Is Energy Aura Worthless?

[Fista]

It's a huge end hog and doesn't seem to mitigate damage very well.  LVL 24 right now. Just drops slotted. Does it get better with IOs or better at higher levels?

[crkohl]

I have Scrapper experience, not Brute, but Energy Aura seems like it will be absolutely amazing once built out. It's damage type Defense vs. positional which is a negative, but it also has a great heal, an end recovery tool, and a taunt aura with +Recharge. My Claws/EA Scrapper is close to the softcap for S/L, and he's able to do +2/8 at lvl 32 (painfully at times). Energy Aura seems to be a mixed bag of tools instead of just "Don't get hit." The biggest negative IMO is Energy Cloak because I can't see my badass costume. 

 

The 20s are weird teenage years for melee toons I've found. I'd keep going, and I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised. 

[oOStaticOo]

Besides Electric Armor and Shield Defense, Energy Aura is one of my favorite sets to play.  Like Crkohl said the mid teens to late 20s on characters suck.  Things really don't start getting better until you are able to slot in level 30 IOs and you actually start getting slots to use for enhancements.  You can easily Soft cap your defenses, has a toggle status protection, self heal, and self end gain.  Once you have it fleshed out it is easily one of the better Armors to use.

[KelvinKole]

Defense sets in particular struggle in the middle levels where you're likely fighting higher level mobs but don't have capped, or near cap, defenses yet. They don't have the same stable feeling as resistance based sets since you're take the full load of the damage when it gets through. It does get better and Energy Aura in particular is an excellent set when fully built out . This article explains the progression well. 

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Defense_Effectiveness

[Fan Mail]

If you have 25 million INF laying around, go pick up the Panacea +Hitpoints/Endurance IO and Numina's Convalecense +Hitpoints/Endurance IO.  Slot them in Health and that should fix your endurance issues.  Once you pick up Energy Drain, you won't necessarily need them so you can gift them to one of your other toons.  

 

Until you soft cap your defense like stated above, you'll feel inferior.  

Edited December 10, 2019 by tafilr

[Lochspring]

I'm working a build on EnA now, and the numbers look pretty solid.  I'm capped on S/L/F/C, just under with Energy, and a a bit weak on Negative with 36%..  I've got 55% resist on S/L, and weaker numbers on the others (sacrificing for a trick with Force Feedback chance for recharge in my KM primary).  That's with Energize near perma, which nets you a massive regen boost along with a healthy heal and a end use reduction, and perma end drain to make sure you never run out of gas.  All that, without incarnates.  

 

All in all, I think this one is going to grow up nicely.

[KelvinKole]

The good thing about defense is the game should calculate chance to hit based on only  your highest applicable defense to the incoming attack. So there's not a lot of pure energy attacks in the game, but there is a lot of Smashing/energy attacks in the game. The game should use your smashing defense for those, since it's your highest value, to calculate chance to hit.

[Sovera]

Energy Aura is a bit squishy but works perfectly fine. You just don't notice what it is doing in the low to mid levels without building for it. A build that takes Maneuvers, has both 3% defense uniques and has their toggles slotted (I'm not the only one only sparing slots for the toggles by level 30+) can achieve enough defense that a single purple insp will make fights easy. I'm talking jump-into-a-full-8-man-team-spawn-and-survive easy.

 

 

For example:

Spoiler

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=951&c=415&a=830&f=HEX&dc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

 

I don't know what you took for a primary so just change accordingly. I used exactly only enough slots that a level 25 character would have. By level 24-25 you can eat a small purple insp and be near immune to enemies. You can easily buy inspirations by going into a base who has a nurse. I use /macro Portals "enterbasefrompasscode ZONE-8888" (this will create a button in your bar, you can use this to teleport to a base that has portals to all zones in the game + a trainer and vendor, etc). After each mission I don't click on Exit but rather the macro button and go replenish my purples so I'm always topped.

 

 

The expensive stuff are the Miracle and the Gladiator but you can put them off until you have earned the money.

 

Making money isn't hard. Do Task Forces. Afterwards go to Atlas Park, go into the Atlas Hall (the building behind the trainer), locate the ATM against the wall and exchange the merits you got as a reward for the TF for Enhancement Converters. Type /AH, open your salvage tab and throw them in there and sell for what price they are currently going (around 90k each, and each merit is worth three Converters). Then locate Enhancements in the AH, go look for Attuned and buy what you need.

 

if you have any questions my account name is in my signature and I can be poked in game.

[Fan Mail]

Thinking more about Energy Aura - it's very clicky - like Regen.  I find myself clicking armor buttons just to keep the green and blue bars full.  This is annoying when you are used to something like Will Power or Inv .  That way you can focus on attacking.  

 

Back on Live, I 50'ed a SS/EnA Brute. I also have a level 36 EM/EnA Brute here on HC that I honestly have a hard time convincing myself to login in play when there's so many other fun characters I'd rather play!

[Menelruin]

It's very painful on End until you get Energy Drain, and then you'll almost never need to worry about it again.

[SaintD]

Energy Aura is a set I would only play on tanks. It, like Shield, Ice, Ninjitsu, etc, simply doesn't provide enough defense out of the box with S/O's for me to feel protected on Brutes, Scrappers, and Stalkers.

On tanks though, these 'slightly less defense but more tools' sets that aren't SR, usually bulk up enough and quick enough that I don't feel like they're almost pointless.

Then again, almost everything can feel kinda papery compared to Willpower on a Brute at lower levels, because Rise To The Challenge with High Pain Tolerance and Fast Healing is just that damn good.

[Uun]

4 hours ago, SaintD said:

Energy Aura is a set I would only play on tanks. It, like Shield, Ice, Ninjitsu, etc, simply doesn't provide enough defense out of the box with S/O's for me to feel protected on Brutes, Scrappers, and Stalkers.

