The ultimate 3-6 man team with /Rad corruptors
By
Amy_Amp,
Posted on: 2006-02-13 08:20 in Player Guides
Some think that a team of all /Kinetics can equal the /Rad team, or even surprass it. They are wrong. Here is why:
Kinetics can't even come close to the sheer debuff capability of the Radiation Emission set.
As for things dieing too fast at higher levels... Well, probably no other Villain team type is going to GET you to those higher levels than a /rad team.
Plus, as a /rad team you'll be fighting purples on relentless at higher levels - And not many 4-6 man teams can keep it together against such odds.
All Kinetics really has going for it in this kind of strategy is Siphon power, and all it does is debuff the enemy's attack damage by 15% and increase yours by 15%.
Kinetics also uses a point blank AOE, rather than ranged AOE, meaning you have to make yourself vulnerable to alpha strikes before it goes into effect.
A radiation Emission team, in contrast, can (at range) debuff an entire group's accuracy, defense, resistance, and damage output down to nothing - And the effect is a constant toggle as opposed to a one shot AOE.
Going down the list power by power:
-Kinetics has a much better heal, but if you're playing your /rad group right you won't need much healing anyway.
-Repel is counterproductive.
-Siphon Speed is not needed.
-Increase density has no use in a /rad team, where you nothing will be able to hit you and you'll kill them the mobs too fast for them to do anything.
-Speed boost is totally unneeded.
-Inertial Reduction is totally unneeded.
-Transference is totally unneeded to this style of play.
-Fulcrum Shift. Again, all it does it debuff damage and buff your damage. And do you really want to wait until level 38 to get one of the only three secondary powers that is useful to the /rad team style of play? I don't think so.
Let's compare it power to power with Radiation Emission:
-Radiant Aura. A good heal that gets the job done.
-Radiantion Infection - Targeted AOE, radius 20ft, casting range of 70ft. Debuffs the enemy's Accuracy and Defense by 22.5% unslotted. It's a toggle power, so it never misses and stays up infecting all nearby enemies until the target dies.
-Accelerate Metabolism. A PBAOE with 25ft radius that allows you to boost the Damage, Attack speed, Endurance recovery, and Run/Fly speed of your entire team for 2 minutes. It also grants them resistance to all status effects. This power is a great boon to the /rad team combat style.
-Enervating Field. Targeted AOE, 15ft Radius, 70ft range. It decreases the enemy's Damage and Resistance by 22.5% unslotted. It's a toggle power, so it never misses and stays up infecting all nearby enemies until the target dies.
-Mutation. Ressurect fallen teammates. Technically it fits well with the /rad style of play, but ultimately it's not needed if you've got awakens around.
-Lingering Radiation. PBAOE with 25 radius. Decreases the attack speed and movement speed of all effected enemies for 30 seconds. Not essential if you've got the other two debuff toggles running, but it still fits the /rad team theme well and is useful against tougher foes like Heros or Giant Monsters.
-Choking Cloud. A toggle PBAOE with 15ft range that has a 50% chance to impart 5 second holds in pulses every 5 seconds. Not required when you've got so many /rad teammates using their toggles, but it still fits the /rad team style well if you ever come across the need to hold a bunch of targets in place after debuffing them.
-Fallout. Useless. The only useless power in the /rad set.
-EM Pulse. Again it fits the mass AOE theme of /rad well, but ultimately isn't required when you consider how powerful your massed toggles already are.
Conclusion: The vast majority of the Kinetics line is useless to the /rad style of team warfare.
Just about every /rad power IS useful to this style of warfare, even if a few of those powers aren't actually required because the ones you already have are SO powerful that anything more would be overkill.
ChuckNorris, don't you have some movie to make or some karate class to teach?
Or some ridiculous infomercial to film for some useless exercise equipment?
Let me make a few suggestions. FYI, I have a 40 Fire/Rad. I got there in a team of mostly Rads. I founded Buffer Overrun, the all-Rad Hero SG.
For Primary, I highly recommend Fire. It's the best AoE damage powerset, and your primary is all about damage. You have all the debuffs you need in your secondary (but see Dark below). You get AoEs at levels 2, 6, and 8. Nothing compares.
