Lazarillo

Just to follow up support there with a personal anecdote:

I recently hit 38, and was pretty disappointed with Noxious Gas at first. I tried a few times to buff up the old [censored]-Bot, and send him in, but the range was woefully small and enemies would run out of it, while my bot just stayed where he was firing from range. A mission or two later, I finally found a use for it, though: Noxious Gas makes a great alpha strike when you can't use your other debuffs. I sent the powered up-Bot into the face of a big bad Longbow Officer who had already melted my entire force three times with a single Full-Auto. With Noxious up, though, it gave me just enough time to get the boys in position and hit him with my more substantial debuffs.

Noxious Gas isn't going to be the most oft-used tool in one's arsenal, and it may not lend itself to long time use, but it's great when you need to find yourself an opening.

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So, if I am willing to lay out some cash for the IO sets, how much psi protection can I muster? Enough to really make a noticable difference?

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If you're really willing to throw down some money for Crushing Impacts and Impervium Armors, you can get a cool 30% Resist/10% defense. That's nothing to sneeze at.

I've been on Scrapyard teams twice only to have him blink out on us, though once, we confirmed his immediate respawn in Potter's Field and took him out anyway. The other time, nobody bothered to go look, but the first experience sort've makes me think that his disappearance might be tied to a REappearance somewhere else.

Of course, it could also be total coincidence, but might be worth investigating for a team he disappears against.

The little changes (KR stores/extended train lines/etc) are really the thing I've been happiest with since i9 was released. Inventions are by no means a poor addition, but too much of the time, there just feels like far too much work involved.

First of all, you're going to be whiffing a LOT without at least one accuracy in all your attacks. Following that should be three damage, then recharge or endurance reduction. Avoid sleep durations completely. You'll be attacking constantly, and especially with Lightning Field on, the enemy won't have any time for shuteye. Your shields also should be three-slotted for damage resistance.

I'd avoid the Flight pool, or, at least, Hover, as it negates the biggest bonus you'll get from Grounded. If you want to use Fly for your travel power, Air Superiority is a much better choice as your prerequisite power. Chain Induction is a pretty poor attack, so you might want to avoid that one as well. Most of your other power choices are decent, though I'd move this Fitness pool powers earlier in your build; in exchange, you can probably push back your travel powers thanks to temp travel powers from Mayhem Missions and the like.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that your build needed quite a bit of work. These recommendations are only a start, and I'm sure plenty of people will have other advice for you as well. Take it to heart, kind sir, and soon enough, you'll be rockin' the casbah.

Just my $0.02 on the issues...

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The only problems I'm running into right now is trying to slot up early for my defenses and my endurance.. Keeping up the toggles cost endurance, but unslotted I'm not getting much benefit from them..

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As for slotting, I put End Reducers into my attacks early, and then toggles later in the build, when I had many more to spare, and that held me just fine until Power Sink came around. Best to slot Charged and Conductive Shield for resistance early, but psychic damage isn't prevelant enough that you can't wait to slot it up until higher levels. You can stick and End Reducer in that one if you want, early on.

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I really need Aid-Self. and Stamina but not sure which one is more important first.. I'm currently at level 16 with my Elec/Elec Brute.. I already have hurdle in, so it really is a toss up between self heal and endurance!!

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I'd go for Stamina, without question, especially since you've already expressed concerns with the amount of Endurance you're using. I couldn't find room in my build for Aid Self until the 40s, and I generally did okay with that. Aid Self is really more of a utility power to get back to full health between battles. If enemies are hitting you hard and fast enough to get past your resistances, than they're also hitting hard and fast enough to break Aid Self, even with Interrupt Reducers.

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And also, how would I go about slotting Aid-Other/Aid-Self.. Thanks for the time and effort spent in making a great guide!!

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Once I got it, I slotted Aid Self for 3 heals, 1 recharge, and 2 interrupt. As stated above, it still doesn't work perfectly mid-combat, but sometimes you've got nothing to lose anyway. As for Aid Other...I didn't take it, and unless you're going for the healing badges or the like, I really wouldn't recommend it. Take Stimulant instead, as it doesn't really require slotting to help out your squishier teammates.

I took Grounded when it was available, and made it all the way to 50 without ever even looking in the direction of Acrobatics. In a strictly PvE sense, I've found the only significant time my ELM/ELA gets knocked back is if an enemy hits him the instant that Lightning Rod goes into execution, as its apparently just enough hover-time to be hit in. Any other times that Grounded got beat out were either the result of doing something stupid (jumping up and down is not wise), or fighting Luminary, who I figger gets special priviledges since she's a Hero and one with Energy Blast attacks at that.