Vorpal Judgement: Radial or Core?

Which version of Vorpal Judgement do you like best, and why?

I have both Radial and Core built up to tier 3 so I can try them out for myself to see which I like better before committing to one of them for tier 4. But I am interested in hearing from players who have experience with both and chose one over the other for a reason.

Core gives you a high chance lethal DoT, while Radial gives you 10 extra targets and a brief +30% DEF buff instead. My gut tells me I would prefer Radial, but maybe that DoT turns out to be far more impactful in actual practice than it seems just on the surface of it.

Thoughts and opinions?

Radial not only hits more targets, the cone is simply ginormous. I don't think it's really much of a contest - who cares about, what is it, 20% extra damage compared to 33% extra targets and a difficult to quantify improvement in the ease of hitting those targets? The def buff is totally unnecessary for the radial version to be superior to core.

The two Vorpal T4s are the same size cone - 120 degrees, 120 feet. I rarely run into even the 24-target cap on my Pyronic, and I doubt the 30-target cap on Vorpal Core would be much worse.

That said, the DoT on the Core path has the same numbers as Pyronic Core's DoT, and I can tell you that the Pyronic DoT is not a game-changer. Nice, certainly, but not dramatic. If you find that the extra targets and def buff are useful, go Radial.

I'd go for the DoT. You won't hit the target cap unless farming (like I do with my SS/Fire with Pyronic, too lazy to change to Ion now) and the DoT actually makes a difference (not huge sure) when I hit the clustered mobs in iTrials who won't die with the normal damage - but my Vorpal toon is mostly ST so I make use all of the AoE help I can get. IIRC the def buff is 5-10 seconds?

Is the Core smashing damage lower than the Radial smashing damage to compensate for the fact that additional lethal damage will (likely) follow? Or is it the same in both versions?

One thing I find annoying about my tier 4 Pyronic Judgement is that there seems to be what I consider a "cheat" mechanism in place in which even-level minions are left with a sliver of health after my Pyronic attack, even if the 428+ damage would, if delivered by any other attack, defeat them instantly. It's like there is some sort of lame anti-one-shot code running, but just for Judgement attacks against minions of even level (or higher). Would the Lethal DoT help in finishing them off?

On my StJ/Regen brute I was going to go for the Radial one; more targets, larger cone and a +def buff?

Count me in

Alpha helps all powers that are Incarnate except for recharge, so yes, Musculature will make your other abilities do more damage, including Lore pets.

Either I'm missing something or 1/3 * π * 120^3 is approximately 6.75 times greater than 4/3 * π * 40^3. You may frequently be playing on a plane but the powers are three dimensional and you can use that to your advantage. Vorpal much more so than pyronic.

But yes, the fact that judgement is buffed by musculature makes it all the sweeter.

Something that I haven't tested but after this post maybe I will is whether vorpal judgement always fires with respect to your character's perspective or to the camera's? As in, can you fire it down from above? That would in some cases make it much easier to guarantee hitting forty targets.

Yes, powers are three-dimensional, but enemies very rarely come at you from above, and even more rarely from below. Most enemies cannot fly, and the ones that can usually stick close to the ground anyway. I don't think talking about volume instead of area gives us much useful information here.
But then, comparing Pyronic's size to Vorpal's is quite tangential to the original question, which was one Vorpal vs another, both the same size. Before t4, when the Core path is smaller, Radial definitely wins all the time - 80 versus 120 degrees is quite a difference in how difficult it is to target (especially since you have to "aim" it manually).

Well, there is always the option of grabbing one of the 5 Interfaces that have a DoT to finish them off.

Good demo, Ideon, exactly what I was thinking of. The whole ITF is really pretty great for vorpal. Also very nice on the STF and RSF.

I would choose depending on what character you are. If you need the defense, go Radial; If you can incarnate softcap yourself easily without the Radial effect, go Core.

One bad thing about Vorpal is it can be tricky to use while flying without repositioning yourself. The attack launches straight in the direction your character is facing. So if you're flying high, have your camera view pointed down at a group of enemies and activate Vorpal, the power will shoot forward on an imaginary horizontal plain rather than at a downward angle. Sometimes missing the entire group or only hitting some at the far outer edge of the group (Due to the huge cone).

I even tried flying 90 degrees above a group, targeted a critter in the center and hit follow. My character went into a divebomb pose and I hit Vorpal and missed the entire spawn. Your guess is as good as mine as to which direction my attack went.

So, say I'm using a Spines Scrapper with Quills, or a Storm with Hurricane toggled on. If I use Vorpal, would hurricane debuff the whole targets? Or would quills do damage to them all?

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't, but how awesome would that be?