Radiation Armor for Scrappers

[Metatheory]

I've been leveling a DM/Rad scrapper which is a nice & fun combination that brings a lot of options for both attack and defense.

 

It has a ton of AoE possibilities with Maul, Touch of Fear, Soul Drain, Dark Consumption, Ground Zero, and even Radiation Therapy so it is very effective at mowing through large mobs of enemies.

 

The question is, what is the best path to survivability in general and additionally taking on tough targets?

 

There is a lot to take in and RA gives you a lot of options for how one *could* approach building for survivability. I don't usually play resistance sets on scrappers and don't have much experience with WP/Regen either so I'm not really sure how the numbers from Radiation will 'come together' in the late game. Additionally, it seems like slots will be at a premium for the build. There are a lot of desirable powers from both the primary and the secondary and rather few 'one slot wonders' so far as I can tell. This will place some limits on what set bonuses can be achieved.

 

Resistance: it looks like with set bonuses and tough it should be fairly straightforward to get to 60-70% in most damage types. Meltdown can cap you pretty much across the board, however, it is probably only available around a third of the time at best. Rune of protection could be used for additional gap closing but it will take quite a lot of investment to get it, it will need some heavy slotting and with a 75% res-cap on scrappers probably not worth it overall?

 

Regen: Particle Shielding can pretty easily be made perma and +200% regen or more. Radiation Therapy also buffs regen (amongst other effects) and probably could be made to increase regen by around 200%. These numbers sound good, but are they enough to make reliance on high regen a major focus? And using Therapy for regen means not using it as a mini-nuke so there is some cost to that approach. Gamma Boost also buffs regen, and being an auto power it is one of those which seems hard to gauge how useful it is overall?

 

Absorb: Particle Shielding also brings a pretty nice absorb shield which is always available (with Hasten and a few bonuses)

 

Defence: nothing out of the box, but with weave, CJ, bonuses and uniques, etc it is probably within range to get low 30's % to one or more positional types. It could also be possible to chase typed defense but probably a bit too limiting in terms of what can be slotted into attacks. Chasing serious levels of defense looks like it will get too expensive in terms of compromises elsewhere to chase specific bonuses at the cost of power utility. Shadow Meld can also be in play to close the gap between 30-ish % and the soft cap. It only requires two power picks and it is pretty good out-of-the-box, plus has a decent amount of uptown with the type of recharge most builds achieve. Also with a DM primary some investment in defense pays off because of the ghetto-defense in all of DM's attacks. 

 

These days pretty much every armor set ends up building layered defenses, but Radiation Armor on scrappers does seem to be a somewhat unique set of tools. There are quite a few elements which it brings which aren't covered here, in particular relating to endurance management, so there really are a lot of possibilities with it.

 

What are peoples' experiences with building it out for scrapper survivability?

 

 

[Nightmarer 2]

Softcapping S/L def would be a must for me. Another trick would be adding the KD proc from Avalanche winter set in ground zero which added to Particle Shielding and Radiation Therapy should keep any scrapper alive without major issues. Other primaries have also different survivability tools that add to these, Mass Levitate in Psi Melee, KD in War Mace, Ice patch in Ice melee... in your case, you benefit from Siphon Life to keep your hp bar topped and if you softcapped your scrapper to S/L, then you'd also benefit greatly from your DM's inherent To Hit Debuff.

 

[Uun]

My current /rad build has moderate defense (20%ish) but focuses on resistance and regen.

• I played around with slotting Gamma Boost but found it wasn't worth it. Stick an endmod IO or performance shifter proc in it and call it a day.
• Radiation Therapy not only provides +regen, it also provides a decent heal per foe in range. You can easily get the recharge under 30 seconds. I haven't tried using it as a proc bomb.
• Beta Decay debuffs foe defense and tohit and buffs your recharge. It's autohit, so it really doesn't need more than 1 slot (I recommend an Enzyme HO), unless you want to add an Achilles Heel proc.
• While the +regen from Particle Shielding is nice, the absorb shield is key. You want that perma, particularly against damage types you're weak against. You want to use it proactively, not after you've already taken damage.
• There are different philosophies for slotting Ground Zero (procs vs dmg). I currently have it 6-slotted with Obliteration.

 

 

[Metatheory]

I know what you mean @Nightmarerbut in this case it is very expensive to cap S/L on a radiation armor scrapper - and I don't mean in terms of infl (although it's also quite expensive!).

