This is a very strong set if played correctly. Ive had two people tell me that they made their fire/rad corrs after playing with me on mine. The most important part of this set is to remember to keep debuffs up as often as possible. If you have enjoyed either the fire blast or rad debuff set before youll likely really enjoy this combination.
Playstyle:
There are a lot of tricks Ive learned over the 50 levels. The main one is that you have to be an aggressive player for this set. You're going to get a lot of aggro, because the majority of your skills are aoes. If you don't like that you better play with a brute, and not an energy aura one, because they suck at drawing aggro, trust me.
You have to get your debuffs up before you start to use your damage. Most mobs will be able to kill you before you kill them if you're just playing like a blaster. The debuffs will make you like a scrapper since the enemy won't be able to hit you often or hard, as long as you're good at not letting the enemy spread out. Avoid playing with people who love knockbacks, because they ruin your best powers, by limiting the number of people you can hit. Knockdowns are peachy.
Go up to an unnaggro'd mob. Make all your teammates wait at a nearby corner. Put RI on the mob, but run while it's still activating and hide at the corner. Most of the mobs will arrive at the same time, and you can throw EF on them. Now you have herded a mob, congratulations. If you can get an enemy in the group behind another group you can herd lots of mobs. When I had stealth and SS (before my pvp respec) I would go about 4 mobs down the hall, put EF on one and then come back. The mob would slowly come, pulling more and more aggro onto me. You better have a couple purples though because you'll end up with 40 or so enemies looking to punch you in the head. This is where your aoes are great. Having a brute that's not energy helps here too, especially if they knockdown (i.e. footstomp)
Dealing with bosses can be tricky. If they like to fight in melee, the best strategy is to debuff them and throw lingering radiation on them. Then run away while you fight. If you stay out of melee they wont be able to use their extra powerful attacks on you, but you can still shoot them and wear them down. Often if they get a chance to hit you in melee they can stun you and youre dead. Avoid that.
Fire blast - This attack is great for pulling, does decent damage and is fast. The range is huge on it, so you can throw it long before aggroing by range, but this is also kind of a downfall if you're a rapid clicker player (i.e. hitting or clicking powers rapidly so that you have minimal time between attacks) because you might end up shooting a new group before you realize the current group is dead.
Fire ball - This is a good power to use once youve gotten all your debuffs up on the mobs. Its a fairly large aoe, so targeting an enemy in the middle will hit generally all of them. It can be used just as effectively from the middle of the enemies or from far outside of them, so if you like melee or ranged it works great.
Blaze - This attack deals a large amount of damage quickly. On an orange minion with the debuffs on him itll generally take about half the health. This is a great power for taking down the bosses that are left after the rest have fallen, because using aoes on one enemy would take out your end too fast, and with AM, Hasten and Fire blast you can spam the two of them without wasting much time.
Fire breath - Its a strong aoe, but it requires you to jump back. My most often used tactic is to target one of the enemies, then jump to the opposite side of the mob so that he's farthest enemy from me, that way when using this power it's almost guaranteed to hit the whole group if you're far enough back. Its a very good sized cone, but make sure to be far enough back or itll go between the enemies instead of encompassing them.
Inferno - Don't use this power unless you have some end insps handy, because despite the massive damage, if youre fighting +2s (which is common) and your debuffs are on them you'll still only kill the minions (assuming they're not fire resistant). Then you're left to deal with bosses and ltnts without debuffs on them, and any defenses you had unable to be toggled on. Its a very situational power and risky to use if youre solo.
Aim - This is the very last power I took. I mainly took it because out of all the options it was the most useful pvp wise. Itd help me get past those people with defense based sets. You don't really need it for PVE, because with one acc in a power and RI up you're really accurate as it is. But if you PVP it can be a lifesaver on anyone running a power similar to Elude.
