Electric Affinity with basic IOs

[Hedgefund]

My normal process when making a build for a powerset I'm less familiar with is to start with a basic, no bonus build to see what it offers, both to self and team.  I build for bonuses afterward.

 

I spent very little time on Beta to test this.  Some, so > 0 time, but not enough to really assess.  That said, here's how I think I'd make a basic build:

 

 

Everything looks useful, I don't see a "skipable" power in the lot even though I view a rez as the first to go, if I have to make such a cut.

 

Just to go over one by one, based on numbers and description, not a lot of time played.

 

Shock - reminds me at a glance of Corrosive Enzymes from Nature.  It's a very nice power that will be a good debuff against a hard target.  Like Corrosive Enzymes, it looks like 1 accuracy will be sufficient.

 

Rejuvenating Circuit - Looks like standard heal slotting

 

Galvanic Sentinel - perma out of the box (120 sec duration and 60 sec recharge).  Give it accuracy and end mod and let it do its thing (whatever that is)

 

Energizing Circuit - Looks like the main thing is to get it recharged quickly.  Went with 2 RCH Ios.

 

Faraday Cage - recharges quickly, just max out resists.  Maybe an end would help.

 

Empowering Circuit - I put 2 recharges and a to-hit, though it looks like one of those powers I wouldn't really use maximally in reality.  I don't see using a ST buff every 8 seconds (that's without globals).  Let me rephrase that, I ain't spamming a buff every 8 seconds.  I have enough trouble paying attention to powers like Fort or Forge, both with notably longer cooldowns.

 

Defibrillate - Looks like a rez that's funkier.  Just 2 recharges.  A real build would probably just have 1 recharge (if I take it at all)

 

Insulating Circuit - Max out the absorb, seems to recharge quickly enough on its own.

 

Amp Up - Based on my version of Mids, it seems like recharge is the only thing I could slot.  So minimize cooldown as much as possible.

 

Note - though I said this was a basic IO build, I slotted 1 ACC IOs when a true basic build would get at least 2, but in reality +acc bonuses will at least provide the value of another IO.

 

So, for anyone that did check it out, does this look like a reasonable baseline to get the most out of the EA powers?

[Without_Pause]

I think the most interesting aspect is how little of slotting it seems to need.

[Hjarki]

1 hour ago, Without_Pause said:

I think the most interesting aspect is how little of slotting it seems to need.

"How little of slotting" is often a bug, not a feature. There are no defensive powers (no LotG mules), no damaging powers (lots of opportunities there), no Holds/Confuses (great sets overall), etc. The new Preemptive Optimization offers 3.75% Ranged + 3.75% Recharge at 6-slot, but that more 'better than Performance Shifter' than actually good. The two heals can take Numina's (Ranged Def), Preventive (recharge) or Panacea (recharge), which are all reasonably good options.

 

In terms of the set overall, I think the core features are Energizing Circuit and Faraday Cage. I tried a lot of builds and the notion of 'sapping' never really worked out - spending a minute to drain the endurance of targets you could kill in 45 sec just isn't useful.

 

Amp Up and Defibrillate are the two powers I can't really see taking in almost any build. Galvanic Sentinel is a power I'd only take as a potential target for my Chain spells when I don't have another pet to use. Shock just doesn't do anything useful - either it's pointless (on standard minion/lt/boss) or it's resisted into nothing (AV/GM).

 

Empowering Circuit doesn't really need any slotting at all since it doesn't stack and the duration is four times the recharge. Maybe some +hit slotting if you really want. The two heals are nice and there are some decent heal sets.

 

However, back to those core features (Energizing Circuit and Faraday Cage). The key features of both don't meaningfully vary between primary and secondary, so the only reason to play as a Defender is if you really hate the idea of wasting a power on Shock or you need the superior values from pools. Probably the best build I threw together was Ill/Electric/Mace, but this is less an optimal build than a more team-friendly version of the always popular Illusion. I do think Electric is generally one of the best of the 'pure support' sets with its excellent heals and bubble.

