Rad/Rad/Radically disappointed (Surprisingly: A topic not about Rad/Rad)

[Aeroprism]

Hello beautiful people.

 

So this lovely scrapper of mine. Rad/Rad is level 24 now.  I love the powerset combo but I found her... sluggish. So instead of going to a classic power pool, I went toward Force of Will, thinking "hey this is almost super jump AND I'll get two more useful clicks for my rotation until I get my later powers."

 

Respecced.

 

BIG MISTAKE.

 

Weaken Resolve is arguably useful but takes forever to come back.

Wall of force is just... not good.

 

And to accommodate these two, I delayed Gamma Boost till later, another HUGE mistake, now I'm endurance starved every two pulls.

 

Are those "alternative" powersets supposed to be any good, or am I just not using them properly?

[Hew]

The other powersets are flavor + utility, but not on the level that cj, hover, weave, hasten, tough are. Weaken resolve is actually pretty useful if you have sufficient recharge. WoF I have found useful as well, especially at levels where you just don't have much aoe. Considering you can take almost immediately, and that some sets like MA don't get you your pbaoe until your 20s, its actually a really strong ability.

[Aeroprism]

Proton Sweep (Rad's small cone)

• Activation: 1.67
• Damage: 98.41 over 10 seconds
• Recharge: 8 seconds 
• Cost: 8.53

Wall of force (FoW's small cone)

• Activation: 2.5
• Damage: 21.25 over 13.33 seconds
• Recharge: 10 seconds 
• Cost: 13

From my point of view, It's not bad, it's abysmal.

 

[KC4800]

Wall of Force is a decent choice for a melee MM. (yes there are some) For a Scrapper, it looks abysmal.  

[Aeroprism]

1 minute ago, KC4800 said:

Wall of Force is a decent choice for a melee MM. (yes there are some) For a Scrapper, it looks abysmal.  

Since I was considering taking this pool for my Beast/Dark MM (at least, before this morning's utter turnoff), why is it considered better for MMs? It's the same stats...

 

[EmperorSteele]

Weaken Resolve is normally for if you don't have much in the way of debuffs. It does a small amount of -def, res, and tohit, and lasts just long enough for you to get a few hits. Makes a nice proc-gun, but you have plenty of rad powers for -def, which you can slot -res procs into, soooo the utility of this power is a bit superfulous in your case.

Wall of Force is really only good if you're starved for AoEs, OR you need an AoE with Knock so you can slot a FF + Rech proc into it. Also, not sure what the 13.3 seconds is, I've only ever seen it do all its damage up front, not in ticks. Either Mids is wrong, or the 13.3 is a cooldown on being able to knock down foes with subsequent casts? Also, it should be mentioned, it's a RANGED attack, with an 40 foot reach. PS is a 7 foot melee attack, so you're comparing a fresh apple to an old orange.

[Aeroprism]

I thought it was close melee. Changes things a little then.  Still, largely useless for a scrapper.

 

I'll most likely be using another respec to come back to a more traditional travel power pool.  Superspeed comes with a decent attack and well, Hasten.

[KC4800]

1 hour ago, Aeroprism said:

Since I was considering taking this pool for my Beast/Dark MM (at least, before this morning's utter turnoff), why is it considered better for MMs? It's the same stats...

 

There just aren't a lot of options for MM. I 4 slotted it on my Beast/Nature.  Which I play like as a Tankermind. It just does KD and not KB, so you just slot it for Acc and Dam and I fit some range in.

[Sir Myshkin]

To point out some basic principles with the Power Pools:

• Melee Sets like Scrappers and Stalkers that have strong offensive potential and critical performance to consider will often never find the pool powers a worth-while addition because they have no--or little--critical value comparatively to what can be gained in their primary set.
• Defenders, Controllers, and Masterminds are at the bottom of the damage modifier list for personal attacks and there are several abilities in the pool selections that have the same DPA (damage per animation) as primary abilities, and a few others that are actually better than many (Toxic Dart). Between scale effect on individual attacks, and the modifier for an AT, many of the high-damage sets like Stalkers/Scrappers/Blaster get much more bang-for-end in their primary sets and why the pool powers don't work out as well for them. The only pool set that actually has some comparable/swappable performance more unilaterally is the Fighting Pool, and only if all of the attacks are taken because they amplify each other when you "own" them.
• Pool abilities have always been meant to be supplementary fillers, attacks to help fill gaps in the level process or give some dynamic style differences. Air Superiority used to be a very popular choice earlier in CoH history because it was a decent damage ability that caused face-planting KD on the target. It was a good soft control ability and gave a lot of squishes some reliable protection in an attack. Nowadays you can't find a single build out there that takes it. Just keep this in mind that they're not always things to build around (or, sometimes you can and make that the challenge of it all). There are a handful of unique and fun tools in the pools like Unleash Potential, Adrenal Booster, Unrelenting, but they take a lot of build space to get to and those trees don't always work well for all AT's due to power balancing working in different ways.
  • Something specific to Weaken Resolve (as it got brought up above), this is an ability that--with procs added--ends up becoming a typically-higher DPA than about 75% of most Defender attacks. It is also an ability that, generally speaking, one doesn't want to recharge fast, but just right around 13/s so you know exactly when to reapply it (the debuff lasts 15/s), and is a great place to dump the Achilles' -Res proc as it'll have a strong chance of firing if there's no rech enhancement added to Weaken. Two slots for Acc/End adjustment, three for damage procs, and one for Achilles' and that power is a micro-bomb that can hit for a potential 210 damage and inflict 31% (or more pending AT) -Res on a target. Is that worth giving up something else? Maybe, maybe not.

