Power Armor-Energy Management

sturmwolf65

So...I'm a returning player and a lot of things changed since I played the last time.
Now I have to make some adjustments on some old toons and I need some help from the number crunchers among you guys.
I have to choose my last 2ndary superstat (primary ss is INT) and I have to choose between END or REC.
I thought about END to have a larger energypool, so I can toggle all my power armor attacks longer.
But my energy is melting away very fast, so I thought that REC is maybe a better choice to fuel Overdrive.
What choice will really help me more to keep my toggles running?

PS:
Is there a noticeable difference in energyusage if I use Lock'n'Load or Electric Sheath as an active offense?

johnjohniii

I have a PA toon and this question racked my brain for many hours. The best setup I was able to find (thanks pulsewave) was INT SS and END/REC secondary SS. Without end and rec you run into problems. Without end you can't do a full maintain even with INT SS. Without REC you'll be using your end builder all the time to refill your bar for your maintain. at 40 with crit/con gear. Overdrive is ok... but not nearly as good as advertised. With REC SS you'll just need one or two shots to fill you back up.
At lvl 40 with just ok gear I've got about 5500 HP and 20% + crit chance.

As to your question about active defenses you've got to figure out what you want it to do. If you want a offensive/defensive the electric sheath is great. if you want more offensive then lock'n'load. I would however look in a slightly different direction. I use ego surge w/ nimble mind adv. it works very well. pure damage increase!

hope some of this helps!

kallethen

If you are relying on Overdrive, grab REC since it scales up that energy unlock more than INT does. Incidentally, REC works well as a primary SS with the spec tree boosting Overdrive even further.

If you are relying more on MSA for your energy unlock, INT boosts that more than REC.

For Electric Sheath and Lock n' Load... I've got both on my PA toon. When I'm not cycling through constant use of the Active Offenses (I have the cooldown's low enough that I could have almost no break in an AO being active), I find that Electric Sheath is good to activate when you just spent energy and need a quick refill immediately. Lock n' Load works great when you want to sustain a longer barrage of firepower since it reduces energy cost. Both, IMO, work well for a PA toon. The above poster's suggestion of Ego Surge is also quite valid.

(EDIT: Almost no break... forgot to type that word. I meant I can fire off one right after the AO required 30 sec cooldown.)

sturmwolf65

Ok...so far, so good.
I fooled around a bit and have some new questions.
My primary SS is still INT (I don't want to go without the +recharge), REC secondary SS -last SS has nothing to do with energy so it doesn't matter- and I'm still relying on Overdrive as an energy unlock (no MSA).

Is there any trick in powerchoice to push my energy any further?
I noticed that I get my stacks of Overdrive faster if I use the Shoulder Launcher -just 4 seconds toggling at all, so I get the first stack after 2 sec, that's pretty fast.
Is it worth picking it just to get more energy?
I wanted to pick some other power to put Crippling Challenge in, but maybe Bunker Buster will do the same trick, but it doesn't disable blocking...so I'm not sure if it's worth it.

And I'm also thinking about a good Form.
I wanted to pick IDF to be more tanky, but my hunger for more energy doesn't fit in there.
Would Concentration give me more energy than the form needs to maintain?

beldin

sturmwolf65 wrote: »

Would Concentration give me more energy than the form needs to maintain?

Yepp .. it helps with energy. There were times when some ranged characters took
Form of the Tempest even when it gave them zero damage but just for the energy

kallethen

Another possibility for helping gain energy is picking up the force block power and using it's Force Sheath advantage. For a few seconds after you block, enemy attacks on you will give you energy. Which would probably happen often if your going for a Tank build.

sturmwolf65

Thanks for the help.
Right now I pretty much solved my energy problems.
I picked REC as a SS to get more energy from Overdrive.
If I meet a really hard foe, I click Reconstruction Device just to get the first stack of Overdrive before the fight starts.
My opening attack is Shoulderlauncher, which gives me the next stack asap.
Concentration seems to help a lot to get energy, cause since I picked it, I hardly have to worry.
The breaks between my heavy toggling attacks I use to click Unbreakable and Lock n Load.
Revitalize and Automated Assault make sure that both actives are available very often and the discount from Lock n Load keep my attacks running even longer.