Hoverbrute

I've made myself a TW/Elec Brute and I decided to take Hover. Mostly on a whim and becuase I dont' recall seeing any melee characters with hover, other than our dear departed Statesman.

Conceptually it fits my character, Cylemen, one of the minor Titans, come to Paragon to save it from the Coming Storm - but it does feel very very clunky. I'm not able to rush up to foes and smite them with a smity thing with a big grin and they stay smote. I tend to drift languidly in their general direction and blatt them on the head a bit.

If I were sensibly into min/maxing I'd respec it out but actually there's a certain style to her and taking hover is sufficiently differnt I'd like to keep it, but it's not very efficient as things stand.

So... what're my options and how can I retain hover and make her more efficient. I'd welcome suggestions because this has the potential to be slightly different and I like that.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

There is a reason you dont see many melees with Hover..and elec armour especially. Grounded only functions..you know..on the ground. Meaning you will need to slot a few -kb IOs.
Some of the TW attacks look cool when used midair though.

Yea, Grounded doesn't effect you unless you have no flight ability on you, and Titan Weapon's Tier 9 can only be used with your feet firmly planted on the ground.

Which is really sad, cause as the above poster said, TW has some awesome aerial visuals.

I have a lot of flying toons and I seem to get affected by "ground" powers a lot when I Fly or Hover close to the ground. It might be worth it to double check whether Grounded really works only "when on ground" or if it works by "close enough."

Combat Attributes fixes that argument quickly.

I have a "hover tanker" but I'm not sure if I can offer any advice. I find it a lot harder to reposition myself quickly with Hover. Combat Jumping seems superior in this regard. With Hover (or Fly) I find myself getting stuck in corners a bit more, and taking more time to extract myself from a knot of enemies and move some where else.

OTOH it's possible to position yourself "just barely in melee range of the ground," which will cause a lot of foes to try to path to you, and not quite make it, because there's always someone other foe standing on the exact spot needed to "reach" you. It can really cut down on melee damage, and also really concentrates the enemies in a small spot for those AoEs that everyone loves.

Grounded is not that forgiving. It's better than it was, but I've had it go away on ramps.

Ah ok sounds like I'll be using my Freespec tonight then

Thanks for the input everyone

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

If at all possible, scour the forums, ask people with the powersets, ask devs thier concept of "flavor"...

This is still an open wound for me. Like you, I had a character concept shortly after Electric Melee was added: A hovering Electric/Fire brute named Plasma Mephit. It was a tiny demon-like critter with insect wings. Most important, I really loved having him zip around through the air. 4 slotted Hover just to make certain he moved like greased lightning. I found pretty fast that I couldn't summon pets while hovering. It was random and annoying, especially for the fairy pet, but I think I only had the VIP pets, so no big deal.

Going into this, I knew that "Burn" only worked "near the ground" as the description said, so I figured I'd just stick near the ground when I used it. Foolish me for believing the description! It only works if you are ON the ground. And, even if you are webbed to the ground, it only works if hover is turned off (which defeats part of its purpose, btw). Also annoying, but at least it's not like a set defining tier 9 power or anything...

I finally hit 32 after months (I don't "powerlevel", especially in those days) and drooled at the screen when "Lightning Rod" was available. So I hit the power for the first time and... nothing. Tried again and again and it just didn't work. I don't recall exactly why (perhaps someone told me the aweful truth), but I turned off hover and it worked. I read the power over about 10,000 times and it doesn't say a damn thing like "Oh, and for no good reason, you can't be off the ground". Later I found out that the real reason it doesn't work is because it's technically a summon power, like those VIP powers (and Burn). Instead of fixing it, which was possible because some summon powers did work while hovering, someone decided that "it's flavorful". You know, like how fire blasters can't use thier powers standing in water, or ice controllers can't use thier powers in lava, or you can't use O2 boost to repair robots. Or how you can't use Lightning Bolt, Mu Lightning, Ball Lightning and the other 15 or so electric/lightning power off the ground... oh wait, you can.... with the exception of Grounded, which, honestly, also makes about as much sense as "Empty Clips" causing you to be unable to use any more gun powers for 15 seconds because, you know, it's named "Empty Clips". They are empty, duh!

Ok, like I said, still a bit sore. It was months of playing to find out the one coolest power was borked. If anything, try to get a player with the full powersets you want to use to try them while flying to make certain you don't get any nasty "dev flavor/laziness" surprises.

(btw, Lightning Rod still, to this day, says nothing about needing to be on the ground. Burn still says "near the ground". Shield Charge, which was copied code from Lightning Rod, was fixed to work off the ground after beta testing, but someone decided, "bah, LR is flavorful" without wondering what it actually adds to the game. Answer: Nothing. Also, LR tends to be buggy. If you step off a curb or the ground is bumpy, LR might decide that a quarter of an inch is too far off the ground and not fire. Yep, still sore.)

I have a conceptual hoverbrute that is SS/SD. Unfortunately, there are a number of really awesome powers I just can't use. Even more unfortunately, I found out only after leveling, like you. I gave up and decided the concept trumped the effectiveness of the character and decided on a solo only path for her so I don't gimp teams. Oddly, she's one of the most fun characters I play, simply because I enjoy the concept.

I will admint, it does sting a little to lose Hurl, Foot Stomp AND Shield Charge. I have other characters withe SD and SS, though not as a pair, and I know how effective those powers can be. It really comes down to why you like to play your character. Do you really enjoy it because of the powers, or the concept. I have characters that fall onto both sides. My hoverbrute falls onto the concept side and so she remains unchanged. Whatever you decide, make sure it makes you smile when you play, or there is no point.

I think the confusion with shield charge is it's older brother, Lightning Rod, does NOT work off the ground.

For what it's worth, my Archery Blaster does the same average tier 9 damage when using a rocket pack as when on the ground.