Need Help Deciding. Psy/Shield or Psy/EA

[ItsDecoy]

So I recently rolled a Psy/EA Sentinel and didn't really enjoy the play style so I figure I would try a Brute. I have only played one melee toon in the past (fire/wp scrapper) so I am very unfamiliar with how Brutes handle with the current game setup. But I want to give it a try and I am having a tough time deciding between Shield or EA for my rerolled character.  

 

Psy stays because it fits with my theme. Any insight on the two powersets would be greatly appreciated.  

[InvaderStych]

Psi/SD is one of my favorite Scrappers - should work just as well on a Brute.

 

Charge shores up Psi's light AoE offerings very nicely and the shield can be made to match the Psi powers using the Energy option.  Of course this is sort of true of /EA as well.

 

/EA has more tools for survival, but less DDR. /SD gets superior mez protection that doubles as extra DDR when it stacks, but no tools for healing or endurance.

 

Either is going to be a strong choice; both /EA and /SD are top-of-the-line sets with /EA gaining more durability where /SD adds a bit of damage.

[Without_Pause]

EA is a smoother ride to 50 if that matters. I'm finishing off doing the IO on a Shield Scrapper so I can have a comparison to my EA Scrapper. Needless to say I love EA as a set. Shield has more offense, but I will say EA offers Recharge so it will play slightly faster. 

[Uun]

Shield is positional defense (melee/range/aoe), so has no holes unless an attack has no positional vector (largely limited to Mind Control attacks). It has no heal but it does have +hp abilities. EA is typed defense (s/l/f/c/e/n/t/p) and has holes to toxic, psi and to a lesser extent negative attacks. It also has a heal, endurance management abilities and protection against end drain and slows.

[Without_Pause]

47 minutes ago, Uun said:

Shield is positional defense (melee/range/aoe), so has no holes unless an attack has no positional vector (largely limited to Mind Control attacks). It has no heal but it does have +hp abilities. EA is typed defense (s/l/f/c/e/n/t/p) and has holes to toxic, psi and to a lesser extent negative attacks. It also has a heal, endurance management abilities and protection against end drain and slows.

The 'hole' to Negative means you might not soft cap it although you can hit 40% and the Resist will be in the middle. I'm pretty sure when it is all said and done I can pull off +3/x8 for a Hydra map, so that's how much of a hole Toxic is. 

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Without_Pause said:

The 'hole' to Negative means you might not soft cap it although you can hit 40% and the Resist will be in the middle. I'm pretty sure when it is all said and done I can pull off +3/x8 for a Hydra map, so that's how much of a hole Toxic is. 

Just bringing it up so they can make an informed decision. My EM/EA stalker has 44% neg, 18% toxic and 20% psi defense (as well as 26% ranged and 30% melee defense) plus 28% toxic and 20% psi resist. I find psi is more of an issue than toxic, particularly against factions like the Praetorian IDF.

 

Hydra aren't particularly challenging. They only have 2 attacks and only the ranged attack (Spit) is toxic. If you want a toxic challenge, try Arachnoids. They show up blue-side in Agent Kwahu's arc (Who Will Die Ep. 3) and red-side in Dr Forrester's arc. 

[Without_Pause]

46 minutes ago, Uun said:

Just bringing it up so they can make an informed decision. My EM/EA stalker has 44% neg, 18% toxic and 20% psi defense (as well as 26% ranged and 30% melee defense) plus 28% toxic and 20% psi resist. I find psi is more of an issue than toxic, particularly against factions like the Praetorian IDF.

 

Hydra aren't particularly challenging. They only have 2 attacks and only the ranged attack (Spit) is toxic. If you want a toxic challenge, try Arachnoids. They show up blue-side in Agent Kwahu's arc (Who Will Die Ep. 3) and red-side in Dr Forrester's arc. 

I've soloed Arachnos at x8. End drain and Psy are far bigger issues than Toxic. You can take a build with resistance to end drain and get a mission with nothing but Mu and be begging on your knees for End.

 

I feel like the worst place for Toxic is on the Posi TFs since they are so low level and you have so little of your build devoted to even partial mitigation against it. Thankfully those are done on teams and on a lower diff setting. 

[Uun]

26 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

I've soloed Arachnos at x8. End drain and Psy are far bigger issues than Toxic. You can take a build with resistance to end drain and get a mission with nothing but Mu and be begging on your knees for End.

Not Arachnos, Arachnoids.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Arachnoids

[Without_Pause]

9 minutes ago, Uun said:

Not Arachnos, Arachnoids.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Arachnoids

Ah. To be fair, they are on the rare side. Once I finish off the build I'll have to hunt down the blue side arc. I think I might remember a red side map for them, but I haven't done it with an EA Brute yet.

[Zect]

Both are defense-based sets backed up by minor resists and offensive capacity.

