Radiation Blast/Martial Combat blaster. Help me like this character

[Heraclea]

Someone on a PUG Moonfire a few weeks ago was raving about how wonderful Martial Combat was as a blaster secondary.  Curiosity piqued; challenge accepted.   Character is currently at level 45.

 

I rolled a radiation blast/martial combat blaster mostly because I had used neither power set before.  That was the extent of the careful plan I made.

 

Martial combat is ... weird.  The sustain power is apparently an aggro aura, which is contrary to the way I am used to building blasters.  When running solo missions I have to be careful to leave it off.  It does have one virtue in that mobs don't like to be there and get out of melee range.  I recedntly took Bonfire to make that more effective.

 

The signature power seems to be a teleport similar to Shield Charge.  I've been using this to port into mobs, drop the PBAoE Rad nuke, and port away, being careful not to use it three times in a row. 

 

The t9 of Martial Combat is apparently a ... single target melee attack.  Have no idea what to do with it or whether I need it. 

 

Should I be building this blaster for tanking?  An awful lot of these powers are melee or PBAoE, and my favorite blasters have no melee attacks at all. 

[KelvinKole]

Well, here is a few selling points

 

kai push, as I’m sure know, is a repel power that then knocks the target down when hit with a follow up attack. Very few things have protection to repel so this will get the vast majority of heavies away from you and then buy you time to dps them while they try to get up. Way better than an immob or traditional knock back in my book. 
 

burst of speed is a great mobility tool to get into pbaoe range fast. On rad, I could see myself opening with electron haze to put some mobs on their backs, burst of speed in, and then hit the pbaoes. 
 

reaction time is an aura hit it slow mobs, and that’s a good thing to me. Those targets that are a little too close for comfort will have reduced recharge and you can kite them easier. It offers the standard recovery buff for blaster sustain powers, which is quite high, and pulses an absorb instead of a regen buff that some others get. The absorb is better. 
 

Inner will is just a treat that most other blasters don’t get to enjoy. You carry a break free with you at all times and it’s a good chunck self heal when you need it. 
 

eagles claw is wow. You might be familiar with the version in martial arts sets, but this is not that. It hits harder, justifying the animation time, and comes with a dot. This thing is scary. I love to hit Kai push and queue eagles claw. The target will be repelled, but eagles claw will trigger while still in range. They won’t be a problem anymore. 
 

You don’t need to take storm kick or dragons tail. You don’t have to play it melee, but more as a mobile blaster with good sustain and some brutal melee attacks to toss in. 
 

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by KelvinKole

[Uun]

2 hours ago, KelvinKole said:

You don’t need to take storm kick or dragons tail.

 

Storm Kick is 100% chance of knockdown and Dragoon's Tail is 75% chance of knockdown. Even if you don't want to blap, that's a lot of mitigation. 

[brasilgringo]

1 hour ago, Uun said:

 

Storm Kick is 100% chance of knockdown and Dragoon's Tail is 75% chance of knockdown. Even if you don't want to blap, that's a lot of mitigation. 

plus you can put Force Feedback +Rchrg in them!  that's the best part!! 

[SwitchFade]

@Heraclea

 

I've tried /MC on multiple blaster primaries.

 

In the end, the one I like and kept, is DP/.

 

First, MC is fun, but it is a bit of a mix and match. It has unique flare and fun powers, but I do not consider it extremely potent. When I rolled my DP/MC, it was with full knowledge that this would be my inexpensive relaxing toon, which I play at 0/3 - 1/3.

 

I have it kitted, but with inexpensive sets. I main her in IP doing tip missions and inviting anyone along, her story is that IP is her home and she stays mainly there.

 

In short, everything I paired with /MC was ok, but the theme was what made it stick. The powers are not quite synergistic, the mitigation is good but not great, and I settled on a casual relaxing toon.

 

That said, I'm sure if I focused on her like I did iBlap, my water/elec and went 700mill+, she would be a monster. What stopped me was the slightly disjointed way the powers in MC are, not quite a smooth gel.

[Hover]

Ki push into laser eyes is just about the coolest thing you can do in this game. Bonus points if you mi push off a building.

[Heraclea]

8 hours ago, Hover said:

Ki push into laser eyes is just about the coolest thing you can do in this game. Bonus points if you mi push off a building.

What would be even better if the power were named Ni push.....

Edited June 26, 2021 by Heraclea

[InvaderStych]

On 6/25/2021 at 9:24 PM, Hover said:

Ki push into laser eyes is just about the coolest thing you can do in this game. Bonus points if you mi push off a building.

 

Ki Push might just be the best mini-game in The Cities.  Extra Bonus Points for sending them into Lava.  Less useful, but still hilarious; knocking them off the hovering battleships in that SSA mission.

