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.
Primary Powers
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.
Secondary Powers
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.
Pools
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.
My build (some powers chosen for pvp purposes)
1 Fire Blast 2 end reduc, 1 acc, 3 damage
Radiant Aura - 1 end reduc, 1 recharge, 3 heals
2 Radiation Infection - 2 end reducs, 1 def debuff, 3 acc debuff
4 Fire Ball - 2 end reduc, 1 acc, 3 dam
6 Accelerate Metabolism - 3 recharge, 3 end modify
8 Combat Jumping - 3 end reduc
10 Enervating Field - 3 end reducs
12 Hurdle 1 jump
14 Super Jump 1 jump
16 Health 1 heal
18 Blaze - 2 end reduc, 1 acc, 2 dam, 1 range
20 Stamina 3 end modifications
22 Fire Breath - 2 end reduc, 1 acc, 3 dam
24 Lingering Rad - 1 acc, 1 recharge, 1 slow movement
26 Hasten 3 recharges
28 Acrobatics 3 end reducs
30 Mutation - 1 end reduc
32 Inferno - 2 acc, 3 dam, 1 recharge
35 Fallout - 1 acc, 1 dam, 1 acc debuff, 1 def debuff
38 EM Pulse - 1 acc, 1 hold
41 Shark Skin - 3 dam resist, 3 end reduc
44 Spirit Shark Jaws - 1 acc, 1 hold, 1 recharge
47 Summon Coralax - 2 recharge, 1 acc, 3 dam
49 Aim - 1 recharge
