Direct Crit

Not really? Honestly I originally thought EF was going to be a % chance to trigger from any attack originally and something you could happen to spend on others. Having a consistent generator -> spender is fine, it's specifically for the Crit classes that TF generates an extra EF as part of the trade off for TFs lower crit. Brutes/Tanks will feel just fine, but for Stalkers/Scrappers it feels like TF is being slightly nerfed and given the extra EF as an exchange, but that exchange isn't worth the trade as the extra EF isn't useful all the time? It's certainly not the end of the world, and getting the Stun + -Special is perfectly acceptable, but in reality it just doesn't amount to anything significant compared to the boost ET gets from the faster animation.

I don't understand what you're saying here. When I say single target situation I'm specifically talking about fighting an AV. Most things in the game won't survive a TF -> ET for the most part. This is just in the scope of an attack chain against something that is more than a small meatbag that grants XP.

Stalkers and Scrappers both share this mechanic. Both suffer from the same issue. The Stalker can control when they get the bonus EF stack, yes, but they're still stuck with the basic problem of Bone Smasher consuming a stack of EF you'd rather save for ET, especially with EFs 15 second duration. I know people are citing the ability to stun bosses with TF -> BS but frankly that's not something a majority of sets will ever be using sans unique situations where you want to detoggle an enemy. The extra mag of stun and -Special is fairly useless overall and feels like a punishment to eat your extra stack of EF that'd be better spent on another fast-ET. Again, I am speaking from the perspective of a high-end build, as that's primarily how I build and play my characters. What I'm asking for is an even stronger buff and I'm well aware, but I don't 'like' the feel we get from the bonus EF essentially being useless.

In a single target situation I'm not hitting Power Crash. In an AoE situation I'm specifically going to save EF for Power Crash as it's more powerful than a fast ET. But! I will also be using Bone Smasher as part of my chain, and having it consume the bonus EF feels bad when it basically feels like I'm being punished for using Bone Smasher. The EF bonus Bone Smasher gets is negligible at best.

Adding in my personal feedback after playing around with the set a bit, and this is written from the perspective of a min-maxer that inherently builds characters to solo AVs/+4x8: Pros Energy Focus is a great mechanic. I enjoy the idea behind having branching ways to spend it and perform differently, if I want an AoE focus or ST focus at any given time. The ET changes are great, I never expected us to touch the 1 second animation ever again and getting it back with the better game-feel of the screen shake on impact is a great choice. TF's faster animation does wonders for the feel and flow of the set. Even if TF got a damage reduction for it, it's a great change all around as the excessive animation was problematic. Bone Smasher and EP being brought up DPA wise is a welcome change, not entirely sure if necessary Power Crash as an additional AoE and Whirling Hands being brought into line help TREMENDOUSLY for game feel for EM. EM, despite everyone wanting to talk about being an ST focus, needed more AoE. This game does not really revolve around ST, and further many many sets don't inherently trade off additional ST for more AoE, so this line of approach always felt extra punishing. By giving it access to additional AoE, even if it's a touch weaker, EM feels like a set that performs well in a group or solo. Cons Build Up should grant Energy Focus: Having to pop Total Focus to get Energy Focus for AoEing groups isn't baaaad but it'd help with the feel of the set, and allow more flexibility in play. Total Focus granting 2 stacks of Energy Focus on crit feels almost useless. In a single target rotation the -special on Bone Smasher is nice but I'd rather have the ability to pop it on ET again and Bone Smasher consuming it feels bad because effectively I'd have to avoid using Bone Smasher if I want that Energy Focus to be used 'optimally'. I'd almost prefer to see Energy Focus be released as a bonus damage proc on any attack, and it just speeds up ET otherwise to give it general use, but that may be asking for too much. I think TF should have a 50% Crit, if only because the crit ATs that use it don't get a lot of mileage out of crits on the set, making it feel weaker. I originally thought the extra Energy Focus on TF would offset the smaller crit, but it doesn't feel as rewarding due to my mentioned complaint above, where Bone Smasher doesn't feel like a great bonus for Energy Focus being spent. Overall I have dreamed of Energy Melee on Scrappers since day one on live. You're giving me that dream. You could give me the current crap version of Energy Melee on Scrappers and I'd be all smiles, this buffed set feels monstrously good even despite my minor complaints and were it released to live as is I think we'd see a strong positive influx of people enjoying EM again. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for at least letting me have this dream come true.

Taking out AVs is a task many ATs/sets can do. I'm not saying EM shouldn't have stellar ST but the game is such an AoE focus that intentionally focusing on ST to the detriment of AoE is legitimately a nerf to the performance of the set. It SHOULD have Stellar ST, but there's no reason for it to have horrible AoE as the trade off as we already have plenty of sets that have fantastic AoE and amazing ST (War Mace, Dual Blades, and Titan Weapons all spring to mind, though TW is an outlier granted). There's no reason EM can't have both a solid, useful AoE and also benefit from its powerful single target attacks being improved to flow better as well. Further EM already has some excellent ST attacks and its biggest problem is that it has 2 large wind-up attacks that are punishing if you miss. ET is fine as is, but TF needs a hard look specifically. Being the best at single target is intentionally nerfing yourself. See what I said above.

Idealistically sure, realistically any set that focuses on single target only is going to be massively outstripped in damage by other sets that have serviceable AoEs. I'm not asking for EM to start punching at the level of Titan Weapons for AoE output but weakening its AoE is giving it the early CoV Stalker treatment. This game is not *focused* on Single Target. It's nice to have, but if you're going to try and get it to the detriment of having no AoE you can't really shift the balance lever enough to give enough ST to outweigh that. Even if Whirling hands did 48 damage base versus 10 targets, that's 480 damage with no outside damage buffs. ET wishes it could approach that but even if it could your average minion isn't going to eat it to that. Making EM ST focused relegates it to a niche role that scarcely exists in the game. You also are rarely just fighting 5 minions. Try fighting 10, try fighting 16, try playing in a group, and you'll start to see how Whirling Hands being as weak as it is truly is part of what holds EM back from being a serviceable set. ET, if anything, is absolutely fine for what it is. TF needs a tweak, maybe the early attacks some oomph, but trying to focus more on ST means you negate the set to soloing only.

Something to keep in mind is that even nerfed ET is an incredibly strong skill, and really isn't why EM is suffering. For just general play it's a 2.7 second animation and has a 71 DPA versus say Bone Smasher with its 1.5 second animation and 45 DPA. The biggest offenders in EMs kit is that Whirling Hands is significantly weak for an AoE in an AoE focused game, and Total Focus is absolutely terrible with a 44.8 DPA over a 3.3 second animation. It makes the set feel horribly slow to have two large hitting attacks with a near 3 second animation, in addition to how punishing it can be to be locked for 3+ seconds, and to miss with such a long animation. TF is a prime candidate to drop in your chain, instead reserving ET for harder hitting targets and building off the strength of the Barrage/Energy Punch/Bone Smasher combo when you need quicker hits. Speeding up TF or simply buffing Whirling Hands would be enough to really help EM (personally I'd prefer the Whirling Hands buff to make the set feel better in group content)