Radiation Blast: rad or bad?

[Marshal_General]

Since radiation blast seems to only have -def for the most part, is it any good?

 

What pairs best with it? I plan on pairing it with force field, but I am not sure if it works well with scourge or would be better on a defender.

[Doomguide2005]

     Well the defense debuff is not generally as valuable as resistance debuffs at 50 it can be quite valuable at lower levels.  And until they change the way procs work there are lots of proc options associated with both Defense debuffs and accurate defense debuffs which boost individual offensive output.  For example a Rad/Kin Corruptor or its Kin/Rad Defender mirror can cap their own damage and procs are damage beyond the cap.  And my scrapper running both Tactics and a Kismet for to hit buffs can certainly find herself in piles of Cimerorans on a +4 ITF watching instead of pretty orange numbers garner a screen full of "deflected" and wouldn't object in the least to some defense debuffs landing on their heads.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Doomguide2005

[Uun]

Although done for blasters, the thread below might be of interest. The big complaints about Rad are the animation times and the travel time on the projectiles. In particular, Electron Haze has a long animation and Neutron Bomb has a lengthy travel time (after the animation is complete) before the orange numbers show up on screen. The latter is largely cosmetic, as the damage is baked when you fire the attack, but can be amusing if your target is running away. I pair it with Dark Miasma, but it's a fairly utilitarian set and should pair pretty well with anything. It can also be recolored to match any concept.

 

 

[Doc Ranger]

It's a fun set. My two favorite pairings are /Dark and /Kin. Build for Def and play in the middle of everything for Irradiation and the Nuke 😉

[honoroit]

its ok with a bunch of procs.

 

its not fire. 

youre gonna floor their def. 

its not fire. 

 

irradiate is sort of like electrics 'short circuit' - a fast dot. it activates very quickly (1.07s!), probably my favorite.

 

good pbaoe, the cone is SLOW to cast. 2.37s, and has a slow projectile.

[SeraphimKensai]

I like it better on a Defender to get better debuff values, although it does work well enough on Corruptors. As others have said there are some issues with some animations but it's fairly minor in nature.

 

The set lends itself to some decent proc slotting options and you can fit all three -res procs into the set so that is helpful

 

Here's the run...since rad blast's stock is -defense, if you're running with a group with high tohitbuff, it's possible to get to a point when the defense debuffs don't really help anymore as in you have a 95% chance to hit. Even con mobs like players will always have at least a 5% chance to dodge attacks.

 

When you start pushing harder difficulty, and groups of mobs that have stacking defense, is when a rad blaster shines. Those moments when a Paragon Protector pops MoG or Nem Lts stacking Vengeance, or Cimeroreans stacking defense for example are the moments having radiation blast beneficial.

[UltraAlt]

On 5/15/2023 at 9:27 AM, Marshal_General said:

Since radiation blast seems to only have -def for the most part, is it any good?

 

Reducing an enemy's defense increases your chance of hitting them.

I like being able to land my attacks when I use them. Why waste endurance?

 

On 5/15/2023 at 9:27 AM, Marshal_General said:

What pairs best with it?

 

The one that best fits your character conception.

 

On 5/15/2023 at 9:27 AM, Marshal_General said:

I plan on pairing it with force field, but I am not sure if it works well with scourge or would be better on a defender.

 

The corruptor secondaries aren't crafted to do damage, so you're going to get little use out of scourge out of any corruptor secondary.

Defender force fields are stronger than corruptor force fields (at the same time, Defender attacks are weaker than Corruptor attacks).

 

Either way, the force field set powers are largely for your allies. As you level up you will get some that will protect you to some extent as well, but the ones that you can cast on your teammates are much more powerful.

[Marshal_General]

12 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Reducing an enemy's defense increases your chance of hitting them.

I like being able to land my attacks when I use them. Why waste endurance?

 

 

The one that best fits your character conception.

 

 

The corruptor secondaries aren't crafted to do damage, so you're going to get little use out of scourge out of any corruptor secondary.

Defender force fields are stronger than corruptor force fields (at the same time, Defender attacks are weaker than Corruptor attacks).

 

Either way, the force field set powers are largely for your allies. As you level up you will get some that will protect you to some extent as well, but the ones that you can cast on your teammates are much more powerful.

I was referring to how radiation works with scourge. I know sets that have rains and other DoT effects tend to work better with scourge.

 

The problem with -def is it tends to only be good at low levels before everyone had 95%+ hit chance.

[UltraAlt]

7 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

The problem with -def is it tends to only be good at low levels before everyone had 95%+ hit chance.

 

I apologize. I see nowhere in your initial post that your intent was to create a character for the end-game only.

If you had indicated that you were considered with a end-game character, I wouldn't have bothered replying.

 

What you call "low levels" is the actual game.

 

7 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

I was referring to how radiation works with scourge. I know sets that have rains and other DoT effects tend to work better with scourge.

 

I think you answered your own question for use of scourge in the end-game.

 

7 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

The problem with -def is it tends to only be good at low levels before everyone had 95%+ hit chance.

 

[SeraphimKensai]

9 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

The problem with -def is it tends to only be good at low levels before everyone had 95%+ hit chance.

-def on mobs in Hard Mode content as you ramp up to 4 star where all mobs have an extra 30% defense to everything. Most players won't be at 95% chance to hit in that content.

