Energy Leech

[Phorlaug[IS]]

I used the Energy Leech in live at its highest level.

What I would really like to know is there an actual

drain on the NPC target in The EMU?

I would really like to put some points into it but

I gota be sure its working correctly.

Why ?

The Energy Leech is one of the JD's offensive AND defensive strategies.

How ?

1) Use the Energy Leech on your Mechanical Targets will take away its ability to Shoot its weapons or activate its devices or skills.

With no energy they can't do Squat !

Combined this skill with a couple of EMP weapons and you'll rule the day.

2) On the other hand if you run out of energy you can't fire your

weapons or deploy your Secondary shield (Psionic Shield).

So the energy you take can be used to keep you Alive and Kicking.

Time your deployment of your Psionic shield with the number of hits it takes before it collapse, Do this and your main shields will take a fraction of the damage.

As a JD Never underestimate the importance of your Reactor and its energy!

Maybe a DEV and a Beta can try it on each other and let us know if the Skill works at all.

Phorlaug...

Edited September 27, 2010 by Phorlaug

[Terrell [BT]]

Have to agree with you on the importance of energy to a JW, mine often had energy problems in Live, unlike my JE in either or my JT now. I did use it a little early on in Torrence's development in Live, but I couldn't see the difference, maybe I didn't put enough points into it.

[rabidkiller]

currently you don't get energy back from any lvl of the JD energy leech skill. not sure if its the skill itself isn't working correctly, or if mobs still basically don't have a reactor to hack/leech from, either way it doesn't currently work.

[Noxmire]

Currently, Energy Leech doesn't hold a candle to the two other "vampire attack" skill that currently exist. Draining an enemy of energy will not stop it from shooting, and most enemies do not have skills to speak of. Shield Leech (Jenquai Explorer) and Shield Sap (Progen Warrior) not only deal shield damage, which is actually useful, but even at low levels they deal enough damage to remain competitive with beams of an appropriate level.

It would seem that, at all levels, Energy Leech restores less reactor power than Shield Leech, making it dubious for its second purpose; quickly refilling your energy bar. If it restored enough reactor energy to be comparable to Shield Leech, it might be useful.

If the devs implement an energy bar for mobs, and adjusts Energy Leech to be competitive with Shield Leech, it would be a much more viable and potentially devastating skill. Sucking a mob dry of energy to fuel your own assault could be a decisive tactic for JDs against boss-type named enemies, allowing a JD to disable an opponent much like a TE's hacking or PS's menace/gravlink does.

[Phorlaug[IS]]

Currently, Energy Leech doesn't hold a candle to the two other "vampire attack" skill that currently exist. Draining an enemy of energy will not stop it from shooting, and most enemies do not have skills to speak of. Shield Leech (Jenquai Explorer) and Shield Sap (Progen Warrior) not only deal shield damage, which is actually useful, but even at low levels they deal enough damage to remain competitive with beams of an appropriate level.

It would seem that, at all levels, Energy Leech restores less reactor power than Shield Leech, making it dubious for its second purpose; quickly refilling your energy bar. If it restored enough reactor energy to be comparable to Shield Leech, it might be useful.

If the devs implement an energy bar for mobs, and adjusts Energy Leech to be competitive with Shield Leech, it would be a much more viable and potentially devastating skill. Sucking a mob dry of energy to fuel your own assault could be a decisive tactic for JDs against boss-type named enemies, allowing a JD to disable an opponent much like a TE's hacking or PS's menace/gravlink does.

I always thought it was underpowered the amount of energy spent never really returned an amount which would make the use of the skill a Viable offensive and defensive skill. Right now its a waste of skill points.

Phorlaug..

Edited November 16, 2010 by Phorlaug

[kemperor1]

I think I might have an.idea of why energy leech is weak compared to shield leech/sap. All of these skills give the player a percentage of.what the skill drains from the mob. Assuming energy leech doesn't grant a much greater percentage return, which it doesn't seem to, it is inherently underpowered. Why? Well, shield sap and leech, while I don't know the exact number, drain at least a couple tens of thousands of shield points. So they only need a small percent return to.be effective. This is pretty in line with mob shield caps of several hundred k on high lvl mobs. There's no way to tell what mobs' reactor caps are if they have a cap at all, but given that even the most buffed player doesn't get above 10kish reactor, its safe to assume that energy leech only drains a couple k tops. A small percentage return off of a couple k seems pretty negligible when you.factor in the energy cost to activate the skill. So my guess is play with the percentage return and try to strike a balance. I don't mind if I can't stop.a mob from shooting me for the time being if I can keep my and my group's reactor full.

Sorry if that was too lengthy and/or convoluted, I'm bored at work.

Regards

Aiel

Update - tested today on various Cl 35-38 job mobs with lvl 3 energy leech skill. This level takes 75 energy to activate and seemed to return in the neighborhood of 500 energy. Not too shabby. My revised hypothesis is the skill sucks up a percentage of the mobs reactor which would explain why I couldn't tell it was doing anything against Cl 5-10 mobs. Will test against bigger prey soon...

