
41% Enhancement(Accuracy)
75% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
10% FlySpeed
157.4 HP (10.5%) HitPoints
10% JumpHeight
10% JumpSpeed
MezResist(Immobilize) 13.2%
MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%
7.5% (0.13 End/sec) Recovery
40% (2.5 HP/sec) Regeneration
3% Resistance(Smashing)
8.67% Resistance(Fire)
8.67% Resistance(Cold)
3% Resistance(Energy)
3% Resistance(Negative)
4.26% Resistance(Toxic)
4.26% Resistance(Psionic)
3% Resistance(Lethal)
15% RunSpeed

Code:

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The freakin' Havoc Star! (And all seven clones.)
Plus a bunch of characters that nobody likes who will remain nameless.

Awesome Avatar by Fixer.

Gospel_NA · 09-26-2011 05:54 PM

I have a SS/EA as well and it has been sitting at level 39 for a long time, perhaps since a few months after the release of CoV.

The problem with the pairing of these two sets lies in the use and lack of use of rage. If you ignore rage, you lose quite an effective damage and accuracy booster. If you do use it you have to manage crashes which are slightly more managable when you're in the thick of it with EA now.

Energy drain, if well slotted for defense covers a little less than 6% of your crash defense debuff, if you fully saturate. You still need to use a purple insp or two to cover the rest of the defense loss.

The real issue with the defense loss is that once the defense is reduced there's little of anything to back it up. The resistance are middle of the road at best and the self heal won't sustain you through the duration of the crash.

Unless you plan on relying very heavily on inspirations I highly recommend another primary with EA.

It's doable, but unless you are doing it for concept or for the sheer heck of it, it's not a great combination.

Miss_Judgement · 09-26-2011 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gospel_NA

I have a SS/EA as well and it has been sitting at level 39 for a long time, perhaps since a few months after the release of CoV.

The problem with the pairing of these two sets lies in the use and lack of use of rage. If you ignore rage, you lose quite an effective damage and accuracy booster. If you do use it you have to manage crashes which are slightly more managable when you're in the thick of it with EA now.

Energy drain, if well slotted for defense covers a little less than 6% of your crash defense debuff, if you fully saturate. You still need to use a purple insp or two to cover the rest of the defense loss.

The real issue with the defense loss is that once the defense is reduced there's little of anything to back it up. The resistance are middle of the road at best and the self heal won't sustain you through the duration of the crash.

Unless you plan on relying very heavily on inspirations I highly recommend another primary with EA.

It's doable, but unless you are doing it for concept or for the sheer heck of it, it's not a great combination.

Sorry, I guess I should have explained a little better. The character is already 50 and I have already invested in a similar to the above build pretty heavily. Testing in S/L ambush farms at +3/x8, always stacking rage when it is up and with perma hasten, I have no trouble at all dealing - I use an orange insp during rage crashes and the occasional green when energize or rebirth isn't up. I won't be changing primary or secondary, I'm just asking for whatever minor tweaks are needed to 'finish' the build up right.

Thank you for your insights though!

The freakin' Havoc Star! (And all seven clones.)
Plus a bunch of characters that nobody likes who will remain nameless.

Awesome Avatar by Fixer.

Gospel_NA · 09-26-2011 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss_Judgement

Sorry, I guess I should have explained a little better. The character is already 50 and I have already invested in a similar to the above build pretty heavily. Testing in S/L ambush farms at +3/x8, always stacking rage when it is up and with perma hasten, I have no trouble at all dealing - I use an orange insp during rage crashes and the occasional green when energize or rebirth isn't up. I won't be changing primary or secondary, I'm just asking for whatever minor tweaks are needed to 'finish' the build up right.

Thank you for your insights though!

I see. In that case a good question to ask is "What exactly are you looking to change?" are you looking to add more defense, more recharge, more damage capability, more resists, regen, endurance recovery? What are you looking to do.

What other incarnate powers are you using other than Rebirth?

What I consider a tweak, may not be a tweak for you. Eventually, you reach a point that you have to trade off one thing for another.