[Cutter]

Just hopping on the new set bandwagon, haven't followed any of the beta testing. Couple quick Qs if I may:

11 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

I tried a lot of builds and the notion of 'sapping' never really worked out - spending a minute to drain the endurance of targets you could kill in 45 sec just isn't useful.

Based on this, aside from thematic choice is Elec/Elec not really viable? As in, this set really doesn't do much to elevate Elec Blast? If that's the case, are there any sets that Elec Aff does work particularly well with?

6 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

Empowering Circuit doesn't really need any slotting at all since it doesn't stack and the duration is four times the recharge. Maybe some +hit slotting if you really want. The two heals are nice and there are some decent heal sets.

Is it worth it to slot the Guassian's and/or Rectified procs?

[energizing_ion]

Without any testing myself, I'd have to agree with Hjarki to an extent.  This whole powerset doesn't really appeal to me.  The powers that I'd "skip" would be the rez and Amp Up.  It'd be 'nice' to have the multi-rez but doesn't happen very often so....

 

I think this set is better as a secondary....*shrugs*.  I am curious how Faraday Cage works though.  I'm curious of 2 things: does this grant all buffs to yourself too?  and secondly: let's say I cast the power, everyone gets the buff...do they lose it when they leave the area of location or does it last for 4 mins and 5s outside the area location?  Can you stack it (doubtful)?

[Hjarki]

Just now, Cutter said:

Just hopping on the new set bandwagon, haven't followed any of the beta testing. Couple quick Qs if I may:

Based on this, aside from thematic choice is Elec/Elec not really viable? As in, this set really doesn't do much to elevate Elec Blast? If that's the case, are there any sets that Elec Aff does work particularly well with?

Is it worth it to slot the Guassian's and/or Rectified procs?

The key features of Electric Affinity are the recharge/endurance and the bubble/self-heals. As long as you've got an active pet, you can take an enormous beating - I didn't try solo'ing Liberty or anything with it, but it's very hard to kill.

 

But neither Electric Affinity nor Electric Blast/Control make endurance drain practical.

 

I do think that a good place to start looking for synergies is with relatively long recharge PBAoE since the combination of recharge + bubble makes them more practical. I did do an Elec/Elec/Soul build to exploit Soul Drain + Power Boost (Power Boost allows both Thunderous Blast and Short Circuit to zero end bars). However, while the bubble is very good, it's unlikely you'll be hard-capping resists except S/L and it does nothing for defenses.

 

Rectified Recticle isn't really worthwhile outside of PvP, unless you want the S/L def bonuses. Gaussian's appears to act in a manner similar to Tactics - the chance to proc is increased by the number of targets. However, from my admitted brief testing, I believe you have to be in the Empowering Circuit yourself to get the buff (if you're only buffing others, it doesn't seem to proc). Also, because Empowering Circuit can only usefully be activated once per minute, you're almost certainly going to get performance directly inferior to Tactics.

[Hjarki]

1 hour ago, energizing_ion said:

I think this set is better as a secondary....*shrugs*.  I am curious how Faraday Cage works though.  I'm curious of 2 things: does this grant all buffs to yourself too?  and secondly: let's say I cast the power, everyone gets the buff...do they lose it when they leave the area of location or does it last for 4 mins and 5s outside the area location?  Can you stack it (doubtful)?

The Cage creates a pseudo-pet that refreshes the buff on a fairly short duration. So you have to stay inside the cage. If you activate the power again, the previous Cage disappears - you can only have one at a time.

[Cutter]

You make some good points, thanks @Hjarki. And yeah, after only going through 4 DFB runs I'm seeing a big push to play in close, both for the bubble and to take advantage of chaining circuits off the melee folks (at least how I played it!) which lends itself to PBAOE territory.

[Without_Pause]

4 hours ago, Hjarki said:

But neither Electric Affinity nor Electric Blast/Control make endurance drain practical.

