Stealth procs and pool choices for a rad/kin

Hello forumers,

I'm considering dusting off my level 38 rad/kin and would like to give him a much-needed respec. I used to feel really fragile playing him: good offense and team buffs, but nothing aside from a melee-range heal with a tohit check for self-protection.

I'd like to rebuild him to better leverage his strengths, so I've been thinking about investing in stealth procs to allow him to wade into melee unseen and pop Fulcrum Shift followed by Irradiate or the nuke, depending on recharge. Is this a good idea?

Since I plan on using the nuke, I'd prefer not to rely on a lot of toggles. I've been thinking of mainly taking Tactics for the extra tohit and Combat Jumping to slot one stealth proc and a KB protection IO. And for full invisibility, I had the crazy idea of slotting the second stealth proc in Inertial Reduction. This is a power I never took on my original build. How good is it? Does it give decent jump speed? Will it rub off teammates if I use it during missions?

Alternatively, I might just want to wait for my next power pick and get Mass Hypnosis or Oppressive Gloom from the APPs.

What do you guys think? Thanks a lot for the input!

A second IO stealth proc will not stack with any other IO stealth procs. That said Stealth (from the Concealment Pool) and Super Speed will both stack with an IO stealth proc (and with each other ... potentially 3 sources of stealth) while still allowing you to attack. I'll commonly take Super Speed add a second slot and drop both a stealth IO and a BotZ -kb into the 2 slots. You could do the same with CJ and run with just the base slot of SS (perhaps adding a second BotZ kb or a Winter's Gift slow resist into the base slot)

Likewise careful with things like Oppressive Gloom, its mez (stun) effect will notify the mob of your presence when it hits ... if its a boss (or bosses or something otherwise protected from stun) they'll be aggro'd and you'll be their next target unless someone else has a very solid hold on their aggro already (in which case you wouldn't really need the stealth, of course ).

Doomguide

Hey thanks! Didn't know about the stealth procs.

Is the slowed movement from pool power Stealth very noticeable? One of the problems I've faced when playing this character is Siphon Speed running out between battles and leaving me to trail behind the speed boosted team. I'd like to be able to move fast. Superspeed with +stealth actually sounds perfect on paper, two birds in one stone, I'll have to see how the burning feet look on the character. I tend to avoid taking it for that reason.

If I dip into the Speed pool, I guess I can pick up Hasten along the way, too. Should I go with Psionic Mastery then? What's a good synergistic APP or PPP?

The stealth power from the Concealment pool is a relic from the past, which is why the stealth IO is superior (no movement debuff).

I always put the stealth proc into sprint. No need to waste a slot in a movement power with it.

Ice Ember

You'd definitely want Hasten on a /kin - in fact, as much recharge as you can manage is huge on a kin.

I don't have a rad/ but my ice/kin was incredibly squishy until I got the patron powers, and picked up the mace armor. Great stuff, there. I know you don't want toggles. But for me, the character was absolutely not fun to play until I toughened up - it was a case of get armor, or quit playing the character. An alternative could be to get as much ranged defense as you can.

I love OG, but for squishies who have to be in close range, like a kin, it's like having a big, red arrow over your head that says "MEZ HERE!"

I know that you want to avoid toggles, but let me tell you how I built my Rad/Kin: I focused on reducing my chances of getting mezzed. Avoiding mezzes allowed me to buff and debuff while using Transfusion to keep myself alive. This meant I took defense powers (Combat Jumping, Tough with the Steadfast +defense proc, Weave, and Scorpion Shield). I focused on set bonuses that offered defense bonuses (S/L/E in particular, due to stacking with Scorpion Shield). And I took Acrobatics.

I know no one takes Acrobatics anymore, but it offers important mez protection--mag 2 protection against holds and really good knockback protection. You can get the -kb via procs, but that hold protection makes a world of difference. With CJ and Acrobatics you'll have some protection against the most common mezzes in the game other than stuns. Your defenses keep holds from stacking and reduce the number of stuns that hit you, and you can use Cosmic Burst to stun stunners before they get you.

Stop me if I'm wrong, but aren't the VAST majority of holds in the game mag 3? That being the case, I fail to see in what way acrobatics is such a godsend. Sure, its -kb is great and it'll cut the actual duration of the hold in half, but it won't keep you from getting held most of the time.

Considering its endurance cost (not to mention a power pick when most builds are already tight) I think I'll stick with -KB IOs myself. But I'm all for being convinced otherwise.

On a side note to the OP, if you feel you need more ToHit, I recommend saving a slot in Combat Jumping for the Kismet unique. It gives you +6% ToHit as long as CJ runs and for 120 seconds after you turn it off (so you keep the benefits through a nuke crash for a bit), and I've often found it a great alternative to Tactics on power-tight builds.

Of course, it's weaker than Tactics, you won't buff anyone else's ToHit and you won't get the Confuse resistance, but you also won't get the horrendous end leakage that are most leadership powers or use a power pick for it, and it's one less toggle to get back up after a crash - whether that's a worthy tradeoff is up to you, ultimately.

Personally, I much prefer taking CJ and the Kismet to Maneuvers and Tactics - my character gets barely less buffs for one less power and a fraction of the end drain. Heck, if it fits my concept, Hover + CJ + Kismet give me more personal defense than Maneuvers, just a bit less ToHit than Tactics, and two powers in which to slot yummy IOs like Winter's Gift, BotZ or LotG, all for a sixth of the end cost at worse.

[EDIT] : Saw one of those gross grammatical mistakes that drive me up the wall in other people's posts - got rid of it.