Another darn Radiation Armor thread.

Below is my original idea for a Radiation Armor set. To see how it's evolved, you can read version 2 of my Radiation Armor set here.

So yes, another darn Radiation Armor thread. After having a few conversations with other players in game and getting ideas stuck in my head, I put the initial idea for this down on paper. It's been bounced back and forth between myself and Nuclear Medicine, trying to refine my original idea into something more balanced. At this point I figured I'd throw this out to the forums for more feedback. The numbers included are based on Tank Modifiers. I tried to include variations on powers that already exist in game. I tried to make the whole set unique unto its own ( unlike my one attempt at a Force Field armor set a while back). This is by no means a "finished product". With that in mind please take a look at what's here. I do of course have questions for you!

A. Would you play this?
B. Does it seem balanced?
C. If something looks overpowered, how would you change it?
E. Do the tiers/tier positions make sense?
F. What kind of end cost would you assign to the powers?
G. What don't you like and why? And if you don't like something, what would you propose as an alternative.
H. Do you like/hate the enhancement slotting limitations? If not, how and why would you change them without it becoming overpowered?

• Tier 1: Alpha Particle Armor: Toggle-Self (variation on Ela's Charged armor) 30% s/l resist, 30% Toxic resist ; Takes Resistance sets, and the usual resist power enhancements; resist, end redux, and recharge.
• Tier 2: Radiaton Cloud: Toggle-PBAoE. (Variation on Choking Cloud/Mudpots) PBAoE damage/taunt aura. Instead of fire damage, toxic. Instead of Mudpots-Mag 2-2.3s Immob a Mag 2-1.15s hold. Still having -jump and -runspeed. ; Percentages for hold lower then Choking Cloud. 50% Mag 1, 30% Mag 2. Takes PBAoE enhancements, straight acc, dmg, end redux, taunt and recharge enhancements. Hold cannot be enhanced.
• Tier 3: Beta Particle Aura: Toggle-Self. (variation on Conductive Shield) 30% F/C resist, 15% Nrg/Neg, 35% Toxic.; Takes Resistance sets, and the usual resist power enhancements; resist, end redux, and recharge.
• Tier 4: Biochem Therapy: Toggle-Self ( 20% psi resist. Status Effect protection: Mag 13 to Hold, Stun and Sleep. Mag 10 to Kb/Ku. Status resist to Kb/Ku and Repel 10000%; Takes Resistance sets, and the usual resist power enhancements; resist, end redux, and recharge.
• Tier 5: Gamma Particle Shield: Auto-Self 15% Nrg Resist, 10% Neg Resist. Mag 13 Immob protection. 70% End debuff/-regen resistance.; Takes Resistance sets, and resist enhancements
• Tier 6: Radiation Haze: Toggle-PBAoE (Variaton on Cloak of Darkness) 5% defense to all. Unlike Cloak of Darkness, no Stealth or +preception. -regen on trgt (1%, stacks with self up to 6%) Taunt aura.; Takes Defense sets, and the usual defense power enhancements; defense, end redux and recharge.
• Tier 7: Particle Infusion: Click-Self. +Health. Regen recover debuff resist 50%, Recharge/runspeed debuff resist 40%. (Healing Flames variation); Takes Healing set enhancements, and straight heal, end redux and recharge enhancements.
• Tier 8: Metabolic Absorption; Toggle- Self; (variation on fury mechanic/Accelerated Metabolism) +rec/+rech/+dmg. The more you're attacked your body chemistry alters itself to add Recharge and Recovery and a small damage bonus. Take AM's numbers and divide by 12 for the base start: .9% to damage, 2.5% to Recharge/movement and recovery. Max 12 attacks. ; Takes Endurance Modification sets, and straight end modification, end redux and recharge enhancements. Recharge enhancements do not boost the recharge the power gives to self.
• Tier 9: Instant Mutation; Click-Self.(The ally rez altered to be a self rez. Toxic Dmg- minor, Stun- Mag 4, minor -res on trgt. (5%) Like Soul Transfer must have targets to hit. Like Soul transfer 15.4% heal and 30 end on successful hit.; Takes Stun and PBAoE sets, and straight stun, dmg, acc, end redux, end modification.

I like it, I think I'd get around to playing it. I like resistance sets.

The only thing I have a problem with is the Tier 6. I think it should be 10% regen, stacking up to 60%. Against AVs, you'd still only do 9% debuff, but at least it'd be enough to notice.

You can have this set as soon as I get my Berserker set.

With all those toggles, would moving MA up sooner make sense?

It's not as critical now, since Stamina is inherent.

I wonder if MIDS can be tweaked to test this out on paper.

I'm not at home so I can't double check it, but I think that kind of -regen would outstrip the -regen from Radiation Emission:Lingering Radiation by a lot. As it is, even at 6%(stacked) it might be stepping on Controllers toes.

If I'm incorrect on this, plz let me know.

Just a minor thing - now that Gamma Shield's an auto-power, it should just take Resistance enhancements - it costs no endurance and can't recharge.

Rad Cloud is really nice, and it's interesting how itrewards stacking Rad Armor on a team - one Rad Armor will hold a couple of minions, while three can overlap their auras to fairly reliably hold bosses.

