rayaguas1

My build diary/guide (in sig).

An excellent way of playing and building a dark defender is precisely to stack the debuffs and bring ALL the mobs there. If you don't know how to do that, or can't with your current build, then I suggest that there are more efficient builds/playstyles out there than yours.

Which is fine, but your post seems to imply tht your build is the best.

Among the rad/rads out there... what are your thoughts on the epic power pools? Which one are you leaning towards, and why?

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Question : Is Stamina necessary for RAD/RAD if u hv perma-AM n end reducers on ur toggles? Reason is i would like to hv Fly instead of Fitness, plus Speed, TP n Concealment.

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One of the things I like about COH is the fact that there are often many ways of achieving a desired goal. For example, if you wanted a good damage power that hits pretty accurately but does not cost you endurance problems, you can pick up tactics for the accuracy (which I personally do not do), have stamina, and 6 slot for damage. Alternatively, you can slot 5 dmg and 1 accuracy and use the other slot/power elsewhere. And all the other possible variations.

As regards your actual question: there is no really effective way of gaining flying except by picking up the power (group fly from a friend is iffy at best, in my opinion). That being said, rad/rads do tend to use up endurance quite a bit. I assume you have EF 3 slotted for end recovery. That alone might not be enough, though. Slotting end reduc in RI not only does not help as much, it deprives RI of more important enhancements like acc and def debuff. How do you make up for the endurance? You now have to slot end reduc in your attack powers.

Which can work... However, having given up stamina, you gain an extra power (you pick up hover and fly, drop 3 from fitness). Is that extra power going to be another attack? My concern is that you might have "too many" attacks which are ready to fire, and none of them are doing the maximum damage they could because you have to slot them all with 1 or more end reducs.

This all changes when the epic power pools come out, though. If you take Dark, for instance, you can gain end and damage from dark consumption and soul drain. In other words, you will now have even more ways of achieving roughly the same goal through different paths.

I am a fan of stamina, and it is in all my numerous builds. But you can get by without it, especially if you are in groups most of the time. Just don't try to solo an AV without it...

I tinkered around a bit on the test server and I suspect that I will go with Dark for my Epic Power Pools when I respec.

I will certainly go for Dark Consumption at 41 for the END recovery (zero to full with 3 minions hit) and Soul Drain at 47. I am as yet undecided on Oppressive Gloom or Dark Embrace at 44.

If I take all 4 EPPs, then I will go with DE at 44, and OG at 49 since OG will probably require the least amount of slotting.

This now tempts me to perhaps swapping the Fighting pool for the fitness pool... with AM and DC for END management, I may try to get really high RES with tough and DE. Thoughts on this last point, anyone?

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First off, I refer to my build as a 'hyperdefender'- I have almost no offensive capability whatsover, but I make everyone else on my team look great. By the time I hit level 14, I'd already maxed out Radiant Aura with Heal buffs and was getting quite close to six-slotting RI as well.

I picked up Assault at 24, Maneuvers at 26, and plan to grab Tactics at 30. Maneuvers and Tactics are going to both end up six-slotted- for a good reason. By my calculations, with RI set up 3/3 with half Defense and half To-Hit debuffs, and Maneuvers and Tactics both filled with buff increases, you drop the chance of even-con mobs hitting your teammates to the mimimum 5%, even bosses- and maximise your teams' to-hit chances to 95%. This remains the case as you move up- against reds only bosses stand a decent chance of hitting you, and by decent I mean about 50% chance or the same as an even-con minion. Considering that just about every other hero out there is going to have some means for boosting their defense and to-hit, you're going to be weighing the scales heavily in your favor. Or, to quote a Tank I teamed with once, "I'm pretty much invincible."

As for Assault, if you add the percentage it boosts damage to the amount Enervating Field and Accelerated Metabolism boost damage, you're looking at about 66.6% of base damage versus even cons- or the equivalent of two Damage SO's. For Blasters that might not mean much, as they'll already going to be hitting the cap most of the time, but for every other AT is going to appreciate that boost to all their attack powers. Obviously the bonus is going to lessen against tougher opponents- +4's drop that to about 20% or so, but still a nice boost when you've got four people doing a couple hundred points per attack.


And speaking of attacks, right now I have a total of two attack powers- Neutrino Bolt and Cosmic Burst. Before I hit 28, I was pretty well toast; my Neutrino Bolt had a total of two slots in it, both Damage. This meant that I basically could not solo missions- my only option was to team until my missions were filled with blues and greens, and then clean them out. Now I can handle missions without much trouble at all.