Flares This is the minimal damage power in the set. The activation animation is fairly long for such a small damage output. In the lower levels its useful to be able to keep a continuous attack chain, since the other powers dont recharge as fast, but once you have 3 or 4 attacks it ends up lowering your damage output since you could otherwise be using stronger attacks.
Rain of Fire Coupled with Lingering Radiation this power can output a large amount of damage (especially now that these sort of powers can be buffed). However this power is generally a nuisance since any mob will attempt to run out of it. If youre consistently playing with a dom then it could be helpful, but unless the enemy is immobilized this power will likely spread out all the mobs, causing your debuffs to become much less effective, and also drawing a considerable amount of aggro to yourself.
Blazing Bolt I pull a lot, especially on large teams. However, this power is almost pointless to take if you want to pull. Sure it has great range and decent damage, but Fire Blast is well outside of aggro range and pulls just as effectively. Not to mention pulling with Radiation Infection generally helps confine the mob to a smaller area and also debuffs them.
Radiant Aura - You're forced to take this power. It's a pretty wimpy heal, even 3 slotted, but since it's an aoe, if you play with mm's you can get some of those nice heal badges. Soloing this power can really save you though, as most enemies wont be able to beat your healing rate if you have them debuffed.
Radiation Infection - This should be the first power you use when starting to fight any mob. The debuffs can be slotted, so theyre stronger than EF, plus this one takes time to set while the other doesn't, so this one will keep you unaggro'd longer while putting the two powers on the mobs. I suggest you slot it with acc debuffs rather than def debuffs because you can't slot yourself for defense, but you can slot your powers with acc, so this method keeps you alive longer and still able to hit them.
Accelerate Metabolism - With two endurance heavy sets this power comes in very handy. The extra endurance recovery is helpful, plus this power wont keep you from getting held or stunned, but it will decrease the time that you are. While still a pain in the butt, its nice to become unheld before you die, heal yourself and get the debuffs back on and continue fighting, rather than running back from the hospital.
Enervating Field - This power is another power that defines the set. It decreases the enemies resistance to damage (making you hit harder) and makes them hit for less damage. It has a quick activation time and debuffs an aoe, so try and keep it on the enemies as much as possible.
Lingering Radiation - This power keeps enemies from regaining health, it slows their movement and it keeps their attacks from recharging quickly. Its tough to gauge how effective it is on enemies, but when Positron uses this on you, its very noticeable. During AV fights this really helps to shorten the fight, because with their regeneration decreased you wont have to do near as much damage to finish them off.
Mutation - This power is completely unnecessary if you plan to solo all the time. If you like to fight white conning enemies and dont even want to know what vicious difficulty is like you most likely wont need this power. If you love a challenge and a good team youll want this power. Whoever you use it on will have full health and endurance, and a few really strong buffs so theyll be able to get back into the fight quickly. Its also nice not to have to clutter your inspiration slots with awakens.
Fallout - Most people avoid this power. I took it because I want to PVP with this alt, and in a decent PVP fight there will be dead teammates around and angry heroes looking to punch you in the face. Using this will not only take a good chunk of health off an enemy, but it will also debuff them considerably, adding to the debuffs that RI and EF are already doing. Its also helpful, because in PVE when someone dies most likely they fell near enemies after doing damage to them, so this power will often finish them off or bring them close to death, not to mention the added debuffs making them much easier to kill.
EM pulse - I didn't want this power at first, but then I realized Im stupid after I had it for 10 minutes. Its a great power that I don't use often enough. Its especially nice when your team is getting trashed, because it holds ltnts and often bosses too. The hold lasts a while also, so you have time to get your debuffs back up and get a few attacks off if you use it just after a stun wears off. The aoe size is also tremendous, probably bigger than inferno (I havent tested size really). Often I stun the current group with it and realize that the next group is stunned too, who hadnt even aggrod to me yet.
