Electricity BLast

This is like 1 set I never see at all. I asked about it in help chat and everyone basically told me to avoid. Anyone actually use this set before. Can it get decent dmg when IO'd enough or is it just a sap gimmick

You'll find there are a number of people who absolutely love Electric/Electric Blasters (actually, Elec/Elec/Elec for the E3 Blaster)... And I am absolutely one of them.
I have not played Electric Blast with any other powerset combo, but I enjoy my E3 Blaster so much, it is hard to contain myself when I start talking about it!

I generally play my E3 Blaptroller all the time, so it's hard for me to give feedback as to how it compares to other blasters, but I find the damage more than adequate, the control (I have three holds) amazing, the sapping wonderful (Short Circuit and Power Sink and everyone is out of End and ready for me to finish them off), the melee from Electric Manipulation is superb...
The AoE is actually quite good (if not better)...
I use the first two blasts quite a lot, even in melee range (where I enjoy being).

I love the versatility.
That is what it has over pure raw damage, I'm sure. However, it is STILL a Blaster set and it still brings the damage.
I can snipe, I can shoot holds from distance, I can leap in and drain endurance and punch and blast, I can toss ball of lightning for some nice AoE damage (along with Lightning Field, Short Circuit and Static Discharge... Thunder Strike for a tiny bit of splash damage and mitigation)...
And Voltanic Sentinel is actually quite a potent increase to your damage over time, if you're concerned about such things.
I've certainly found activating that before bigger opponents makes things go by just that much quicker.

Oh, and it is very nice to use the Thunderous Blast nuke, pop a small blue, Power Sink a survivor (or someone from the next group) and have all my endurance back.

I've been 50 for a long while, but I thoroughly enjoyed the powers all throughout leveling.

To top it off... As great as all of that is, I happen to think it looks and sounds fantastic as well.
Just my opinions, but I am extremely happy with these opinions!

If any of this sounds fun to you... go for it!

ZAP ZAP!!


EDIT:
A common complaint about Electric Blast is that it is lackluster without its companion secondary. That may be true... but I do know that the flipside of that is that it is wonderful with its companion secondary!

I've played it on a Time/Elec Defender (which I love) and I've also encountered several very good Electricity Blasters in game.

In general I would say Electricity is a decent, middle of the road set. It's not as powerful as Fire Blast (but then nothing is) but it's damage is not rock bottom. That being said I would say that it is better on Defenders or Corruptors since it does have a few major drawbacks for Blasters. These aren't deal breakers but they do force a play-style not all Blasters are comfortable with.

First it's AoE damage is all damage over time (except for the nuke). Now the total time required is not long so on teams or when playing as a Defender/Corruptor it isn't really an issue but it's more problematic for a solo blaster. The DoT means that you can't rely on buffing damage and killing minions with a few quick AoEs, even if you deal enough damage to kill the minions (using Build Up for example) they will still have time to get off a couple of attacks.

Secondly Short Circuit (which is a good chunk of your AoE damage plus your major sapping tool) is PBAoE which means you are almost forced into playing as a Blapper. While this can work (especially with a good choice of secondary) it's not a role all players enjoy.

Thirdly Voltaic Sentinel replaces the normal 3rd single target attack. In terms of total damage dealt this isn't the end of the world but it does deny you the ability to really concentrate damage which, again, can hurt Blasters (who need to take specific foes down quickly).

This can be offset with a good choice of secondary. Electricity Manipulation is a popular combo thematically and Power Sink + Short Circuit allows you to fully sap enemies quickly without needing to wait for Short Circuit to recharge. Dark and Ice both offer some tools to help you survive in melee range as well as some hard hitting melee attacks to make up for the lack of single target in Electricity. Energy and Fire aren't as good on the survival front but do offer more melee power. Devices and Mental I'm not really sure about.

I love Elec Blast, I have a Elec/Time Corr, Elec/Dark, Elec/Fire Blaster and they are teh beast! A lot of people look for PBaoe sets and the first thing they see is Fire, Rad or DP but they never give Elec a chance. Ball of lightning recharges super fast and it has nummy dot! With this set I would recommend focusing on damage and if something is lucky enough to survive your onslaught then it's to bad b/c now they are out of end .

If you want a sick PBAOE build that has enough AOE to Rival a Rad/Fire (Rad.fire has the most area damaging attacks in the game) I would go Elec/Fire.

Turn Tesla Cage into a T3 blast. Set fixed.

Sure, if you also cut the cast time down and make the animation way less stupid.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

Edited to address:

Quote:

You can take the third hold away from my Elec^3's cold dead hands, sir.

I always assume that when people say "Turn it into a tier 3 blast", they mean like Cosmic Burst, it's estranged cousin, who also has a 100% reliable mag 3 mez packed into it, along with it dealing repsectable damage. I know I wouldn't advocate taking the hold out of this power, or reducing it in any way. Because my own Electric Blast users (A Kinetic defender and a Electric/Fire blaster) lean on it heavily to solo well. In fact, avoiding nerfing the hold-ability of Tesla Cage is part of why this next bit is so important:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talen Lee Sure, if you also cut the cast time down and make the animation way less stupid.

