Nemu

Testing out sonic manipulation made me take a step back and look at /Elec as a whole and FOT's role in it on live. Ignoring the sustain part of it and focusing solely on the control aspect of FOT. What makes it so attractive on Live to melee blasters is due to the fact that /Elec is very single target focused. Therefore FOT in conjunction with Thunder Strike work well together to limit incoming damage from the adds surrounding the primary target. Dynamo can't do it alone, but if the splash damage on TS is increased by 300-400% it would surely increase kill speed and compensate for the loss of a consistent way to cycle KD. Even so, powers like ice patch from ice manipulation and even bonfire from the fire epic provides constant KD more efficiently and I see no reason that /Elec shouldn't be able to do the same with more effort and more risk.

Overall the set has a good feel speed wise, no animation is too clunky and the attacks flow well. Melee blasters like myself will enjoy this set. Here are some comments: Strident Echo's DOT takes too long. You can typically get Strident to under well under 5 seconds recharge and the overlap will waste the remaining dot. Recommend shortening the DOT and upping the front loaded damage. With the rest of the set thematically wrapped around hold as a secondary effect sound cannon seems out of place. I get that in RL thematically loud sounds disorient but this powers offers no synergy whatsoever with the rest of the set. I skipped it in my melee build because no synergy and ranged cone. Given the uproar over the range reduction on electrified net arrow with TA, I imagine having this tied to a 45 feet cone with no synergy with the rest of the set means that the ranged crowd will most likely skip this too. The absorb on sound barrier is negligible and makes no difference whatsoever for those versed in melee blasting. I don't know how the devs would feel about combining the effects of disruption aura into sound barrier. It's not like there is no precedence for combining blaster sustains with debuffs/damage auras...

I have a feeling most of the posters rooting for Dynamo replacing FOT are of the hover blasting crowd (don't get all triggered, read further below). I have absolute confidence the pure ranged crowd would skip FOT if it went to live regardless of whether it got modified in it's current beta state or not as long as the PBAoE tag sticks. Dynamo is a QoL improvement that both ranged and melee blasters can benefit from. FOT only benefits the melee crowd. Having said that I tested FOT with a few +4/8 PI radios. I had it down to about 30 seconds recharge so yes it's available every fight and it reliably triggers the FF proc. The stun on fodder lasts about 7 seconds, and I have not been able to stack stuns on bosses so far with thunder strike, as I have from time to time on live. The stun gives you enough time to take out a troublesome LT like a tarantula mistress but that's about it. Without the ability to cycle KDs like we can on live the incoming damage will be increased by magnitudes for melee blasters. The risk vs reward ratio is skewed towards mostly risk and negligible reward for those that make their home in melee range. While veteran players with softcapped builds and knowledge of how to play melee blasters can most likely get by with this change if it goes on live, those that don't build for softcap and there are plenty out there, and the more casual blasters will find little benefit to this power. I anticipate that they will most likely mark this as a skip just as the pure ranged crowd does. Radioactive Cloud is the closest comparison to FOT. In a vacuum they carry the same amount of risk with the PbAoE tag. However RC is a hold, and can stack with positron cell a lot more reliably than the FOT/TS interaction. In addition blaster primaries have quite a few damaging attacks with a hold component that can also stack with RC and PC. That secondary also feature beta decay which debuffs to hit, and metabolic acceleration provides more defensive benefits than Dynamo. /Elec has powersink but that in itself is not enough for an end drain strategy, and the end drain that dynamo does is not immediate and/or large enough to synergize with powersink. In short /Elec lacks the toolkit to back FOT up in its beta state. As I said before, if you can rotate energy torrent and explosive blast for the KD mitigation with less risk, there is no reason why we can't have the same interaction with TS and FOT with their current recharge timers on live. Change the recharge of the new FOT to 30 seconds, remove the stun, or keep a small chance to stun if you are feeling generous. That will make both the ranged crowd and the melee crowd happy with the changes to /Elec.