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I see the logic of what you're saying, and I appreciate how you want to be a "hyperdefender." I wanted to deal very good damage on my own, and so our builds are necessarily different (which is not a bad thing). I do have some questions for you, though:

1) As you yourself said above, Assault probably does little if any for Blasters, since they probably slot for damage already (and are at, or near the cap). The same logic applies to the other leadership toggles as well. Most good players will build their heroes with the ability to hit targets even while solo (slotting ACC, for instance). I suspect Maneuvers does nothing for your Tank, or most Scrappers for that matter.

I contend that RI and EF do all these already, as you yourself say. And while Leadership provides even more, I personally don't think the cost (both in terms of END drain and opportunity cost) is justified by the marginal utility.

Perhaps an experiment is in order? Try going with your usual group and don't turn on the Leadership toggles. Use the etra END you now have for attacking or healing or casting LR (which you probably can't do so often with your current set-up) as the case warrants. If your group's effectiveness is the same or better, then that may argue against Leadership as a power pool for you. If you are so inclined, now try out other powers you may have skipped on the Test server (or do a Respec) and see how even more effective you are with these powers instead of Leadership.

After all of this, you may still find that you are most effective in your group using the Leadership pool. Which would be great -- and now, you would be even more convinced as to the appropriateness of these powers for your build, for you have tested other alternatives.

I suspect, though, that if you do test it out as I suggested, you will find that RI and EF (and the other rad powers) do a good enough job on their own. I believe you will find that you will be an even better defender with all the extra END you now have, and all the other new powers you now have at your disposal.

And, you can now solo better...going after reds and oranges, instead of greens and blues.

This may be unsolicited advice, but I hope you find it helpful (or at least thought-provoking).

Sorry, I did already, and in a fairly detailed fashion.

(It is rather difficult detecting irony or whatever on written text... This is just to make sure you didn't miss it.)

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My main attacks are Electron Haze and Neutron Bomb, with CB+NB for bosses.

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(In total shock, but with tongue firmly in cheek)

But...but...but... I remember the very first discussion we ever had -- and it was about how under-rated Irradiate was (at the time, anyway). And now you've switched over to the Neutron Bomb camp?

I'm just teasing, of course, Eve.

Seriously, though, it's not in any attack chain of yours? Just curious as to why.

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Ummm, rayaguas1, you only took 19 powers in your build...
7 power pools, 7 primaries, and 5 secondaries. What are the last 5 powers you plan to take? I'm just curious because this guide is kind of incomplete as it stands.

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I'm getting slightly different numbers from what you have, but perhaps those parts of the post weren't too clear...

First, though, I'd like to clarify my intentions:

1) I definitely do not think there is one ultimate build for rad/rad, or any other character for that matter. And even if there were one, I would not be so bold as to claim that my build is it. I believe it is a good build: well-thought out, and suitable for my purposes, playstyle, and typical game situations.

2) As I said at the end of my original post, beyond the specific powers I had mentioned as being nearly if not entirely unanimously accepted as practical no-brainers (EMP, RI, EF, CB, etc.), there is a lot of leeway for people to customize their builds as fits their needs/style/preferences. My goal was to help people who are currently rad/rad or are thinking of making a rad/rad make an intelligent, well-informed choice as regards powers and slotting.

To illustrate: One could pick Fly, cast RI on a bad guy, then fly around herding huge packs in an instanced, outdoor mission all the while being too far from serious damage. Then you can cast EMP or AB or whatever. Monstrous XP, and I wish I could do it.

My build, however, does not use Fly. But I do not want to recommend against it, which I believe might unduly influence someone and hamper their creativity. There are some things though which I believe any serious rad/rad defender must have -- things like EF, etc. This guide tells people that, and I belive more importantly, why. And there are some things which I believe are not too useful in a good rad/rad build. I have seen strenuously defended guides practically mandating taking the medicine pool -- and not just for stimulant (which I can understand perhaps) but for the Heal and the Res! As rad/rad, we have a sure-hit uninterruptible AoE heal, and our Res is significantly better. And while there may be times (1 in 3426 maybe) when I would really, desperately want a second res, I would not give up LR for this remote eventuality, which was actually the suggestion I had seen previously on these boards.

So that is bascially the reason why I did not list all the powers in my build... I firmly believe that I can help people make a good rad/rad build without my NEEDing to do so. (Or maybe I just did not want to run into another me on the streets of paragon?)