Choking Cloud This power is very hit or miss. You cant slot it to be more accurate, but RI helps with that. It has a huge recharge time, so when it gets knocked off it will take a while to come back. It generally can permanently hold half of a group of minions, but isnt very effective against ltnts and rarely affects bosses. It dramatically decreases the number of attacks you take if you stay in melee range, but melee attacks are much stronger and depending on the mob often can mez you. This power is also a very large endurance drain. I suggest trying it out for a couple hours before you use a free respec, because people either love it or hate it. I love it on my Ill/Rad controller but its far too taxing on my endurance for my Fire/Rad corr.
Concealment This set is nice if you want to avoid fighting the majority of mobs. You can just stealth to the main objective of the mission and accomplish the goals with minimal efforts. However, with just about any travel power you can run past enemies in the majority of missions without aggroing them long enough to get considerably hurt. This set is useful if you want to stealth but are too afraid to risk just running past everything and taking a few attacks along the way.
Fighting This is a nice set to keep yourself a little more alive over the course of the game. Since you take a lot of aggro it could help keep you alive, but the buffs from the powers are very minimal, and extra toggles to run on an already high endurance set is difficult to afford.
Fitness This set is wonderful. Seriously, take it. Get hurdle, health and stamina. Put 3 endurance modifications in stamina as soon as possible. Itll greatly increase your endurance recovery, coupled with AM, and you wont have to deal with toggles dropping from lack of endurance.
Flight This is a very slow travel power. However, you get a pretty view and minimal difficulty from aggroing mobs going to missions in dangerous parts of town. But due to the lack of speed youll likely get there long after your teammates (the zones are huge). That and it costs quite a good bit of endurance. Without stamina youll need at least two end reducs in it to keep from flat lining your power, and youll want three flight speeds to help you get around faster.
Leadership The buffs from leadership are pretty dismal. The only ones I really consider getting are Tactics and Vengeance. Vengeance requires someone to die, and Tactics requires a large bit of endurance. That and the buffs pale in comparison to the radiation buffs youve already got. So unless you regularly team with a /kin or /rad corr youll likely want to avoid this pool.
Leaping This pool has a defensive shield, which can be nice when slotted with end reducs. The travel is really helpful in CoV, which has difficult to navigate terrain. Acrobatics is a big help in keeping you from getting held, but lacks any other mez protection. Avoid Jump Kick, you have plenty of damage output with your fire attacks as it is.
Medicine You already are forced to have a heal that will work on both you and your teammates. You can easily get a revive that is stronger and gives better buffs than this sets revive. I suggest avoiding it.
Presence Youre a corruptor. Youre squishy. Do you really want more aggro? Not to mention the other non taunt powers will cause enemies to run away. We love making our enemies spread out, right? Especially with aoe debuffs! Hooray for an easy pool to decide to skip!
Speed Hasten is wonderful. Hasten is your best friend. Your fire powers dont recharge very fast without it. This will keep you attacking at a much faster pace and brings AM back up faster which will help your end recovery. I would avoid the other powers in this set though (based on opinion). I had superspeed up until level 38. Its a pain to get around the zones in CoV with it, because a lot have large walls or pits that really slow you down. SS is a nice power if you want to skip to the end of missions, but I find it just as easy to turn on superjump and acrobatics and jump down the hallways.
Teleportation A great power to use if you team a lot. You get to missions faster and can help your geographically challenged teammates get places. Large endurance use though.
Patron sets I would advice you to make up your own mind on this. I chose Leviathan (Mako) because it fit my character concept. Each set has a shield, a hold, and a pet. The first power in each set is what sets them apart. Ghost Widow has a power that makes you hit harder and more accurately. Mako and Black Scorpion give you an aoe immob. Scirocco gives you and aoe endurance drain/recovery.
I9 Slotting
The following numbers are based on the assumption that they are slotted as lvl 50s or the highest available IO level for the set. Im not going to go into why I chose each particular set of enhancements in detal, because it took me about 5 hours to pick them all out and itd take me another 10 to write it all. However, I do say why I chose IOs over SHOs or vice versa and a general description of the reason behind the slotting. I made a large excel spreadsheet with all the different slotting possibilities for each power and chose based on which ones appealed to me more. Each of the numbers takes ED into account. The number before the power represents at what level I take it.