And no, you wouldn't be stepping on a Controller's toes by putting out 60% -regen. Lingering Radiation packs -500%, even on a Controller. Since -Regen is most useful on hard targets (EBs, AVs, GMs) and high-grade enemies resist debuffs heavily, the debuff's magnitude tends to be very very high. On the other hand, minions and lieutenants aren't very reliant on their regeneration to be challenging, so shutting down most of it won't be a problem.

EDIT: I'd definitely be interested in playing this. Not sure what I'd pair it with, but I know I'd want to try.

I would like to see more debuffs in there, IMO a radiation set without a -def debuff somewhere just won't look right.

W00T! Rad Armor, I want it NOW!!! (actually yesterday, but now would work).

Great job putting this together Rangle, I really like the idea.

And some great a feedback from eveyone.

Oh, btw, I would play it. I would delete a toon to play it, heck I'd delete one of Rangle's toons to play it. j/k Rangle

Erin, if I recall correctly you should be able to edit/modify mids to run this set (If you're going to try that, might want to install another copy of Mids to a different folder and then tweak. That way you won't mess up your working version of Mids). I did some basic calculations on paper when Rangle asked for my input, but didn't have time to fully check the set.

Fixed the Gamma shield "allowed enhancements".

Hm... for some reason I had it in my mind that the -regen on Lingering was lower then that. I probably was transposing -500% to -5 in the back of my mind.

In Radiation Haze, would it make more sense to go with a -def, like Auroxis mentioned, or to up the -regen as Dechs suggested? Personally I would rather see the -def in a Rad Melee set.

I love the idea of a radiation armor set. I'd definitely play it.

So it's my turn. What did you think of the zerker set idea? Would you play that, Rangle?

That's all I'm asking for. I don't need a critique or suggestions. I just want to know if you'd play it.

Sign me up. But I still want my Assorted Meats primary, with Flames of Spam and Combat Bacon armors.
/crosses fingers/

-> TT MA Arc ID 1755 -> Join TankHQ -> Media -> @AceMACE

I like the concept a lot. I definitely think a couple more sets are needed for tanks (and a few other ATs too).

That said, I think it's fairly overpowered as written. Maybe not in a purely SO world, which the devs claim to balance everything around, but we all know it's not a pure SO world any more. Maybe if some of the powers had huge end costs, such that all the toggles just can't ever all be run at once (at least not and still attack) or if a lot of the powers didn't take set IOs, only generic IOs, it could work and be balanced, but not if the powers have more normal endurance consumption rates. The heavy Endurance solution probably wouldn't work, as that would make the set all but unplayable with SOs and a nightmare pre SOs.

To address your specific questions..

A. Probably not, but not because it's uninteresting, but mostly because I'd be expecting a huge nerf to change the set up a lot, so I'd just wait. If you mean would I play a radiation themed set at all though, for sure!
B. Nope.
C. I think I'd change it from toxic to energy, in every place, as that fits the theme better, and would make it less overpowered. The tier 8 should probably be a Quickness clone, or a Fury-esque thing, or a QR clone, but not all 3 in one power. If it is going to be all 3, it should be a long recharge click, maybe even with a crash. The tier 9 should be just a self targeted version of Mutation, not also a variant of Rise of the Phoenix on top of that. Maybe drop the Psi from the tier 4. That would probably be a great start.
D. (I know, you didn't have a D, but I'll use D to state what I really like) I love the -regen aura idea. Totally love that concept. Not sure what numbers would be best, but I think perhaps, like some powers a base set of numbers, plus more vs, Lts, maybe even scaling up higher for Bosses, then EBs, and AVs. I'd probably not want the top end to hit AVs as hard as Lingering Rad, as I wouldn't want it to replace the support sets, but a hefty chunk would be fine.
E. Pretty much, yes. The tiers seem fine, and make sense.
F. Hard to say,and it would depend on how the other reworks happened.
G. I think I've covered this well enough elsewhere in this post.
H. They seem pretty good as is, but that also would be all dependent on how or what other changes are made.. Obviously if you made the tier 8 a Quickness, it shouldn't take End Mod stuff any more, for example. That said, each powers slotting make sense considering only that power alone in a void.

All things considered, I love the concepts, and some of the specific ideas (like the -regen aura) but don't foresee it coming soon without some major re-balancing. Of course, you did already say it's far from a final product, too.. I think that it may work better, and be easier to fit the theme and the direction you're trying to go in, perhaps as another regen type set, akin to WP, instead of being based on electric, but I don't know for sure.

Either way, good luck, and hope you find the input helpful.

I have been wanting a rad armor set for a long time. I will have to look over the posting more to comment, but so far looks nice.

I envisioned a mixed resist/defense set with a -damage aura.

Ice Ember

One problem with making a thread like this. It guarantees that they will never make a powerset like this. Copyright issues. You should add a disclaimer giving carte blanche to Paragon studios giving free use misuse for anything based on or inspired by this thread.

At first glance I like this very much. I am a big fan of resistance armors. I would definately play it. I will need to take a longer look when I am not so sleepy to give you some constructive feedback Rangle.

I'm looking at this and thinking that the healing flames based heal is kinda overkill for the toxic resistance since it is stackable. I know my healing flames can stack 3x so that is adding a 60% resist bonus to my toxic, My main question though, besides this build being resistance focused, what is the primary weakness aimed towards?
EDIT:
On the positive side, I like that it is so different and how you incorporated AM.