Spines/FA vs. Rad/FA Question.

[BurningDezireA]

Anyone played both builds strictly for farming? If so, can you list pros and cons of both and which might be better for farming? I do have both and both are built similar. For me Rad/Fire feels more tanky. Though this could be in my head only.

 

Thanks!

[Shoulung]

Not in game atm, but what are the secondary effects of both? There in probably lies your answer.

[Frostweaver]

They are roughly equivalent. right now though rad slightly edges out spines because people are learning to exploit the contaminate mechanic and it doesn't have to worry about the 'stuck on the heads of milling mobs' that can drop your kill speed, but the difference in speed is bare seconds, and rad is significantly more expensive (and requires much more optimized builds and attack chains) to bring to that point.

Rad may be the heavyweight champion, but spines is the runner-up that only barely lost on points and a judge's decision.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Frostweaver

[HelenCarnate]

Frostweaver is correct.  For me Rad is far better just because it fits my lazy play style better.  It is annoying for me to line up cones and I tend to never get the timing right when I jump in the air to face the cone down.  There is also room for more -resist procs which also helps.  On the top end they are very similar in clear speed but with a budget build, spines tends to do better and much easier to level (spine burst at 2 vs atom smasher at 32) which is probably why you see far more Spines vs Rad, even though Rad tends to be slightly better, it just takes a lot more work to get there.

Edited September 4, 2019 by HelenCarnate

[Frostweaver]

Well, that and the 4-12 second faster clear time you get on comicon rainbow map with rad just doesn't seem that important, or worth the extra 250-350 million you have to pay to get it there 🙂

 

[Seigmoraig]

Rad and Spines are very similar in power level, but honestly having played both (32+ not to 50) Rad is much more fun to play. The rotation feels much better IMO.

Rad feels a lot like a "fixed" electric melee, only without Lightning Rod. There is a power that looks a lot like Jacob's Ladder and one that looks a lot like Thunder Strike except the animations are MUCH faster to execute.

Maybe I just really don't like using Ripper, maybe rad is more fun to me but at the end of the day both will get you there

[Giocondi]

My only two farmers are a spines/fire and rad/fire. Frostweaver pretty much hit the nail on the head with his post. If this is your first farming character I would highly recommend spines as it performs better at a budget level (no purples). Also, I leveled both of them through AE farming and the spines was able to farm much more effectively during the leveling process. 

[Frostweaver]

To be fair, MOST sets will get you there. The difference in clear speeds between different primaries is often a matter of seconds... Like I have seen a TW/Fire do disgustingly powerful things with recharge procs that clears a map only a few seconds slower than spines, and my claws/fire is only about 20 seconds slower on map clears. and the difference between a careful build and a sloppy build is MUCH more pronounced than the difference between Bio and Spines.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Frostweaver