 

Shield is positional with no weakness, EA is typed with a slight neg and significant psi weakness. This is a mild annoyance because EN def is the rarest def on armored AT's - there are few slot-efficient sources easily available to them. Shield has a far less noticeable problem vs psi since most (but not all, and I haven't gone back and checked since they did the typed defense overhaul) psi attacks have a vector. EA is a bit rougher in the 40-50 contact/radio range where there are a lot of arachnos (tarantula queens) and carnies, which incidentally also resist psi melee heavily.

 

Shield has better DDR, slightly better resists plus +maxHP, debuffs dmg of enemies in melee, a modern (recharge immune with mild crash) T9, and complete mez prot. EA has drain and slow resist, a click heal that also gives regen, debuffs rech of enemies in melee, a classic (crashing) T9, and lacks fear/confuse prot.

 

Hence, shield natively provides only strong mitigation, EA has a mixture of slightly weaker mitigation with some sustain and a broader debuff resist spectrum. I generally find that EA has the smoother leveling experience regardless of AT - while shield is very strong when fully kitted out, you will generally struggle to run all its toggles plus fighting in the midgame, conversely EA shrugs off the worst of a lot of groups such as penny yin freakshow.

 

Shield and EA both gain offensive stats in melee with enemies: +dmg for shield and +rech for EA. +rech increases availability of both offensive and defensive clicks, but varying rech is harder to build around - for example you can't necessarily rely on it to make a specific attack chain work. Shield gets a very powerful teleport attack (that accepts pbaoe sets) while EA gets endredux and endurance restoration that makes the pre-set IO life a lot easier.

 

Shield and EA both offer some utility - shield buffs ally +def (it's a lot stronger than maneuvers but in a smaller area) while EA has stealth.

 

Ultimately both are very good. Shield will provide an experience closer to your WP where you toggle up and go, with the caveat that it has worse endurance management. I really prefer EA on stalkers over brutes, especially since the +rech power on stalkers is a flat +20%. There's a reason it is the #1 stalker set.

[ItsDecoy]

On 9/7/2023 at 1:17 AM, Without_Pause said:

EA is a smoother ride to 50 if that matters. I'm finishing off doing the IO on a Shield Scrapper so I can have a comparison to my EA Scrapper. Needless to say I love EA as a set. Shield has more offense, but I will say EA offers Recharge so it will play slightly faster. 

Thank you for your replies everyone!

 

This is interesting.  Would you say that Psy/Shield- Scrapper is better than the Brute version?

[Without_Pause]

6 hours ago, ItsDecoy said:

Thank you for your replies everyone!

 

This is interesting.  Would you say that Psy/Shield- Scrapper is better than the Brute version?

Scrappers get a bigger boost out of +dmg so they will get a bigger boost from Against All Odds. Scrapper vs. Brute is mostly do you prefer more damage versus being sturdier? If both can handle the same mission, then the Scrapper will complete it faster. At least for my EA builds, my Brute currently has 10% more S/L Resist and 100% or so more Regen, and that Regen is based off a bigger HP pool. I do need to do a minor tweak with the Scrapper version. 

[ItsDecoy]

Hmmm, now I am unsure which to role. Brute or Scraper.  Which one can solo content better? Based on scheduled I am unable to team as much so being able to solo AV's is a thing I not only like to do but currently have to do. 

 

I would like to complete most of the game content, get badges, ect. 

[Without_Pause]

I think either work as if you are soloing AVs. You are using things like Envenom Daggers anyway. The only place an AV might be required would be for a TF and in all honestly so many are speed runs I doubt you could do some of them quicker playing solo. You would just be doing them at your own pace. If you are looking at TFC badges, outside of Synapse, those are all done in 30-40 minutes on any decent team. I say roll a Brute as that's the forum you came to. You might find out you don't like the powersets or AT anyway. I personally find Psionic a bit quirky and Shield absolutely blooms late.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

I have a Scrapper psi/EA and the mechanic plus crits helps with the heavy psi resistance late game but

i cannot for the life of me enjoy EA.

while it looks solid on paper, it faceplants fairly quickly vs most foes for some reason

I am not an amazing player but shields positional defenses keep me alive more often than not in comparison.

 

[Without_Pause]

20 minutes ago, Saiyajinzoningen said:

while it looks solid on paper, it faceplants fairly quickly vs most foes for some reason

Bull crap, and I say that as someone who had a Level 50 Scrapper and a level 45 Bute. Even on Live with a common IO build my Claws/regen didn't die fairly quickly against most mobs. Rarely do I need to bump my diff down from +3/x8, and one instance that I did my /stone Brute got their butt handed to them on that mission as well. 

 

Even on my Scrapper I can hit 1,932.6 HP with currently 417.5% Regen. I can get it near 450% with a single IO swap if I want. My F/C Resist numbers are lacking, but I have 65.2% Resist to S/L. My Brute goes to 75%. You have way better End Recovery, but that's what ED is for.

