Doomguide

Even at higher level's unless and until the blaster and emp have both heavily invested in IO's I believe the emp+emp pairing will maintain a much more vigorous pace at damage levels as a team between the two that over time will likely well exceed the blaster+emp mostly owing to inevitable downtime that will occur with a duo with a sole empath. To keep up the damage over the long haul the blaster doesn't just have to do a bit more damage or even a lot more damage they have to do a great deal more to keep to the overall damage output of the team as high as the emp pair. With the emp pair they are 24-7 at the recovery cap, 24-7 at the regen cap, 24-7 at the defense soft cap vs "ALL" (and few other things stronger as well, such as the teams +to hit average). The blaster+emp duo is unlikely to be at any of these as a pair and neither will be there 24-7. Will the emp+blaster pair be close enough often enough to overcome that deficit in strong bursts of performance *shrug* honestly I'm not nearly enough of a number cruncher to know. All I can say is I feel that is a lot of ground to make up for the lack of mutual support at all levels and builds the emp+blaster duo is facing in comparison. I see the blaster+emp duo as higher peaks and lower valleys. The emp+emp duo meanwhile is essentially a plateau who's height is somewhat less than the others peaks but higher than their valleys.

Edit: To include the word "soft" with respect to the defense to (all).

Maybe I'm underestimating it ... I've never had an /ElA brute to high levels. But it is a long way from half of the builds energy resistance. It goes from 75% or so in the build without Grounded to just shy of 85% with Grounded. For end drain resistance it might against Carnies and Mu make enough difference to force one to use an occasional blue more than you would otherwise (or maybe use Power Sink more for getting blue back rather than draining the mob). It is also not the sole source of end drain resistance in the build. It is closer to half of the builds end drain resistance but even there it's less than half. I just have a tough time buying that 175% or so resistance rather than 100% or so is going to make a large enough difference to justify its existence in the build because that seems to me to be why you'd include it at all assuming you have another source of kb protection. Frankly the fact one might have trouble obtaining kb protection would make me far more likely to move it earlier in the build personally (or even include it). One of the most able brutes I've seen has posted their build in the RO networks forums, Grounded is nowhere to be seen in their build at all. For me personally Grounded is going to have to prove itself needed enough to want to burn a respec to move it up earlier. I really think having good +recovery, solid end reduction slotting coupled with having Energize and Power Sink up asap will make a far larger difference in a builds performance overall than having Grounded for the extra end drain resistance will.

I do agree that I'd really want Hasten and as much +recharge as I could get in whatever build I have in the long run, but it's not in the build as the OP specifically mentioned they weren't a fan.

I think if one is having trouble maintaining a toggle (Lightning Field) costing between 0.21end/sec and 0.27end/sec (with and without Energizes endred discount) then the build in question has issues overall with endurance slotting and usage they need to solve first.