Why aren't you playing an Electric character?
Not all electric characters are created equal, of course.
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![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
And a big nod on the sapping (Endurance drain).
"How can you possibly hope to defeat me, super villain, if you do not have any endurance left to draw from? Crime doesn't pay, evildoer. Shocked?"
That pretty much explains how I've beaten a TON of enemies twice my size (and worse), although in the worst cases it took some time, effort, and occasional retreating to rest a minute. I'm heavily enhanced for endurance draining, not on every power (gotta have damage in there somewhere), but I have some powers that are pretty much designed to do just that.
Once I hit that point where I've sapped the enemy though, I've usually got him in the bag if I just keep wailing on him--this is where I'm in his face, almost doing as much scrapping as blasting--only a tactic I use while solo usually. But it took a looooong time to get my namesake character to this level of proficiency.
The thing is, building a great electric character has been an investment. Even in my level 30s I was still feeling shortchanged by these powersets (electrical blast/electricity manipulation/--and now I have epic electrical mastery). And since he was my second-ever character in the game, made during my trial, there have been some lessons learned. But in the end, he is one of my most powerful characters, great for support and also more soloable than I would have ever imagined he could be. Also, procs are my friend, where I have been able to fit them in a way that makes sense for my character (which is perhaps the biggest challenge in building mechanically effective characters: when you're just as committed to conceptual concerns).
@Captain-Electric � Detective Marvel � The Sapien Spider � Moravec Man � The Old Norseman
Dark-Eyes � Doctor Serpentine � Stonecaster � Skymaiden � The Blue Jaguar
Guide to Altitis � A Comic for New Players � The Lore Project � Intro to extraterrestrials in CoH
Oh! Hi dug. Where you been?
Not all electric characters are created equal, of course. But most can sap if built properly. And sapping is incredibly effective once you can do it.
After years of playing other controls, I found electric control to be simply amazing. I didn't even pair it with electric, I have mental for drain psyche - but I sap most of the time with just the electric. I don't know that the sapping is more effective than ice's confusing fog, but sapping gives you electricity. The biggest annoyance in the game is clockwork, freaks, and others sapping you - but you can be virtually immune to it and do it to them. Even my electric tanker who doesn't really sap loves being immune to others doing it to him. So why aren't you playing an electric? |
Some my favorite characters that I made were electric. Although the electric dom got put on the back burner as the result of my preference for melee and solo play.
-Female Player-
The question for me is not why arent you playing one.. its WHICH one to play.
Allow me to introduce my faction known as
THE ELECTRIC COMPANY
TASER (Tesla Armored Soldier w/ Electric Repulsors) Level 50 Elec/Elec/Elec Blaster
AMPED (Accelerated Magneto Pulse w/Elecrical Discharge) Level 50 Elec/Elec/Mu Dominator)
Shellshock- Level 50 Elec/SS Tank
Rede Furashi (The Red Flash )- Level 50 Elec/Shield Brute
Overload- Level 50 Elec/Psi/Mu Dominator
I also deleted a Level 50 Elec/Kin Corruptor named Gigawatt and a Level 50 Elec/Rad controller named Lockdown ( The doms were much better than both )
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
Because there is no point in making any new toons. >_>
On a side note, my 2nd character ever on my original account was an elec elec blaster named Lighting Angel. I got all excited that I got the name but found out it was because I typoed "Lightning".
Major herp derp
Fight The Power
The only character I managed to make significant Incarnate progress with was my level 50 Electric/Energy Blaster. Her name was "Leapin' Liz" and she was inspired by a picture for a D&D Monster File of Shocker Lizards.
However, her damage often seemed a bit low to me, and she wasn't built to sap.
I also had a small round robot that was Electric Control/FF. His name was AARD-VARC, which was an acronym for something I no longer recall. He was going to be all about sapping from relative safety.
Sapping rarely seemed to be useful, though. Maybe if it included an Endurance Anti-Discount debuff to make powers cost more it might've been a bit better?
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
I've made two new characters since the announcement and I'm still having a blast playing the game.
@Captain-Electric � Detective Marvel � The Sapien Spider � Moravec Man � The Old Norseman
Dark-Eyes � Doctor Serpentine � Stonecaster � Skymaiden � The Blue Jaguar
Guide to Altitis � A Comic for New Players � The Lore Project � Intro to extraterrestrials in CoH
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
The one time I've logged in since the announcement was to delete nearly all of my characters. There were a few I just couldn't press the button on, though. I'll probably get those right at the end.
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![](http://imageshack.us/a/img407/7854/1zptefl.gif)
@Captain-Electric � Detective Marvel � The Sapien Spider � Moravec Man � The Old Norseman
Dark-Eyes � Doctor Serpentine � Stonecaster � Skymaiden � The Blue Jaguar
Guide to Altitis � A Comic for New Players � The Lore Project � Intro to extraterrestrials in CoH
Did elec blast evetnually get a t3 blast?
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
One of my long term goals/projects was Actinic Glare.
AG is a modular, full body, cyborg. The brain case and life support module could be transfered to a wide range of cybernetic chassis, each one purpose built for specific roles.
The goal was to play AG to 50+ as every AT that could support E3 or EE-Mu. I could not bring myself to use Storm Summoning as a replacement for electric support, which left out Fender/Troller/Corr.
Unfortunately, that goal is now, likely, unattainable. And i will have to settle with getting the original AG(Brute) to 50. I might be able to get the blaster there as well.
I agree that sapping is fun and the idea of leaving your enemies too tired to fight back is just as fulfilling as crashing their toggles(talk about debuffs). But I think the enemies cheat. They always had enough juice to continue attacking and I could never tell if their shields went down. I don't think that sapping worked the same for players as it did for mobs.
