Energy/Energy Build

[GickerLDS]

Hi all,

 

Wondering if an Energy/Energy build is worth making or not.  My main concern is the knockback, and whether that's going to be a huge annoyance when grouping with others, mainly melee type.

[Erratic1]

(1) I have never experienced people asking, "Are you an Energy Blaster?" to determine if someone gets into a group. I've seen a lot of other, silly criteria, but not that one.

 

(2) As someone who plays melee quite frequently let me say that it's all in how you choose to use the knockback, not merely that it occurs. Frankly, I get infinitely more angry on my Kinetics Defender when the anchor for Trnasfusion or Fulcrum Shift gets knocked light-years away just before the power goes off but what I just wrote still it's how you use it, not that you do it.

[Harlequin565]

 

Wondering if an Energy/Energy build is worth making or not. 

 

Absolutely Yes. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,3394.0.html

[GickerLDS]

Thanks guys!

[sloppyjoespit]

Hot take: Coming from a player who mains an AoE Brute, if you’re an Energy Blaster who hasn’t invested in KB-to-KD IO’s you’re getting booted from my team unless you’re using your powers extremely sparingly and only KBing things that are about to wipe us. In which case, you using your powers only extremely sparingly is probably causing us to wipe in the first place due to the dead weight on the team, which most likely  ends in you getting booted after a polite conversation.

 

That’s just the harsh truth man. Groups, especially at higher levels, tend to be very AoE focused and concerned with efficiency. Energy KB just mucks up the entire operation and makes things way more difficult than they need to be in terms of positioning.

 

I know I’ll catch flak for this here, but I wanted to give the real viewpoint you’re going to run into often in game. Forum posters are positive and friendly and will encourage it, but you’re going to get more than your fair share of complaints if you’re joining pick-up groups without preparing properly.

 

Group with friends, slot the right IO’s or just deal with the complaints in stride. Those are your options when it all boils down. Good luck!

[GickerLDS]

No, I appreciate you taking the time and being candid.  That's what I wanted to avoid to be honest.  What exactly is KB to KD IOs?  I get knockback to knockdown, but what is the IO part of it?  Is it difficult to invest in that?

[0th Power]

If you’re on my team when I’m running my tank or brute, you can KB as much as you want.  I’m not going to kick someone from my team for playing the game and having fun. XP per minute is not that important.

[GickerLDS]

Thanks for the different points of view.  I certainly don't mind investing in KB2KD IOs (googled it, so am good).  Just how expensive is it to do though?  I'd rather just avoid the whole controversy altogether, so if it's tough to get it over to KD, I'll just start a new toon.

[0th Power]

The proc is cheap, but the problem isn’t the cost inf wise, it is the wasted slot in all of your powers.  The proc is only a conversion.  It doesn’t add damage, accuracy, etc.  I’m not going to waste ~5 slots to be allowed to play on certain teams.

[oedipus_tex]

The proc is very much worth it when you consider the base extremely high chance of knockback in Energy's AoEs and how fast they recharge. With a 50% chance in Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast to kb converted to kd, it's easy to keep things planted on the ground, making Energy Blast one of the safest sets to use.

 

I would only bother to put the proc in the AoE powers though. Anyone complaining about single target knockback needs to just get over it.

 

For the record, the unique kb to kd proc doesn't seem to work on Nova. I don't know why. The non-unique proc does seem to work.

[0th Power]

More than half the fun in nova is the bad guys flying at the room.

[Tremalion]

I would only bother to put the proc in the AoE powers though. Anyone complaining about single target knockback needs to just get over it.

 

This. Also I don't bother putting it in Nova, because I'm not knocking around enemies, I'm just tossing bodies with no HP left. Anybody who complains about that has earned themselves some richly-deserved side-eye.

[Erratic1]

If you’re on my team when I’m running my tank or brute, you can KB as much as you want.  I’m not going to kick someone from my team for playing the game and having fun. XP per minute is not that important.

