"Your energy builder is not an attack."
So why in the name of Statesman does it do damage!?
I'll admit the mechanic is clunky as all-get-out, but the Energy Builder
can be used to finish off weakened enemies. I use it all the time to finish off those annoying melee henchmen that just
barely survive an Ice Blast or Snow Storm. It's also handy for missions where you're required to damage an enemy until they perform a certain emote, and then use a device on them. Honestly though, I think Energy Builders as a whole need to be looked at by the devs.
All EBs that have combat advantages (like increased crit rates, or improved damage vs. a target suffering from a status ailment) need to have them removed and replaced with stuff that makes them useful in a support role (like advantages that increase the proc rate of the EB's status effects, or allow the EB to generate more energy, or let it produce an additional secondary status effect proc.) A fantastic example would be
Ice Shards; there is no point to the Ice Impaler advantage, because ice shards are so weak to begin with. The only thing useful about them would be if you have a specialization or power that reacts to crits (and more often than not, EBs are excluded from these - such as
Concentration and gaining a stack when hitting enemies from over 25 feet away.)
