Guide to Leveling Rad/Dark Tanker Solo and Teaming

[DougGraves]

Guide to Leveling Rad/Dark Tanker Solo and Teaming

 

This guide covers the power for an rad/dark tanker while leveling solo and with teams. How to use them, how useful they are, and how to slot them. Slotting is recommended while leveling so they are lean - once you get extra slots at levels 33+ go wild. This completely ignores end game and IO sets.

 

Why Rad/Dark? Radiation gets its coverage and healing quickly, so you can tank for teams without holes in your protections. Radiation is mostly resistance with some -to hit and dark melee gives -to hit for additional protection. And radiation and dark give a number of aoe attacks. This makes it good for soloing as well as teaming.

 

Why Not Rad/Dark? Radiation is not as tough as you might like. You can take a lot of damage from an alpha on a full team. If your heal is not up you can be in trouble. This pairing focuses more on damage than survival.

 

Overall: Rad/Dark is great for doing aoe damage and healing yourself without END issues. It gets +recharge per foe around you but is not great at taking alphas, so you want balance the number of foes you are fighting.

 

Basic Tactics: Always have Particle Shielding on. Start fight with Soul Drain for +damage. Use Touch of Fear for an aoe of slight damage and control/debuff. Use Ground Zero for aoe damage. Use Shadow Maul for aoe damage. Then use Radiation Therapy for aoe damage and to refill your health.

 

Radiation Armor

 

Alpha Barrier: Your substantial smashing, lethal, and toxic Res toggle. Get this first. Slot 3 Resistance.

 

Gamma Boost: Gives you more +Rec when you have HP and more +Regen when you are down HP. You want more +Regen but this is not great, so take it only when there is not something better. Slot 1 Healing.

 

Proton Armor: Your substantial energy, fire, and negative Res and slight cold Res toggle. Get this second. Slot 3 Resistance.

 

Fallout Shelter: Your status resistance toggle plus some fire, energy, negative, psionic, and toxic Res. This is your only psi Res. Get this asap. Slot 3 Resistance.

 

Radiation Therapy: This heals you and gives you END based on number of enemies you hit, and does slight damage to enemies. It also gives -regen which might help slightly on AVs and GMs. The healing is not a lot, even surrounded by enemies you will not heal all of the way up. Slot 2 Recharge 1 Healing.

 

Beta Decay: Your taunt aura which gives -to hit and -Def to foes and it gives you +Recharge per foe. This makes your powers come back significantly faster if you can surround yourself with foes. Note that slotting +Recharge does not increase your recharge bonus, it just makes the toggle come back faster. Slot 1 End.

 

Particle Shielding: This boosts your regeneration for 30s and gives you absorption and +recovery for 100s. This is a major survival power, especially for the alpha strike.  The shielding can be critical for surviving long enough to heal.  With a recharge of 2 minutes, 2 recharges get this down to 1m 9s and some recharge from Beta Decay should make this permanent.  Then add as much healing to it as you can.  Once you have this you will not have END problems. Slot 3 Healing, 2 Recharge.

 

Ground Zero: A pbaoe that damages foes and heals allies (slightly). Can affect up to 30 total. It starts with 1.2 accuracy. Use this as often as you can. Slot 3 Recharge.

 

Meltdown: Gives you a large Res bonus to all damage, significant damage and recovery bonus for 1m. Afterwards you lose 10% of your END and all of your Recovery. With an 8 minute recharge this is a panic button. Slot 1 Recharge.

 

 

Dark Melee

 

Shadow Punch: Basic weak melee attack but gives -5.25% to hit so it provides protection. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Smite: Basic moderate melee attack but gives -5.25% to hit. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Shadow Maul: A short range cone AoE. It does fair damage and gives -5.25% to hit. Learn to target a foe then move to get a group in the AoE (can hit 10 targets). Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Taunt: Taunt and -range. You want this to pull foes to you. Slot 1 Range.

 

Siphon Life: Melee attack. Better damage than smite and it heals you if it hits and gives -5.25% to hit, but twice the activation time. Use this whenever you need health but not just as an attack in your chain. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Touch of Fear: Creates a small AoE around your target. Does magnitude 3 Fear for 7s with a 30% chance of +1 magnitude, does minor damage, and gives -10.5% to hit for 20s. This is a good debuff with a fast recharge. Keep the -to hit on your foes if you need the protection. Slot 1 Accuracy.

 

Soul Drain: This is a pbaoe that does low damage and gives you a large damage bonus for 30s based on how many foes you hit. This makes a huge damage difference, use this at the start of a fight before you use your other aoes. Starts with a good accuracy 1.2x. Slot 3 Recharge.

 

Dark Consumption: This is a pbaoe that does low damage and gives you END based on how many foes you hit. You should not have END problems so this is mostly an AoE for you. Probably not worth taking for the minor damage. Slot 1 Recharge.

 

Midnight Grasp: Melee attack doing high damage over time, immobilizes, and gives -5.25% to hit. Take to increase your single target damage. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage, 1 Recharge.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by DougGraves