Rad/rad Never Leveled a rad Ever!

I have made a rad/rad Defender and It seems fun, and Ive heard they are great at debuffing, and i enjoying seeing things drop quickly and always being wanted as a toon in general so i decided to roll my first rad ever, any leveling advice as to which powers to pick and not to pick?

My Rad/Rad Defender is easily among my favorite characters to play, and I've spent a lot of time on him. I'll try to give you a basic rundown here, but feel free to ask any other questions you may have and I'll be happy to answer more specific queries.

As far as powers go...

This is EXTREMELY helpful, I have looked at other places on the forums and havent found much on Rad/rad defenders, Im just wondering though, how should i directly slot my secondary attacks and primary debuffs? Should I slot for Def debuffs in my attacks or go for damage? And in my debuffs should I slot for tohit debuffs or def debuffs? This is all from a leveling perspective, Not when i Fully IO out my character when I hit 47.

I also heard that being an Up close debuffing defender requires you to pick up tough and weave if possible... Is it necessary? Also, what epic should i think about grabbing If i do? I was thinking dark for the possibility of getting soul drain to buff up my attacks, but im not sure whether i should be damage focused on this build, virtually what i'm asking is should i be a debuffing machine that kills very quickly, virtually a blaster with debuffs?

I agree with Amy Amp, slot your attacks for Damage. I like to have Achilles Heel chance for -Res procs in my attacks (especially Irradiate and Neutron Bomb), but other than that I slot for damage.

I do not have Tough or Weave on my Defender and I do not really think it's necessary - and this is from someone who plays primarily in melee. I do have the shield toggle from the APP (Temp Invuln, in my case, from Power Mastery).

I also agree with Amy that it's best to slot RI with ToHit Debuff - your attacks, especially if you have Irradiate and Neutron Bomb, will cover Defense Debuff nicely.


As for the last question, that's really a question of playstyle. I personally prefer to be a debuffing machine even if it means I solo a little slower, because I enjoy being a very potent debuffer when I get on teams. Due to the nature of buffs and debuffs in this game, a debuffer has a force multiplier effect while a damage dealer has an additive effect. You contribute more, in other words, by going the debuff route. I have a more blaster-ish build as my alternate for when I solo, which is somewhat rare on that character now that he's got all his Ouro badges (came in very handy there though).

As for choice of Epics, there's a lot of choices now that you can go Rogue and get the villain ones, so it really depends on what you're going for. I like Power Mastery for two reasons - Force of Nature allows me to pretty much be a Tanker for a short while, which has been pivotal for me more than once, and Power Boost is a very handy thing to have in your toolbox. I took Power Mastery mostly for Power Boost. Power Boost allows me to do some impressive things: first off, my Rad/Rad has full Leadership (Tactics helps Choking Cloud hit), so Power Boost+Vengeance is a very powerful buff and can often prevent a teamwipe. Also, Power Boost combines very well with EM Pulse. If you hit Vanguard Medal (an Accolade that boosts holds), Power Boost and then EM Pulse, you have a very potent 'pause button' that will hold pretty much everything in a wide radius around you. This is great if some one aggros an extra mob or two onto the team.

So that's why I like Power Mastery, but it's far from the only valid option. I have Dark Mastery on the solo build I mentioned, for pretty much the exact reasons you mentioned above. Soul Drain works nicely on that build, and if I die I can resurrect myself and hit everything around with a Mag 30 Stun, gotta love that.

Your understanding of dual builds is correct - it's double the investment. It's certainly not for everyone, and if my Rad/Rad wasn't one of my main characters and my primary badge-hunter, I likely wouldn't have bothered.

IO Set bonus goals is a difficult subject, as there are MANY ways to go on this and many degrees you can go down each route. Of course, the more dedicated you are to a given IO bonus goal, the more you're likely sacrificing in overall effectiveness to reach that goal. That said, here's a couple commonly pursued goals:

• High-Defense Build - Difficult and Expensive, and in my opinion not worth what you have to give up. On the flip side, has the potential to be extremely survivable. As a player used to melee characters, if you find your Rad/Rad feeling 'too squishy' for you by the endgame, this may be the way to go.
• High-Recharge Build - Also very expensive, and Rad doesn't benefit as much from high recharge as some other Defender primaries like Empathy. Aside from getting perma-AM, which is nice, the only real benefit you get from high recharge it being able to throw out LR more often and, of course, attack more. Since many of your key powers are toggles, huge amounts of recharge bonus doesn't do as much for you as it does for a more click-based character.
• +HP bonuses. Relatively easy to get, and they help keep you alive.
• +End or +Recovery. Everyone loves to have more endurance.
• None (Frankenslotting), gives specific powers best possible slotting at the expense of getting desirable Set bonuses.

