Rad/Elec

Anyone have any experience with this and could help me?

No experience, but in theory an excellent combo. 2 AOEs early, which will allow you to herd and nuke your own spawns. Which is nice.

Short Circuit + EMP may be able to fully bottom a spanws endurance. Needs testing.

Tesla Cage will be very useful to keep your anchor pinned.

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No experience, but in theory an excellent combo. 2 AOEs early, which will allow you to herd and nuke your own spawns. Which is nice.

Short Circuit + EMP may be able to fully bottom a spanws endurance. Needs testing.

[/ QUOTE ] Slotted correctly, 2x Short Circuit generally works.

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Tesla Cage will be very useful to keep your anchor pinned.

[/ QUOTE ] And clearly visible.

Played my Rad/Elec, Cyberskin to 50. Will post guide if you want.

Elec, to my mind, is a better secondary than Rad, for Rad. Pretty good AoE... but the secondary effect is far more usefull than the def debuff of Rad secondary (because you have pretty much floored debuff with your Rad primary).

Advice:

Short Circuit needs 3 end mod. Its an absolute killer. Slot a recharge or two.

Because of this, I would get Choking Cloud. Rad/Elec is a tankfender build. You get into melee, surrounded by debuffed and held fools, and short circuit them. You simply cant get a better defence!

EMP, as said, is very good with short circuit. Having said that, I would save it for those "Oh Sh**" moments. Its recharge is long, it drains your end, and you end up with a stack load of aggro once it has worn off.

I found voltaic sentinel a useful power to fire off. Its damage is not great, but it frees you up to to proper defending.

Telsa Cage - get it. After short circuit, your first priority.




If you ever get up to epics. Do NOT get thunderstrike. It causes knockback (I dont care what the description says, I tried it and had to respec out straight away). Knockback for a rad defender = dead rad defender.

I went psionic. An extra hold (dominate) for stacked holding with Telsa Cage. Mass Hypnosis allows you to lay on those debuffs safely. Telekenesis can, with skill, allow you to create a corner full of held, debuffed, absolutely pathetic enemies in safety (mind that endurance tho - helps to fire off Accelerate Metabolism first!).


Incidently, I found the end bonus of elec secondary enough for me to spam off the first blast, Short Circuit, and Telsa Cage even when AM'd with no end problems (whilst running three Rad toggles, Spamming Lingering Rad, and two leadership toggles) provided all toggles where 3 end red slotted and stamina 3 slotted. Even with this, I only ran into problems with end when using the wibbly wobbly rubbish heal.

And fallout rocks vs AV!!!

Well, I've basically planned out this build:

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Radiation Emission
Secondary: Electrical Blast
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Radiant Aura==> Empty(1)
01) --> Charged Bolts==> Empty(1)
02) --> Radiation Infection==> Empty(2)
04) --> Accelerate Metabolism==> Empty(4)
06) --> Enervating Field==> Empty(6)
08) --> Ball Lightning==> Empty(8)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> Empty(10)
12) --> Lingering Radiation==> Empty(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Empty(14)
16) --> Mutation==> Empty(16)
18) --> Choking Cloud==> Empty(18)
20) --> Short Circuit==> Empty(20)
22) --> Swift==> Empty(22)
24) --> Health==> Empty(24)
26) --> Stamina==> Empty(26)
28) --> Tesla Cage==> Empty(28)
30) --> Lightning Bolt==> Empty(30)
32) --> EM Pulse==> Empty(32)
35) --> Fallout==> Empty(35)
38) --> Thunderous Blast==> Empty(38)
41) --> Power Build Up==> Empty(41)
44) --> Temp Invulnerability==> Empty(44)
47) --> Total Focus==> Empty(47)
49) --> Conserve Power==> Empty(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

Id get stamina asap. Rad is end hungry with all those toggles, especially before SO end reducers.

Personally, Id say Voltiac Sentinel over lightning bolt. VS keeps going when you are stunned, is very end efficient, and allows you to focus on other things.

If you are going SJ. Get acrobatics at least before 30. Getting kb'd out of radiation and removing choking cloud is dangerous. Its small mez resistance is also handy. YOu get mezzed, radiation drops, you die.

Otherwise its pretty solid. I put in assault + tactics myself but tactics only really for perception (such a defence debuff and most of team hitting hard anyway).

