Theft of Essence Proc in a damage aura...?

[Snarky]

Will this proc in a damage aura like the Blaster Cauterizing Aura?

[Onlyasandwich]

Interesting question. I'm not sure if the end effect needs to be tied to the attack element specifically for this to work. Normally it's a moot point, but blaster sustain auras are weird hybrid powers. The recovery in blaster auras is a self buff, so this muddies things. 

 

Simple enough to test in any case!

[Major_Decoy]

Well, the text on "Theft of Essence" says "The power's target" so as long as the power targets you, it should work. And Cauterizing Aura, according to City of Data, the target is self, so yes.

[ZorkNemesis]

5 hours ago, Onlyasandwich said:

Interesting question. I'm not sure if the end effect needs to be tied to the attack element specifically for this to work. Normally it's a moot point, but blaster sustain auras are weird hybrid powers. The recovery in blaster auras is a self buff, so this muddies things. 

 

Simple enough to test in any case!

 

I don't know if it would work in Cauterizing Aura, but the Theft of Essence proc used to work in Force of Thunder (Lightning Clap) before the +Regen component was moved to Lightning Field/Dynamo.  Alongside the Explosive Strike proc I used FoT as part of my melee attack chain on my Pistol/Elec Blaster.  I would assume the proc would work in Cauterizing Aura as well, but would still be subject to the bad proc rates that damage auras tend to have.

[Snarky]

6 hours ago, Major_Decoy said:

Well, the text on "Theft of Essence" says "The power's target" so as long as the power targets you, it should work. And Cauterizing Aura, according to City of Data, the target is self, so yes.

My only experience with Theft of Essence PROC is in Dark Melee's Siphon Life.  A melee attack that heals the caster.  A Theft of Essence PROC in there is gold for END hungry builds.  Cauterizing Aura is a different animal...

[InvaderStych]

10 hours ago, Snarky said:

Will this proc in a damage aura like the Blaster Cauterizing Aura?

 

Yes.

 

Gave this a go on beta over some coffee just out of curiosity.

 

It checks every 10s like any other aura, and appears to check individual targets.  In my short test (letting the aura whittle down mobs in Perez) I can count the number of firings on one hand - hardly worth doing especially when one considers ....

 

... that the real question isn't "Will this work?" the question is "Yeah, but, I mean, why?"

 

Blaster "sustain" powers are already embarrassingly generous with Recovery.  When I first saw them here at HC I almost spit beverage all over my laptop.  I would be downright ashamed of myself if I had a blaster who got their sustain and still had endurance issues. 🤣

 

I'd have to page a resident math guru, but I can imagine a safe assumption would be that a single EndMod IO is going to outperform ToE in CA by a wide margin.  Perf Shifter, Power Transfer ... both of those probably much better choices than ToE.

 

[Snarky]

9 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

... that the real question isn't "Will this work?" the question is "Yeah, but, I mean, why?"

 

 

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

[InvaderStych]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

 

Do they? I hadn't noticed. 🙂 It is possible that I could be fire blasting wrong ...

 

... or that my idea of "burning through endurance" is leveling a Psi/SD scrapper the long way (all those levels before Body pool....), and continuing to run her without Ageless. 😄

 

Seriously, those zero cost toggles are amazing.  Even silly slotting like 2 pieces of Synapse's Shock (End Mod and EndMod/+RunSpeed) nets nearly 2 end/s from just that toggle alone. (In Reaction Time on Fire/Martial) The base recovery on the toggle is double what Stamina provides.

[Sakai]

This is one of those things you can set up in a chat tab to go back and look through to see what our benefit, or lack there of, actually is?  Combat Log or something?

Edited March 19, 2022 by Sakai

[Major_Decoy]

The proc will show up in the combat tab, yes.

[JnEricsonx]

17 hours ago, Snarky said:

My only experience with Theft of Essence PROC is in Dark Melee's Siphon Life.  A melee attack that heals the caster.  A Theft of Essence PROC in there is gold for END hungry builds.  Cauterizing Aura is a different animal...

I've used it for Dark Armor.  Helps cut down the already big damn cost of the heal.

[Xenosone]

Anyone put the endmod chance to stun in stamina yet so you can be drunk part time?

[srmalloy]

On 3/18/2022 at 3:35 PM, Snarky said:

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

I haven't tried the combination myself, but I'd put a Dark Armor/Titan Weapons Tanker up against Blasters for being an End hog.

