Fire/Rad. Endgame, worth sticking to?

Good afternoon.

I have always had trouble with controllers. I know I want an endgame controller but I have never been able to find a combination I like. I have recently started a fire/rad and at level 6 it is underwhelming, but I feel some need to continue and i am not sure why.

Is it a terrible combination? Am I fooling myself? Will I be able to solo an Elite Boss? Any endgame Fire/Rads have any tips bout what they enjoy most about their build?

My Fire/Rad is probably my favorite toon. I think I've played it for more hours after 50 than before. She's my badger, and purping her out was easy because the influence just flowed like water. Fire/Rad gives you a bit of everything. You got a pretty god set of controls, that can be slotted and proc'd to become a monstrous amount of control. You've got a killer set of AoE debuffs, including -regen (much sought after in end game). You got a heal, a rez, an AoE team buff, two PBAoE toggles that play very nicely together. You will turn mediocre teams into great teams and great teams into legendary teams. if you haven't already, take your two rad toggles, RI and EF. You'll be pretty impressed at how they can nerf a whole mob in a second or two, even without slotting. And for what it is worth, you have two sets that you can customize colors pretty nicely.

The best part about end-game Fire/Rads is joining with other Fire/Rads to make an unstoppable team. A team of Fire/Rads is like a cloud of locusts, destroying everything in its path.

Even a single Fire/Rad is great in the late game. You need to have several of the powers well-slotted, and get lots of Recovery -- running both Choking Cloud and Hot Feet is expensive on the blue bar, but oh, so worth it. You really don't start to see how effective a Fire/Rad can be until the late 30's, when you can have Flashfire, Fire Cages, Hot Feet and Choking Cloud fully slotted. At 50, try to get the Grav Anchor Chance for Hold proc into Fire Cages, as it make the power far more effective. But just slotting purple sets everywhere is generally not the best way to go -- it takes some understanding and frankeslotting to maximize many of the powers.

In low levels, one of your most effective combos is Fire Cages + Radiation Infection. The foes can't move, and the ToHit Debuff in RI means they can't hit you very often. Plus, the Defense debuff in RI means it is easier to keep hitting Fire Cages. You can then get close to let the foes cook with Hot Feet. It isn't fast, but it works.

Fire/Rad actually starts to bloom reasonably early. By level 12 I had Flashfire, Hotfeet, Cages, Radiation Infection, Air Sup, the Hold and AM and that was enough to be able to run around hazard zones soloing the spawns (popping Insps like a lunatic as I went), aiming mainly at quantity over quality, so lots of even level, -1 or even -2 spawns (they all drop candy and give XP).

Flashfire and cage em, RI and then run in and Hold & Air Sup lieuts to death while Hotfeet and Cages took care of the minions.

End was a concern but frantic Insp popping ensures you've got a constant stream of them dropping from defeats solo and you can run around picking on lots of slightly weaker enemies.

End game the biggest killer is mezzes, a mez will generally cause 4 of your toggles to drop which can be a real pain. You can go with the Psi APP to get some Mez protection (not that I did, I went stone and relied mostly on mezzing them before they mezzed me).

Level 6 is awfully early to try judging a set of it's worth, especially controllers. Patience, Grasshopper.

My first 50 was a Fire/Rad. It's a powerful and extremely fun combo.

If you're looking to get in to Controllers, I would also highly recommend Illusion/Rad. Check out Local_Man's fabulous guide for advice on it.

Fire/Rads tend to be in danger -- they need to jump in to the middle of the action for Hot Feet + Choking Cloud to make an impact. In comparison, Illusion/Rad is much safer, and still does nice damage.

Fire/rad is my namesake, first 50, first controller, first alpha slotted character, and by far my favorite and most powerful.

A friend and I recently duo'd an ITF, (he was a db/fire brute) and we did fine up to the last fight with nictus Rommy. The problem was that the healing nictus kept hitting my friend with twilight grasp, and hitting imps as well, so with just us 2, Rommy would heal faster than we could damage him. So my friend (spec'd for farming on that build) went and started to kill the remaining 250ish enemies to complete the mish while I solo'd Rommy. With cardiac core slotted, I was out of nictus heal range, and never had end issues, and took hiim down 3 times by myself before my friend could kill the remaining traitors. After the healing nictus rezzed Rommy, my friend came back, I was able to summon imps, and we crushed him in what felt like a matter of seconds (probably due to no imp soloing him 3 times immediately prior to that :/ ).

My point is, fire/rad is a beast, and can take down pretty much anything you want. And on teams, it can crank out damage and control without breaking a sweat.

I have 3 builds on him (thank you alpha build!) with one AV/GM specialist build (the ITF one), an AoE damage dealing one for farms and sometimes soloing, and an incomplete one (not fully slotted, damn purples) that has the intention of locking down everything as quick as possible and keeping it that way. It is a very flexible combination and will not dissapoint you if you put in the effort to make it work for you.