Erratic1

To them, periodically I would imagine.

Hard to argue the point when you do not give any reason for thinking that somehow debuffing opponent's To-Hit with every attack you have in your primary along with Beta Decay somehow does not pair. Having to Rad Melee characters (Rad/Fire Brute and Rad/Shield Scrapper) its not that I do not like Rad Melee and Fusion is pretty rocking, especially if you have area damage to lay out. But Radiation Melee attacks are slower in delivery and getting back to a quicker chain of attacks is a nice change of pace. In the actual process of playing it certainly seems to work just fine, so I am going to continue. If its not your cup of tea, that's fine.

At the risk of turning this into a Sing the Glories of Rad Armor thread, l will tackle the above as follows: (1) For the most part, as a melee in CoH, if a powerset gives you a toggle it should be turned on, no questions asked. There is nothing to contend with. You activate your toggles and then, unless something saps you of endurance and turns one or more off, you leave them alone. If for any reason you need to deactivate something due to cost, you choose non primary/secondary powers to deactivate first--movement, power pool, whatever. In a pinch, if you know your opponents are not attacking a defense provided by a specific power, you may turn that one off. (2) A quick check of My Rad/Psi Tanker shows that Gamma Boost is, with three slots dedicated to Endurance modification, providing roughly 2/3rd as much endurance recovery as three-slotted Stamina. Many (if not most) melee builds struggle with finding enough endurance for long stretches of the levelling run. Gamma Boost lifts waiting and needing to look to IO enhancement set bonuses and/or taking specific Epic Power Pool sets to try to get endurance expenditures under control. At the very least I cannot see how one does not immediately slap 3 Endurance Modification enhancements in it. Yes, getting to lower life totals means reduced endurance recovery. But you have (a) the entire bar to run through before that becomes a problem, (b) a way to pad your life total in the form of Particle Shielding, and © a heal. Say you earn $4,000 monthly, average $3,000 in expense per month, and have $10,000 in savings. If you go out and get a car which costs you $1,100 per month you're going to have to start digging into your savings but it will take 100 months before you burn through your savings. If you're going to pay the car off 36 months, your savings will go down for a bit, but you are going to be okay in the end. Same principle applies here. In actual use, my Rad/Psi tank never considers her endurance bar. She just goes about her business. My DM/Rad Brute can spend his blue bar down when I get going with him primarily because unlike most melee builds I make, I did not put any Endurance Reduction in his attacks. But wait, he has on top of the periodic absorb shield and big heal, an attack which also heals him (Dark Siphon) and an attack which gives him endurance (Dark Consumption). His only concern is the same as the tank's--keeping his health bar from hitting zero. Those slots I did not use for Endurance Reduction on his attacks will instead be dedicated to To-Hit debuffs, meaning he should get hit less (and that on top of the -To-Hit from Beta Decay).

Having played DM plenty, I know what it brings to the table. However I have never played WP. What does it offer that you can't get elsewhere?

I couldn't stand it and so made the guy. Been very nice so far.

The only thing I skipped on my Tanker was Boggle. Making on mob fight another every now and then is meaningless to me getting aggro on the group, dealing damage is meaningful only to the extent it grabs aggro, and breaking up attack chains to use it seemed clunky). Insight is nice to have (especially for Greater Psi Blade) but trying to prompt it to occur more often was not worth it to me to try to squeeze in Boggle on the Tanker.

My Rad/Psi is level 46 and I am greatly enjoying her. She is as capable (and perhaps moreso) as my pre-shutdown Dark/Fire and Ice/Stone Tankers were. I went Psi for the -rech as well but also for Mass Levitation as things on their butt aren't attacking you or team members. I admit I rarely make use of the T1 attack because all the other attacks cycle quickly enough (Beta Decay gives +rech). I have absolutely no complaints about Psi.

Probably had problems with the notion of a clawed paladin. "Sir Logan is chivalrous but will slash any motherf#$@&r that crosses him."

Radiation Melee has been, in my experience (33 Rad/SD Scrapper and 36 Rad/Fire Brute) a bit endurance hungry. Willpower comes with Quick Recovery to alleviate that problem. As for lack of AoE, there is the "splash" damage of the Contaminated mechanism which in reality makes an attack on all nearby foes when you hit a contaminated target with a single target attack. For best damage output you need to (a) be contaminating enemies and (b) changing targets to hit ones which are contaminated.

