Battle Axe with Energy or Fire?

[Flurry]

Hi Heroes,

 

Like many of you, I am recently returned to Homecoming and am looking forward to trying out a lot of the changes since I last played. One of the ones I'm most interested in is the revamped Battle Axe set. I'm currently torn between pairing it with Energy or Fire. Can anyone share their thoughts as to which secondary goes best with it?

 

 

[Sancerre]

fire will need to get your defense from others via group buffs for harder content.  fiery embrace damage is very substantial.  very squishy but big damage.  strong playing together in team (can struggle if splintered).  no taunt aura so expect stuff to run away... especially if you use burn.  would note that... aside from aesthetic/theme/style... bio armor outshines fire armor in a lot of ways for offense oriented armor.

 

energy has very strong defense and regen -- very able to do your own thing and be self sufficient.  has a taunt aura BUT offers no extra damage.

 

both sets have strong endurance management.

[Renatos1023]

Just got my Axe/Energy to 30 today. It is such a fun combo once you start getting some slotting. Once you get Energize (which heals and also lowers endurance cost of powers for a certain amount of time) plus the end. recovery power, you start to feel the full potential. It is an endurance guzzler before (and also after) you get those two key powers. But it has been a blast so far. Those two powers are game changers in terms of your endurance management. So you do need to give the combo up to Lv.30 to start to mature.

 

IO wise, I have slotted the two +3% defense uniques, the performance shifter +end, and miracle +recovery (all to buttress up that endurance problem) so far. I am usually pretty good just hopping into a mob, either before or after a Tank, and I can mitigate alphas on a team with no Tank. /Energy is very sturdy, and I know it will be easy to soft-cap once I start moving into sets. Currently using regular Lv.30 IOs and the defense is solid. Very much a solid scrapper combo.

 

Editing to say: I rarely play resistance-based secondaries on Scrappers, as the Scrapper resistance cap is 75%, compared to a Tank's 90%...while all ATs have the softcap of 45% defense. So, in my opinion it is easier to make a defense-based Scrapper, than it is to make a resistance-based Scrapper. This is just my opinion, and I'm sure others will have their opinions. But the 75% res cap for Scrappers has turned me away from those sets. 

Edited January 20 by Renatos1023

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:26 PM, Flurry said:

Can anyone share their thoughts as to which secondary goes best with it?

 

The revamped battle axe is definitely a top performer, and should work well with all secondaries.  Energy Aura will be a lot easier for general play than Fire, but Fire will ultimately be a higher damage dealer.

[Flurry]

Thank you for chiming in, Yomo. Given the state of the meta, do you think Energy or Fire would be more useful at end game content?

 

EDIT: Thank you also to Sancerre and Renatos1023. For some reason when I originally wrote this I did not see your responses.

 

Edited January 22 by Flurry

[Renatos1023]

Having played both of the defensive /Energy and /Fire on multiple ATs, I would say Energy will generally outperform Fire in end game content almost always, solely because of all of its tools (unless you're consistently playing with someone who will ensure you always have soft-capped defenses, then having high resistances is fantastic, but that is rare). For Energy, being able to easily push your defenses past the soft cap, without team support, is nothing to laugh at. Fire struggles IMO in high level content unless you have someone bumping up your defense. Yes, you can do that with IOs, but it will be very expensive. Fire armor has always been the farming set because it increases your damage output and, without IOs, can only cap itself on Fire resistance. 

 

With Energy you have Energize (which both heals and lowers endurance cost) and Energy Drain, both on short timers. To be honest, outside of farming, you don't see many Fire/ or /Fire defensive powersets -- and its because it excels at damage...not keeping you alive. I have a kitted out Rad/Fire Brute as my farmer and she kicks butt in farms -- but not so much in normal missions. I think you will find /Energy much more survivable, and therefore enjoyable, at higher levels. Especially with Axe, which has a ton of AoE damage already, so it doesn't need /Fire's AoE, but it does greatly benefit from /Energy's multiple endurance fixes.

 

You can build either set to be survivable, but IMO Energy will always outperform Fire, especially at higher levels -- and with a much lower influence cost.

 

Editing to add: Energy also has 3-4 (depending on if you take the T9) powers that you can slot the Luck of the Gambler +Recharge in. Fire has 0 powers to slot it in. That means you can easily get 5 of the LoTGs into your build as Energy (I always take Combat Jumping, Maneuvers, and Weave on melee builds -- so another 3 powers that can also take an LoTG), and Axe definitely benefits from some recharge.

Edited January 21 by Renatos1023

[Yomo Kimyata]

22 hours ago, Flurry said:

Thank you for chiming in, Yomo. Given the state of the meta, do you think Energy or Fire would be more useful at end game content?

 

 

Totally up to you and what you consider to be end game content.  Energy is much more survivable at a relatively low cost in terms of inf and knowledge, which is one of the reasons I like to use fire!  One thing against Energy in my books is the defensive power that makes my costume difficult to see; I didn't hit that Random button in the character creator to not see what it looks like!

 

My lvl 50 axe/energy scrapper is extremely powerful and I use him to run solo AV Carnival arcs at +4/x8 without a sweat or even much strategy.  My axe/fire is still in progress, but I anticipate it will take a lot more thought and effort, which I enjoy, and should do a bunch more damage.  Note:  Axe Cyclone followed by Burn should be illegal it's so satisfying.

[Flurry]

Thanks again, everyone. (Sorry that I missed the earlier replies.) I'll be rolling up a Battle Axe/Energy Scrapper shortly!

Edited January 22 by Flurry

[WindDemon21]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:26 PM, Flurry said:

Hi Heroes,

 

Like many of you, I am recently returned to Homecoming and am looking forward to trying out a lot of the changes since I last played. One of the ones I'm most interested in is the revamped Battle Axe set. I'm currently torn between pairing it with Energy or Fire. Can anyone share their thoughts as to which secondary goes best with it?

 

 

Until they fix the god awful end/rech stats on Pendulum which are practically DOUBLE what they should be (it's only about 6% more damage than BS's slice which is 8s and 8.35 end, yet pendulums new nerfed damage still has its end at 14.35 and rech at 15!), you really need end help with axe. Also until they fix consume to be on a 60s recharge or variation equivalent, fire and axe together are just going to hurt your endurance far too much.

 

So even with the synergy, i'd do it on tank well before scrapper for the combo, but on scrapper I'd definitely do axe with energy aura so at least your endurance issue is handled.