Bio/Fire or Rad/Fire?

[Lyrium]

After some months of hiatus, I'm feeling the super hero call again. I used to play support/ranged characters, but this time I want to play something different, so I'm gonna level a tank. 

 

I loved /Fire on retail long time ago (I had a F/F/F tank which I loved), and I want to try some of the "newer" armor sets, Bio or Rad.

 

If I understood correctly, Bio is a regen set with some def/resist, while Rad is a resist set with some heal/absorb. Am I correct? 

 

Which is more durable? Which helps more with damage? Which one do you find more fun? 🙂 I need some help deciding which one to roll

 

(Nevertheless, I may end leveling both, and pairing the other one with /Martial)

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, Lyrium said:

If I understood correctly, Bio is a regen set with some def/resist, while Rad is a resist set with some heal/absorb. Am I correct? 

Not exactly.

 

Both sets get decent Regen and Absorb.

 

Bio is more of a hybrid based defensive powerset in that it uses a mix of res, defense, Regen, absorb, extra HP and has forms but once IOd you'll build to play in offensive all the time.

 

Rad gets pretty damn good resistances, bonus recharge, absorb, and a couple great pbaoe proc bombs.

 

Both sets are strong.

 

I think you'd be happy either way.  Also fire was recently buffed as well which put some -def on the swords, and because of the overall tank at revamp breath of fire gets a decent size cone if you wanna role play a dragon.

Edited April 22, 2023 by SeraphimKensai

[Parabola]

Both Bio and Rad really love recharge to cycle their healing/absorb/regen/proc bomb powers more often. Rad does provide a bit of its own but Bio is entirely dependent on what can be provided from elsewhere. Fire Melee doesn't give you any slots for FF+rech so of the two I'd probably lean more towards Rad for this pairing. Martial Arts would be a great pairing for Bio (although it would also complement Rad) - in fact I'm currently looking at rolling a Bio/MA myself.

 

In general I think Rad is the sturdier of the two outside of really high recharge builds (Bio can be seriously tough when you get the tier 9 up more than it's down).

 

In terms of fun I like them both - I like having active mitigation. Overall I probably favour Bio as it has more buttons to click and it does more weird and interesting things, but I always pair it with powersets that I can stuff FF procs into.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Parabola

[Grimm2]

I'm building Bio/Fire right now, it hits really hard. I built for decent recharge, which feels like enough so far. 

 

I'll need time to compare it to my Bio/ Claws, but so far it looks like a tradeoff of better burst vs. better recharge and control/ safety. 

 

I really enjoy getting the debuff resistance Destiny to support Bio, as a side note. Bio's layered defenses are godly, but it can be cracked by serious debuffs. When the defense or regen goes red, hit the Destiny and its smooth sailing. It's also worth to aim for 80%-100% slow resists too, as restricting access to your clicks is as good as one foot in the grave. 

[Lyrium]

10 hours ago, Grimm2 said:

I'm building Bio/Fire right now

It's what I finally built. In the end, I went for what my guts are telling me I'm going to enjoy the most 😛