Radiation Melee

[StriderIV]

How does it perform on scrappers? I’ve always looked at it as a Brute/Tanker set, but it seems to do well on the Trapdoor tests.

 

Anyone have any experience with it on scrappers? How do you feel it stacks up to other primaries?

[Sir Myshkin]

RadMelee/DA was one of my first characters rolled on Homecoming and it proved to be quite the beast. Most of Radiation is focused on ST performance, but you gain a lot of mileage out of the contaminate effect and the AoE drop patch. If you pair it with an armor that also has an AoE aura you'll find you do surprisingly well in the AoE department in passive damage. This factor alone is likely a strong reason it may appear to do well in that Trapdoor test as Atom Smasher in conjunction with Irradiated Ground and something like Death Shroud and a few hits of contaminated damage will wipe out all of the minions in a spawn within 6-8 seconds leaving a Scrapper focused on just the Bosses in in each group. I've definitely never had any complaints playing it.

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, Sir Myshkin said:

RadMelee/DA was one of my first characters rolled on Homecoming and it proved to be quite the beast. Most of Radiation is focused on ST performance, but you gain a lot of mileage out of the contaminate effect and the AoE drop patch. If you pair it with an armor that also has an AoE aura you'll find you do surprisingly well in the AoE department in passive damage. This factor alone is likely a strong reason it may appear to do well in that Trapdoor test as Atom Smasher in conjunction with Irradiated Ground and something like Death Shroud and a few hits of contaminated damage will wipe out all of the minions in a spawn within 6-8 seconds leaving a Scrapper focused on just the Bosses in in each group. I've definitely never had any complaints playing it.

Appreciate this Myshkin! All of that makes sense. Per your point of matching it with a secondary that has a damage aura, I was looking at either Bio or Ice Armor. Would you have a recommendation?

[DreadShinobi]

Rad Melee has extremely high self healing potential, ie higher than dark melee. 

 

Siphon Life with 99% enhanced heal and vigor alpha = 310 hp heal

Radiation Siphon with the same = 620 hp heal

 

It is not hard to find contaminated targets to heal off of. And even if you're Dark melee spamming siphon life, you have to cast it twice as much to get the same healing as Rad Melee casually grabbing the mega heals as the opportunities present themselves. Build Up/Fusion also guarantees contamination application, and Atom Smasher contaminates an entire spawn so you can chain heal with Radiation Siphon as well with consistency.

 

I would say there is strong synergy with Shield Defense.

 

 

 

[StriderIV]

9 hours ago, DreadShinobi said:

Rad Melee has extremely high self healing potential, ie higher than dark melee. 

 

Siphon Life with 99% enhanced heal and vigor alpha = 310 hp heal

Radiation Siphon with the same = 620 hp heal

 

It is not hard to find contaminated targets to heal off of. And even if you're Dark melee spamming siphon life, you have to cast it twice as much to get the same healing as Rad Melee casually grabbing the mega heals as the opportunities present themselves. Build Up/Fusion also guarantees contamination application, and Atom Smasher contaminates an entire spawn so you can chain heal with Radiation Siphon as well with consistency.

 

I would say there is strong synergy with Shield Defense.

 

 

 

Thanks Shinobi!

 

This is very helpful. I knew Rad Melee had it's heal, but I had no idea how strong it was! I have a DM/Shield scrapper (my only Scrapper currently), so perhaps I'll take a look at a couple other secondaries just to switch it up. I was looking at Ice Armor, but it is such an endurance hog so that scares me away a bit. Bio seems like it MAY be a bit more manageable.

[Uun]

I've got a Rad/Rad scrapper that's very strong. My biggest complaint is the narrow, short cone and low damage on Proton Sweep. I feel like that power needs to be fixed to provide the set with another AoE attack to supplement Atom Smasher and Irradiated Ground. I've got Ground Zero from /Rad. Shield Charge would also help.

 

Also, the animation on Devastating Blow is soooo long (and not interesting at all).

[StriderIV]

3 minutes ago, Uun said:

I've got a Rad/Rad scrapper that's very strong. My biggest complaint is the narrow, short cone and low damage on Proton Sweep. I feel like that power needs to be fixed to provide the set with another AoE attack to supplement Atom Smasher and Irradiated Ground. I've got Ground Zero from /Rad. Shield Charge would also help.

 

Also, the animation on Devastating Blow is soooo long (and not interesting at all).

+1 to the animation on devastating blow 😂 I was looking at it in the character creator and like “I could go get a drink before this animation finished” lol

[Sir Myshkin]

16 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Appreciate this Myshkin! All of that makes sense. Per your point of matching it with a secondary that has a damage aura, I was looking at either Bio or Ice Armor. Would you have a recommendation?

You could easily do either one and be good either way. Ice Armor having slows also incorporated will add into keeping things in contaminate range. Bio Armor is a generally beastly secondary either way.

[ninja surprise]

5 hours ago, StriderIV said:

I was looking at Ice Armor, but it is such an endurance hog

 

It's not that much of a hog, just the standard 3 toggles for defense + status protection. But then Chilling Embrace + Icicles bumps it up a bit. Energy Absorption resolves the problem though.

 

Rad Melee is a pretty nifty set with good damage and AoE (despite Proton Sweep). 

But I get underwhelmed with it because the two big attacks have dopey animations: "Squat down, hold still, then punch" (But I do really like the expanding circle VFX); and the  "Jump 1 foot into the air, hover a sec, then land and punch the ground". 

It's made worse by my preference for minimum-height toons. I can't even see them when they squat or jump in the middle of a big spawn so it doesn't look like anything is happening during the attack animation.