I get that, I'm way past the sustain part of FOT as it relates to any comparisons. I'm strictly focusing on the soft control/recharge time component of FOT. The whole bringing Blaster T8 AoE CC powers does have it's holes no? Where does that leave burn? I can accept having FOT at the T8 slot, but the new FOT doesn't NEED to be a clone of other T8s. Keep the 30 second recharge and the KB, remove the sustain and heck remove the stuns too, and I'll accept that. But the garbage of an auto-skip power on beta right now? NOPE.

Doesn't have to be if they kept the recharge time on the new FOT and to hell with the stun component. Again, let's not focus on the sustain part and make this a Dynamo VS FOT discussion. This should be an Old FOT vs New FOT discussion. You and I are on the same page about this, we just have to focus on FOT itself 😁

I'm fine if dynamo makes it to live, I'm not fine if the new FOT makes it to live, for reasons I have stated in my previous posts.

The bigger issue is what they did to to the new FOT. Let's not warp the focus onto whether Dynamo is better than FOT as a sustain. That doesn't matter, focus on the new FOT itself. Devs talk about incentivizing blasters to go into melee, and FOT as it is now is at a good place with risk vs reward. It worked well with thunderstrike to provide consistent mitigation for blasters that live in melee. This is no different than cycling energy torrent and explosive blast on an energy blaster, and the latter carries less risk due to it being ranged and the two powers cycle faster than FOT and TS. Now you turn FOT into a late pick with a 90 second timer emphasizing it's ability to reliably stun. That's a huge nerf to FOT as far as myself and some others that have posted here are concerned. If you want to nerf FOT take the stun component away from the original version and I'd still prefer that to the new version.

The latter is probably more relevant than the former. I just ran around PI with dynamo on and played around with some level 43 mobs to get a gauge of how dynamo contributes to my damage. Against a level 43 minion it takes 2 flares to kill it, with dynamo on it still takes 2 flares to kill it because I don't have time to wait for Dynamo to do its thing. Against real threats kill speed matters even more. I'm sure AoE starved blasters will appreciate damage auras if they have the nerve to go into melee, but most blasters have enough AoE to wipe out fodder. And if we are talking about going toe to toe with multiple bosses, it will take a lot of ticks to to match the amount of damage you can throw out with a fireball, and the reality is that you will still use blaze to kill off that boss with 60 hp left instead of of giving it 2 more seconds to kill you. I can see the spreadsheet warriors talking about how auras contribute a significant percentage of damage on farms/etc but the reality is that we ain't got time for dat. Whether you agree with me on this or not is inconsequential, I think we both agree that the changes to /elec is not good and that's what matters 😁 I'd much rather Dynamo had a useful secondary debuff effect than damage. But I'd much prefer if they just put FOT back in that slot and make it a toggle sustain with a click component to satisfy the camp that dislikes FOT for being a click.

So rather than ramble on and complain about the change to FOT I'm going to offer a suggestion The primary complaint from players about FOT is that it's not a toggle and have to be activated regularly So make it a toggle, but once toggled on provide a click for the pbaoe KB power on the same 30 second timer. The tech is there already, at least for the click part. I don't know how it would affect enhancement allowance though.

FOT had a unique sustain mechanic. More importantly if the premise is to buff /elec then the FOT change is a nerf. I'd rather have 2 pbaoe knockdowns on a relatively short timer than a pbaoe stun on a long timer. The patch notes about blaster secondaries mention giving blasters incentives to go into melee, this change takes away some of that incentive. Compared the other ranged 90 second control options in other sets a pbaoe stun on a 90 second timer is vastly inferior. It's much easier to stack holds than it is to stack stuns, and most single target stuns from blaster primaries don't do any damage so they are instant skips, just like FOT will be if the changes make it to live. Regarding dynamo, most players don't take blaster damage auras. There are some that do, but most players don't play melee blasters and melee blasters don't take damage auras because they already have enough damage and they don't want to deal with re-toggling when they get mezzed. Adding a pitiful amount of damage to a toggle sustain is not a buff. It is unnecessary in the first place. /Elec is a melee blasters set and the way it works right now compliments that playstyle perfectly. I was ok with the 3.3 second animation time on TS, but I'll take that buff. The FOT change though is utter junk.