Conserve Power pretty pointless to be honest. You havent got leadership toggles and as I said, I never had an end problem (with 3 SO stamina, 3 End SO reducers in Rad toggles and 2 leadership toggles). Id only go for it with hasten tbh (And I didnt find hasten helpful). If you need end for big fights you have Accel Metab anyway.

Good luck

could you show me your build?

(without slots if you want)

Off top of my head its: (And cant remember exact names of powers but you get gist)

1. Radiant Aura
1. Charged Bolts
2. Radation Infection
4. Accelerate Metabolism
6. Swift (Because I always get it at 6, might swap for EF tho)
8. Ennervating Field
10. Combat Jumping
12. Lingering Radiation
14. Super Jump
16. Health
18. Mutation
20. Stamina
22. Short Circuit
24. Acrobatics
26. Choking Cloud
28. Telsa Cage
30. Assault
32. EMP Pulse
35. Tactics
38. Voltaic Sentinel
41. Dominate (Psychic Epic)
44. Mind Over Body (Psychic Epic)
47. Telekenesis (Psychic Epic)
49. Fallout


Bear in mind this is a VERY team focussed build. If you are going for a more offendery type of build, skip assault / tactics, replace with lightning bolt and ball lightning.

Also, the path to level 20/30 is strewn with Hollows agony of people who only love green numbers (empaths). The radiation defender is the path of pain until mid 20s. At level 40+, make sure you mock all empaths and let the team kick them for a solid debuffer (for those AVs) . Anmyway, this was the reason I got mutate fairly early on, so I could be a pretend empath.

Good luck

Oh, and by the way, looking at my build, the most debatable order in it is the 22/24/26. Acrobatics, Short Circuit and Choking Cloud. Its a terrible pain choosing between all three of this excellent powers. My advice is just to choose according to your playstyle and your freinds!. Short Circuit is a defensive power mainly - its damage is pretty low. Best slot for 3 end modifiers, the rest recharge or accuracy (accuracy 1 at most - it has accuracy bonus and you will be hitting debuffed enemies mainly).

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Short Circuit is a defensive power mainly - its damage is pretty low.

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It does almost as much damage as Ball Lightning.

And if you're going for offense then ditch Mutation before anything else. Both Assault and Tactics improve your offense, Mutation does not.

And Swift is pointless when going CJ/SJ, it doesn't stack with them while Hurdle does.

My Build's gonna be:

1. Radiant Aura
1. Charged Bolts
2. Radation Infection
4. Accelerate Metabolism
6. Swift (Because I always get it at 6, might swap for EF tho)
8. Ennervating Field
10. Combat Jumping
12. Lingering Radiation
14. Super Jump
16. Health
18. Mutation
20. Stamina
22. Short Circuit
24. Acrobatics
26. Choking Cloud
28. Telsa Cage
30. Ball Lightning
32. EMP Pulse
35. Lightning Bolt
38. Voltaic Sentinel
41. Power Build Up (Power Epic)
44. Temporary Invulnerability (Power Epic)
47. Total Focus (Power Epic)
49. Fallout

Gonna use this instead:

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Radiation Emission
Secondary: Electrical Blast
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Radiant Aura==> Empty(1)
01) --> Charged Bolts==> Empty(1)
02) --> Radiation Infection==> Empty(2)
04) --> Accelerate Metabolism==> Empty(4)
06) --> Enervating Field==> Empty(6)
08) --> Ball Lightning==> Empty(8)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> Empty(10)
12) --> Lingering Radiation==> Empty(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Empty(14)
16) --> Mutation==> Empty(16)
18) --> Swift==> Empty(18)
20) --> Health==> Empty(20)
22) --> Stamina==> Empty(22)
24) --> Lightning Bolt==> Empty(24)
26) --> Choking Cloud==> Empty(26)
28) --> Tesla Cage==> Empty(28)
30) --> Acrobatics==> Empty(30)
32) --> EM Pulse==> Empty(32)
35) --> Voltaic Sentinel==> Empty(35)
38) --> Thunderous Blast==> Empty(38)
41) --> Power Build Up==> Empty(41)
44) --> Temp Invulnerability==> Empty(44)
47) --> Total Focus==> Empty(47)
49) --> Fallout==> Empty(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

Looks pretty good Clex.

