Rad/Axe Solo Tanker

[TorvonCoH]

I am building a Rad Armor/Battle Axe tanker. While finding numerous references to this power combo in search, I found few builds (at least since the BA revamp). I was hoping I could post one and receive some feedback and suggestions.

 

My goals/playstyle:

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• I exclusively play solo, and prefer +4/x8 for efficiency but don't mind going lower when needed. I skipped taunt since I never group.
• I probably will level quickly to 50 and adopt a level 50 build, but then do some content tourism including exemping down to solo task forces. If possible I would like to see all the team content (while solo), especially the task forces required for passive accolades (I've basically seen 0 TFs on any character so far).
• I am not too restrained by finances but find the conversion roulette and AH minigame a bit tedious. So I will buy worthwhile purple sets but generally no HOs or D-syncs or the like.
• I enjoy DPS and slaughtering big packs and tend to zone out on my attack chain. Despite the scrapper-lock playstyle, I feel I enjoy tankers more because of the better AOE radius/target cap, and the ability to become very survivable with less investment. I basically want to clear through maps as quickly as I can without having to look at my health bar.

 

 

Build notes:

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• I wanted to leverage procs in my AOEs for the goal of more damage.
• I wanted significant knockdown (and KB->KD) as a form of soft-control mitigation and to fire Force Feedback procs (x3) to cycle my Rad cooldowns faster.
• Axe is end hungry so I prioritized feeding it with procs in Stamina, gamma boost and Rat therapy.
• I am very uncertain on my slotting.
  • Did I underslot my defensive powers? I wanted more slots for damage, so I mostly ignored def and tried to get just enough resistances to cap them (except cold and psi). I'm assuming I will have more resists than shown in Mids (6.7% from 1 stack SMotT + ~5% average from Reactive Defenses Scaling Resists + 5% Barrier Destiny minimum = ~17% boost) that should put me well over 90% for everything (except cold and psi).
  • Where to put the ATOs and how to balance those set bonuses with the uniques I want is tough. I put a Force Feedback in Gash with 5 Sup. Gauntleted Fist. I kinda wanted an Achilles Heel in Chop to have those procs in my single target attack chain, but instead I left it at 6x SMotT with the hope that the Achille's Heel in beta decay could work instead.
  • I find Uniques hard to resist, so if I overslotted them at the expense of set bonuses I am open to change that. Or conversely if I missed one that is worth making space for.
• My accuracy on some of these attacks is pretty bad, I guess due to so many procs and uniques. I approached this by slotting Focused Accuracy for to-hit and end-red with the plan to run it permanently (also for the to-hit debuff protection). Is it a problem that Ground Zero and Beta Decay are below 95% accuracy vs +3s even with Focused Accuracy? Is there a better approach to take, like would dropping a proc in Swoop to get the 4pc Hecatomb be worth it?
• I just guessed at Incarnates. I doubt I will focus too much on pushing things past tier 3. Maybe Alpha and Destiny if I play that much. Please let me know if these picks are not optimal because I don't really have any preferences here.
• I really wanted Combat Teleport and Fold Space to bunch everything up for the AOE/knockdown blender, but I just couldn't find the power slots to fit those in. I ended up taking Concealment pool for the two free slots for 7.5% LotG. I do enjoy having stealth from time to time but could do with SS+Celerity stealth. Playing solo, I don't care for Leadership toggles, but I am open to other options for those two picks.

 

 

Build stats:

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Datachunk:

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Tanker - Modified 4.21.25 (Radiation Armor - Battle Axe).mbd

[Warshades]

Some things to maybe consider:

• You could swap the slotting of Alpha Barrier and Tough, doing so provides about 2% more s/l resist since Alpha Barrier has higher base resist values, it benefits more from resistance enhancements than Tough does.
• 1 EndMod IO provides higher end recovery benefit than the chance for +end proc in Stamina.
• You could probably save a slot from Chop as you don't really need the added s/l resist since the SMoT proc will handle that. Or else, put the chance of +rech into Chop and run a full SGF in Gash which will give an additional f/c resist bonus on top of s/l.
• I would take out the heal boost touch of nictus from rad therapy and just add another damage proc like eradication.
• Consider maybe replacing the Overwhelming Force proc in GZ to a +5 boosted dam/rech/acc Armageddon to get the power up more often and get acc to 95%+.
• You could do 2 superior avalanche in Pendulum and Axe Cyclone, will let you save another slot from boxing as you won't need it for the recharge debuff resist. Doing an acc/dam and dam/end in one of the powers and acc/dam/end and acc/dam/end/rech in the other should still get you to 95% acc on +3 (+4 with lvl shift).
• Rather than slotting Glad Armor unique in Meltdown, consider doing a 3 piece Glad Armor in Fallout instead of Aegis and putting it there. That will give you some KB protection from the set bonus and let you save 2 slots from Meltdown (you can put 1 or 2 back into any armor for another impervium or aegis if you like for additional psi resist or else spend them in other places).
• Personally, I don't think you'd benefit much out of Barrier. Radiation has no defense debuff resist, nor high defense to begin with, and also nearly caps most resists without any help. You can grab Ageless to provide more recharge/recovery.
• If at all possible, consider a way to add dominate from psi mastery to the build and proc it out. Great place to put a Decimation build up proc and it's a good ST attack as well. Leadership pool instead of stealth pool (you can easily turn off beta decay and ignore any mobs that try to attack as you run to end of mission objective, not hard to do with a tank) and tactics could help to partially make up for some of the loss from FA, but that would require a deeper dive and adjustments to the build.

