The Electric SMASH!!!(tm) and You! A Guide to Electric Brutes, v1.9
Here is the 1.9 version of the Electric/Electric Brute guide! I am still gathering set IO data and confirming acceptance by power. Help me out on collecting and confirming this so I can get full 2.0 out quickly! Please note, this guide is in Damage Scalar format! For those familiar with Brawl Index, a second notation near damage is included. Brawl Index is the amount of damage the power does compared to your Brawl damage, for those not familiar with either. DS info is
Found Here.
This is the Professor Todesfalls guide on how to build a better Electric/Electric robot. This guide works just as well if you are a meddling magical fairy, filthy mutie, accident of science, or just naturally have an electric personality, but that is merely an unintended side effect of the nature of this guide.
If youre looking to be an Electric/Electric Brute, youre going to want to know the facts. How are you different from your flaming, dark, tough, energetic, and rocky brothers? How are you better? How are you worse? These questions can be tricky, and even a detailed first glance wont say it all. In fact, before even looking at that glance, you should read:
Foo's Excellent Brute Guide. Also, while its of less concern to you defensively, you should still read
Arcanaville's Defense guide. For those of you who have interest in the new Invetion aspect of the game and how it can improve your character, a great writeup about set IO slotting that is particularly pertinent to Brutes is provided by Scrapulous, with links to other useful information:
Melee Set Example. Regardless, here is that glance:
Pros
-High Resistances
-Resist Psychic Damage
-Resist Endurance Drain
-Endurance Recovery
-TP Foe Protection
-Resist Slows
-Auto Recharge
-Auto +Speed
-Auto KB/Immob Protection
-Endurance Draining attacks
-A slight AoE bent in attacking
Cons
-No Self Heal
-No Fear or Confuse protection
-No Toxic resists (until Power Surge at level 38)
-KB/Immob protection is only partial
Thats a pretty big first glance
but can you handle the repercussions? First, well go over the powers in detail, and then well come back to what it all means. For ease of reference, Rch is recharge time, Act is activation time, Acc is accuracy off a base of 1, End is the endurance cost, EPS is endurance per second, Radius is the radius of effect, Rng is range, and Base refers to % resistance. Str is Strength (a Prima guide measurement) and I will convert these to Mag (Magnitude) which is more commonly used by the player base. A Mag 2 (or higher) status effect will affect minions, a Mag 3 (or higher) will affect Lts., and a Mag 4 (or higher) will affect Bosses. Attacks may have another notation of "Drain", which is formatted as (# or # / # for #). The first set shows the amount drained from a target, and the second is the chance to return X endurance. So Drain (5% or 2 / 10% for 5) would mean that the power drains 5% endurance from NPCs or 2 End points from players, and has a 10% chance to give you back 5 End. Note that I will be making notes on IO sets slottable into a power regardless of level, however, I personally do not advise slotting set IOs until you access them at level 26 or higher, nor do I personally advise slotting common IOs until access to level 38s (when the enhancement bonus from the IO is equal to or greater than an actual SOs buff). Note that IO slotting will look very fairly different from standard slotting wisdom, and is noted below and in the example builds.
Electric Melee
1)
Charged Brawl (level 1)
-Attack: Melee / -Acc: 1.0
-Dmg: 0.5 S/L + 0.34 Eng = 0.84 DS (1.3889 + 0.9444 = 2.3333 BI)
-Drain (7% or 1.25 / 10% for 2.184)
-Rch: 3s / End: 4.369 / Act: 1.07s
-Charged Brawl is part of your Bread and Butter attacks, and is a basic punch that serves well as a quick attack. Dont skip this, period. Also puts target to sleep (zappy electric dance!) for 6 seconds 10% of the time
but this is of Str 2.38, which is Mag 2 (minions only). Another 10% check to reduce a foe's End recovery by 100% for 2 seconds.
-Slotting: Standard slotting of 1 Acc, 3 Dmg will serve you well. Additional slots (if any) should go to End and Rch, but this should wait to higher levels (and access to Synthetic Hami-Os).
-IO sets accepted: Melee (advised), Sleep (not advised)
2)
Havoc Punch (level 1)
-Attack: Melee / -Acc: 1.0
-Dmg: 0.8 S/L + 0.52 Eng = 1.32 DS (2.2222 + 1.4444 = 3.6666 BI)
-Drain (10% or 2 / 10% for 3.432)
-Rch: 6s / End: 6.864 / Act: 1.5s
-Havoc Punch is the other part of your Bread and Butter, and you will use it often. Good, builds Fury, use it, dont skip it. Also puts target to sleep (more zappy dance!) for 8 seconds 30% of the time
but like Charged Brawl this is Str 2.38, and thus only Mag 2. Another 30% check for a 4 second reduction of a foe's End recovery by 100%.
-Slotting: Standard slotting of 1 Acc, 3 Dmg will carry you far. Like Charged Brawl, End and Rch can help, but should only be applied in later levels and after access to more slots (thanks to respeccing with SHOs).