1 - Fire blast Thunderstrike (acc/dam/end), Thunderstrike (dam/end/recharge), Devastation (acc/dam), Devastation (acc/dam/end/rech), Devastation (acc/dam/recharge), Decimation (10% chance for 10 second build up)
Acc: 85.7
Dam: 96.3
End: 61.0
Recharge: 61.0
Set Bonuses: 2% recovery, 12% regen, 2.25% health
I wanted to put the build up chance proc into Fire Blast because I figured it was the power I would use the most often of my attacks. With that in mind, I slotted so that it would have a good accuracy, because it needs to hit to proc (I think) and a fair amount of recharge so that it can come back often. This proc will be very important to my play, because this build lacks any form of build up and this can overcome that.
1 - Radiant Aura Doctored Wounds (heal/end), Doctored Wounds (recharge/end), Doctored Wounds (heal/recharge), Doctored Wounds (heal/recharge/end), Doctored Wounds (heal)
Heal: 97.5
Recharge: 73.8
End: 73.8
Set Bonuses: 2.2% fear reduction (on self), 1.26% fire/cold resist, 4% heal increase, 5% recharge reduction
Between this setup and the SHO setup, I gain a few points on the heal but lose some end and recharge. The recharge isnt very important cause it doesnt take long to come back anyways and the end isnt too bad on this power. Plus I get the nice recharge set bonus from this, which makes me happy.
2 - Radiation Infection Synthetic Enzyme (end/tohit/defense debuffs), Synthetic Enzyme, Synthetic Enzyme
Tohit Debuff: 60
Defense Debuff: 94.9
End reduce: 94.9
Set Bonuses: none
No sets allowed in this power and enzymes are perfect in it. I can see no better way to slot it.
4 - Fire ball Positrons Blast (acc/dam), Positrons Blast (dam/end), Positrons Blast (dam/recharge), Positrons Blast (dam/acc/end), Positrons Blast (20% chance for energy damage), Synthetic Nucleolus (dam/acc)
Acc: 79.7
Dam: 100.1
End: 47.7
Recharge: 26.5
Set Bonuses: 2.5% recovery, 1.58% fire/cold resist, 3.13% tohit buff, 6.25% recharge reduction
I threw in most of positrons blast set because it yields nicer bonuses than the others. It also has a 20% chance for extra damage, so if you hit 5 guys, one of them gets hit harder. I took out the dam/range from posis set and replaced it with a dam/acc SHO in order to keep accuracy high. Its only at 47.7% without. The range is already very good on this power and the set bonus was just a 3.13% toxic dam resist. I feel the extra accuracy will be more useful than that.
6 - Accelerate Metabolism Recharge IO, Recharge IO, Recharge IO, End mod IO, End mod IO, End mod IO
Recharge: 99.1
End: 99.1
Set Bonuses: none
Run sets dont help this power much, so I went with regular IO slotting.
8 - Combat Jumping Luck Gambler (end/defense), Luck Gambler (end), Luck Gambler (end/defense/recharge), Luck Gambler (5% or 7.5% (not sure) recharge speed)
End: 73.8
Defense: 28.7
Set Bonuses: 10% regen, 1.13% health, 3.13% tohit buff
This is the only power in the build with a defense set allowance, which lets us slot that sweet recharge from luck, so it went right in. Along with that luck has a few nice set bonuses and focuses on end and defense, so I figured Id slot it up mostly for the bonuses, since the percents dont really do you much good for the power itself.
10 - Enervating Field End IO, End IO, End IO
End: 99.1
Set Bonuses: none
No sets allowed, only end reduce allowed and its a big end hog so I 3d it.