I've played a number of elec characters.
EM/Elec brute, SS/Elec, TW/Elec Brute, Fire/Elec blaster x2, Mind/Elec Dom, Elec/therm Corr, Storm/Elec defender... I'm probably missing 1 or 2, probably a scrapper. All the ones I listed were fully IO'd, accoladed, etc, the works.
Elec Manipulation is good if you have the build and playstyle to support an extremely offensive melee set on a glass cannon. This isn't a set anyone can just slap on a character and wreck everything like certain other builds can (hi, ss/fire), it is the epitome of high risk, high reward. My fire/elec was probably the squishiest character I ever made but was completely viable due to the obcence ST and AoE dps it was capable of putting out, as well as being one of the best buff recipients in the game.
Elec Armor is fantastic. Elec Armor was good before IOs, Elec Armor was good before they got energize. Elec Armor was good before the entire incarnate content endgame completely revolved around energy damage. At this point Elec Armor is one of the best armor sets in the game, holding a solid middle ground between fire's offense, and dark's over the top survivability.
Elec Assault was pretty good when it came out, being one of the few sources of +tohit for doms along with much better ST damage than Thorns. It's nothing really special though.
Elec Melee has had it's places to shine. Elec/ Stalkers in PvP with the double/triple or whatever critting Thunderstrikes, or the wave of Elec/Shield Scrappers before those got toned down. Other than that though, Elec Melee has always been a poor ST dmg set with aoe that supports doing content at your own speed, but quickly begins to fall behind sets with faster recharging aoe as team pace speeds up.
Then there is elec blast, unarguably the worst blast in the game (come at me). It's occassionally had some impressive uses in pvp, especially on elec/therms (oh lordy, were well played elec/therms hard to beat), on the other hand in PvE it was a complete trash set.
A while ago I played an ice/elec blapper up to 50. While I eventually abandoned the blapper concept, electric manipulation was well-suited to the task. It had some great melee attacks, plus Power Sink to replace the endurance which that character burned through at an enormous rate.
A bit more recently I played an elec/kin tanker up to 50+incarnate. I chose electric armor because I wanted a set with excellent resists, my reasoning being that defense was easier to acquire by other means. The result was a real beast of a tanker, one that could easily tank any task force or trial, without having to contend with the damage or movement penalties found in the stone armor set.
I never really liked sapping though. If I needed damage mitigation or crowd control, it was usually to blunt the enemies' alpha strike or to lock down a bad situation immediately. 'Hard' controls always seemed more effective in typical encounters. And endurance drain ran into the same resist problems that most debuffs had versus AVs and monsters.
Still, it was very feasible to enjoy playing electric characters without getting into sapping.
For me it's the sound effects. When I used to play PnP superhero games, I loved electricity powers. But when I first made an Electric Blaster in CoH, I was underwhelmed by how the powers looked like static electricity instead of lightning bolts, and went "bzzt" instead of "BOOOM".
If the Electric Blast powerset had Lightning Storm's attack sounds and VFX, I'd be all over that.
As for Electric Armor and Electric Melee, I had level 1 characters with those that I hadn't gotten to yet, and now won't be able to get to in time.
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
I am playing an electric.
My favorite sapper is an Elec/Kin Corr.
Might have to peek back in on my Elec/Elec Dom.
My Elec/Elec Brute got put on hold for other concept toons.
And I was waiting for the i24 changes to Blasters to go back down that route.
Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
![](http://i.imgur.com/NXU2P.jpg)
Electricity however definitely IS one I've tried before
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
I've noticed a lack of electric Defenders mentioned in this thread, so I present you with Dr Turjan's TEA MkI !
![](http://i.imgur.com/4Jgo2.jpg)
Dr.T is a Rad/Elec and the only Defender I've ever had who can stride up to Elite Bosses solo in supreme confidence then laugh in their faces as he debuffs the crap out of them and drains all their blue. Because the only thing better than a sapped enemy is one that still couldn't hit you even if he did manage to scrape a bit of blue back
![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
Gin and Sonic is a great name and look
Quite possibly the most potent character I've ever created in the game (out of c. 200 or so...) is Luna Faraday, a "weaponized Praetorian Clockwork Home Companion," and an Elec Melee/Ninjitsu Stalker. She's about as close as I ever come to min/max'ing a character: multiple purple sets, T4 in every Incarnate slot, and so forth. Solo'd about a dozen AVs (comparatively easy, I realize, post-Incarnate, but never using Shivans or Warburg nukes...), MSTF badge, and all that. A fully self-buffed Lightening Rod out of Hide is a beautiful, terrible thing to behold...
"And in this moment, I will not run.
It is my place to stand.
We few shall carry hope
Within our bloodied hands."
Have a Kin/Elec defender. Easy street to play, due to sapping, but slow and utterly boring. That's why I never really tried Elec again for quite a while. Got an Elec/Nin stalker though that makes me appreciate stalking and electrifying again. Would keep playing him if the game were to continue, but have too many other characters I like more that are getting all my time when I play until the end of the world.
RagManX
"if the market were religion Fulmens would be Moses and you'd be L. Ron Hubbard. " --Nethergoat to eryq2
The economy is not broken. The players are
Not all electric characters are created equal, of course. But most can sap if built properly. And sapping is incredibly effective once you can do it.
After years of playing other controls, I found electric control to be simply amazing. I didn't even pair it with electric, I have mental for drain psyche - but I sap most of the time with just the electric.
I don't know that the sapping is more effective than ice's confusing fog, but sapping gives you electricity. The biggest annoyance in the game is clockwork, freaks, and others sapping you - but you can be virtually immune to it and do it to them. Even my electric tanker who doesn't really sap loves being immune to others doing it to him.
So why aren't you playing an electric?