Looking at your build you've hit some of the most important high points. First, being softcap defenses on most damage types, fairly low on negative energy, but assuming you use spiritual to get hasten to perma (Though I'm not certain if the recharge buff from entropic aura is consistant enough with force feedback proc in footstomp to make up the difference) you can have a rather long double stack duration on energy drain which covers NE.

I'd put a winter's gift: slow resistance in super jump. I don't imagine you need superjump toggled on all the time, so the endurance redux in there is easily expendable. The extra 20% recharge and slow resistance is pretty helpful and boosts your debuff resistance from both of those from 20% to 40%. Doubling your resistance to those debuffs without having to change anything signficant or give up a slot somewhere is a good upgrade.

If you take that slot you have left over and put it in health and add a Numina: Heal IO it will add 47% regen to your build. That brings your regen per second up from 18.34 to 20.7 normally (With accolades), from 34.44 to 36.8 with energize on, and if you use spiritual radial or paragon it brings your regen from 20.95 to 24.75 (With accolades) and 47.84 to 51.65 per second with energize on.

That's actually pretty good regen for a set that isn't focused around it.

I'm sure there is quite a bit you can do moving things around with that one free slot available, but that was one of the first noticable things I saw.

EarthWyrm · 09-26-2011 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gospel_NA

I have a SS/EA as well and it has been sitting at level 39 for a long time, perhaps since a few months after the release of CoV.

The problem with the pairing of these two sets lies in the use and lack of use of rage. If you ignore rage, you lose quite an effective damage and accuracy booster. If you do use it you have to manage crashes which are slightly more managable when you're in the thick of it with EA now.

There is nothing to manage once you have Rage to the point where it's perma. And it takes very little effort to get it perma (base 4 minute recharge for 2 minute duration means you need 3 recharge SO's plus maybe a little in the way of set bonuses to get there). If you can click Rage again before it wears off, you have the -damage debuff, but you don't have the -defense.

Quote:

Unless you plan on relying very heavily on inspirations I highly recommend another primary with EA.

I disagree. Once you're at the softcap, inspirations are used more for flavor than survival. DM has better synergy, but the knockdowns in SS actually work nicely as mitigation. I hit 50 with mine the summer after CoV went live, and he's far and away my most played alt. The number of hours I have on him is honestly embarrassing.

The sets play just fine together, once you understand how to manage the crash and make it a non-issue.

As to the OP's build...

I don't think the Shield Wall unique is worth the price for the 3% resistance it provides. Did you mean to include the other 3% defense unique instead?

If you could get 2 more slots into Energy Drain to slot it with 6 red fortunes, that would be nice. It would also let you use a slightly more end-friendly slotting of Footstomp than the 5 Oblits that you're using presumably for the recharge bonus. I like 4 Erads, Dam/End from Multistrike, and the FF proc. More +HP is good, but I'm not sure if you need the defense Erad offers. More never hurts.

The two slots for ED could come from Energy Protection and the sixth slot from Energize (probably dropping the heal/end) since the 6-slot bonus isn't that impressive in DW.

Anything beyond that gets into playstyle preferences. Overall, the build looks solid, so that's what I saw at a quick-ish glance.

My postings to this forum are not to be used as data in any research study without my express written consent.

Gospel_NA · 09-26-2011 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm

If you can click Rage again before it wears off, you have the -damage debuff, but you don't have the -defense.

I actually forgot about that change Castle made to the -defense portion. I only recalled the "Only affects self" change to the -damage.

Quote:

I don't think the Shield Wall unique is worth the price for the 3% resistance it provides. Did you mean to include the other 3% defense unique instead?

I had actually mistaken that for the gladiator 3% defense IO. I certainly recommend it if it's in their budget.

Miss_Judgement · 09-27-2011 05:28 AM

The other incarnates I am using are Ion, reactive, and spiritual (I think those are the names, lol. The lightning nuke, the fire proc, and the recharge alpha).

