Staff/Rad builds?

[NemeanLion]

So, I've looked around the forums and I can't find any Staff/Rad builds. Staff, in general, doesn't seem all that popular, but I've only heard good things from friends about it, so I'm wondering if it just it getting lost behind the popularity of OP sets like TW and Rad Melee.

 

As such, I wanted to come here and ask the build gurus what would be a good lvl 50 build for Staff/Rad. Sky's the limit on expensive sets, let's go for the strongest possible.

[Frostweaver]

It's mostly just getting lost. It is a smashing set, which makes it less popular than less-resisted energy sets, and since it cannot be paired with shields it is in the same 'groove' as katana.

That being said, however, it actually shines quite well with pairings where it's abilties such as melee/lethal defense buffs grant a nice synergistic survival bonus. Staff/Rad and staff/fire shine exceptionally well through all content, but most /fire brutes and many /rads are more concerned with farming.... where you can build for a single, very specific damage type. Once you have built for that damage type, other defensive utility and even offensive specialty other than pure dps versus a specific type of mob are kind of ignored. Staff is not the bulldozer that rad, spines, and TW are, and brutes have enough survivability WITHOUT plunging into their primary that utility sets other than dark (with it's -to-hit and heal) are pretty much ignored.

I am working on a staff/fire right now and it's a surprisingly durable beast (for fire armor) that is better at the pocket-to-pocket fighting style of missions and teams than most of the super popular farming sets, and it can easily overcome ITF defense debuffs and deliver sick damage. I imagine rad armor would be similar, albeit quite a bit tougher, and still lay down the damage.

My build knowledge is a few months out of date and some changes have come down the pipe recently, or I'd try to make you a build. Sorry.