Please Critique My Rad/Rad Build

[Wyxie]

As the title says, I'm not really sure this is hitting the mark, so if anyone has any suggestions - even if it's start again - that'd be appreciated. 

Many thanks.

 

This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.6
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Force and Ignorance: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: Radiation Melee
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Armor
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Contaminated Strike

• (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance
• (5) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (7) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
  

Level 1: Alpha Barrier

• (A) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
• (9) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Recharge
• (9) Impervium Armor - Endurance/Recharge
• (11) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (11) Impervium Armor - Resistance
• (13) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

Level 2: Radioactive Smash

• (A) Superior Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Superior Brute's Fury - Recharge/Fury Bonus
• (15) Superior Brute's Fury - Damage/Recharge
• (15) Superior Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (17) Superior Brute's Fury - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (17) Superior Brute's Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 4: Gamma Boost

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (5) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (7) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (39) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
  

Level 6: Proton Armor

• (A) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
• (19) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Recharge
• (19) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
• (21) Impervium Armor - Endurance/Recharge
• (21) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (23) Impervium Armor - Resistance
  

Level 8: Radiation Siphon

• (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
• (25) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
• (25) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
• (27) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (27) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  

Level 10: Fallout Shelter

• (A) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
• (33) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Recharge
• (33) Impervium Armor - Endurance/Recharge
• (33) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
• (46) Impervium Armor - Resistance
• (50) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

Level 12: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (13) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 14: Super Speed

• (A) Celerity - +Stealth
  

Level 16: Radiation Therapy

• (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
• (23) Numina's Convalesence - Heal
• (46) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge
• (46) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge
• (48) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 18: Irradiated Ground

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  

Level 20: Beta Decay

• (A) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff
• (48) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
• (50) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff/Recharge
• (50) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff/Endurance
  

Level 22: Fusion

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (39) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 24: Devastating Blow

• (A) Hecatomb - Damage
• (40) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
• (40) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (40) Hecatomb - Recharge/Accuracy
• (42) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
• (42) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 26: Atom Smasher

• (A) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Accuracy/Damage
• (34) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Damage/RechargeTime
• (34) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
• (34) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (36) Superior Unrelenting Fury - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (36) Superior Unrelenting Fury - RechargeTime/+Regen/+End
  

Level 28: Particle Shielding

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (29) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
• (31) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
  

Level 30: Ground Zero

• (A) Armageddon - Damage
• (36) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (37) Armageddon - Recharge/Accuracy
• (37) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance
• (39) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage
  

Level 32: Meltdown

• (A) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
• (42) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Recharge
• (43) Impervium Armor - Resistance
• (43) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
• (43) Impervium Armor - Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 35: Boxing

• (A) Empty
  

Level 38: Focused Accuracy

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  

Level 41: Physical Perfection

• (A) Healing IO
  

Level 44: Tough

• (A) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
• (45) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge
• (45) Aegis - Resistance
• (45) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
  

Level 47: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 49: Combat Jumping

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 1: Fury 

Level 1: Brawl

[Meknomancer]

Looks like your going for a no defence all resists build but havent hit the numbers. In that case check this link, scroll all the way to the bottom and check @Hyperstrikebuild:

 

 

[Wyxie]

That was kind of how it ended up, yes, and I didn't think it had the numbers to make it work.  Thanks for the link!

[Wyxie]

Edited for more tweaks.

I've taken another pass at it using that build as a base and tweaking some sets and powers.  This has slightly better resists than the build you linked, but a little less regen, and the powers I want to use.  Hoping this may be a little tougher than my rather feeble initial attempt but any feedback is welcome.  🙂

For some reason I can't post the build, only a link.

 

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1842&c=761&a=1522&f=HEX&dc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

Edited March 2, 2023 by Wyxie

[Zect]

The @Hyperstrike build is absolutely terrible; it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of rad armor, a poor grasp of the invention system, and ignorance of build design principles (slot-efficiency, breakpoints, trading-off excess capacity in one area to gain in another, etc.). It only looks impressive in mids because the author has toggled on meltdown, which is active a grand total of 22.8% of the time (it is wholly dependent on meltdown to cap SL res). The author has also set gamma boost to 0% HP in order to artificially inflate the regen provided by the power. This is highly accurate, as such a terrible build will soon be at 0% HP.

 

Your build inherits a lot of the same mistakes:

• Low rech and hasten taken late - it should be taken around the time particle shield is taken, to increase its availability
• Low slow resistance - critical on a resist set with minimal defense
• Excess end that is not used for anything - it should be traded out for defensive or offensive power since rad armor has good drain resist
• neg resist hole - negative damage is prevalent in endgame (nictus, cot, BP, etc.)

I'll discuss briefly how to cap resists on a brute, since that is the biggest issue for you.

