/Rad Questions

[TheGentlemanGhostronaut]

I haven't built a /Rad character yet but I'm rather curious about something, a number of its powers are anchored onto enemies, but in quite a few of the teams I've been on the enemies die real damn quick or the big guys get gunned down first, does this mean these anchored powers are tricky to use?  Are they obsolete?  Or is there some sort of trick to it?

[Hjarki]

If you have the toggle active on a living enemy, it will remain active on their corpse after they die. However, the activation time of the toggles is such that they're rarely very useful in fast-moving teams - it's not unheard of for you to activate the power and the enemy dies before it lands.

[TheGentlemanGhostronaut]

Should those powers be skipped then?

[Hjarki]

4 hours ago, TheGentlemanGhostronaut said:

Should those powers be skipped then?

No - they're definitely useful for long fights against an AV/GM. However, they tend not to be particularly useful for fighting through large spawns.

[Coyote]

10 hours ago, TheGentlemanGhostronaut said:

Should those powers be skipped then?

 

No, they're great powers until you get to steamrolling teams at max level. But when you're on those teams, then 90% of the powers for most characters are useless, so it doesn't matter if you ended up taking some powers that were only useful while levelling up or when exemplaring. And they don't need that many slots, either. Do not skip Rad Infect, Lingering Rad, or Enervating Field... they're too useful at lower levels. And they're useful if you're on smaller teams or soloing at higher levels, when spawns don't die so fast.

[Clave Dark 5]

Keep in mind that not every team is going to be fleshed out to eight players and feature uber-built toons like the people on the forums talk about all the time as SOP.  That said, yeah, in a fast moving full team you won't really have time to use them too much.  But skipping them is foolish as they really do help against the toug guys you'll face down, like monsters and AVs.  I wouldn't skip them at all.

[Crysis]

3 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Keep in mind that not every team is going to be fleshed out to eight players and feature uber-built toons like the people on the forums talk about all the time as SOP.  That said, yeah, in a fast moving full team you won't really have time to use them too much.  But skipping them is foolish as they really do help against the toug guys you'll face down, like monsters and AVs.  I wouldn't skip them at all.

While I agree with the consensus that you shouldn’t skip the powers, I’d also like to point out what was said above regarding not giving so many slots to them at later levels.

 

/Rad is a great set to level with one build, and then by around 45, respec it into a late game/Incarnate build.  Damage is the great equalizer in the late game, and personally I find steamrolling teams to be far, far more common than high level teams playing like they did back in their 30’s when tactics actually mattered.  Everything starting at around level 45 becomes a Zerg rush of damage dealing, and only the TF’s really require any set tactics like debuffing the AV.  It may make things go a little faster, but damage is so high it seldom matters outside of a few of AV’s.  Fire/Rad is particularly good at both roles, but pretty much anything paired with /Rad will perform well.  I enjoy my DP/Rad as /Rad helps to make up for the lackluster damage of DP.