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Twin Swords/Electric Brute - help me grok this?


Dulahan

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So I've got a Twin Sword/Electric Brute  (Electric Mantis!  Using the twin khopesh blades for the forward bend), and I'm struggling, badly, with it.

 

Yes, I'm only level 19 so far.  But I'm getting murdered on Endurance, drawing all the aggro and just dying.  So it's not working well.  It makes me think I'm failing at actually using the powers right or something.  I'm hoping 3 slotted stamina with IOs/SOs will make a difference soon enough, but I'm still not sure...

 

I don't really need in depth builds or anything, but I am curious about some general advice about each of the halves.  Especially the Electric side, since that's the one I feel I'm struggling the most with.

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I don't really need in depth builds or anything, but I am curious about some general advice about each of the halves.  Especially the Electric side, since that's the one I feel I'm struggling the most with.

 

Well, you picked Electric Armor and thought you were picking a Resist set.  But -- surprise!  You actually picked a self-heal set, and you don't get your heal power until L28.  And you picked a combo set to compliment it but you don't your DPS combo until L26!  Well... what now?

 

My very first, most important piece of advice is drop Lightning Field, if you picked it up already.  Until you have Energize, it's the most efficient way to sap yourself dry and accomplish nothing.  As for the rest: Make sure to take Tough as early as possible, and three- or four- slot it and Charged Armor (two or three Resist IOs and one Endurance one).  Slot your attacks for endurance reduction.  Spam the Weaken combo as much as possible (it's an aoe -dam proc).  Carry insps (and buy the P2W power that gives you three free large ones every half-hour), don't be afraid to rest between fights, and use Blackwand/Nemesis staff to pull things to you rather than leaping in if you don't have any support.

 

Edit: It will, absolutely, get better once you have Attack Vitals, Energize, Power Sink, and of course Hasten to run them all.  You picked a good combo but it has to coast for a few levels.  If you have some merits, you can invest early in some uniques (Shield Wall, Reactive Defenses, Numina's, Panacea, Steadfast, and Gladiator's Armor all have unique set IOs that you can start getting around level 20 without any issue.  Any one of those will make a significant difference in your survivability.  I personally would recommend the Reactive Defenses one to start, since it's going to have the biggest immediate impact on survivability; you'll need to take Combat Jumping, Weave, or Hover to slot it into.  Getting both of the +3% defense IOs, CJ and Weave all together would have a bigger impact but it'll take some time to handle the endurance costs of Weave.)

No-Set Builds: Tanker Scrapper Brute Stalker

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This is kind of just a lowbie problem in general, especially for sets with damage auras (which are expensive). Toggle Electric Field off when you're not fighting groups, and don't try to run Fighting or Leadership toggles until the endurance is under control.

 

More importantly, slot your attacks for endurance reduction. People tend to blame endurance problems mostly on toggles, but even with a damage aura, the majority of your endurance is spent on attacks. Thanks to Fury, brutes can get away with slotting damage barely if at all for quite a while; try slotting your attacks with something like 1 accuracy, 2 endurance, and 1 recharge, and then maybe think about damage enhancements. Frankenslotting is always a good option too. At low levels, you're better off with 3-4 attacks that each have 4-6 slots, instead of 6 attacks that each have 3 slots.

 

Electric Armor in particular gets *much* better on the endurance bar later on: Energize is a beefy cost discount for all your powers when the buff is up, and Power Sink will refill your endurance on command. But those don't come into play until 28 and 35 respectively.

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Without end redux in any power, if you do the math, your attacks generally cost more endurance per second (presuming you are keeping them cycling and not leaving them sit, ready to use) than your shields or damage aura. That means end redux there give you more benefit than in the shields. Both is better, but pre-22, that's not usually an option. (heck, pre-32 even!)

