el-braino

Thanks so much for this! This is awesome. I couldn't get it to copy/paste import into Pine's, but the DataLink worked fine. I'll give it a look and share this with my wife. I'm not too worried about the expense. I'm making a little bit on the market so I'm sure I could afford anything given a few weeks, especially since we've got a long way to go to 50. The PBAoE heal in Ball Lightning is genius since she'll likely be close in for Shadow Fall. Replacing Recall Friend might be a tough sell, but Power Boost is really tempting. Stun in Short Circuit sounds hilarious. This build seems to do a great job addressing all of the things that were important to my wife and adds in a lot that I hadn't thought about, but will really help out (soft cap ranged DEF for example). So thank you for taking that into account and, very much, thanks again for everything! If you happen to have any other advice, I am always open to learning from the experience of others.

Thanks for bringing this up! I had thought briefly about this early on, but since we are recreating our mains from live, I discounted it. However, now that we've played a bit it is certainly worth considering. I've got plenty of ideas for alts so I wouldn't mind starting again from level 1 with her. :) I'll mention it and see what happens.

Falsey - Thanks so much for the reply! This is great info and I am really grateful for the explanation. Looking back, I probably should have asked for build advice rather than a full pre-made build (though I'd be happy to see that along with the reasoning behind it). I have more questions! I've now got a good idea now about what powers are important and why. Are there any powers other than Tesla Cage and possibly Petrifying Gaze that are so situational or niche that they could be safely skipped? Does slotting any of the normal Electric attacks with End Mod (maybe Ball Lightning) make sense or is it best to ignore that on anything other than Short Circuit? Any other slotting advice (don't go more than two slots on Howling Twilight, for example)? Are there any Epic / Ancillary / Patron pools that might be better than others for this combo? It seems like Power Sink might be a good complement to Short Circuit, but it looks like Mu gets it early and Electric Mastery gets it late - are the other powers in Electric Mastery useful enough to justify going through to get to Power Sink? Would another pool bring more to the table? Do you have any recommendation on IO Sets? Are there bonuses that would be best to prioritize (is there a certain amount of +recharge to strive for, for example)? Is this combo End heavy enough that it needs to be accounted for outside of Stamina? I was thinking about trying to sprinkle in some +Damage set bonuses, but if those sets are otherwise garbage for this build then I wouldn't want to do that. Are either of the Defender Archetype Sets worth it? I see there are two now. Thanks again for the reply. This gives me a lot to go on and has really made my day.

My wife and I played quite a bit on Live and now we have recreated our mains here on Homecoming. I play a Tanker and on live I played solo quite a bit, played the market, did all the incarnate stuff, and put together a (for me) pretty high performing build. My wife plays a Defender and isn't interested in min/maxing or obsessing over builds. However, she was always unhappy with the amount of damage she did and how little my tank seemed to need her in most content. She is also disappointed in how little the secondary effect of Electricity seems to do. I'm not very familiar with Defenders, but I would like to help her put together a build that will be fun and feel useful as we level up together. We can work together to make some Inf and eventually I'm sure we can afford whatever IOs would be needed. So, Defenders and build masters, my request is for a Dark/Electric defender build that will be able to play on it's own and not feel slow as molasses, but still be able to contribute to teams and be fun to play as a duo with a tanker and/or a trio with a Tanker and Mastermind. If there is a way to make the -End part of electricity meaningful, that would be great. She loves Fearsome Stare and tends to use Howling Twilight as a "oh <$@(#&>" button to give us some breathing room rather than as a rez. Dark Servant, aka "Fluffy" is important, but I'm not sure how set she is on Voltaic Sentinel, aka "Sparky." Teleport is the chosen travel power pool. Powers I know she uses a lot are Shadow Fall, Twilight Grasp, Fearsome Stare, and (eventually) Dark Servant. I think she is open to any epic pool. We are in the early 20s now, taking our time and leveling slowly. I would love to be able to set her on a build path that will get her to a good place when we hit 50 and beyond. I certainly appreciate any help and thank you in advance!