-IO sets accepted: Melee (advised), Sleep (not advised)
3)
Jacobs Ladder (level 2)
-Attack: Melee Cone / -Acc: 1.0 / -Radius-range: 5 in a 50 degree arc from target
-Dmg: 0 S/L + 1.5 Eng = 1.5 DS (0 + 4.1667 = 4.1667 BI)
-Drain (7% or 1.25 / no return)
-Rch: 8s / End: 8.528 / Act: 1.67s
-Jacobs Ladder is where the AoE part of your attack chain starts
and lets you start practicing as early as level four. As a melee cone, this may be fairly familiar to you in application if youve played Dark before. Compared to your Bread and Butter, its OK as a single target attack, but shines when you can hit two to its maximum of five targets. Every hit target has a 10% chance of getting a Str 2.38 (again, Mag 2) Sleep put on them for 6 seconds as well. Another 10% check occurs to reduce the foe's end recovery by 100% for 2 seconds. Tip: Cluster enemies, and target the one in the back of the cluster. If you target the closest one, youll hit only him, but by targeting the back, you catch (up to four extra) targets in between the target and you in the arc. A good attack with decent activation, youll want it at low levels and will get use out of it for a long while. You may consider dropping it in a respec later on, but do so only when you know youll have a solid attack chain without it.
-Side note: I have found that while of great use at low levels, Jacobs Ladder loses a lot of luster the higher you get. I respecced out of it at 34 and havent regretted it, but was glad to have it up to about 26-29.
-Slotting: Once more, 1 Acc and 3 Dmg is really the way to go. Throwing a single End in here may help, but should wait until later levels.
-IO sets accepted: Melee (advised), Sleep (not advised)
4)
Build Up (level 6)
-Self Buff: +80% Dmg / +20% ToHit
-Rch: 90s / End: 5.2 / Act: 1.17s
-The requisite Build Up. +80% base damage, +20% ToHit. Some will skip it and never look back, others will take it and never regret it. Great for opening a fight or complimenting your Fury and external buffage when youre ready to lay down some heavy smack to higher level and boss level targets. I personally take this power because of the increased burst damage it provides, as well its ability to punch through things like being Smoke Grenaded at crucial moments.
-Slotting: Base slot goes to Rch. If you have slots to spare, put in up to 2 more recharges. Getting an extra 80% damage every 45 seconds goes a long way to getting it whenever you need it.
-IO sets accepted: none
5)
Thunderstrike (level 8)
-Attack: Melee AoE / -Acc: 1.0 / -Radius: 7 from target (Eng portion)
-Dmg: 1 S/L + 0.96 Eng = 1.96 DS (2.7778 + 2.6667 = 5.4444 BI)
-Rch: 18s / End: 10.192 / Act: 3.3s
-Youll want to make room for this one! The activation is a bit slow, but it makes up for it with great single target damage and a high chance of knockdown. Remember those clusters you got good at making for Jacobs Ladder? Well, now you can target anyone of them, because anyone within about 7 (2 ft. past punching range) of your target is gonna get fried by the Energy portion of the damage. Theyll even do the zappy dance for you. This attack is one youll want to take and heavily slot, and wont regret doing so. As a side note, this has a 50% chance to give a Str 3.57 Disorient (Mag 3 Stun) to a hit PvE target, and will knock down your target 80% of the time. The 40% chance to reduce end recovery on a hit target by 100% for 4 seconds is frosting on the cake.
-Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dmg, and get them in ASAP. This power can really benefit from an End or Rch boost, even beyond what your sets are capable of, so that extra SO (or two) could be well worth your while. You may be tempted to slot for Disorient, but it only increases the duration, not the chance. Slotting for something that only happens 1/2 the time isn't necessarily wise.
-IO sets accepted: Melee (advised), Stun (not advised), Sleep (not advised)
Note: The sleep component appears to be like Jacob's Ladder, with a 10% chance to have a Str 2.38 (Mag 2) Sleep on enemies hit by the AoE portion
6)
Taunt (level 12)
-Targeted AoE Mez: Draws Aggro (20s in PvE, 5s in PvP) / -Acc: 1.0 PvP, autohit PvE
-Rng: 70 ft. (15 ft. radius) / up to 5 targets / End: 0 / Act: 2.67 / Rch: 10s
-The requisite Taunt. If you plan on teaming and have the room, you might find this useful for drawing aggro away from your decidedly squishier allies (or other Brutes in severe danger). However, youll likely consider this power quite skippable. Its an aggro management tool
but its that much less
SMASH!!!(tm) or other powers youll find more useful. Generally, a damage aura from an armor set is more suited to your needs.
-Slotting: If you picked this up, you obviously want to taunt. That means Taunt Duration and Recharge are for you. If you PvP, Acc is a good idea too. If your goal is to tank, then you're actually going to want to slot Taunt into your other attacks as you can spare it as well. Tanker-wannabe. Go back to Paragon! =p
-IO sets accepted: none
7)
Chain Induction (level 18)
-Attack: Melee AoE / -Acc: 1.0
-Dmg: 0.8 S/L + 0.52 Eng = 1.32 DS (2.2222 + 1.4444 = 3.6666 BI) (jumps do .7 DS [1.95 BI] Eng)
-Rch: 14s / End: 10.192 / Act: 1s
-Something of a rough diamond, youll find this attack is faster than Thunderstrike, for the same cost
but its also pretty random. Theres a chance that this will arc to other targets, but the chance is random (and seems to be a number of additional targets algorithm). This is a love-it-or-hate it power
and youll either love it, or hate it. The real consideration is that its paying for Tunderstrike while getting the benefit of Havoc Punch
a Havoc Punch that may just decide to arc and hit extra targets a bit farther away than Thunderstrike would. Diamond in the rough, or waste of space? I cant really tell you, youre going to have to get advice from other Brutes who know how you play and what you like. Me? I like it, but ended up skipping it because I didnt need it in my attack chain because I had Air Superiority. There's even a handy 30% chance to reduce the target's end recovery by 100% for 4 seconds.