As someone who put in nearly 100 levels of Kin/elec and Elec/kin in via defender and controller, I'm not surprised. I'm hoping Wind control finally becomes a thing so the stacking -dmg is actually useful versus end drain.

 

Also note the defender was my main so I played it a lot post 50.

[Hjarki]

As an example of the sort of things I've been playing with:

Spoiler

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7

https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

 

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

Level 50 Magic Defender

Primary Power Set: zn_Electrical Affinity

Secondary Power Set: Psychic Blast

Power Pool: Fighting

Power Pool: Force of Will

Power Pool: Leadership

Power Pool: Concealment

Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

 

Hero Profile:

Level 1: Rejuvenating Circuit

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb: Level 50
  
  
• (5) Preventive Medicine - Heal: Level 50
  
  
• (5) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (7) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (7) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (13) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance: Level 50
  
  

Level 1: Mental Blast

• (A) Superior Vigilant Assault - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (3) Superior Vigilant Assault - RechargeTime/PBAoE +Absorb: Level 50
  
  
• (3) Superior Vigilant Assault - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (34) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (48) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (48) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50
  
  

Level 2: Galvanic Sentinel

• (A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50
  
  

Level 4: Psionic Lance

• (A) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (17) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (17) Decimation - Damage/Endurance: Level 40
  
  
• (25) Decimation - Chance of Build Up: Level 40
  
  
• (25) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic): Level 50
  
  
• (27) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic): Level 50
  
  

Level 6: Energizing Circuit

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50
  
  
• (29) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (50) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  

Level 8: Faraday Cage

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%: Level 30
  
  
• (9) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All): Level 50
  
  
• (9) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance: Level 50
  
  
• (11) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (11) Aegis - Resistance: Level 50
  
  
• (13) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  

Level 10: Kick

• (A) Empty
  
  

Level 12: Empowering Circuit

• (A) To Hit Buff IO: Level 50
  
  

Level 14: Tough

• (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance: Level 40
  
  
• (15) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance: Level 50
  
  
• (15) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (23) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP: Level 50
  
  

Level 16: Telekinetic Blast

• (A) Apocalypse - Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (29) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (31) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative): Level 50
  
  
• (31) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic): Level 50
  
  
• (31) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (33) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 20
  
  

Level 18: Weave

• (A) Kismet - Accuracy +6%: Level 30
  
  
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50
  
  
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50
  
  
• (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  

Level 20: Weaken Resolve

• (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 20
  
  
• (33) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (33) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage: Level 30
  
  
• (34) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 30
  
  

Level 22: Mighty Leap

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points): Level 50
  
  

Level 24: Unleash Potential

• (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (45) Reactive Defenses - Defense: Level 50
  
  
• (46) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (46) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (46) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (48) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  

Level 26: Maneuvers

• (A) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 50
  
  
• (27) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (50) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  

Level 28: Psionic Tornado

• (A) Ragnarok - Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (34) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (37) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy): Level 50
  
  
• (40) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 20
  
  
• (42) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (42) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown: Level 50
  
  

Level 30: Insulating Circuit

• (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 50
  
  
• (42) Numina's Convalesence - Heal: Level 50
  
  
• (43) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (43) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (43) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (50) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  

Level 32: Tactics

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up: Level 50
  
  

Level 35: Scorpion Shield

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50
  
  
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50
  
  
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 50
  
  
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (37) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (37) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All): Level 50
  
  

Level 38: Psychic Wail

• (A) Superior Vigilant Assault - Damage/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (39) Superior Vigilant Assault - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (39) Superior Vigilant Assault - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50
  
  
• (39) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
  
  
• (40) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
  
  
• (40) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage: Level 50
  
  

Level 41: Stealth

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50
  
  

Level 44: Assault

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50
  
  

Level 47: Grant Invisibility

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50
  
  

Level 49: Vengeance

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 50
  
  

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Celerity - +Stealth: Level 50
  
