Returning Player LF Advice. Also, Lightning.

evilkittyman

Heyo!

I’ve been out of the game for…well, quite some time…but have recently been suffering the itch to come back in and take advantage of Champions’ fantastic character editor again, for a couple of characters in particular. One of them is Kaminari Jane, one of my favorite concepts from the Time Before, whose rebuilding I’ve decided is a priority this time around. Always wanted Jane at 40, time to get her there – and hopefully time for you guys to help!

Backstory on me: I used to be a pretty fair shake at this game’s PvE side. Ran with the Wild Cards for a little bit and pulled my weight in Therakiel runs with the very glassiest and cannonish of glass cannons, as well as a few other, somewhat more sensible/less AWESOME characters. Even got to name a power in the game back during the (old?) Power Armor revamp! Not that I ever figured out a good build to use it…WHY do laser sword powers not have proper advantages to play with yet?!

Anyways. I know what the basics of Champ-building are and am familiar with the Demon Keypo method. I also have a shiny fresh LTS due to the June sale and a pile of money I didn’t want anyways, so I guess I’m here to stay this time. Or at least won’t have to blow any more cash the next time I want to fiddle with the char editor again.

Nevertheless, I’ve been out of the game since shortly before the Night Avenger release – never flown a vehicle before in my life, nor am I really familiar with any new developments or balancing measures released in the last two-odd years. To put it mildly, I am rusty. Anybody got some scours?

Backstory on Jane/Hero Theme:

Kaminari Jane is a (sort of) reformed thief of rather exceptional skill. She made a name for herself back in the day by hitting high-profile museum/gallery heists, more to challenge herself and for the love of the game than to make a cold buck. During one particular heist, however, she was unfortunate enough to stumble across a Destroid snatch squad looking to plunder a mystic relic from the museum she was hitting. Jane, at that time, had no superpowers and didn’t carry weapons with her on her heists, but still managed to disable half of the snatch squad with her bare hands, her ingenuity, and whatever random junk she could grab in the museum. Despite this, the Destroids managed to get away with their target while leaving a battered, nearly-dead Jane behind, sans left arm.

She was taken into custody after the hit, sent to the hospital to be treated prior to being tried for the dozen or so major heists she’d pulled off before then, but Dr. Black got to her first. Black had decided that he could use a retrievals specialist in his line-up, and both he and several other spellchuckers in the UNITY network had seen portents that Jane might well be critical to bringing down Destroyer. He made her an offer – agree to work for UNITY and pit her skills against real challenges in order to Help Defend Humanity, and he would not only foot the bill for her medical expenses and waive the investigations surrounding her (and more importantly, the ones looking for her friends/support network), but he would use UNITY resources to rebuild her ravaged body, give her a new arm, and put her back at the top of her game, and more.

What All That Junk Means/Hero Mechanics:

Jane is (ideally) a mix of Electric and Martial skills patterned on the agile trickster archetype with a healthy dose of cyber-ninja mixed in, utilizing speed, mobility, and evasion to take out her targets with dozens of small hits. For the longest time pre-Time Before, her main attack was Lightning Arc, which is an absolutely superb power which looked great zorching out from Jane’s shockin’ hand…but it never quite felt right. Mostly, I realize now, because the self-root denied Jane the use of her character-defining acrobatics and mobility. Will use Lightning Arc on someone else – Jane needs to be able to move.

The proposed build I’ve put together below addresses this issue, relying on Sparkstorm and Hundred Hands to clear chaff, Lightning Reflexes and its bestest buddy BCR/RR to avoid damage and patch up what she does take, and Dragon Kick/Gigabolt for handling harder targets. Tides, Evasive Maneuvers, and Smoke Grenade are story-appropriate control and escape tricks to help Jane exit any battle she determines she’s losing, while her Superstats were chosen both thematically (cyber/nanotech rebuild enhancing her reflexes, strength, and confidence. Yes, confidence. Wouldn’t you be more confident if you’d been turned into a cybernetic superwoman who was still hotter than hell? ) and mechanically (Dex is still one of the best superstat trees if Powerhouse is to be believed, and Strength/Ego SSS’s with Vindicator Mastery helps shore up her somewhat weak/scattered offenses).

I’ve considered Ball Lightning over Gigabolt as the final-touch power on Jane, both to really drive home the death-of-a-thousand-cuts fighting style and because Ball Lightning’s infinitely more sustainable than Jiggabolt (I think. It used to be. Especially without any Intelligence), but the notion of a deep-overload capability in Jane’s arm appeals to me. Much depends on whether it ends up even being possible for her to fire a Gigabolt. As for clickies, Sheath and Unbreakable are kinda the blind-obvious choices. I generally prefer having two of each if I can, but Jane’s build is crowded as hell as it is. Can’t quite find room for a deep bag of tricks and redundant clickies on a character with two separate and (usually) completely unrelated power trees both vying for slots.