Patch notes had me at the first half talking about Electric Manip being under-tuned and then I see the change to FOT. Please don't touch my FOT, it's fine as it is.

15 minutes.

Look no further than @Darkir's build. It's got survival covered. I'd do a few things differently. I'm firm believer of slow resistance for high end high budget builds. As a blaster player I am also a firm believer of anti-mez powers and I'll always take those. Steam Spray doesn't jive with the melee-centric playstyle so I skipped it in this build. It's a toss up between paralytic poison vs alkaloid but paralytic won out because of LGTF. This build won't have softcap level melee defense but Range defense is more important of the two, you have VG and weaken to debuff the things around you but it's the ranged stuff outside your debuff zone that will kill you. Besides VG has a large radius, if you do micro movements after each power to stay just outside of mobs melee range you will be fine. Movement: it's underrated and the secret to survival. I chose agility as the alpha because the build could use the recharge, you could just as well swap it out for musculature though, a half a percentage shy of ranged softcap is good enough. If end management becomes an issue vigor is also a good candidate. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Mutation Defender Primary Power Set: Poison Secondary Power Set: Water Blast Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Envenom -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), HO:Lyso(15), HO:Lyso(17) Level 1: Aqua Bolt -- SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg(A), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3) Level 2: Weaken -- CldSns-ToHitDeb(A), CldSns-Acc/ToHitDeb(9), CldSns-Acc/Rchg(17), CldSns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(37), CldSns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(40), CldSns-%Dam(40) Level 4: Water Burst -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A), Ann-ResDeb%(5), Ann-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg(7), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(9) Level 6: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), WntGif-ResSlow(50) Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Ksm-ToHit+(40) Level 10: Whirlpool -- Artl-Acc/Dam(A), Artl-Dam/End(11), Artl-Dam/Rech(11), Artl-Acc/Dam/Rech(13), Artl-Acc/Rech/Rng(13), Artl-End/Rech/Rng(15) Level 12: Antidote -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43) Level 16: Tidal Forces -- GssSynFr--Build%(A) Level 18: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def(19), Rct-Def/EndRdx(19), Rct-ResDam%(21) Level 20: Dehydrate -- SprVglAss-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprVglAss-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb(23), TchoftheN-Acc/Heal(23), ThfofEss-+End%(25), HO:Nucle(25) Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 24: Tough -- HO:Ribo(A), ResDam-I(50) Level 26: Poison Trap -- FuroftheG-ResDeb%(A), ScrDrv-Dam%(27), Arm-Dam%(27), Erd-%Dam(29), UnbCns-Dam%(29), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(31) Level 28: Water Jet -- SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDfnBst-Dmg/Rchg(31), SprDfnBst-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%(33) Level 30: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(34), ShlWal-Def(34), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(34) Level 32: Venomous Gas -- HO:Enzym(A) Level 35: Dark Consumption -- PreOptmz-Acc/Rech(A), PreOptmz-EndMod/End(36), PreOptmz-EndMod/Rech(36), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/End(36), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/Rech(37), PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech(37) Level 38: Geyser -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A), Artl-Acc/Dam/Rech(39), Artl-Dam/Rech(39), Artl-Dam/End(39), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50) Level 41: Dark Embrace -- GldArm-End/Res(A), GldArm-RechRes(42), GldArm-RechEnd(42), GldArm-Res/Rech/End(42), GldArm-ResDam(43), GldArm-3defTpProc(43) Level 44: Soul Drain -- Erd-Acc/Rchg(A), Erd-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(46) Level 47: Paralytic Poison -- BslGaz-Acc/Hold(A), BslGaz-Acc/Rchg(48), BslGaz-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(48), BslGaz-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(48) Level 49: Elixir of Life -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Quick Form Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- UnbLea-Stlth(A) Level 1: Vigilance Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(46) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 1: Combo Level 1 Level 1: Combo Level 2 Level 1: Combo Level 3 Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 50: Agility Core Paragon ------------

I don't want no D, much less Ds... 😝 @Darkir Yeah I would build for survival but I don't think most of the posters here are the min/maxing performance chasing type. So I offered critique based on their build and what I saw as their preferences. Not everyone has the same outlook on performance, but I'm sure when they are ready they'll come back and seek feedback.

