Chain lightning as a builder?????????????

xoriandruid

So ive been looking into speccing out of chain lightning and I read a few times somehow people manage to get a good amount of energy return and never use their builders, is this true at all? Is it really worth it?

Otherwise it just doesnt seem that great compared to other aoe like powers.

flowcyto

You shouldn't have to use ur end builder much (or at all) in the majority of well built FF builds- provided we're talking max levels w/ appropriate gear.

Chain Lightning is a pretty poor starter power, imo. The chain effect and range can be nice, but its dps is pretty weak.

xoriandruid

flowcyto said:

You shouldn't have to use ur end builder much (or at all) in the majority of well built FF builds- provided we're talking max levels w/ appropriate gear.

Chain Lightning is a pretty poor starter power, imo. The chain effect and range can be nice, but its dps is pretty weak.

Yea I agree, it needs some work its nice its a mobile power though, do you have any thoughts on electric shield and the electric vengence advantage?

aesica

The only reason you may be gaining energy from chain lightning is its low cost combined with ion interaction. Thing is, you can get that same ion interaction with plenty of other, better spells--arc and storm, for example. Or you can get energy by using an energy builder of course, but I totally get wanting to exclude that. An electric build with decent end and some rec shouldn't need to rely on chain lightning spam or an energy builder at all though.

As for Electric Shield, I have an alt with it + Electric Vengeance. It's fun because that particular alt uses Sentinel Mastery, so blocking after using various stuns lets me gain the benefits of block while triggering sentinel mastery's healing effect. Note that you can get the same effect from Flame Shield when it applies Clinging Flames, Antagonize with the Quills advantage, or any block after applying some dots--bleeds, poisons, whatever.

Overall though, Electric Shield is kind of poopy because it has a reduced (200% vs 250%) block value compared to other block enhancers. Not sure why, because the damage it deals isn't really enough to warrant such a large decrease.

xoriandruid

Hmmm thats good to know I wont have to use an energy builder, that sounds fun maybe I can get another attack in there as well.

I do want to take electric shield for theme purposes but at the same time it doesnt sound all that great.

flowcyto

Aesica pretty much covered it.

As far as Elec Shield: I've had decent mileage out of it and its special adv on an Elec tank build that used Defiance for the extra energy for the adv (could be AoPM for a hybrid dps, or Quarry or Elec Form for a pure dps). That build also used Sparksorm's toggle. It would pretty much just turn the toggle on, run into the middle of everything, and hold block- breaking block to refresh the toggle (which takes a bit of a delay, if done too fast you can cancel the toggle activation w/ the block). Can be decent dps while blocking, but does take some getting used to as a playstyle, and the toggle slows down ur movement speed.

xoriandruid

flowcyto said:

Aesica pretty much covered it.

As far as Elec Shield: I've had decent mileage out of it and its special adv on an Elec tank build that used Defiance for the extra energy for the adv (could be AoPM for a hybrid dps, or Quarry or Elec Form for a pure dps). That build also used Sparksorm's toggle. It would pretty much just turn the toggle on, run into the middle of everything, and hold block- breaking block to refresh the toggle (which takes a bit of a delay, if done too fast you can cancel the toggle activation w/ the block). Can be decent dps while blocking, but does take some getting used to as a playstyle, and the toggle slows down ur movement speed.

It sounds fun, im already speccing out of gigabolt though, I just dont like the feel of the power.

xoriandruid

Sorry guys I have another question about electricity here, what is the deal with everyone liking thunderstrike? I can see it maybe for the root, but lets say I take gigabolt instead wont it have a similar regen effect anyways instead? I dont see light arc being useful with neverstrikes twice because its only a 30 percent increase in dps vs rank 3 and only for held targets, even though ts roots everytime.

Just seems really iffy.

flowcyto

TStrike isn't used for the root adv w/ LArc's special adv, neither of which are good for dps since roots break to inc dmg really quickly for dps, you won't have a target rooted for long for that 30% dmg boost to matter, and it won't apply to bosses that are CC immune anyways. Instead, you could take the root adv if ur making some odd CC build w/ Manip.

TStrike is often taken for LArc builds cause its a pretty easy way to put up Negative Ions- which it can do even on tap, and in an AoE, and w/o taking much energy. TStrike and/or Ball of Lightning w/ Triplicity are two good way of putting up NI debuff for LArc's extra dmg bonus.

xoriandruid

Hmmm I already have ball lightning, so maybe ill take thunder out for gigabolt then.