Anyways. Build. Here y’all go. Tell me – what works, what sucks? What have I missed, what’s worth checking into? Lemme know what’s going on in Champions these days, folks!

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Kaminari Jane

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Ego (Secondary)
Level 15: Strength (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Night Avenger
Level 6: Martial Training
Level 9: Shooter
Level 12: Professional Athlete
Level 15: Martial Focus
Level 18:
Level 21:

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Sparkstorm (Rank 2, Electric Personality)
Level 6: Electric Shield (Rank 2, Electric Vengeance)
Level 8: Lightning Reflexes (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Thunderbolt Lunge
Level 14: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 17: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 20: One Hundred Hands (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Form of the Tempest
Level 26: Dragon Kick (Rank 2, Lashing Dragon Tail)
Level 29: Inexorable Tides
Level 32: Gigabolt (Rank 2, Death Arc)
Level 35: Unbreakable
Level 38: Electric Sheath

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Acrobatics (Rank 2, Versatility)
Level 35: Lightning Flash (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Vindicator Mastery (1/1)

flowcyto

Interesting concept and background.

Unfortunately, the biggest issue w/ this build will likely be energy management. You are using a high-energy maintain (100Hands) w/ a toggle (Sparkstorm) and I don't think you'll have the energy reserves or regen needed to maintain those or power Gigabolt w/ ur current SS setup. Basically, you'd be eating energy like a PA user would when up-close, so you'd have to stat around that to make it work as is.

What you could do it pick up OD as the energy unlock, since you have 2 maintains, and take Int PSS and stat for some more Int and Rec/End. Then you aren't tied to using a lunge or BCR (both lower ur dps) to proc or roll MSA. Gigabolt would then be more of an opener move or something ya could pull out when you have high energy from blocking.

Ofc, ya can also kill many trash mobs just toggling on Sparkstorm and blocking w/ EV up while you stay close (benefit is ya can also turn on BCR and w/ be tough to kill, even vs. tough groups, since you'll be blocking most of the time). I have an electric tank that uses that combo and its superb for tanking huge pulls while still whittling things down (that toon has Con SS'd, Concentration, CS/CC advs, and knock resist, though- he's more or less a proper ranged tank whereas this build seems to be more a hybrid dps). The random KBs Sparkstorm does will be a bit annoying, but from blocking you'll have plenty of energy to finish off stragglers w/ Gigabolt or 100Hands or w/e.

Its an odd build to try to make work, but I'll see what I can do w/ tweaking it to not break ur concept or power list too much:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Kaminari Jane

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Recovery (Primary)
Level 10: Dexterity (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Fist
Level 6: Coordinated
Level 9: Investigator
Level 12: Accurate
Level 15: Acrobat
Level 18: Healthy Mind
Level 21: Boundless Reserves

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Sparkstorm (Rank 2, Electric Personality)
Level 6: Electric Shield (Rank 2, Electric Vengeance)
Level 8: Lightning Reflexes (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Form of the Tempest
Level 14: Overdrive
Level 17: One Hundred Hands (Rank 2, Rank 3, Ghostly Strikes)
Level 20: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 23: Gigabolt (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Thunderbolt Lunge
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Dragon Kick (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Electric Sheath (Rank 2, Matter – Energy Union)
Level 38: Inexorable Tides

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Electro Flight

Specializations:
Recovery: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Recovery: Staying Power (2/2)
Recovery: Super Charged (3/3)
Recovery: Well Rounded (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Recovery Mastery (1/1)

I took a risk and gave ya Rec PSS (a tree I normally wouldn't touch) since the blocking/EV combo can leave you at high energy most of the time- but you will drain energy when you stop blocking and use 100Hands and Gigabolt more often (can get Supercharged to power Gigabolt pretty easily, though). DK's Rush can also help keep ur energy high at higher levels. Rec PSS also has the adv of powering OD better than other stats, and gives ya extra max energy and health for gearing non-SS's (like Ego or Str to 70 for their soft-cap, End, or Int). Although Rec is good for the build, you'd still want to gear mostly Dex for the toggle. Con SS was added to give you a bit more health, but you can swap it for Int or End if ya dun mind being a bit squishier (or Str for some knock resist).

