Rad Melee: Proton Sweep

[Extor Prime]

The consensus seems to be that it is terrible, but I'm not certain why; or what could be taken to replace it.

 

I have a Rad/Bio that I periodically play. My attack chain is Proton Sweep - Rad Smash - Devastating Blow - Rad Siphon, with Atom Smasher whenever it is up. The whole thing is a bit ponderous, but gets the job done. Between Irradiated Ground and Sweep, things are kept contaminated, Siphon keeps my HP topped up and everything dies obligingly enough. 

 

So what makes Proton Sweep bad? I'm very fond of (over)optimizing my characters, but I don't see what I could replace it with that would work better. I considered Cross Punch, but it's a smaller cone, and pure smashing damage, which is a bit bland compared to Sweep's energy/smashing.

[Infinitum]

56 minutes ago, Extor Prime said:

The consensus seems to be that it is terrible, but I'm not certain why; or what could be taken to replace it.

 

I have a Rad/Bio that I periodically play. My attack chain is Proton Sweep - Rad Smash - Devastating Blow - Rad Siphon, with Atom Smasher whenever it is up. The whole thing is a bit ponderous, but gets the job done. Between Irradiated Ground and Sweep, things are kept contaminated, Siphon keeps my HP topped up and everything dies obligingly enough. 

 

So what makes Proton Sweep bad? I'm very fond of (over)optimizing my characters, but I don't see what I could replace it with that would work better. I considered Cross Punch, but it's a smaller cone, and pure smashing damage, which is a bit bland compared to Sweep's energy/smashing.

Its slow, doesnt do enough damage, cone so tight its rare to hit more than one.

 

Very underwhelming feeling.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Infinitum

[Extor Prime]

So what would I take instead of it?

[Infinitum]

2 hours ago, Extor Prime said:

So what would I take instead of it?

Well, I'd need to see the build to answer that accurately.

 

But just about anything is better than PS.

 

With contaminated strike, atom smasher, devestating blow, radiation siphon - that's all you really need for attacks anyway.

[Sir Myshkin]

Your single target attacks are what trigger the damage spread. I used to play with Proton Sweep as well wanting that extra bit of cone-reach, but it just doesn't end up performing as well as we'd want it to, for the speed it works at. I pulled Sweep out of my Rad/DA build and also scrapped Contaminated Strike so that I'm only running Radioactive Smash, Radiation Siphon, Devastating Blow, and Atom Smasher (of course Irradiated Ground, but that doesn't really count as an 'attack').

 

Rad-Smash recycles so fast that it's always up right after any other attack so I can easily cycle it around. Siphon has a dual use of either giving contamination, or healing by consuming it, and I just kind of swing and let it do its own thing and the trickle-effects take care of the rest. Devastating Blow is there for Boss level stuff, but I do try and make sure I've hit it with Rad-Smash or Siphon first to try and get that contamination onboard so when DB hits, there's spread. Generally, however, Atom Smasher sets up every mob pretty well so just cycling attack through sees a ton of contamination spreading.

[Uun]

I am also underwhelmed, but I put it back in my build because I found I had no AoE at all if I exemped down below 27. What I don't understand is why it's so much easier to hit more that one with Shadow Maul, which is a narrower cone.

[Extor Prime]

Well, I hemmed and hawed about it in Mids and kept it after all. I need it to mule a set that won't go into Cross Punch for some reason (despite them both being melee cones), at least.