 

For resists, we don't need to get all the way to the cap (90%), and we can actually build for "only" 87-88%, because the reactive defenses unique gives more res as we take damage, which we expect to do as a minimal-def set. Broadly, there are two approaches you can take to this:

• cycle multiple defensives, e.g. meltdown > melee core hybrid > rune of protection on a 4 min gapless cycle. In this case we should aim to hit a breakpoint defined by the weakest click, in this case melee core hybrid, at ~17% res to all with one in range. Therefore, with this example we would not build for more than 70% res to all, because any excess is wasted.
• build for resistance bonuses, in which case we want to get all the way to 87-88% on as many damtypes as possible.

The 2nd approach, which is what you are going for, very hard with set bonuses alone. One way to help achieve it is to use bonuses that are essentially permanent, such as the 2 min buff from barrier core. That is worth 5% res and def to all that is permanent, lowering the cap to 82-83%. (Note: this does cost you the ability to use barrier reactively to help the team, for example in response to a burst of damage.) Here is an example of the barrier core approach.

 

 

(Note: 100% slow resist.) Assigning the remaining slots is left as an exercise for the reader; I do not provide complete builds on principle, as I consider it unsporting. It would deprive you of the pleasure and opportunity to learn build design skills.

 

Both you and hyperstrike make certain mistakes which prevent you achieving the required numbers:

 

First, you both took cardiac core. You should really question if you need this much endurance on an armor set that has more recovery than WP has and gets further end from the ATIO and radiation therapy. You can instead take resilient core, which boosts res more than either cardiac alpha does, effectively trading endredux for res. Resilient core paragon's res enhancement is 65% stronger than cardiac (33% vs 20%) and worth something around 9% res to most damtypes on a brute.

 

Second, you should prioritize slot-efficient sets which provide high resistance per slot and/or provide rech alongside res (more on this in a bit). For example, you have 3x avalanche and 3x armageddon in atom smasher (12% FC res). However, 6x armageddon would provide 6% FC and 6% tox/psi res - the same amount, different types - but also add a huge amount of recharge and acc.

 

On those few occasions where you picked slot-efficient choices, you choose to prioritize the less important damtype (FC), you should prioritize EN res. It is more acceptable to have a cold hole than an EN hole because, as discussed above, EN damage is common in endgame while cold is rare. There are also a lot of ways to cap cold res in a pinch, like winter temp powers, and in HM where these don't work a lot of support sets provide cold res.

 

You are in fact so enthusiastic about FC res, that you have 2 sets of 6% FC res over the rule of 5. You should reduce the FC res and invest more in EN res because FC res is comparatively easier to get.

 

Examples of good sources of EN res are:

• 2x hypersonic - goes in flight powers.
• 2x cloud senses - goes in soul mastery epic attacks.
• 3x Unbreakable guard - note that one set of these should include the 7.5% HP unique. I do not see it in your build. It is usually worth it to slot unbreakable guards over other res sets, because EN res is just that precious.
• 3x Force feedback - can be muled in kick. Some sets, e.g. SS (KO blow) can fit it in a primary attack.
• 3x Adjusted targeting - you are already using this; good work.
• 4x shield wall - since you need the shieldwall res unique anyway, the real cost is only 3 slots.
• 6x bombardments - low resistance per added slot, but comes with SL res, rech and a damage proc. Requires an epic aoe.

 

The biggest error in both your builds is the abysmal rech and the lack of slow resist. Rad armor is a set with two click sustains; hence, sacrificing rech for defenses does not necessarily produce higher survivability (and both your builds completely fail to even achieve higher res anyway). Most of my rad brutes have between 150-175% rech on top of capped resists. I loaded up the first rad armor brute build I had on this device and my particle shielding recharges in 34.7s; yours does in 48.45s. That means my build pumps out 40% more particle shields than yours does, on top of superior resistances and attacks. Furthermore, the regeneration from particle shielding lasts only 30s (mids shows the duration for recovery instead, which is longer at 60s). Why are you willing to spend an epic on a lackluster +20% regen but not make the nearly +195% regen power as close to permanent as possible? You're paying pounds to pinch pennies. On top of all this, mediocre slow resist means losing all of this critical sustain power when under heavy damage.

 

Back to your choice of epic: I don't like to advise people to change epics or pools because it's usually a playstyle thing; but you really need to ask yourself if you need the recovery from physical perfection on an armor set with this much end, and the acc from focused acc on a set with -def out the wazoo. Either trading out for lotg mules or an epic blast/aoe would enable new options to gain rech and slot-efficient res.

 

Rad armor's strengths are strong resistances, high debuff resists against the 2 most dangerous debuffs (slow and drain), powerful click defensives and sustains, and a unique wide area aoe tool in ground zero. Building upon these strengths with slot-efficient resistance set bonuses and high recharge is the key to delivering superior defensive and offensive capacity.

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by Zect

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, Zect said:

The @Hyperstrike build is absolutely terrible; it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of rad armor, a poor grasp of the invention system, and ignorance of build design principles

To be fair, the build was never meant or delivered as an operating build.

It was simply a brute force concept to show some (not all) options for maxing Resists out.
It was nothing more than proof of concept so those seeking to chase the dragon have ideas to expand on.