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Brutes: The essential guide to elec/elec

POST-ACTION

Ok, here it finally is. My first guide, and the first guide to focus on Electric Melee/Electric Armor Brutes. If you disagree with any of my opinions, thats not my problem, I know my elec/elec well and he is a brute god so, I, at least, seem to have it working.

Anyway on to the guide. Ill discuss each power in the two sets, which pools are good, my build, and other things. Here goes.
Table of Contents:
X1: Powers in Electric Melee
X2: Powers in Electric Armor
X3: Suggested pools
X4: My build
X5: PvP pros/cons
X6: PvE pros/cons

SECTION X1: Powers in Electric Melee

I will rank all powers between 1 and 5, and then describe them, followed by slotting. Note that all Electric Melee powers have a chance of Sleeping, however small, and End Drain.

Charged Brawl -2- A basic, quick, light attack. Good for building rage. However, secondary power pools can give you quick attacks like this while at the same time going for the 3rd or 4th power in that set. For instance, I instead use Boxing from the Fighting pool. Nothing wrong with this power as a rage builder, though. And youll only ever need one rage builder filler attack, if you opt for Hasten/Lightning Reflexes. Filler attack slotting is not suggested.

Havok Punch -3- The bread-and-butter good-dmg fast-recharge attack. Strongly recommended. 3 dmg 1 acc.

Jacobs Ladder -4- A strong, good recharge, attack that has a small chance of hitting two or three targets if you aim it right. More end drain too. Strongly suggested, it will become a key part of your attack chain. 3 dmg 1 acc.

Build Up -4- Gotta love build up. It has an especially fast recharge with Lightning Reflexes and Hasten, and it gives a significant boost to our dmg output for 10 seconds, which is good since elec melee has weaker base damage than most other brute sets. 1 or 3 recharges depending on what you have left room for.

Thunder Strike -4- Another great power. Very good single target dmg, and a good portion of it sent around you in an AoE. Great recharge for all of this, too. 3 dmg 2 acc.

Taunt -1- Well its Taunt. I personally think that brutes shouldnt get Taunt, just a waste of a power slot, but it does come in handy for saving squishies in PvE get it if you want to be able to yank aggro off of squishies in danger. Its personal preference, and with Elec armor you can most definitely take a lot of mobs aggro. A few +taunt enhancers if you choose to grab it.

Chain Induction -3- Now, this one is complicated. On one hand, it, and its jumps, do some nice dmg, and it could definitely be a good PvE/PvP attack. The one problem is, the jumps are counted as if a mind-controlled NPC or other hero/villain attacked the target it jumped to. Which means you and your team get less xp/inf/prestige for it. Which, for PvE, is just not acceptable. If one jump hits a lvl 26 boss, it went down to about 1/3 of the experience it SHOULD have given me. Needless to say I dropped it soon after Im not sure if this is supposed to happen or if devs are working on fixing it, and it def would be nice for PvP as base damage but meh, I dropped it for now.

Lightning Clap -3- Good power, high chance of AoE knockback and disorient. I waited until level 49 to get it it isnt good enough to take priority over other powers, but it is definitely useful. I would say pop in a +acc or +recharge.

Lightning Rod -5- Oooh. Pretty. Very. Good old Lightning Rod. Short-range teleport, HUGE range on the AoE, very nice dmg. Can nearly one shot a mob full of same lvl minions at full fury. And yes, Build Up and inspirations affect it. On top of all that, it has an amazingly short recharge and end cost, especially with Hasten/Lightning reflexes. By the way, my friend turned his graphics up all the way and we split up as far as we could he was in the northwest corner of GV, I was in the southwest.. as in ZONE corner, in the water. And he still saw the huge lightning bolt hit the water.

. 3 dmg 2 acc and 2 thumbs up ;-)

Section X2: Electric Armor

Note that Elec armor is a Resistance, not defense based set. We take buttloads of dmg not avoid it. I will do this section the same as the first.

Charged Armor -4- Whee for Smash/Lethal/Energy resistance. For a brute, very nice resistance % too. Its required anyway, of course, lol. 3 dmg resistance 1-3 end cost redux

Lightning Field -2- Well yes, it gives you a field of minor AoE dmg that gets nice with Fury. Thing is, it costs a crapload of endurance. And, naturally Elec brutes are great at PBAoE attacks anyway. I really dont suggest it, even if so many people have it and would disagree. I just find it not worth the power slot. End Redux and dmg slotters if you take it.

Conductive Shield -4- Fire, cold, negative energy, and energy resistance. As all /Elec shields, it has specifically high resistances compared to other brutes. Another good addition to your spinny-blue-light toggle lineup. 3 dmg resistance 1-3 end redux

Static Shield -4- Hold, Sleep, Disorient, End Drain, Recovery Debuff, Teleport Foe, and strong PSIONICS resistance? Hooray for the anti-mezz shield. Gotta love it. 3 dmg resistance 1-3 end redux.

Grounded -4- Energy, Negative Energy, Knockback, Immobilization, and End Drain resistance, very good, although I suggest leaving slots for other powers. If anything, 3 dmg resisters. Note that you only have KB and immob prot on the ground, and not on some slopes. This helps cap out your energy resistance.

Lightning Reflexes -5- Slow effects resistance is nice. What makes this power a real jewel is the +speed +recharge. The +recharge is AMAZING with hasten, the reason a lot of people get Elec armor. It makes you the lord of Elec Melee too. The +speed allows you to go Swift/Sprint/LR 3 slotted with run increases, which only saves you one or two power slots if you were to get another travel power, but I find works very well. So annoying trying to get flying kiters that I am considering replacing my two AoE powers from Scirrocco with Superjump but note that Swift/Sprint/LR works, works well, and moves fast

. If anything, 3 run increasers.

