???/Shield

[iBones]

Hey all o/

 

I have been having a hard time deciding on what build to main. On live, I ran through most combos and mained a Kat/Dark by the end. Here, I have tried SM/Dark, Rad/Fire, and TW/SR.

 

I'm looking for something to dump time and inf into. Rad/Fire is the hawt one right now, but I feel like maybe Rad/Shield may be a bit more bursty and fun. I was also looking to get into a DM/Shield for all content.

 

What are some combos that may not be "meta" but are effective and have a bit of unique-ness to them.

 

No more Savage, Staff, or Fire Melee please ^.^

[StrikerFox]

KM/Bio. Just to see that human shape, blob of poop, doing tai chi and hearing that hand crank flashlight noise.

[Nightmarer]

Elec/Shield is awesome, Lightning Rod & Shield Charge, nuff said.

[Erratic1]

Started a Rad/Shield Friday. Just got him to 25 as I type this (got a dozen other characters, so been playing him as I need a break). There are upsides and downsides.

 

It is nice dashing into a group with Irradiated Ground running, popping Fusion to guarantee contamination, then going to town with the boost to damage from Against All Odds impacting both the direct damage you deal and the spillover damage. Groups melt quickly and if you time your Radiation Siphon properly you can walk away with a goodly chunk of health.

 

Downside is you have no endurance recovery tools to speak of and your heal requires a contaminated target (hitting isn't too bad if you slotted Irradiated Ground for Defense Debuff). Will definitely be eyeing Body Mastery come level 35.

 

While I do have a Rad/Fire Brute, I am surprised to see it being called, "...the hawt one." I have not seen many of those about. Spines/Fire I see all the time. (And Rad/Fire is an endurance bottomless pit of consumption. Love it, but think it is going to require IOs to work out well in the end.)

[Auroxis]

Rad/Shield hits like a truck, has good AoE and gives Shield a Heal (more reliable once you get better uptime on Fusion). It's got great synergy apart from the endurance woes.

 

Keep in mind that Rad isn't really a burst set, the animations are fairly lengthy but Shield Charge can get you to your spot faster.

[iBones]

Elec/Shield is awesome, Lightning Rod & Shield Charge, nuff said.

 

I had one on live, hit 50 and stopped playing. So never got to feel the upper end of the build with some sets. My main concern is the ST - did you ever feel like ST was an issue?

 

Started a Rad/Shield Friday. Just got him to 25 as I type this (got a dozen other characters, so been playing him as I need a break). There are upsides and downsides.

 

It is nice dashing into a group with Irradiated Ground running, popping Fusion to guarantee contamination, then going to town with the boost to damage from Against All Odds impacting both the direct damage you deal and the spillover damage. Groups melt quickly and if you time your Radiation Siphon properly you can walk away with a goodly chunk of health.

 

Downside is you have no endurance recovery tools to speak of and your heal requires a contaminated target (hitting isn't too bad if you slotted Irradiated Ground for Defense Debuff). Will definitely be eyeing Body Mastery come level 35.

 

While I do have a Rad/Fire Brute, I am surprised to see it being called, "...the hawt one." I have not seen many of those about. Spines/Fire I see all the time. (And Rad/Fire is an endurance bottomless pit of consumption. Love it, but think it is going to require IOs to work out well in the end.)

 

I did not consider the lack of a recovery tool - thank you for bringing that to my attention.

 

Rad/Fire Brutes were found on the "secret server" to be incredibly solid farmers and AoE machines. I have a Rad/Fire scrapper, and even at level 38 and little to no damage slotted - the build PUMPS numbers. Building /Fire for enough survival becomes easier knowing that Rad boosts your general output.

 

Rad/Shield hits like a truck, has good AoE and gives Shield a Heal (more reliable once you get better uptime on Fusion). It's got great synergy apart from the endurance woes.

 

Keep in mind that Rad isn't really a burst set, the animations are fairly lengthy but Shield Charge can get you to your spot faster.

 

When I said bursty, I was including shield charge as a way to add a solid AoE punch to Rad's consistent AoE ticks. But yes, endurance is still one of my main concerns. Given my need for a combination that I can drop funds into, I'm sure most of the recovery woes can be alleviated.

[iBones]

Apologies for the double post - But is there a list anywhere of how the +dmg gimmicks of each primary set are ranked? A quick look puts DB and DM at the top? Or am I missing something.

 

I assume some of the novelty of DM/SD is in how big of a boost Soul Drain brings, but I'm curious if there are perhaps other primaries with similar dmg buff potential.

 

 

[Erratic1]

Apologies for the double post - But is there a list anywhere of how the +dmg gimmicks of each primary set are ranked? A quick look puts DB and DM at the top? Or am I missing something.

 

I assume some of the novelty of DM/SD is in how big of a boost Soul Drain brings, but I'm curious if there are perhaps other primaries with similar dmg buff potential.

 

DM provides goodies Shield does not have on its own--endurance recovery and healing--on top of augmenting what Shield does bring--damage boost. It is a marriage practically ordained in the heavens. Other primaries are going to struggle to match it I would imagine.  Tradeoff being DM is not known for its AoE (but Shield helps there, so again a good marriage of powersets).

[iBones]

Apologies for the double post - But is there a list anywhere of how the +dmg gimmicks of each primary set are ranked? A quick look puts DB and DM at the top? Or am I missing something.

 

I assume some of the novelty of DM/SD is in how big of a boost Soul Drain brings, but I'm curious if there are perhaps other primaries with similar dmg buff potential.

 

DM provides goodies Shield does not have on its own--endurance recovery and healing--on top of augmenting what Shield does bring--damage boost. It is a marriage practically ordained in the heavens. Other primaries are going to struggle to match it I would imagine.  Tradeoff being DM is not known for its AoE (but Shield helps there, so again a good marriage of powersets).

 

Yes, I am familiar with DM's toolkit, I was more curious about how Soul Drain stacks up against other primary's +dmg gimmicks. And then possibly build around a slightly more AoE-centric primary while sacrificing little +dmg.

 

An example would be Elec/SD. While the AoE potential is substantially higher, the ST is a very real issue aside from just farming. So what other primaries bring similar +dmg to the table as DM, but offer a bit more AoE, while not going too far in the other direction like Elec.

[Erratic1]

Apologies for the double post - But is there a list anywhere of how the +dmg gimmicks of each primary set are ranked? A quick look puts DB and DM at the top? Or am I missing something.

 

I assume some of the novelty of DM/SD is in how big of a boost Soul Drain brings, but I'm curious if there are perhaps other primaries with similar dmg buff potential.

 

DM provides goodies Shield does not have on its own--endurance recovery and healing--on top of augmenting what Shield does bring--damage boost. It is a marriage practically ordained in the heavens. Other primaries are going to struggle to match it I would imagine.  Tradeoff being DM is not known for its AoE (but Shield helps there, so again a good marriage of powersets).

 

Yes, I am familiar with DM's toolkit, I was more curious about how Soul Drain stacks up against other primary's +dmg gimmicks. And then possibly build around a slightly more AoE-centric primary while sacrificing little +dmg.

 

An example would be Elec/SD. While the AoE potential is substantially higher, the ST is a very real issue aside from just farming. So what other primaries bring similar +dmg to the table as DM, but offer a bit more AoE, while not going too far in the other direction like Elec.

 

 

I have some reservations regarding the strength of the combo (see final comment), but Psionic Melee has a (relatively) fast cycling AoE in its top power--Mass Levitate, and while it is not strictly an AoE in the normal sense, Greater Psi Blade hits up to 5 targets in a 7' radius. However there is no healing or endurance recovery in the set.