I would just go Dark epic and use the one build. I've never felt the need EMP benefits that greatly from Power Boost, or even adding in the accolade. I guess I don't feel the need for a hold to go for that long as a practical need. Unslotted it has a duration of 22.35 seconds. Same goes for Vengeance. Three slotted for def and it's going to put an end to any death after that. Have people died with the buff on them? Sure, but it's so rare that I can't imagine Power Boost changing it to where it's overly beneficial.

There are a lot of good things to power boost with a rad defender. Power boosted accelerated metabolism, power boosted lingering rad in AV fights, as said, power boosted EM Pulse, and a power boosted fallout/vengeance combo isn't a bad little trick either.

Overall it's a pretty good build, but there's a few things I would recommend tweaking. In no particular order:

1) Enervating Field underslotted. This power has a rather high endurance cost and you're going to want to run it a lot, so I'd say two EndRedux at bare minimum here. I use three.

2) If you can afford it, I'd recommend two Enzymes in Radiation Infection in place of the two Dampened Spirits.

3) If you're going to use Fallout, I recommend you slot it for damage.

4) Tactics is a bit underslotted, but slots are always at a premium in a build like this. If you can find the space, I'd try to work in at least one more slot.

5) You've not taking Soul Drain, which is probably the big draw of going with Dark Mastery in the first place. Soul Transfer is also tempting for the huge stun it does when you self-rez. Dark Consumption is a good endurance management tool and the shield power from any APP is always nice. This gets more into personal preference than anything else, just something to think about.

Not enough recharge in accelerated metabolism.

Not enough recharge in hasten.

Not enough slots in lingering radiation.

Not enough end reduction in choking cloud.

You need some end reduction in tactics.

Not a bad start. I can really only echo what Psylenz said.

Other than that I would personally take the Numina and Regen Tissue proc out of Radiant Aura and put them into Health. I'm also a big fan of putting as many damage procs into Neutrino Bolt as I can.

And, ive also looked into making a Corr Sonic/rad, because i looked at another post earlier and was alarmed at HOW LOW defenders damage really is... But, i still wish to have him as good debuffer, because defenders still have a debuffing ability than corrs correct?

So Am i Getting this is a good final build!?

Amusingly enough, I have never played both the Rad/ and /Rad combination in the same character. I have an FF/Rad Defender and an Illusion/Rad Controller. I tried out Rad/Rad in Beta and didn't like it, though, because I didn't want to have the ability to heal. If I'd known today what I know now, I would have thrown concept out the window, or at least just skipped Radiant Aura.

Pretty much I have nothing to add that everyone else has not already addressed. But I will emphasise that Rad Blast is a fairly low damage set. It is not bad, but with the high recharge of Neutrino and -Def debuff in place of a "heavier hitting" secondary effect, it really doesn't do well without a good damage boost behind it, which fortunately Rad Emission does with RI and EF. Don't both slotting for -Def, it's good for fitting -Def IOs into your build for Set Bonuses, but your average build should never have a problem with accuracy.

Of the two anchor toggles, I consider Enervating Field to be the more powerful, as doing more damage (due to -Res) is always an advantage both to you and the team. Conversely, though, -Acc tends to help teams overall more than -Dam. It depends a lot on your team makeup, and honestly, there's no reason not to get both.

Don't ignore the power of Lingering Radiation, either. It's the third spoke of your defensive wheel, foes hit by it not only slow their movement, bunching up more for AoEs, but they also fire less often. So that's quite handy.

Honestly, the people who talk about how horridly low Defender damage is... ignore them. You will have a +25% damage boost from Accellerate Metabolism, and assuming your teammates are on the ball enough to gather when you tell them to, so will they, as well. Solo or on a small team you get 10-30% more damage yourself. And then, on top of that, once your FINAL damage is calculated, you can add 30% MORE damage from Enervating Field. You can probably ignore slotting for Accuracy (between Radiation Infection and your own Def Debuffs you shouldn't have any trouble hitting anything yourself) and if you use procs in Neutrino like others have suggested, that'll raise your damage even more. And your foes will move and fire like they're swimming in molasses, have serious trouble hitting you, and when they do hit you, will do only 3/4 of their damage.

No, a Rad Defender doesn't lack damage. Your biggest headache will be yelling at the teammates that keep killing your anchors.

It should be noted that Rad/Rad benefits greatly from procs in neutrino bolt and choking cloud. Fitting a proc into lingering rad isn't farfetched either.