Anhur's info/guide to being an Electric (DPS)

Greetings,

I am Anhur, an Electric based player on the EUPC server - over the last few months I've received a number of requests for a basic outline of my DPS'ing rotation.

As always, player loadouts and suggestions can vary depending on personal preference, this is not the be all and end all of potential options, it is merely what I use.

You wont find any metrics, number crunching or in-depth algorithms behind my choices concerning loadouts as the objective is to merely set players on track, and discover the how and why for themselves.

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A crucial piece of advice for being a damage dealing player, is to understand that you are not restricted to a single loadout for the entirety of an instance - it is not uncommon for players to alter their loadouts during a cut scene, or period of inactivity.

Before a player can embrace the damage role and powerset, it is imperative to understand what exactly affects your damage, and what the power set is designed to accomplish.

Fundamentally, being an Electric player means understanding the power interactions we have at our disposal, and achieving your highest damage output through the use of these.

KEY STATS;

Might: Increases the amount of damage that a character's powers can inflict (each 4 points in Might increase base damage by 1%).

Precision: Increases the amount of damage that a character's weapon attacks can inflict (each 10 points in Precision increase base damage per second by 1).

As an Electric damage dealer, your Might is the most applicable number to you.

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POWER TREES;

VOLTAGE

Wired: Imbues you and up to 3 group members' weapon attacks with the power of electricity to increase the chance of causing more damage (+10% Critical Attack Chance, +10% Critical Weapon Attack Chance).

Electroburst: Blasts out a wave of electricity to cause damage to nearby enemies and knock down your target.

Electrogenesis: Creates an aura on 2 targets to damage enemies.

Voltaic Bolt: Strikes enemies in range with a bolt of electricity, possibly rooting or stunning them (electrified enemies will cause damage to other enemies around them).

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AMPERAGE

Electrostatic Bomb: Tosses an electric grenade that pulls enemies into the center of the explosion and causes damage over time (polarized enemies take more damage and may be knocked into the air).

Electrocute: Creates a field to damage enemies (electrified and Polarized enemies take additional damage).

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MOVEMENT;

FLIGHT

Vacuum Bubble: Releases a violent pressure wave to damage and stun enemies (50% Supercharge Cost).

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ICONIC POWERS (Passive):

Weapons Expert: Betters your odds on critical attacks to cause more damage (permanently Gain: +3% Critical Attack Chance).

Tactical Genius: Boosts infliction of critical attack damage (permanently Gain: +10% Critical Attack Damage).

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MODS (Research and Development)

Red: Might & Precision

Yellow: Might & Power

Blue: Might & Health

MODS (Home Turf)

Blast Adapter (Weapon): weapon attacks have a chance to blast your target, and up to 5 additional enemies (this effect can only occur once every 60 seconds).

Core Strength (Chest): gain an additional 10% damage bonus when switching to Controller or Damage mode.

Deadly Block (Feet): your block counter causes additional damage equal to 25% of your precision.

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A video perspective of the loadout in action;

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PvP section

Nice!!!!

Do you ever switch out elctroburst or electrogenisis for static push for the polorize effect since you use E. bomb & electrocute?

When you say Might is Electricity's number one stat, you actually have to take into account the powers you are using.
If you're using a high burst roation with Electroburst, Voltaic Bolt, Estatic Bomb, etc, then Id say might is a priority.
However if you're going for a more DoT based rotation, Precision would actually be more viable, as most DoT's do not have a high base damage, meaning the gains from might can be minimal depending on the powers you are using.

Also 4 points in might is not 1% base damage its 1.8%.(.45 x 4 = 180)

Hey there, nice guide.
But... i cant agree on that section ; [Anhur says]: With the current knowledge of tactics, equipment, mods and skill points available, you'll find that Electric has taken a back seat in terms of overall damage output that can be accomplished - excluding bosses, enemies just don't have the health to withstand the burst damage of other powersets, so your DoTs are not as effective - this is not likely to change until T5 content is released. In the mean time, stick to your instant hitting powers, as an example of what I use when running with Hard Light and Gadgets players - Wired, Static Push,Electrostatic Bomb, Electrocute, Voltaic Bolt, Vacuum Bubble

Electric can be burst dmg powerset, and it does it surprisingly good at it also. atleast when i was electric i had no problem competing with gadgets/hl players. but for that to happen you need to change most of your loadout and style of play.