I actually really like the idea of using the bonus slot I already have on health - I have a very noticeable regen rate in play, way more than I had even thought about when building the character the first time. Energize is almost permanent, and I can actually use it before the endurance/regen part of the power ends when entropic aura has enough enemies in range. I think I will add that slot to health - is it worth it to go further and add another slot to put it at the ED cap? Probably not, but I thought I would ask!

Should I not bother with the slot in energy protection then, if I am not adding damage resist where I can? I could remove the slot and just use the 3% defense in the native slot instead. That adds more options, like finishing the Red Fortune in Kinetic Shield to get negative up over 40%.

I actually don't have the PVP IO built in yet, so I'm glad you pointed out that it's not exactly the right one! I actually have another LOTG in that slot right now, I mistakenly put the PVP one in as I was looking at where I could improve the build later. If I instead use the Glad's 3%, it seems like I'm going a little overboard on S/L/Fire/Cold/Energy defense. That opens up even more doors to move things around!

I actually really like Oblit's other bonuses, but I'll look at the other options there - I would like to sustain the amount of recharge I have in the build right now though if possible.

As far as Energy Drain goes, it seems to already always be up and double stacked - using a defense set here feels like overkill.

Energize's overslotting I actually really like, but maybe you're right about it being too much - I don't care about the set bonus, I was just looking at the heal values which are really over the top with the bonus from the alpha slot. I'll use that extra slot somewhere else, removing the heal/end!

That's a lot to think about, thank you for pointing all of that out! I'll see what I can come up with and post it up later.

Any other things that stick out as 'off'?

EDIT: Also, I don't seem to ever use Overload. Should I keep this power? There are places to put the other LOTG Recharge (like energy drain). Is there something else I could have here that would be more useful? Or should I keep overload 'just in case' ?

The freakin' Havoc Star! (And all seven clones.)
Plus a bunch of characters that nobody likes who will remain nameless.

Awesome Avatar by Fixer.

EarthWyrm · 09-27-2011 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss_Judgement

Should I not bother with the slot in energy protection then, if I am not adding damage resist where I can? I could remove the slot and just use the 3% defense in the native slot instead. That adds more options, like finishing the Red Fortune in Kinetic Shield to get negative up over 40%.

I'm of the school of thought that a well-built /EA (which yours qualifies as) gets hit little enough to not benefit as much from the resists. If you can get your negative up to the soft-cap as well, all the better.

Quote:

I actually really like Oblit's other bonuses, but I'll look at the other options there - I would like to sustain the amount of recharge I have in the build right now though if possible.

You do that if you go to 5 Red Fortunes in ED, though. As to Oblit's bonuses, the 3% damage is okay (if not always that noticeable on a Brute), but the Accuracy is not as needed when you've got the massive +To Hit from Rage. Eradication, on the other hand, for 3 slots gives you 3.125% en/neg defense (and Neg is your non-psi weakness, yes?), and for 4 slots gives you +2.25% more HP. I just get tichy if my big AoE damage power only has 18% end reduction in it to go with the FF proc. That can put a real hurting on your blue bar if you're not basically auto-firing energy drain.

Quote:

As far as Energy Drain goes, it seems to already always be up and double stacked - using a defense set here feels like overkill.

In Incarnate content, slotting it for more defense is useful IMO. If you aren't ever planning on doing incarnate content, you could probably harvest some slots from the power.

Quote:

EDIT: Also, I don't seem to ever use Overload. Should I keep this power? There are places to put the other LOTG Recharge (like energy drain). Is there something else I could have here that would be more useful? Or should I keep overload 'just in case' ?

It's a good panic button power, and one of my favorite Tier 9s in the game, since the crash can be managed with Energy Drain after some practice. I don't use it much, but when I need it I'm glad I have it.

I slot mine with 3 Numina's, but that's because after defense and recharge I built for +HP and +regen. Now we're getting into playstyle choices, though, so to answer your question: Yes, I think it's worth having, even if you just use it to mule a LotG global.

My postings to this forum are not to be used as data in any research study without my express written consent.