  

Level 2: Health

• (A) Miracle - +Recovery: Level 40
  
  
• (45) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance: Level 50
  
  

Level 2: Hurdle

• (A) Empty
  
  

Level 2: Stamina

• (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 50
  
  
• (45) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 50
  
  

Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon 

------------

 

The above isn't really a 'power build'. It's very durable (at least vs. S/L) and has decent damage for a non-Storm Defender. However, it is nonetheless a 'Classic' Defender in the sense that it's far more effective as an aid to a team than solo. It can function solo, but you'll discover that keeping your Galvanic Sentinel alive (without which most of your primary becomes useless) can be tricky.

 

As usual with Electric sets, I ignore the end drain component and just focus on the abilities themselves. Psi Blast meshes well because it has two solid single target attacks, a KB AE and a PBAoE ultimate. I don't really need more than those two single target attacks (Mental Blast can be used, but it's basically a mule for set bonuses) because the Primary is so busy. You'll need to be activating Energizing Circuit on recharge and then healing as necessary. Empowering Circuit only needs to be refresh once every minute.

 

[JayboH]

So how are you getting the set in Mids?

[Hjarki]

14 minutes ago, JayboH said:

So how are you getting the set in Mids?

I probably should have mentioned this because I suspect loading the build I linked wouldn't work on a standard version of Mid's.

 

[seresibyl2]

Can't you use a controller with Electric/Electric on them for end drain? Conductive aura does mad end drain by itself.... maybe it's just overkill tho. 

[Hjarki]

1 hour ago, seresibyl2 said:

Can't you use a controller with Electric/Electric on them for end drain? Conductive aura does mad end drain by itself.... maybe it's just overkill tho. 

The rule of thumb here is: if you can't drain endurance faster than health, you might as well not bother. End drain is all-or-nothing. You need to floor both the target's endurance and their recovery before end drain does any good. At that point, you've effectively got a disorient.

 

Against minions/lieutenants, endurance drain will almost always be useless. You kill them so fast that it makes no sense to End Drain them.

 

Against bosses, endurance drain can make some sense. However, there are relatively few one-button end drain methods that can sap a boss to nothing (especially @ +4), so you very rapidly get into "I'll just throw my Hold twice" territory.

 

Against AV/GM, endurance drain could potentially make a lot of sense. The fastest pylon times are usually in the 1 - 2 minute range. You can sap a pylon in 20 seconds. This becomes especially relevant when you consider all of those long recharge defense clicks that let you be effectively invulnerable for more than enough time to sap the AV/GM to zero. So the theory goes: click your "I can't be hurt" power, sap the AV/GM to nothing, spend the rest of the fight in complete safety.

 

Unfortunately, there are two wrinkles to this scheme:

1. Recovery can't be floored. Maybe you could do it with 3-4 Electric Affinity players. But not with a single player. Recovery debuffing is just resisted too much. If Recovery isn't floored, you wasted a lot of time draining endurance because it has no impact on the fight.
2. AV/GM (probably) can act anyway. There are almost certainly abilities particularly to a given AV/GM that cost 0 endurance and can be used anyway. So instead of crippling the AV/GM, you're probably mildly inconveniencing it.

Maybe you can come up with a build that can do something useful (PvE-wise) with End Drain. But I was unable to find any build - even dedicated sapper builds that sacrificed any hope of dealing meaningful damage - that were of any use against pylons or Lusca (testing against actual AV/GM in missions requires a bit of effort to reach them).