Otherwise there are smaller changes made than the SS setup and EU. Ya def want Ghostly Strikes to max out 100Hands dmg, and I swapped Unbreakable for MD since its better when left un-ranked. Changed versatility for r3 Athletics, gave ya a flight power, r3 over Death Arc for Gigabolt (r3 is better for openers in Alerts), and r2 in BCR for more healing from it. Also took Offensive Expertise over Mod Gear to lower Sheath's cd and ranked Sheath up.

I wasn't sure what to do w/ Tides, but I guess it works as a quick knock-up/interrupt. Also generally ordered the powers to match how one could level w/ it.

Admittedly, if you didn't want to do the blocking combo as much, the SS setup and maybe certain powers would prob best be changed. (Also: Flow suggested a build w/ Rec or End PSS- I think Hell is caving in..)

evilkittyman

Apologies for the late reply, away from my regular PC for a while due to the 'Murica Day festivities.

Anyways.

Yeah, the more I thought about it after I concepted this, the more I figured I was stating it wrong. I put Super Intelligence on practically everything, or did back in the day anyways. Wanted to try and get away from throwing a pile of energy stats on most every build I did, but you're right - Jane's not the place to start.

Couple of questions, as I'm away from the game right now and can't readily check. Have they changed Overdrive's behavior since the last time I was around? When I was here, it only worked at all off of PA toggles, and frankly underperformed next to MSA at that. I didn't see many builds seriously trying to make Overdrive work; even PA builds simply worked in something that could trip MSA. 'Course, it's been a couple of years and even when I was here last, Cryptic was eyeballing the Undisputed King of Unlockers with something resembling the stink-eye.

Secondly: your tweaks seem pretty heavily invested towards maximized DPS, and having scanned over a fw other threads 'round these parts, it seems that Alerts have eaten the game. Is that about the only thing people build for/do these days? No UNITY missions or other, more general-purpose content? I have a rule about cooldown-reduction skills/traits/talents/what-have-yous in other, similar games, and that rule is "if this is not a thing you fire on cooldown regularly, then it's not a thing that needs its cooldown reduced." I tend to stay away from the AO cooldown reductions in trait lines on everyone but Pennywidget for that exact reason - most of the time I'm firing these things only rarely, so their cooldown doesn't matter. I take it the game environment has changed significantly enough that this will cease being the case?

Thirdly, why Recovery over Intelligence? Not disputing the choice, just curious about the minutae behind it. Heh, way I recall was that Super Recovery was something that seemed intriguing with Primal Majesty builds (sub-question: is that Primal Rage bullhonkey still a thing? Never liked those builds back when), but was generally held to just not be as good as Intelligence at wringing energy efficiency out of your attacks. May consider a Rec/Dex/Int spread over Constitution, but either way I think you're probably right on neding mostly energy stats. Much as that stinks. Ah well - who picks superstats for theme anyways, right? :P

flowcyto

evilkittyman wrote: »

Couple of questions, as I'm away from the game right now and can't readily check. Have they changed Overdrive's behavior since the last time I was around? When I was here, it only worked at all off of PA toggles, and frankly underperformed next to MSA at that. I didn't see many builds seriously trying to make Overdrive work; even PA builds simply worked in something that could trip MSA. 'Course, it's been a couple of years and even when I was here last, Cryptic was eyeballing the Undisputed King of Unlockers with something resembling the stink-eye.

OD performs on more general maintains/toggles now (the old limitation I guess was considered a bug and not intended). Like Manip, they'd added most other appropriate powers, but also like Manip there's still a couple powers that should be covered but aren't.

Annd I just checked- apparently the two ones ya have already are also listed as not working properly w/ OD. Well, f- the world then!

Guess ya do need to find a way to shoe-horn another EU in there. MSA would work, ofc, it just wouldn't have been procing naturally w/ some of ur reg attacks as OD would (*if the damn thing worked as intended). Oh well, that's CO's balance for ya.

If ya want to use MSA, then INT/End/Dex w/ some Con/HP gearing on the side could work out for an SS setup that gives ya decent dps, good energy efficiency, and enough energy for gigabolt or 100Hands use. You'd still want to stat a good amount of Dex for FotT and Rush though, and atm the lunge would have to fuel MSA mostly, unless ya changed some powers around.

There's also always Thermal Reverb w/ Flashfire and End gearing, but then you'd be tied to flashfire use and that may not be in-theme.

Secondly: your tweaks seem pretty heavily invested towards maximized DPS, and having scanned over a fw other threads 'round these parts, it seems that Alerts have eaten the game. Is that about the only thing people build for/do these days? No UNITY missions or other, more general-purpose content? I have a rule about cooldown-reduction skills/traits/talents/what-have-yous in other, similar games, and that rule is "if this is not a thing you fire on cooldown regularly, then it's not a thing that needs its cooldown reduced." I tend to stay away from the AO cooldown reductions in trait lines on everyone but Pennywidget for that exact reason - most of the time I'm firing these things only rarely, so their cooldown doesn't matter. I take it the game environment has changed significantly enough that this will cease being the case?

