FF/Elec Returning player

Hi All,

Returning after a long long break, however only played for about 6 months as a subscriber previously so what little knowledge I do have is probably outdated now.

I have an FF/Elec I'd like to dust off and was after any tips/build guides and some general advice as to what I can expect to solo.

How does FF/Elec compare to other primaries and secondaries after all this time?

I mainly choose those sets more as design concept than anything else. Is it a good combo?

I will be dropping down to premium after this month so anything VIP I won't have access to. Also I don't have a great deal of inf therefore an SO build to start would be a great help.

If anyone could offer any advice/guides it would be much appreciated, I did look but all the guides do seem to be really old.

Thanks!

Kaes

It's okay. FF is fun primary to level, esp if you like teaming. It may be a little redundant in the megabuild land most of the regular posters inhabit, but no, it's not useless even in a fully IO'd out team, just not as good as it is while levelling.

FF (and other powersets with "small bubble" type powers) were buffed recently by making all such powers AoE clicks, now applying small bubless is mich less of a tedious chore.

Elec... Well, I have a slight prejudice against the set, and never really played it to high levels, so I might be not the best person to comment on its strengths and optimal strategies. But it's a blast, it has attacks and causes damage, so it can't be all bad choice too.

You may want to read this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=275643 It's about FF/Beam but there's a lot in it that will apply to any FFer.

And yes, FF/anything can work pretty well without any IOs. No need for global recharge or defence from sets. (well, defence would have been nice, but you can live without it and/or compensate by picking pool and epics.) and lots of slots and power picks you can free by not taking things like cage or repel powers.

If you do go the soft-capping route for defense from powers and sets, it's actually rather easy (and surprisingly cheap) to do so.

If you're back on VIP, go for Cardiac with your Alpha slot and pretty much never have to worry about Endurance again.

He's a modification of my FF/Archery for FF/Elec. Just to give you an idea.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Force Field
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Blast
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Personal Force Field -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(3), Ksmt-ToHit+:30(3)
Level 1: Charged Bolts -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(9)
Level 2: Lightning Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(13)
Level 4: Ball Lightning -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(15), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:50(15), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng:50(17), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(17), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng:50(19)
Level 6: Deflection Shield -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(19), Krma-ResKB:30(21)
Level 8: Insulation Shield -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(21), Krma-ResKB:30(23)
Level 10: Short Circuit -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(23), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(25), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(25), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(27)
Level 12: Dispersion Bubble -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(29), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31)
Level 14: Boxing -- Dsrnt-I:50(A)
Level 16: Aim -- GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg:50(31), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(31), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:50(33)
Level 18: Repulsion Field -- FrcFbk-Dmg/KB:50(A), FrcFbk-Acc/KB:50(33), FrcFbk-Rchg/KB:50(33), FrcFbk-Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), FrcFbk-Dmg/EndRdx/KB:50(34), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(34)
Level 20: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 22: Weave -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(36), DefBuff-I:50(36)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(37), DefBuff-I:50(39)
Level 26: Repulsion Bomb -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng:50(40), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng:50(40)
Level 28: Tesla Cage -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(36), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(42), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42)
Level 30: Hover -- DefBuff-I:50(A), DefBuff-I:50(42), DefBuff-I:50(43)
Level 32: Force Bubble -- EndRdx-I:50(A), EndRdx-I:50(43)
Level 35: Fly -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 38: Thunderous Blast -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng:50(45), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng:50(46)
Level 41: Thunder Strike -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(46), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(46), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(48)
Level 44: Charged Armor -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 47: Power Sink -- P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(48)
Level 49: Recall Friend -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I:50(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Heal-I:50(48), Heal-I:50(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), EndMod-I:50(50), EndMod-I:50(50)

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Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Thanks for all the replies, didn't get much chance to try anything out last night yet.

From what I gather then 'FF' isn't so great in teams due to lots of people already softcapping defense. With that in mind, I'd rather have a much more 'solo' orientated build with the main shields available for when I do team.

Also I thought I read somewhere that repulsion field was kind of 'meh' and just drains a huge amount of end when force bubble does a much better job?

Any suggestions on what I would be able to solo/farm, in terms of getting high enough self defense? Or is kill speed with /Elec really going to be my down fall?

FF is always beneficial to a team, unless you are running AE farms that are tailor crafted to have nothing of any real threat to your team. Massive extra Def helps offset def debuff, and helps (albeit, slightly) enemies that have insane accuracy bonuses. Also, many people lack Toxic resists, and -end resistance, and you can provide those. Also, you provide a broad area of mez protection. Granted, versus a lot of content, the team might not need some of the exotic protections you provide, and that's fine. Build to attack in the meanwhile.

If you use your team bubbles (the 2 you can't give yourself) to pick up some set bonuses, you'll most likely end up with plenty team protection anyhow, and then just focus on personal defense, and offense. A large part of your personal defense will come from Dispersion Bubble, and so heavy slotting on that helps the team anyhow.

I think it's possible to get pretty insane defensive numbers (including some pretty decent resistances) so your bottleneck solo will be kill speed and maybe in some cases some types of mez and end drain (which you can't give yourself resistance to). For the most part, you're going to be relying on positional defenses, tho, so if those are high enough, it'll only be a few types of enemies that are a pain.

In my opinion, calling repulsion field 'meh' is a vary charitable evaluation. There are a few people that have found situational uses for it. But myself, even if I grant those situation uses are fairly common (which is debatable) I'd still not consider the power a better choice than a lot of other things that you could pick. Vary rare is the alt where I don't wish I had another power pick or two. (Granted, even rarer is the alt where I didn't wish I have more *slots* but that's another story.) And yes, it drains a lot of end. It's an AoE, and unlike other AoEs, it's endurance cost goes up per enemy affected by it. So, in the instances where it is most pressing to be tempted to use it, it's most likely to very quickly eat up your blue stuff. I'm not sure I'd want it even is it had a flat end cost, but it would be a LOT more tempting a power choice. Of course, that is just my opinion, and I'm sure we'll here a few people chime in with the opposite opinion soon, so you'll have to choose for yourself and see what you think. Maybe it'll work for you and your play style.

I do like force bubble, situationally. It's often quite helpful solo, but takes a lot more finesse and practice to use well on teams. And, a lot of the time, the best way to use it on a team is to leave it off. Persoanlly, I'd take it, use it solo to your hearts content, and get used to how it affects the enemies, and how you can herd them up, or bunch them in different ways, and then not use it on teams at first. When teaming with friends or people you know, let them know you wanna experiment with it, and if they're cool with that (and friends should be) use it as you see best, and get feedback. PUG teams that dislike it will often only focus on the negative effects and not give ya good feedback on what they found helpful. If you get any feedback at all. Friends teams will tell ya what you did with it that was good, and what was a pain in the backside.

Elec seems to me a tad light on damage, and potentially high on mitigation, if built to sap. Your primary is quite durable, too, so you will likely struggle on damage output more than survivability.. I'd say you could solo a lot more than you'd want to try to solo, because who wants to spend 3 hours per mission. I honestly can't ever seeing this being a farming alt, but I could see +1/x6 maybe being doable in not too much time... Assuming you build for damage output form the elec, and not for sapping.

For generally solo survivability, I'd say hitting the 30s in positional defenses is a good start. If you can't get all 3 positions, I'd be willing to see a lesser value for melee, as you can Force Bubble, or KB to keep melee at bay. Truthfully, I don't think getting on to the 40s or even capped to ranged and AoE should be TOO tough, but it's been a while since I worked on my FFer.

And, you always have PFF to fall back on, so....