[Zeraphia]

Elec/Sonic Defender

 

-Picks up the -res where this set lacks

-Really helps get damage going with the Discharge 🙂

 

Here is my build so far for it =D

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Science Defender
Primary Power Set: zn_Electrical Affinity
Secondary Power Set: Sonic Attack
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shock -- PreOptmz-Acc/Rech(A), PreOptmz-EndMod/End(3), PreOptmz-EndMod/Rech(3), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/End(5), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/Rech(7), PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech(7)
Level 1: Shriek -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(11), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(37)
Level 2: Rejuvenating Circuit -- Pnc-Heal/EndRedux(A), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(37), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(40), Pnc-Heal(43)
Level 4: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(5)
Level 6: Galvanic Sentinel -- Acc-I(A)
Level 8: Faraday Cage -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(9), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(9), UnbGrd-Max HP%(11)
Level 10: Energizing Circuit -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Empowering Circuit -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), GssSynFr--ToHit(13), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(13), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(15), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(15), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(17)
Level 14: Scream -- SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%(A), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg(27), SprDfnBst-Dmg/Rchg(33), SprDfnBst-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 16: Howl -- SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg(A), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), PstBls-Dam%(25), JvlVll-Dam%(25), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(27)
Level 18: Defibrillate -- PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech(A), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/Rech(19), PreOptmz-Acc/Rech(19), PreOptmz-EndMod/End(21), PreOptmz-EndMod/Rech(21), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/End(23)
Level 20: Amplify -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Insulating Circuit -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(42), Prv-Heal(42), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(43), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(46), Prv-Heal/Rchg(50)
Level 28: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(29), Ags-ResDam(29), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(31), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(31), Ags-Psi/Status(33)
Level 30: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-ResDam%(31)
Level 32: Amp Up -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Screech -- GldJvl-Dam%(A), SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb(36), SprVglAss-Dmg/Rchg(36), SprVglAss-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Apc-Dam%(43)
Level 38: Dreadful Wail -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(39), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Arm-Acc/Rchg(40), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(40)
Level 41: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(42)
Level 44: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(45), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(45), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(45), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Web Cocoon -- UnbCns-Dam%(A), NrnSht-Dam%(48), GldNet-Dam%(48), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(48), UnbCns-Acc/Rchg(50), ImpSwf-Dam%(50)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(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 -- Clr-Stlth(A)
Level 1: Vigilance 
Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I(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 50: Agility Core Paragon 
------------

Edited April 1, 2020 by Zeraphia

[Coyote]

2 hours ago, Hjarki said:

Recovery can't be floored. Maybe you could do it with 3-4 Electric Affinity players. But not with a single player. Recovery debuffing is just resisted too much. If Recovery isn't floored, you wasted a lot of time draining endurance because it has no impact on the fight.

 

I'm not sure about this... it looks to me as if an Ele/Ele Controller can manage north of 700% -Recovery, maybe even bursts close to -1000. This isn't good enough to bottom out +4 AVs (you need about -1000 sustained), but if you're lowering their Recovery to 1/4 of its normal, then an Endurance tick happens every 10-15 seconds or so. With the end Drain and their own power cost, they should blow/get drained from one tick of Endurance recovery in a couple of seconds, so basically they end up having 0 Endurance for about 3/4 of the time. While this means that you can't stop ultimates or summons or heals from being used, you do lower their long-term DPS by a lot with this. Add in +Absorb and the heals, and having them drained MOST of the time will help defensively in soloing them.

 

I'm not sure if it's practical to use this to try to solo them, because it means spamming Shock for no damage, so then you have to wonder what's going to beat a 54 AV's Regeneration. But it does look as if it makes it quite reasonable for an Ele/Ele to drain-tank an AV (along with defenses, -Damage, absorb, and heals). If you can figure out a way to sneak in some damage, it may allow an Ele/Ele character to solo AVs with stronger defenses. And the decreased incoming damage would help keep pets alive longer, which is usually a big problem against 54 AVs even if you have Lore pets out with the support healers. I'm going to try to see if I can figure out a build that has enough sustained DPS while spamming Shock, Jolting Chain, and Electric Fence.

[Hjarki]

5 hours ago, Zeraphia said:

Elec/Sonic Defender

You may find your results disappointing. One of the key problems with Sonic is that the -resist debuff is strongly dependent on how much time to contribute to it. The moment you throw a power that isn't a -resist debuff, your average starts to drop. This makes Sonic Blast antagonistic with 'busy' Support sets - you really want a fire-and-forget Support set that doesn't have any short recharge powers to make best use of it.