But since you asked...

Of the 9 primaries, I have 6. I do not have Mutation, CC, or Fallout. If I could get a free power from these, I would get Mutation. You might want to take it, actually -- it can be very useful in things like the Sewer Trial for example.

Of the 9 secondaries, I have 6: my single target attack chain (NB and CB), my AoE chain (Irradiate and N Bomb), and the nuke AB plus Aim. I did not take EH, PV, or X-ray -- all of which are useful, by the way, and could very easily be KEY parts of a good rad/rad build.

That leaves, believe it or not, 11! power pool choices (almost literally half my powers).

Fitness: Swift, Hurdle, Stamina
Leaping: CJ, SJ, Acrobatics
Speed: Hasten, Super Speed
Concealment: Stealth, Grant Invis, Phase Shift.

I am as yet undecided on the last remaining power -- I will probably get Mutation. Of course, by that time, epic power pools might be live...

In which case, Grant Invis and Phase Shift get the boot, and Mutation does not get taken. That would give me three epic pool powers to play around with, and from the powers listed thus far, Soul Drain sounds like a really good fit (certainly one of my favorite powers on my DM/DA scrapper).

If I have to/really want to get 4 epic pool powers... I have no idea what to give up from the rest. This may sound heretical to some, but it might be LR...

Hope this helps "complete" the guide for you. Good luck, and happy hunting.

Thanks for the praise, Eve -- means a lot.

I understand what you're saying about Neutrino... but for me, the gap is small enough such that I consider it negligible (at lest to the extent that I will not replace a damage enhancement for a recharge). In line with the gap between NBs...

I did try out what you recommended Dodger: about sneaking a Brawl in between NBs. And it works! For a brief moment, I was even tempted to add slots to it...

But perhaps I am too lazy to regularly include Brawl in my single target attack chain. At least not for the extra damage the Brawl would give. Granted, it does add up (especially against an AV for example), but over-all, in my opinion, not worth the END or the effort. Truly great idea though, and I recommend it for someone desiring greater efficiency and willing to do the extra clicks.

So when do we stack our AMs again, Eve?

Thanks for the numbers, DodgerTA, especially for including the Damage per Activation. These should certainly help anyone make informed and intelligent decisions.

Do you have the numbers for Atomic Blast, by any chance?

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I guess I'll have to do the respec mission and copy over to the test server to try things out for myself. I know I'll probably never have the AoE ability of the Fire Blaster (Fire Breath does a LOT of DoT), but I wonder if the AoE attacks in the radiation set can make for a viable AoE soloer.

hmmm....I imagine I have to fit Aim in there at some point as well...

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In terms of raw damage, we're not quite at the level of FireBreath and Fireball for AoE damage (and on my blaster, I even begin with Tripmine first). However, we have at least 3 advantages vs. the fire AoE blaster that I can see, from my experiences playing both:

1) We don't mind having LTs or Bosses in the group. Because of our debuffs, we can survive rather well even if we don't kill all of the bad guys in our Alpha Strike.

2) We can heal ourselves.

3) We can do our AoE attacks after we EMP. So even if we don't have the same "Kill all during the Alpha Strike" capability of the blaster, we have the luxury of facing defenseless mobs while we go on with our Beta and even Gamma strike.

With Irradiate and Neutron Bomb fully slotted, yellows take around 3 attacks to fall (Irr, Bomb, Irr). Reds take around 5, if I recall correctly. If you use a steady supply of enrages, though, the results are even better of course -- and since you're taking on large groups, the inspirations get replenished really well.

In other words, I PREFER my rad/rad as an AoE soloer to my Fire/dev blaster, which I built and levelled specifically to be an AoE soloer.

But even if you don't go that route, I recommend you keep Irradiate over Neutron Bomb. It does more damage, and it activates significantly faster (though I really do find the Bomb animation cute). Bomb's one advantage is that you can throw it from range, but most rad/rads are in the middle of things most of the time, anyway.

You're right, I was thinking of recharge, not activation when I wrote that. Sorry, lack of sleep (real-life duties, not game-playing, though.)

I just checked in-game, and with equal slotting, I'm getting a ratio of 3.5:1 for CB damage to NB.

And the activation really doesn't feel like it's more than twice as long... I could be wrong though, or maybe my clicking on NB isn't perfectly efficient -- but I doubt that I can fire off 2 NBs instead of 1 CB...