 

I assume to cap S/L you are thinking about 2*3 scrapper's strike, plus blistering cold, avalanche, weave with lots of slots, combat jump/hover, uniques... and even so this won't get you beyond mid-30's %. This build doesn't have that many single target melee attacks, so you are forced to slot what you have with these IOs and not others. I don't think you have the luxury of heavy slotting boxing or brawl for set bonuses as it looks like the secondary is also very slot heavy to get the max out of it. Considering that praetorian enemies in particular bring lots of non-S/L damage too I'm not sure that capping typed def is the right way to go for a /Rad. I definitely could be wrong there, but I suspect it may not be worth the cost.

 

Thanks @Uun. The resistances is fairly straight forward, I think. How much survivability does the +Regen bring in your opinion? I find it difficult to gauge how much the +400-ish % gives you.

[Nightmarer 2]

Not really THAT expensive if you remove the purple set tbh. This is my Ice/Rad but softcapping to S/L can be done with most sets, all you need is to look for alternate slotting solutions.

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 3.0.1.9
https://github.com/Reborn-Team/Hero-Designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Ice Melee
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Ice Sword -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), ImpSwf-Dam%(37), TchofDth-Dam%(40)
Level 1: Alpha Barrier -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(3), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(3), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(7)
Level 2: Frost -- SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(42), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(46)
Level 4: Proton Armor -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(5), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(5), UnbGrd-Max HP%(7)
Level 6: Gamma Boost -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 8: Frozen Fists -- SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(9), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(11), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(40), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 10: Fallout Shelter -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), HO:Ribo(17)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Ksm-ToHit+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(13), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(13), Rct-ResDam%(46)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Ice Patch -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Radiation Therapy -- SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(A), Erd-%Dam(19), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(19), TchoftheN-%Dam(23), Obl-%Dam(50)
Level 20: Greater Ice Sword -- Hct-Dam%(A), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(21), Hct-Dmg(21), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Hct-Acc/Rchg(29), TchofDth-Dam%(34)
Level 22: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 24: Beta Decay -- SphIns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SphIns-ToHitDeb(25), SphIns-Acc/ToHitDeb(25), SphIns-Acc/Rchg(37), SphIns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(48), AchHee-ResDeb%(50)
Level 26: Freezing Touch -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(27), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(27), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), TchofDth-Dam%(39), NrnSht-Dam%(39)
Level 28: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(31), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(31), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(31)
Level 32: Frozen Aura -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(33), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(33), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Obl-%Dam(34)
Level 35: Ground Zero -- Obl-%Dam(A), AchHee-ResDeb%(36), TchofLadG-%Dam(36), Erd-%Dam(36), Arm-Dam%(37)
Level 38: Particle Shielding -- DctWnd-Rchg(A), DctWnd-Heal/EndRdx(39), DctWnd-EndRdx/Rchg(45), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(48), DctWnd-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 41: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(42), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(45), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(45)
Level 47: Meltdown -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A)
Level 49: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit 
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), Mrc-Rcvry+(15)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(15), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(50)
Level 50: Musculature Total Radial Revamp 
Level 1: Momentum 
------------

Edited January 11, 2021 by Nightmarer

[Nightmarer 2]

Same goes for DM/Rad. Saying it is more or less expensive is one thing which will be true for some people and not true for others but saying that after spending lots of inf best you can get is around mid 30% is simply not true. Just improvised this build, I know it's 0.22% below softcap but some enhancement boosters should sort it out.

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 3.0.1.9
https://github.com/Reborn-Team/Hero-Designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 49 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Smite -- SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(3), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(3), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(5), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5)
Level 1: Alpha Barrier -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(7), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(7), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(9)
Level 2: Shadow Maul -- SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(9), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(13)
Level 4: Proton Armor -- UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15), UnbGrd-ResDam(17), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(17)
Level 6: Touch of Fear -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(19), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(19), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Erd-%Dam(23)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(23), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(25), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), TchofDth-Dam%(27), TchoftheN-%Dam(27)
Level 10: Fallout Shelter -- StdPrt-ResKB(A), UnbGrd-Max HP%(29), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), UnbGrd-ResDam(31), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(31)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Ksm-ToHit+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(31), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(33), Rct-ResDam%(33)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Gamma Boost -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(33), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(34)
Level 18: Radiation Therapy -- Erd-%Dam(A), Obl-%Dam(34), TchoftheN-%Dam(34), ThfofEss-+End%(36), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(36)
Level 20: Beta Decay -- SphIns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SphIns-ToHitDeb(36), SphIns-%ToHit(37), SphIns-Acc/ToHitDeb(37), SphIns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(39), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(39), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(39)
Level 26: Soul Drain -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(40), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(40), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Obl-%Dam(42)
Level 28: Particle Shielding -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(42), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 30: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(43), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(43)
Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(45), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(45), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Hct-Dam%(46), TchofDth-Dam%(46)
Level 35: Ground Zero -- Arm-Dam%(A), Obl-%Dam(46), Erd-%Dam(47), AchHee-ResDeb%(47), TchofLadG-%Dam(48), SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(48)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(48), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(49)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- RgnTss-Regen+(A)
Level 47: Meltdown -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A)
Level 49: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 1: Momentum 
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit 
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(15)
------------