 

5 hours ago, Coyote said:

I'm not sure about this... it looks to me as if an Ele/Ele Controller can manage north of 700% -Recovery, maybe even bursts close to -1000.

Most -recovery debuffs are short duration. Electric Fence, Tesla Cage and Jolting Chain are 2, 4, 8 secs respectively. So you run into a problem akin to the Sonic issue above where any time you're doing something that isn't -recovery, your -recovery starts to suffer dramatically. Shock is dramatically better than any of those powers at -recovery. But if you were at the recharge cap, you could still only eek -400% recovery out of it (before resistances).

 

You're more than welcome to give end drain'ing these sorts of targets a try. I did a variety of tests, but I wouldn't call them perfectly optimal. What I did find is that while I could certainly sap the endurance, keeping it sapped in a meaningful fashion proved impossible.

 

Note: I think people get enthusiastic because end drain is so devastating to players. However, the primary impact against players isn't delaying their attacks - it's dropping their toggles. Malta sappers kill players by shutting down all of their defenses more than making it harder to throw an attack. Since PvE enemies don't have toggles, they're effectively immune to the most important consequence of end drain.

[Zeraphia]

5 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

You may find your results disappointing. One of the key problems with Sonic is that the -resist debuff is strongly dependent on how much time to contribute to it. The moment you throw a power that isn't a -resist debuff, your average starts to drop. This makes Sonic Blast antagonistic with 'busy' Support sets - you really want a fire-and-forget Support set that doesn't have any short recharge powers to make best use of it.

I've found my results actually so far very pleasing and I do not fully agree.

 

I made this build mainly to play in teams and have a lot of fun boosting their damage. I have plenty of opportunities to break the chain for only -20% res less to use the Elec powers and I enjoy feeling busy and like I have a job and my teammates noticing all the things I'm doing for them. I do not find Sonic Blast antagonistic, I find it harmonizing to make up for the lack of -res natively that it does have. 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Zeraphia

[Coyote]

47 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

Shock is dramatically better than any of those powers at -recovery. But if you were at the recharge cap, you could still only eek -400% recovery out of it (before resistances).

 

Yes, although I think you can get a bit over 400% if you use an Alpha slot with End Mod enhancing. But Gremlins average about 100% -Recovery each (as you say, the duration of the -Recovery from attacks isn't long, and it's not guaranteed, but with an End Mod IO and an Alpha Slot, I think they're getting -150% whenever a power triggers, adn I think I ran the numbers so that each one averages a bit over 100% over the long term). Add in Galvanic Sentinel, also slotted and with an Alpha Slot, and I think that slots up to about 100% and double stacks. So you're getting 400% from Shock Spam, and 400% from the pets, plus whatever you squeeze out from the single-target attacks. That's why I htink you can get close to the -1000% that you need for +3 AVs. The real problem is that you're doing it by slotting for End Mod in powers where you want damage, and eating up a lot of animation time (like 25% or so) with Shock, and the pets aren't really high damage, etc. And if the AV does get a shot off once in a while you may have to throw in some Heal and/or Absorb, further lowering DPS from a low-DPS build. It's more doable defensively than offensively.

[Hjarki]

2 hours ago, Coyote said:

 

Yes, although I think you can get a bit over 400% if you use an Alpha slot with End Mod enhancing. But Gremlins average about 100% -Recovery each (as you say, the duration of the -Recovery from attacks isn't long, and it's not guaranteed, but with an End Mod IO and an Alpha Slot, I think they're getting -150% whenever a power triggers, adn I think I ran the numbers so that each one averages a bit over 100% over the long term). Add in Galvanic Sentinel, also slotted and with an Alpha Slot, and I think that slots up to about 100% and double stacks. So you're getting 400% from Shock Spam, and 400% from the pets, plus whatever you squeeze out from the single-target attacks. That's why I htink you can get close to the -1000% that you need for +3 AVs. The real problem is that you're doing it by slotting for End Mod in powers where you want damage, and eating up a lot of animation time (like 25% or so) with Shock, and the pets aren't really high damage, etc. And if the AV does get a shot off once in a while you may have to throw in some Heal and/or Absorb, further lowering DPS from a low-DPS build. It's more doable defensively than offensively.

