Why so few EA Scrappers?

[Saikochoro]

4 hours ago, marcussmythe said:

Plenty of other sets do have a hole to psionic damage.  That does not make having such a hole reasonable - its a leftover from early design days when psi damage was quite rare.  As the game aged, the developers first started handing out psi damage like it was candy, and then made later armor sets that had that hole covered in set, without resorting to pool powers and layered cooldowns for survival (if one is layering long cooldowns for survival, why not just play a blaster?)

 

EA is still a great set (better on Stalkers than Scrappers, though other sets are better on scrappers than stalkers, so /shrug), but the psi damage hole is poor, outdated design.

 

I think for ME, my thought on EA is that if I am going to build a defense set, and with numerous defense focused sets in the offering - Im more likely to end up with SR or Shield, because typed defense sets by definition have a hole at 'toxic' and almost always have a hole at psi, whereas positional sets.. dont (there are a very few non-positional attacks, so I am told, but Ive never noticed).  SR further boasts scaling resist, and of course Shield has some resist, and also a good attack, and also a general damage buff.   Things like EA are probably stronger in their areas of strength than the positional sets - but weaknesses hurt you more than having seriously over the top defenses against specific things - especially things that EVERYONE is very good against.  (Its the Invuln problem.  Yes, Invuln is better against S/L than anything short of Granite.  Noone cares.  S/L doest kill melee characters at endgame - exotics and debuffs do - so what matters is how well exotics and debuffs are covered, not how extra-unkillable you are against S/L... but those sets are still 'taxed' for being unnecessarily strong in some areas by having holes, or offering less utility/damage/sustain.  Other old sets suffer a bit from this - Dark is very strong against both S/L and Psi, but in turn has a hole for Toxic and Energy.  Toxic isnt common late, but Energy becomes VERY common indeed)

I definitely not denying there is a psi hole. Most sets have something that is a little annoying to deal with. While I think it would be nice for older sets to not have huge holes, I do think they can be mitigated solo to some extent. On teams is rarely an issue due to everyone having maneuvers. 
 

I doubt they are going to go and fill in the holes though.  If they are it’s probably not high on their to do list. 

[Apparition]

The only time I ever really noticed the Psi hole was while attempting to solo multiple Malaise bosses simultaneously in Night Ward.  That hurt.  A lot.

[Crater Kate]

Malaise is, incidentally just the absolute worst for Defense sets. Not only do the typed sets all have holes to him, but he's also one of the extremely rare (possibly only?) suckers out there who attacks mostly with non-positional Psi. That was a ruuuude awakening for my SR Stalker.

 

Back on EA, I've just taken an EA Brute out for a spin on Aeon against +4/x8 Arachnos. Now this is with an average of about 38% E/N defense and 28% E/N resist, 16% Psi defense and an average of 19% Psi resist. The build I took has noticeable holes against a large percentage of the damage Arachnos throws out. And it felt... manageable? She definitely took damage, but it wasn't enough damage to really beat through Energize + Energy Drain, and nothing so scary as to make me use Barrier as a panic button. And that's solo vs. +4/x8 - it goes without saying that in a team setting, those holes will rapidly close up.

 

So... yeah. I stand corrected, I guess. Maybe the psi hole isn't as bad as I've been imagining. The defense junkie in me still doesn't like being in a place where I'm accepting damage anyway, but... it's much more tolerable than I gave it credit for.

[tidma]

Any comments on Kinetic Melee/EA?

 

Seems a good thematic match, it would be nice if there was synergy between the powersets.

[Saikochoro]

I can’t imagine it would be bad. I honestly can’t think of any primary that EA wouldn’t help.  
 

I don’t have any experience with kinetic melee so correct me if I am wrong.  Isn’t their damage buff tied to stacking power siphon? I’m not exactly sure how it works, but am I correct in assuming lots of recharge would help with this?  EA will help give a lot of recharge when you have a several enemies on you. 

[Sir Myshkin]

8 hours ago, Saikochoro said:

I can’t imagine it would be bad. I honestly can’t think of any primary that EA wouldn’t help.  
 

I don’t have any experience with kinetic melee so correct me if I am wrong.  Isn’t their damage buff tied to stacking power siphon? I’m not exactly sure how it works, but am I correct in assuming lots of recharge would help with this?  EA will help give a lot of recharge when you have a several enemies on you. 