Never had problems with Tequilla and all that has changed since playing last night is I went to sleep and woke up. This morning I get errors trying to launch the game. The log reports: [6/12/2019 6:35:22 AM] User clicked to open Options window [6/12/2019 6:35:23 AM] Revalidation process started [6/12/2019 6:35:23 AM] Started patching [6/12/2019 6:35:23 AM] Attempting to download Manifest file "http://patch.savecoh.com/manifest.xml" [6/12/2019 6:35:24 AM] Manifest downloaded successfully, starting to process it. [6/12/2019 6:35:24 AM] Starting self-patch process. [6/12/2019 6:35:24 AM] Self patching process complete. [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, no more URL's to try from [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_fxinfo.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_fxinfo.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_fxinfo.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_fxinfo.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_fxinfo.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_fxinfo.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_fxinfo.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_fxinfo.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, no more URL's to try from [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_powers.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_powers.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:42 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_powers.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_powers.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_powers.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_powers.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\bin_powers.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608bin_powers.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, no more URL's to try from [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\sound.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608sound.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\sound.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608sound.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\sound.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608sound.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\sound.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608sound.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, no more URL's to try from [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_gui.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_gui.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_gui.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_gui.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_gui.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_gui.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_gui.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_gui.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, no more URL's to try from [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_library.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_library.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_library.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_library.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_library.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_library.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Download failed, trying from a different URL [6/12/2019 6:35:43 AM] Downloading file "C:\QT\hc-beta\texture_library.pigg" from "http://nsa.tools/hc/homecoming/20190608texture_library.pigg" [6/12/2019 6:35:44 AM] Download failed, no more URL's to try from [6/12/2019 6:35:44 AM] Finished patching.

I was extolling the merits of Radiation Armor yesterday in another thread and got to thinking about the pre-shutdown DM/Elec Brute I'm currently remaking and wondering Rad might be a better pairing with DM than Elec. It's been a long time, but I think what drew me to Electric Armor was it had psionic resistance and a Recharge bonus via Lightning Reflexes. Radiation Armor has less Psionic resistance but also an equal amount of Toxic resistance too. It provides variable Recharge bonus, but caps out at a higher amount when you are where a Brute likes to be--in the middle of a crowd of enemies. Like Electric Armor, Radiation Armor has a heal, but it also has an damage absorption power, so you could slot Siphon Life more for damage and recharge. Both have a damage aura, but whereas Electric train's endurance, Radiation's lowers their regeneration while upping yours. Instead of having an foe endurance drain/self endurance rcovery power (which overlaps Dark Consumption) Radiation gets a passive which like Stamina ups endurance recovery. Moreover Radiation gets a toggle which lowers enemy defenses and to-hit (which works in conjunction with the accuracy debuff from DM melee attacks). Attacking faster, hitting more often, getting hit less, having damage absorption...it really looks like Rad pairs better with DM than Elec (which from experience is a really good pairing). Am I missing something?

More or less. Some opponents no doubt will resist a portion of the effect and like players being subject to recharge penalties, fresh powers can be chained initially one after another. But they will thereafter be waiting to reuse them.

I think Ice does things in a weird and more difficult to quantify way than almost all the other sets. It has DEF for sure, and crazy cold resist, but Chilling Embrace (in addition to being a taunt aura and a movement slow) also slaps a 30+% recharge penalty on nearby foes, and that translates into fewer attacks levied, and less damage taken by the Icer. I'm sure there's a way to mathematically quantify that, but I have no idea how. Energy Absorption not only fills up your stamina, it drains the foes, and gives you Defense for every foe hit. Again, that's not something that's going to show up well in a hero planner, but considering how you're right in the middle of everything as a Tank, there's every possibility you're going to be pulling 10 or more % DEF when you fire off EA. If you fire off EA twice in a battle you've AoE drained all the end out of almost everything below an Elite Boss, another difficult thing to figure into a measure of effectiveness. I've pretty much only played Ice, so I'm not in a good place to compare with other sets. I think of Ice as being kind of non-traditional in how it approaches tanking, and wanted to express that. Attacks taking 30% longer to recharge should translate into a 1/1.3=77% rate of damage, or effectively reducing incoming damage by 23.