A good metric for these sorts of powers could be (recovery duration) * (recovery debuff) / (activation time). A small sample:

Thunderous Blast 20 * 100 / 3.96 = 505

Chain Fences 6 * 100 / 1.32 = 455

Shock = 12 * 75 / 2.244 = 401

Jolting Chain 8 * 100 / 2.244 = 357

Ball Lightning 4 * 100 / 1.32 = 303

Short Circuit 10 * 100 / 3.3 = 303

Zapp 4 * 100 / 1.33 = 301

Lightning Bolt 4 * 100 / 1.848 = 216

Charged Bolts 2 * 100 / 1.188 = 168

Tesla Cage 4 * 100 / 2.378 = 168

Electric Fence 2 * 100 / 1.848 = 108

 

I don't have exact numbers on Galvanic Sentinel, but since it's supposed to be weaker than Mastermind's discharge, that strongly implies it's actually very weak. The Voltaic Sentinel does not have -recovery. Imps have 4 sec -100% recovery on a 4 sec recharge. If you can keep them alive, that would be a steady -200% recovery on top of everything else.

 

So I'm not sure that Electric Affinity is actually all that useful for this approach. Most of your -recovery is going to come from Electric Control and the Chain Fences/Jolting Chain rotation provides so little room that you'll have little time to slip in Shocks.

 

Examining again, I'm actually leaning towards Electric/Nature as a 'sapper'. You've got three key powers (Corrosive Enzymes, Wild Growth and Overgrowth) all on relatively long recharges (i.e. not taking up sapping time). You're getting some +damage and -resist out of the bargain to compensate for your investment in sapping. Your 'healing' is largely covered by large amounts of regen, so you're spending a lot less time throwing actual heals. The biggest problem I see is that your 'sapping rotation' is - with the exception of Jolting Chain - also an extremely low damage rotation.

 

[Coyote]

I think, first of all, that I'm working with numbers from City of Data that show a CHANCE for -Recovery on powers like Jolting Chain, otherwise it would be easier, heh. I think that JC has a 50% or so chance for -Recovery... the in-game numbers don't show a "chance to", but I"m not sure that they're showing all of the data. If it really is 100% chance to occur, then I'm much more confident about hitting -1000% Recovery.

 

Second, I think that Shock has a 25 second duration, which is why I'm looking at that as the major source of -Recovery. That pushes it to about -800 RPS, and slotted it can get to over 1600, raising the rotation's average a lot. Galvanic Sentinel has a 10 second duration with a 5 second cycle time on its power, which has a -50% debuff, so it should stack to -100 unslotted, which is why I assumed about -200 from it.

 

The Gremlins are harder to check, because the Wayback machine didn't capture their power stats. I'm assuming that they're comparable to the equivalent attacks, which I think were Jolting Chain and Charged Brawl, and doing their rotation I think it was about 70% unslotted on the average (each). But unlike Shock and Galvanic Sentinel you want to slot them for damage, so most likely you can't slip in more than one End Mod IO plus probably Musculature Alpha to push them to about 100%. So that's another 200%, getting me to 400% from the pets. Though Galvanic Sentinel will require a small amount of resummoning.