Did that on my DP/MA, just sorta happened when my teammates all fell, no barrier, no rune of protection, Just scorp shield, a pair of guns, panda kicks and my blaster-fu. That was one of my finer moments. Then the next mission two trash romans defense cascaded me for the boss to whack me dead while I was stuck in animation... That made me a saaaad panda. That boss did not live to tell his tale...

Good explanation of your rationale and now I have the proper context. Endurance management can be pretty tough with standard SO/IO slotting and even more so when you are running as many toggles as you are. I'd invest in two performance shifter procs and put one each in physical perfection and stamina, then a panacea proc when you can afford it into health. I'd also re-slot the miracle proc in health as well so that it will still work for you even when exemped down. If you do nothing else that should improve your endurance quality of life. Of the toggles and what they protect you against, assault is the least useful. There are not too many enemies out there that taunt and even less that placate. Also neither assault nor tactics provide protection against those effects, just resistance, meaning that they will wear off sooner, but you will still be taunted/confused, etc... The only status that these toggle really counter is blind, and tactics in general is nice because of the +to hit so I would probably include it too in my build. Weave is optional too, you are very close to softcap without it and if you invested in a couple of ranged defense and aoe defense set bonuses you can leave it off until you go up against debuff heavy opponents. Of course If you don't wish to invest any more influence on this character Vigor is perfectly fine, it's a great alpha for the build you have right now and I would do the same thing.

I don't scrutinize over dps too much with blasters, I know I'll defeat stuff just fine because even hover blasters are viable, so I'm absolutely confident that shooting AND punching stuff in the face will get the job done. If I wanted an apex DPS build I certainly wouldn't do it the way that I did, and while such blaster builds might shave off a min or two off the pylon test solo that rarely comes into play in real life against multiple adds with defense and other debuffs. I'd much rather see a blaster solo +4/8 Nictus ambush than post a sub 3 min time on pylon tests. Or perhaps you are talking about the DPA and animation times which contributes to lower DPS, well you knew what you signed up for when you paired these two power sets. I just make the most of it and make do with what I have. I have a fire/elec and an elec/fire and if I thought about dps each time I hopped on the latter I would have stopped playing it a long time ago, sometimes you just gotta take what you have and enjoy the moment😃

My alternate option is to play a melee blaster and graduate out of those training wheels that is the melee AT, or basically anything that play in melee and has mez protection. 😝

The root of the issue is in your build and slotting. Post that and we can help dissect it. Off the bat I question the need for any of the leadership toggles on an SR tank.

I'd fit in thunderstrike, drop confront, you don't need it, get rid of the 6th slot in zapp, energize, ball lightning and put them into thunderstrike. The build can use a bit more rework to be optimized but it's not a bad start. However it's not really a ranged scrapper, just a scrapper with access to ranged epic attacks which every other combination has access to. Spines, staff, claws, and kinetic combat all have ranged attacks, spines and kinetic combat both have 2, those might be better powersets if you really don't want to chase stuff. And you can take the epic ranged attacks on top of that.