Thanks for the kind words as well, and also to everyone else. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head (and I somehow can't find the Brawl Index -- a good reference, by the way), but I'm fairly certain that CB does more than twice the damage of NB. And as also pointed out by the previous poster, there's the Disorient as well.

Even beyond these reasons, though; even if we assume no disorient and even if we assume CB does just exactly twice NB's damage -- I would argue that it would still help your attack chain achieve a significantly higher DPS.

For simplicity's sake, let's assume NB does 100 damage and CB does 200. Your math, in this sense, is correct: NB does 100 with a 1 second activation time. Do this for 8 seconds, let's say, and you do 800 damage. CB does 200, at 2.1 sec activation, it will do 800 in 8.4 seconds. Therefore, better to just stick with NB. However, in an actual attack chain, facing a bad guy with 800 hit points, using NB alone would take 8 seconds. What happens if we toss in CB? Try this chain (each line takes 1 second to do):

CB -- 200
NB -- 100
NB -- 100
NB -- 100
CB -- 200
NB -- 100.

Bad guy is arrested in 6 seconds, instead of 8. Toss X-ray in there and you achieve an even higher DPS. I chose to forego X-ray despite this loss to DPS because I felt my hero would be better served with another power. But not CB, even if it were just double the damage of NB (and it's more, plus the disorient).

Erratic (and DodgerTA) have already provided numbers as regards your tactics question, and personally, I always defer to Erratic as regards the math.

Beyond just the strict math, though, my question is again one of economics -- you're getting these 2 powers at these points in your career (26 and 30). What are you giving up? Is it worth it? I cannot answer that for you. Offhand, though, what you are getting incrementally, is already provided in some fashion by RI. I understand your desire to augment these even further. But I would not drop EF or a travel power in order to get it though (I assume these are not what you are thinking of dropping).

Also, make sure that the situation you describe (level range of 6 or 7) is more the norm than the exception. In other words, I would not design my hero for such a situation if it were fairly rare. And even if it does occur more often than not, are things likely to remain the same? i.e. The lower levels will level significantly faster than those higher up, so assuming it's pretty much the same gang, the level gap will narrow more and more. Just take these into account when making your decision.

Thanks for the kind words.

Thanks for the kind words as well. Once you get Cosmic at 28, I'm pretty sure that will soften the blow of your having to get rid of either X-ray or Proton or both. I'm confident you will agree that Cosmic is far superior to either. Good luck, and happy hunting.

Thanks for the kind words.

And since you brought it up, I guess I'll toss in a few more words about power pools.

I know a number of defenders take up the leadership pool, and there is good logic to that. Slotting tactics, for example, would mean that they wouldn't need to put that extra acc enhancement in their attacks, substituting damage instead.

I don't believe rad/rad really needs something like tactics, though. Another reason why I like rad/rad which I forgot to mention above, is that the rad secondary is the most "accurate" of them all. A lot of the powers have a built-in chance to bypass defenses, and most of the powers reduce defenses when they do hit. Add the fact that RI is usually cast first, there is already a good chance to hit, and every subsequent hit makes future hits even more likely.

So the leadership pool never even tempted me. If there is one pool power among the current that I would really like to take it would be Fighting, primarily for Tough, and secondarily for Weave. I am a big fan of damage resistance, even more than defense, because resistance scales so much better than defense against higher cons.

I cannot imagine which of my 4 power pools to drop, though, to take up Fighting. I do not want to lose Hasten. I want to keep the ability to remain invisible (Stealth and Super Speed). Oh, and I forgot to mention above that Stealth also gives a pretty decent defense buff. I do not want to give up Stamina. I like the defense and utility of Combat Jumping and Acrobatics, and for ease of life, I really do not want to give up Super Jump. So that's pretty much that.

Which 4 power pools do you currently have? Any thoughts from other rad/rads?

R'ae on Virtue

Post 24

Choices are even tougher now. By the time you get to level 49, you will gain an additional 10 powers. (In my case, 11, since I got rid of X-ray in respec). Which 11 to choose, then?

First, my rationale for the choices I made:

I spend maybe ¼ to 1/3 of my time solo, so I want my build to do that well. You can handle any small group fairly easily (again, within reasonable limits). So in this part of the guide, I’m talking about groups of 7 or more bad guys, such as the Freaks in Crey’s Folly or mobs in Portal Missions. Personally, I recommend taking on mobs which con up to Red Bosses, for a fairly “risk-free” encounter. You can handle purples, but the time spent may not be as efficient, as well as there being a higher attendant risk involved. Whites and yellows may be too easy for you, and obviously won’t give as much xp as Oranges and Reds.

