Erratic1

An Energy Aura player who runs out of endurance at any point past Energy Drain does so because they want to die.

I don't typically spend but a few hours playing the early game. I suppose this might make a difference to someone who plans on languishing in their 20s and even then you're talking a difference in endurance consumptions of 0.18/s--basically meaningless. If 0.18s is the difference between your character's survival and defeat you should probably slot an Endurance Reduction SO somewhere (like an attack since attacks are the primary consumers of endurance). Mid's is far from perfect and gets powers wrong. Why don't we take a trip over to City of Data: Notice the power has two entries for +Defense. That is it gives a base amount (0.75% Defense to S/L/F/C/E/N) and a variable amount based on the number of nearby foes (0.375% Defense to S/ L/F/C/E/N). When you use the power you can check the Power Monitor to see: Look at that...multiple entries for Energy Drain based on the number of foes nearby. Looks like it is adding up to more than 2% and that with the few guys around the character. I will admit that is on a scrappper, not a stalker since my only stalker with Energy Aura is level 23 (and unlikely to go any higher since I dislike the primary I took on her). Maybe some kind soul will happen along to show me that the power works differently on Stalkers by posting from the actual game. Its not like I did not address this already upthread: And you do not even need to get to perma-Energize, just close enough that combined with Energy Drain you never run out of endurance. I pull that routine on my Elec/Rad tanker (Electrical Armor is the resistance mirror set to Energy Aura) who has Energize recharging every 40s.

Posi? The TF where even assuming the higher level of the two you are capped at level 16 maximum, do not have half your powers just barely one-quarter of your slots? You're judging a powerset by how it plays at level 16? 😲

Handy for knowing when Master Illusionists are solid enough to punch. My Elec/Rad Tanker has two auras and they do add up to something noticeable. Proc'ing them out is my next goal.

EA does not have a damage aura but it does have +Recharge which does buff damage throughput since attacks cycle faster.

Does not look like it to me. It gets better values on Kinetic Shield and Power Shield, equivalent to Scrapper and better than Brute on Energy Drain, comparable to Brute and behind Scrapper on Kinetic Dampening. And the complaint was about Endurance costs, which do not look to be any different.

Ice Armor/ Energy Melee using Thunderhead or Electricity Aura. Color Energy Melee attacks to match the color of Ice Armor.

Life is too short to not play what gives you the most enjoyment. If Elec/Ice is firing your imagination more than Stone/Elec, why fight it and not just wholeheartedly dive into Elec/Ice? My latest Tanker's powersets are not a combo which you will see talked about much if at all--Elec/Rad. I cannot hold it up as being either particularly outstanding in the realm of survival nor damage output. But something about the combo and the character theme fired my imagination, even at the point in levelling where it at times it seemed perhaps better to move onto another build. But I could walk away from him. Sure enough, once I got his IOs slotted and upped his global recharge things were so much better--Energize was up 75% of the time reducing endurance issues and Radiation Siphon could serve to both contaminate a target (with decent chance due to its cooldown) and to then proc healing from the same target without needing to play whack-a-mole with randomly contaminated targets. The one that grabs you will be the one you stick with to squeeze the most performance from.

And you do not even need to get to perma-Energize, just close enough that combined with Energy Drain you never run out of endurance. I pull that routine on my Elec/Rad tanker (Electrical Armor is the resistance mirror set to Energy Aura) who has Energize recharging every 40s.

Unless Energy Aura got powers/values utterly out of line with every other implementation on other ATs you are doing something horribly wrong.

No reason other than I like to change things up and hadn't used it in a while. But I will note that before you get Lightning Rod a nifty way to enter a crowd is to pre-target an enemy, queue up Thunder Strike then teleport to the target's location. But that is not really a great reason to choose teleport over any other travel power.

What follows is a quickie without a lot of deep thought put to it to convert it from Brutal fashion to something more Tankish. No doubt better exists...probably far better. It skips Jacob's Ladder because you are uncertain of it. FWIW, a trick to using Jacob's Ladder is to move away from a group slightly while targeting a foe on the edge then auto-follow [F] back to the group with Jacob's Ladder activated. But if you're spending more than a half second doing this then yeah...perhaps Jacob's Ladder is best dropped.

Working up a Electric/Stone brute (currently level 41) so don't have a Tanker build up my sleeve, but let me see what I can crib together from what I am doing with her....

During the last great snow storm my heater went out and the repairman could not make it to my house for 2 days because the snow was so thick. It is amazing when one can tell the difference between 53F and 57F, which I managed with a single space heater for the entire house. The previous big storm, 3 months before caused the central tree in my back yard to develop cracks running along the branch over my powerlines to both my and my neighbor's house. But hey...what's $7000 to deal with both events between friends? What makes you think those of us elsewhere do not know of ice and snow? And have you never heard of a sandstorm? Or a dust storm (which this region was famous for about a century ago)? Not all storms come with ice.

You're making the volcano goddess mad by denying her lightning. She just might roll you some pyroclastic flow (and there aint no ice in that)....

Think volcanic lightning and we can dispense with talk of Ice in favor of Stone/Electrical Melee. It's a storm which portends nastier things to come. I'll even give you a theme to work with.... Do NOT make the volcano goddess mad!

I think you focus a bit overmuch on Recovery and miss a few opportunities trying to raise Fire/Cold resistance. Focus does knockdown inherently and does not need KB->KD. Also, since Environmental Adaptation is your big Defense provider, it should be the one getting Enhancements, not Weave. I danced some enhancements and slots around but tried not to stray too far from what you had.

You are correct, Scrappers and Stalkers can pull that off but not Brutes. Well in that case Claws/EA vs Claws/Bio...given the OP's dislike of Bio I'd say go Claws/EA.

3 clicks (4 if you like to change stances--I don't but some do) of which 2 are purely, "Oh shit!!" situational and one which is best practice used (if you just ran into a large group). FWIW, I'd suggest Claws/Stone though certainly Claws/Bio and Claws/EA would both be awesome.

The danger is you will start making characters and want to play them all. Make them in game first then use Mids to decide a path for them.

If you knock them all down with Lightning Rod first the animation time doesn't matter because they aren't going anywhere or doing anything. Of course on a brute you don't really care too much because what are they going to do to you during animation...kill you? When Lightning Rod isn't up I teleport into a group with Thunder Strike queued up on the target I'm teleporting to.

Just remember to skip Proton Sweep (personally I'd dump Devastating blow too but some disagree). Cross Punch provides a nice substitute.

Rad Melee has its own slower, deliberate pace. It is not for everyone. I tried multiple times to make an Elec Melee character and none ever gelled properly until my most recent go on an Elec/Stone (brute). Even so, Jacob's Ladder and Thunder Strike are just barely on the edge of tolerable.

Your guy does not have Hover or a means of flight.... Aren't you generally on the ground?

Unless Clobber is going to one-hit kill the target and you are not going to be making any other attacks, what you open up with is immaterial. Add too the stated criteria for judging was, "...looking at the damage numbers in-game and especially the animation times...." In game the damage boost will be there from the second attack onward and damage per animation time while Clobber is fantastic every other attack in WM is on par with unmodified Claws (barring Whirling Mace which is woefully behind).