[TorvonCoH]

Thank you for the great feedback, Warshades. I've spent some time on Test trying out these changes and others. Many of your suggestions were flat-out upgrades that improved my build noticeably so I really appreciate you taking the time to look closely at it and share your expertise.

 

 

I did have two questions:

On 4/21/2025 at 6:14 PM, Warshades said:

• 1 EndMod IO provides higher end recovery benefit than the chance for +end proc in Stamina.
• If at all possible, consider a way to add dominate from psi mastery to the build and proc it out. Great place to put a Decimation build up proc and it's a good ST attack as well. Leadership pool instead of stealth pool (you can easily turn off beta decay and ignore any mobs that try to attack as you run to end of mission objective, not hard to do with a tank) and tactics could help to partially make up for some of the loss from FA, but that would require a deeper dive and adjustments to the build.

 

1. Can you help me understand how EndMod is better for end recovery than Performance Shifter +End proc? I have viewed PS +End as 1.5 PPM * 10% endurance boost, which would result in 15% endurance per minute. Meanwhile a 50+5 PS end mod would give a 53%  boost to Stamina's base 25% endurance per minute, which would be only 13.25% endurance per minute. 
2. I tried taking Dominate and I did like it, but I found it rather expensive since I had to drop Focused Accuracy, then free up some slots for Dominate, and reslot some other powers for global accuracy buffs, which meant giving up procs. I managed to do that and wasn't sure if my overall DPS was higher, and I still lacked the tohit debuff resistance from Focused Accuracy. I'm just wondering how you use Dominate that makes it more valuable than Focused Accuracy in a Battle Axe attack chain. Maybe the Decimation +buildup was doing more for me than I understood. 

Thanks again for the solid feedback. Testing this combo in general, I struggled more than I expected with the Psi hole versus Carnival of Shadows, but it otherwise felt very synergistic and sturdy. I've also tried a Shield/Fiery tanker that had very stable passive defensive characteristics and some solid DPS with Soul Mastery, even while fitting in Fold Space. Not sure which I like better at this point.

[Warshades]

22 hours ago, TorvonCoH said:

Can you help me understand how EndMod is better for end recovery than Performance Shifter +End proc? I have viewed PS +End as 1.5 PPM * 10% endurance boost, which would result in 15% endurance per minute. Meanwhile a 50+5 PS end mod would give a 53%  boost to Stamina's base 25% endurance per minute, which would be only 13.25% endurance per minute.

 

Looking back over PPM, I believe you are right that the proc would be slightly higher. It should average out to 15 end/min whereas slotting a +5 boosted end mod IO would be 13.8 end/min. I suppose that the only point in favor of the end mod is the guaranteed reliability whereas you're relying on proc chances with the PS proc.

 

22 hours ago, TorvonCoH said:

I tried taking Dominate and I did like it, but I found it rather expensive since I had to drop Focused Accuracy, then free up some slots for Dominate, and reslot some other powers for global accuracy buffs, which meant giving up procs. I managed to do that and wasn't sure if my overall DPS was higher, and I still lacked the tohit debuff resistance from Focused Accuracy. I'm just wondering how you use Dominate that makes it more valuable than Focused Accuracy in a Battle Axe attack chain. Maybe the Decimation +buildup was doing more for me than I understood.

 

There are certainly sacrifices that are made going for Dominate. I should state that while I've played radiation armor and battle axe, I haven't played both together. My favorite radiation armor tank is rad/ss, but that is a lot easier to proc bomb and have to worry less about global acc/tohit debuffs due to double stacked rage. If you aren't seeing a significant difference with Dominate in the build then keep to using FA as you had in the original. With my rad/ss, I like to hit Dominate as I'm jumping into the middle of the mob. If the BU proc activates, it makes the AoE nukes like GZ, Foot Stomp, and Psi Tornado do higher damage. It is also worthwhile to use it before going into a heavy hitting attack chain when fighting against AVs. You could set up an AE mission and test out the difference in damage output by doing several runs and timing how long it takes to clear, whether it's clearing mobs or an AV, then averaging those times together to see if there is a large difference. This may not be worth doing anyway since you're more reliant on global accuracy and having the tohit debuff resistance from FA.

Edited May 4 by Warshades