Rad Armor question

[sushiloving123]

So I was trying to find information on how best to slot Irradiated Ground at this point in the game. Are the -res procs useful here? Damage procs? Accuracy enhancement? The power in game states it has an accuracy of 1.00. Can the ticks actually miss?

[Uun]

Irradiated Ground is in Rad Melee, not Rad Armor. It isn't autohit and can miss. As of page 5, IG can only proc every 10 seconds (same as most toggles) and is no longer a proc bomb candidate. I currently slot it like any other damage aura, my preference being Scirocco's Dervish or Avalanche acc/dmg, acc/dmg/end, dmg/end, proc.

[sushiloving123]

Ah yes, it is in melee. Thanks for the answer! 

[Mythical Creature]

What is the purpose of the taunt auras on a tanker? I used to think it was a source of damage, but the numbers don't support that. I used to think they are proc mules, but not so much anymore. What I do know is that they are almost always a terrible source of endurance drain. Currently, I just consider taunt auras to be just that, a taunt aura. The purpose is to help grab attention of bad guys without actively doing anything and that means keeping it running. To me that means the only things worth slotting in the aura (in order of importance) is end reduction and accuracy (none of these are common in sets). If I don't have spare slots, just use one end reduction and call it a day. If you have a few slots, I think two end reduction and one accuracy is a great goal. 

[Psyonico]

I believe that with the exception of Super Reflexes, all taunt auras do some secondary thing.  The damage is useful on the ones that have damage, but, for example, shield gives you extra +dam and the does get -dam, Willpower does +Regen for you and -tohit for enemies, etc.

[Uun]

2 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I believe that with the exception of Super Reflexes, all taunt auras do some secondary thing. 

SR's taunt aura is baked into the AoE defense toggle, so you're not running an extra toggle. 

[Sanguinesun]

5 hours ago, Mythical Creature said:

What is the purpose of the taunt auras on a tanker? I used to think it was a source of damage, but the numbers don't support that. I used to think they are proc mules, but not so much anymore. What I do know is that they are almost always a terrible source of endurance drain. Currently, I just consider taunt auras to be just that, a taunt aura. The purpose is to help grab attention of bad guys without actively doing anything and that means keeping it running. To me that means the only things worth slotting in the aura (in order of importance) is end reduction and accuracy (none of these are common in sets). If I don't have spare slots, just use one end reduction and call it a day. If you have a few slots, I think two end reduction and one accuracy is a great goal. 

 

This assessment may not be factoring, as some have pointed out, that some auras do more than one function. They werent meant to solely be taunt auras in almost all cases on armor side.  On melee side, auras for tanks n the like too are not just damage but taunt and in other cases other minor debuffs or specials too (like IR's containment spreading) too.

 

Another factor is that those aura powers are often found in builds to be housing sets for bonuses as well. So its a multiple birds with one stone sort of thing.

 

All in all, slot and enhancer value to use is going to be dependent on the build and goals for the build, really.... a spectrum of colors in considerations vs just a simple black and white approach to thinking about it.

[Mythical Creature]

It may just be my communication style but it seems the point of my response got missed. I am specifically referring to the damage taunt toggles such as the one in electric armor, fiery armor, dark armor, and to a lesser extent rad melee and spines.

 

For all of these toggles you will find that no set bonuses will get you adequate end reduction without being a massive investment. Instead I suggest 1 or 2 end reduction IO's and if you want add an accuracy or maybe even a def debuff or slow IO if you want to push the toggles secondary effects. 

 

Of course this all depends on how you make your builds, I like to 6-slot every attack and to me, investing too much in a toggle that has such a mild impact seems like a waste of slots when I can boost other things. YMMV

[Uun]

Not sure why you think the auras aren't a good source of damage. Most of them do 10-11 points of damage per tick. Surrounded by 10 foes and slotted for damage, that's close to 200 points of damage every 2 seconds. Most efficient slotting (at a reasonable cost) is 3-slotting Scirocco's Dervish with acc/dmg, acc/dmg/end, dmg/end. This gets you 47.7% acc, 74.2% dmg and 47.7% end reduction, plus 10% regen and 2.25% E/N resist bonuses. 

[Mythical Creature]

57 minutes ago, Uun said:

Not sure why you think the auras aren't a good source of damage. Most of them do 10-11 points of damage per tick. Surrounded by 10 foes and slotted for damage, that's close to 200 points of damage every 2 seconds. Most efficient slotting (at a reasonable cost) is 3-slotting Scirocco's Dervish with acc/dmg, acc/dmg/end, dmg/end. This gets you 47.7% acc, 74.2% dmg and 47.7% end reduction, plus 10% regen and 2.25% E/N resist bonuses. 

 

I don't mean to imply not to use them, just that investing too much in them doesn't get you very far. I think 3 slots is ideal for them, and Scirocco's is probably a better choice for those 3 slots than my suggestion. Interestingly enough when I look at my actual builds (and not just relying on my hazy memory) it seems that I slot similar to your suggestion. 

[ZemX]

18 hours ago, Mythical Creature said:

What is the purpose of the taunt auras on a tanker?

 

I assume you mean damage auras, which is what's being discussed here.  They DO taunt as well but that's because Tanker/Brute.  The armor powersets for Tankers and Brutes all have at least one aura that is mainly there to taunt enemies.  Usually uses about half the endurance of a damage aura and often does other useful things (like Against all Odds buffing damage or Beta Decay buffing recharge).  Most (but not all) taunt auras are auto-hit as well, meaning they can often be run with nothing but the default enhancement slot.

 

24 minutes ago, Mythical Creature said:

I don't mean to imply not to use them, just that investing too much in them doesn't get you very far.

 

I think that is mostly perception.  A key thing to remember is that damage auras are doing damage WHILE you are doing damage with your active attacks.  It's not like comparing the damage output of IG to, say, Atom Smasher really makes sense when you can do both of them at the same time.  Damage auras are better thought of the same way you think of +dam% buffs.  More is always better.  Though it does come at an endurance cost, this is also often over-stated.  Toggles get to be a problem only when you're running 8-10 of them.  Individually, they use a fraction of what your attack chain is eating.

 

Even damage procs shouldn't be too quickly dismissed here.  A single 3.5ppm damage proc in IG, for example, accounts for maybe another +75% average damage per second on top of the base for that power.  Still pretty good for one slot cost.  Like anything in your build, of course, it has to be compared to whatever else you might use that slot for though.  But it's good to be clear what it can buy you in a damage aura.

[Mythical Creature]

I think I completely misunderstood the changes and over corrected. I thought that all my damage was coming from the procs. I swapped out my 2end/1acc for the 3 scirocco mentioned tested it out in game and it works a lot better.

 

 

Apart from set bonuses is there any reason to go beyond that 3 slotting? I think 3 slot scirocco or multi strike may be my new go to for slotting these toggles unless I am missing something. Oddly enough that is how I used to build them apart from the other 3 slots being procs. 

[Uun]

5 hours ago, Mythical Creature said:

Apart from set bonuses is there any reason to go beyond that 3 slotting? I think 3 slot scirocco or multi strike may be my new go to for slotting these toggles unless I am missing something. Oddly enough that is how I used to build them apart from the other 3 slots being procs. 

I will often slot the Scirocco dmg proc as the 4th piece for the 9% acc bonus.