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So I recently started one as well and am L25 (I think) and this is the build I planned for it.  Im not the greatest with builds and I will probably stray from this a bit as I think i forgot to slot Static shield any extras which I will do.  However my focus is the be able to main tank if needed but be a strong second/support tank, so I tried to get decent resistance stats as well as prioritize Recharge/End recovery so I could constantly be firing off combos to both constantly help hold aggro but also whittle down any enemy need be.  Please feel free to correct me where I went wrong so I can learn where stuff needs to go..  I did go over the energy cap I noticed and I am not sure if this is a bad thing or just something that happens while trying to softcap other resistances.  Anyways, here it is-

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962

http://www.cohplanner.com/

 

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

Level 50 Magic Brute

Primary Power Set: Dual Blades

Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor

Power Pool: Leaping

Power Pool: Fighting

Power Pool: Speed

Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

 

Hero Profile:

Level 1: Nimble Slash

  • (A) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  • (5) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (5) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
  • (46) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
  • (46) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
  • (46) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge

Level 1: Charged Armor

  • (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  • (3) Impervium Armor - Resistance
  • (3) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
  • (25) Impervium Armor - Endurance/Recharge
  • (25) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Recharge
  • (37) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance

Level 2: Power Slice

  • (A) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  • (45) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (45) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 4: Conductive Shield

  • (A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
  • (42) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
  • (43) Aegis - Resistance
  • (43) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
  • (43) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge

Level 6: Ablating Strike

  • (A) Analyze Weakness - Chance for +ToHit
  • (7) Analyze Weakness - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
  • (7) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Defense Debuff
  • (40) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  • (40) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (40) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge

Level 8: Typhoon's Edge

  • (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage
  • (9) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance
  • (9) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge
  • (11) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  • (11) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge
  • (21) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 10: Static Shield

  • (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance

Level 12: Super Jump

  • (A) Unbounded Leap - Jumping

Level 14: Lightning Field

  • (A) Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage
  • (15) Brute's Fury - Damage/Recharge
  • (15) Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  • (17) Brute's Fury - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  • (21) Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (23) Brute's Fury - Recharge/Fury Bonus

Level 16: Grounded

  • (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  • (37) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
  • (37) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge

Level 18: Vengeful Slice

  • (A) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  • (19) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (19) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
  • (23) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
  • (34) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage

Level 20: Lightning Reflexes

  • (A) Run Speed IO

Level 22: Combat Jumping

  • (A) Kismet - Defense/Endurance

Level 24: Kick

  • (A) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 26: Sweeping Strike

  • (A) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
  • (27) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (27) Obliteration - Damage
  • (29) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
  • (31) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
  • (31) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 28: Energize

  • (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
  • (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
  • (50) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance

Level 30: Hasten

  • (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  • (31) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 32: One Thousand Cuts

  • (A) Obliteration - Damage
  • (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
  • (33) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
  • (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  • (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  • (34) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 35: Power Sink

  • (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  • (36) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
  • (36) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge
  • (36) Performance Shifter - Accuracy/Recharge

Level 38: Power Surge

  • (A) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
  • (39) Impervious Skin - Status Resistance
  • (39) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
  • (39) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End

Level 41: Tough

  • (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
  • (42) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
  • (42) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP

Level 44: Weave

  • (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
  • (45) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance

Level 47: Superior Conditioning

  • (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  • (48) Performance Shifter - EndMod
  • (48) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy
  • (48) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge

Level 49: Physical Perfection

  • (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
  • (50) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance
  • (50) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge

Level 1: Brawl

  • (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

  • (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

  • (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

  • (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

  • (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

  • (A) Empty

Level 1: Fury

Level 1: Sprint

  • (A) Empty

Level 2: Rest

  • (A) Empty

Level 4: Ninja Run

Level 2: Swift

  • (A) Empty

Level 2: Health

  • (A) Miracle - +Recovery
  • (17) Miracle - Heal

Level 2: Hurdle

  • (A) Empty

Level 2: Stamina

  • (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy
  • (13) Performance Shifter - EndMod
  • (13) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End

------------

 

 

 

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