-Slotting: Acc and Damage, 1 and 3. If you want to use this a lot, Recharge is for the better. I'd save off on that until they get the bug fixed.
-IO sets accepted: Melee
Note: Chain Induction is still currently bugged for XP loss. Damage dealt beyond the actual attack (the extra arcs of damage) are not treated as player dealt, pet dealt, summon dealt, or even confusion credit, but as a completely outside entity. This means that any of this extra damage will take a proportional amount of XP to damage dealt compared to the total health of the enemy. Example: Chain Induction arcs and does 1/2 of a minion's HP, and you immediately follow up and defeat it. Because half the damage was "by you" and half "wasn't" (Chain Induction), you get 1/2 XP for that mob. This is very sadly NOT being looked into despite being a known error. Frankly, Ive heard no acceptable excuse for this and do not understand why it was never intended to be coded as your pet...but then, I dont program the awesome game.
8)
Lightning Clap (level 26)
-Attack: Melee AoE Mez / -Acc: 0.8 / -Dmg: 0
-Rch: 30s / End: 13 / Act: 1.23s / Radius: 19
-Lightning Clap can save your bacon. This power packs Disorient and Knockback into one happy 100% package
at a slight accuracy penalty. For those who wonder, its 100% chance of KB with 100% chance of an 8s Str 2.38 w/ 50% for an 8s Str 1.19 Disorient. For the less game-mechanic inclined, that's a minion level stun, with about a 50% chance to stun any Lts. For those familiar with Magnitude, that's basically a 100% chance of Magnitude 2 Stun with an additional 50% chance for a Mag 1, stacking into a Mag 3 Stun. In PvP, the Disorient goes to 5.34s at Str 2.38. Youll either find you use this power as an extra soft control (see Power Sink in your secondary), or as a too many, oh @#$%! (*CLAP!*) and run away power. Which means you either think this power is completely skippable, because why would you want a power that hurts Fury generation, or a must have because it can make a difference that helps compensate for your lack of a self heal. If you cant figure out based on that analysis, youll just have to test it. Me? I like it, but I see theres also some trouble fitting it in your build sometimes, and have builds with it and without it that I like equally well. Its greatest use is slowing and stopping enemy attacks for a few precious seconds to use Aid Self.
-Slotting: Accuracy. It takes two to get this power up to the 95% ceiling you want to be at against even cons, and 3 to be truly safe if you planning of facing +2s or higher. Stun Duration is useful if this is your panic button, but not always so if it's a utility combat power for you. Recharge allows it to be up more, but that's not always good. If you have it, slot 2 Acc and then go from there based on experience. Summary:
-Basic Slotting: 2 Acc
-Panic Slotting: 3 Acc, 3 Disorient
-Utility Slotting: 2-3 Acc, 1-3 Rch, 1-2 End
-IO sets accepted: Stun (advised) and PBAoE (limited advised). A mix is advised if you choose to heavily slot Lightning Clap, note that it gains no benefit from the Range portion of some Stun sets, nor does it benefit from the Damage portion of PBAoE sets. Note particulary the potential for a mix of two Stun sets to give either two +Health buffs or one +Health and one +Regen, both greatly desired while retaining high bonuses to accuracy and stun duration.
9)
Lightning Rod (level 32)
-Attack: Teleport (60') + PBAoE / -Acc: 0.9
-Dmg: 1 S/L + 0.7 Eng = 1.7 DS (2.7778 + 1.9444 = 4.7222 BI)
-Rch: 90s / End: 13.52 / Act: 2.57s / Radius: 20
-BOOM!, baby! If you refuse to take this power, I call you a lunatic. This mini-nuke has both an effect (80% Knockdown chance) and a boom (all that pretty, Fury enhanced damage, plus the free light show) to make even a Blaster jealous. This power shines as a way to start (or completely pre-empt) a fight after youve ended another. Scenario: youre right near full Fury, and your team has the situation handled with this group or youve just landed the last punch. Theres a pretty group of enemies all nicely clustered for you right nearby! Pop just enough Redage and Build Up to give you the benefit of some serious buffage, and BOOM!...look at all the pretty corp
erm
unconscious victims. One caveat: there IS an acc penalty. You also dont have Aim (something all Blasters with half a brain use with THEIR nukes, despite the BONUS they already get). So if you want to BOOM! and not flourish a broken rapier (so to speak), make sure youve got Acc in the power, and +Acc/+ToHit as well. Also, get good with that reticule: youll be very embarrassed if you just miss an enemy because youre 21 away when you BOOM! and not 20. Lest we forget, this IS a teleport power, allowing you to use it just fine while immobilized.
-Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dmg, 2 Rch (advised). If differing from this, 1-2 Acc, 3 Dmg, 1-3 Rch is most serviceable. A single Range can get your range out to 72' and isn't all that bad an idea, if you feel you can sacrifice a Rch.
-IO sets accepted: PBAoE (advised), Teleport (not advised). Note that while Teleport sets are not strictly advised, a player willing to sacrifice two or three slots in this power can slot for the set bonuses to Health and Regeneration rate those sets provide. A Brute who also has the Teleport Power pool and puts even just two slots into multiple Teleport powers will see the most benefit from doing do, while non-Teleporters will likely want to avoid doing this.