[aethereal]

On 3/20/2022 at 10:30 AM, Xenosone said:

Anyone put the endmod chance to stun in stamina yet so you can be drunk part time?

Terrible news: it won't work.  The proc checks for "isFriend" and won't fire if the target is a friend.  The good news is that you can't sub your buddies or pets if you happen to have an endmod power that targets both allies and enemies, the bad news is you can't stun yourself.

[Doomguide2005]

On 3/18/2022 at 6:35 PM, Snarky said:

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

Truth

 

On 3/18/2022 at 8:03 PM, InvaderStych said:

 

Seriously, those zero cost toggles are amazing.  Even silly slotting like 2 pieces of Synapse's Shock (End Mod and EndMod/+RunSpeed) nets nearly 2 end/s from just that toggle alone. (In Reaction Time on Fire/Martial) The base recovery on the toggle is double what Stamina provides.

Also Truth

I created a Elec/Fire Blaster on Live long before Blaster sustain powers were a thing.  And it burned through end like nuts.  At level 25 I could eat his entire end bar on one, maybe two mobs attacking while teamed.  On HC I recreated him and by his mid-20's he seemed to have trouble running out of end.  Outside of Cauterizing Aura the builds are extremely similar.

[Tiger Shadow]

On 3/20/2022 at 1:30 PM, Xenosone said:

Anyone put the endmod chance to stun in stamina yet so you can be drunk part time?

 

On live I put one in speed boost so I could stun my teammates but they eventually fixed that. 😢

[catsi563]

never had end issues on my own fire fire fire blaster most times everything she blasts is ash long before she even has to touch a blue

[aethereal]

I roll to disbelieve that a blaster in the era of sustains has an endurance problem.

[InvaderStych]

20 minutes ago, aethereal said:

I roll to disbelieve that a blaster in the era of sustains has an endurance problem.

 

Critical Success!

 

[Hyperstrike]

11 hours ago, catsi563 said:

never had end issues on my own fire fire fire blaster most times everything she blasts is ash long before she even has to touch a blue

 

And, with some of the upcoming changes, endurance issues are going to become a memory in most builds.

[Clave Dark 5]

1 hour ago, Hyperstrike said:

 

And, with some of the upcoming changes, endurance issues are going to become a memory in most builds.

What changes are those?

[Marshal_General]

On 3/21/2022 at 10:12 PM, aethereal said:

Terrible news: it won't work.  The proc checks for "isFriend" and won't fire if the target is a friend.  The good news is that you can't sub your buddies or pets if you happen to have an endmod power that targets both allies and enemies, the bad news is you can't stun yourself.

It used to! 🤣

[arcane]

On 3/18/2022 at 5:35 PM, Snarky said:

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

What game are you playing. The Blaster AT had all potential for endurance problems removed years ago.

[Frozen Burn]

On 3/18/2022 at 6:35 PM, Snarky said:

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

 

As @arcane said, Blasters endurance issues were solved long ago.  Each secondary got a "sustain" power that provides endurance and some other buff like regen, absorb, or etc - sometimes a 3rd buff tacked on like +res to sleep or whatever.  When slotted, the sustain power (like Cauterizing Aura) can be even better than slotted Stamina. 

 

So the Theft of Essence proc is not needed at all on a blaster - especially a /fire blaster that also gets Consume (which, if taken, should be slotted for damage and used as a PBAOE damage power - even with damage slotting, it still gives enough end to top you off if you've faced a sapper or something else that gives -recovery / end drain).

[Ironblade]

On 3/18/2022 at 6:35 PM, Snarky said:

I was warned a fire blaster "burns" through endurance way faster than you can keep up without blues etc.

In my experience, NOTHING burns through endurance faster than you can keep up - *IF* you build to accommodate that END usage.

 

I built Toggle Man based on a prose piece back on the live forums.  He's a spines/dark armor scrapper and runs: Quills, Dark Embrace, Death Shroud, Murky Cloud, Obsidian Shield, Cloak of Darkness, Cloak of Fear, Assault, Maneuvers, Tactics, Tough, Weave, Combat Jumping, Acrobatics, Sprint and Focused Accuracy.  And he can actually use melee attacks while running all that.  I've played him to level 49 so far.

 

Was the build a challenge?  Sure.  But note that he's actually playable with no Alpha slot yet.  Once I get the Alpha, I'll set Hasten to auto-fire so he can attack faster.  And maybe turn on Whirlwind, although I suspect that will just be annoying.