I generally alternate the two level 9 powers (EM pulse, available at 32, and Atomic Blast, available at 38). For AB, I go up invisibly (SS and Stealth), hit Aim, sometimes EF if I think it’s needed, then AB. Most, if not all, fall at this point. Any that remain are “choking” from the fallout and are quite hurt. Easy to pick off at that point (after you pop an endurance inspiration, if needed). Also, feel free to use Insights and Enrages -- they get replenished as the mobs fall.

When AB is recharging (or before you get it), I use EMP. Again, run up invisibly, cast RI and EF, hit Aim, then EMP. You can alternatively cast RI and EF after the EMP, I suppose. At this point, I spam my 2 AoEs, Irradiate, and Neutron Bomb. There is a downtime in between the casting of these two powers, however, so I use that time to hit with either NB or CB any Bosses or LTs – the objective is for all to fall at the same time, if possible. Of course, EMP stops your endurance regeneration for a few seconds. The hold, however lasts a fairly long time – long enough for you to spam enough of your AoEs to arrest the mobs (especially if you use Enrages) even while you “slow down” to recover endurance if needed (assuming you don’t have endurance inspirations on you). Whatever inspirations the mobs drop should fuel you for the next go.

If I’m in a team, I don’t always use EMP and/or AB. If things are going well, meaning they are not needed, I’d rather keep them “in reserve” for a time when a genuine “Oh sh*t!” moment does arrive…

OK, 11 powers to choose, so here we go:

I firmly believe that 3 should be taken as soon as they are available, and I have yet to meet anyone who thinks otherwise: CB at 28, EMP at 32, and AB at 38.

CB – Great single target damage, albeit from a relatively short range. The range should not bother you since you are probably standing next to your debuffed target(s) anyway. If it hits, it’s a guaranteed Disorient on minions and LTs. I 6 slot this, all damage. With EF going, and having used no inspirations, one-shots a white minion, and with just 1 NB, takes out an Orange. (Assumes +3 enhancements, by the way). With Perma Hasten and AM, recycles fast enough to perpetually Disorient an LT.

EMP – One of the best holds in the game. Large (40 foot) radius. You lose endurance recovery for a few seconds after, though. Most people I know 6 slot this, and with good reason. I’m still not certain how best to slot it, however. 3 recharges means it comes up every 100 seconds. 6 recharges brings it back every 75. Acc can never hurt, but then again, I always pop Aim before I use it. End reduc helps because it does eat up quite a lot, and hold enhancements are obviously nice, but then again, the hold lasts pretty long as is (less long the higher con the mobs are though). I currently have it 5 slotted – 3 recharge, 1 acc, 1 hold. I would like to hear a discussion on this particular point from any high level rad/* person reading this post.

AB – Huge damage blast, but drains all your endurance (meaning your toggles will drop). Already discussed above. I 6 slot, all damage.

3 down, 8 to go. As the above discussion indicates, I recommend taking Aim before lvl 32 (for use with EMP).

Aim – For a short period, increases both your accuracy and your damage. As such, I always use before I hit EMP and/or AB. Necessary? No. But useful.
7 powers left. Again, from the earlier discussion, you know I took 2 AoE powers – Irradiate and Neutron Bomb.

Irradiate – I have heard people claim that the damage of Irradiate does not scale up with level. This is false. In fact, Irradiate does more net damage than Neutron Bomb. It hits everyone within a radius around you for ten ticks of damage over a relatively short period of time. Comes with a 30% defense debuff on those it hits. Lots of different ways of slotting… Some people slot it to increase the debuff. I don’t, because as I said earlier, I use it as a damage attack. I find the debuff fine as is, and I always have RI going anyway. I currently have it 6 slotted, all damage. At various times, I put in recharge or end reduc… Recharge because it helps my AoE cycle (with Neutron Bomb) have less downtime, end reduc because it does eat up a fair amount of end. I suggest you tinker with it, and find what suits your needs best, regarding the situations you face most frequently. But I would highly recommend 6 slotting it.

Neutron Bomb – Think of it as a long-range Irradiate that does slightly less damage. Also has a longer animation (cute, though). Relatively low level priority as regards slotting, in my view, but a 6 slotter later on in your career. (In other words, I did not slot here until after I had fully slotted CB, EMP, AB, Irr, and the other important ones in the pre-24 build).