If you're interested in PvP, then take Ice for better single-target damage and holds. The Ice/Rads should go after bosses.
Sonic is just meh. It does significantly less damage than Fire. Adding Sonic debuffs on top of EF doesn't make up for Sonic's significantly lower damage.
Rad as a primary is just as meh. Sure you can debuff mob Defense. But RI does that, and does it better. You don't even need the Def debuff once you get some stacked Tactics. And again Rad falls short of Fire for damage. You don't get the third AoE till 26.
Dark is actually decent. You don't get the AoEs till a bit later, and they only do OK amage. Ignore the ToHit debuff, again RI does it better. The important thing is Dark has Tenebrous Tentacles, which is an Immob. Toss 3 Tentacles and add 5 Rains of Fire, and watch the mobs melt. TT is also nice to keep the mobs together for debuffs. If you don't have some TT, you'll want to skip Rain of Fire.
Most of your other advice is spot on. Leadership FTW! I don't recommend Maneuvers all that highly though as the Def bonus is really small. Yes Stamina and Hasten, you'll still probably want them. No snipes, no Aim. I took Blaze to help finish off bosses. I still recommend EM Pulse because it's the best hold in the game. And I recommend nukes because you'll be able to use them REAL often for massive damage in a team like this. You can open every combat with 2 EM Pulses and 2 nukes at higher levels.
Radiation Infection is a massive ToHit debuff. I believe you only need 2 when slotted to floor anything. Just to make sure you cover every mob, I'd recommend having 3 people who use RI, and everyone else use EF. Everyone toss 1 debuff then start the AoEs. You'll want a couple people with LR for AVs (no elite bosses for this team).
The team I leveled up to 40 with had some defense as well. I believe we usually had 1 Cold and 1 Sonic secondary Corruptor. That let us open combat fairly safely. After all, we couldn't use Phantom Army like we did in Buffer Overrun.
Have you taken your team to 40 Chuck? In between the movies and all.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
I don't see why you needed to point out Kins versus any other type. An all Dark team could be probably just as wicked. Granted a mix of the types is really whats best. 
The problem I've found with fire is that your Rain of Fire has a fear effect that will cause all the mobs to scatter - Which can be REALLY bad for this style of play.
You can't use it in most circumstances.
Because of that, Radiation might be a superior AOE choice because you get to fully employ all three of your AOE attacks at any time without fear of messing up the mob grouping.
that's why he mentioned the tents...they're immobs...means mobs can't run, despite fear...
As Blue_Golden said, it's the Tenebrous Tentacles that make Rain of Fire viable. But you really do need it in order to make Fire the true king of AoE.
As to damage, compare Brawl Indexes. The three Fire attacks have a total BI of about 13.2, available from level 8 on. Rad has a total BI of 6.5 until level 26, where it goes up to 9. There's just no comparison.
Finally, consider Scourge. Irradiate is a DoT, and so can Scourge while it's ticking. The other Rad attacks are front-loaded, so they don't Scourge unless the mobs are already at half HP or below. All of the Fire AoEs are DoTs, so they can all Scourge.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
The fact that fireball has DoT doesn't make it a DoT attack. some 80-95% of its damage is front loaded, meaning in terms of Scourge, its not a DoT, as that big fire component doesn't scourge.
Its quite subtle, but the real reason fire is the king of AoE is its activation time. Damage per attack chain is next to meaningless because it ignores how long it takes to deal that damage. I love radiation's AoE's, but fire can get a firebreath/fireball off in about the same time as haze or bomb. DPS 4 teh win.
Looking at the numbers in the Hero Planner, it looks like Fireball is 75% front loaded damage, 25% DoT. You can cast it quickly, while Rain of Fire and Fire Breath are slower. Fire and Rad have about the same total animation time to cast their 3 AoEs.
