Rad Melee Stalker?

[Justisaur]

I was looking at the old numbers for Rad, and was surprised

http://web.archive.org/web/20140821035429/http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/powerset.php?id=Stalker_Melee.Radiation_Melee

 

Devestating Blow seems to do almost as much damage as Total Focus, but crits for the whole amount, and all the attacks seem to have a small area toxic damage.  It also has some self healing, Maybe it's just one of those 'looks good on paper' sets, but has anyone tried it?

 

What would you pair it with?  /rad perhaps?  Or the usual suspects?

[Frostweaver]

I would pair it with 'don't pick rad as a primary for stalkers because it's secondary effect doesn't work with stalker playstyles'. But that's my opinion. based on running rad to 50 with a brute (where it's god) and a stalker (Where it's the devil that always makes you wish you were playing something that didn't suck)

Rad is an aoe-centric set, and to port it to stalkers they stripped out the best part of the aoe... the ability to reliably contaminate groups with fusion+Atom Smasher, and and then take advantage of explosion bleed. also, no irradiate ground, one of the best parts of the set, that will contminate targets while you deal with the rest.
What they left was a set with a heal that seldom works, a 'big crit hitter' with a disgusting cooldown, and one of the worst melee cones in the game. Yes, the big crit, devastating blow, is probably the nicest crit out of hide outside of AS, but that's it... no secondary big hitter, a couple generic lower level attacks, and some -defense that you have to hit with to make it go off.

Dark is very similar but works immeasurably better. Rad MIGHT make a good PVP set, but that's about it.

But that;s just my opinion.