Looking for a primary to go together with Rad Melee

[Kabal]

Hi everyone,

 I recently realize that I had never tried out Rad Melee on any character, and after seeing a couple post asking for builds for Inv/Rad and Elec/Rad, I thought I’d see if someone can offer up recommendations for what the best primary for Rad melee might be, and why?

 

[MoisesG]

i would recommend, Rad Armor, Bio Armor and Invuln.

Dark Armor would seem to be a good pairing but i have never tried that combo.

[PLVRIZR]

And maybe Ice, to slow everything around you to match the SLOWness of Rad Melee...😆

 

In all seriousness, I made an homage to Swamp Thing (that got genericized, lol) as Bio/Rad.  He's super tanky and debuff-y, but I hardly play him because Rad Melee is sooooo sssslllooooowwwww.  So I know Bio works (but Bio pretty much works with any secondary).

[Kabal]

45 minutes ago, PLVRIZR said:

And maybe Ice, to slow everything around you to match the SLOWness of Rad Melee...😆

 

In all seriousness, I made an homage to Swamp Thing (that got genericized, lol) as Bio/Rad.  He's super tanky and debuff-y, but I hardly play him because Rad Melee is sooooo sssslllooooowwwww.  So I know Bio works (but Bio pretty much works with any secondary).

Bio is a tanker primary that I haven’t really played around with, mainly because I’m having a hard time getting into the aesthetic's of the set. Is there a way to minimize the look of the Bio armour pieces?

[FupDup]

3 minutes ago, Kabal said:

Bio is a tanker primary that I haven’t really played around with, mainly because I’m having a hard time getting into the aesthetic's of the set. Is there a way to minimize the look of the Bio armour pieces?

Minimal FX gets rid of most of the stuff. Ablative Carapace and Parasitic Aura don't get min fx options, unfortunately. 

[PLVRIZR]

6 minutes ago, FupDup said:

Minimal FX gets rid of most of the stuff. Ablative Carapace and Parasitic Aura don't get min fx options, unfortunately. 

^---this.

 

I am the same, @Kabal, in my distaste for the Bio animations.  Since PA is an aura, you can color it as you like and AC is only seen on activation, when the armor forms and is then immediately shed.  I can live with that.

Edited January 3 by PLVRIZR
reworded

[twozerofoxtrot]

I have a Bio/Rad tanker that I enjoy a lot.

 

There's a great synergy between Rad's slow/passive animations and Bio's clicks that doesn't leave you feeling bored while also being effective at lawnmowering down mobs.

 

Downsides are single target damage is a lot slower and you need to be actively playing or you can mess up power timing (don't animation lock for yourself for 3 seconds when you need that fresh Ablative Carapace!)

 

The mid levels were a slog. I honestly thought I'd delete the character (which was a test project toon rather than a concept character) but by the 40s came into her own and felt good to play.

 

As for tinting Bio's effects: I recommend light blues, greens, and/or purples. Whatever suits your character most, but anything in that realm of the color wheel tends not to fight Bio's weirdly dark base tinting too much. Flavor Rad's cloudy effects the same or similar and it all blends together somewhat nicely.

[Spaghetti Betty]

Rad Melee's #1 flaw is the huge endurance tax associated with a lot of its key powers, like Irradiated Ground (.52 end/s) or Atom Smasher (20.18!!!!). This makes any armor with supreme endurance management an ideal pairing! To that extent, Elec, Rad, and Bio (and to a lesser extent Ice (Ice tends to run heavy on end because it has so many heavy toggles)) are great cruise control choices for it, providing tons of freedom slotting-wise since they will handily deal with the End demand without much extra investment.

 

That's not to say other armor pairings can't manage End, but oftentimes end up having to go out of their way to slot for it, causing other areas of your build to feel a bit restricted! This is absolutely not ideal, since Rad Melee will start shining when you're allowed to proc bomb its attacks for a massive return!

[killigraphy]

Invul would make sense since Invincibility (power-toggle) adds a -acc with more enemies around you.

 

Bio would make more sense thematically.

 

I'd go with everything but Rock, since you're not going to be doing much damage, or enjoying your costume passed lvl 32.