[Hew]

Ice armor is fine once you get (energy absorbtion?) at like, 26. Then it zings along merrily.

[StriderIV]

2 hours ago, ninja surprise said:

 

It's not that much of a hog, just the standard 3 toggles for defense + status protection. But then Chilling Embrace + Icicles bumps it up a bit. Energy Absorption resolves the problem though.

 

Rad Melee is a pretty nifty set with good damage and AoE (despite Proton Sweep). 

But I get underwhelmed with it because the two big attacks have dopey animations: "Squat down, hold still, then punch" (But I do really like the expanding circle VFX); and the  "Jump 1 foot into the air, hover a sec, then land and punch the ground". 

It's made worse by my preference for minimum-height toons. I can't even see them when they squat or jump in the middle of a big spawn so it doesn't look like anything is happening during the attack animation.

GREAT points. Atom Smasher I don’t really mind, since I typically slot an Avalanche set into it. Adding the knockdown makes it more satisfying to me. But Devastating Blow needs an update haha

[StriderIV]

3 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

You could easily do either one and be good either way. Ice Armor having slows also incorporated will add into keeping things in contaminate range. Bio Armor is a generally beastly secondary either way.

Yeah. Now I’m thinking I need to make a Rad/Bio scrapper and a Ice/Spines Tanker 😂 I believe Spines has a slow on it’s damage aura as well? Could just be slow overkill.

Edited April 28, 2021 by StriderIV

[ninja surprise]

Correct, all of Spine's attacks have slow.

Rad/Bio would be a good combo! No weapon redraw, just smash!

[StriderIV]

5 minutes ago, ninja surprise said:

Correct, all of Spine's attacks have slow.

Rad/Bio would be a good combo! No weapon redraw, just smash!

Good to know. Ice/Spines sounds like it could be an inescapable tank, although I’m sure it could work well on a scrapper as well. Rad/Bio strikes be as being DECENT AOE for a scrapper, while also being able to take down AV’s.

[DreadShinobi]

I played an Ice Armor/Fire Melee tanker back on live, it was endurance stable with just SOs.

[ZorkNemesis]

6 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Good to know. Ice/Spines sounds like it could be an inescapable tank, although I’m sure it could work well on a scrapper as well.

 

Spines/Ice is my current Scrapper project.  Pretty nifty combo with all the slows, dual damage auras and a lot of AoE.  A little fragile at times though with defense based defenses, and no Psi protection without some IO investment.  Still powerful, Build Up and Spine Burst/Ripper with the dual auras usually kills most anything not a boss, and Ripper crits tend to delete Lts as well; nothing escapes attack range with the stacking slows which is nice considering the lack of taunt.  End is mostly a non-issue with basic IO slotting.  Energy Absorption keeps me topped up (even without EndMod slotting, +15 per mob autohit) and Icy Bastion is also good for a brief window of recovery (+200% recovery for the 30 seconds it's up).  Planning to pick up Hibernate from Leviathan Mastery so that will also be a good recharge button if needed.

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by ZorkNemesis

[StriderIV]

9 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

 

Spines/Ice is my current Scrapper project.  Pretty nifty combo with all the slows, dual damage auras and a lot of AoE.  A little fragile at times though with defense based defenses, and no Psi protection without some IO investment.  Still powerful, Build Up and Spine Burst/Ripper with the dual auras usually kills most anything not a boss, and Ripper crits tend to delete Lts as well; nothing escapes attack range with the stacking slows which is nice considering the lack of taunt.  End is mostly a non-issue with basic IO slotting.  Energy Absorption keeps me topped up (even without EndMod slotting, +15 per mob autohit) and Icy Bastion is also good for a brief window of recovery (+200% recovery for the 30 seconds it's up).  Planning to pick up Hibernate from Leviathan Mastery so that will also be a good recharge button if needed.

 

Question on that: I heard that Rad Melee's AOE damage toggle continues to tick even when you use hibernate... I wonder if it's the same for Spines? Pretty cool interaction if so.

[Arbegla]

46 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

Question on that: I heard that Rad Melee's AOE damage toggle continues to tick even when you use hibernate... I wonder if it's the same for Spines? Pretty cool interaction if so.

 

Rad's damage aura actually drops psuedo pets that continue the damage. So the aura itself isn't doing anything, except dropped the pets. That's why it 'works' when you use hibernate.

 

Spine's damage aura is from you, so it will suppress when you hibernate (or use any other OAS powers)

[StriderIV]

2 hours ago, Arbegla said:

 

Rad's damage aura actually drops psuedo pets that continue the damage. So the aura itself isn't doing anything, except dropped the pets. That's why it 'works' when you use hibernate.

 

Spine's damage aura is from you, so it will suppress when you hibernate (or use any other OAS powers)

Good to know! That is an interesting/cool interaction between Ice Armor and Rad Melee. To clarify, your “pet” will continue to do damage, even while you’re in hibernate?

Edited April 28, 2021 by StriderIV

[Arbegla]

9 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

Good to know! That is an interesting/cool interaction between Ice Armor and Rad Melee. To clarify, your “pet” will continue to do damage, even while you’re in hibernate?

 

The pseudo-pet, yes. Its the same idea behind the Mastermind pets attacking if the mastermind is held, or a controller pet attacking if the controller is OAS.

[StriderIV]

3 minutes ago, Arbegla said:

 

The pseudo-pet, yes. Its the same idea behind the Mastermind pets attacking if the mastermind is held, or a controller pet attacking if the controller is OAS.

Really cool, appreciate the info man!