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Electricity vs Fire
merlinmonroe
Posts: 40 Arc User
Does anyone prefer Electricity?
Electricity has longer range for some abilities, but I can't see much more of an advantage.
Electricitie's Energy Unlock doesn't work often, while Fire's EU works all the time.
Fire also has debuffs.
Electricity has longer range for some abilities, but I can't see much more of an advantage.
Electricitie's Energy Unlock doesn't work often, while Fire's EU works all the time.
Fire also has debuffs.
Post edited by merlinmonroe on
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But I only played during the AT rotation long back.
Electricity has a good stun, potential arc damage, pretty nice mid-range AOE attacks. Great long range AOE as well, neg charged ions and ofc my fav: Gigabolt
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For the most part, Fire deals more damage than Electricity for AoE attacks (explosions!). Electricity will focus more on single-target, though many of the attacks 'arc' to other enemies. Also, it should be mentioned that Electricity Powers meld well with other frameworks, for a FF build. Electric Form is the ONLY form in the game that enhances all Energy Damage (ie. Electric, Particle and Sonic) and can be used with certain Power Armor and Gadgeteering powers or one of the (very) few Sonic powers in CO.
Meanwhile Fire Form boosts Elemental Damage (ie. Fire, Ice and Toxic) and can be used to meld with either the Ice or Infernal Supernatural sets. Specifically, look into Rimfire Burst which deals a metric crapton of damage, and has an instant cooldown if your target has both Clinging Flames and Chill (try an Ice/Fire build, Ice has some nice DPS abilities as well). In fact, I have a Fire Character that uses some Ice powers, on the side, but also uses Ice Form to stack Chill for Rimfire Burst more easily.
Now, one could argue that Electricity is a tad more survivable than Fire, especially with your Active Offense (or, more accurately, the adv that creates an overshield). Possibly one of the best Active Offenses in the game for that reason, it can really help out in a jam. Meanwhile, the Fire powerset offers next to nothing in terms of defensive strategies. Chances are you'll end up grabbing BCR or Conviction like 70% of the CO populace...
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MSA may work better as an energy unlock because so many abilities (thunderstrike, ball lightning, gigabolt) are on CDs. Your stats need to be moved around, obviously.
You could also take stormbringer as a passive, which drastically mitigates one of the most common dmg types in the game (crushing) and, well, Gravitar.
Ice blast can do considerably higher damage if you use firesnake. And LA needs a support power too for ions, else it would lose the 20% innate damage bonus.
Gigabolt does not have cooldown, it has a innate debuff that stop you from charging it, but that doesn't count as a cooldown. The lightning EU works fine, just need to apply ions, so msa is not needed.
And cold damage, so a stray hit from Frosticus is survivable too. But lightning form has some advantage with energy, so if you don't have trouble surviving lightning form could be a better choice.
It does not.
Yes, but that is not a good power. There are only very few paralyzes that work well, 50 feet single target paralyze powers that require a full charge are not worth it. The devs seem to recognize this as well since the newly added paralyzes work on click. It is quite odd they keep so many of the older powers so much weaker.
The adv on electrocute is also not worth it as long as it needs a full charge, the time you lose on charging electrocute makes your overall dps lower, and you are forced to stay in 50 feet of your target.
My main problem was that I didn't take Lightning Arc. I didn't know that it was such an awesome single target attack.
I got that ability now and it is great.
Was going to chime in and say that Lightning Arc is pretty much essential in Electricity (and arguably the primary power to build around in the set) but you've got it now.
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Yep. What lightning arc can do when built properly. Only two dps powers in this entire grav instance: thunderstrike and LA (I later retconned and took Mental Storm, but that's a 50 ft).
Ticks of 4000+ or more are not unusual.
Oh, and the Never Strikes Twice advantage is not worth it (because of the state of Electrocute). Take R3.
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Now possible changes to that adv that could make sense:
- Maintainable hold (ala Ego Storm, but high health, single target)
- 15% of dmg as a 10-15 ft AOE (which also applies on the main target)
Ideas?
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I haven't tested enough to be sure, but if that 30% works the same as other powers, it is not even a 30% base damage, but damage that is additive with the damage bonus from offense, and crit severity, etc.
For powers that can make use of that all the time (like massacre or dragons wrath), r2 still does better damage for pretty much any optimized build.
The easiest way to compare the two, though, is basically this short list:
Fire = It's got wicked destructive powers, but only within a tight 20 foot sphere: Wherever it manages to land a Fireball, Pyre, Firesnake, and Conflagration. Anything in there is going to die, but the big challenge is getting everyone there. Oh, and keeping everyone there, as well as setting up the defense downs.
Electricity = Once you set up a stack of Negative Ions on an enemy, you're set. Do medium/high damage to enemies in a sphere (the same sphere as Conflag, without the setup) using Lightning Storm, or completely destroy a single-target with your Lightning Arc. Elec's a lot simpler than Fire, but similar in damage output. Meanwhile, it has very little setup (and can be further buffed if you're clever), has a ton of extreme-range moves, and does good at crowd control using its knocks. It's not anywhere near the levels of Fire when it comes to killing enemies in a sphere, but it is way more flexible in general.