Note: testing of this power indicates that the current "known" damage values may be incorrect, and suggest that instead this power does a more traditional PBAoE "Nuke" with a standard "Nuke Distribution" of effect, having a base wave of ~1.3 DS value with a chance of one or two "follow ups" of ~.936 DS each. This would make the power most likely to do an actual DS of ~2.1 with a chance of as high as ~3.172. These equate to BIs of 3.7 and 2.6, with the potential for 8.9. While it has not been confirmed as of yet by the devs, the experience and testing of myself and others STRONGLY suggest this to be the case.
-General slotting notes: Your first concern is accuracy and possibly endurance use. First slots should ALWAYS go to accuracy. Some players find that they can live with only 2 Damages (instead of 3) in any given attack. If you find this true for you, you can either save an extra slot for elsewhere, drop in an Endurance (not really a concern at later levels), or a Rch for faster
SMASH!!!(tm). Due to your ability to gain endurance and access to +Rch effects, however, you may find that only 3 or four total slots (1-2 Acc, 2-3 Dmg) is all you'll ever need in any attack (exception being LR, which dern well better have 1-2 Acc, 3 Dmg, 1-3 Rch). Also, some players like 2 Accuracies in most powers to get that much better "I DON'T miss" potential, and LR and LC should very definitely have at least one and likely two Acc.
-Invention Slotting Notes: When slotting your main attacks (Havok, Charged, Thunderstrike, Jacobs, Chain), note that while slotting for sleep is not advised because of its limited utility and low chance of occurrence, slotting 3 Call of the Sandman, Hibernation, or Induced Coma can provide a +Health bonus, and that six slotting Call of the Sandman can continue to provide useful buffs of +Endurance, -Recharge, and +Toxic/Psionic resists. In particular, it is possible to slot the Acc/End, Acc/Rch, Proc Self heal from Call of the Sandman into a power (likely Charged Brawl because of the Proc) to obtain this benefit while not wasting effects on sleep instead of other aspects. Keep this in mind when planning on how to achieve maximums to certain bonus types. Also note that mixing and matching sets can provide a greater amount of desirable set bonuses. In particular, the majority of melee sets provide a Health bonus when tri-slotted, and often of varying strengths. This means that if you are willing to pass over desirable bonuses like global damage increases or additional resistance, you can achieve a very high number of +Health (note that adding two slots to pool attacks like Air Superiority or Boxing [and even Brawl] will also provide similar stacking when planning).
Electric Armor
1)
Charged Armor (level 1)
-Toggle: Self + Res(S/L, Eng)
-Base: 26.25% Smash/Lethal, Energy / -Rch: 2s / -Act: 0.67s
-EPS: 0.26 (0.13 end every 1/2 second as ticks) / Enhancements taken: +Res, -End, -Rch
-You have to take it. Really, you actually dont have a choice. And youll love it. The center of your early resistances, youll find S/L is something youll enjoy through the entire game.
-Slotting: 3 Res, 1-2 End. You want this power constantly and giving the most benefit, so slot up!
-IO sets accepted: Resistance
2)
Lightning Field (level 2)
-Toggle: PBAoE, Minor DoT (Eng), Foe End
-Dmg: 0.216 DS (0.6 BI) Eng / -Radius: 8ft. / -EPS: 0.52 (0.26 end every 1/2 second as ticks)
-Rch: 10s / -Act: 2.03s
-The best analysis of this power is courtesy of Speqter:
[ QUOTE ]
all these #'s are @ lvl 40
Lightning Field(.2 DS) does 08.342 damage, every 2 seconds.
It costs 1.04 endurance and can harm up to 10 opponents.
It effectively costs .52 endurance/second.
deals 4.171 damage/second (per opponent in range).
gives 8.021 damage/endurance point (per opponent in range).
average performance (3 mobs)
deals 12.513 damage/second
gives 24.063 damage/endurance point
MAX performance (10 mobs)
deals 41.71 damage/second
gives 80.21 damage/endurance point
Compare that to some Electric Melee attacks.
Charged Brawl (2.33 BI, 4.368 end)
34.99 damage/activation
gives 8 damage/end
Havoc Punch (3.66 BI, 6.864 end)
54.95 dam/act
gives 8 Dam/end
Jacob's Ladder (4.5 BI, 8.5 end)
Jacob's Ladder 67.572 damage, every 8 seconds.
It costs 8.528 endurance and can harm up to 5 opponents.
It effectively costs 1.07 endurance/second
deals 8.447 dam/sec.
gives 7.925 damage/endurance point
average performance (3 mobs)
deals 25.341 damage/second
gives 23.775 damage/endurance point
Max performance (5 mobs)
deals 42.235 damage/second
gives 39.625 damage/endurance point
It is more efficient over time than the first 3 electric melee powers, but mainly it's a play style. It's seems to pay off more when there are lots of critters around you or you are fighting on a team.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thatll give you a good idea. Its also a toggle that costs the same as two armors
so its decent area damage (and aggro holder), but you may just not think its worth it. Many brutes (such as myself), regardless of primary, hold off on this power until we have Stamina or another form of Endurance mitigation (such as Power Sink).
-Slotting: 1-3 Dmg, 1-2 Acc, 1-3 End. This is something of a hog, but if you take it, you probably use it to hold agg through damage and drop mobs you don't touch. Being able to run it while protected is a must, and while 3 Ends may be excessive, 1 is a good idea and 2 isn't bad. The damage and accuracy are discretionary based on experience and desire, but without slotting wont do much against higher level opponents.
-IO sets accepted: PBAoE (Sciroccos Devrish in particular is interesting for LF due to the option of slotting a lethal DoT procedure in addition to its superb set bonuses providing a lot of incentive to six slot it. While the AoE and Psionic defense for five and six slotting do not actually stack that well unless slotting Impervium Armor or Reactive Armor (cap at 40, provide +PsiRes and +ToxRes for six slotting, respectively), the +Regen, +NegEngRes, and +Accuracy(global) are great.)