[Dungeoness Eloora]

As others have stated, Rad blast is a little wonky to play. I enjoyed it moderately on a blaster, where I paired it with elec manip. This gave me more hard hitting ST attacks and replaced some of the AoE I lacked, since Electron Haze and Neutron Basketball are hard passes. Unless the overlong cast times and middle of the pack damage don't bother you, I would pair it with an active secondary that offers some damage as well, such as /cold, /storm, /traps or /trick arrow.

[kelika2]

Go blaster. pick a secondary that has PBAOEs like fire, time, tactical arrow or.. other.

with being PBAOE centric the cone attack wont be of much use, skip

neutron bomb just does not have that kick/power/whatever the feels, skip.

 

Radi/fire blaster is one of my favorite characters.  One build for low level play, synapes/demon powerplant thing and below. Irradiate>Combustion is awesome.  later on

Irradiate>Burn+hotfeet and so on

theres also fire sword circle too

 

your energy attacks can set off oil slick.  stack that irradiate with burning oil

or just plain blow stuff up with time

[honoroit]

i like neutron bomb on a defender. its 16s base and another 25% def down for 16s.  its damage isnt great, but the layering of debuff adds up as you do your cycle.  basically, people can hit things theyd have trouble with aside.

 

you always see -res, rad makes that able to be applied well.

 

i dont know how to get a mobs combat attributes up or if you need that power scanner temp power... but its noticeably effective if you stop for a bit, on farms with hitters helping, it was like night and day.

[ClawsandEffect]

Almost every power in the set can slot an Achilles Heel -resistance proc. 

 

I built a Rad/Rad with the intent of making it a proc monster. 

[Carnifax]

As others have said it lends itself quite well to PBAoE. So any secondary which likes to be in close will do well. My Rad is a Rad / Devices and likes being in close. Quite fun. 

 

Corrupter secondaries it should work well with are therefore ones which like being in close : Nature, Rad, Traps, Kin (although I prefer Kin with a faster PBAoE nuke). Trick Arrow would work well too. TA has a great -ToHit power and doesn't really care if its in close or far away. Plus Rad will light Oil Slick for you. 

 

On 5/17/2023 at 11:37 AM, Marshal_General said:

I was referring to how radiation works with scourge. I know sets that have rains and other DoT effects tend to work better with scourge.

 

They work more reliably (because as they tick health down the next tick has more chance to Scourge). Rad doesn't have this. Only powers which roll to-hit for each DoT tick count. irradiate is a "normal" DoT. One hit check + scourge check at the start, if that hits the DoT and Scourge hit fully. If not they don't. 

 

On the plus side it means it doesn't matter if Irradiated mobs go running off or get scattered. The DoT will keep on DoTing. Nor does it trigger "avoid" in the mobs. Rains do, encouraging mobs to run out of it (a bane on my Ice/Fire blaster sometimes).

 

Rad also has the coolest snipe in the game (fight me). Love it so much. 

[Carnifax]

On 5/17/2023 at 11:37 AM, Marshal_General said:

The problem with -def is it tends to only be good at low levels before everyone had 95%+ hit chance.

For teammates yep. For you there is build use for this though, being able to go lighter on Acc. 5 Sting of Manticores, including the proc is just 22% acc normally. For other snipes I've to take the stupid Acc/Range/Interrupt to bring that up and skip the proc.

 

You also get 3 procs in -Def & Acc -Def which gives some nice build options (especially coupled with the ATO set, which Corruptors & Defenders should slot 3 + 3  in two powers. Lots of room for a proc or two). Irradiate can take shedloads of the buggers. although that's more useful for a Defender.

 

 

[BuiltDifferent5]

6 hours ago, Carnifax said:

As others have said it lends itself quite well to PBAoE. So any secondary which likes to be in close will do well. My Rad is a Rad / Devices and likes being in close. Quite fun. 

 

Corrupter secondaries it should work well with are therefore ones which like being in close : Nature, Rad, Traps, Kin (although I prefer Kin with a faster PBAoE nuke). Trick Arrow would work well too. TA has a great -ToHit power and doesn't really care if its in close or far away. Plus Rad will light Oil Slick for you. 

 

 

They work more reliably (because as they tick health down the next tick has more chance to Scourge). Rad doesn't have this. Only powers which roll to-hit for each DoT tick count. irradiate is a "normal" DoT. One hit check + scourge check at the start, if that hits the DoT and Scourge hit fully. If not they don't. 

 

On the plus side it means it doesn't matter if Irradiated mobs go running off or get scattered. The DoT will keep on DoTing. Nor does it trigger "avoid" in the mobs. Rains do, encouraging mobs to run out of it (a bane on my Ice/Fire blaster sometimes).

 

Rad also has the coolest snipe in the game (fight me). Love it so much. 

 

9 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

For teammates yep. For you there is build use for this though, being able to go lighter on Acc. 5 Sting of Manticores, including the proc is just 22% acc normally. For other snipes I've to take the stupid Acc/Range/Interrupt to bring that up and skip the proc.

 

You also get 3 procs in -Def & Acc -Def which gives some nice build options (especially coupled with the ATO set, which Corruptors & Defenders should slot 3 + 3  in two powers. Lots of room for a proc or two). Irradiate can take shedloads of the buggers. although that's more useful for a Defender.

 

 

This is all great info. I was thinking of running a Time/Rad Defender. Seems pretty synergistic.

[Heatstroke]

Neutron Basketball LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL !!!!

[Marshal_General]

This is my tentative build for a Rad/FF. It isn't that great, but it gives me a place to start.

 

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