Electric Armor/Battle Axe Tank Help

[jprewitt73]

I am currently running up a Elec/BA tank and I am absolutely in love with this character. A lot of fun to solo, and even better in team environments. This is a magic character, so I will be using Ghost Widow's patron power as it fits in with my backstory. However, I am trying to figure out a good attack chain that isn't so clunky. Anyone with experience with BA have some advice? Maybe some build ideas I can look at to come to some solid consensus?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks!

[Spaghetti Betty]

I was experimenting with this combo at one point, mostly to deepen my understanding of what pairs the best with Elec Armor.

 

My first piece of advice would be not worry about building extra RES too much since Elec more or less takes care of that on its own.

 

YMMV, but DEF is a give or take for me. A little bit is fine to soften alphas, but you shouldn't sacrifice in other areas for it.

 

Also, stuffing a Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge in every attack is how you turn yourself into a woodchipper. Elec Armor should be able to withstand the huge end tax that comes with it (use Energize and spam Power Sink on cooldown).

 

I would also recommend building as much Slow RES as you can. It'll prevent -Recharge from affecting you.

 

I'm not at home right now to give you a build example, but I hope these tips help.

[jprewitt73]

That definitely helps! Is there a particular attack that you think I should be skipping? Right now I have every attack available except Taunt and it feels way overkill. I just didn't see anything I should remove honestly. 

 

[MirrorDarkly]

Here is a stab at a build.  I have no idea how to get it in a state you can read in the forum but you should be able to load it into Mids.  

 

I went for resist and more or less ignored defense.  It has 90+% to everything besides Psi (82.63%) and Toxic (24.45%).  Seems End stable as long as you use Power Sink when your blue bar dips to below half.  I'm not great at this so I am *sure* there could be improvements made.  Power Surge is mostly there for if you start taking heavy toxic damage.  You could probably take out Weave and use those slots for something else if you wanted.  FF is on all attacks and they all have one or more additional proc.  Likely expensive as a lot of purple sets were used. 

 

Edit: I skipped Beheader and Gash.  

 

Tanker (Electric Armor - Battle Axe).mbd

Edited June 20, 2023 by MirrorDarkly

[Spaghetti Betty]

1 hour ago, jprewitt73 said:

That definitely helps! Is there a particular attack that you think I should be skipping? Right now I have every attack available except Taunt and it feels way overkill. I just didn't see anything I should remove honestly. 

 

Beheader and Gash are the ones that can be skipped. Gash is a pretty good power, but skippable.

[jprewitt73]

40 minutes ago, MirrorDarkly said:

Here is a stab at a build.  I have no idea how to get it in a state you can read in the forum but you should be able to load it into Mids.  

 

I went for resist and more or less ignored defense.  It has 90+% to everything besides Psi (82.63%) and Toxic (24.45%).  Seems End stable as long as you use Power Sink when your blue bar dips to below half.  I'm not great at this so I am *sure* there could be improvements made.  Power Surge is mostly there for if you start taking heavy toxic damage.  You could probably take out Weave and use those slots for something else if you wanted.  FF is on all attacks and they all have one or more additional proc.  Likely expensive as a lot of purple sets were used. 

 

Edit: I skipped Beheader and Gash.  

 

Tanker (Electric Armor - Battle Axe).mbd 43.49 kB · 0 downloads

 

 

Hmm...When I try to open your build it just opens Mids without importing it. 

[jprewitt73]

7 minutes ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Beheader and Gash are the ones that can be skipped. Gash is a pretty good power, but skippable.

 

Thank you!

[Yomo Kimyata]

My basic attack chain for battle axe (usually scrappers) is Cleave, Swoop, Chop for ST and Cleave, Axe Cyclone, Pendulum for AoE (and those tend to be the only BA powers I take other than Build Up, although I'd understand Taunt on a tanker.)

 

I also put a FF +recharge in both Axe Cyclone and Pendulum, and I think you will find that the +100% recharge (not stackable, sadly) is up a lot.  A LOT.

 

This may or may not be a seamless attack chain depending on a lot of factors, but I usually don't mind if there are gaps, since then I usually use some other power as a filler.

 

Gash will probably get you slightly better ST DPS, but I usually skip it unless there aren't enough other powers I want!

 

 

[MirrorDarkly]

36 minutes ago, jprewitt73 said:

 

 

Hmm...When I try to open your build it just opens Mids without importing it. 

 

Maybe try File --> Open --> My file in Mids? 

[Spaghetti Betty]

Here's another example build for you

 

 

Reaching softcap melee DEF was more of a happy accident than a real goal of mine. I just had the extra slots. There are easily some picks here that can be swapped out for Soul Mastery.

 

I've taken a liking to Burnout with my Elec Armor toons as a "T9". While cascade is a very rare occurence, when it does happen I can just use Energize and Power Sink twice. This tops up my HP and completely (or almost completely) drains mobs around me, turning a bad situation into a great one! And if you're constantly fighting, it'll be back up in around 7 minutes. That's about once a mish.

 

I can totally see the argument dropping it for Darkest Night though.

[jprewitt73]

14 hours ago, MirrorDarkly said:

 

Maybe try File --> Open --> My file in Mids? 

That worked! Thank you!

 

This is a great starting point for me!

[jprewitt73]

13 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Here's another example build for you

 

 

Reaching softcap melee DEF was more of a happy accident than a real goal of mine. I just had the extra slots. There are easily some picks here that can be swapped out for Soul Mastery.

 

I've taken a liking to Burnout with my Elec Armor toons as a "T9". While cascade is a very rare occurence, when it does happen I can just use Energize and Power Sink twice. This tops up my HP and completely (or almost completely) drains mobs around me, turning a bad situation into a great one! And if you're constantly fighting, it'll be back up in around 7 minutes. That's about once a mish.

 

I can totally see the argument dropping it for Darkest Night though.

Thank you so much! I like the idea of Burnout, but not sure how I could fit it in with my overall theme. Definitely something to think about though. 

 

[jprewitt73]

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View This Build In MRB

 

This is what I currently decided on with input from everyone above. I have a completely separate build for low levels and Oro flashbacks, but this works very well for me in 50+ content.