 

On 6/25/2021 at 6:57 AM, Heraclea said:

Should I be building this blaster for tanking?  An awful lot of these powers are melee or PBAoE, and my favorite blasters have no melee attacks at all. 

 

IDK how to build a blaster for tanking, but /MC is definitely melee-centric.  I could prattle on endlessly about how awesome /MC is, but I sort of already have done.  Definitely take SK and DT; the knockdown is awesome, and SK has better DPA than Eagle's.  Eagle's is a bit of a trap, it can drop a big number, but the DPA isn't great.  However, it's a good place to grab big set bonuses, so you can decide it's value from there.  I do use it, but conditionally.  The stun can be good, but less reliable than the KD from the other two kicks. 

 

It helps to learn to love Combat Teleport as well, imo.  Here's some of my TLDR rambling about /MC.  Enjoy! 🤣

 

 

[Elia87]

How would you guys rank radiation blast?

[Meknomancer]

I have a few martial blasters, rad/ma is my most played it just feels right sitting in melee spamming irradiate/burst of speed/dragons tail everything gets def debuffed and knocked down its one of the lazy ma toons i don't feel the need to be hopping about teleporting in and out of combat.

[Zepp]

The way that Reaction Time works makes this set ideal for a Jump-in melee/Kick-back blast mixed style of combat.

I tend to recommend that you use something like "/bind j "PowExecLocation Target Burst of Speed$$PowExecToggleOn Reaction Time$$GoToTray 1"" to enter melee range followed by "/bind k "PowExecLocation 180:60 Combat Teleport$$PowExecToggleOff Reaction Time$$GoToTray 2"" to go to blast range.

 

What does that do?
You can have all your melee attacks set up in Tray 1 to Jump in and start PBAoEing up the place with a -Recharge/Slow to help with mitigation. You also start off getting the first PBAoE in with Burst of Speed.

Then you have all your ranged attacks set up in Tray 2. You Kick back into blaster range (180 means you TP backwards, 60 is the shortest ranged attack range, adjust for your needs) and Combat TP gives you +ToHit. In addition, turning off Reaction Time not only cuts down on endurance, but also it gives you a boost to Recharge and mobility.

 

This gives you a smooth and effective way to jump in and out of mobs while optimizing your performance for the mode of combat you are in at the time.

With Rad you can go pure melee if you like, but you lose a lot of the appeal of the /MA set.

[GhostDawg]

On 6/25/2021 at 6:57 AM, Heraclea said:

Someone on a PUG Moonfire a few weeks ago was raving about how wonderful Martial Combat was as a blaster secondary.  Curiosity piqued; challenge accepted.   Character is currently at level 45.

 

I rolled a radiation blast/martial combat blaster mostly because I had used neither power set before.  That was the extent of the careful plan I made.

 

Martial combat is ... weird.  The sustain power is apparently an aggro aura, which is contrary to the way I am used to building blasters.  When running solo missions I have to be careful to leave it off.  It does have one virtue in that mobs don't like to be there and get out of melee range.  I recedntly took Bonfire to make that more effective.

 

The signature power seems to be a teleport similar to Shield Charge.  I've been using this to port into mobs, drop the PBAoE Rad nuke, and port away, being careful not to use it three times in a row. 

 

The t9 of Martial Combat is apparently a ... single target melee attack.  Have no idea what to do with it or whether I need it. 

 

Should I be building this blaster for tanking?  An awful lot of these powers are melee or PBAoE, and my favorite blasters have no melee attacks at all. 

I've used both sets to great success but not together. Rad/Rad blaster and DP/Martial. I like both but I'm not sure I'd pair them together. But off hand, you could teleport into the middle of a spawn doing mild damage, then unleash irradiate lowering defense, followed by dragon's tail knocking them off their feet. Then flow right into atomic blast. Damn if that don't sound tasty. And then you could also follow up cosmic burst with eagle's claw and stun bosses while doing massive single target damage. If I wasn't already leveling an ICE/MA blaster right now I'd try that combo myself.

 

The sustain isn't just a taunt effect. It's also fairly noticeable mitigation and absorption.

 

Martial also comes with it's own break free. How cool is that?

 

And honestly dude, if you can't see the value of a high damage single target melee attack that does extreme damage and has a high value DoT effect after the fact? I don't know what to tell you.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2021 by GhostDawg

[GhostDawg]

On 7/5/2021 at 12:21 PM, Elia87 said:

How would you guys rank radiation blast?

I can only compare it to other blaster sets I've played.

 

Fire outclasses it in raw damage. But Radiation uses less endurance and has a bit of CC.

Ice outclasses it in CC. But Radiation has greater AOE potential and an actual snipe. I also think  Atomic blast is a superior nuke.

Weirdly I prefer Electric to Radiation. On its own Radiation blast is better, but Elec has greater synergy with some secondaries like /Elec and /EM.

