ELECTRIC HEROES!

[StriderIV]

So, I’ve always been fond of Electric powered heroes in comics/any medium really. I enjoy the aesthetics and clever ways the powers can be used.

Most recently, I’ve been watching Pokémon (haha) with my oldest and he, of course, loves Pikachu. I guess the love for electric powers runs in the family!

 

Anyways, I’d love to roll an electricity powered hero on Homecoming, and I’d love some inspiration!

 

Do you have an Electric Armor Tanker or Brute that you love? 

 

How are the Electric powered sets on Controllers/Dominators?

 

I hear Elec/Elec Sentinels are the business.

 

Also, your hero does NEED to be fully Elec/Elec. I recently teamed with an Elec Affinity/Water Blast Defender that was all kinds of awesome. I’d love to just hear  what Electric powered sets really give you that power fantasy!

[Onlyasandwich]

Electric is pretty solid across the board these days, but I'll drop a vote for Dominator with elect/elec/mu.

 

Electric control works really well on doms, and Electric assault is a fun melee oriented mixer. Power Sink gets some extra mileage here, as the control set is great at keeping mobs drained once the big blue has been sucked away. This isn't necessarily a primary strategy, but tends to stabilize fights, and allows you another control approach when needed.

 

This isn't necessarily from the "100% most powerful option" perspective, but something fun to do if you haven't tried Electric control before. If we're talking strictly on power scales, I would probably lean towards a pure theme blaster. /Elect secondary has always been top tier on blasters, and the primary is looking good after buffs as well.

 

Personally I just really enjoy the balance of the dom playstyle. I don't chase softcap or even much in the way of resist bonuses, instead relying on the raw strength of the powers and proactive control in domination mode. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[StriderIV]

23 minutes ago, Onlyasandwich said:

Electric is pretty solid across the board these days, but I'll drop a vote for Dominator with elect/elec/mu.

 

Electric control works really well on doms, and Electric assault is a fun melee oriented mixer. Power Sink gets some extra mileage here, as the control set is great at keeping mobs drained once the big blue has been sucked away. This isn't necessarily a primary strategy, but tends to stabilize fights, and allows you another control approach when needed.

 

This isn't necessarily from the "100% most powerful option" perspective, but something fun to do if you haven't tried Electric control before. If we're talking strictly on power scales, I would probably lean towards a pure theme blaster. /Elect secondary has always been top tier on blasters, and the primary is looking good after buffs as well.

 

Personally I just really enjoy the balance of the dom playstyle. I don't chase softcap or even much in the way of resist bonuses, instead relying on the raw strength of the powers and proactive control in domination mode. 

Great call out Only, and good to hear about it! I’ve never played a Dom, and they seem like a really unique experience.

[Onlyasandwich]

43 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

I’ve never played a Dom

If you do choose this path, @oedipus_tex has some great posts and builds that go into detail for elec/ specifically.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[honoroit]

it comes down to: do you want to do damage and get mag 6 vs 3/4 on holds, immobs, and the chain confuse. or, do you prefer an active defender secondary, and poorer damage.

 

dom vs controller:

 - the sleep patch doesnt dominate, but is still worthwhile, to say the least (better in controller, so good, you wont care)

 - jolting chain youll use all the time, it does consistent knockdown. quick, good. equal on both, its not a damagey ability, really, and proccing doesnt work well past the first target hit.

- the confuse chain is stronger on a dominator. it chains more slowly than it might. in either case, good for contagious confuse purple set at fifty.

- ill skip on holds and immob, they are higher magnitude on dominator vs controller, when under domination.

- gremlins are decent, relatively hardy, and theres 2 of them.

- conductive aura helps end recovery, especially until you have and have slotted for end mod the ally chain end restore.

 

the secondaries could not be more different:

- on elec affinity: a chain heal, a chain endurance restore (very good), a chain damage absorb shield (up several times a minute with decent recharge), amp up does a unique effect with some elec splash on an ally. a chain damage/hit boost (which should self stack, but does not). a small aoe rez in defribulate, faraday cage for placable mitigation aura that you can move about at will.  electric affinity is an exceptional defender set, and seconary on an elec/elec controller.

