Rad/Thermal would work fine in teams, as long as you concentrate on your secondary, maybe just picking up cosmic burst and aim to synergise with your debuffs from /thermal! 
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Would you kick a /thermal off a team just because he was Radiation primary? Why?
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Definitely not, largely because my rl and frequent pvp partner has a Rad/Thermal and as a duo (with my Fire/Kin) we regularly clear the deck of heroes in RV. It's not a first choice for damage-dealing, but as a Thermal in group PvP you'll largely be buffing anyway. For those instances you don't have to buff, Cosmic Burst is a damn nice combination of ST-damage and mez. Focus on your secondary, definitely pick up Cosmic Burst, and consider picking up Irradiate for the scary debuff it has - whilst less than useful in most Arena situations, being able to mass-debuff groups of heroes before laying in with Melt Armor is an effective Zonal tactic (especially if there's someone around to save your [censored] during and after).
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my friends (all Stalkers and most being Em/Nin)
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No comment. 
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
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mentioned about Rad/Thermal to my friends (all Stalkers and most being Em/Nin) just laughed at the idea, and a wall of "loloollololololololololol" etc. ensued.
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Well when you get to 50 and they ask you to buff em and heal tell them "lololololololol"
What syn said pretty much covers it. A thermal will rarely have time for anything else but buff and heal in pvp zones and Cosmic burst is pretty nice.
Just get used to be the number 1 target! If you can get a friend of yours to role a thermal too your survivability will rocket up as you can cover and buff each other.
Heros
Max Powerz: Lv 50 Tanker
Villains
Max Khaos: Lv 50
Overlord of E.V.I.L.
My Brute - http://maxy-khaos.mybrute.com/
LF SG! Arc ID# 193083
All corruptor teams win zone pvp
thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor
All corruptor teams win zone pvp
thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor
Rad isn't as bad for zone PvP as people would have you think, the -def can be very effective, it does work better with another character who can do more ST damage though, but then thermal is a fairly support orientated set anyway so I don't see a problem with that.
Cosmic Burst is extremely good. Do plan to slot for movement in hurdle and combat jumping though to help you use it more safely, and I still keep a HO slotting in the power (2 acc/def debuff, 3 dam/range, 1 recharge IO) rather than set IOs, which I find to be far more effective. The rooting is long even with leaping powers slotted so you want to start it from a fair distance, slotted movement powers help to keep down the time you spend on the ground.
I'd take all three single target attacks, neutrino bolt and x-ray beam are reasonably quick animating, although comparatively low damage, but firing them when you've nothing else to fire keeps damage and -def ticking over, and once scourge kicks in, x-ray beam at least will give you acceptable damage against a squishy.
I'd focus set bonuses around accuracy and recharge, with any movement bonus you can get thrown in too (Thunderstrike sets, Positrons Blast if you keep any AOEs, Doctored Wounds in the heals), get aim slotted with tohits (or membranes if you can afford them) in addition to recharge. Essentially if you can land Heat Exhaustion, Melt Armour and Cosmic Burst, your team mates should be able to take care of the rest.
Wow! All these posts have enlightened my spirits , thanks for the slotting advice, too!
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Well when you get to 50 and they ask you to buff em and heal tell them "lololololololol"
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Haha that'd be pure gold if I did that!
- a very happy Viize
I was actually a little upset I'd made a Rad/Thermal for a long time, as it did seem weak while I was levelling. I only kept it because I loved the concept of the toon so much! But then I got to high levels, respecced, and she's now one of my favourite toons for zonal PvP. (And her arena build on test is good fun, too - primary doesn't matter in arena anyway, for the most part.) In some ways, I actually really prefer Rad/Thermal to other /Thermals for that purpose. It's never going to be a dueler like some /Thermals are, but the stun and debuffs work really nicely on a support toon. I think the only other one I'd really look at, for support, is Sonic/Thermal.
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Focus on your secondary, definitely pick up Cosmic Burst, and consider picking up Irradiate for the scary debuff it has - whilst less than useful in most Arena situations, being able to mass-debuff groups of heroes before laying in with Melt Armor is an effective Zonal tactic (especially if there's someone around to save your [censored] during and after).
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Further to this... Irradiate is hilarious in Recluse's Victory when a Blaster is running Personal Force Field (from the ancillary power pool) and thinks they're all nice and safe. Unlike def-based powersets, PFF offers no resist to def debuffs - hit Aim (slotted up with tohit buffs as well as recharges for PvP), and fire off Irradiate next to them. It has naturally high accuracy anyway, and combined with good slotting and Aim, it will start to hit them regularly. Follow it up with Cosmic Burst while Aim is still up, and providing they're not running Dispersion Bubble, they'll be stunned.
This works to some extent on Controller and Defender bubblers, too, but Dispersion Bubble prevents them from being stunned. You can still start to get some hits on them though. My personal favourite is to follow it up with Web Envelope from Black Scorpion's Patron Pool - if you hit, then the hero is now def debuffed and -jumped/-flied. It's easier to keep hitting someone with Irradiate once they're stuck on the ground, too. I would strongly, strongly advise taking Black Scorpion, in fact. It just makes you that much more useful to a team when you can stop people from getting away, as well as stopping them from killing your own teammates.