I have a couple of SD characters (Rad/SD scrapper and Psi/SD brute) and an SM/Bio Scrapper. Here are my thoughts... (1) At level 22 you really have a lot of the meat of the two powersets in Against All Odds and Rending Flurry. If that combination isnt feeling good then moving on now may be a good thing. However you have two significant powers yet to pick up which will change your approach--Savage Leap at 32 and Shield Charge at 35. Being able to Savage Leap in, Shield Charge on top of your targets, finish building Blood Frenzy on knocked down targets, then drop Rending Flurry should be quite effective. (2) Compared to the quick animations and cycling of Savage Melee, Radiation Melee is a slow, ponderous thing, like an elephant is compared to a cheetah. While it makes up for that with hard hits, it will be a significant change in pacing. Rad Shield is endurance intensive. This is not necessarily a problem in groups where someone might be buffing your endurance recovery but solo can be an issue until late game or sufficient IOs are slotted to help out. You will also need to leverage the Contaminated mechanism of Rad Melee to see the real power of Rad/SD, but if you do it is pretty sweet (not Elec/SD insta-gib of minions and lieutenants but things melt quickly and on balance that means more damage bonus from AAO while working on bringing down bosses).

I got hold of a Theft of Essence: Chance for +End last night and did some testing. TLDR: Not as great as I expected but not bad. The proc can go off on multiple targets but it never went off on all of them. I was testing with small groups of three to five yellow and orange cons. I do not think I ever got more than a single proc in a group of three and usually got a double proc in groups of four and five. Radiation Siphon's base cost is 10 endurance, so a proc is self-paying. I have it slotted with a single Endurance Cost Reduction, so get back 2.5 endurance on a single proc. Double procs are where the real gain begins. Once the character's defenses are in better shape I will test larger groups.

Good point.

Brute: "Oh shit, there goes my Fury." Scrapper: "Look at THAT clump of bad guys!" Did a four man Positron 1 TF this past weekend where the group consisted of 1Tanker, 1 Scrapper, and 2Brutes. At some point I realized my brute kept pulling aggro when we were all fighting together. I'd put it down to Against All Odds, but the scrapper was Shield Defense too. I definitely had to be careful in using Psi Blade Sweep.

Running Sonic/Bio and it is a wonderful combination.

Radiation melee is slow, but heavy hitting. It also has a mechanic which spreads damage around from its single-target attacks if you attack the right target. I liked it enough to have two character with it (Rad/Shield Scrapper and Rad/Fire Brute). Radiation Armor is wonderful but I get the impression most people do not realize all the things it brings to the table Solid protections, a heal, great endurance supply (basically you get a second Stamina power), a continuously up absorption shield (if slotted for it), a recharge bonus, and it debuffs enemies defenses. Hmm. . .despite having a DM/Elec Brute that is pretty awesome, I am now thinking about the potential behind a DM/Rad. Edit: Should add, Rad Melee does not bring the variety of tools to the table that Dark Melee does. It does not regain endurance, its life regain attack requires a precondition on top of needing to hit, and it has nothing like Soul Drain.

With Radiation Armor you get great recovery, a heal, recharge bonus (while in the thick of things), an absorption shield, and your enemies are easier to hit. Electrical covers a lot of the same ground.

If TT is only ever going to be on Excelsior then as sad as I will be not to enjoy them, that will have to be the way it is.

Howl's debuff lasts 8s. No, you're not likely in a team going to be doing full blast rotations, but you don't need to. Your purpose on a team is buffing the team's damage by providing damage bonus and debuffing resistance. With the Recharge boost from Siphon Speed you can Howl every 8s to maintain the resistance debuff on everything you hit. And tossing out Howl every 8s isn't exactly demanding.

City of Data claims it is a 74 degree cone, but I could never tell it hit anything. I dumped it.

Thank you for testing it. Guess I will have to shell out for the IO now.

Unsure what you're talking about here, wanna provide more info? Every foe you repel drains some of your endurance. Endurance is not a worry for Kinetics due to Transference. It should however be noted that trying to get close enough to a target to gain endurance from using Transference while running Repel is like chasing after a $100 bill suspended from a string attached to a stick holding it just out of reach which is attached to a hat you are wearing. You'll never get it.