Energy Aura vs. Super Reflexes

[Wolf Bonne]

I've been trying to puzzle out what exactly are the pro's of Super Reflexes are over Energy Aura, and I can't really make out why you'd go SR over EA. Putting aside theme, visuals, and playing whatever, it seems like Super Reflexes is left behind a bit in the pure defense sets that I'm familiar with. I'm curious if I'm missing anything, particularly I am curious if SR happens to be a cheaper build in the long run to soft cap defenses in terms of IO sets, and last I recall, S/L defense soft capping tends to yield better net results throughout the game, but I don't remember how much "better" it actually is in practice.

 

Basically it seems like EA is as competent as SR, but EA get a heal and recovery boost. Is there any downside to going with EA?

 

I'm leaving out Ninjitsu here purely because it has clear utility as part of its appeal, and I've not looked at Ice Armor cuz it's completely new to me, but feel free to add any comments.

[Divine]

EA is actually better with the heal but EA has no defense to psi at all even with the t9.

[Microcosm]

Sr will get you more defense faster, making it cheaper and easier to soft cap. It also has tons of ddr, so when you're hit with defense debuffs you're still fine. If you want to put in the investment in another set for soft cap, you'll get a better final result elsewhere because of the other tools other sets have, though the ddr elsewhere isn't as good as sr's.

 

My personal opinion is that ice is the best armor set if you're going to put a large investment into it because of all the layers of protection it uses, but I never messed with bio.

[Sailboat]

Does EA have defense debuff resistance?  SR gets quite a lot and in practice it's helpful.  Also SR gets scaling damage resistance as health gets lower.

[Funkenstein]

SR has a clicky anti mezz (like Ninjutsu), which can be annoying at long.

EA is easier too soft cap to Smash/lethal, fire/cold & Nrg (which are more 3/4 of the damage type of the game).

EA has some DDR, not that much. Anyway when under cascade debuff, just run away the time debuffs goes off...

 

My choice is EA by far :

-no clicky antimezz

-cheaper to softcap (could do it with very few IOs)

-has a heal

-only 6 powers are mandatory vs 8 for SR (t9 are very skippable once you're softcapped)

-has some passives res to s/l/nrg which stacks with tough (On previous server my Elec/EA reached 60% s/l res thanks to IO sets...)

[Solarverse]

For PvE? Any set. For PvP? Elec. Why? Because in PvP, with all the +Acc and +ToHit and all the -Defense going rampant with IO sets and players who know how to build for PvP, Defense sets stand no chance.

 

So to answer your question, either one works well in PvE, I think you can shoot for theme and make good builds. Have fun and play the way you want.

[Zerethon]

SR Wins.

 

Click antimez can be stacked for upwards of 20 mez resist

No need for a travel (Quickness+Swift+Sprint+Ninja can reach 80+ MPH)

Inherent Recharge bonus from Quickness (20% More global rech basically means you have 3 LOTG's slotted from 28-on)

POSITIONAL DEFENSE THAT CAPS EASILY, SR has no holes to any type of damage

Lots and lots of DDResist means it's hard for enemies to actually drop your defense

Quickness makes PermaHasten super easy, which means you do monstrous DPS once IO'd

Passives give scaling damage resist as your health drops (Agile+Dodge stacked with Reactive defense and shield wall is dumb)

Adding Concealment:Stealth gives you ~13% def to all damage types as well as your posistional defense with base 50 IO's

 

Cons:

 

More end intensive since it doesn't have an END drain

No healz

"Meh" T9

Requires management of 2 clicked powers instead of 1 (Put PB on auto and click hasten when it comes back up)

 

Basically, pair SR with anything that does lots of damage and it'll beat up any other set that isn't electric like it owes it money. Electric gets a pass into the cool kids club with SR because it also has quickness (Lightning reflexes) and it gets a heal & End drain, it just isn't a defense set so it's a much more involved set than SR.

 

SR Embodies the "Either i kill it, or suddenly it's not my problem anymore" mentality well. Effectively, you almost never get hit, but if you get hit, it suuuucks. But until they hit you, they have to contend with the insane constant machine gun of heavy attacks you can throw out from your recharge.

 

Energy aura HAS to use up slots for travel powers, doesn't get the recharge, and isn't positional def, it has a little more sticking power. BUT on my Elec/SR and EM/Elec things just don't live long enough to be a problem. Elec/SR Especially, they have to be STANDING long enough to try to hit me, and that's hard with all the KD & Stuns combined with Stalkers guile & placate for constant critical hits.

 

[MasterTang]

Inherent Recharge bonus from Quickness (20% More global rech basically means you have 3 LOTG's slotted from 28-on)

 

Energy Aura has +20% recharge in their status protection toggle, so that isn't really a SR advantage.

 

SR's real advantages are it's easier to hit soft-cap for your positional, it has superior Defense Debuff Resistance, it's stackable Mez protection, and defends against Psi.

Energy Aura gives you better Damage Resistance, a self-heal/+regen Energize, and energy recovery/+def with Energy Drain.

 

I think that comparatively EA's benefits are generally more useful, while SR really shines in those occasional times where you are fighting enemies that use Psi attacks or debuff defense.

On your point about EA requiring an extra power, on my StJ/EA build I had a spare power by the end of it and I have never known a self-respecting SR character to not have a self-heal.

[Rokkeb]

Ps nobody has to take travel powers anymore.

 

So many options on p2w from run speed to flight and jump packs. Anyone can get along fine without travel powers if they want.

[Kruunch]

EA gives more utility but is mostly damage type based defense.

 

SR is endurance hungry but is delivery defense heavy (melee, range, aoe).

 

Positional defense generally is king but a smart build with either rocks.