roberto1

Thanks for the reply. My particular build has what I consider the most useful powers in the radiaion primary so far--RI, AM, EF, LR, and RA. I also have hurdle/swift/stamina as well as hasten and my travel powers (recall friend/teleport). I also picked up Mutation at 24 at the behest of my SG mates. HAsten and AM are perma for me now.

At this point I only have 2 attack powers, NB and XB. Both serve me well sa high DPS attacks for a low enough END that I can use them pretty constantly with my current toggles up. Both are 6-slotted for damage, although I may reallocate those slots if I decide to spec out XB at some point.

As I progress in levels and add more slots to stamina, AM, and EF, I'll be able to maintain a similar END recovery rate while running the leadership toggles, so it's not an Endurance economy that I'm worried about. I was really wondering if I could 6-slot RI with all ToHit Debuff and make up for the difference in DEF debuff with 6-slotted Tactics. Erratic seems to have answered my question.

The two powers I would sacrifice for the leadership toggles are most likely going to be Electron Haze and Irradiate. I plan on going for Neutron Bomb and Atomic Blast as soon as they're available, so really the question is whether I want to become primarily a support character with a good ability to solo (I've been able to solo any misisons thrown at me thus far) or a more soloable character with great ability to support.

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...

Kudos on an excellent, well-written guide. I have a level 24 rad/rad on Freedom that I like to play because of its versatility. I made a few different choices than you did on my way to 24, but as you said, some powers are a matter of personal preference.

I have a question about your playing experience and its connection to the powers that you chose, however. I'm in a supergroup that spans the level range from 1-45. We all team fairly often and regularly, and I'm seriously considering picking up the leadership buffs (maneuvers and tactics) at 26 and 30. The reason is simple: often we operate in an environment that is far too dangerous for characters joining us to handle. RI may provide excellent coverage for me to play wisely with a small team within 2-3 levels of each other, but on large teams, often there is a gap of 6-7 levels between the highest team member and the lowest SK'd team member. For this reason, I've slotted RI with Acc debuff rather than 3/3 Acc/Def debuff in the hopes of keeing my fellow teammates alive a bit longer.

I wonder if eventually 6-slotting Tactics will be more effective for teams in the long run. I'll do some math and see what the relevant break points are.

What do you think?

Great guide! I've got energy blast on my Defender, and I must say I enjoyed reading about the set from a Blaster's perspective. Defenders can't get Buildup, but we CAN get things like Enervating Field, Accelerated Metabolism, Siphon Power, and Fulcrum Shift to improve our damage output.

My only real comment to the guide is regarding your description of Hover/Fly. I've been using a set of binds developed here one the forums that give me excellent mobility during combat. This has saved me from having to 6-slot hover to make it a viable travel power. The additional power slot is worth it, I think, as those 5 enhancement slots might be better spent elsewhere (especially at lower levels when slots aremore precious).

Cheers!

Great guide, Venarr! Makes me want to rush home and play my tank! Now that I know a lot more about getting out of Line of Sight for a pull or herd, I feel like my INV tanker might be fun to play again!

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I wanted to tag this thread and also add a question. At 15 with my DDD I'm enjoying Howling Twilight. Since it's early it's hard to tell how useful it will be later but one thing I found strange was the supposed END REC aspect. Maybe I just need to wait for SO but right now I don't see this power helping with my end recovery.

I'm debating whether or not to make this part of my disorient / hold powers. I will of course get TT but right now I really like Dark Pit. I was thinking that with Hasten and maybe some recharge enhancers I could make HT part of an attack cycle were I keep the mob either held or disoriented. The end recovery would be awesome but right now I just don't see it happening at all.

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Howling Twilight is a decent disorient power, and you can use it in conjunciton with Dark Pit to stack disorients on bosses. However, Dark pit is better for Disorienting becasue it's got a lower end cost and recharge time.

The END REC aspect of the power has to do with the Resurrect aspect. That is, the resurrected ally will recover endurance scaled to the number of targets the power hits while in range of the rez'd ally. The caster doesn't recover any endurance.

Nice Guide, excellent read. As a regular user of Hasten, though, I have to disagree with you about endurance recharge with Hasten on.

Hasten doesn't cause endurance recovery to decrease while it's on. It only saps out some endurance when it wears off. In addition, it cuases you to burn through endurance faster, as your main attacks are up more often and can be cycled constantly. So there is no _inherent_ recovery penalty with Hasten, just a sort of "oh by the way, you'll be using more endurance in the same amount of time" kind of effect.

otherwise, good stuff.

Just wanted to chime in.

The other day I received the mission to speak to "Alexander." I was joyed that I found the mission before I hit level 30, so I invited a bunch of 30+ people to join me on a team to get the badge. Well, after completing all of Alexander's "trials" -- which amounted to defeating 3 ambushes, doing 2 patrols, and 3 door missions (maybe it was 4...), I received the badge.

However none of my teammates who had been teamed with me received the badge. I invited them after I recevied the mission but before I spoke with alexander the first time. Once the team was full I "reset" the mission by clicking on another misison and then clicking on the alexander mission. Only after resetting the mission once did I speak with Alexander.

Maybe this badge is bugged for teammates, or maybe I shouldn't have reset the misison, but we all got the "mission complete" at the end of the final mission and all members did all of the missions with me...

anyone else have similar problems with this badge?

I vote for tonight(Wednesday) or Friday or Saturday. My Girlfriend is coming over on Thursday, and she'd be really disappointed if I were playing CoH all night. So for her sake, please make it tonight or Friday!

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Still new here (level 13), not sure what the map patch is I have heard a few people mention...anyone care to explain?

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The Map Patch is a set of files you can grab from someone posting on the forum. It replaces the normal zone maps with zone maps labelled with store locations . VERY useful to someone who's never been to a particular zone or who wants to maximize their influence colleciton by selling enhancements to the right stores.

That's what I wish I'd known: that you can sell SO and DO enhancements for more at stores that sell similar enhancements. Thus, the mutation store (subgenetics or biotechnix) will pay more for SO or DO enhs that are part mutation.

This TF is Front-loaded. That is, the first few missions are the hardest and have the highest-level baddies. After the 2nd Vahzilok Mission, you'll notice that the average enemy level drops from 17 to 15, and the missions get much easier.

I think the reasons why this TF is hardly ever successful is that there are
1) So many misisons
2) Characters probably don't have their travel powers when taking this mission...makes things take MUCH longer
3) As the earliest available TF, it's very possible that people you're grouping with haven't mastered their character. That is, new players may pull rookie mistakes (causing some capricious veterans to drop out)...or some who are used to soloing might bite off more than they can chew in the group and pay the debt penalty for it (and then quit).