If you were going run PI radios a lot. What build would you use?

[KaizenSoze]

We have plenty of thread discussing the page 4 changes. I don't want to talk about that here.

 

Assuming page 4 going forward as is. I expect more teams running PI radios for power leveling.

 

What toon would you use to run PI radios? Not just council, but all possible enemy groups in PI radios.

 

Things I am considering when deciding on a toon:

• Durability to handle most or all of the aggro
  • This could be thru high defense/resists or massive debuffs
• Enough damage to complete missions in a reasonable time with sub 50s on the team
• -defense or toHit, so lowbies can hit +5 mobs
• -resists, so the lowbies can do some damage to +5 mobs
• Buffs or healing to keep the lowbies alive
• Things I haven't thought of...

 

What are your favorite toons to run PI radios to help level others?

[The_Warpact]

Well if it's Council PI mishes then anything tough on s/l easy to cap on both and a taunt/dmg aura.

My fire broot is interchangeable between fire farms and most farms that are commonly used. I built him to survive any encounter in case fire farms got nerfed.

 

I think a broot would be the best route regardless, a good combo of dmg and survivability is key.

[KaizenSoze]

I am not saying you have to make a toon specifically for PI radios. What toon do you think would work best running a PI radio team?

 

[Without_Pause]

Holding aggro and buffing/healing teammates tend to be different ATs. Honestly, the bar for radios is so slow I would say */*.

[Without_Pause]

2 minutes ago, Krimson said:

I suggest the former because, in my opinion, it is the position that will be the most useful over the long term. If I decide to run a group with Freak Fire, no one has any doubts who the tank is or what they are doing. You don't need an IO'd out build for buffing or heals, so let the others handle it.

One of the few ATs I don't have at 50 is a Tank. Not like I haven't tried. If there is one AT I would reach for in terms of radios, a Tank ain't it. A Brute can cakewalk +4/x8 radios on a team.

[RCU7115]

If I'm going to PI to PL  I wouldn't join a team for radios. I would triple box and PL on a Harvey demon or council farm. Easy to get to PI  Portal Corps safely for any lvl 1 toon and better rewards per kill than ae.

[Without_Pause]

1 minute ago, Krimson said:

When I say "Tank", I mean a Tanker OR a Brute. I never played Tanker in Live, and I never tanked in Live. When I made my first Fire Farmer, I had no choice but to learn to tank. And then Tankers were reworked, so I experimented, and they were good. If you like to Brute, then Brute. You're still a Tank.

Considering how often I take Taunt, I am far closer to a Scrapper.

[blue4333]

I would personally run a blaster or a corruptor/defender with AOE abilities. With PI radios, you can't be too sure of who joins your team. You don't really want to be stuck as the only level 50 with a team of level 1s and it will be very painful to slog through even on Council only teams. So yeah, just bring damage.

 

[The_Warpact]

I like tanks for TFs, something to hold an AV or a GMs interest. The Ms. Liberty oh yeah my Rad/Ice tank, the LRSF my Dk/Dk/Soul tank, the rest I use broots.

Although I use stalkers quite a bit, and I finally got a scrapper to 50 so I have to see how that fits into stuff lol.

[Without_Pause]

3 minutes ago, Krimson said:

It's just my personal opinion that a Tank would be the best lead for a radio group that has lowbies, for the sake of the lowbies. Anything else can work. I have tanked radios on my freaking Ninja/WP STALKER that has Melee Hybrid, and it worked fine. 

Unless you took Taunt or similar power, you have no way to actually hold aggro on a Stalker, so no, you did not actually tank. You might have gone in first, but that isn't actual tanking. Hell, my support characters would be classified as tanks if all it took was going in first.

[Coyotedancer]

In Homecoming's earlier days, I'd take a turn as the leader on PI "smash team" radios sometimes.... Mostly when one of the gang of roleplayer friends wanted to get those last few levels on their current alt in a social way.

 

I always did that with Semnai, my very tanky Broadsword/Bio "regen monster" Brute. She grew up playing tank for a static trio team, and so had been built with at least some degree of aggro control in mind. I knew that with her I could take up any slack we might have damage-wise, while still keeping the goons away from our potential lowbies and squishy people.  

[roleki]

38 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

I am not saying you have to make a toon specifically for PI radios. What toon do you think would work best running a PI radio team?

 

Generally speaking, a Tank.  Chances are good you're going to have a Tank on your team anyway, it might as well be the one running the show.  That way you can herd or not herd however the hell you want to.  I realize this is completely anecdotal, but seems every time I've been in a PuG run by a non-Tank, no matter how well that team is running and playing off each other, the whole damn thing goes to hell when some Tank pops in from LFG and all of the sudden now we're playing THAT way, or NOT playing that way and there's grumbling, death, and less fun.  Usually the Superfluous Tanks (STanks) will defer to the team lead if it's a Tank, unless you have the misfortune of stumbling onto an unusually meatheaded STank.  

[Vanden]

I’d probably go for soft-capped persuasiveness, with a nagging-focused build, to get the devs to add more than four enemy groups to the radio mission pool.