Most non-Alert group content is pretty dead, honestly. Nemcon still gets run, and I guess Resistance too for DS- but the rest just lack incentive for most players to group up for.

And yeah, CDR stacking and cd cycling rules much of the meta-game atm. This game allows you to cut base cd timers by ridiculous amounts, so cds are overall disproportionately more powerful to use regularly.

Thirdly, why Recovery over Intelligence? Not disputing the choice, just curious about the minutae behind it. Heh, way I recall was that Super Recovery was something that seemed intriguing with Primal Majesty builds (sub-question: is that Primal Rage bullhonkey still a thing? Never liked those builds back when), but was generally held to just not be as good as Intelligence at wringing energy efficiency out of your attacks. May consider a Rec/Dex/Int spread over Constitution, but either way I think you're probably right on neding mostly energy stats. Much as that stinks. Ah well - who picks superstats for theme anyways, right? :P

Well, again it kinda just depends how ya play it. Using Elec shield's adv heavily means ya can get high energy just from blocking, so Rec's Supercharged can be in effect often if you play that way.

Outside of keeping energy at 90%+, though, I can't recommend Rec or End PSS. For w/e goal you have (tanking, dps, support, hybrid), other PSS trees can prob do it better. Ofc, w/ OD failing in this case, Rec PSS also become less meaningful. In that case, I wouldn't stick w/ that SS setup I suggested (hell can wait another day).

Primal Rage? Sounds like a pvp thing. I bet after the On Alert changes it was rendered obsolete, though. I wasn't playing much before that time period, so I can't really say.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

jairevans

Primal Rage died when Aggressor, Enrage, and Knock Damage were nerfed. Now Enrage is a Form, Aggressor is an Active Offense, and Concentration has shown up which scales off of either Ego OR Int. In addition, a large portion of your damage comes directly from being in Ranged/Melee stance. So Pulsewave's trick doesn't really work anymore. Primal Majesty is a great all around and energy efficient passive, but lightning is back to working best with Electric Form and Invulnerable.

evilkittyman

The main thing with Primal Rage was that you could use it with pretty much any power set with an offensive passive and, if you did it right, get more damage from the Primal Rage set-up than you would from the corresponding passive, as well as all the other benefits of Primal Majesty. It pretty much invalidated the existence of most offensive passives outside Quarry, and also it was absolutely everywhere. Pretty much every build anyone put together anywhere had a thread title to the effect of "Primal Rage Meets [X]." It was maddening - every time you tried to help someone with an interesting theme build, you'd get three or four jackalopes linking to Pulsewave's original Zeus build and going "HAY GUYS HE SHOULD TOTEZ DO THIS INSTEAD."

I was hoping the On Alert changes and subsequent rebalancing had finally made that mess go away. Or alternatively, that it was okay to run something else once in a while, too.

carrionbaggage

Here's another take on the build; it's similar to what's been posted, with a few adjustments. Maybe it'll give you some ideas:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Kaminari Jane

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Impresario
Level 12: Quick Recovery
Level 15: Accurate
Level 18: Boundless Reserves
Level 21: Amazing Stamina

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Sparkstorm (Rank 2, Electric Personality)
Level 6: Ionic Reverberation
Level 8: Lightning Reflexes (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Thundering Kicks (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 17: Form of the Tempest
Level 20: Dragon Kick (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Ball Lightning (Triplicity)
Level 26: Gigabolt (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Electric Shield (Rank 2, Electric Vengeance)
Level 32: Thunderbolt Lunge
Level 35: Evasive Maneuvers (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Masterful Dodge

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Electro Flight

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (2/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (2/2)
Warden: Fortified Gear (2/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Mastery: Warden Mastery (1/1)

Build notes:

-The Avoidance Rating boost from Lightning Reflexes means that any additional Avoidance Rating hits severe diminishing returns, to the point where it hardly adds anything at all. So I removed Lashing Dragon Tail and Evasion in favor of damage-boosting alternatives.

-The flat dodge buff from Thundering Kicks works very well with Lightning Reflexes. It's also less energy-hungry than One Hundred Hands, so it's less taxing to run alongside Sparkstorm. It's only a single-target attack, but you still have Dragon Kick for a melee cone AoE.