Good question. You will need to look at the numbers and decide for yourself how many slots you want to throw into it. Most blaster sustains except for drain psyche and energize offer the same regen/recovery bonuses so this is a comment on those collectively. Let's look at the regen portion first, because people tend to get hung up on healing and prioritize that over any other attribute if a power has a heal component. At level 50 with no slotting at all, you can achieve anywhere between 22-28 HP ball park regened per second with Metabolic Acceleration turned on, the actual numbers vary with how you choose to build your set bonuses and whether you have the extra HP accolades or not. If you 3 slot MA with heals to the ED CAP your regen bumps up to 30-35 HP regened per second. So on average 8-9 more HP regened per second. So you have to ask yourself in a tough fight is that extra 8-9 more HP gained per second really going to help you on an AT with relatively low HP and relatively low defenses (ignoring what you can achieve with IOs)? To put the nail in the coffin there are plenty of enemy powers that nullify your regeneration completely, so all that slotting and any regen set bonuses that you intentionally build for become useless in an instant. Endurance on the other hand, everyone has end issues. MA unslotted will yield 1 extra end recovered per second and fully slotted can yield a bit over 2. That's pretty huge. No other ATs have this kind of free endurance sustain. These blaster sustains can make endurance a non-issue for a lot of blaster builds (not my fire/elec though lol). If it's not conventional wisdom that you should take these sustains at level 20 when they become available, it should be. Finally let's throw in IOs and build goals into the mix. There are generally 2 schools with blaster builds, extreme recharge or defense. Extreme recharge builds will burn through endurance pretty fast because recharge, defense builds run a lot of toggle which also suck endurance. Defense builds also mean you get hit less, so in those cases where 1 in 20 attacks actually manage to land on you do you really need that extra 8-9 HP regened per second? In both cases if you had to prioritize slotting of MA I think the choice between heal and endmod becomes pretty clear. I see the regen portion of the sustain as a nice side perk, the real winner with the sustains is the end recovery. FYI I typically slot these toggle sustains with 6 piece pre-emptive optimization for the minor recharge bonus and most importantly, the ranged defense bonus at 6 slots. Because I typically build my blasters to thrive in melee and all of them have S/L/Ranged softcap. And I can tell you with authority that has far more impact on survival than squeezing 8-9 extra HP regened per second out of my sustain.

There is no need to put end reduction in it. It's your recovery/regen sustain toggle and most people slot it with either heal or end mod enhancements, or both.

I find the single target capabilities in /fire lackluster, especially when paired with electric blast, which is known to suffer in the single target dps department. In general I think /fire is overhyped. Yeah AoE damage is nice but that much AoE is overkill, and if you want to be a real tank mage make an /elec, but I digress... Atomic fixes the ST deficiency with electric blast with negatron slam and positronic fist. Atom smasher is enough AoE to supplement SC and BL. If you didn't like the long animation times on Atom Smasher you probably don't like the cast on short circuit either. But don't let those long animations stop you from having a good time!😁 If you know how to joust and have a decent bit of slow resist you don't really need the tp from speed of sound. You can jump joust in and out of slow -movement ground patches like ice slick or caltrop fields and if you get stuck in one the slow resist will allow you to run away. I never have an issue moving around with 65-80% slow resist against chimera's goons or knives that love to caltrops everywhere. Building for S/L/R softcap is pretty cookie cutter and you can still get away with 70-80% global recharge bonus through set bonuses depending on the secondary. I also build for maximum exemplar effectiveness so that survival is fully matured for Citidel TF and up. SS/Stealth IO allows for speeding if I am running speed TF stacks, and I also shoot for slow resist above 50% Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Blaster Primary Power Set: Electrical Blast Secondary Power Set: Atomic Manipulation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Lightning Bolt -- SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDfnBrr-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprDfnBrr-Rchg/+Status Protect(21) Level 1: Electron Shackles -- Acc-I(A) Level 2: Ball Lightning -- Artl-Acc/Dam(A), Artl-Dam/End(27), Artl-Dam/Rech(29), Artl-Acc/Dam/Rech(31), Artl-Acc/Rech/Rng(34), Artl-End/Rech/Rng(37) Level 4: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(A), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(21) Level 6: Short Circuit -- SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsWrt-Dmg/Rchg(7), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), SprBlsWrt-Rchg/Dmg%(11) Level 8: Aim -- RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(A), RctRtc-ToHit(31), GssSynFr--Build%(50) Level 10: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Ksm-ToHit+(11), WntGif-ResSlow(23) Level 12: Zapp -- StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg(A), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(13), StnoftheM-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(13), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), StnoftheM-Dam%(19) Level 14: Negatron Slam -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(15), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), KntCmb-Knock%(17), HO:Nucle(17) Level 16: Ionize -- HO:Membr(A) Level 18: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 20: Metabolic Acceleration -- PreOptmz-Acc/Rech(A), PreOptmz-EndMod/End(40), PreOptmz-EndMod/Rech(43), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/End(43), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/Rech(43), PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech(46) Level 22: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(23), UnbGrd-Max HP%(46) Level 24: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(25), ShlWal-Def(25), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(27) Level 26: Beta Decay -- HO:Enzym(A) Level 28: Atom Smasher -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(40) Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(31), LucoftheG-Def(46) Level 32: Thunderous Blast -- Artl-Acc/Dam(A), Artl-Dam/End(33), Artl-Dam/Rech(33), Artl-Acc/Dam/Rech(33), Artl-Acc/Rech/Rng(34), Artl-End/Rech/Rng(34) Level 35: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def(36), Rct-Def/EndRdx(36), Rct-ResDam%(36) Level 38: Positronic Fist -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(39), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(40) Level 41: Tesla Cage -- BslGaz-Acc/Hold(A), BslGaz-Acc/Rchg(42), BslGaz-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42), BslGaz-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42) Level 44: Positron Cell -- BslGaz-Acc/Hold(A), BslGaz-Acc/Rchg(45), BslGaz-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), BslGaz-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45) Level 47: Radioactive Cloud -- SprEnt-Acc/Hold(A), SprEnt-Hold/Rchg(48), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End(48), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End/Rchg(48), SprEnt-Rchg/AbsorbProc(50) Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Quick Form Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- UnbLea-Stlth(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion ------------