Yes there is inherently some mild synergy in this factor since Energy Aura does provide that kick-up to +Recharge, but there is a max limit that Power Siphon can ultimately be drawn down to (30/s, but realistically 35/s) for minimum recharge. Incidentally this plays right into the life-cycle of Power Siphon's ramp up and ramp down effect (10/s to ramp up to full, sit at full for 10/s, then slowly taper down when the ability "ends" after 20/s and the stacks wear off their 10/s duration and effectively hold a 30/s total window of time.

 

Technically (for Scrappers specifically) the critical function of Concentrated Strike refreshes Power Siphon, but it tends not to be that often, and historically often at the point where you're left going "...did that even matter?" Plus Concentrated Strike is... kind of "eh" power compared to everything else in Kinetic Melee's arsenal.

[Haijinx]

Plenty of EA Stalkers 

 

Advantage is a fixed +20% Recharge  

 

Don't really give anything up, and You are invisible as a Stalker all the time anyhow. 

 

 

[hejtmane]

MY favorite is shield so my first was shield I liek EA had two on live I just had unfinished business with a katana/wp and my play time goes up and down not been able to play the last three weeks I recommended EA all the time

[Haijinx]

You know with the insane numbers you can get with Energy Drain.  You could probably skip the Energy Cloak if you wanted. 

 

I've seen some Brutes that do this.  

[ClawsandEffect]

I rolled a Psi/EA scrapper and I'm having a blast. 

 

I was actually talking to Bill Z in game wondering why I don't see more of them. This was after I was sitting at 48% to S/L and 45% to F/C, 50% to energy and 41% to negative. And I still had powers that had basic IOs in them at level 34. 

 

I decided to do a Claws/EA too, since I obviously love claws *glances at forum handle*. He's still a baby scrapper, but it's good to know that he'll be as beastly as I guessed he'd be. 

[Saikochoro]

I recently made a claws/EA scrappers as well. Also a dual blades/EA scrapper. I honestly don’t know which one I like more. Both are super fun, super survivable, and shred anything and everything in their path. 
 

Still not as fun as dark melee/shield defense though. 

[ninja surprise]

My Fire Melee/EA Scrapper is around level 35 right now.  Just did a Moonfire earlier and was astonished when on the first mission I ran into a big spawn of Vamps and promptly got held 😪

At least I got one attack off first. I think the team couldn't tell because of all the other visual FX going on.

[11Troy11]

On 7/16/2020 at 12:22 PM, Saikochoro said:

Yeah I have a feeling they don’t want to risk EA on tanks. Soft cap defense to every type but Psionic. Capped resists to every type but Psionic. High recharge. All within possibility on tanks. I don’t think an EA tank could die even if it wanted to. 

Do you have a build that accomplishes this?

[Saikochoro]

31 minutes ago, 11Troy11 said:

Do you have a build that accomplishes this?

Nope. I did a bit a theory crafting lower down on first page in this thread that would put most resistances in 80-90% range with 50% uptime. 
 

However, super reflexes on tankers definitely can have incarnate level defenses with capped resistances (when scaled with lower health). Super reflexes is pretty insane, especially paired with martial arts. 
 

If you are interested in my SR/MA build take a look at my thread in the tanker forums:

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/21033-meet-tank-lee-masr/

Edited August 6, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Riverdusk]

On 7/8/2020 at 3:45 PM, Saikochoro said:

So, Im always trying to make super scrappers. I originally enjoyed bio armor for most any archetype that could take it, but I branched out.  Then I started using energy aura on stalkers and eventually built out a couple scrappers with energy aura. 
 

My question is, why in the world is energy aura the second least popular secondary per the March FOTM statistics? Only ice armor is used less. 
 

Energy aura seems to have it all. Super easy to soft cap all typed defense except Psionic. Has very respectable resists and can even cap when you throw in rune of protection. With the ease of slotting it is easy to grab rune. Ease of slotting also allows for putting in damage procs and whatnot. 
 

It has great endurance tools to manage endurance. It also has a good self heal on a short cooldown. 
 

I honestly can’t think of any downside to energy aura. Soft cap typed defense, capped S&L resist, respectable resist on E/N/F/C (40-50% with rune), good endurance, heal, and + recharge. All with loose enough slotting to allow damage procs. 
 

Why is this not one of the most popular scrapper secondaries?

