An apology to the Super Stength Set

I wrote a ost a while back giving Super-Strength "runner-up" status to
Energy when teamed with the electric armor set in Brutes.

Boy was I wrong.

Super-Strength is easily the equal of Energy. what I underestimated was the
SS power Rage (as oposed to the Brute class ability of the same name).
Combined with Lightning Reflexes and hasten, Rage rocks.

My test case was/is Silastic Armorfiend, my SS/Electric Brute. I have a
group of RW friends who regularly play a group of 4 Brutes plus healer on
Mondays and even though SA is often a level behind the crowd (I get home
late from work and they've already started), he's in there doing as good or
better than anybody else. Rage is why.

Rage is like a Build-Up that runs for 2 minutes, not 10 seconds. The balance
is that once it finishes, the character can't attack for something along the
lines of 10 seconds. Rage's recharge time is 4 minutes, which you can
reduce to close to 2 min with three SO-grade recharge reducers. When you
throw in lightning reflexes and hasten (and SA has both), you can have Rage
going twice for about 20-30 seconds.

And Rage stacks with itself.

No wonder you see SS brutes and tanks everywhere. Rage is available a level
18 for Brutes and Energy doesn't catch up with what a brute cruising onder
Rage can do until they pick up Energy Transfer at 32 and doesn't fiill out
to an equivalent set until at least 33 when you have a chance to slot it
decently. Below 33 Energy < Super-Strength. At or Above 33, Energy =
Super-Strength.

So, no, SS is every bit as able to take advantage of the Electrical set as
Energy is. I'm sory for ever slighting Super Strength.

That set me wondering whether I shortchanged fire/fire. After looking at
building a F/F Brute, I decided to change it a little. See, the Fire Aura
set has Firey Embrace, which kicks an extra +100% to fire powers,
potentially in concert with Fire Melee's Build Up. What I didn't notice at
first until I read the Hero Builder stats for Firey Embrace is that it gives
an 80% kick to non-fire damage, which is almost as good. I decided
Super-Strength might make a more effective match than Fire Melee. Maybe
with Rage backing Firey embrace, I can coax a decent damage stream out of
Blazing Aura. The new Brute is about level 6 and getting to the point where
I can no longer simply walk up to mobs and let Blazing Aura burn them down
while they beat futilely on her defenses.


--
John Trauger,
Vorlonagent

"Methane martini.
Shaken, not stirred."

Vorlonagent (M), level 50 Blaster (Electric/Energy), Guardian
Fury- (F), Level 41 Brute (Energy/Energy), Liberty
Dr. Akagi (F), Level 40 Mastermind (Robots/Traps), Guardian
Lemon Tree (F), Level 40 Scrapper (Spine/Invuln), Liberty
RolIing Thunder (F), Level 38 Defender (Storm/Electric), Infinity
Pulsar Staraven (F), Level 33 Controller (Grav/Rad), Liberty

I rolled a SS/Electric sometime ago, and the group of people I play with
pretty much said "that's weak, why not go energy or electric?"

I don't PvP but after lvl 22, I slotted my attacks 3 damage, 2 rec, 1 end
redux, letting rage take care of my accuracy needs. I've rolled a few
brutes since then, but I'm always looking whistfuly at my lvl 50
SS/Electric.


"Vorlonagent" <nojtspam DeleteThis @otfresno.com> wrote in message
news:y7nvi.227$vw7.157@nlpi070.nbdc.sbc.com...
>I wrote a ost a while back giving Super-Strength "runner-up" status to
>Energy when teamed with the electric armor set in Brutes.
>
> Boy was I wrong.
>
> Super-Strength is easily the equal of Energy. what I underestimated was
> the SS power Rage (as oposed to the Brute class ability of the same name).
> Combined with Lightning Reflexes and hasten, Rage rocks.
>
> My test case was/is Silastic Armorfiend, my SS/Electric Brute. I have a
> group of RW friends who regularly play a group of 4 Brutes plus healer on
> Mondays and even though SA is often a level behind the crowd (I get home
> late from work and they've already started), he's in there doing as good
> or better than anybody else. Rage is why.
>
> Rage is like a Build-Up that runs for 2 minutes, not 10 seconds. The
> balance is that once it finishes, the character can't attack for something
> along the lines of 10 seconds. Rage's recharge time is 4 minutes, which
> you can reduce to close to 2 min with three SO-grade recharge reducers.
> When you throw in lightning reflexes and hasten (and SA has both), you can
> have Rage going twice for about 20-30 seconds.
>
> And Rage stacks with itself.
>
> No wonder you see SS brutes and tanks everywhere. Rage is available a
> level 18 for Brutes and Energy doesn't catch up with what a brute cruising
> onder Rage can do until they pick up Energy Transfer at 32 and doesn't
> fiill out to an equivalent set until at least 33 when you have a chance to
> slot it decently. Below 33 Energy < Super-Strength. At or Above 33,
> Energy = Super-Strength.
>
> So, no, SS is every bit as able to take advantage of the Electrical set as
> Energy is. I'm sory for ever slighting Super Strength.
>
> That set me wondering whether I shortchanged fire/fire. After looking at
> building a F/F Brute, I decided to change it a little. See, the Fire Aura
> set has Firey Embrace, which kicks an extra +100% to fire powers,
> potentially in concert with Fire Melee's Build Up. What I didn't notice
> at first until I read the Hero Builder stats for Firey Embrace is that it
> gives an 80% kick to non-fire damage, which is almost as good. I decided
> Super-Strength might make a more effective match than Fire Melee. Maybe
> with Rage backing Firey embrace, I can coax a decent damage stream out of
> Blazing Aura. The new Brute is about level 6 and getting to the point
> where I can no longer simply walk up to mobs and let Blazing Aura burn
> them down while they beat futilely on her defenses.
>
>
> --
> John Trauger,
> Vorlonagent
>
> "Methane martini.
> Shaken, not stirred."
>
> Vorlonagent (M), level 50 Blaster (Electric/Energy), Guardian
> Fury- (F), Level 41 Brute (Energy/Energy), Liberty
> Dr. Akagi (F), Level 40 Mastermind (Robots/Traps), Guardian
> Lemon Tree (F), Level 40 Scrapper (Spine/Invuln), Liberty
> RolIing Thunder (F), Level 38 Defender (Storm/Electric), Infinity
> Pulsar Staraven (F), Level 33 Controller (Grav/Rad), Liberty
>