3)
Conductive Shield (level 4)
-Toggle: Self +Res(Fire, Cold, Eng, Neg)
-Base: 26.25% Fire, Cold, Eng, 15% Neg / -Rch: 2s / -Act: 0.67
-EPS: 0.26 (0.13 end every 1/2 second as ticks) / Enhancements taken: +Res, -End, -Rch
-Your second toggle shield, and the elemental one. If you feel you can live without it, I think youre crazy, but thats up to you. 26.25% against both Fire and Cold with the added 15% to Negative Energy is nothing to sneeze at. Especially not when the numbers look more like 42% and 24% when slotted with +3 SOs. You can help manage your endurance by only turning this shield on when needed (against CoT, for instance) and just leaving it off against enemies that dont use the elements or energies.
-Slotting: 3 Res, 1-2 End. Just like Charged Armor, you want to get the most benefit and keep it up. Slot, slot, slot. Like your other shields, slotting for Endurance is more important for your first slot at early levels, and then add resistance at higher levels.
-IO sets accepted: Resistance
4)
Static Shield (level 10)
-Toggle: Self +Res(Hold, Sleep, Disorient, End Drain, Recovery DeBuff, Psi, TP)
-Base: 26.25% Psi / -Rch: 4s / -Act: 1.17s
-EPS: 0.26 (0.13 end every 1/2 second as ticks) / Enhancements taken: +Res, -End, -Rch
-This is another toggle, and its your status protection. Ohhhhh, looky, you get Psychic damage resistane too! Take. It. Protection from all those mezzes and Psychic to boot for the cost of one shield (and something around 42% with SOs, at that!)
thats a bargin. Note that the Psychic resistance is fixed, and is affected by Damage Resistance SOs, but that the Status protection is unaffected by enhancements, but scales with level. The Endurance Drain protection is also 80%.
-Slotting 3 Res, 1-3 End, but in the reverse order. Even more so than your other two shields, you want this to be up, and having Psi resists will help a LOT late game. You should hold off slotting the resistance component until later levels, but slot for End immediately so you don't have to choose between status protection and attacking.
-IO sets accepted: Resistance
5)
Grounded (level 16)
-Auto: Self +Res(Eng, Neg, End Drain, Immob, KB)
-Base: 9.375% Eng, 7.5% Neg / Enhancements taken: +Res
-This is perhaps the good and bad choice, and the one power that truly has a downside. The energy resistance is almost trivial considering how much you get from other powers, but the extra Negative energy resistance by itself makes this a good auto power. Throwing in moderate Immobilize and Knock Back protection is great too. Heres the real catch: you have to stay near the ground. If you dont plan on flying around, just keeping your feet planted (certain ramps have air pockets, however), youll be fine. Grounded now scales properly to level. This matters, because previously it failed to grant proper protection against things like Earthquake, but does so now. Acro stacks with the protection from Grounded in great ways, but know the ups and downs of Grounded, or be sent up and down a lot. Note that if you are taking Acrobatics, you can possibly skip this power if you dont mind slightly lower Negative Energy resistance.
-Slotting: 1-3 Res. The base slot is only good for Resistance, really. If you find you really, really want that extra Negative Energy protection, slot it more, but this can easily wait until the late game and you likely wont need to put slots into this power until the 40s if ever.
-IO sets accepted: Resistance. Note that unlike your toggle shields, Grounded gains no benefit from Endurance reduction and none from +Recharge. This makes it the perfect candidate to accept the Steadfast Protection, which you might avoid slotting into your toggles or Power Surge because of its level 30 cap. However, a bonus to both Health and Recovery provide incentive to put two more slots into this power
while youll gain no benefit form the Endurance discount, youll get more Resistance as well as the additional Knockback Protection and +Defense(all) the set provides. In fact, this also makes it a candidate for (heaven forbid) six slotting to also gain the +Mez, +Mez/Psi, and +Psi resists from other Resistance sets, regardless of their being slotted in other powers.
6)
Lightning Reflexes (level 20)
-Auto: Self +Spd, +Rch, Res(Slow)
-Base: Rch = 20% discount, Spd = +5.2+(lvl*.043) ft./s
-Enhancements taken: +Run
-This power, at first glance, seems almost trivial. Take another look. TWENTY PERCENT RECHARGE DISCOUNT on ALL powers. Thats like having a bit better than a +3 Recharge DO in EVERY power. And it counts as an external buff, so you still slot the appropriate powers with 2-3 recharge if you want. If you use Hasten, this also helps make it that much closer to perma, and stacks with Hastens own external buff, which means you can still get the full benefit from any powers slotted for recharge as well! The additional run speed is also nice (and really, the only way to use the one slot). The Slow protection youll find you appreciate, even if it tends to only be good against one application. Youre not going to want to waste enhancement slots on this one, but you will notice a definite benefit to taking it.
-Slotting: 1 Run or Fly Speed. If you find you have extra slots to spare and just want to run or fly faster, put in another 1 or 2 Runs, but it's a waste of slots IMO.
-IO sets accepted: Run and Fly. Note that both run sets provide a +Health bonus when 3 slotted, giving a reason to put more slots into this power for IOs beyond the base slot for some builds. Similarly, the Fly sets provide +Health and +Regen. Slots to spare could be put to use here for set bonuses.