[KaizenSoze]

2 minutes ago, Vanden said:

I’d probably go for soft-capped persuasiveness, with a nagging-focused build, to get the devs to add more than four enemy groups to the radio mission pool.

Page 5, Council is replaced with, The Awaken. Added to the pool, Rularuu and Malta, yes I know they rarely appear.

[Andreah]

I run a lot of radio teams. I like to either play a tank or a specialist team support character.

 

You might be the only 50 on your team going in after Level 54 Arachnos Operative Doodoohead. Someone should be running tactics. 

 

My favorite tankers for radios are my dark/dark and my SR/MA. 

 

For support I've had good results with, well, anything supporty. But especially with a Time/Anything defender and a Kin/Anything defender.

 

The trick running radios is to skip the caves & carnies missions. Not because they're hard, but because they're annoying. If you get either based on the mission text or the door location, drop them and reroll the radios list. One reason Council PI Radios are popular, in addition to the group being easy, is council never hide out in caves.

[Andreah]

Another good rule of thumb is any character of yours that can solo +4/x8 radios is a good choice to run teams with them. It sets a baseline, and adding a team ought to just bring that up more or less. Nothing worse can (should) happen to you all day.  Although there have been times... x.x

[Andreah]

2 hours ago, Vanden said:

four enemy groups to the radio mission pool

Don't Newspaper missions red-side get extra enemy groups in Grandville?

[Andreah]

5 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

• Things I haven't thought of...

How about the ally rez temp powers from P2W and from Superpack drops?

[Vanden]

7 minutes ago, Andreah said:

Don't Newspaper missions red-side get extra enemy groups in Grandville?

 

You can't run PI radio missions in Grandville!

[Bionic_Flea]

PI Radios give out a good amount of Malta and Carnies, which can neuter anyone with endurance drain and debuffs.  So I would go with Dark melee/Rad Brute or Rad/Dark melee tank.  Endurance for days and debuffs of your own.  Pair with Ageless radial for debuff protection.  And then be the Juggernaut!

 

 

[Andreah]

7 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Malta and Carnies

I think you can get Malta from Grandville Newspapers, but not in PI radios. And for carnies, we just skip those because master illusionist intangibility is annoying.

[ZemX]

5 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

Things I am considering when deciding on a toon:

• Durability to handle most or all of the aggro
  • This could be thru high defense/resists or massive debuffs
• Enough damage to complete missions in a reasonable time with sub 50s on the team
• -defense or toHit, so lowbies can hit +5 mobs
• -resists, so the lowbies can do some damage to +5 mobs
• Buffs or healing to keep the lowbies alive
• Things I haven't thought of...

 

If your criteria is basically you plus anybody needs to work then I agree with others saying Tanker/Brute.  One of the Scrapper sets that has a taunt aura would work too probably but won't be quite as good holding aggro due to lack of "punch-voke".

 

I'm gonna say Rad/Rad Brute though probably because it hits most of your points.  You have a taunt aura and a damage aura.  Keeping aggro won't be an issue.  Definitely take Taunt though.  Plenty of people will tell you you don't "need" it and that's beside the point.  You don't need it.  You want it.  It's a ranged autohit AoE taunt.  Somebody peeling off to go make a paste of one of your baby blasters on the team?  Taunt.  Without taking a step away from the main pack.  

 

Tanker will have wider AoEs but won't handle bosses as quickly.  Fine if you have damage on the team but if you want this to work even with seven sidekicks?  Brute.

 

Rad Armor has broad protection against any of the enemies you'll face in its resists, including Psi (Carnies and Arachnos) and against endurance drain (Malta Sappers and Arachnos Mu).  It has -def in the taunt aura to which you can then add Achilles Heel -res proc.  More -def in Ground Zero.  GZ and RT (the heal) can both be turned into proc bombs.  GZ also does some minor healing of allies.  Rad Melee does more -def.  But you could also consider Super Strength if you want to go with a Tanker.  Rad/SS is still no Brute but is something of an outlier for good damage on a Tanker and not being bothered when Rage crashes.

[Omega-202]

27 minutes ago, Andreah said:

How about the ally rez temp powers from P2W and from Superpack drops?

Day Job rez power (hospital+university) is free and good to stock up on for new characters.  The heal other day job power (hospital+Midnighter) is also nice and both can be restocked by logging out at a hospital.  

 

I always make sure to have these on my "do I plan to drag a few anchors" characters, as long as I feel like I have enough Cimerora+TimeLord banked away.  

 

To the larger question: Tanky Crabbermind with Leadership.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Omega-202

[Bionic_Flea]

22 minutes ago, Andreah said:

I think you can get Malta from Grandville Newspapers, but not in PI radios. And for carnies, we just skip those because master illusionist intangibility is annoying.

Are you sure about that?  I know I've done non-arc  Malta in PI but maybe they were tips not radios.

[ZemX]

3 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Are you sure about that?  I know I've done non-arc  Malta in PI but maybe they were tips not radios.

 

According to this at least there are some Malta to be found in a few of the location radio missions (bank, pawn shop, police station) in PI

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Police_Radio

 

Not sure if they are available in the other rescue, get object, or defeat boss radio mission types though.