Quantum_Shield

1. No, just that the underlying physics is closely related and that they use some similar mechanics. Look at the power list and compare, they're quite different in effect but they are resist sets with psi resist and a self-heal.

2. If you're that deeply morally offended by a set, you don't have to buy it. Really. No one's holding a gun to your head.

(I could make it sound less cheap, but I really don't feel like explaining enough real-world physics to explain that psionics by definition would involve the manipulation of energy (the physics concept rather than the in-game damage type). Alternately, if I was permitted to define the physics of psionics, it would be trivial to explain. Rad sets manipulate gauge bosons, psionics are transmitted by either a gauge boson not yet discovered or an as-yet-undiscovered manipulation of one of the less well-understood gauge bosons (likely this just to avoid sporking the Standard Model and/or running afoul of next week's new theory of quantum gravity) => Rad can thus manipulate psionics well enough to reduce their effect: psi resist. QED. This is how I justify my FF/Rad taking the psi epic pool. If that seems overly broad to you, I remind you that we're discussing a power class that can do everything from def debuffing to raising the dead after using their corpses as porta-nukes.)

Fine, you want techobabble, have some technobabble. We've established to your satisfaction that Electric abilities involve manipulation of the electromagnetic force and allow for psi resistance via manipulation of said electromagnetic force by whatever mechanism. Now let's look at what we know of Radiation powers. Rad Blast gives us proton, electron, neutron and neutrino manipulation abilities from the named blasts, while Rad Emission gives us EM Pulse (the EM is short for electromagnetic). I feel quite confident to therefore state that Rad sets therefore include some ability to manipulate the electromagnetic force (and given Neutrino Bolt in fact the broader electroweak force), just like Elec albeit on a somewhat more brute force scale (slamming a burst of particles at a target rather than the "finer" manipulation done by Elec allowing things like sleep and end drain).

Given that Elec uses, well, electrical effects, it's safe to say that Elec operates by the more "classical" mechanism of moving charged particles around. Rad, as it turns out, is also quite good at moving charged particles around (Electron Haze, Proton Volley), albeit along more orderly paths than Elec (presumably by generating virtual photons in roughly the same way it generates actual photons in X-Ray Beam; photons are the force carrier particle for the electromagnetic force). Generating "static" would thus presumably be a more difficult operation for a Rad than an Elec, but since the manipulations required could take place within close or zero effective range presumably control would be better as well. Either could (for example) use some variation on a Faraday cage (an effect which is specifically an attenuating effect rather than an all-or-nothing affair, justifying the choice of resistance rather than defense for both sets and modeling Elec's extreme energy resistance well) as a protective effect. How exactly this would work against psi I have no idea, but it's consistent with what we know of Elec's workings and probably the most "realistic" way for both sets to work.

The justification is far from perfect, but welcome to comic book physics.

Sorry, but you asked. And asked. And then asked some more.

Actually you hit the ED cap with a 50+5 and a 50+3, so you can save 2 boosters if you like (which has the convenient side effect of letting you max 3 such powers with the booster x25 pack you get for a reward token) or push on for a bit more oomph. I'll be doing a lot of this with the freespecs I need to burn before the 24th.

Here's your token counterexample. I play almost every day (even if it's just a quick OuroHeather for a component). When I22 came out, I wanted to roll a staff stalker. Staff wasn't out yet, no worries. I'd rather they get it right than rush it out. Then I read about the glory of Street Justice on stalkers so I made one of those instead. Cue a slow wane in interest about Staff Fighting; I made the character I had intended to use Staff Fighting with, so meh to Staff Fighting.

Then I find out that staff has apparently been in marketing limbo rather than technical limbo and to celebrate its impending arrival they effectively hose me out of 1600 Paragon Points. (I bought 20 slots when they were on sale at 25% off since "who knows when they'll go on sale again?") So my already-waning interest in staff has now been lowered to near zero and I'm feeling iffy about buying exactly the sale items they want me to buy since anything I buy at a "mere" 25% off might be on sale for 50% off 2 weeks later.

I won't be buying Staff Fighting on day of release. I won't say never, but it'll be months. Oh, and that toon I was thinking about buying Titan Weapons to make? Also shelved indefinitely. There's my 1600 Paragon Points recovered, and all it cost was my trust and a decent chunk of my interest in the game.

Actually, Intuition Radial Paragon gives both to-hit debuff and damage (plus slow for Tar Patch), in addition to the base hold, def debuff and range. Intuition Total Radial Revamp gives to-hit debuff at T3.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Archvillain_Resistance claims a lot of AV resistances to be 85% at level 50. -1000 -> -150 would be exactly an 85% reduction, just as if it was resisted. Not sure what resist a max HP debuff would fall under (regen debuff resistance?), but it certainly could be a resistance issue.

And the effective recovery debuff doesn't play well with much of anything.

Thanks for the info, Zombie Man!

I'm sure there's some of that but a lot of it is from incarnates running iTrials over and over and over, gathering lots of level 50 drops in the process.

No need, this is a known exploit. HOs affect their "opposite" (buff <-> debuff) normally if they can be slotted. Paragonwiki has details and a table. Of particular interest to /Time in addition to enzymes: microfilament (move/end) enhances slows. Of general interest to MMs: damage <-> damage resistance is a buff/"debuff" pair.