These are the 5 attacks I use then. Two single target attacks, both six slotted for damage (NB and CB). Two AoE attacks, also 6 slotted for damage (Irr and Neutron Bomb). And our Nuke, AB, also 6 slotted for damage. Plus, I picked Aim.

Now a brief discussion on the three secondary powers I did NOT pick:

X-ray – I used it earlier, but dropped in favor of Irradiate. Discussed above.

Electron Haze – Good damage, and hits more than one target. A lot of good rad/rad players swear by it, and with good reason. There are some drawbacks, though, if you can call them that. First, EH can knock some of the targets out of your debuff zone. Second, some players don’t like cones. I do not dislike cones, per se, and in an ideal world, I would use EH. But again, given the tightness of the build, some powers had to go, and I chose to forego EH. I am more than satisfied with my single target attack chain of NB and CB, and my AoE chain of Irr and Neutron Bomb (with the occasional single target attack in between).

Proton Volley – Typical Snipe: good range, accuracy, and damage, but interruptible and with a fairly long activation. Good power if you like sniping. And some good players I know use it, and use it well. You can start off by going to maximum range and sniping your target. Then as it comes in, apply your debuffs. And again, with unlimited power choices, I would like to have it, but it was another I chose to forego. See above for my attack chains, and why I don’t feel I need another attack power.

And there is one power from the primary set which I have not yet discussed:
Fallout – Never had it, whether on test or live. Never thought of getting it. Don’t know anyone who has ever had it on live. All I know about it is what I’ve read. Therefore, I do not really feel qualified to comment on it, in fairness to it. HOWEVER… given the description – you can basically use your body as a mini-bomb after you fall in combat. Ok, better to have the power than not to have the power – if it were free. But again, the opportunity cost would be huge (I’d rather have any other power in either of the powersets) because the marginal utility it would provide me would be less than any other power.

So we started with 11 powers available, took 3 “no-brainers” (CB, EMP and AB), one useful support (Aim), and 2 AoEs (Irr and Neutron Bomb), which leaves us with 5 available powers.

Even more than the above recommended powers, these are pretty much subject to your own taste/preference/playstyle. PV and EH would be good choices. Mutation, as I said earlier, is as good a res as any in the game. I personally took Super Jump because I feel it is overall the best travel power. I also recommend Acrobatics, because I hate being Knocked Down. You may take Phase Shift (and the required Invis or Grant Invis). Tough to go wrong, really, at this point.

Well, this “guide” ended up being much longer than I thought it would be. If someone finds it helpful, though, then it would have been worth the time and effort I put in.

I acknowledge that there is and should be no one “best” way to build a hero, but here are my thoughts on the matter. Perhaps some of my choices may not be to your liking. I have, however, presented them in what I consider an intelligent and thoughtful manner. I would like to believe I have made no baseless assertions, but rather have argued for my point of view with sufficient support. I welcome any intelligent discussion on any of the points I have made.

R’ae – rad/rad defender on Virtue

Why I’m posting:

There have been quite a number of guides posted regarding both the Radiation Emission Primary Powerset and the Radiation Blast Secondary Powerset for Defenders. For example, I highly recommend SoulHealer’s Guide to Radiation Emission found elsewhere on these boards. However, I find a number of questionable, if not downright objectionable, suggestions in a lot of other guides and the subsequent discussion/debate. Furthermore, I have yet to find a guide on specifically rad/rad with which I was entirely happy. This then is my own take on the subject, fuelled by my own in-game experiences, my discussions with other experienced players, and some knowledge I have gleaned from these boards.

Why I like rad/rad:

I find rad/rad to be extremely versatile. I find it works extremely well in solo play, as well as team efforts. Furthermore, depending upon the exigencies of the situation and the composition of the team, the competent rad/rad can function as either: a tank, a boss-killer (scrapper), a healer, a blaster, or a controller. A brief word on each of these roles:

TANK – With our great debuffs (RI, EF, LR), we can stand in the middle of even purple mobs relatively unscathed. Any damage that does get through can either be healed with RA, or their nasty status effects are at least partially alleviated by AM. Note the word “relatively” – I do not advise tanking for a living. Furthermore, a good rad/rad can be the primary “herder” (getting large mobs together in one big group), especially in indoor missions. Cast RI on a villain at the end of the warehouse (for example), and lead him to all the other mobs, infecting them along the way. Make your way back to the entrance (or wherever you decide to make your stand), then deal with them as you wish. You may, at that point, hit Aim, cast EM pulse, and Atomic Blast… most, if not all, should fall at that point. Any stragglers that may be left are held and should be handled easily.