Edited January 11, 2021 by Nightmarer

[Uun]

10 hours ago, Metatheory said:

Thanks @Uun. The resistances is fairly straight forward, I think. How much survivability does the +Regen bring in your opinion? I find it difficult to gauge how much the +400-ish % gives you.

Mine is Rad/Rad, but I find it to be really sturdy in most circumstances. Plays kind of like /WP with a heal. You need to be careful against mobs that do cold damage (i.e., Banished Pantheon in Dark Astoria) or if you plan to take an alpha strike at +4x8.

[Hew]

On 1/11/2021 at 7:05 AM, Nightmarer said:

Not really THAT expensive if you remove the purple set tbh. This is my Ice/Rad but softcapping to S/L can be done with most sets, all you need is to look for alternate slotting solutions.

------------

I think you missed their comment, specifically that inf is not the _only_ cost. You also suffer opportunity cost (as was pointed out) due to poorly, or substandard slotting of meat and potatoes powers. You cant max out actual power slotting capability, AND max out s/l defense, AND max out your resists, AND have enough recharge to crank out the high recharge rad powers. If you are so hell bent on maxing defense at the cost of what the set is built to do, why not just play something like EnA?

[Metatheory]

Yes @Hewthat's right, it is the opportunity cost that makes me skeptical of the capped S/L defense route.

 

Radiation is quite an interesting set for a scrapper, I think, because it really does have a very diverse set of tools to play with. Aside from a small 'terrorize-hole' (which does matter a bit in places like Night Ward) pretty much the only thing it doesn't bring is defense. It has resists, regen, -regen, recovery, AoE damage, -def, recharge, absorb! So - to me - it seems like capping defenses can be done but only by risking to overlook most of the things that the set is actually strong at. That is kinda what I was hoping to discuss a bit here, because there are not a lot of posts about radiation armor on the scrapper board.

 

Having said that, what @Nightmarer showed in a build does give me a few ideas for some slotting of IOs so I'm grateful for that and the DM/ build does cap S/L without completely trashing the secondary.

 

I would prefer that the +Crit proc goes in Midnight Grasp, although in my leveling build it seems to be proccing often from ToF so that could maybe also work. 

 

I like the Shadow Meld option for /Rad. It gives situational high defense making capping unnecessary and giving more flexibility to build out the other survivability components and retain options in slotting of attacks. This also gives flexibility in pool power picks because it is less necessary to pursue Maneuvers and Hover for example, opening maybe a stealth build, or a teleporter, experiment pool maybe...

 

Thanks for the discussion everyone 😃

 

 

[Nightmarer 2]

12 hours ago, Hew said:

 You cant max out actual power slotting capability, AND max out s/l defense, AND max out your resists, AND have enough recharge to crank out the high recharge rad powers.

Not really, it's a matter of understanding the set and knowing what is a priority and what is not. If you are so hellbent on not softcapping to S/L, why don't you play a Rad Scrapper with zero defense whatsoever and see how it goes?

Edited January 13, 2021 by Nightmarer
Typos, typos everywhere

[Hew]

2 hours ago, Nightmarer said:

Not really, it's a matter of understanding the set and knowing what is a priority and what is not. If you are so hellbent on not softcapping to S/L, why don't you play a Rad Scrapper with zero defense whatsoever and see how it goes?

I have played a rad scrapper with broad, incidental defenses, and not softcap anything. @Metatheoryreinforces my comments on opportunity costs. I am curious if you read their post or just wanted to respond in defense of your desire to softcap s/l, because @Metatheoryposted along the same lines of thought I had presented.

 

[Nightmarer 2]

1 hour ago, Hew said:

I have played a rad scrapper with broad, incidental defenses, and not softcap anything. @Metatheoryreinforces my comments on opportunity costs. I am curious if you read their post or just wanted to respond in defense of your desire to softcap s/l, because @Metatheoryposted along the same lines of thought I had presented.

 

Care to share your build? I'd really like to see your superior slotting and compare it to poor or substandard slotting