Some advice needed please :)

Greetings heroes and villains! ive recently started playing CoX again and have been trying to get into the the pvp side.
Now the first hero I made was a Kin/Rad defender so things did not go Shall I say.. To plan
I was destroyed by anyone and everyone with the execption of a Katana/invuln scrapper.
Now im testing out a Radem/Elec defender, With the idea being i hit things with rad infection and End drain them with various Elec powers So far in pve this has proved win.
Soloing invinci setting missions which i haven't been able too do before. I might add However a few things in a match last night confused me somthing cronic i when hitting someone with the rad infection toggle it seemed that it had very little impact and the player was able too hold me and obviously cancel my toggle.
now from looking at things in pve it seems that the max chance too hit is 95% so a reduction in chance too hit from rad infection 50% means that noone should be able too hit higher than a 45% chance however the player had an 80% chance.
Is there somthing i don't know about here or did she hit me with the hold before the toggle effect took hold as i know there is a slight delay.
Any advice on the mechanics of Pvp would be helpful.
Ta

Unless I am mistaken, Radiation Infection debuffs their accuracy, not their to-hit. If that is the case, then you are reducing a total of 130% by 50, coming up with 80%. I can't guarantee this is accurate advice, but it seems to me to be the most likely reason.

Also, Diminished Returns could be coming into play here. If their To-Hit started at 95% and you put Radiation Infection on them, you still debuffed their to-hit by 15%, a not insignificant amount. And if the character in question has any kind of to-hit debuff resistance then RI is not going to be as effective against them. Tactics I believe has to-hit debuff resistance. Some other powers do as well, but Tactics is available to everyone, and unless you see them activate it's hard to tell when they're running it.

Thankyou for the swift reply
Rad infection is stated too be a -tohit -def i think.
Do you think that a Radem/elec build is viable at all in pvp or am i rolling another whuppin stick?

claws has covered much of it,
of particular notes on the difference between pve and pvp
-even before DR wacks, people slot for a whole lot more accuracy than what critters normally have
-availability of to-hit buffs, critters don't normally use to-hit buffs, with some exceptions of course
-in terms of to-hit resistance, the VEAT's are kings here, in between the passive accuracy power combined with the possibility of double tactics, not to mention using aim or build up

in other words there are some huge differences in pvp mechanics from pve mechanics, that you will really have to research.
unfortunately to my knowledge, short of going through all of the release notes, there isn't one place either in-game or out, that summerizes what those differences are in one easy FAQ

Electric Blast is actually one of the worst pairings with Radiation Emission. It can be worked with, but Electric's damage output is, well, pretty pathetic for a defender.

In PvE it is a perfectly viable pairing, but in PvP it has a number of drawbacks that are difficult to overcome.

First, End Drain isn't very effective in PvP. There are builds that can do it, but Rad/Electric doesn't do it as well. Kin/Electric with Electric or Power Mastery as an Epic will be the most viable PvP end drainer. Granted, Rad's tier 9 has a significant amount of end drain in it, and if you slot for it, it is very nice, but it is not up nearly often enough to be a viable PvP power.

You've already discovered the unreliability of Rad's toggle debuffs in a PvP situation. Unfortunately, that does hurt Rad's performance. It will still do well in a duel, but for zone PvP there are just too many mezzes flying around for you to really get much use out of them. If *I* get a Rad debuff toggle put on me the first thing I do is figure out where it came from and hit them with a mez, which all of my PvP characters have at least one of. Most people feel the same about it. You will get a lot more use out of Enervating Field than you will Radiation Infection, it will still get dropped but it activates a lot faster so you don't waste time putting a toggle on that won't stay on.

If you really want to be a PvP end drainer and are set on playing a defender to do it then Kinetics/Electric/Power or Electric is your best option.

If you want to PvP with a Rad, I would suggest you look into taking Ice or Sonic as your secondary. They both have enough single target damage to be viable in a PvP zone, which makes up for the fact that only a few powers from Rad are truly useful in PvP.

You can run a Rad/Electric if you really want to, but you will most likely end up being disappointed with it's performance. Any real ability to end drain doesn't come until the 40's with your epic pool. Power Build Up works like Power Boost and Build Up combined, so using it before Short Circuit is an option. Another option is Power Sink, which is available in the Electric Mastery pool.

