FF/Rad Build Critique and IO advice
What are your goals, and what's your budget?
To cap Defense for the rest of the team, all you need is pretty much Maneuvers, big bubble, and two little bubbles. Then you're like five times as squishy as they are.
I recommend building for personal Defense. I also recommend not bothering with melee. AOE is your big killer, actually, in my experience.
PRETTY CHEAP: 6-slot Red Fortune for Ranged Defense. 6-slot Thunderstrike for even more Ranged Defense. AOE is harder- or it was last I looked. I ended up with Ruins, Detonations, Miracle or Harmonized Healing, and ... still a weak spot.
FAIRLY EXPENSIVE (10-100 million range)
Steadfast res/def in Personal Force Field is good. 6-slotting Aim and putting a set of Gaussian in there is good. That gets you something like 5.5% to all positionals. If you could find a spot to put 5 Aegis into something, that would help. (the other slots for Personal Force Field? you sure don't need more Defense in that...)
GOOFY BUT FUN: Put Hold procs into Neutrino and X-ray. Watch as you accidentally hold bosses!
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
If you take Repulsion Bomb (they changed the power so now it is enemy targetable, provides minor damage, knockdown and stun) you can six-slot it with the Razzle Dazzle set for 2.5% Melee and AoE defense.
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... Repulsion Bomb ... provides minor damage ...
[/ QUOTE ]
It does the same damage as Neutron Bomb (scale 1), which makes it one of the best direct damage powers available to defenders.
Building for defense is, IME, the best way to go. It /sucks/ being the squishiest person on your team, but with a foundation of Dispersion Bubble, Maneuvers, and CJ / Hover, it's not all that hard to come up with 30ish defense which takes you from "squishy" to "not bad".
I haven't tried it on my FF / rad, but you can ram a /LOT/ of procs into Neutrino Bolt. Since the power animates and recharges so fast, I'm pretty sure that'd be quite entertaining.
Good luck
[ QUOTE ]
It does the same damage as Neutron Bomb (scale 1), which makes it one of the best direct damage powers available to defenders.
[/ QUOTE ]
I didn't mean to say the damage was bad, I just meant that the damage was about the same as the Tier 1 energy blast on my FF/Energy, which the game classifies as 'minor' damage.
In fact, I used to have Repulsion Bomb six-slotted with Razzle Dazzle for the defense bonuses and stun duration, but I just recently switched the IOs to frankenslot it for accuracy/damage/recharge so I can solo a little better. If the OP is just going to team exclusively, then I think you should respec into Repulsion Bomb and pick up the Razzle Dazzle set (for cheap!). You will be happy with the recent changes to the power.
It is a sin now to not have Repulsion Bomb. There is absolutely no reason to not take it, except for concept/story reasons. It's just too good now.
Yep, Defence slotting is good. Fulmens has named my fave two sets already - Thunderstrike and Red Fortune.
I really question the Defence Debuff IO's you curently have slotted. Against normal Invincible mission enemies, most level 50s should have a 50% chance of hitting anyway.
Against enemies with Defence or To Hit Debuffs, Irradiate alone adds a whopping 37.5% Defence Debuff without slotting. That should allow your team to hit Rikti drones pretty much dead on.
Slotting for damage is still helping your team. FF/RAd can have 4 good AoEs with Repulsion Bomb, and the damage from them can add up once the tanks gone in.
Cosmic Burst could be slotted a s acontrol, ie put more Stun in there.
And Neutrino Bolt is crying out for procs - special IOs with a chance of an unusual secondary effect per hit. The Devastation hold proc is a good one.
All your attacks can also take the Achilles Heel -Res proc, 20% chance per hit to cause -20% Res debuff, only one can stack per user. Stick one of these in Irradiate, Neutron Bomb or Electron Haze or all three and you're a much better force multiplier for a team.
EDIT: you have a few wasted slots in Flight and Swift. One in each will put you real close to the flight cap at level 50.
I'd maybe drop them in Aim and PBU and invest in some sets like Gaussians or Adjusted Targetting to give you some nice bonuses and a higher To Hit Boost from both powers. This way if you do come across soemthing your team cant hit (eg an activated Paragon Protector, Captain Mako), you can power up a big juicy To Hit buff to tag them with your rad powers a few times and bring them down in Defence. It helps avoid the Catch 22 of "need to hit em to debuff em, need to debuff em to hit em" that Rad Blast can suffer from.
Without going into specifics on how to do it, my general recommendation is to soft cap your range and aoe def. With maximized range def, you can always turn on force bubble if things get ugly or you wanna concentrate enemy spawns to improve your team's AE efficiency. Maximized AoE def is going to allow you to get into the center of the fights to use powers like irradiate (the romans, for example, have some fairly nasty short range aoe attacks). Also, slotting def-debuff in all your attacks is kinda silly, radiation already heavily debuffs the enemy so there isn't much need to further enhance it, one irradiate or newt bomb is plenty to guarantee your team's chance to hit. As was said before, you're better off adding the -res achilles proc if you truly want to multiply your teams dmg, and its quite nice vs AVs (where -def is heavily resisted). Newt bolt is a fantastic power to slot like crazy with procs (my rad blast build has 3 dmg procs, 1 achilles, 2 acc/dmg HOs, the results are pleasing). Repulsion bomb is also a fantastic power now, it doesn't alert mobs until after it hits and knocks them down, so it's a great alpha absorber and a good location for the force feedback +recharge, just don't slot it with KB enh.