DP and Radiation are kind of equal to me. DP has better single target and AoE attacks but it's mostly S/L and therefore highly resisted. Using pyro rounds does help with that though. In the end I found DP to be surprisingly effective. Atomic blast might edge things in radiation blast's favor a bit. Also DP has no snipe.

Beam VS. Radiation.... I'm going to have to throw my support behind Beam Rifle. The Burst damage is effing ridiculous. 3 shotting bosses ridiculous. Sure the AoE options are middling... but hot damn. Toss in disintegration to add insult to injury and Beam is a freaking beast.

 

Edited September 13, 2021 by GhostDawg

[ZorkNemesis]

One thing I don't see mentioned here as another major selling point as to why Ki Push may be the best Blaster T1:  in addition to the repel, there's also a 2-second Mag 4 Hold during that time before the knockback hits.  Ki Push can detoggle and incapacitate most boss tier enemies.  Sure Energy and Sonic also havr big T1 KBs, but Ki Push can also remove troublesome armor or damage toggles during its KB.

 

Oh, and by the way, Ki Push's KB after the repel is relative to your position.  If you Ki Push them, then use Burst of Speed to get behind them as they slo-mo fly away, they get KB'd back toward where they started.  It's stupidly hillarious.

 

Edited September 13, 2021 by ZorkNemesis

[Nightmarer 2]

On 6/25/2021 at 3:57 PM, Heraclea said:

Someone on a PUG Moonfire a few weeks ago was raving about how wonderful Martial Combat was as a blaster secondary.  Curiosity piqued; challenge accepted.   Character is currently at level 45.

 

I rolled a radiation blast/martial combat blaster mostly because I had used neither power set before.  That was the extent of the careful plan I made.

 

Martial combat is ... weird.  The sustain power is apparently an aggro aura, which is contrary to the way I am used to building blasters.  When running solo missions I have to be careful to leave it off.  It does have one virtue in that mobs don't like to be there and get out of melee range.  I recedntly took Bonfire to make that more effective.

 

The signature power seems to be a teleport similar to Shield Charge.  I've been using this to port into mobs, drop the PBAoE Rad nuke, and port away, being careful not to use it three times in a row. 

 

The t9 of Martial Combat is apparently a ... single target melee attack.  Have no idea what to do with it or whether I need it. 

 

Should I be building this blaster for tanking?  An awful lot of these powers are melee or PBAoE, and my favorite blasters have no melee attacks at all. 

The way I see it, you chose a power combination that excels in melee. MC, as you have seen, it's melee centric with it's sustain, T9, etc... and works perfectly with Irradiate. Also, as described on previous posts, you can always have fun with ki push and the snipe or x-ray beam

[InvaderStych]

On 9/10/2021 at 11:37 AM, Zepp said:

In addition, turning off Reaction Time not only cuts down on endurance

 

I apologize in advance for being "That Guy ..."

 

RT is Martial's sustain toggle.  It has no endurance cost of its own and increases recovery significantly.  Turning it off has the exact opposite affect as the above. My Fire/MC slaughters the blue bar if I leave it off for too long.  Between that and the activation time I leave it on nearly all the time, though I will occasionally de-toggle during door to door travel when on a particularly fast moving team.

[Zepp]

26 minutes ago, InvaderStych said:

 

I apologize in advance for being "That Guy ..."

 

RT is Martial's sustain toggle.  It has no endurance cost of its own and increases recovery significantly.  Turning it off has the exact opposite affect as the above. My Fire/MC slaughters the blue bar if I leave it off for too long.  Between that and the activation time I leave it on nearly all the time, though I will occasionally de-toggle during door to door travel when on a particularly fast moving team.

Sorry, I haven't been playing my /MC for a while so I messed up on the endurance cost & +Rec aspects of the power. In my experience, I never left it off for more than 10s, just long enough to enjoy the +Rech with my blasts.

[InvaderStych]

3 hours ago, Zepp said:

In my experience, I never left it off for more than 10s, just long enough to enjoy the +Rech with my blasts.

 

No apologies needed!  I don't know why I fixated on that little detail buried in what was otherwise fantastic advice for the set.  Doubtless that cycling RT is the way to get the most out of it, I'm just too ham-fisted and forgetful for such things. 🤣 I've got a handful of macros on mine (CT, BoS, Rain) but they're nowhere near as complex as the one's you've got going.  I keep it pretty simple.

[Zepp]

10 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

No apologies needed!  I don't know why I fixated on that little detail buried in what was otherwise fantastic advice for the set.  Doubtless that cycling RT is the way to get the most out of it, I'm just too ham-fisted and forgetful for such things. 🤣 I've got a handful of macros on mine (CT, BoS, Rain) but they're nowhere near as complex as the one's you've got going.  I keep it pretty simple.

You should see my Kheldian binds...