The reason I recommended Kin/Elec/Elec is it gives you 3 powers that have a large amount of end drain. Transference and Short Circuit in the middle of a fight after your opponent has already expended some endurance will floor their end bar long enough to drop some toggles, making them easier to kill. Always remember that end drain is an all or nothing proposal, either you drain 100% of their end, or don't bother doing it at all.

Thankyou for the informative reply claws.
Im not set on being a defender i could quite happly play anyother class have you any suggestions for say a tanker or scrapper? I though maybe MA or the energy one for tankers tho being rather a total noob i have a very limited scope on what will work well in pvp any advice?

Also open too playing villian classes tho id prefer a hero blaster troller anythin i just want somthing thats viable in pvp even if it takes some skill to play it that i can learn along the way

Anything can work well in PvP, it's more a matter of powers you choose and how you slot them.

There are varying degrees of performance even within ATs. As a general rule, ranged ATs will outperform melee ATs almost every time. There are a lot of good scrapper and tank players out there, but they are outnumbered by good ranged AT players.

MY personal favorite PvP combination is a Sonic/Devices/Electric blaster. It's not the top of the heap, but it suits my playstyle.

You can PvP with just about any scrapper you want. Spines tends to do the best due to it's two ranged powers. Impale is a ranged attack that does High damage, immobilizes them, grounds them if they were flying, and slows them, all in one attack. It is generally seen as the BEST attack available to a scrapper for PvP. Pairing it with SR, Regen, or Fire are all good options.

Defender-wise, Cold/Ice is a very nice combo. Ice/Cold corruptors have been giving heroes fits for a long time and Defenders finally got Cold Domination to even the score. Cold/Sonic is a good one too. Cold/Psi is another good option. Storm is effective in PvP as well as Dark. Generally avoid Empathy for PvP. Good set for team PvP, but if you're solo it won't do you much good.

For blasters Fire and just about any secondary will work. And just about any primary paired with Energy will work. With that in mind it should come as no surprise that Fire/Energy is one of the most popular PvP blaster combos. Ice/Energy is a good one as well, as is Psi/Energy. Assault Rifle is best avoided for PvP as it does not play to the sets strengths. Electric underperforms when paired with the wrong secondary, but can work with the right one. I've seen a few good ones, but they were anomalies. Devices can be paired with just about any primary and be effective, if not stellar. Electric/Devices and Assault Rifle/Devices are probably the worst pairings for PvP

I don't know a whole lot about PvP tanks, but Stone Melee, Super Strength, and Energy Melee seem to be the most common secondaries. Stone and SS because they are higher damaging sets that include a ranged attack. Fire, Ice, Shield, and Invuln seem to be the most common primarie, not necessarily in that order. I only have one tank and he's below level 30, so I can't help much here.

Controller-wise Mind, Plant, and Gravity are okay. Storm, Kinetics, and Rad are all decent. I'm not going to give advice here because I don't really play controllers.

I'm not a PvP guru, or even one of the more knowledgable forum members. I'm just telling you what I have experience with or have seen firsthand. I could be wrong on any of the above points, so don't take my word for any of it without checking other sources.

Yet again thankie for your reply you're really helping me out here dude
I quite like the sound of maybe a SR/dark scrapper the -to hit from dark surely complements the SR adding invis too this too stealth off away from toggle effects.
as for my own playstyle i used too play MtG and always used red/blue so a fireblaster would suit my play style rather nicely
it might be worth looking into thnkyou

Blaster - Sonic/Em
Defender - Cold/Sonic
Troller - Ice/Storm
Tanker - (mmm can't say for certain need to check out i14 for them, i think wp is coming back though) primary Em or SS works well
Scrapper - plenty of variations you can go with, just make sure you pick up webnade

Corrupter - Fire/cold ftw, thermals are mess peoples end up

aaannd I don't want to give any more advice until i look more into what i14 does, but all those toons will work for you, and yes before anyone says anyway I know there are other blasters/def etc that will work too, I just picked my favourites =D

edit: don't go SR

Whats bad about SR?
ive Also been looking at Trollers how does fire/sonic do? seems you get some nice dmg and nice control

SR was overpowered in i13 due to Elusivity. I won't explain it because I don't know how it works that well, but essentially it makes accuracy and to-hit buffs less effective against you.