But this, this is important, and deserves stressing. I find my own Elec/Fire blaster favoring Char as a hold because all that extra "Hands up time" is potentially deadly, and further, that longish animation has ramifications for damage powers that are even further reaching.

Tesla Cage currently has the same recharge as, and 0.5% more mez duration than Cosmic Burst, with roughly 5% longer animation.

If nothing but the damage and endurance costs were changed, it would be changed to a scale 2 attack like Power Burst and Cosmic Burst, but possibly the longest animating one of all, aside from perhaps Shout: It would have less DPA than the other 2 electric blasts, Charged Bolts and Lightning Bolt, making it an inferior addition to an already full attack chain, compared to most of the melee options existing in blaster secondaries.

Mind you, this buff wouldn't be completely useless: It would round out ranged attack based chains for situations where closing to melee is impractical, or would take longer than simply standing and firing. Devices users, of course, would benefit greatly, as would people who prefer to stay ranged focused and build that way.

But if we really wanna "Buff Electricity's Damage" in the most broad case, without shortening that animation we would have to compromise on it's mezzing capabilities: To get the DPA up higher than the Tier-1 and 2 blasts, we'd need to push Tesla Cage's damage and recharge up into a higher bracket, such as that occupied by Bitter Ice Blast, which would make Tesla Cage edge out Charged Bolts on DPA, or perhaps something more extreme, such as Bone Smasher? Though this is getting into dangerous territory, as you approach snipe level damage from a "normal" blast, you begin to raise the question of "why snipe at all", never mind the fact that the rest of the game already poses this question too often as it is.

The longer recharge is not something that will be too easy to sell to people who currently count on the power as a tool to enable soloing (their hands really would be cold and dead), and have it slotted for holding. And thus, it would be a hard sell to the developers (cottages abound).

So getting that animation time cut down in conjunction with a damage buff, even by a fraction of a second, is critical. Because it gets us the meaningfully higher DPA, without hampering it's usability as a mez by trying to bump up it's damage scale by increasing its recharge.

People have gotten buffs to SCRAPPER damage sets based on similar logic, and they're SCRAPPERS for crying out loud, I don't see why blasters couldn't follow suit.

Both Executioner's Shot and Shout have longer animations than Tesla Cage (By 0.4 and 0.5seconds respectively).

Tesla Cage's animation really isn't that long, People are just spoiled by Blaze/BiB.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

It falls far behind Fire in both single-target and AoE damage and the things you get in exchange for the loss aren't good enough compensation.

It's not energy blast levels of terrible, but it has problems.

Electric's fun. Though I like the other idea I've heard floating around from time to time - give volt sentinel the "chaining" mechanic.

Heck, given how low damage the set can feel (especially on a defender,) I wouldn't mind seeing it passed on to 1-2 other things, too. (Imagine short circuit with chaining.)

Chain Induction is one of my most favorite powers in this game.

Electric Blast is a good set, and it's really more fun if you build for the sapper playstyle. You don't have to, but it seems a shame, when it's most of the way there on its own already. I love my E^3 Blaster... he has three holds to nail things in place, drains things to inability, and has solid AOE and ST damage.

Don't believe anyone that says any blast set is too weak. They're just all different. The main thing to worry about is if you LIKE the difference. I've played almost all of them, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. My liking of their style is the thing that really matters.

Oh, and the nuke is great fun. The foes writhe for awhile and collapse, hehe. I do wish they'd make all nukes crashless at some point, but I do like the look of it.

I'd say it is a weak set.
Its the only blast set without a Tier 3 blast. Voltaic Sentinel is nice enough, but doesn't contribute for the lack of burst damage you lose by not having Cosmic Burst/Power Burst etc. On a Blaster, this is a bit of a detriment, because burst damage is one of your survival tools.

The end drain works well if you have both Power Sink and Short Circuit, ie you've gone double electric and hit level 36. (My first 50 was a double elec in fact.) But if you just have the Electric primary you're unlikely to drain anything before you kill it, which will take slightly longer than on other sets due to the lack of a Tier 3 blast.
Electric/Energy falls just short of sapping most enemies using Power Boost and Short Circuit. I found that a very dissappointing combination.

Having two non-cone area attacks is a plus if you dont like lining up cones.

Its not unplayable by any means, just a bit weaker than average with almost all combinations.

It's just the hand-over-head look is goofy. I don't wanna be a superhero while being goofy! D:

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

As an alternate option... How about we consider voltaic sentinel instead of a T3 blast? It probably doesn't fill in as one as is, though... a little lacking in the damage department. What if they gave it a second power? Lightning bolt as well as the charged bolt it has currently? Or they could give it its own tesla cage for more mez, if a straight damage boost isn't what was wanted. Or even give it both, if that wouldn't be too overpowering.

Just seems a more interesting idea to me, rather than changing another power into something people who use it as is might not like just to give the set a t3 blast. Elec is different by lacking a t3 blast and having the pet instead, we should embrace that rather than trying to change it to fit the generic template of other powersets.