If you take the melee powers in /atom and you should, it'll play a lot like elec/fire. Sit in melee all day churning out pbaoes/point blank blasts. Ok it doesn't really play like that all the time. There are times you don't want to be in the thick of it, like when you go up against talons of vengeance and they start dropping lightning patches... If you stay in one place all the time like that then be prepared to be rezzed all the time. Long animation times isn't really an issue if you learn how to joust. Hop in, hop out, fire your pbaoes as you hop out, animate that 3 second pbaoe as you land, out of the danger zone. Another way to augment survival is just to softcap S/L/R defenses and then you don't have to move as much (but still do move when you get lightning patches dropped on your head). Or you can always depend on teammates to keep you alive, sometimes. Were I to build elec/atom I'd definitely take scorp shield and work in softcapped S/L/Ranged defense. Volt sentinel is a skip and tesla cage might be on the chopping block, I might also skip charged bolts because I can supplement my ST damage with harder hitting attacks from /Atom It's not that much different than building a defense based melee AT really. Soft cap is soft cap. Just because you are building a blaster doesn't mean that all of a sudden those kinetic combat and makos and winter IO sets with their defense bonuses suddenly become useless.

CONTEXT This is not about you relating to your experiences with your own build, Rather please look at the OP's build and how changes affect that build. You can make an argument for extreme recharge if you are building proc monsters which rely on global recharge but the OP's build doesn't go that way. You also do not need capped recharge to cycle attacks non-stop. Finally water blast is not fire blast, the single target attacks have lower base recharge and thus are further impacted by diminishing returns from extreme recharge. A 3 second difference in the nuke as a result of 30% more global recharge is largely inconsequential in the real world. If you zoom in on the single target attacks in OP's original build, even with 30% less global recharge he can still rotate between dehydrate and water jet seamlessly. So where does that 170% global recharge really get him? If you cram that much recharge just to shave 3 seconds off 1 power then the ROI on that is really poor. Meanwhile the build suffers from low defenses, no slow resist, low acc, and all the other holes I pointed out. You don't have to build an uber tankmage, but you can certainly patch some of those holes by shuffling some of those set bonuses. Finally if you read through my original post and looked at my build you will see the end result patches a lot of those holes at the cost of losing 6% global recharge, and with the FF procs triggering even once, I can surpass the global recharge from the original build.