Conserve Power -3- You wont need Conserve Power AND Power Sink. Trust me. And, although still with Hasten+LR this thing has a long recharge on it. I just choose to put 2 acc and 3 end mod in Power Sink and skip this power you can get this one instead but I strongly dont suggest it, Power Sink will serve you better. 3 +recharge if you get it.

Power Sink -4.5- Whee Power Sink. PBAoE end sap, gives you a generous amount of endurance and can end up sucking a lot out of other players. Although it can miss, it has good recharge with Hasten+LR and is very useful. Strongly recommended over Conserve Power. 3 end mod 1-3 recharge slotters.

Power Surge -5- +Resistance, and a very generous amount, to all but psionics, Recovery (endurance gain) rate increase, and resistance to pretty much every mezz known to man, for a few minutes, until it dies out. Makes you look cool like Deathsurge, and explodes apon ending. This is my personal favorite of all toggle-based ATs godmodes. Since it will cap out every resistance you have except Psionics and Toxic, which will be VERY good with just this power on I suggest no +dmg resistance slots, just 3 +recharge.

Section X3: Suggested Pools

Pretty straightforward, yes?

Medicine is good, as you can get Aid Self. Pop in 3 heals 2 interrupt times and a recharge enhancement, and you have a very nice self heal for ya. Yay Aid self.

Fighting works too, I got Boxing for a filler attack and Tough to slap on yet more Smash/Lethal resistance a lot of people say Tough sucks. Dont listen to them all the +resistance counts, and with Charged Armor and Tough you have a VERY nice Smashing/Lethal resistance, the two most common dmg types in the game.

Speed. What can I say. Hasten is godly with Electric armor. Get it or be slapped down for being a n00b ;-)
Fitness some people may try Conserve Power and Power Sink with no stamina, but I strongly suggest Swift/Health/Stamina. Health to make you more survivable, Stamina for the endurance you will definitely need, and Swift+Sprint+Lightning Reflexes make a very tidy unsurpressed travel power.

Patron Power Pools are debatable, and personal preference. I personally went with the three non-pet powers from Mu Mastery because A. It fits my red-zappy theme B. Its yet MORE endurance drain C. I like the fact that I have Thunder Strike+(meh AoE but still, technically) Jacobs Ladder+Lightning Rod+Lightning Ball+Cone Lighting+Power Surge dies out+Lightning Clap. All that amazing PBAoE and cone stuff makes you the huge-crowd lord of PvE. More on that later.

Section X4: My build.

This is just my personal build, not in any real particular order, I find it works very well, for pretty much any occasion, although as I mentioned before I may switch out my AoE patron powers for CJ/SJ so I can catch those damn Fly-kiters.

Havok Punch: 3 dmg 1 acc
Jacobs Ladder: 3 dmg 1 acc
Build Up: 1 recharge
Thunder Strike: 3 dmg 2 acc
Lightning Clap: 1 acc
Lightning Rod: 3 dmg 2 acc
Charged Armor: 3 dmg resist 3 end redux
Conductive Shield: 3 dmg resist 3 end redux
Static Shield: 3 dmg resist 3 end redux
Grounded: 1 dmg resist
Lightning Reflexes: 3 run speed
Power Sink: 3 end mod 2 recharge
Power Surge: 3 recharge
Hasten: 3 recharge
Boxing: 1 dmg
Tough: 3 dmg resist 3 end redux
Swift: 3 run speed
Health: 3 heal
Stamina: 3 end mod
Sprint: 3 run speed
Aid Other: 1 heal
Aid Self: 3 heal 2 interrupt time 1 recharge
Lightning Bolt: 3 dmg 1 acc
Ball Lightning: 3 dmg 1 acc
Cone Lightning: 3 dmg 1 acc

All the accolades. If you dont know about the Accolade badge powers, look into them. They are amazing for any AT but they transform us, at least, into gods.

Section X5: PvP Strengths of Elec/Elec

Yes, we dont do as much base dmg as the rest of the classes. However, we do beat the crap out of anything that involves toggles. Our steady end drain through our attack chain is pure hell to any Tanker, Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, or other class that needs to flick on toggles eating away end very fast and hearing that beautiful VWEEEOP (I win) sound. For non togglies, well, theyre squishy, and we have more than enough dmg resistance to handle em. No matter how much less base dmg it does than the other brute sets, which really isnt too much, electric melee is a very strong PvP set. Elec Armor. You dont lose hp very fast and if you took Aid Self you can heal between ½ and 1/3 of it easy as hell. Electric Armor is godly, you just DONT take much damage whatsoever. If tanks could use it the devs would rescind the choice to bring it heroside within a day, or nerf it extremely.

Section X6: PvE Strengths of Elec/Elec

Well to put it simply as soon as you create your Elec/Elec brute, you just hit the ( I own) button for PvE. A large dose of strong PBAoE damage, great for teams, and survivability to match a scrapper, better even. I can solo through a Relentless mish in between 10 and 20 minutes In addition to the damage output on mobs, you dont lose hp enough to worry. Heal every once in a while. Boss battles are tough on Relentless, but doable, and made easy if you use insps or Accolades.

So there you have it. The essential guide to Elec/Elec. Critique it, keep posting, its my first guide, but about a build I know well and did VERY well with, judging solely by performance. I want your feedback *HAH pun =p*.