 

With 2 Tankers, 3 Brutes, and 3 Scrappers (along with a dozen other characters), while I will grumble to myself about reckless and annoying use of knockback, I echo the final line above.

 

Slotting KB->KD in all your powers will require a lot of  investment in time and influence which would be better spent improving your character in other ways. If you want to spend the time and money, that is one thing, but you do not owe anyone else that effort.

 

If a mob is standing next to a wall, knockback isn't sending it anywhere. If you are above the target (say by using Hover) the target gets knocked down but again isnt going anywhere. And if you are landing the killing blow, who cares where the corpse is going?

 

 

 

 

[chuckv3]

Mine is currently 47, and very easy to play on +0/2 or +1/2 solo, or with any competent group just hang back and blast single targets. I played through so many story arcs that I ended up with about 800 merits at level 47. I've already bought the Ragnarok and Armeggedon sets I plan to slot at 50, and I'm working on the merits for the SUPERIOR blaster sets.

 

I basically slotted for recharge first then ranged defense. I use the celerity stealth in sprint so I can sneak into the middle of a group when SS and sprint are both on. Then I nova and use whatever attacks are up to finish off any misses or harder targets. Where this doesn't work you can target a mob in the middle, hit aim, buildup, F to follow, then Nova. Nova is up every 30 seconds or so, and Aim and Buildup every 12-ish. You can insta-snipe twice during one aim+buildup cycle, so what I usually do when nova is down is hover near the group, aim, buildup, snipe, power burst, power blast, snipe again (just before the yellow ring disappears), then just cycle power burst/blast until everything is dead. I use hover mostly to keep ground-based mobs at ranged where my defense is strongest. If you get surrounded by too many mobs, you can go vertical, or fire off nova, EB or ET to knock some back, and throw a few melee attacks at the ones nearby while waiting for the ranged attacks to recycle. There can be a lot of juggling when a large group is at melee, but you can also toggle on PFF and retreat. There are lots of ways to stay alive while dealing decent damage.

 

You don't really need the 3 slots in stamina if you keep energize on auto-fire. I took out one of the IOs to check, and my endurance is almost always full no matter what I do. I may actually remove another to see how that works.

 

As far as knockback to knockdown, it's not global, and knockback doesn't matter at all when solo (in fact it's useful). So that slot from stamina that I don't really need will probably be in Nova for the Sudden Acc. proc plus Armageddon set of 5. If you are in a group and tend to stay on one target until its dead, knockback is a non-issue. You'll be cleaning up your own messes. If you always alpha-strike with nova and scatter the tank's groupies, I think I'd be upset at you too... So maybe put the proc in Nova, but elsewhere its kind of wasteful and maybe even stupid.

 

Short answer: DO IT! It's kill, kill, kill, kill fun.

 

My builds are posted here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5976.0.html

 

[Rathulfr]

Knockback is Energy's damage mitigation/crowd control feature.  You will gimp yourself if you convert all your KB to knockdown, because KD is less effective than KB.  That said, KB can be frustrating to team mates if not used properly.  So the key here is learning to play (L2P) the build correctly, in a way that benefits you and your team (git gud).

 

1.  Think before you blast.  What is your position?  What is the mob's position?  What is the tank's position?  Are the mobs locked down yet?  Where is the target-based debuff active?  What is my backstop: where will the mobs go when (not if) I knock them back? 

 

2.  Hover.  Hover should be required on all Energy blasters, period.  Hover above the crowd and KB down.

 

3.  Focus on the outliers and runners: all groups of mobs have them.  The melees don't want to chase them down anyway, so make them your b*tches.  Hey look: that oddball is targeting our healer or controller -- take it out and be the team's hero, instead of its goat.

 

4.  Slot KB2KD in your AoEs, not your single-target attacks: Energy Torrent, Explosive Blast, and Nova.  That will preserve the primary utility of KB in the Energy set, and save you some cash.  I'm usually a ST kind of player, so I don't always train ET or EB, meaning that I need only 1 KB2KD, in Nova.  YMMV.