7)
Conserve Power (level 28)
-Self Endurance Discount / 66% Discount
-Lasts 90s / -Rch: 600s / -End: 7.8 / -Act: 1.17
-Enhancements taken: -End, +Rch
-This power IS a good power. The benefits it gives, however, are overshadowed when you are able to have Power Sink, and Stamina and Endurance reduction slots can also be more effective. Many of you reading this will consider this a skippable power. However, if you intend to run all your toggles constantly with Combat Jumping, Acrobatics, and Tough plus Weave (to make your S/L resists truly impressive and add some noticeable +Def), and perhaps even a Leadership or two, youll find this to be a boon sent from heaven, even with Stamina or Power Sink. Slotted for recharge and with the benefit of Hasten and Lightning Reflexes, this power can be up for good amounts of time with manageable downtime.
-Slotting: 3 Rch. If you took this power at all, you want it up. 3 Recharges is the way to do it.
-IO sets accepted: none
8)
Power Sink (level 35)
-PBAoE Self +End, Foe -End / -Radius: 10ft. (Base return = 25 end / minion)
-Rch: 60s / -End: 13 / -Act: 2.03s
-Enhancements taken: -End, -Rch, End Mod, Taunt
-A blessing in many ways. This power can give you back a full endurance bar from a reasonably sized fight, and some soft control. Enemies will mostly be able to still attack you without interruption unless other players drain them as well, and the strongest attacks will be delayed due to lack of endurance for anywhere from ten seconds to a minute, depending. Many of you will find that the benefit outweighs the typical cost of semi-constantly activating this power (quite handily, in many cases), but there will be a few of you neither want nor feel you need this power at all (mostly Stamina builds). The choice is yours, but choose wisely. If nothing else but a mob-control panic button for you, this makes a dern good delay button while you duck a corner.
-1-3 End Mod, 1-3 Rch. This power is a very YMMV power. The drain is slottable (and not a bad idea at all) and with 3 Rch you can have this up every half a minute. The only way for you to decide is to play with it on your own and choose. Its great out the box, but heavier slotting means it requires less foes to fill your bar as well as filling your bar more often.
-IO sets accepted: none
9)
Power Surge (level 38)
-Self +Res(Disorient, Sleep, Hold, Immob, KB, End Drain, Recovery DeBuff, TP, Dmg [not Psi]), +Recovery
-Base: 52.5% (Smash/Lethal, Fire, Cold, Tox), 60% (Eng), 45% (Neg)
-Lasts 180s / -Rch: 1000s / -End: 2.6 / -Act: 1.96s
-Enhancements taken: +Acc, -End, -Rch, +Hold, +Dmg, End Mod
-Special: When this power ends, you drop to 10% HP and 0 End, a special EMP Pulse activates (holds even Lts./minions for 10s). The Acc and Hold affect the EMP Pulse
-Do you wish you could look like a Gremlin? Do you love the cackle of electricity? Do you just love taking only half damage from any non-psychic? Well, this is a power youll want, and is your god mode button. Unslotted, this thing lasts for three minutes out of just under every 20. Slotted (and with Hasten and Lightning Reflexes), the recharge means it can be up far more often, and resistance slotting means that 52.5%/60%/45% can go to ~84%/96%/72%. When running this and your toggles, you can EASILY cap resistances and have ~42 % to Psychic! Thats a darn good deal. The fact that this completes your status protection and has +Recovery means youll love every second of Gremliny goodness. Your slotting will depend on your other powers, however. The EMP Pulse at crash is also a safety feature that other builds dont have. Just dont go touching any water. Remember, however, that even with this up, Confuse and Fear will still leave you discharging at temporary allies or not at all.
-Slotting: 3 Res, 3 Rch. You want to get the most benefit, the most often, and that's the way to do it. If you find you want to run your other shields, you can sack a few Res slots in this for an Acc, Hold, and/or End Mod. Acc and Hold help the safety button, but are likely a waste, whereas End Mod increases your recovery while Power Surge is up
which can let you run your other shields (and Lightning Field) while attacking like a mad-beast. I'd stick to 3 Res, 3 Rch, and consider 2 Res, 1 End Mod, 3 Rch.
-IO sets accepted: Resist (advised), [not advised but accepted: Hold, PBAoE]
-Armor Invention Slotting Notes: The resistance sets are very straightforward as to the benefits provided to your toggle shields and Power Surge, and similarly are the PBAoE sets for Lightning Field. Ive noted toughts on LR and Grounded in the power reviews. You will generally know which sets you want in which powers based on preference for bonus and +Mez vs +Psionic (both from enhancements themselves and set bonuses). As noted, triple slotting from two sets can provide greater +Health bonuses at the expensive of other bonuses such as mez time reduction, +def, and +Tox/PsiRes.
What Does It All Mean?
-Put together, all of this means that the Electric Brute has options and flexibility, but must face choices. This also means that the Electric Brutes may not be right for you, even if other Brutes are! An Electric Brute is capable of solid DPS with a solid attack chain, and has both resistances and the potential to hold aggro that rivals Tankers, especially if you take your Taunt and have experience tanking. Heck, you have resistances that can make even a Tank blush! Your single target damage is a tad lackluster compared to other sets, so while you can eat hordes of minions and Lts for breakfast, expect longer fights against Boss and Elite Boss foes. However, your damage mitigation varies from other sets: you have only your resists and damage to save you, along with the minor Sleep component (negated if youre running Electric Field) of your attacks. The Recovery component of your attacks is something you may not even notice, and only comes into play as a tool for keeping a drained target from recovering. This typically only helpful in EB or AV fights, and even slotted to drain your target, you likely can't do it reliably enough without other, similarly slotted drainers there. If you can utilize this, you can keep a target effectively at 0 End, but it takes a lot of doing, and a lot of drain. You will likely notice the return from your basic punches however, since using them often will help prevent you from running out of endurance quite so quickly. You have no +Def, and NO HEAL. So, more so than other Brutes, Electric Brutes have to ask the question: how do I approach a fight? Other Brutes (with some exceptions) charge in and just
SMASH!!!(tm), and know that if things get hairy they can heal, then run if they must.