 

About Radiation Melee:

• You're still early in your career at 24, but you have most of the core abilities that are going to make Radiation Melee dance, but there is something notable about the choices that I myself didn't full expect until I really tested it and saw how differently the set performed by one simple attack choice. Contaminated Strike versus Radioactive Smash, CS is a quick bursty attack and has a DPA very similar to RS, RS is a slower attack (1.056/s v. 1.716/s) and only marginally gives a better DPA. When building out attack chains I ended up leaning on CS because it was a better filler and allowed me to cycle into Radiation Siphon and Devastating Blow faster with some good global recharge choices. What I didn't consider was the fact that Radioactive Smash has a better chance to inflict the Contaminated effect (by nearly double what CS can). Using RS and getting that Contamination spread was a wildfire of difference in how enemies melted around me.
• Radioactive Smash, Radioactive Siphon, and Irradiated Ground are your Bread and Butter of Radiation Melee (in my opinion). They are going to be the abilities that stack and spread that bonus AoE effect around. Smash > Siphon > Smash > Devastating Blow is the setup chain for Contaminate, Spread > Heal/Set > Spread/Set > Set. When running through spawns a good thing to keep in mind running this cycle is that you'll eventually be splicing Atom Smasher in as well to help setup, and Irradiated Ground is effectively acting as a primer for you too.
• Proton Sweep is your worst friend in the entire set, but it is essentially your "only" AoE until 32. It will help setup Contaminate, but it won't spread it. I personally found it more worth my time to stay focused on cycling CS/RS/RS with Irradiated Ground running than to try and get things to line up for Sweep, and eventually dumped it by 50, but I did keep it to level up with because "better than nothing" at that point.
• Given you mentioned a desire for Super Speed, if you want more clearing power for the set then I'd suggest dipping into Experimentation and grab Toxic Dart and a runner-line, and Corrosive Vial with a few procs tossed into it. Beta Decay will be a good surplus of recharge to help get that power up often enough at those levels, and you can dump it later on around 35-40 once you have slots to keep Atom Smasher charged.

Looking purely at only being 24, this is a path I'd look at to leveling with:

Spoiler

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 49 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Radiation Melee
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Armor
Power Pool: zn_Experimentation
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Radioactive Smash -- FcsSmt-Acc/Dmg(A), FcsSmt-Dmg/EndRdx(3), FcsSmt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), FrcFdb-Rechg%(5)
Level 1: Alpha Barrier -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(5), ResDam-I(7)
Level 2: Gamma Boost -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 4: Proton Armor -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(7), ResDam-I(9)
Level 6: Fusion -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Radiation Siphon -- FcsSmt-Acc/Dmg(A), FcsSmt-Dmg/EndRdx(9), FcsSmt-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(11), ThfofEss-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(11)
Level 10: Fallout Shelter -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Toxic Dart -- EntChs-Acc/Dmg(A), EntChs-Dmg/EndRdx(13), EntChs-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), EntChs-Dmg/Rchg(15)
Level 14: Speed of Sound -- Clr-Stlth(A)
Level 16: Radiation Therapy -- Heal-I(A), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(17), RechRdx-I(17), ScrDrv-Dam%(25)
Level 18: Irradiated Ground -- Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Mlt-Acc/EndRdx(21), AchHee-ResDeb%(21)
Level 20: Beta Decay -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Corrosive Vial -- AnlWkn-Acc/Rchg(A), TchofLadG-%Dam(23), PstBls-Dam%(23), ShlBrk-%Dam(25)
Level 24: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(27), ResDam-I(27)
Level 28: Devastating Blow -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Particle Shielding -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Atom Smasher -- Empty(A)
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 1: Quick Form
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(15)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PwrTrns-EndMod(A), PwrTrns-+Heal(19)
------------

 

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[Aeroprism]

Beautiful! Thank you so much, I will study this in great detail!