I -know- I'm no blaster, but...Why am I so weak?
It's not that Rad Blast is bad, it's that Sonic is the only good blast set for defenders because all the sets except for sonic are tuned too low in damage output.
I take exception with the notion that Kin/Sonic is supposedly representative of Defender damage. It's widely considered that Sonic is "broken" to some degree with the stacking Res debuffs and Kin is a set devoted to building up damage.
My defenders have never felt weak. I think the damage is just fine, even when only using SO's on a Empath.
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Hobo, you only play defenders so don't even recognize how bad defender damage actually is.
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Originally Posted by Hobo_Healer
My defenders have never felt weak. I think the damage is just fine, even when only using SO's on a Empath.
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Quote:
Well I do have at least 1 50 of every Hero AT except PB/Warshades. I actually have more Controllers and Scrappers than Defenders.|
Originally Posted by Turbo_Ski
Hobo, you only play defenders so don't even recognize how bad defender damage actually is.
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My last 50 was a tank, which I have two of at 50.
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Seconding Hobo here. I have a 50 in each AT except PB and Crab (and I am working on those). I have 3 50 def and on a 4th. |
Originally Posted by Hobo_Healer
Well I do have at least 1 50 of every Hero AT except PB/Warshades. I actually have more Controllers and Scrappers than Defenders.
My last 50 was a tank, which I have two of at 50. |
Defenders are fine as is.
I think Vigilance has the right idea, being an endurance discount, but it's worse than useless in its current state.
Once you get Siren's Song and Fulcrum Shift you can go after big groups solo: sleep them, use Fulcrum Shift, then take them out one by one with your single-target attacks. You're getting a 100% to 200% damage bonus on even fairly small groups, which means you can take down minions in a couple of shots.
That's blaster-level carnage.
The OP's impression is right, though. Radiation is underpowered. I've played all the defender secondaries, and it's the weakest. Yes, you can buff it with lots of IOs, but you could do the same for other defender secondaries. It only has one fabulous attack (Cosmic Burst), and all the rest are, ironically, not very "rad." The AoEs don't work well in concert (the cone, the PBAoE and the Targeted AoE are kind of clumsy to use in quick sequence).
The -Def component, while useful, is much less so these days with the profusion of +Acc IO sets. A typical defender using IOs will have 20-30% acc bonus already when using some of the most common sets (Thunderstrike, Positron's Blast, etc.). The only time the Rad -Def bonus makes any difference is on things like Rikti drones. But if you're a Rad/Rad, Radiation Infection is more reliable because it's autohit.
One of the /Radiation attacks should be made to do -Dmg Res in addition to the -Def. That would put the set on a better footing with the others. It would also make it more viable as a blaster set.