[Psyonico]

14 minutes ago, killigraphy said:

Invul would make sense since Invincibility (power-toggle) adds a -acc with more enemies around you.

 

Bio would make more sense thematically.

 

I'd go with everything but Rock, since you're not going to be doing much damage, or enjoying your costume passed lvl 32.

Invul doesn't have -acc, you're thinking willpower.  Rise to the Challenge has -tohit in it.

 

Stone armor got revamped a while back, granite isn't necessary anymore to be a strong contender.  Also, there are ways of mitigating the Granite Armor penalties.

 

Anyway, back to the OP.  Rad armor is best thematically. I've also got a shield/rad, which is a beast, but was painful before Cardiac 

[schrodingercat]

I run a stone/rad tank with no granite. I am unkillable since I focused on +regen and have max hit points at all times. I never run out of endurance since granite-less stone has a recovery shield that can be slotted for endurance and heal procs. I have built in recharge and no psi hole. Brimstone procs damage on the radiation damage aura in as well as radiation contamination procs. I am a giant walking burn patch, basically. Nifty procs can be slotted in your rad powers as well.

 

Now, if I get a bunch of toxic -regen spamming mobs, I will have to use some inspires sometimes.

 

As a bonus, the effects look thematically similar when you run all the stone armors with minimal FX now. No poo suit!

Edited January 6 by schrodingercat

[Sovera]

Not to put a damper on trying new things, but Rad Melee was linchpinned by Irradiated Ground. Irradiated Ground was 'fixed' which now means the whole set needs a pass or it's woefully under tuned.

 

That aside I had a great time with Stone Armor/Radiation Melee back when IG was 'bugged'. Fire Armor was also a good pairing since it has a solid Endurance recovery. I would not touch sets without endurance recovery because as others pointed out it's pretty endurance heavy.

[Sovera]

5 hours ago, schrodingercat said:

I run a stone/rad tank with no granite. I am unkillable since I focused on +regen and have max hit points at all times. I never run out of endurance since granite-less stone has a recovery shield that can be slotted for endurance and heal procs. I have built in recharge and no psi hole. Brimstone procs damage on the radiation damage aura in as well as radiation contamination procs. I am a giant walking burn patch, basically. Nifty procs can be slotted in your rad powers as well.

 

Now, if I get a bunch of toxic -regen spamming mobs, I will have to use some inspires sometimes.

 

As a bonus, the effects look thematically similar when you run all the stone armors with minimal FX now. No poo suit!

 

Are you sure Brimstone works with IG? I seem to recall it did not because it was a pseudopet doing the damage... But wait, that was changed, right? Still, could you confirm in game, please? I'd like to update my knowledge base.

[schrodingercat]

On 1/6/2024 at 9:25 PM, Sovera said:

 

Are you sure Brimstone works with IG? I seem to recall it did not because it was a pseudopet doing the damage... But wait, that was changed, right? Still, could you confirm in game, please? I'd like to update my knowledge base.

So I turned on pet damage to get this. My irradiated ground doesn't have a fire proc. So it seems that brimstone is carrying through to irradiated ground. I can't confirm it working on contamination procs because the combat log goes brrrrrr

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, schrodingercat said:

So I turned on pet damage to get this. My irradiated ground doesn't have a fire proc. So it seems that brimstone is carrying through to irradiated ground. I can't confirm it working on contamination procs because the combat log goes brrrrrr

 

I seem to recall it did not work (but it's been a long time). But IG was a pseudo pet at the time. It got fixed a while back.

 

Thanks for taking the time for that screenie o/

[schrodingercat]

23 hours ago, Sovera said:

 

I seem to recall it did not work (but it's been a long time). But IG was a pseudo pet at the time. It got fixed a while back.

 

Thanks for taking the time for that screenie o/

What's weird is I remember that change too, but I think it was just a change to contaminated not getting secondary procs and my brain retconned it to all radiation stuff. I know rad melee is not the most exciting, but I can stand in the middle of mobs and eat a sandwich and they're all dead with no work from me. It keeps my team safe and provides some minor debuffs, to boot, so it's fine! I want to try something more exciting for my next tank though 😄