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From personal experience Fire/Rad controllers aren't that good at soloing archvillains. They don't have any way to manage aggro like Ill/Rad can with Phantom Army and pretty much every archvillain worth a dime can take out a swam of Fire Imps with one AoE.
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Illusion/Rad is a set where, for some strange reason, all the powers work together against an AV. It's not uber in normal missions, it's not uber in a team, though it's undeniably a good set. But against AVs, it's like the "set designed to fight AVs".
Now, Fire/Rad, doesn't come close to the same single-target synergy. It's still doable, I think, but you lose a lot of power combinations.
Some ideas, though:
Rad can depend on defense by stacking a RI slotted for defense with the -Acc from Spectral Terror. A -80% to hit for an AV won't stop it from hitting you, but a -110% will. You don't have that extra 30% to add in.
Fire should be great at AV killing, with KINETICS as a secondary. Since unlike Ill/Rad they can't stack defenses to floor an AV's to-hit, what they could do is to stack -Dam debuffs so that imps can survive an AoE attack. Then their ranged heal can keep the imps healed. But you have to give up on the idea of avoiding damage to the pets, and instead say "Go ahead and hurt them, but it won't kill them and I'll heal them". Unfortunately, however, Rad can't do that. It has a weaker heal, and its -Dam power can't be stacked.
In short: Fire/Rad is a strong set, but to be an AV-killer, it helps to not only have strong sets, but to have sets that synergize against a single target. Ill/Rad has that. Fire/Kin (or Earth/Kin, or Ice/Kin) has that. Fire/Rad is a great set for most missions, but its powers are not as well matched against an AV.
I wonder if a Grav/Storm can do it, using Tornado and Lightning Storm to add to the damage of the Sings, and using the Sings to "tank" the AVs with their tremendous resists. I don't know if it's strong enough as a set, but there is another set that has synergy between its two parts, against an AV.
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From personal experience Fire/Rad controllers aren't that good at soloing archvillains. They don't have any way to manage aggro like Ill/Rad can with Phantom Army and pretty much every archvillain worth a dime can take out a swam of Fire Imps with one AoE.
Terra is doable because she has boss-level magnitude, though you'll have to manage your toggles properly so you don't run out of endurance with RI, EF (and possible others like tactics) and throwing out char whenever it comes up. All she needs is one or two solid hits and you're going down. I didn't solo Terra, but I know I could have if I'd been more patient.
The only archvillains I've soloed are Anti-Matter and Neuron, but those fights were hardly fair considering I was L50 and they were L48. Even then Anti-Matter still got the best of me with a nuke not once but twice. Stupid heal-needing Imps.
Darke, just out of curiosity, was there room (endurance wise) for tactics in such a build? I'd think you could do without a few of those accuracy enhancements and instead slot for 3 damage on PA instead of 2 damage and 1 accuracy.
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There COULD be room for tactics, but when Conserve Power isnt on, I highly recommend turning it off. 6 Membranes in CP would make for a 20 second downtime about if you really wanted Tactics. Not sure the damage increase would be so worth it, but it might make it go a bit faster.
And like the last poster said, Illusion and Radiation are literally made to synergize against an AV. Every power is put to use, and they work together marvelously. No other set does it as well. The build isnt necessarily uber outside of AVs, though it is good. But against AVs, it is THE build.
But because AVs are such a miniscule aspect of the game, I cant see them nerfing just for this.
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Pro-I4 can a D3 supstitute for a illusion/rad?
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You have two problems as a D3:
1: The best DPE (damage/endurance) powers are pet powers, since they're undirected damage, damage spread out over minutes, etc. So due to those weaknesses, the total damage done is tremendous for the Endurance spent. And the weaknesses aren't a problem when you're down to a single AV to fight. So, to match up to that, a D3 has to do far more damage with direct blasts, which are far less endurance efficient. They can probably manage the DPS part of doing damage, due to the new -Regen on Twilight Grasp, and to the -Res from Tar Patch. But you will have to spam TG, Tar Patch when it's up, and Dark Blast, and Gloom. While keeping up Darkest Night and maintaining Endurance for the pets and for the Hasten drop. It seems as if it's close to doable, but not necessarily doable.
2: You will have to avoid AVs with status effects. An Ill/Rad has multiple defensive layers... defense, possibly status protection (depending on EPP), aggro control from PA, and aggro pull from the pets. A D3 has only defense, and a very slight aggro pull from the little damage that the pets do. The fight will be long enough that the AV WILL get some hits in, and if they cause status, you will be mezzed, Darkest Night will drop, and the AV will finish you. The pets will probably not pull aggro strongly enough to save you, and depending on their heals is problematic. Besides, even if they do pull aggro, without your DN, the AV will probably take them down immediately.
Alternately, you might fight an AV that does only Holds, and depend on Acrobatics.
In the end, they definitely have potential. And I have heard of Dark/Electric doing it, so it may be possible for Dark/Dark (though Voltaic Sentinel is a very high DPE power). But unlike Ill/Rad, who can conceivable take on almost any AV, D3s will have to skip certain AVs due to their status protection or unusually high regen.
I'm trying not to be overly critical here, but if this guide simply pertains to a single power combo, the title should indicate that rather than imply that it has broad utility.
No offense, but honestly? I doubt that I'm the only one who would regard someone I heard bragging about soloing AV's when all they did was delegate the bulk of the risk to proxies that the AV can't even hurt (and is too dumb to change his hopeless tactics) as underwhelming. IMHO it sounds like bragging about dominating Doom in god mode--or bragging about dominating Doom by supervising someone playing in god mode. Minimal risk = minimal challenge = minimal accomplishment = minimal bragging rigts. YMMV, but there you have it.
Streethunter
You are replying to a thread posted 2 years ago. Before ED. The guide is probably useless when applied to CoX I8.
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Any Scrappers still viable?
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I've soloed Envoy of Shadows (lvl35) and Terra (lvl36) post issue 4
with my katana/regen scrapper. I used a different build for each
one. I had a much harder time with Terra because the first Envoy
fight can be done in the presence of CoT crystals. Terra offers no
such luxury although she doesn't heal herself either.
According to some recent Test server patch notes they improved
Envoy's AI/attack chain. He seems to use his footstomp a lot more
now.