If you are intrested in knowing what i used, just contact me in-game.

well and whats the point behind that everyone in these fancy new speedfeat videos is gadget or hardlight?
but yes i agree with you that the dot-stacking loadout is not really suitable for the current content.

btw why not sharing your loadouts and playstyle here?

A few reasons I suppose. It's because when you think electric DPS you think stack DoT and clip combo with voltaic bolt. Gadget and Light don't fall into the DoT catagory. Light's DoTs are weak, and gadget's aren't AoE except for fear gas, which I think has a limit to the number of enemies it can affect, despite its AoE. So immediately when you seek a bursting style, most won't go for electric.

The next one is that most who want to post videos showing how much damage they can do, are people who want their 5 minutes of fame. So they are likely to switch to a power that someone else has proven to be great in such a situation, learn those moves, and use that.

The gadget rotation that is currently used so much was known by a few people for about a year before it was posted on youtube and everyone started using it. So the last one is that, people just like to keep the methods they found out a secret =P. It's nice to play with a unique loadout as opposed to constantly being grouped with people spamming the exact same thing. That's probably why Satla won't share his loadout on the thread, and is the reason I haven't given mine on that other electric guide! I think they're actually the same 0.0.

yup and please dont share your loadout. i dont want that elec is beeing fotm again and you can not run content as only elec dps. thats one of the posivite sides of being elec atm.

i also found new ways to dps and dont rely only on dot stacking anymore....

Being Electric is about being a DoT stacker, and subsequently highly Might focused (the numbers are off as I copy pasted from DCUOWiki, will sort that) - there is no doubting or disputing that when the facts on the table prove it (how many DoT powers do we have versus instant hitters, which are heavily focused on creating a PI for a DoT).

Discussion of a power set is designed to focus on global/longer term gameplay - advising anyone to look more at Precision and "instant hitters" just because that is more in-line with competitive play for a relatively small window, is doing them an injustice through the learning process, lower end content and when T5 is released where the enemies are going to have the health to take it - the proof is out there, since its release Electric was top, then declined, then went back up, as the harder content came out.

Satla spoke of Electric being a competent burst damage dealer, and having no problem competing with Light or Gadgets - I'm aware of the ideal loadout you speak of, but that is anecdotal at best (depends on who you play with and so forth) - which goes in hand with this question;

I switch out Electrogenesis at times to load up Static Push, but rarely do at the moment - this is because of a great little device called "Electro-Static Pulse Device" - try clipping a weapon combo with it

You go against ObsidianChill, DarkBat, Stable/Elusian (Satla will know them, they are great EU players), and Electric's limitations in the burst damage field will become highly apparent.

Look, if you are referring to static push as one of the powers that i used, well its wrong then.
Also, i dont like when people speak in the "past", the fact electric was good when raids were harder doenst have a connection to the fact electric can compete on damage right now.

Also, i know ObsidianChill, DarkBat, Stable/Elusian, but i also know Kaiser007, and iNface, which are, VERY good dps players (you can ask Stable for that ), now, when i was electric, i was doing a LITTLE less damage then Kaiser007 in FoS2, in BG, in Themy, you name it. That little less damage, happened when i was new to electric, and wasnt fully practiced at it. After a month of playing it, suprise suprise, i outdpsed both Kaiser007 and iNface. Cuz i wasnt thinking "Ah im electric now so i shouldn't be first on score", i was thinking "Alright until now people have played electric that way, lets try taking it to a new direction", mind you it was before whilring dervish spams, or stuff like that. So i had 6 powers from within the electric powerset trees in the loadout.

The game evolves with time, so loadouts should be changed aswell.
Now for the "why dont you write your loadout here" question, i pretty much dont feel like doing it because of this reason :
I dont feel the need to tell people what to use, there are only like 20 powers in electric powerset, cant be that hard to test.

