Class/Power Help

[Texman]

Hi all,

 

It's been awhile since I've played this wonderful game and there are quite are few class combos added that I've never played and have a few questions.

 

I'm looking to do a couple builds based on a concept but not sure how it will play in higher lvl pve.

 

Rad/Rad Sentinel/Corruptor - I've heard Rad Blast as a main skill is lackluster in dmg and I'd like to do decent AE & ST dmg.

Nrg/Rad Sentinel - fits concept well but nrg blast KB seems to be a pain in group pve

 

Fire/Rad or Invuln Sentinel - doesn't fit concept as well but might play better

Fire/Rad Corruptor - same as above and I like having some support for teams

 

Which of these would be a good balance of team and solo play?

 

Thanks for any feedback

 

 

[Charistoph]

Rad is not the strongest of the Blast sets, but it does come with the ability to provide a higher hit ratio with lower Enhancement investment.  Due to it's ability to reduce Defense, that means it is GREAT for team ups, allowing your teammates to hit more often and speed up progression.  Only -Resistance from sets like Sonic Blast can do more for speeding up content for both yourself and a team.

 

Radiation Emission is an amazing set with some incredible buffs and debuffs while healing.  It's only downside is that somethings just die to quickly to take advantage of the debuffs, so you have to be quick at identifying the Lts and Bosses who can stand up to the damage long enough for the debuffs to actually mean anything.

 

I don't know as much about Radiation Defense, I haven't played around with it as much, but as with all the other Defense powersets, they tend to be a bit more selfish in helping YOU survive, and do little for helping the team (aside from spending time saving your arse).  Mezz protection for yourself to keep you going so the Defender/Controller/Mastermind/Corruptor doesn't have to worry about you as much, and maybe the aura (I can't remember what it does, off hand) are the only things worth thinking about on a team basis.

 

Going from there, you need to look at the Inherent abilities and the modifiers of the Archetype in question.  Corruptors and Sentinels don't hit as consistently hard as Blasters, but a little bit harder than Defenders do (good thing, too, they are Primary, after all).  Sentinels have a build up mechanic that's tied to use of their first two powers of the set to kick off and never have a Snipe.  Corruptors tend to Crit when their target is below half health. 

 

Secondary Powersets also tend to work worse for both of these classes than some others.  Corruptor Secondaries are obviously not as good at their job as they are for Defenders, but they compare rather comparably to Controller and Mastermind numbers.  Sentinel Secondaries, on the other hand are just a smidge lower on the base level than they are for Brutes and Scrappers, and they have the Health pool of a Blaster.

 

So, of those, if I was more concerned about soloing than teamplay, I'd look at the Sentinels.  If you want to be good at blasting while still providing support, go Corruptor.  If you are concerned about Rad's ability to debuff, you may want to consider the Fire Secondary for the Corruptor.  Remember that you can customize the power so that you are firing bright green, radioactive fire, after all.

[Texman]

Thank you for the detailed reply!  I’m wondering if rad/rad is overkill on the -def debuff and I’d be better off doing fire/rad for a good combo of debuff and dmg.  I do wish rad blast was better dmg because I’m liking the look of the powers.  Also how hard is it to get energy blast to have KD instead of KB is that something you can only achieve at endgame?

[Charistoph]

Thank you for the detailed reply!  I’m wondering if rad/rad is overkill on the -def debuff and I’d be better off doing fire/rad for a good combo of debuff and dmg.  I do wish rad blast was better dmg because I’m liking the look of the powers.  Also how hard is it to get energy blast to have KD instead of KB is that something you can only achieve at endgame?

 

I'm not sure about converting KB to KD.  The best recomendations I can provide on that is to get Hover (for Defense) and be above them when you fire.  They then get Knocked Back in to the ground instead of across the ground.

 

Radiation Blast originally was Defender only, so Primary numbers didn't get defined until the Corruptors became available.  Positive Gamer has streamed a Radiation/Fire Blaster on YouTube this past week, and done a few Task Force runs with him.  He was quite satisfied with them.  Also keep in mind that Powersets that come with an inherent debuff usually are a little lower in the numbers to offset their larger capability of reducing them.  Fire does more damage because it doesn't do anything else, and it also adds a DoT to almost every attack. 

 

As for overkill, Radiation Emission isn't as focused on -DEF as Radiation Blast is, and Blast's Debuff doesn't last long enough to ever be considered completely pointless.  I can tell you that your friends who didn't slot Acc will be appreciative, at least until they can get some good IO Enhancements or reach the SOs where one Enhancement is more than enough (unless you're fighting against Dark-powered opponents who drop your accuracy like Bone Daddies).