Rad Armor / Electric Melee Tank

[tentagil]

Have gotten this guy to Level 30 and he's been a blast to play. Learned alot in the process and started working on the build I plan to work toward/respec into when I hit 50 with him.

Def is all semi decent, and capping all resists but Cold and Psionic with toggles up, cap those as well when hitting Meltdown. Decent status resistance, though very little status defence at this point. Still need to look at the Incarnate options for him.

While my damage isn't amazing at the moment and really won't be even at high levels, I'm leaning into the end drain of Electric melee and the nMu Mastery along with my Res and Def to make it hard for enemies to attack me and when they can make it harder for them to hurt me.

Any suggestions on improvements?

GreenGeiger - Tanker (Radiation Armor - Electrical Melee).mbd

[ZemX]

In no particular order:

 

- Slotting Combat Jumping for defense is a waste, even to get those set bonuses because those particular bonuses (regen and recovery) are tiny and unneeded by Rad Armor.  You've got heaps and gobs of recovery with Rad Armor.  Defense is generally a waste except as a little extra for team buffs to build on if you've nothing else to build for.  But CJ's defense is so small, enhancing it tends to be worth even less.  I usually slot CJ: Shield Wall:+res, Kismet:+toHit, Reactive:Scaling RES, and a LOTG:+rech.

 

- Slot Theft of Essence +End proc in Rad Therapy.  Now it heals both health and endurance, especially in a group of enemies.  Aside from that, I'd recommend maybe a couple recharge/heal IOs and the rest damage procs.  It's nice little mini proc bomb if you want it to be.  But at the very least, you'll want the Theft of Essence proc.  It is phenominal in any situation you're getting hammered by endurance drain.  Arachnos Mu or Freakshow for example.

 

- Health and Stamina don't need to be that heavily slotted on Rad Armor.  It's normal in a lot of other builds, but Rad's Gamma Boost handles this and the heal means you don't really need passive regen that much either.  I one-slot both.  Health is where I put the Panacea:+hp/end proc so it has a chance to constantly go off.  Stamina and Gamma Boost get the perf shifter proc only.  You could two-slot stamina and add another perf shifter:endmod if you don't want to rely as much on Rad Therapy to refill endurance.  Up to you.

 

- Meltdown should have a 50+5 recharge reduction if you're only one-slotting it.  Alternatively, if you don't think you'll use it that often, use it to mule an Impervium:+RES(psi) IO.  That one is not unique.  Can have five of them in a build if you care about psi resistance.

 

- Ground zero is another nice proc bomb.  I like using it to lead off in a fight because it's a wide area AoE and hits a LOT of targets.  Great way to taunt an entire spawn all at once with a single click.  I like to slot an Avalanche rech/KB proc along with another Avalanche:Acc/Dmg/Rech.  The knockdown is just funny because it has a very high chance to proc and coupled with GZ's 30 target limit, it can knock down a LOT of enemies.  Others just slot more damage procs.  I like getting the 2-slot bonus from a Winter Set here to pump up Slow resistance.   Speaking of which...

 

- Slow resistance is absolutely critical.  You cannot rely on defense to avoid slows.  The 75% you have is probably good enough (and you can get another 20 from a base empowerment station for 90 minutes)  but I like to go a little higher and be immune.  A large part of your backup survival is the absorb shield and heal which are on timers.  Don't be slowed and you won't be dead.

 

- Taunt doesn't need accuracy.  Some people like to slot Zinger's psi damage proc here but I prefer Taunt to do no damage (except to an enemy's pride!) so I slot one 50+5 recharge.

 

Everything else looks cool to me.  I'm sure there's more room for tweaking.  Looks pretty solid tho.  Haven't played Elec Melee myself so I don't know how effective end drain really is.  I've heard various things about it not being that effective but it's also probably not easy to notice it working.  Either way, you aren't likely to need any additional mitigation it does manage to give you.

 

[tentagil]

Thanks for the advice. Just came back in January, hadn't been on since life closed, so still relearnin the game and all the many combinations of powers, not to mention all the underlying math. Loving it so much though. 

[Sovera]

@ZemX has already hit most of the nails on their heads but I'll add some more.

 

Your ATO in Charged Brawl gives 6.7% to all resistances and it stacks up to three times. Mids always accounts for one and with it you're already at 94% to S/L. AWhile three stacks are not reliable because it has a duration and we can whiff an attack of the ATO simply does not proc, but two stacks can usually be reliably had. That will have your S/L resistance to 100%.

 

More than 90% is useless. That means you can play with your slotting and increase the E/N resistances instead.

 

You failed to get the recharge bonus from Preventive Medicine, twice!

 

There is no point in slotting Overwhelming Force in Thunderstrike. The bonuses aren't good and TS doesn't need the KB>KD

 

There is no point in slotting sleep in Jacob's Ladder (we might say no point in taking Jacob's Ladder but your mileage may vary).

 

There is no point in slotting two Gift of the Ancients instead of finishing to slot four Wall Shields for the Negative resistances you're lacking.

 

Spring attack is a bad attack. Unslotted as it is it's even worse.

 

There is little point in slotting 5 Blistering Colds if you're not aiming for S/L defenses.

 

Same for Avalanche in Lightning Rod.

 

There might not even be a point in taking Tough and Weave since you can reliably take your S/L resistance to 90& without Tough and if you're not building for defense there is no need for Weave.

 

You should try to find a place to squeeze Build-up even as a Tanker. Being able to burst down mobs in the first 10 seconds of combat removes a lot of incoming damage from the equation and as Lightning Melee you're already going to be lacking in damage.

 

 

Decide on what you wish to do and I can take a pass at the build.

[Warboss]

Nothing much to add but I put the Kin Cobat KD proc in Chain Induction and it seems fire pretty regularly. It doesn't hit multiple mobs (I don't think) but it does tend to knock stuff down when it hits.