No, not referring to Static Push, it was in answer to another's question - and the past is highly relevant, everything we do is a summation of experience - I do not dispute Electric can be capable at burst damage, just that it is to the extent that it surpasses it's DoT capabilities, or that of Light and Gadgets as you put it - especially in the hands of those looking for a guide, simply it is no coincidence that the fastest speed videos from the majority of sources out there on the web feature certain powersets, and fail to feature certain others.

The discussion/guide is designed for players looking for advice, it would have zero longevity if it contained info solely, or focused on, performing DPS at the level you or I play because, quite frankly, it'd be remiss considering we are players that get through a FoS2 in 25 minutes and the average group is clocking in at an hour and so forth.

Denying HL and gadgets as the best burst damage powersets is idocy IMO, of course most powers can be adequte burst damagers but electrtic is clearly more of a DoT power as are all of the healer classes for the most part.
Either way thanks for the respone and i will def check out the electro static pulse.

I am not a proficient Electric player but out of interest how has your experience with consumables faired? Obviously not for damage but the added PI and integrating into a DPS sequence with a standard clip?

Bishop

Regardless of powerset, or whether you feel it is sustained(dot) or a burst damage.

You have to remember that burst damage is for adds and sustained is for bosses.

Spending time stacking dots on adds will lower dps potential, so you have to have some sort of burst.

This has less to do with competitive dps, and more to do with EFFECTIVE dps.

Saying that electricty is a dot stacker, and that that is what you should focus on, is not effectice.

all powersets have access to burst and sustained dps, and should use each one to effectively damage at the right times.

The only consumable I've used thus far is Electrostatic Pulse Device - highly effective in clipping and applying the electrofied PI.

No disagreement there - the issue stems from the suggested notion to 180 a loadout consisting of both in order to solely compete with Light and Gadgets high burst damage, these 2 power sets are built with a heavy focus on that, conversely Electric can perform it, but not to the same extent - which is where I'd never agree with what was said previously - Wired (spamable), Static Push (spamable), Electroburst (spamable), Voltaic Bolt (spamable), Electrogenesis and Electrocute, with Electrostatic Pulse Device - offers a healthy balance (not taking into account movement modes).

I know this is a guide on how you play, but I can't not comment on this insistence that electric cannot compete with gadgets and light with regard to burst damage. The attitude of "no that's not possible" is wrong. Not just because it is possible, but because that's how you stop finding new methods. With a guide up, people will take what you say that much more seriously with regard to the power set it concerns, which means this attitude can be passed on to your viewers. People already lack initiative to experiment, and instead ask others to do it and share results; we don't want to have more, especially not of our power set, who don't experiment and help keep the DPS with this power moving forward.

My attitude is to always try to find the best methods, but it has never been - even after I find a new best for the scope of my own knowledge - to say that it is the best and that there is no better way. Always assume there is something better. That'll lead you to look for it when you want to improve, which is how you get the possibility of finding it.

Also, this burst method I use which I claim can keep pace relies heavily on a single power - which you haven't mentioned anywhere. It is bugged. Not bugged as in, it does well BECAUSE it's bugged, but bugged as in it is not performing as well as it was intended. It has the same LoS issues heavy shuriken had, which means not only can allies block its damage, but enemies too can prevent it from covering it's whole AoE, which consequently means more power is needed to do the damage it would otherwise deal. Imagine where electric would stand without that bug? Faster with less power consumption.

The answer is not to go DoTs only or bursts only. Electric is the only power set I know of that is very strong in both DoT and AoE burst, with very fast paced burst potential. Combining the two when the situations warrant it is the best way I've found to DPS with electric so far. And I'm not talking about using whirling deverish or phase dodge.

Yea i guess your somewhat right in this OP overgeared stage of the game we are in, but against mobs that dont instantly get crushed b/c everything dies so fast stacking dots on the crowd is very effective.
And i wasnt saying that IS all you should focus on, im saying it is more of a DoT oriented class, where as there are some powersets that are more burst oriented

Absolutely, the prime solution is a healthy balance of both, or custom building a loadout depending on the instance - consequently, I am unsure as to which power you are referring to, having gone through the trees I'm seeing one which might match the descrip - able to share?