Taking nuke as a defender.

Hi all,

I just made it to level 38 with my kin/elec defender (yay! My highest toon yet). I had planned to take thunderous Blast, but then reflected on how my blaster teammates from my last few missions all got endurance drained during our missions and that I spend two-thirds or more of my time buffing/debuffing. I decided to take Tactics instead (I already had Assault). Is this a good move? I figure most of the time I get to attack, I'm using my firsr two attacks and ball of lightning, with the occasional short circuit when I get too close to the action. But most of the time, I'm sitting back using my kinetic powers to help the team. I also don't solo very often, so I figured let the blasters do the nuking and just focus on my team support powers. Does this make sense or should I pick up thunderous blast at 41?

Thanks!

Why not try it on your other build, as a kin you can pop a blue hit transference and you are running full steam ahead again. Not to mention you can max out your own damage with FS.

Nuke, nuke, nuke. Kins don't need toggles or end.

I love my defender nukes. Just remember that by and large, defender nukes are end-of-battle attacks instead of start-of-battle attacks that blaster nukes are. And as a kin, you have the option of eating one blue inspiration and then using transference to get right back into the battle if you don't kill everything with your nuke.

It's not a power I use every time it is recharged, but I do use my nuke a lot.

These are very good perspectives. I will probably try taking it at 41, instead of the later "Total Focus" I was planning on getting.

Edit: Also, should I 6-slot it?

Honestly, kin/elec is one of the defender combos where nukes make the most sense to take, IMO. I like taking nukes on defenders in general, but kin/elec is especially suited. You don't have any toggles to drop, said nuke is *ranged* so you aren't put at risk jumping in to fire it, and kin can cap your damage, help the nuke recharge faster, and (after a single blue) bring you right back up to full end afterward.

Additionally, if you take power build up from the power epic, not only will it boost the nuke's damage, it'll also double the endurance drain - which will put it at about 110%. A single endmod enhancement and it'd likely be enough to drain even +2s or +3s, so you don't have to worry about retaliation.

Definitely take your nuke! It helps patch over some of /Elec's weaker(ish) damage than other sets, FS makes it fun, Transference makes end a nonissue afterwards etc there's no real reason to NOT do it..

YES to nukes!



x10 FS + Nuke = Dead bodies. Although I play my Kin like a Scrapper.

Fulcrum Shift, now nuke away

For Kinetics, yeah.

Sonic or Force Fields, in contrast, are much less nuke friendly - nuking can lead to half your team suddenly being stunned or held when Dispersion drops, and you have no powers for recovering your endurance quickly.

True although the OP is Kinetics (good choice ;p).. wonder if slotting Performance Shifter chance for +End in Thunderous Blast would offset the crash (10% of the time I spose) long enough for you to use a blue without losing dispersion field/bubble?

edit:typos

I recently respecced out of my nuke on my kin/psy defender.

The nuke is fun! And it can be a good emergency power. But I found that solo, even with mass hypnosis and fulcrum shift, it was a hassle to use. Had to carry around endurance inspirations to recover with (before popping transfusion), and the damage is not really good enough to justify it.

A fulcrum shift, siphon power and psychic wail isn't enough to reliably take out even all the minions. As said above, it is better as a finisher than a starter. You still drop toggles and have to recover endurance and all that, and on a team, it's probably better to keep up the leadership bonuses, buffs and whatnot.

I've been now having much more use out of now two AoE attacks (I swapped the nuke for psionic tornado.) Let me say again though: the nuke can be a huge lot of fun in an unfortunately limited number of situations.

Thunderous Blast is great to have for a Kin. Unlike everyone else, a Kin can use a nuke willy nilly, and can even make great use with just the default slot! Make sure to have a Catch a Breath insperation on hand, and a full load of Fulcrum Shift buffs on you. Then its "push button to destroy enemies," pop a blue pill, and refuel with Transference off any survivor.
I don't use it as a regular power, and thus didn't find the need to slot more than an extra recharge in it, but its great for showing off or wiping out an extra spawn of enemies in an emergency. It takes mere seconds to turn a potential catastrophy into xp and get back to whatever you were doing before. What's not to love?

As a Defender, you have to consider your primary when you consider your Nuke.

Force Fields, Radiation Emissions, and Sonic Resonance should probably just ignore the Nuke. Dark Miasma and Storm Summoning may as well, depending on how much you use their toggles by the late 30s. Dropping your toggles will cripple you if you aren't absolutely certain the enemies are dead.

Kinetics and Cold Domination, on the other hand, possess no toggles to drop, and have End Recovery powers, making Nukes a very viable choice for these players.

The other Primaries - Empathy and Trick Arrow, Traps in i16 - are rather neutral toward nukes... there it's the player's choice.

And, of course, all of this can be disregarded in the case of Archery... and for Assault Rifle in i16. They don't have crashing nukes, so their t9 power should never be ignored.

I consider defender nukes (defined as end drainers with secondary effects) as noveltys more than defining; great for concept builds, no big game-changer if you use it. Damage is just too low. If you want to see your character throw out multiple mushroom clouds, go Radiation/Radiation and EMP/Atomic blast away. If you feel like having a character who makes a pink screamy-bubble stunning people, go nuts. Just don't expect it to have much impact on hit points compared to the nukes from other AT's with shared secondaries.

However, Blizzard is just awesome with the damage scalar on it. Rain of Arrows is very handy as well. Full auto will be attractive for the same reason as Rain of Arrows. If you can choose either of those, pick it up. The rest are just for gits and shiggles, or concept.

Well, if anything this thread has convinced me to respec out of my nuke (Radiation) next time I'm respec'ing. I just hit 40 and got it at 38 but rarely use it. In group situations where it might be useful, keeping my choking cloud and debuffs up is even more valuable.

I did... umm... nuke a bunch of Skulls in Perez with it though. That was kind of fun.

Literal nukes are the best nukes.

Keep one in your second build, just for fun.

Thunderous blast is also bonus awesome for being a "cheap" nuke. It doesn't kill your whole end bar if it's full when you use it. This is the only blast set nuke that does this.