 A necro I know, but I was bored and reading through old stuff.  I have to say I always avoided the set before on a scrapper because I didn't realize the scrapper version actually has a taunt aura.  Even some of the other threads I noticed there was arguing on whether or not it does so it seems to be a common misperception.   

 

Finally took a hard look at the set and seeing you can actually slot taunt in entropic aura seems to confirm it has one.  Also can see in game combat log where it says "your fury taunts <x>", which is a strange message text that seems to be left over from the brute version?  But it seems to work regardless.

 

I don't care much either way about the gfx of the stealth cloak and anyway the gfx effect seems to go away when you attack so during combat the "invis look" isn't even a factor.  You can always turn off the cloak out of combat.

 

Anyway though, very much liking what I see.  Started up a WM/EA, I finally get to be the meme and even put that I'm strong and pretty in my character bio. 🙂

[Rokkeb]

It hides my costume. 

[Hew]

I am somewhat sure you can disable the fade on the cloak. QoL improvement at some point, but not positive.

 

EnA is absolutely beastly, even on just generic level 25 ios. It is stupid good.

 

[zrgallardo]

On 7/11/2020 at 2:51 AM, Plutoria said:

What Psi hole?

 

Whoa, can you possibly post the link to that first build please? 

[Hew]

4 hours ago, zrgallardo said:

Whoa, can you possibly post the link to that first build please? 

First link has rune of protection up, which i am pretty sure isn't perma, pretty positive there is downtime there.

 

edit: they all do. I am not a fan of build posts with RoP on, since it doesnt reflect the steady-state of the build, but more of a peak operability.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Hew

[lemming]

On 7/22/2020 at 12:42 PM, tidma said:

Any comments on Kinetic Melee/EA?

 

Seems a good thematic match, it would be nice if there was synergy between the powersets.

I have a brute with this combo.  So far at 50, just with generic IOs they do well.   I take them out for a spin every so often

[Max Firepower]

EA was so good I forced myself to play other secondaries to make myself appreciate it it more when I give myself the treat of playing it.

 

Energy Aura...if it comes to Tanks, I will be beyond gleeful.

[DreadShinobi]

EA works so well on stalkers becuase it is honestly over the top mitigation for an archetype not intended to sit and tank. (I put scrappers in the aggro management pool with tanks and brutes). EA for stalkers is incredibly self sufficient with easy softcapped defenses, self healing and regeneration, and essentially infinite endurance without the need for any slots going that way. This in turn makes EA a very offensive powerset, beyond the free 20% rchg, with everything else taken care of you can put so much of your slotting towards damage procs and more global recharge.

 

The one thing I've hoped for on EA scrappers is partial crits from hidden, similar to night widows, possibly on a lockout timer like shinobi from ninja training blasters. Or maybe not a "critical" but a damage proc either way.

 

Also I've never felt that EA's "psi hole" has held it back in any way with the healing and regeneration present in the set. For a tough av you can munch a few insps and be 100% fine. For a tank or brute the psi hole of course would be more apparent, but I don't view EA as a set that needs to tank. It is a set that has such great base values that you can pretty much always carry 20 red insps in your tray and never worry.

[Nemu]

8 hours ago, Hew said:

First link has rune of protection up, which i am pretty sure isn't perma, pretty positive there is downtime there.

 

edit: they all do. I am not a fan of build posts with RoP on, since it doesnt reflect the steady-state of the build, but more of a peak operability.

Those builds share one thing in common - way too much offense sacrificed for the sake of marginally shoring up resistance to one rare damage type.

Shadow meld alone even single slotted accomplishes far more than all those slots sunk into building up psi resist on that scrapper build.

[Bill Z Bubba]

I don't grok the EA love. By the numbers it looks awesome but it's always felt so clunky to me. Or maybe I've got hold-over bias from back when it was released and REALLY sucked.

[Safehouse]

On 7/22/2020 at 3:42 PM, tidma said:

Any comments on Kinetic Melee/EA?

 

Seems a good thematic match, it would be nice if there was synergy between the powersets.

My Kinetic/EA/Mu scrapper is my first - and currently only - level 50. I can confirm it's a lot of fun. I haven't fully kitted out my planned build yet, and I don't generally over worry about min/maxing, instead building my characters more around theme, but I feel really stronk, and like I'm generally pretty hard to hit. Yeah, there's a bit of a psi-hole, but for the most part I've adored it at endgame. Just want KM to get a little love 🙂