Boss-killer – True, we do not get the criticals of the scrapper, nor do we have the same damage output of the blaster… but we get pretty close. Again, with our debuffs, we can stand toe-to-toe with most purples (within reason of course) with relative impunity. We can then spam NB and CB (or X-ray, if you have it) until the villain falls (this may take time, though).

Healer – We have a pretty decent, sure-hit heal in RA.

Blaster – True, a blaster typically does more damage than we do. But we have a way of getting past the damage cap that they don’t – EF. And we have some excellent attacks, which will be covered later in this guide.

Controller – We have one of the best holds in the game, EM pulse. And we have Aim, which will help it hit. RI also helps in this regard.

Some Basic Principles:

1) Economics plays a huge role in determining how you build your hero. Ideally, we would like all the powers, and have them all 6-slotted. But we can’t. This must always be borne in mind. Any power or slot you pick up or put in adds value to your hero (marginal utility). But it comes with an opportunity cost (you could have picked another power, or used the slot elsewhere). If I may be allowed a rather facetious example:

Obviously, a 6-slotted Rest is better than a 1-slotted Rest. I would argue that those 5 extra slots will have greater marginal utility for you elsewhere. But if you insist on 6-slotting rest, there are further considerations. You can use all 6 slots for better healing – this will be helpful since you have to rest for maybe 2 or 3 seconds less. But how useful will that be for you? Perhaps slotting 6 recharges might be better, allowing you to rest more frequently. But regardless – do NOT put any extra slots in Rest, ok?

2) Respec is available, so I suggest you make your hero with this in mind, Thus, this guide will have a pre-24 part, and a post-24 part.

3) A lot of other factors come into play when making your hero than just optimal efficiency, such as character concept. If your character is named Flybaby, it might not make much sense if she or he could not fly. Or, you may need Recall Friend since you always play with your husband who is playing a Natural origin scrapper that will never get a travel power. You may find eye-beams extremely cool (though I still wonder how X-ray beam can miss, since it’s coming from your eyes and you are LOOKING at the damned target!). None of these conditions applied to me as I made my character, so bear that in mind.

4) This guide is aimed at a hero that can play both solo and with a team. You may want to change certain things if you are going to play exclusively or primarily one way or the other. An extreme but very realistic example:

If you are joining a team of all rad/rads, you will want to slot your AM differently, since you will now have 8 AMs running simultaneously, each of them contributing to recharging your powers. You may choose to skip Hasten and/or Stamina, then.

The Guide (How I did it up to lvl 24)

At level 24, you get your 14th power. Of those 14, I used 7 for Pool powers, from 4 different pools. Here’s my reasoning:

Hasten – Given what I had said above regarding economics, Hasten makes great sense. Not all powers are created equal – you will naturally want to use some more frequently than others. In a perfect world, all my single-target attacks would probably be Cosmic Burst for its great damage and disorient capability. However, all powers need to recharge. So if I wanted to just use CB, I would have a significant amount of downtime between attacks. Hasten enables all your powers to recharge faster, thus, your best powers come up more frequently. This enables you to use fewer powers (the better ones), and to maximize their slotting. In other words, I would rather have my best 2 or 3 attacks 6-slotted, than have 7 attacks with just 2 or 3 slots each.

Super Speed – Makes sense since you already have Hasten. Furthermore, with Stealth, SS grants you the equivalent of invisibility, enabling you to cast your first attack (for me, typically RI) before you draw aggro.

Combat Jumping – SS alone can get rather frustrating, with its lack of vertical mobility. CJ (and later SJ) help alleviate if not totally eliminate this problem. It also gives a decent defense bonus to you, while being quite efficient in terms of endurance usage.

Stealth – Already covered above.

Stamina (and its prerequisites: hurdle and swift or health) – Especially before you get AM up all the time, endurance could be a problem. I like Hurdle because of the aforementioned lack of vertical mobility. I took Swift just so I can travel faster. I chose not to take Health since I can heal. I think it’s fine whichever 2 you end up choosing.

So that’s 7 powers. From the remaining 7, I took 2 from the secondary, and 5 from the primary.

Blasts:

I took both NB and X-ray. I wanted more than one attack aside from brawl.

