FF/Rad

[Panache]

Wondering if anyone has one of these with 'new' FF. I've got one at 36 and am starting to look at proc options. Rad is pretty easy to parse since it's been around forever, but I don't have the math to figure out how reliably procs will work in things like Repulsion Bolt and Force Bomb (and I'm not sure what to do with Damping Bubble at all).

 

It's been a fun little ride. My sense of this combo is that its teaming effectiveness is sort of a reverse bell curve; super helpful at low levels, middling in the middle and general 50 content, perks up again in Hard Mode (in theory).

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Panache

[Lhanis]

The defense you provide does slowly trickle out the higher up you go, but don't forget that even if everyone does build for Defcap, not everyone has a meaningful amount of DDR to prevent it from being stripped. Your bubbles will always be useful, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Especially for your squishier comrades.

 

For procs, I don't generally bother in Repulsion Bolt. I treat it as just the 30s of -20% res personally, as outside of Mastermind or Controller you have better options for slotting up an attack. You can theoretically get a FFB proc in there, but at 4s base recharge... it won't be happening often.

 

Bomb on the other hand is an excellent home for Annihilation: Chance for -res, and FFB. I'm sure there are more optimal setups for it, but I like 2piece Ragnarok for Dam/End + Knock, 2piece Annihil for Acc/Damage + Chance for -res, FFB proc. Can throw more Acc in it via a 6th slot but there are usually better places to spend that.

 

Damping honostly does so much out of the box that you cant enhance, that it's honostly just best to slot for recharge. It can mule a LotG if you need it, as well... but I wouldn't worry to much about proper slotting here. It's biggest contribution is the team debuff resistances and enemy debuffs, and you can't do anything for them.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Lhanis

[Panache]

Awesome, thank you! Looks like I wasn’t too far off, but that Damping info is key. And it sounds like Force Bomb procs better than I thought it would; I had it in my head that slower AoEs didn’t work that well.

[Wimbochismo]

On 12/18/2023 at 6:15 PM, Lhanis said:

Damping honostly does so much out of the box that you cant enhance, that it's honostly just best to slot for recharge. It can mule a LotG if you need it, as well... but I wouldn't worry to much about proper slotting here. It's biggest contribution is the team debuff resistances and enemy debuffs, and you can't do anything for them.

 

It's worth noting that the DDR can be enhanced with slotted defense. It's about 21.63 base, 33.86 with 2 50+5 defense enhancements.

[Panache]

11 hours ago, Wimbochismo said:

 

It's worth noting that the DDR can be enhanced with slotted defense. It's about 21.63 base, 33.86 with 2 50+5 defense enhancements.

 

Oh nice! It's looking like I'll have some slots left over (even with full ST and AOE attack chains), so that could be a nice little bump.

[Doomguide2005]

 

On 12/18/2023 at 12:04 PM, Panache said:

It's been a fun little ride. My sense of this combo is that its teaming effectiveness is sort of a reverse bell curve; super helpful at low levels, middling in the middle and general 50 content, perks up again in Hard Mode (in theory).

My general feel is this is true of a lot of buff sets and many buffs making Force Fields (especially pre recent changes) and Empathy who are basically all buff sets particularly effected.  Many, if not all folks, who play mostly at or often in the end game content tend to build to be independent of teammates.  They cap defenses, ensure enough to hit/accuracy to reliably land their attacks, sustainable endurance, etc., etc..  They don't leave much to the likelyhood a specific buffer or buff will be present.  Then Hard Mode comes along and shifts everything numerically upwards.  Sometimes by a lot yielding a potentially much higher ceiling/cap players/teams are shooting for but also a much wider range.  Defense cap can easily vary between 75 and 130+ in 4☆.  Buffs more readily cover this gap than trying to debuff the value down while overcoming the Purple Patch making for the slight up tic in buffs/buffers vs HM content.

[Panache]

19 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

 

My general feel is this is true of a lot of buff sets and many buffs making Force Fields (especially pre recent changes) and Empathy who are basically all buff sets particularly effected.  Many, if not all folks, who play mostly at or often in the end game content tend to build to be independent of teammates.  They cap defenses, ensure enough to hit/accuracy to reliably land their attacks, sustainable endurance, etc., etc..  They don't leave much to the likelyhood a specific buffer or buff will be present.  Then Hard Mode comes along and shifts everything numerically upwards.  Sometimes by a lot yielding a potentially much higher ceiling/cap players/teams are shooting for but also a much wider range.  Defense cap can easily vary between 75 and 130+ in 4☆.  Buffs more readily cover this gap than trying to debuff the value down while overcoming the Purple Patch making for the slight up tic in buffs/buffers vs HM content.

 

This is pretty much exactly why I wanted to play this combo. My main is a Pain/Sonic that, while fun to play, often left me feeling a bit unhelpful in things like Incarnate and HM content. FF/Rad is a completely different story. Even the blast debuffs feel meaningful against Patched mobs because they're so beefy, and you often don't need much to bridge the toHit/acc gap.

I also don't mind having a full AoE rotation with a bunch of KD and -res in it. 🙂

 

[schrodingercat]

Sorry to necro a thread, but I started this combo today and love it so far. I got to 27 in one day just taskforcing and felt like a Rockstar. Does anyone have a good build they can share? I tried for this one with an eye towards maximizing personal defense, defense debuffs, and took +regen incarnates, but I  don't know if barrier wouldn't be better to just lean into maximizing defense. I can't get AOE defense up to soft cap. Endurance will be a perpetual struggle and I am light on accuracy.

Defender (Force Field - Radiation Blast).mbd

 

Edited January 30 by schrodingercat