-You, however, are going to need to question whether it is better to defeat the minion or let him live to build Fury and whether you need to run. Youre going to need to decide faster than other Brutes, too, since the margin of error is smaller if you want to stay standing. Managing herding is also more necessary than other Brutes. Although you dont get more Fury from the AoE component of your attacks, you can both hold aggro better and hit anywhere from 1-5 (or even 10) extra targets with practice! Enough practice with Thunderstrike, Lightning Rod, Jacobs Ladder, and even Chain Induction will have even those AoE happy Fire builds envy your kill power, but it DOES take practice. Manipulating targeting (nearest, farthest, next, previous) and your own visibility are key to this, and each of you will develop your own system. Needless to say, Lightning Rod is quite an electrifying experience once youve gotten using it down, and is awesome for both opening or closing (or both at once!) a fight. In the late game, however, you do get a powerful tool available to you: Power Sink. Power Sink can save you, and your team
and can get you back into a fight even if Sapped. The difference here is that your paradox is larger than most other Brutes, and your survival depends upon your experience and knowing the answers. This also means that enemies who can confuse you or fear you have a very distinct advantage, and you will want to take them down first. Its up to you to determine how to best utilize your slots and powers
and the answer will vary by the player!
A note on Power Pools
-The powers you take and how you slot them, as well as your play style, will determine the pools you take, and these are examples of the choices (and player types) that make the Electric Brute fun and variable. To get a self heal, you need Aid Self
and another power just to get it. Aid Self is certainly more powerful in pure HP gain
but it is slower, costlier, and interruptible, disadvantages all compared to true self heals. Still, other Brutes with heals do put six slots in, so there is little disadvantage there. I have found Tough (if not the extra attack necessary to get it) is EXTREMELY useful if you can spare the endurance and slots, since with it your S/L resistance is very, very high and makes you like an Invulnerability Tanker (not Brute, TANKER) with respects to both S/L damage and Energy damage. If this fits you well, you might also consider Weave (especially if you have the Jumping Pool) for the defense bonus. This bonus is small, however, as well as Endurance intensive, I pass it over myself. Another consideration is that you may not need Stamina
but you may want Health. Ive found myself wanting Health in many circumstances, but never quite enough to cave in to getting it. This paradox is another choice that must be made. Health is the poor mans Regen, and with your high resistances, can be very useful in long fights. Stamina also can free up end redux slots for other attributes (like resistance and
SMASH!!!(tm)). Youll also find these help you recover much faster from the crash from Power Surge, and between it and Conserve Power let you run more toggles with less slotting. The cost is three powers, however, and while Swift or Hurdle can be quite nice, its something you very well find you dont need.
A note on travel
-Another hard choice faces you pool-wise: fly, speed, teleport or jump? Fly can give you Air Superiority
and it is possible to fly near the ground to stay grounded. Speed can give you Hasten and the best linear speed possible
added to Lightning Reflexes, you may even consider dropping a primary attack for another power! Jumping can give Combat Jumping and Acrobatics
two key powers to close gaps in your Mez defenses that you may find you feel you need, or may not consider worth the powers at all. Jumping is also nearly as fast as Super Speed
but not being near the ground for Grounded can put you at risk of falling back to earth from lucky Web Grenades.
A note on Teleport
The fourth option you have for travel is Teleport. Unlike Fly, Speed, and Jumping, you cannot attack while moving (only before or after), but you skip over the space between you and the location. Teleport also means that you either get Recall Friend (great for getting allies out of a bind) or one of the best pulling tools around: Teleport Foe (which is also fairly good in PvP, for those who do). Teleport means that you can either stay Grounded while traveling...or not need Grounded at all. Remember, you can Teleport while Immobilized (and KB doesn't mean anything), which means that with some slotting, it can be a good way to zap around. Again, if you're really hung up on which pool to get, read over TopDoc's guide, and remember the power you get BEFORE your travel power (which may decide for you). If you feel you need Hasten (or Flurry), Air Superiority (or Hover), Combat Jumping (or Jump Kick [but really, leading to Acrobatics]), or Teleport Foe (or Recall Friend)...you've probably chosen your mode of travel and are just having cold feet because the others are cool too. What you choose will be up to you
there is no right answer! The powers you might choose to save can even lead to you getting Presence for Fear (or even just Taunt) or even Leadership to give you both that small boost in potential and help get some status resists not just to you, but your team. The fact that Leadership can help provide Confuse and Fear mitigation is nothing to sneeze at, and means that if you can team with folks who have it, youll be very happy indeed. For an in-depth skinny on movement, try
TopDoc's Movement Guide.