At higher levels, I'd usually do Fireball, Fire Breath, Rain of Fire, then Fireball again. AM and extra Recharge Reduction gets the recharge time on Fireball and Fire Breath pretty low. The first Fireball is to soften the mobs up. After all, Scourge doesn't even start till 50% HP. But by the time Fireball recharges, most of the remaining mobs should be in Scourge range.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
Wow, I've been playing a rad/rad and I only took x-ray beam, neutrino bolt, and the snipe from my primary. Are the other powers all that good? I've not had any trouble with missions solo or teamed so far(lvl 30).
It depends on your playstyle, movement powers, and other things...
Solo, you're better off with single target damage. If you're comfortable getting somewhat close to mobs (maybe using Hover to stay above them), then I recommend Cosmic Burst. It does nice damage and has a good chance to Disorient. And with enough Recharge Reduction (AM, Hasten, slots), you can fit it into an attack chain of Bolt, X-Ray, Bolt, CB.
If you team a lot and you're usually safe (thanks to well slotted RI, bubbles, good Tanker, or whatever), then AoE attacks are a lot more efficient in terms of Endurance and casting time. Irradiate is slightly expensive END wise, but it's supposed to be a major DEF debuff. Of course at 30+ you rarely worry about hitting mobs, and RI is probably all you need. Your buffs and debuffs are usually more important in a team, and you never want to have RI drop because you ran out of END from casting too many AoEs. I'd say take one AoE and see how it goes. Electron Haze (cone) does Knockback and may not be liked, but it does decent damage. Irradiate does less damage, and it's PBAoE so you have to charge the mobs. Neutron Bomb does the least damage, but it's ranged. Up to you as to how you like to play.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
So, are there any active all */rad teams other than Buffer Overdose on Justice? Actually, went to Buffer Overrun's website and it said that Buffer Overdose's VG got deleted by the Dev's by mistake, so until that's cleared up, no Buffer Overdose.
I am really interested in joining an active all */rad VG.
Can anyone help me out?
50's
Darth Keiv DM/Reg, Crack'ed Justice BS/Reg, Crack'ling Cage Fire/Rad,
Crack'ed Earth SS/Stone, Crack'ed Brawler DM/WP, Crack'ed Legend Axe/WP,
Crack'ed Current SS/Elec,Crack'ed Ice Ice/Kin, Crack'ed Cacophony Son/Son,
Crack'ed Widow SOA, Crack'ed Bully Thugs/Dark, Broil-O Fire/Kin, iCrack'ed DB/WP.
The VG has since been recreated and the GMs gave us back our lost Prestige. We didn't get badges, membership, or our base restored, but we're back to functioning.
That said, we aren't playing Rads these days. The regulars hit 40 shortly after CoV came out. We weren't the first to hit 40, but we weren't far behind. Now we're playing alts (we're playing MMs Mon-Thu), badge hunting, PvPing, or whatever. We probably won't be playing our Rads much till I7 when the level cap goes up to 50.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
While I agree on some points that Kinetics cannot beat Radiation, there are some other points I'd like to argue. Let's start with your list.
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Siphon Speed is not needed.
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A major increase to speed and recharge isn't needed on a team? Quick Travel power until later, and it increases the speed that Siphon Power comes back.
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Speed boost is totally unneeded.
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Same thing as Siphon Speed. Stack these two on your other kinetics friends and you've got an insane amount of recharge that's also supported by endurance.
I've actually considered making a defender version of this and have mostly been between Radiation and Kinetics. What I've found so far is that Radiation has increased accuracy and safety, but less damage and speed than Kinetics. Unfortunately Kinetics has to wait until 20 for Corruptors to get Speed Boost, which is the really defining power of an all-Kinetics team.
So, Kinetics may not have the accuracy needed for all purple mobs without enhancements, but it definetly has the power and speed (Imagine a spammed Fire Ball or even Nuke) to take down anything it can hit very quickly
If you've got 3-6 friends or supergroup members in-game that play consistently, and at around the same time as you, then you all may find it fun to try working together using corruptors centered around Radiation Emission.
Why a team focused around Radiation Emission? Because, if done right, you'll be virtually invulnerable and blow through +3 Relentless missions with speed and ease.