NB is one of the best attacks in the game – with Perma Hasten and Perma AM, it essentially recharges as soon as the animation is done, i.e., you can cast it non-stop with no downtime. As such, in terms of just spamming one attack non-stop, it has as high a DPS as any power in the game. I 6 slot my NB, all with damage. A lot of others put in 1 acc and 5 dmg. I find I hit often enough with RI going.

X-ray was my second attack. I did not slot it, because I intended to respec it out at 24. An ideal single-target attack chain or sequence for rad in terms of DPS would involve CB, NB, and X-ray. I sacrifice some DPS by just going with NB and CB, but I gain an extra power by taking out X-ray, as well as the extra 5 slots which would have gone in it. (I 6-slot all my attacks). Given NB’s fast recharge, I always have an attack ready even with just these 2 attacks.

Primary Powerset

I took the remaining 5 powers from our primary. At this point, it might be good to look at SoulHealer’s guide (mentioned above). It really is quite detailed, and excellent. Of the 7 available powers up to this point (lvl 24), I took all except Mutation and Choking Cloud.

Mutation – As good a res as there is in the game. Brings back a fallen comrade stronger than before, but weaker after it wears off. Can be very useful especially in terms of preventing a team wipe (everyone falling). Having said that, I chose to forego this power at this point because the build is so tight in terms of powers. I chose to just go with Awakens or the Hospital instead.

Choking Cloud – Quite a debate has gone on about this power. Some find it totally useless, others swear by it. I contend that it would be a “nice-to-have” power, but again, given the tightness of the build, I choose to forego it. With proper slotting, you can hold around 75-80% of mobs after 10 seconds. However, with RI, EF and LR going, you can survive rather well anyway, and in the late game, you have EM pulse to hold all of them, or Atomic Blast to just get them all down in one shot.

The 5 Powers I did take:

RA – PBAoE heal. Not quite empathy level numbers, but decent. Slotting depends upon the role you see for yourself (solo or within a team, and if within a team, are you the primary healer?) Arguments can be made for End. Reduc. and recharge enhancements, as well as the obvious heal enhancements. At this point in your career, I recommend 2 or 3 heal enhancements.

RI – Toggle cast around a villain, affecting all within a radius of the target. Lowers their chance to hit you, and increases your chance to hit them. Great power. I’ve seen some recommend putting in an End reduc here, and I totally disagree. RI uses up less than 7/10 of an end per second. I slot it with ToHit and Defense debuffs. Late game, I recommend slotting it with 6, divided 3/3. At this stage of your career, probably 2 to 3, with more for ToHit debuffs.

AM – Great buff. Increases a lot of things (damage, run speed, end. recovery, recharge) as well as decreasing the time of status effects upon you. Works for people around you as well, by the way. By the time SOs are available at 22, I had this 6 slotted. If you do have Hasten, 5 recharge slots in Hasten plus 4 recharges in AM should be enough to make AM Perma (you have some downtime when your enhancements are no longer maxed out). Thus, most people slot this 4/2, the 2 being endurance recovery. I personally slot it 3/3. I accept the minimal downtime for AM in exchange for the greater endurance recovery.

EF – Toggle similar to RI. Increases damage done to mobs, and decreases damage they do. Damage to the mobs is increased by lowering their damage resistance, thus EF enables going beyond the damage cap. Uses up twice as much end as RI does, however. Optimal slotting would be 3 end reduc – might be your best possible investment in terms of endurance management up to this point in your career. I won’t go into the numbers, but assuming you use EF in every battle, putting in the 2nd and third end reducs in EF will serve you more than an extra end recovery in Stamina.

LR – LR is a “click” and not a toggle. As such, it is not “auto-hit” as both RI and EF are. Slows down mobs’ movement speed and attack rates. Since they attack you less, this is effectively damage mitigation as well. Furthermore, it takes them longer to get out of your debuff zone. Would be great to 6 slot this power – accuracy, slow, and end reduc come to mind. But even in the 40s, I could not spare the slots. At this stage in your career, maybe 1 acc and 1 end reduc early, replaced by slow later on, when you have stamina and perma AM.

There you have all 14 powers, and the reasons why I picked them. I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting an actual sequence in which to take them, and when and how many to slot per level. Besides, there would be no one perfect or correct way, anyway. I will recommend, however, that you get SS by 14, and Stamina by 20, i.e., as early as possible. I personally do not like not having a travel power, so I get one as soon as I can on all my characters (except my DM/DA, but that’s another story).


R'ae -- rad/rad defender on Virtue