12 Hurdle Unbounded Leap (stealth)
Jump: 0
Set Bonuses: none
Free perma stealth! Woo!
14 - Super Jump Synthetic Microfilament (travel/end)
Jump: 33.3
End: 33.3
Set Bonuses: none
This lets you slot both aspects of this power without wasting a slot. The bonuses from the leaping sets werent good enough to waste slots in it.
16 Health Numinas Convalescence (heal), Numinas Convalescence (20% regen, 10% recov)
Heal: 42.4
Set Bonuses: 12% regen
I dont think any build should be without the num (20/10) slotted in health. Perma super buffs! The extra heal gives us more heal from the power itself plus the extra regen from the set bonus, so its doubly good.
18 Blaze Devastation (acc/dam), Devastation (dam/end), Devastation (acc/dam/recharge), Devastation (acc/dam/end/recharge), Synthetic Centriole (dam/range), Synthetic Centriole (dam/range)
Acc: 66.3
Dam: 103.8
End: 45.1
Range: 40.0
Recharge: 39.8
Set Bonuses: 12% regen, 2.25% health, 3% damage
This power is a lot nicer when its range is slotted, so I put two dam/ranges in it to account for that. The rest I put in whichever IOs from a set would give me the better set bonuses and slot the power so that it is well rounded. If my build turns out to not have enough end reductions in it I will likely swap two for a thunderstrike +recovery bonus.
20 Stamina End Mod IO, End Mod IO, End Mod IO
End Mod: 99.1
Set Bonuses: none
No sets allowed, heavy end powersets, nuff said.
22 - Fire Breath Synthetic Nucleolus (dam/acc), Positrons Blast (dam/end), Positrons Blast (dam/recharge), Positrons Blast (dam/range), Positrons Blast (acc/dam/end), Positrons Blast (20% chance for energy damage)
Acc: 54.2
Dam: 100.1
End: 47.7
Range: 16.0
Recharge: 26.5
Set Bonuses: 2.5% recovery, 1.58% fire/cold resist, 3.13% tohit buff, 6.25% recharge reduction
Unlike Fire Ball, I feel that fire breath can use some range, so I kept the dam/range in it from that set. I chose to replace the acc/dam IO with an acc/dam SHO to increase my accuracy 6.5% and my dam 1%. I lose the 3.13% toxic resist, but thats not as useful as the extra acc on an aoe, imo.
24 - Lingering Radiation Tempered Readiness (acc/slow), Tempered Readiness (slow/end/recharge), Pacing Turtle (acc/slow), Pacing Turtle (end/acc), Pacing Turtle (slow/end/recharge)
Slow: 91.8
End: 68.9
Recharge: 42.4
Acc: 78.6
Set Bonuses: 1.5% recovery, 2.75% sleep reduction (on self), 2.5% slow powers
I chose to mix two sets on this one, because the upper set bonuses didnt appeal to me. I wanted to focus on acc because this power hitting is rather important when it matters and the ones that slot more properties give you more overall percentage, so I put those in.
26 Hasten Recharge IO, Recharge IO, Recharge IO
Recharge: 99.1
Set Bonuses: none
No sets allowed, this is a good power, want it up a lot!
28 Acrobatics - End IO, End IO, End IO
End: 99.1
Set Bonuses: none
I hear this uses very little end, so I might be taking these slots out and putting them elsewhere.
30 Mutation Numinas Convalescence (end/recharge)
End: 26.5
Recharge: 26.5
Set Bonuses: none
This one might change because Im not sure if it really accepts sets or not. If not I would just put one end reduce IO in it.
32 Inferno Devestation (acc/dam), Devestation (dam/recharge), Devestation (acc/dam/recharge), Devestation (acc/dam/end/recharge)
Acc: 66.3
Dam: 89.9
End: 18.6
Recharge: 66.3
Set Bonuses: 12% regen, 2.25% health, 3% damage
Between 3 acc/dam SHOs with a recharge IO and this set, I lose some accuracy and slight damage, but this power is already strong enough to do more than enough damage and has a base 40% tohit I think, so those arent too worrisome. The recharge is also better than the alternate and I get the nice set bonuses. If Im lacking in overall end reduction I might trade out two of these for two of the thunderstrike set to gain more recovery in place of the dam and health bonuses.