Why 3-6 people? Because 3 is needed before you start getting the most out of stacking your /rad debuffs. You can duo two /rad players, sure, it just won't be the same teaming powerhouse that you get with around 3-6 /rad players.
Why stop at 6? Well, you don't have to. 8 people won't hurt. It's just that you only need around 4-6 to really be effective.
The core classes of the team should be:
Rad/Rad
Ice/Rad
Sonic/Rad
Dark/Rad
Additional classes:
AR/Rad
Fire/Rad
The primaries:
Rad decreases defense, Ice decreases speed, Sonic decreases resistance, and Dark decreases accuracy. Together it's a cocktail of destruction on top of your /rad debuffs.
AR and Fire are not part of the core set because they don't contribute to debuffing with their attacks, but they can still contribute a lot with their nice damage and AOE attacks.
Energy is really not preferred. It has poor AOE, and all that knockback can be counterproductive to this group style.
The Secondaries:
It goes without saying that the purpose of having so many /rad secondaries is to spam your AOE debuffs (which stack with each other) to the point where mobs can't fight back and go down fast.
You've also got a decent heal to keep everyone in good order.
Power Pools:
-Get Hasten. It will suit the high speed nature of this group and you'll want Accelerated Metabolism up as much as possible.
-Stamina is a no brainer; BUT, it's possible to do without it if you've got so many guys spamming Accelerated Metabolism for the endurance reduction. The only reason I say you need it is because if you want to get the Leadership pool you're probably going to need it to adjust to the increased endurance drain.
-Everyone gets a full Leadership pool, except for Vengence. Why? Because they STACK! You've got 6 guys giving each other a combined bonus of 16.5 Defense, 90% Damage, and 60% Accuracy!!!
-If you find yourself low on room for power choices (which you might, considering all of the power pools you already have), just get superspeed as your group travel power.
-While you might consider the Leaping pool something to consider for it's status protection against immobilization, hold, and knockback (in addition to it being a superior travel power to superspeed), the fact is you probably won't be able to afford another 3 power pools with this build. And really you shouldn't need to worry about getting knockbacked or held when you've already debuffed the enemies so bad that they can't even hit you.
-Stealth is not necessary. Your job is to kill everything in your path instantly, not ghost missions.
Notes on power selection:
-Focus on your AOE attacks as the main means of taking down mobs. Individually they may not be much, but together you'll mow down mob groups by the dozen.
-Keep in mind that once the epics and level 50 come in you may or may not want to have a couple power slots free to get a useful epic power.
-Linger Radiation may or may not be required. Under most circumstances it may be overkill to use on top of your stacked toggles. But I'm sure you'll find it a welcome addition when fighting Heros or Giant Monsters.
Powers you can sacrifice:
-Fallout
-EM Pulse: Your debuffs should keep the enemies in such a useless state that an AOE hold is just overkill.
-Choking cloud: Same as EM Pulse.
-Mutation. Just have everyone keep at least one awaken on hand.
-Snipes aren't needed at all.
-Aim isn't needed when you're debuffing stuff so severely that you can't miss, and you'll be doing incredible damage without it anyway.
-Technically you could sacrifice your nukes because you shouldn't need them if you're playing right, but nukes are fun! So do what you want with regards to them.
-What to sacrifice in terms of attacks from the primary pool varies by what power set you have; but if need be there are usually one or two single target attacks you can get rid of in favor of focusing on your AOE attacks.
Notes on slotting:
-Slot your AOEs for the highest damage and fully increase their secondary effects (like acc debuff, def debuff, res debuff, slow debuff, etc)
-Fully slot your /Rad debuffs for maximum effect. You may need to throw in an endurance reduction on some.
-No need for accuracy slots; You've got a ton of accuracy from everyone's Leadership pool!
-Maybe slot your Radiant Aura with 3 Heal, 1-2 Recharge Reduction, and possibly 1 endurance reduction. You may not need to slot it at all if the group works well together, but I believe in a setup like this it would prudent to have superior and rapid healing available in a pinch. If you have the slots to spare go for it, if not you can sacrifice some slots (or all of them) from your heal.