 

I'd probably go with Mu as the Epic Pool to add another source of DPS with little animation time, and it will also help slightly with Recovery debuffing. But I'm less worried about sapping than I am about doing damage with a pretty low damage primary, a secondary that doesn't do much for damage and has no -Res or -Regen, and having to allocate attack time to spamming Shock. I like the character overall, but I think it will bounce off AV regen except in lucky cases. Or maybe if using Longbow as Core pets for -Regen, and that's a long time to wait... and not usable below level 45 in any case. I usually like all my characters to be able to solo AVs, not sure if this one will be up to it, though 😞

[Bastille Boy]

Any thoughts about Electric Affinity as a non-sapper powerset?

 

People on the PVP discord seem to be interested in this as a healing set. Of course healing is critical in PVP and marginally useful in PVE.

 

What would be good defender secondaries, corruptor primaries, or controller primaries to go with this? Just pick a generally good set (e.g. for def/corr, ice, beam, maybe psi), or are there sets with particular synergies?

[Coyote]

Leaving sapping aside, it seems pretty solid healing-wise since you get a decent chain Heal and a good chain Absorb which is effectively pre-Healing. Add in mez protection with some Resist, and it can do a decent job of reducing incoming damage. It's statistically going to be weaker than Defense buffs as a means of mitigating damage, but it's also not going to be as vulnerable to -Defense debuffing.

 

If picking a blasting set, I like sets that have fast animations on their attacks so you can fire off more attacks in between heals, like Ice Blast or Psy Blast. Maybe Fire Blast though I'm leery about its lack of defensive help.

 

For controlling, because it can handle a constant low level of incoming damage very well but may struggle with burst damage, it will do better with sets that constantly lower incoming damage but don't necessarily achieve a full lockdown of mobs. For example, Mind Control shuts spawns down... until the mez wears off, at which point a burst of damage comes in. I would avoid that, and go with Electric (Sleep and Knockdown allow incoming damage but limit it), Earth (Earthquake lowers incoming damage when Stalagmites wears off), Ice (Arctic Air and Ice Slick slow, interrupt, and redirect enemy attacks), maybe Dark (-ToHit). Ice might be my choice, as Ice really benefits from having mez protection. I went double Electric for sapping, but if I weren't going for a sapping build, I'd go with Ice as a /EA Controller.

[Sir Myshkin]

I've been racking my brain over this power set since I got dragged into testing it, trying to come up with the "best" pairing, and it's driving me nuts. I've put one build together than can achieve shifting levels of Resist Cap that I feel will make it a pretty rugged Defender, but I'm not "satisfied" with it. The kicker is I think I can translate it mostly to any Defender secondary, which has lead me to Dark from a range perspective, keeping things locked away from a "bubble of isolation" kinda feel. Sonic was considered for the same reasons Zeraphia did (-Res) which would stack well with Reactive, but ElAff might be just too busy for that. Psi to maybe make up for its lack of debuff with a damage type that's less resisted across the board. Water for AoE and soft control KD's, really be an engaged support role.

 

Then I was like, well, maybe I should be focused on a Controller, get some extra pets going on in there, and I started thinking like Coyote, what about all that -Recovery, and Conductive Aura, I'd kind of like to mess around with all that, but I already rolled an Elec/Dark that I kind of wanted to be its own thing, what else would be good? Then I thought: Fire/Elec, that sounds spicy! That good old fashioned damage, a bunch of good solid controls, and a squad of Fire Imps to buff to hell and back inside of Faraday Cage? AND I might be able to actually afford Hot Feet?! Oh man, yum yum.

 

But friends, hear me out... just ... I had one more flash of genius, genius I tell you. Hear me out!

 

And remember, I generally dislike playing Masterminds, rather loathe them honestly (and I still even have two at 50). But hear me out...

 

Ninja/Electric/Field. Heals, Buffs, Protection, I mean, it fixes all these little guys darkest qualms in one tight-nit little bundle. If Electric Affinity is the ultimate support-focused set, and Ninjas are the most deprived pet class...]

 

I think I'm going to do it. Heaven help me.

[HachiMan2015]

1 hour ago, Sir Myshkin said:

I think I'm going to do it. Heaven help me.

And I, for one, cannot wait to profit off of your hard work....and madness 🤣🤪