 

elec assault has decent melee ST,l chain, a goodish cone attack, a snipe, and whatever voltaic sentinel is trying to be other than ineffectual (skip this imo).

 

between the two - if you want to kill, dominator.

 

if you really want to kill stuff, with efficacy of say 75-80% of 🔥 - consider elec/elec blaster)

 

if you want awesome control, especially with static field (placable sleep patch e.g.  /bind ctrl+1 powexec_location target static field -- then bar the skill normally to see timer easily), and good control coverage aside...with a wondwrous seconary in electric affinity. thatd be controller.

 

if i could sink inf into 1 of the two cc, itd be controller, hands down. because you can make stuff stop, and play a noticible and quickly integrated (cast times are decent on elec affinity) support role aswell...

 

controller wins imo, pure elec. for grouping.

 

[Spaghetti Betty]

I'm not very keen on rolling Elemental* toons, but I do have an Elec/Elec Tank that's pretty fun to play. It can pump out some solid AoE damage, even though I opted out of Thunder Strike (I hate Thunder Strike), and stays pretty safe. Burnout is good insurance for the rare moments that things go south.

 

 

* - fire/fire, ice/ice, etc.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I also try to avoid doubling up on a type in primary and secondary, but I'm generally always a fan of electric.  A lot of that has to do with end mod powers that I'm generally not going to slot for end mod, and I get to use musculature alpha.  Also Energy Manipulator:  chance to stun is a criminally underrated proc.

[StriderIV]

4 hours ago, honoroit said:

it comes down to: do you want to do damage and get mag 6 vs 3/4 on holds, immobs, and the chain confuse. or, do you prefer an active defender secondary, and poorer damage.

 

dom vs controller:

 - the sleep patch doesnt dominate, but is still worthwhile, to say the least (better in controller, so good, you wont care)

 - jolting chain youll use all the time, it does consistent knockdown. quick, good. equal on both, its not a damagey ability, really, and proccing doesnt work well past the first target hit.

- the confuse chain is stronger on a dominator. it chains more slowly than it might. in either case, good for contagious confuse purple set at fifty.

- ill skip on holds and immob, they are higher magnitude on dominator vs controller, when under domination.

- gremlins are decent, relatively hardy, and theres 2 of them.

- conductive aura helps end recovery, especially until you have and have slotted for end mod the ally chain end restore.

 

the secondaries could not be more different:

- on elec affinity: a chain heal, a chain endurance restore (very good), a chain damage absorb shield (up several times a minute with decent recharge), amp up does a unique effect with some elec splash on an ally. a chain damage/hit boost (which should self stack, but does not). a small aoe rez in defribulate, faraday cage for placable mitigation aura that you can move about at will.  electric affinity is an exceptional defender set, and seconary on an elec/elec controller.

 

elec assault has decent melee ST,l chain, a goodish cone attack, a snipe, and whatever voltaic sentinel is trying to be other than ineffectual (skip this imo).

 

between the two - if you want to kill, dominator.

 

if you really want to kill stuff, with efficacy of say 75-80% of 🔥 - consider elec/elec blaster)

 

if you want awesome control, especially with static field (placable sleep patch e.g.  /bind ctrl+1 powexec_location target static field -- then bar the skill normally to see timer easily), and good control coverage aside...with a wondwrous seconary in electric affinity. thatd be controller.

 

if i could sink inf into 1 of the two cc, itd be controller, hands down. because you can make stuff stop, and play a noticible and quickly integrated (cast times are decent on elec affinity) support role aswell...

 

controller wins imo, pure elec. for grouping.

 

This gave me a lot to chew on, thanks!

[BuiltDifferent5]

Recently built an Elec Armor/Dark Melee Tanker based off @Xandyr's build and it is a total beast.

