Xandier,
Nice info so far. I have been a big fan of Radiation Emission since launch. I was one of the original members of Project Radiation on Virtue around launch. I have about 12+ RE based heroes and villains. I have played everything from solo to PUGs to "all Rad" teams to regular meet and SG teams. I have only had limited experience with RE in Arena and PvP. RE has gone through quite a few changes since launch, but the set seems to work and remain the same through all the issue changes. Here are some things that I noticed that may need to be changed or reviewed. I will also provide some of the tips and tricks that have helped me with RE.
REVIEW:
As Local_Man already pointed out, the cast time on RI seems to be swapped out with the cast time EF. Check your sources. EF has always had a faster cast time. RI's longer cast time has always been problematic. Most "all Rad" and SG teams usually just reserve RI for herding. For fast moving teams or PUGs it may or may not be worth it to cast RI. You will have to observe how your team plays before you can decide if you're going to use RI in every battle.
TIPS/TRICKS:
DrMike2000's advice on your "Anchors away!" section is right on the money. You don't want to bind the power with the tell. The possibility for confusion will become obvious when you try to turn the toggle off on a runner or misplaced RI.
I also do not find these kinds of binds useful when on PUGs. Not only does it cause confusion on faster moving teams but it also may anger other players when you dictate how they should play. The only time these kinds of binds may work well are on "all Rad", SG teams, (the kind of people you normally play with and understand how RE works.) Your best bet is to go ahead and make the bind and use it with discretion.
On PUGs, most people are going to play how they want to play and don't always regard what other people's power sets are or how they work. No matter how much you use your bind, some players will always see your anchor and attack it first. They just can't resist that green glow that draws them like a moth to a flame. The only time people will listen to you when on a PUG is when you are the leader and boot them if they don't listen. This is counter productive to a team. People just do not like being told how to play their AT or power set. Even though you may have the support of some of the players on your team, it will cause even more bickering and less butt kicking.
On regular SG or "all Rad" teams, you usually don't have to use the bind, not only does it cause too much unnecessary chat clutter but many of you may not target the same anchor and should not anyway. For example lets say you have a team of 5 "all Rad"s, and you are facing a mob of 12 cons. If everyone cast all their toggles, that's up to 10 possible different anchors. Most of the people that know how RE works and are players you normally team with will already know to attack the anchors last. They usually do not need to be told which cons are your anchors they can already tell by the distinctive glow.
I am not saying you should not use this kind of bind for your anchors, just use a little discretion. Other players do not like to be told what to do or reminded about what they are already doing.
With regard to your AM bind, here are some suggestions/changes I recommend. To some people on PUGs, "Gather for AM!" means nothing. This is mainly because many players are not familiar with other ATs or Power Sets other than their own. Even if they are familiar with other AT's, they may not know the names of all the powers and what they do, let alone the abbreviations for these powers. They are quick learners though. Here is a bind that I have found very useful:
/bind X "local Gather for a Speed Boost!$$emote whistle" <------("X" in the bind is just a generic letter, you can use any letter and I don't recommend using X since it is already bound)
This bind does a couple of things and works on many levels. First, since it is in Local Chat, the text will appear in white lettering which will stand out from your normal green team text. This provides a nice visual cue for those stuck in scrapper lock or those who are too busy to read many of the other unimportant chat that may be going on during combat. For those that are too far away for it to show up in Local Chat range, screw them. They don't seem to be part of the team anyway if they are clear across the other side of a map.
Next, the adding of the whistle emote adds a nice audio cue for those people that play with sound. This Pavlovian stimulus will have will have the response of your teammates drooling like a pack of ravenous dogs looking for a chat bubble that resembles a T-Bone steak over your head. Once you get your team conditioned, it's also fun to just emote a whistle during combat and watch the action stop as your team comes running to you for nothing.
Next, changing the wording from AM to Speed Boost does quite a bit, especially when on PUGs. As mentioned before, many players may not know that AM stands for Accelerate Metabolism, let alone what it does. Many players know what Speed Boost means and even if they don't, they know they want it, with a few exceptions. Sure AM is more than just a speed boost, but you don't need to explain it. If you really want make it more accurate, you could swap out "AM" with "Combat Buffs", but it does not have the same effect as "Speed Boost". Trust me, I have been on a lot of PUGs. "AM" only means something to players familiar with the sets. Besides, this is a bind you are making, so don't be lazy, spell it out. It's not like you're going to typing "Gather for for Accelerate Metabolism!" every time you want to use it.
SLOTTING:
I know you did not want to go into the details of slotting IO sets and neither do I. But here is a tip that will save you some slots on AM, RI and CC.
You can get away with slotting those skill with 5 slots instead of 6 and be just as effective if not more efficient. Here are some examples:
AM- (recharge), (recharge), (recharge/endurance modification), (endurance modification), (endurance modification)
CC- (endurance reduction), (endurance reduction), (endurance reduction/hold), (hold), (hold)<---with this kind of slotting, a 6th slot could be used for one of those nifty damage procs you mentioned
RI- is a mixed bag and not so straight forward with regard to slotting, there are many camps and many schools of thought here. I will tell you my preference and you can add it as tip or disregard it. I find its most useful aspect in its "to hit" debuff, especially when soloing. You can never have enough defense, so I recommend slotting it with "tohitdebuff" first and with "defdebuff" last. If you still insist on 6 slotting it, this would be a more efficient way to get what you want and get some endurance reduction as a bonus: RI- (tohitdebuff), (tohitdebuff), (tohitdebuff/endurance reduction), (defdebuff/endurance reduction), (defdebuff), (defdebuff).
One other IO/Proc worth mentioning is Achilles' Heel "Chance for resist debuff". This proc is cheap and works nicely in RI. It will add another -20% resist for about 10 seconds. This is a nice chunk of damage when combined with the EF debuff.
There are a few more things I would like to comment on but I really need to run to work. Send me a PM if you have any questions on anything.