35 Fallout Synthetic Lysosome (tohit/defense debuff/acc), Synthetic Lysosome, Synthetic Lysosome, Damage IO
Tohit Debuff: 60
Defense Debuff: 94.9
Dam: 42.4
Acc: 94.9
Set Bonuses: none
The sets it allows dont let you slot what its best for, which is debuffing the enemies so that they dont finish you off while your pal is faceplanted. Thats how I see this power anyways. But the lysos are perfect at that, so slot em away!
38 - EM Pulse Synthetic Endoplasm (acc/mez), Hold IO
Hold: 75.1
Acc: 33.3
Set Bonuses: none
A lot of people like to slot this power a lot more than I do. However, I always use aim before this power so it doesnt miss in most all cases. And the hold lasts long enough for us to finish everyone off. I suppose if you wanted to take slots out elsewhere you could put a recharge in it, but I dont use it unless the mob looks particularly deadly so its up when I need it as is.
41 - Shark Skin Synthetic Ribosome (res/end), Synthetic Ribosome, Synthetic Ribosome, Aegis (2.3% psi res/20% mez duration decrease (on self))
Resist: 60
End: 94.9
Set Bonuses: none
The only resist set allowed in the build. The 20% mez reduction durationg lasts for 120 seconds after the toggle is dropped, so even though you still get mezzed itll be less long. The ribos just maximize the other abilities of the power.
44 - Spirit Shark Jaws Devastation (acc/dam), Devastation (dam/end), Devastation (acc/dam/recharge), Devastation (acc/dam/end/recharge), Hold IO
Hold: 42.4
End: 45.1
Recharge: 39.8
Dam: 89.9
Acc: 66.3
Set Bonuses: 12% regen, 2.25% health, 3% damage
Accurate, fast recharging, well slotted hold plus good bonuses. Slotting with SHOs gave a longer lasting hold, but I feel the set bonuses were worth the one second or so it would lose.
47 - Summon Coralax Recharge IO, Recharge IO, Synthetic Nucleolus (acc/dam), Synthetic Nucleolus (acc/dam), Synthetic Endoplasm (acc/mez), Synthetic Peroxisome (dam/mez)
Disorient: 66.6
Recharge: 83.3
Immob: 66.6
Dam: 94.9
Acc: 94.9
Set Bonuses: none
I cant think of any power better to put acc/mez or dam/mez SHOs into other than pets that do multiple mez types, because it slots for all of the mez types in one. The pet sets didnt have good enough set bonuses to outweight this slotting.
49 Aim Recharge IO, Recharge IO
Recharge: 83.3
Set Bonuses: none
This power takes no sets and needs nothing more than a slight recharge. This power is almost not needed and I only really use it before using ling rad or other important powers on special enemies with a ton of defense.
Overall Set Bonuses (not counting the specific IOs within sets)
Recovery: 8.5%
Regen: 70%
Health: 10.13%
Fire/cold resist: 4.42%
Accuracy: 9.39%
Recharge: 17.5%
Damage: 9%
Fear duration reduction: 2.2%
Heal increase: 4%
Sleep duration reduction: 2.75%
Slow powers: 2.5%
Stealth: perma
And there you have it. Thats my build plan. I havent yet achieved it so I dont know quite how amazing it will be, but its the goal Ive set for myself after looking at all the options and deciding what looks shiniest. Hopefully Ill eventually get it all slotted. Oh and by the way, dont follow my build advice cause then Ill have all you guys looking for the same things I am which means more competition, so slot everything that I didnt! thanks for reading and taking my advice seriously, and hope I helped ya to understand your powers better.