[biostem]

I'm not a fan of electric armor, TBH, but electric blast and control are quite fun.  I also like the electric support set, but being able to benefit from the buffs, since they chain, can be a bit tricky.  Another thing to take into consideration is that end drain is rarely an effective strategy vs really tough targets, like AVs, so I generally do not enhance that aspect.  I do like the extra damage effect they added when the blasts are used against targets with low end, though.  The special effect tesla cage has when you have enough static is pretty cool as well.

 

Does the character need to have electric as both their primary and secondary?  Something like an elec blast/super reflexes sentinel could work well.  An elec control/dark assault dominator could be effective as well. 

 

Whatever you decide to go with, best of luck!

[StriderIV]

4 hours ago, biostem said:

I'm not a fan of electric armor, TBH, but electric blast and control are quite fun.  I also like the electric support set, but being able to benefit from the buffs, since they chain, can be a bit tricky.  Another thing to take into consideration is that end drain is rarely an effective strategy vs really tough targets, like AVs, so I generally do not enhance that aspect.  I do like the extra damage effect they added when the blasts are used against targets with low end, though.  The special effect tesla cage has when you have enough static is pretty cool as well.

 

Does the character need to have electric as both their primary and secondary?  Something like an elec blast/super reflexes sentinel could work well.  An elec control/dark assault dominator could be effective as well. 

 

Whatever you decide to go with, best of luck!

Both DON’T need to Electric. I actually really like the concept of Electric and Dark combined. Kind of like a “ShadowStorm” theme.

 

What AT do you think would have the best combo of those two? Elec Control/Dark Assault Dominator seems like it could be a pretty cool synergy. I haven’t ran a Dom before though, as I was telling @Onlyasandwich. I might have to summon @oedipus_tex and get his thoughts on the combo.

 

Elec Affinity also sticks out to me, but it does seem very busy!

[biostem]

15 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

What AT do you think would have the best combo of those two?

I have a 50 necro/elec mastermind, which is quite fun to play, (I'm counting necromancy as dark for this purpose).  It's a very effective combo.  I use a bind to target my nearest living pet, to make chaining buffs easier.  I'm not a huge blaster player, but a dark/elec one could be interesting.  If you want to try something interesting, and are willing to expand your options a bit more, I've had great results with a dark/SR sentinel - just take the elec or Mu APP/PPP for the theme - if you go with the former, you can also take a chaining heal for a bit of team support.

 

15 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

Elec Control/Dark Assault Dominator seems like it could be a pretty cool synergy.

I do have one of these.  The self heal in dark assault is very useful.  The problem is it takes a lot of careful slotting and power use to not constantly bottom out your end bar, and if you want to run enough powers that grant defense so you can slot those 5 LotG global +rech IOs to achieve the mythical "perma-dom", end management becomes even trickier.

Edited July 6, 2023 by biostem

[StriderIV]

13 minutes ago, biostem said:

I have a 50 necro/elec mastermind, which is quite fun to play, (I'm counting necromancy as dark for this purpose).  It's a very effective combo.  I use a bind to target my nearest living pet, to make chaining buffs easier.  I'm not a huge blaster player, but a dark/elec one could be interesting.  If you want to try somethign interesting, and are willing to expand your options a bit more, I've had great results with a dark/SR sentinel - just take the elec or Mu APP/PPP for the theme - if you go with the former, you can also take a chaining heal for a bit of team support.

 

I do have one of these.  The self heal in dark assault is very useful.  The problem is it takes a lot of careful slotting and power use to not constantly bottom out your end bar, and if you want to run enough powers that grant defense so you can slot those 5 LotG global +rech IOs to achieve the mythical "perma-dom", end management becomes even trickier.

The end could be an issue, would have to slot around that.

 

DB/SR Sent I imagine would be tough as nails, with the -tohit dark provides. I think @Ston did some crazy stuff with one.

Edited July 6, 2023 by StriderIV

[biostem]

1 minute ago, StriderIV said:

DB/SR Sent I imagine would be tough as nails, with the -tohit dark provides.