Personally Id get L.Bolt a little later and Stamina A little sooner, but thats just fine tuning.

My only word of caution is Thunderous Blast. If you fire a nova, you instantly loose your two main rad power toggles, which is often a disaster. As a 'fender you arent probably going to cause an enemy wipe, and you ened up with a load of aggro of the enemy who are no longer debuffed.

Your call but I found it a pretty pointless power myself. If you do use it (with Power Boost - and that wont be enough to cause enemy wipe usually), fire an EMP beforehand, so at least anything left standing is held. But personally, nova's for a rad defender are best left alone IMO.

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If you ever get up to epics. Do NOT get thunderstrike. It causes knockback (I dont care what the description says, I tried it and had to respec out straight away). Knockback for a rad defender = dead rad defender.

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currently playing a little rad defender and one thing I've been wishing for is a little knockback... the amount of times I set up my toggles for something to get knocked out of them. I'd love to run around the other side and knock them back in my toggles...

Thunderstrike is AoE knockback and somewhat unpredictable. If you want to knock things around back into your debuffs then I dont see many 'predictable' options. Jump Kick maybe... Power Push from Energy 2ndary, but then you'd run the risk of knocking things out of your debuffs with every other power.

TP foe maybe an option to put things back in the debuff. I wouldnt normally worry about it myself. Kill priority is highest threat to lowest thread. If its a boss outside the debuff then kill him. If its a minion, leave him be.

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Thunderstrike is AoE knockback and somewhat unpredictable.

[/ QUOTE ]Not when used on a single mob though.

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Thunderstrike is AoE knockback and somewhat unpredictable.

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I have it on my kinetics, seems ok for knocking stuff back to heal from for the squishier members of the team...

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Thunderstrike is AoE knockback and somewhat unpredictable.

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I have it on my kinetics, seems ok for knocking stuff back to heal from for the squishier members of the team...

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Bah, its a long animation time, arent the squishies already dead by the time you crack your heal off? TP Foe with an interrupt reducer is the answer to both your problems if you have the Powerpool space.

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Thunderstrike is AoE knockback and somewhat unpredictable.

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I have it on my kinetics, seems ok for knocking stuff back to heal from for the squishier members of the team...

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Bah, its a long animation time, arent the squishies already dead by the time you crack your heal off? TP Foe with an interrupt reducer is the answer to both your problems if you have the Powerpool space.

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maybe, but that in no way leaves me with the total joy of hovering above a mob and thunderstriking them!

Thunderous Strike does work-ish, even tho the animation is a little on the slow side... Although, tbh, I'm kin/nrg, if I really want to knock something back in a hurry I use power push...

Indeed. I love power push. That IS predictable knockback that would work in this situation. I just love it in PvP as well, for knocking a MM way outside his Bodyguard cozyness!

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Indeed. I love power push. That IS predictable knockback that would work in this situation. I just love it in PvP as well, for knocking a MM way outside his Bodyguard cozyness!

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I agree Power Push is a great power to use and gives very reliable knockback. For those kinetics that do the whole KB into someone close to an ally and heal this would be the best power for the job (kin/nrg's that is) Its great for PvP aswell once their sapped, and for people that don't have KB protection. In my offender build with power push i could keep squishies perma floored and gave enough time for total focus to fire off. Great Power!

Oh whilst you are on the subject... is power push identical to force bolt? Is there any power that is identical to force bolt? FB is so godly and I always thought of it as a set defining power for forcefielders. Someone once mentioned that the recharge and % knockback on the blastery versions was just nowhere near as good.

Any info on this? Thanks.

Yep, sort of a clone, AFAIK.

Power push does more damage, and I think the KB could be a bit weaker, but it's pretty close, AFAIK.

I rolled a rad/elec defender last night. I was wondering if it would be possible to play this toon without stamina? My thinking is that with some responsible slotting of end redux enhancements on my toggles, coupled with short circuit and AM I shouldn't have any problems. Not to mention Vigilance. Will this be enough? What if I slot my blasts with End Mods? Does this increase the likelyhood of draining end or just the amount drained in that eventuallity?

It bugs me that I have to go the fitness route with most of my toons and thought this might be one of the few that could do without.