Looking for the ultimate elec/elec/elec SAPPER build

[Azari]

Yep, I want to make a toon 100 percent dedicated to endurance sapping.  I don’t care about damage output—I want blue bars to be EMPTY!  Any tips? Any specific powers to avoid? 

[VashNKnives]

I know you are in the defender forum but would recommend checking out an e3 Sentinel because sapping can require a bit of extra protection till fully sapped... not that a defender would be bad at it, but for large spawns solo I have found Sentinel sapping to be easy and satisfying. Full disclosure, I spent a good chunk of time recently testing various defender and Sentinel builds with sapping as one option. I just found that my old E3 Sentinel still was much safer especially solo +4x8 w/boss arachnos and other peregrine radio missions. The testing didn't focus on e3 defender vs Sentinel sapping though (AT modifiers would definitely be in favor of defender sapping), and I will still probably level my e3 defender b/c it's fun also.

Edited June 25 by VashNKnives

[Uun]

Electric Affinity only has 2 powers that drain endurance, Shock (ST) and Galvanic Sentinel (pet). Neither is particularly strong and both are better for their -recovery. You might consider Kinetics - Transference is a much stronger end drain, although it has no -recovery. I would recommend Mu Mastery over Electric Mastery, since it has Power Sink as a T1 power instead of a T4 power.

[Azari]

Really I’m open to any build/AT.  I’m just trying to figure out what the best possible end sapping build/power combo is.

Edited June 25 by Azari

[MoonSheep]

like you i’m interested in end drain, i have an elec control/earth assault dom on test i often mess around with  - conductive aura being an always on PBAoE toggle and having power boost in earth assault makes it a great end drainer

 

having power boost on a /elec defender for short circuit + ball lightning is pretty good, but i find i’m constantly chasing that end drain and it becomes consuming to the point of a bit stressful

 

allowing a toggle to do a lot of the work and keep that endurance low makes the experience a lot more fun

[Thraxen]

Sent for sure. 

[Psyonico]

On 6/26/2024 at 4:56 AM, MoonSheep said:

like you i’m interested in end drain, i have an elec control/earth assault dom on test i often mess around with  - conductive aura being an always on PBAoE toggle and having power boost in earth assault makes it a great end drainer

 

having power boost on a /elec defender for short circuit + ball lightning is pretty good, but i find i’m constantly chasing that end drain and it becomes consuming to the point of a bit stressful

 

allowing a toggle to do a lot of the work and keep that endurance low makes the experience a lot more fun

I was going to suggest electric control... I recently rolled an elec/poison for this very purpose.  Poison's version of poison trap does a bunch of -recovery.

[Kai Moon]

I'd stick to an Elec Blast archetype. End drain got nerfed on Homecoming, it mainly just sets up elec blast mini-crits.

 

Defender survivability is fine and potentially even better than Sentinel. I never have a problem with survivability on my elec/elec/elec defender. Even at low levels, he's got his mez protection, he's got his knock protection, he's got 24% resist all but toxic. At high levels, Charged Armor nearly caps smashing/lethal/energy resists.

 

On the flip side, a sentinel will never sap whole spawns. Thunderous Blast recharges faster, handy for bullying an AV. But Short Circuit's the better choice for packs of normal mobs, and all your aoe's are reduced to 10 targets for Sentinels.

 

Assuming you go defender:

 

From Elec Affinity, I'd say either Rejuvenating or Insulating is skippable. Having both seems like overkill. The other powers have end drains or useful self-buffs. Don't skip Energizing, you'll have end problems without it until you get Power Sink. Defibrillate can be used as a strong AoE mez + end drain without a dead teammate. Amp Up is usually skippable as a nerfed version of Power Boost, but for a dedicated sapper, it adds an end drain proc to one of your teammates.

 

From Elec Blast, I'd say Lightning Bolt, Ball Lightning, Tesla Cage, and Voltaic Sentinel are skippable. Charged Bolts is slightly better than Lightning Bolt for sapping, so I took Zapp instead of Lightning Bolt. Use single target blasts as end management - if they mini-crit, they restore more end than they cost. Ball Lightning's mainly for AoE damage, its small end drain is superfluous on top of your big AoE drains (Short Circuit, Defibrillate, Thunderous Blast, Power Sink). I took Shocking Bolt instead of Tesla Cage. Homecoming put a questionable cross-set interaction on Tesla Cage which consumes your Static, and I'd rather use my Static on Defibrillate which is a better AoE drain. Homecoming tried to make VS a toggle, but it constantly gets stuck on geometry, so you have to resummon it all the time anyway.

 

It's okay to overslot Thunderous Blast for end drain. Won't make a difference for EBs, but does make a difference for AVs. One-shot draining AVs isn't super helpful on Homecoming, but it sets up your mini-crits, and it's a flex.

 

For alpha, I went all in on Agility Core. Absolutely biggest saps in the game, but the recharge component messes with damage procs. Musculature radial would be a better balance between damage and sapping.

[VashNKnives]

On 6/25/2024 at 11:51 AM, Azari said:

Really I’m open to any build/AT.  I’m just trying to figure out what the best possible end sapping build/power combo is.

This is my current E3 sentinel build on live. Since you share your builds on the forums I thought you may appreciate some reciprocation, even if you may disagree with the slotting and powers. I would encourage you to experiment on the beta server. Things like sapped enemies scattering can annoy some folks, which is why originally I took chain fences, but then I found I rarely used it and liked to move anyway. Also, tactics is super important when facing +3s in PI radios. 

 

One last thing about the Sentinel AT is that Sapping works well with the inherent - vulnerability - since when sapping you'll want to focus on those particularly annoying bosses and keep them drained (minions and LTs will be dry due to your AoE):

Spoiler

 

Edited June 30 by VashNKnives

[Gentoo]

Why not take power boost and use it with short circuit? Won't that drain much better?