Rad/sonic or Poison/sonic

[Doomlace]

Im trying to decide which combo to go with for my defender. Are there pros/cons to either of these?

Is one significantly stronger than the other? or are they the same but different? I hear Rad/Sonic can kill AVs, can Poison/Sonic do that also? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance,

[Carnifax]

I'd lean towards Rad with Sonic, for the simple reason that Poisons best debuff is the Tier 9 PBAoE aura and it won't linger on the enemy long enough for you to pull back to fire off Sonics range of cones. 

 

I'd pair Poison with something like Fire, Rad, Elec, Ice or Dual Pistols. All of those either like being in close because they have a PBAoE of their own or don't care (Fire and Ice mostly don't mind, Rad, Elec and DP have PBAoE attacks). I don't know enough about Seismic or Storm blast to say where they work best. 

 

 

[Hjarki]

58 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

I'd lean towards Rad with Sonic, for the simple reason that Poisons best debuff is the Tier 9 PBAoE aura and it won't linger on the enemy long enough for you to pull back to fire off Sonics range of cones. 

 

I'd pair Poison with something like Fire, Rad, Elec, Ice or Dual Pistols. All of those either like being in close because they have a PBAoE of their own or don't care (Fire and Ice mostly don't mind, Rad, Elec and DP have PBAoE attacks). I don't know enough about Seismic or Storm blast to say where they work best. 

 

If he insists on Sonic, it would probably be easier to just skip all the AE in Sonic except for the ultimate. It's not like they're particularly good AE even without the issue of the Poison T9 and Poison has a quasi-AE in the trap anyway.

 

Indeed, I'd argue that one of the strongest Poison pairings is actually Dark despite it's similar emphasis on Cones. With the latest patch, you can run Poison/Dark/Dark. You've got the ultimate/trap for AE, Life Drain to cover health/endurance management and you can even double stack Disorient fields with Dark Pit and Oppressive Gloom - and you get the Aim/Build Up that Dark is missing for the ultimate. Dark is also nice as a Defender because it gets two of its three single target attacks within the first few levels and the rotation is almost entirely medium recharge, proccable powers.

 

Seismic is really a purely ranged set and it's major virtue is the self-recharge on the powers that gives it probably the best ultimate in the game. While I suppose you could run in while the meteor is falling to the ground, it's a lot easier to just use something like Sleet/Freezing Rain while the animation is ongoing.

 

Storm is likewise a set that gains no real benefit from being up close. It's also a "screw it... I'll just play Traps" set due to having to wait for Storm Cell to slowly drift to where you need it to be.

[Mocephus]

I have a incarnate poison/sonic and it is one of my favorite toons. I skipped all the cones except Howl which I stuck the two Defenders ATO procs in for a crappy heal. I like having quick recharging debuffs instead toggles with kinda long activation times. You get a lot of character slots. Make a rad/sonic and a poison/sonic and run some DFBs and see what you like the most. 

[Doomlace]

I was originally running Rad/Dark but I felt it was a little lacking in dmg even for a defender. I know with sonic it helps add dmg with the debuff. I would like to be able to solo most content but also be team friendly. 
 

im also building around a character concept, that why I’m looking at these specific powers. 

[Zect]

In general, Rad is balanced, poison is more offensive.

 

Rad has a self heal and AM which makes solo play safer and eases build requirements with its huge end gain and rech bonus. Poison has no self heal, no self buffs - you kill or you die.

 

Rad offers the baseline -res amount for a support set: -30%. Poison has -40% from evenom (main target) and another -25% from the aura for -65%. This is slightly more than the heavyweight debuff sets and is only exceeded by a few sets like storm with 2x freezing rain, cold with 2x sleet + heatloss and traps with 3 mortars out, and those need some setup time. (Then the trick is that envenom also does another 20% in a small aoe around the target, and if you have 2 targets next to each other and debuff them once each, the main part and the aoe part stack for even more -res.)

 

Rad offers the complete baseline suite of debuffs: -def -res -regen -tohit -dmg -rech. Poison offers all that (though the -rech power is safely skipped), -heal and -special. It is not always useful but when it is it can be very nice. For casual/solo players, the most common application is it neuters the duration of enemy mezzes.

 

Rad is playable at any range. Poison really wants to be in melee, because a big chunk of its debuff power is in the aura. This in turn encourages a build that has more balanced defenses and not just ranged + hoverblasting. My poison fenders usually run with 30-35 to all 3 positions and the debuffs take care of the rest.

 

Rad's debuffs are enemy anchored toggles which means less control over positioning and placement. Bosses WILL run off leaving other enemies un-debuffed which, while usually not dangerous is generally annoying. Poison's debuffs are taoe and pbaoe and do not suffer this issue as much.

 

One thing that both rad and poison have in common, is that they have very few required powers. Contrary to forumite opinion, this is a strong advantage, and reflects good powerset design: fewer required powers = more power picks available for pool powers and set mules = more build diversity. Rad can be played with just 5: the toggles, AM, lingering rad, and the heal. Poison can be played with as few as 4: skip all the ally powers (nobody expects to be healed by a poison), the ST hold and the slow. The great thing is that in both cases the skippable powers are in no way bad, except perhaps neurotoxic breath - they are all useful for specific build goals, AT's and power combos.

 

Anyway, my recommendation based on your stated playstyle and build goals is actually poison/fire or rad/fire. Yes, fire. It does good damage even on a fender, even without procs, which then has the advantage that you can devote more slots to set bonuses. Rad/sonic and especially poison/sonic are fairly specialized -res debuffers because sonic is still somewhat lacking as a blast set. When you are solo you need something for your force multipliers to multiply.

[Uun]

I've got a T4 incarnate Poison/Sonic. It absolutely shreds hard targets, although I don't solo AVs with it (I have an Illusion/Poison for that). I took Howl and Siren's Song, although I don't hop out of melee range to use them. Siren's Song can be handy soloing as the sleep is autohit.

[MoonSheep]

rad if you prefer ‘kill all’ paced teams

 

poison if you’re a speed runner

 

i would choose poison/fire or rad/ice for the much higher damage and good proc ability. sonic received quite a heavy handed nerd to its -res debuffs and isn’t the -res powerhouse it used to be

[Doomlace]

If I was to go back to RadEm/Dark Blast would it be better as a Def or Corrupter?

 

I know def for the better Buffs/Debuff/stuns but the Corrupter with Scourges on all the cones like nightfall and TT might do more dmg. 

Edited March 6 by Doomlace