I have fun on this build. It's no damage dealer that's for sure, but you'll be pretty dare safe, have 3 stuns, a hold, all of which give you the defense bonuses you want.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Bubblerella: Level 50 Science Defender
Primary Power Set: Force Field
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Personal Force Field -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(5)
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Deflection Shield -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(3), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(3), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(5), RedFtn-Def(7), RedFtn-EndRdx(7)
Level 4: Irradiate -- AnWeak-DefDeb(A), AnWeak-Acc/DefDeb(21), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(25), AnWeak-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(25), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(27)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Insulation Shield -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(9), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(9), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(11), RedFtn-Def(11), RedFtn-EndRdx(17)
Level 10: Hover -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 12: Dispersion Bubble -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(13), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(13), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(15), RedFtn-Def(19), RedFtn-EndRdx(19)
Level 14: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(15)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(17)
Level 18: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(27), DefBuff-I(50)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(23), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(23), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(29), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(34), GSFC-Build%(37)
Level 24: Recall Friend -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50)
Level 26: Repulsion Bomb -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(37), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(39), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(39), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(39), Stpfy-KB%(43)
Level 28: Electron Haze -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(40), Posi-Dmg/Rng(40), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 30: Aim -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(34)
Level 32: Cosmic Burst -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(33), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(33), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(33), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(34), Stpfy-KB%(42)
Level 35: Neutron Bomb -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(36), Posi-Dmg/Rng(36), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Force Bolt -- Acc-I(A)
Level 41: Thunder Strike -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(42), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(42), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(43), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(43), Stpfy-KB%(46)
Level 44: Shocking Bolt -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(45), Lock-Rchg/Hold(45), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), Lock-%Hold(46)
Level 47: Power Sink -- EndMod(A), EndMod(48), RechRdx(48), RechRdx(48)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]16.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]1.25% Defense(Smashing)[*]1.25% Defense(Lethal)[*]2.5% Defense(Fire)[*]2.5% Defense(Cold)[*]14.7% Defense(Energy)[*]14.7% Defense(Negative)[*]2.5% Defense(Melee)[*]29.4% Defense(Ranged)[*]5% Defense(AoE)[*]2.5% Enhancement(Held)[*]9% Enhancement(Stun)[*]81.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]38% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]76.3 HP (7.5%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]MezResist(Held) 2.2%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 6.6%[*]MezResist(Stun) 2.2%[*]12.5% (0.21 End/sec) Recovery[*]40% (1.7 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]6.93% Resistance(Fire)[*]6.93% Resistance(Cold)[*]1.26% Resistance(Energy)[*]1.26% Resistance(Negative)[*]5% RunSpeed[/list]
@MARTy McFly
So my FF/Rad Defender was my very first level 50. But, he hit 50 years ago; pre-I9. I haven't played him much sense but recently decided to dust him off a little. His build, right now, is a generic IO build. I could use some Power choice, slotting and IO set help. Please note this is a TEAM build, I have NO desire to solo with it.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Allen Phantom: Level 50 Science Defender
Primary Power Set: Force Field
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Deflection Shield -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(3), DefBuff-I(3)
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(5), DefDeb-I(5), Acc-I(11), Acc-I(11), EndRdx-I(17)
Level 2: Personal Force Field -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 4: Irradiate -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(19), DefDeb-I(19), Acc-I(21), Acc-I(21), EndRdx-I(23)
Level 6: Insulation Shield -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(7), DefBuff-I(7)
Level 8: Hover -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(9), Flight-I(9), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 10: Electron Haze -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(23), DefDeb-I(25), Acc-I(25), Acc-I(29), EndRdx-I(29)
Level 12: Dispersion Bubble -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(13), DefBuff-I(13), EndRdx-I(15)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(15), Flight-I(17)
Level 16: Swift -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(45), Flight-I(46)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(43), Heal-I(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(40), EndMod-I(43)
Level 22: Grant Invisibility -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(33), DefBuff-I(33), RechRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 24: Invisibility -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 26: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 28: Cosmic Burst -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(33), DefDeb-I(34), Acc-I(34), Acc-I(34), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(31), DefBuff-I(31), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 32: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Neutron Bomb -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(36), DefDeb-I(36), Acc-I(36), Acc-I(37), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 38: Atomic Blast -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Tactics -- ToHit-I(A), ToHit-I(42), ToHit-I(42), EndRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Power Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Total Focus -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(50), Acc-I(50), Dsrnt-I(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]