 

Yes, I am talking about a Claws build, but I don't expect that much variance if I switched to Psy.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

1 hour ago, Without_Pause said:

Bull crap, and I say that as someone who had a Level 50 Scrapper and a level 45 Bute. Even on Live with a common IO build my Claws/regen didn't die fairly quickly against most mobs. Rarely do I need to bump my diff down from +3/x8, and one instance that I did my /stone Brute got their butt handed to them on that mission as well. 

 

Even on my Scrapper I can hit 1,932.6 HP with currently 417.5% Regen. I can get it near 450% with a single IO swap if I want. My F/C Resist numbers are lacking, but I have 65.2% Resist to S/L. My Brute goes to 75%. You have way better End Recovery, but that's what ED is for.

 

Yes, I am talking about a Claws build, but I don't expect that much variance if I switched to Psy.

 

um regen is a different thing, I think? 

If we are talking about other sets besides EA or shield, I'd say give ninja a shot as it affords lots of utility.

And if we are no longer discussing defense-based sets I'd recommend Elec or Rad

Regardless I still have issues with EA's survivability. 

[Without_Pause]

5 minutes ago, Saiyajinzoningen said:

 

um regen is a different thing, I think? 

My point is even on a set which offers no Def or Res doesn't die that often even with no set bonuses so clearly a fully IOed out build is going to cakewalk most missions even at or near max settings. I can say I officially die in one of two ways. The mission is actually that difficult, ie a mob essentially ignores Def, or I have a mental lapse. EA is considered at worst an A tier set on any AT which has it. One narrative for why Tankers don't have it is it would be too good for Tankers. That's not the narrative for a set which dies fairly quickly versus most foes. I have recently started to see how long I can go on my Brute when is health getting low before I actually need to click on Energize. Many times more than not, I never touch it even if my health goes orange. 

[Saiyajinzoningen]

1 minute ago, Without_Pause said:

My point is even on a set which offers no Def or Res doesn't die that often even with no set bonuses so clearly a fully IOed out build is going to cakewalk most missions even at or near max settings. I can say I officially die in one of two ways. The mission is actually that difficult, ie a mob essentially ignores Def, or I have a mental lapse. EA is considered at worst an A tier set on any AT which has it. One narrative for why Tankers don't have it is it would be too good for Tankers. That's not the narrative for a set which dies fairly quickly versus most foes. I have recently started to see how long I can go on my Brute when is health getting low before I actually need to click on Energize. Many times more than not, I never touch it even if my health goes orange. 

 

So because your regen doesn't die fast neither should energy armor?

Sorry I'm having a really hard time understanding the point you are trying to make.

 

Regardless, I showed a pic of my stats. Perhaps yours are better? Or maybe I've forgotten something crucial?

My point is I don't seem to die quite as easily with other armor sets as EA.

Even if we compare EA to other sets, shouldn't we compare it to other defense-based sets as is OP's intention?

I keep energize on auto otherwise I die even faster (seriously)

EA sure looks nifty though 😁

[Uun]

I've got an En/En stalker, Psi/SR scrapper, and BS/Shield scrapper. I also had a DM/En brute on live (before /En got Energize or Energy Drain). I really have no issue staying alive with /En unless I'm facing a lot of psi damage (i.e., IDF). 

 

What's up with your hit points? 1,444 is incredibly low for a scrapper (only 8% in +hp). 

[Without_Pause]

First of all, you can't credibly tell me that build can encounter over 50% of mobs and quickly faceplant. Not when as a base it covers roughly 90% of incoming attacks for most attack types and certainly the most common ones. 

 

But yes, 15% more S/L Resist*. 25% more HP partly due to Accolades, and roughly 237% more regen. I did see I have ED as being flagged for being on, but I don't slot it much so the Def number changes aren't that great. I also plan on doing a few minor tweaks to get the build numbers even better. I initially went Melee for my Hybrid slot, but I will grab Assault once I T4 Lore as I don't even feel the need to turn on Melee all that often. It basically is there for the genuinely difficult content. I do so many +3/x8 maps without ever clicking it.

 

* Resist based on full health and not with the Scaling Resist IO kicking in.

 

Brute version. The only way this build dies on over 50% of mobs at +4/x8 is outright negligence.  

[Saiyajinzoningen]

22 hours ago, Uun said:

I've got an En/En stalker, Psi/SR scrapper, and BS/Shield scrapper. I also had a DM/En brute on live (before /En got Energize or Energy Drain). I really have no issue staying alive with /En unless I'm facing a lot of psi damage (i.e., IDF). 

 

What's up with your hit points? 1,444 is incredibly low for a scrapper (only 8% in +hp). 

 

hmm.....low hp huh?

thanks for the tip