NRG Aura! You Smexy Beast!....Sort of?

Ok. So...it hit me. I don't have a self righteous, over zealous demi-goddess, granted powers by a real goddess, who defends purity and rides a magical unicorn!

Im like...How did I miss that! How could I not have one!

So...I made one!

So, for a celestial theme, I felt it should be a scrapper. Dual Blades is elegant, with flowing movements and giant Valkyrie Blades to finish the look. But what about the secondary. Well...Energy Aura of course! It's a glowing pale shimmering light, seeping from my toons pours because....being so pure and good, her own inner light just can't be contained.

Awesome! Now I have my female, human, level 2 Paladin, who dual wields +1 swords, and is wearing a +2 metal bra of dexterity and battle panties +4 against perversion. (Swords and Barbarian Victoria Secret Armor scales upon leveling)

Boom...Im sailing through things. Then suddenly my other shields are now available. Awesome! Now Ill really be celestial!

Nope! Not so much! My avatar is now a gian't blob of golden WTF! (Thats not weekly Task Force...for those wondering) Just a giant golden colored pulsating blob! A BLOB with feet, part of a head, and swords!

I guess what Im saying is, that EA would be Super-Coolrific if I could turn off at least the tier 3 shield...which is super by the way and I love it! Except for the giant blob I have become!

So, my suggestion is to give the option to turn off some of the effects!

Otherwise...Im pretty happy with it.

Dark Armor had the same problem. Hopefully they'll include a "minimal FX" option in the next patch.

Is this a pony thread?

Just roll Super Reflexes, Invulnerability or Willpower and be done with it. Those can all be made 100% effects free.

WARNING: I bold names.

To make the EA shields have less of a visual effect do one of the following:

1) Select bright shields, then the darkest version of the color you want
2) Select dark shields and then the brightest version of the color you want

Either one of those choices will reduce the impact of any of the 'aura' type shields considerably. You will probably only have to do it with entropic aura - its the worst offender of the set.

Of course, even if you do that you can't take energy cloak without fading out completely. They definitely need to add minimal FX settings to all the shields and a setting similar to the one cloak of darkness gets to energy cloak.

Ok...So now I need help beyond being pretty.

Currently my toon is level 18. I know thats not high, and I know that improvements can be made, but I am sort of at a loss when it comes to my endurance. I am seriously getting exhausted....and I mean exhausted!!

I looked over some of the guides and Im still unsure of where I am really going wrong.

My Stamina is currently slotted at 3. Ill add maybe 1 more to the mix the next level or so.

It seems as though I cannot run my second toggle "Power Shield" and complete a decent attack chain. Kinetic shield and Entropic Shield can run ok and I manage my toggles by viewing what type of enemy Ill be fighting, so I switch things on and off as appropriate.

But...

Does anyone have a solid solution on how to mitigate some of the end loss I am suffering.

I have paired it with dual blades and currently just have accuracy and some damage enchancers in my attacks. My shields are only 3 slotted right now. 2 defense and 1 end reducer. All except Entropy shield which is just 1 end reducer.

Does the end for this defense set get better by chance?

Again I am lower level, but I have not had to much issues with other toons and since the only other melee toon I have ever played was a Dark Armor Stalker, I know about end drain to a certain extent.

any tips or suggestions?

First off, don't add any more slots to Stamina - after you hit level 22 and can slot SO's any slots beyond the third will be mostly wasted due to ED. There is an exception to this I will mention later.

Have you slotted your attacks for end reduction? They are the heaviest end users in a fight - the shields are constant but low drain, they reduce your end recovery more than they actually reduce your end bar. Even 1 DO worth of slotting in each attack makes a HUGE difference. If you don't want to give up damage, try finding some L20+ damage/end reduction IO's in the market - bonesnap, bruising blow and pounding slugfest IO sets all go down to L15 and a level 20 dual IO will give you 16% enhancement to each area it affects.

There are a couple of other IO's you can slot to help as well. Miracle +recovery IO's start at L20 - they are horribly expensive on the market but if you run the new signature story arc twice and take the hero merit reward each time you can buy one in fort trident. Craft it, stick it in health and it will give you a nice boost to end recovery. The second IO option is a performance shifter +end proc. It is not as expensive on the market as a miracle - but it also isn't usually worth buying with merits, so it might take a while to get. This is the exception to the 3 slot rule in Stamina - you can put this in a 4th slot.

However, in the long run slotting at least some end reduction in your attacks is going to make the biggest difference.

If you're a brute slot just for acc and endred in your attacks until SOs at least. Or till 28 when you get energy drain and no more endurance problems.

It's definitely a prioritization of slots when it comes to Scrappers. With Brutes, it's pretty easy to just stick with accuracy, end redux and recharge (or what I often do, spread more slots to mitigation/toggles/utility and leave attacks 3-4 slotted until the mid 20s). For Scrappers, it can be a bit tougher since all that stuff is important and you have more powers you want to slot (even with Stalkers, slotting Hide isn't a priority and it's something you have to get and Placate is often an early choice giving more room for slots).

I say, if you're running out of endurance before you run out of HP, you put too many slots in your toggle defenses and not enough in your attacks. If you're not killing foes fast enough before they can kill you, you need more damage slotted in your attacks. *THEN*, if you have your attacks 3 slotted for dmg and still not killing fast enough, you either need better/more slots in your shields or to lower your difficulty.

So, to recap (my opinion, and this generally goes for Stalkers too):

-Run out of endurance = slot more in attacks and less in defense.
-Not killing fast enough = more dmg/acc in attacks
-Still not killing fast enough = slot defenses more
-Not enough slots for defenses yet or still dying = lower difficulty

This is all really solid information.

Thanks. Im hoping it helps.

Thank goodness for my 2 respecs!