On tanks though, these 'slightly less defense but more tools' sets that aren't SR, usually bulk up enough and quick enough that I don't feel like they're almost pointless.

Then again, almost everything can feel kinda papery compared to Willpower on a Brute at lower levels, because Rise To The Challenge with High Pain Tolerance and Fast Healing is just that damn good.

Energy Aura is not available on tanks (and according to the devs never will). 

 

I had a DM/EnA brute back on live and once fully slotted with IOs wasn't the least bit squishy.

[Haijinx]

Haven't found it to be squishy at all.

 

You can pick up the kinetic barrier temp power to get to the S/L cap early on.  

 

You'll need tough and weave though of course.

[Krazie Ivan]

not worthless at all. one of the best for durability, esp since it has decent Def Debuff Res and a big Heal with Regen. plus the huge End Reduc, End Recov, +Rech, & Stealth powers add a lot to playability. decent amount of slotting options allow for all the best Uniques w/o need for pools if you don't want extra toggles. only higher DDR and/or positional Def keep it from outclassing everything else.

currently hashing out a Kat/EnA Scrapper to upgrade from my slow Staff/EnA

 

[Parabola]

I've been itching to post about Energy Aura for a while now. My main is a SS/EnA and I haven't been able to believe how tough he is given some of the apathy shown towards the set. I've given him a pretty serious build and he's now way over softcap against s/l/e/f/c with n on about 43% and psi around 20%, all before using energy drain, with about 50% res to s/l and psi and a bit less to f/c (made some sacrifices to build up the psi resist). Energy drain can then put the bulk of the defences easily over the icap. He has perma hasten without anyone in entropic aura and energise isn't far off (not that I often remember to use it on cooldown as I rarely need it). On top of all that he has 85% resist to slow and -recharge.

 

Pretty much the only thing I've found so far that can kill him is rage crashes against mobs that do heavy debuff and even then the combination of energise, defence top up from energy drain and knockdowns keep him going most of the time. If the talk of revising SS to remove the rage crash comes to fruition even this vulnerability will be removed which will almost be a shame as it gives a convenient moment to pop energy drain, energise, rage and handclap (slotted with procs). Almost ;).

 

He was more than solid even before I went nuts with the purples and incarnates. I solo'd my first GM (Eochai) at lv43 with just what I had slotted in my levelling build and no pets (plus a truckload of envenomed daggers!). It was slow going but I didn't even look like being in trouble once. I would say to the OP don't judge the set until you have energy drain up and running - you will never run out of end again and it shores your defences up a treat while you are still levelling up. If you are somehow still having end problems after that energise also gives an end discount.

 

One thing to note; the defence and resist numbers in mids are wrong for EnA (think I have the latest version but can't be sure). I couldn't work out why I was softcapping in game much earlier than I thought I would be so I had a look at the database. The defence and resist scales it is using are too low on all the armours and passives (I didn't check overload as I don't use it).

 

EnA is way better than people think it is and it deserves a lot more love, Cap P has even posted somewhere around here that they can't port it to tankers without making changes because it would be too strong with tanker modifiers. That suggests to me it is in a very good place indeed for brutes.

 

All that and it's pretty :).

[SaintD]

On 12/12/2019 at 12:31 AM, Uun said:

Energy Aura is not available on tanks (and according to the devs never will).

*sigh* Read again.

[Uun]

2 hours ago, SaintD said:

*sigh* Read again.

Found the thread

 

[Krazie Ivan]

On 12/11/2019 at 5:02 AM, SaintD said:

a set I would only play on tanks

 

On 12/11/2019 at 9:31 AM, Uun said:

not available on tanks

would. as in, if it was avail.
...maybe that'll help?

also, you're missing out, Saint. EnA on Scraps is a great all-rounder set & can be pretty insane with the right build. anything that can softcap or icap on a Scrap with 50%+ DDR is worth playing... but add 40-50% standing Res to SLENFC from sets, loads of +Rech, self +End & End Recov, and a great heal? take another look, man.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Krazie Ivan

[Troo]

On 12/10/2019 at 6:05 AM, Fista said:

It's a huge end hog and doesn't seem to mitigate damage very well.  LVL 24 right now. Just drops slotted. Does it get better with IOs or better at higher levels?

Level 28 and 35 EA powers should help mitigate what you are experiencing. Pool powers can help fill in gaps. It can be sort of an ouch ouch ouch ahhh leveling up path (likely as intended).

[Haijinx]

yeah once you get Energize and Energy Drain you will never run out of END again.  

 

 

 

[Fan Mail]

But you'll get arthritis in your fingers from having to click on both powers all of the time.  

[Myrmidon]

On 12/12/2019 at 1:07 PM, Uun said:

Found the thread

 

Yes, do read it again.

 

[Uun]

Darn whippersnappers! I played Energy Aura to 50 back when it really was bad - not only before they replaced the heal in Energy Drain with defense and replaced Conserve Power with Energize (I21), but before they added the heal at all (I13).

[Krazie Ivan]

8 hours ago, tafilr said:

But you'll get arthritis in your fingers from having to click on both powers all of the time.  

may i introduce you to /Regen?

of EnA's 2 clicks ... one isn't even split-second life or death... & the other shouldn't be if your build has a decent amount of Def & Res. 3 Toggles & 2 Autos ...cake.

[Fan Mail]

Regen is also clicky.  I've 50'ed it twice.  50'ed EnA once and had another in his 40's.  I was mostly just trying to be funny but also passing along a subtle point.  Guess I'm lazy in my old age.  Set it and forget is how I like to roll. 

 

My fall back always seems to be Super Reflexes.  Set in my ways I guess.

Edited December 14, 2019 by tafilr