A note on Patron Powers
-41 may seem a long way away. And it is. But Patronage is something to consider. Sirocco is naturally the most thematically fitting and game stacking Patron to take. More damage and more end drain (and recovery). If for some reason you dont want energy damage, but similar benefits, remember that the other Patrons each offer the same benefits of a two ranged attacks (one an AoE) and an area immobilize
and of course, a pet. The true difference is damage types: Energy for Sirocco, Negative Energy for Ghost Widow, Lethal/Toxic for Captain Mako, and Energy/Smash/Lethal for Black Scorpion. The secondary effects are Endurance Drain, Acc, Tox/More damage, and Knockdown, respectively. Sirocco is undoubtedly the best fit power wise, but if you want to change things up, pick another patron, but be ready to deal with the non-synergistic effects. The potential additional set bonuses from having a ranged attack, a ranged AoE, and a Pet are things a min/maxer should consider when looking at IOs.
-The final consideration means your build can be very flexible if you are flexible or very tight if you have a core idea in mind, and provides a challenge that can be its own brand of fun. Each Electric Brute is a truly customizable circuit of binary components
and your combination of on and off is going to make or break you! Hopefully, Ive given you the construction plan: all possible parts included, not all parts will be used in every installation. Use the parts you like, throw out those you dont, and go bring some
ELECTRIC SMASH!!!(tm) to the Isles! I will be including three sample builds in attachments to this guide: a non-Stamina Fly build, a Stamina Fly build, and an IO idealization of the non-Stamina Fly build as an example of what set IOs can do. The non-set builds will have notations on changing things for using common IOs instead of SOs at level 50.
Only half-Electric? Here's how you stack up!
Electric Melee but not Electric Armor
Not having the armor means that you have all the pros and cons of your chosen armor set, whatever it may be. It means you have a fully different set of tools, and while your resists are lower, you compensate with defense (a lot of it, in Energy's case) and some self-healing. Hasten may actually mean more than ever: Electric Melee is good, but it's single target damage will be found a little lacking without Lightning Reflexes (since recharge is a tad slow in comparison to some other sets). Take the notes from the melee set and find what meshes with your armor and play style. Your armor is your other survival tool, and you'll need to know what it can do. Each set has it's own jolly run around which take too long to go into, but other guides out there should give you the feel for each armor set, and hopefully, my notes on ElM can set you right for what you want when put together.
Electric Armor but not Electric Melee
These notes are short enough to go into here, but a little harder to really piece together. You have all the pros and cons of your armor...perhaps the most important of which is (still) no self-heal.
1&2)-
Stone and Energy Melee: superb for taking out single targets (and are in that sense the opposite of ElM: instead of dropping a group together, you pound them out one by one). This changes a little as Fault and Whirling Hands come into play, but the reality is the same: you survive by taking out each target before he can hit you enough that you feel it, and you do it well. Lightning Reflexes and the ability to recover with Power Sink (and you may consider taking Conserve Power, even with Power Sink AND Stamina) is a boon for these slow recharge, high endurance sets.
3)-
Fire Melee gives an interesting mix that like Stone and Energy, benefits from your +Rch and better ability to get endurance back, but unlike them gives great AoE capacity (Great Fire Sword...you'll love it), it doesn't take up quite as much Endurance, however, which can free up another few powers and/or slots for more utility and versatility.
4)-Super Strength is something like Fire in terms of AoE + Single Target capacity, and can take you far. It's still the first odd man out, however, because Rage is a superb self buff...but has that aggravating crash. Popping a blue could allow you to recover with Power Sink after a drop in Rage, which could be the key to keep smashing instead of just taking an actual breather (as well as keeping foes from attacking long enough for you to either finish pummeling them or get away as needed). And, let's face it: Rage + Power Surge = grown men giggling like school girls in front of their computer. The additional recharge to your one ranged attack (who DOESN'T want to rip up rocks and chuck them at people?) and the ever-devastating KO-Blow means they could actually come in more handy than usual, and this set combo is one I'm tempted to play in the future.
5)-
Dark Melee is the second (and more odd) of the two odd men out here. Dark Melee has decent capacities, and the fact that it is NEGATIVE Energy can make a lot of difference in being resisted by most foes (unless you're facing another Darkie or a select few PvE enemies, that is). It's also the fastest recharging, fastest activation, lowest endurance set. This means that Power Sink and Lightning Reflexes are not so critical to your abilities, but may come in handy if you literally want to have only three or four specific attacks that chain endlessly. One power (and one of those attacks you WILL want up often and accurate) that is sometimes skipped by other Dark Meleers is one you will want to slot like a mad-man: Siphon Life. You have no self-heal in your armor, and this accuracy dependant one is no slouch. Slot this baby double acc, double heal, double recharge, or some variation thereof, because you want it to hit whenever it's up, and often. You also have the ability to fear enemies at critical times, debuff hit opponents, and get a variety of buffs (like more End recovery from Drain Life, more Accuracy and Damage from Soul Drain, and a great "HOLD...STILL!" with decent damage power at 32). You give up some
SMASH!!!(tm) compared to other set combinations, but between DM and ElA, you have survivability options that are relatively unrivaled.
Information in this guide comes from both experience and observation. The hard numbers in this guide are thanks to Stupid_Fanboy, Speqter, and NoFuture. If you find any errors in this guide or have insight of your own, please post for the benefit of others. I realize that the endurance drain protection portion of the armor powers are not present. If anyone has the appropriate, tested data on this, I would love to add this to the guide (so I can also give more tangible descriptions, too). Any typos I missed in editing would be appreciated as well. I will edit this guide as necessary as long as the window is open, and will repost any major corrections in the future. Of particular note is IO and set IO information (what sets powers take, in particular). Please post feedback and testing on such so I can release the finalized v2.0 version of this guide soon!