Edited December 28, 2010 by Aiel

[GenghisBob]

I thought the problem was that right now, MOBs have infinite reactor. It is impossible to drain their reactor. Though that may have changed with last update.

[kemperor]

edit - posted on wrong account

Edited December 30, 2010 by J'aive

[kemperor1]

I thought the problem was that right now, MOBs have infinite reactor. It is impossible to drain their reactor. Though that may have changed with last update.

This still seems to be the case, but last time I used the skill (couple months ago as a lowbie) it barely replenished what it took to activate it. This was the same level of the skill as I tested recently, so I'm guessing either the devs played with the code or (more likely) the skill takes a % of the mobs reactor like I guessed in my last post (little mob doesn't have much reactor, can't give you much, big mob has more energy to give). Either way, if it's going to be really difficult for the devs to implement mob reactor levels and have them run out of energy, I could probably settle (for the time being) for energy leech just being a skill that boosts the groups reactors like crazy (like max everybody out at max level of the skill) or something like that to make it worth spending points on. I know je's are supposed to be the batteries with their phoenix devices, etc (when they work) but it seems to be a trend among Jenquai (see JS' reactor-related skill). Although this might limit the JE's usefulness in group play and we don't want that.. Anyone else have an opinion on this?

[Phorlaug[IS]]

I think I might have an.idea of why energy leech is weak compared to shield leech/sap. All of these skills give the player a percentage of.what the skill drains from the mob. Assuming energy leech doesn't grant a much greater percentage return, which it doesn't seem to, it is inherently underpowered. Why? Well, shield sap and leech, while I don't know the exact number, drain at least a couple tens of thousands of shield points. So they only need a small percent return to.be effective. This is pretty in line with mob shield caps of several hundred k on high lvl mobs. There's no way to tell what mobs' reactor caps are if they have a cap at all, but given that even the most buffed player doesn't get above 10kish reactor, its safe to assume that energy leech only drains a couple k tops. A small percentage return off of a couple k seems pretty negligible when you.factor in the energy cost to activate the skill. So my guess is play with the percentage return and try to strike a balance. I don't mind if I can't stop.a mob from shooting me for the time being if I can keep my and my group's reactor full.

Sorry if that was too lengthy and/or convoluted, I'm bored at work.

Regards

Aiel

Update - tested today on various Cl 35-38 job mobs with lvl 3 energy leech skill. This level takes 75 energy to activate and seemed to return in the neighborhood of 500 energy. Not too shabby. My revised hypothesis is the skill sucks up a percentage of the mobs reactor which would explain why I couldn't tell it was doing anything against Cl 5-10 mobs. Will test against bigger prey soon...

+1

I thought the problem was that right now, MOBs have infinite reactor. It is impossible to drain their reactor. Though that may have changed with last update.

+1

Excellent observations and on target.

Maybe as a quick fix or work around:

The Dev's can get the energy Leech to take the set Percentage of the Players reactor with the Energy Leech From the NPC ? Confused ?

With infinite NPC reactor..

For example Players Reactor 1200 energy.

1200 - 10% Energy leech level = 120 energy Leech from the NPC

This can be done for every level of energy Leech and Energy Spear (multiple NPC reactor leech) 3 NPC x 120 energy leech = 360 energy to Player and group.. etc etc etc.

Of coarse this could be a Devastating weapon (For example) in its self with a player that has a 9000 reactor cap and max Energy Leech 60% (Or what ever it is) and an NPC with a reactor cap of 5400. 9000-60%=5400 No Energy For You !

Phorlaug......

Edited December 30, 2010 by Phorlaug

[Phorlaug[IS]]

This still seems to be the case, but last time I used the skill (couple months ago as a lowbie) it barely replenished what it took to activate it. This was the same level of the skill as I tested recently, so I'm guessing either the devs played with the code or (more likely) the skill takes a % of the mobs reactor like I guessed in my last post (little mob doesn't have much reactor, can't give you much, big mob has more energy to give).

These are just numbers I figured as an example

Ok lets recap:

With a NPC infinite reactor and Player with a 1200 reactor Cap. as stated previously.

Level 1 Energy drain 35 Energy cost,

1200 - 15% + 35 energy cost = 215 energy drained from NPC

Level 2 Energy drain

1200 - 20% + 35 energy cost = 275 energy drained from NPC

Level 3 Energy Leech 75 Energy cost

1200 - 25% + 75 energy cost = 375 Energy Transfer to Player

Level 4 30%, L5 35%, L6 40%, L7 45% Or Just use the same Percentages as the JE Leech and Progen Shield Sap, what ever they are.

I figured the numbers as the Energy Leech skill would Return the energy cost of the use of the skill.

(Thats only because I'm a JD ) Check my math.

Phorlaug....

Edited January 1, 2011 by Phorlaug