Gonna add my 2 inf, don't get a def based shield on a thermal, it's just lol. Considering you'll be one of the prime targets. Definatley advise you to take Mu mastery, and pick up charged armour, offers some great resistance.
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Gonna add my 2 inf, don't get a def based shield on a thermal, it's just lol. Considering you'll be one of the prime targets. Definatley advise you to take Mu mastery, and pick up charged armour, offers some great resistance.
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I like the shield from Mu Mastery better, but the -fly and -jump is far, far better when it comes to the zones. I've tried both, I always miss Web Envelope more than resistances. Plus the shield from Black Scorpion comes into its own if you team with a /Cold, as an added bonus.
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Gonna add my 2 inf, don't get a def based shield on a thermal, it's just lol. Considering you'll be one of the prime targets. Definatley advise you to take Mu mastery, and pick up charged armour, offers some great resistance.
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I like the shield from Mu Mastery better, but the -fly and -jump is far, far better when it comes to the zones. I've tried both, I always miss Web Envelope more than resistances. Plus the shield from Black Scorpion comes into its own if you team with a /Cold, as an added bonus.
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Yup I got Web envelope on my other corrupter and love it.
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Gonna add my 2 inf, don't get a def based shield on a thermal, it's just lol. Considering you'll be one of the prime targets. Definatley advise you to take Mu mastery, and pick up charged armour, offers some great resistance.
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I like the shield from Mu Mastery better, but the -fly and -jump is far, far better when it comes to the zones. I've tried both, I always miss Web Envelope more than resistances. Plus the shield from Black Scorpion comes into its own if you team with a /Cold, as an added bonus.
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Yup I got Web envelope on my other corrupter and love it.
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I suppose the other good thing about Black Scorpion if you really don't like the def shield, but want Web Envelope... well, that's one free power pick on a packed Thermal build. 
I've still taken it, but I run a hybrid PvE/PvP build anyway, and team quite a bit with /Colds on that toon. I've honestly not found it to be a huge blow to survivability in zonal PvP, so it works for me.
To the OP... obviously this is all a way off anyway, but if you do go for Web Envelope, it's hilarious slotted up with range.
Yup, Thermal builds are tight indeed, just taking the epic shield from Mu Mastery enabled me to take Phase Shift for the edgy moments!
Nice though Web Envelope is, I'd go with a resistance based shield, and just buy web grenades from SC - villains almost always seem to control the zone on Union, and I don't normally find I need more than 6 in one play session. They're not as good, but they normally do the trick, and the defence shield really is pretty poor.
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Nice though Web Envelope is, I'd go with a resistance based shield, and just buy web grenades from SC - villains almost always seem to control the zone on Union, and I don't normally find I need more than 6 in one play session.
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Guess it's all down to playstyle - I use mine far more than that, and I'd miss the acc and range enhancements too much. But then, I really hate letting people get away.
Obviously it's not so useful if you have a regular teammate with similar abilities, but I've found having one person on the team who can make escaping more difficult, or knock the pesky Empath out of the sky, or stop someone from using jump to get away when they've been slowed, is just too useful.
You need a res based shield for arena end of
thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor
I'd say in a team (Who does arena duels with villain teams anyway?) it'd depend on composition. With multiple thermals or Sonics a resistance shield will do squat, but Web Grenade is going to stop most of an enemy's movement and could make it easier to spike them. The AoE Villain Patron immobilise version can also effectively lock down most Masterminds.
One on one I'd pick the -jump/-fly/-recharge over +30% resistance almost every time. You're going to be cutting their damage output through Heat Exhaustion anyway. I'd rather stop someone getting away when they're Heat-Exhausted and Melt-Armored than worry too much about whatever ranged attacks they manage to output with nearly zero endurance recovery and a -50% damage debuff.
If you think you can manage with the temp power versions, fair play to you. After playing a /dev Blaster and /traps MM I can't put up with the default range and accuracy on them, let alone the usage limit...
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You need a res based shield for arena end of
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I have intentions to do some zonal PvP with him
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The focus would be on zonal support
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great post phil thanks for reading the thread
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
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great post phil thanks for reading the thread
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Yeah, you could be good at low levels as a healer, but at high levels, /Thermal is amazing in a 1 v 1. Anything you fight will be debuffed to hell and back and be out of endurance within seconds... Rad/Thermal can be amazing at high levels, so I'd concentrate on getting there rather than stopping in the 20s and only healing in Siren's.
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great post phil thanks for reading the thread
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k
I have just gotten my Rad/Thermal Corruptor to 20, and I have intentions to do some zonal PvP with him. The focus would be on zonal support as being t3h h3lz0rs & bUfFz0rs for the villains as I rarely see any /Thermals to turn the tide as the need rises.
I mentioned about Rad/Thermal to my friends (all Stalkers and most being Em/Nin) just laughed at the idea, and a wall of "loloollololololololololol" etc. ensued. Fire/ or Ice/thermal was their suggestion, but I was rather turned down that I had already leveled mine up to 20, and would have to restart a new one to be of any use. (a fire/thermal has been leveled up to 10 now)
So would a Rad/Thermal do fine on a team setting? Or would I be hugely better off that it'd turn the tide if I chose fire/ or ice/ instead of rad/?
Would you kick a /thermal off a team just because he was Radiation primary? Why?