-Combined with Lightning Reflexes, Thundering Kicks and some dodge gear, Evasive Maneuvers will put you over 100% dodge. It's a useful way to shore up your defenses when Masterful Dodge is on cooldown, and it moves you out of melee to line up a Gigabolt. Depending on your gear, you could remove one or both ranks from it and still hit 100% dodge.

-You mentioned dropping Ball Lightning for Gigabolt. You could consider taking both, as Ball Lightning creates a nice energy battery with Ionic Reverberation and either REC or END as a superstat. The Negative Ions would cause Sparkstorm to knock more often, but you could use that sparingly as a form of soft control against knockable mobs.

-Superstatted REC would help you fire a fully charged Gigabolt from resting equilibrium, provided you have enough Cost Discount from your utility gear. You'll want a good deal of Cost Discount anyway, as running Sparkstorm alongside other attacks will drain energy rather quickly.

-As Flowcyto mentioned, Rank 3 Gigabolt is a nice alpha strike. Death Arc is an interesting advantage, though, if you're using Gigabolt as a finishing move. The choice comes down to personal preference, I suppose.

-Dexterity Mastery can be swapped in for Warden Mastery, depending on preference. The second tier of the Vindicator tree also leaves room for reinterpretation.

-Electro Flight can be useful for chasing down flying enemies, but can be swapped out for whatever you like.

-Electric Shield is interchangeable with any block power. Parry with Elusive Monk or Energy Shield with Laser Knight are nice defensive options, though the Electric Personality advantage is a lot of fun...and it doesn't lower your damage.

-Do you want to tank with this, or be a survivable hybrid? If threat generation is an issue, you could shuffle some advantages to fit in Crippling Challenge/Challenging Strikes.

evilkittyman

When I was active in the game, the generally dominant school of thought was more in line with creating self-sufficient characters that could handle themselves, by themselves, in a wide variety of content, unless one was specifically aiming for supergroup runs and knew what sort of backup they'd have available. That was the route I was following with Jane's rebuild, looking for an agile, self-sufficient general purpose character that could A.) handle getting herself up to level 40 from the mid-twenties she's at right now, and B.) do her job reliably with any mix of additional players including no additional players. Yeah, some content is just beyond a single character, but I've always preferred self-reliant characters that didn't need to find a full group-up for anything beyond Millenium City trash quests.

Anyways. Several interesting suggestions here. I feel rather derpish for forgetting about Masterful Dodge completely - knew I was forgetting something when I put the build together. Actually doing some testing with various ideas for her in PowerHouse now - she's at 26 and thusly has enough oomph behind her I can figure out where to go. I DO wish Sparkstorm didn't knock things...getting SS, Triplicity Lightning and Electric Vengeance all going at once is one of those things that just makes you feel like a boss. Until half your targets fly away from you.

flowcyto

Yeah, I dunno who thought it'd be a good decision to allow Sparkstorm to not only be one of the lowest dps AoE maintains, but also have it randomly KB targets out of its own damn reach.

Its the only part of my lightning tank build that I really dislike. Quite inane power design there.

selphea

Lightning and Unarmed, do play nicely together but you gotta play to their strengths.

I personally avoid Sparkstorm. Even if the knock wasn't an issue, it's just not party friendly when a Lightning Arc user in your party loses 30% of their damage because your Sparkstorm consumed their Ions.

Electricity's strengths imo are great energy management with End as a Sec SS, Ball Lightning w/Triplicity and Ionic Reverb and great damage.

Unarmed on the other hand has great defenses with Thundering Kicks and Crashing Wave Kick which can be stacked with Parry + Elusive Monk to hit 100% Dodge.

What you could try imo, is SS Con/End/Dex with the Tough and Deflection specs, and throw as much into Dex as possible. Then add Lightning Reflex, as much Dodge as you can squeeze into your Primary Def, 5 Dex mods, 1 End mod and Armadillo Secondaries, then do Thundering Kicks, CWK, Elusive Monk and so on to hit 100% Dodge.

I use that setup with Int instead of End since I use Ricochet Throw and Particle Smash which you will likely replace with Ball Lightning and Gigabolt or Lightning Storm.

flowcyto

selphea wrote: »

Lightning and Unarmed, do play nicely together but you gotta play to their strengths.

I personally avoid Sparkstorm. Even if the knock wasn't an issue, it's just not party friendly when a Lightning Arc user in your party loses 30% of their damage because your Sparkstorm consumed their Ions.

The Elec Vengenace + Sparkstorm combo is very good, though- prob the best ya can get for dps while blocking nearly all the time (aside from loading up on DoTs, which take more power slots). But its really just for AoE. I wouldn't be munching NI when it came time for the boss; its just counter-productive there if the player is also using LA.