Radiation Melee Ouch?

[Warboss]

Hi all,

As you may or may not know I'm a huge Rad fan (both Armor and Melee) since they were first talked about in the days of yore (original game/Player Summit). But, do to other things (Squirrel!) I haven't been running my Rad Melee toons much since the recent changes. I ran my Ice/Rad last night and dang, it seemed to take forever to take the bosses out. Have the changes crippled the set that much, or am I not working the mechanics right? Are there specific pairingss that make the set stronger? All the other sets I've been running lately (with maybe the exception of Electric Melee) just seem faster to me.  Let me know your thoughts/tips/tricks with the set.

 

Thanks,

[twozerofoxtrot]

I've been (mostly) solo leveling a Bio/Rad lately, having not much experience with either set outside of farms.

 

Rad just seems really slow with ST. The AoE is fantastic but the ST is pretty meh. 

 

Also I don't think any of the recent changes affected Rad Melee at all, other than making power available at earlier levels (not specific to Rad).

[Zect]

If ST damage is what you want, you need to learn to abuse the PPM system!

 

Every ST rad melee attack can take 6 non-unique damage procs (ToD, Mako, Gladiator's strike, Lady Grey, Shield breaker, and perfect zinger). When people whined that a procced-out irradiated ground was all rad melee had going for it, and that standardizing the power's interaction with procs would "nerf" the set, those of us who build and play Tankers competently snickered at the crybabies. We know better.

[Erratic1]

On 12/12/2022 at 3:01 AM, twozerofoxtrot said:

I've been (mostly) solo leveling a Bio/Rad lately, having not much experience with either set outside of farms.

 

Rad just seems really slow with ST. The AoE is fantastic but the ST is pretty meh. 

 

Also I don't think any of the recent changes affected Rad Melee at all, other than making power available at earlier levels (not specific to Rad).

 

Energy Melee can lay out a nice ST hurting but tradeoff...its not exactly god's gift to AoE damage dealing. If you had a powerset with Energy Melee' ST and Radiation Melee's AoE...why would you use anything else?

 

Really, I think it is the animation speed coming into play. Radiation Melee hits hard when it gets there but it is not a bam-bam-bam set but instead a WHAM....   ...WHAM...   ...WHAM... set.

[ZemX]

On 12/11/2022 at 11:06 AM, Warboss said:

Are there specific pairingss that make the set stronger?

 

I'm gonna say this is more likely.  Ice Armor has a minor lethal  DoT in Icicles and... that's it for offense.   Everything else about the set is purely defensive.  Not knocking it.  Could argue that's what a armor set is for, obviously.   But Rad Armor is definitely doing more than helps your offense.   Or it potentially can.  I run it with Rad Therapy and Ground Zero fairly well procced out for damage.  Not entirely, but mostly.   And I drop Achilles Heel in the default slot of Beta Decay, for whatever that's worth.    In the powers themselves, Beta Decay is boosting your recharge when you're in the scrum.  Outside of the procs, the damage done by Rad Therapy and Ground Zero is toxic and energy, respectively.  Likely less resisted by most foes (with some notable exceptions for tox) than is lethal.

 

The other thing you might do is compare the builds between your Ice/Rad and Rad/Rad in Mid's and see if you've just got more offense in the sets and such (i.e. better +dmg, +recharge, that kind of thing)..

 

Yes, Irradiated Ground took a hit recently if you have it heavily procced.  The proc damage portion will be half what it was.  But half the proc damage in one AoE, I wouldn't think would be that noticeable.   That one attack isn't all your damage to begin with.  So you lost half of some fraction.   Maybe noticeable.  Could tool your Rad/Rad around a bit as see if it also feels noticeably off.  I've been spending too much time on my Rad/Ice lately to judge.