Rad melee single target animation times

[Umagon 23]

Rad melee single target animations are absurdly long.  Going from water blast or claws to rad melee gave me the bends.

 

I'm sure it'll start an avalanche of arguments about balance but I feel like the damage won't improve that much, and that no one is playing rad melee for single target damage anyway. 

 

any chance of having alternate animations (which are fast) for powersets that suffer from this crazy slow attack speed?  i would opt over to a fast one in exchange for the moonmath that makes it satisfy the spreadsheets.

 

does anyone really think that fast rad melee single target hits will upend the game's balance? it seems like claws does everything rad melee does , but faster.

[Infinitum]

Rad melee is pretty good as it is,

 

1. devastating blow is the only really slow animating attack but for such a powerful hit with contamination as a special effect it kinda fits where it should be.

 

2. the rest of the set I believe is balanced around the contamination effect which does splash damage when a contaminated target is hit and a mix of Smashing, energy, and toxic dmg which is applied reliably through atom smasher aoe and irradiated ground aura then the remaining attacks.

 

3. All of the attacks do -def

 

All of that combined actually makes rad melee one of the better one's all around despite its slow ST heavy hitter.

 

Claws while one of the better sets too due to its speed and rotation is strictly lethal dmg, with - def on two powers.

 

If rad melee had claws speed and retained its effects would be horribly imbalanced albeit fun. :-)

[macskull]

Even Devastating Blow's DPA is pretty competitive with other sets' single-target heavy hitters despite its long animation.

[nihilii]

17 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

no one is playing rad melee for single target damage anyway. 

I am. Rad Melee is currently probably top3, or at least top5, for ST damage amongst meleers.

 

You have to play to the strengthes of the powerset. Build proc heavy, forgo local recharge slotting entirely. Make good use of IG's special nature as a double ticking patch aura - it should have both Fury -RES and Achilles -RES, as well as 4 damage procs. Dip into your epics for Gloom/Moonbeam/Zapp.

 

Rad Melee is pretty interesting in that it has a low floor on a "naive" build with 5 or 6 slot sets, and a high ceiling on a build following the above philosophy. I understand where anyone who struggles with Rad Melee ST damage is coming from. I used to be there, dealing ~200 DPS with it. Then it skyrocketed with successive build changes and deeper understanding.

 

All in all, the set is chock-full of utility. Oozes of passive AoE damage as you deal ST, through Irradiated Ground and Contamination. A reliable self-heal as part of your attack chain with Radiation Siphon. Tons of room for procs. And a plain great direct AoE attack, if all of the above wasn't enough. You've got to pay a price for all these goodies, and it's sensible to have slow, ponderous attacks that initially don't deal impressive DPA, else there would be no reason to ever pick anything else.

 

17 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

does anyone really think that fast rad melee single target hits will upend the game's balance?

I truly think it would. The powerset is already overplayed by farmers. It is top tier in the regular game and top tier for farming.

 

Now that Titan Weapons got brought back to reality, Rad Melee is really, really good. Any sort of buff would bring it firmly in the realm of overpowered.

 

Count your blessings as it is. I hope the Great Proc Change sometimes alluded to will never come to fruition, but if it does, Radiation Melee might be hit proportionally harder than other powersets. Then might be the time to ask for buffs.

Edited December 2, 2020 by nihilii