They tweaked Elusivity for i14, so lot of people are assuming it is going to make SR laughable again. I'm sticking to my guns here, there's nothing wrong with SR. What is viewed as bad about it is that opponents with a lot of accuracy or to-hit buffs hit them too often and it seems like there is no secondary at all. You're at the mercy of the random number generator. I've seen SR's 2-shotted, and I've also seen them be untouchable for extended periods of time. It just depends on how the number generator feels like being at the moment.

Fire/Sonic won't be horrible, but it probably won't be that awesome either. 4 of the 9 Sonic powers require a teammate to be useful, you can put one of them on your Imps, but they pobably won't live very long. Good PvE pairing that will do okay in PvP, but not great. Mind or Ice are the generally preferred primaries for PvP. Storm is one of the better secondaries. Like I said, I don't know controllers that well, so this is just hearsay.

Edit: The control part will not be anything like it is in PvE. Your controls will automatically affect your target if they hit, but their duration has been severely reduced. Don't expect to hold someone for more than 3 seconds or so. Mind and Ice do well for different reasons. Mind's damage is all up front instead of DoT, so it does it's damage faster. Ice has a lot of effects that are useful aside from holds, mostly in the form of slows. Fire doesn't really have any secondary effect.

Elusivity got mega nerfd, def toons were king i13... and everyone adjusted by having high acc toons, what will be left now is the nerfed elusivity, but still high acc... Defense is not the way to go at the moment.

Fire can be nice, as for sonic, I would go either storm or a thermal... Heat Exhaustion is uber for killing someones endurance.

edit: for above post.. SR, its t9 is about the only thing it will have going for it, lack of a self heal only hurts it more. I could hit SRs before the elusivity nerf well enough, it will be even worse now... But hey, the best way to find out what is good is by 1. Playing a toon to find out, or 2. getting pwned by a toon or watching a certain AT fight in RV or arena.

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Blaster - Sonic/Em
Defender - Cold/Sonic
Troller - Ice/Storm
Tanker - (mmm can't say for certain need to check out i14 for them, i think wp is coming back though) primary Em or SS works well
Scrapper - plenty of variations you can go with, just make sure you pick up webnade

Corrupter - Fire/cold ftw, thermals are mess peoples end up

aaannd I don't want to give any more advice until i look more into what i14 does, but all those toons will work for you, and yes before anyone says anyway I know there are other blasters/def etc that will work too, I just picked my favourites =D

edit: don't go SR

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I14:

Sonic, Fire, or Psi with EM or Devices for Blasters.
Ice, Mind, or Fire with Rad or Storm for Controllers.
Cold, Storm, or Rad with Sonic, Psi, or Rad Blast for Defenders.
Spines with Regen or SR for Scrappers. Contrary to popular opinion defense doesn't suck in I14.
Fire or Ice with SS for Tankers.

SS with Fire or SR for Brutes.
Sonic, Rad Blast, or Fire with Rad, Cold, or Thermal for Corruptors (Elec/Therm is a good dueling build).
Mind or Fire with Elec or Fire for Dominators.
Necro or Ninjas with Poison, Storm, or Pain for MMs.
Spines or EM with Willpower, Regen, or Ninjitsu for Stalkers.

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Contrary to popular opinion defense doesn't suck in I14.

[/ QUOTE ] really? the tests I did when comparing them in test didnt look to kind on them.. i guess i should take your word on it though lol.. seeing as whatever test I did, you probably did 100 times more of it.

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Contrary to popular opinion defense doesn't suck in I14.

[/ QUOTE ] really? the tests I did when comparing them in test didnt look to kind on them.. i guess i should take your word on it though lol.. seeing as whatever test I did, you probably did 100 times more of it.

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No, I didn't. Defense didn't suck in I12 either, moreso for heroes than villains because of Blasters and Focused Accuracy, but the DR and capping on +tohit, plus Elusivity (even if it is only 10% or so) ensures that defense will still be decent. It's not a top choice like it was in I13, but to discount it completely isn't a good idea.

this is true, I guess I see everything from a blasters point of view though... even with i13 elusivity I would much prefer going up against an SR scrapper over many other secondaries

macskull has it about right for i14

Storm and Rad are good picks, Sonic and psi are still good,
Currupters are going to be tough in i14 dark/colds and rads,
melee is still a joke but SS/Fire or fire/ss is ok if your going with tanks/brutes Scrappers/stalkers are still good with spines.