I went dark/sr/fire on my sentinel.  She is tough as nails and can pretty much stand up to anything.  The Intuition Alpha slot ability buffs damage and tohit debuffs, damage, and range, all of which fantastically complement this combination!  The boost to holds, which you'll have 2 of with this combo, is also nice.

[Onlyasandwich]

26 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

Both DON’T need to Electric.

Ah! I was under the impression that was your goal.

 

I've personally run an Elec/Psy dom, and it was truly a blast. /Dark is a good Dom secondary and will serve well if you go that path. Honestly /Dark for Doms is like the greatest hits of Dark Melee and Dark blast combined - it would support you masterfully.

 

Electric Affinity looks pretty cool as well, but I've found it a bit too busy for my taste. It's effective for sure, and contributes best on midsized teams, as some of its buffing power is limited by how many players it can bounce to.

 

The real problem with Electric Affinity for me is finding time to use my secondary properly. This is a bit of a problem on Defenders and Corruptors, as I want to be blasty! A Dark/Electric Controller might have an easier time with this, as you can largely rely on Fearsome Stare in your opener and interact with your other primary powers more situationally. EA would also be quite suitable for any number of masterminds, where the pets are doing the heavy lifting for the primary. Necro is the closest you'll get to Dark there.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[StriderIV]

3 hours ago, Onlyasandwich said:

Ah! I was under the impression that was your goal.

 

I've personally run an Elec/Psy dom, and it was truly a blast. /Dark is a good Dom secondary and will serve well if you go that path. Honestly /Dark for Doms is like the greatest hits of Dark Melee and Dark blast combined - it would support you masterfully.

 

Electric Affinity looks pretty cool as well, but I've found it a bit too busy for my taste. It's effective for sure, and contributes best on midsized teams, as some of its buffing power is limited by how many players it can bounce to.

 

The real problem with Electric Affinity for me is finding time to use my secondary properly. This is a bit of a problem on Defenders and Corruptors, as I want to be blasty! A Dark/Electric Controller might have an easier time with this, as you can largely rely on Fearsome Stare in your opener and interact with your other primary powers more situationally. EA would also be quite suitable for any number of masterminds, where the pets are doing the heavy lifting for the primary. Necro is the closest you'll get to Dark there.

No not your fault at all, I don’t think I was very clear in my original post 😂

 

Regarding Elec/Dark Dom: man it must be a rare combo! I can’t find a build anywhere, but a ton of Dark/Dark haha.

 

Dark/Elec Affin Controller sounds quite interesting as well. Lay down your controls I guess and focus on buffing. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by StriderIV

[StriderIV]

3 hours ago, biostem said:

I went dark/sr/fire on my sentinel.  She is tough as nails and can pretty much stand up to anything.  The Intuition Alpha slot ability buffs damage and tohit debuffs, damage, and range, all of which fantastically complement this combination!  The boost to holds, which you'll have 2 of with this combo, is also nice.

I wish Sentinel Mu Mastery got the charged shield or whatever 😂 lightning fences is nice though.

[biostem]

32 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

I wish Sentinel Mu Mastery got the charged shield or whatever 😂 lightning fences is nice though.

The APPs/PPPs wouldn't grant another armor to an AT that already has them.  Mu mastery does have another cone attack, though and a PBAoE.  Personally, I like the stun and heal of elec mastery, but play what you love!

[StriderIV]

8 minutes ago, biostem said:

The APPs/PPPs wouldn't grant another armor to an AT that already has them.  Mu mastery does have another cone attack, though and a PBAoE.  Personally, I like the stun and heal of elec mastery, but play what you love!

Ooooooooh I was only looking at Mu and totally missed Elec Mastery! That fits perfect.

[Lhanis]

You know... I've run Elec on just about every AT, I love Elec Armor and Control. 

But I've never actually tried an Elec/Elec Dom. It'd definitely solve the "Elec Control doesn't do any damage" issue quite handily, and I do love my Doms... they might not be to everyone's taste, with the constant need to chase permadom, but theres no feeling quite like solo-holding an AV and having near complete CC immunity while you blast through a crowd.

 

I'll have to add this to my project list.