GameAmp: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

Forum >> Archetype Discussions >> Defender >> Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

User

Message

Vamp Jester

Posts: 7
Joined: 05/15/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

I just made a Rad/Dark def and would like to know what are the "must haves" and what not of this build. The toon is going to be built to debuff(makeing me nearly un-hitable) and do major damage.

Thoughts anyone?

05/22/06 22:51

LordXenophon

Posts: 4
Joined: 02/28/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

First, I must ask whether the rad or the dark is your primary powerset.

Enter the Vault of the Forgotten Page
Visit Lord Xenophon's Card Shop

05/22/06 22:55

Vamp Jester

Posts: 7
Joined: 05/15/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

well...

rad is primary
dark is secondary

XP

05/22/06 23:02

LordXenophon

Posts: 4
Joined: 02/28/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

It would have been easier the other way, but this could still work.

Your best friends in the dark set will be Gloom, Dark Pit, Tenebrious Tentacles and Night Fall. Put time and end reduction enhancements on Gloom, to-hit debuff on all 4. Moonbeam is your best power for doing damage, with 3 or 4 damage enhancements and some activation reduction.

The rad powers don't really increase the damage the enemy takes except by making the enemy easier to hit, so you want to maximise this effect. I believe you can add to-hit debuff enhancements to your area toggles, but the defense debuffs will help you more.

Had you gone the other way, you'd have an excellent to-hit debuff early on (Darkest Night) and very fast attacks that deliver minor defense debuffs which stack quickly. The only real advantage I see to going the way you did is Accelerate Metabolism.

Enter the Vault of the Forgotten Page
Visit Lord Xenophon's Card Shop

05/22/06 23:19

Vamp Jester

Posts: 7
Joined: 05/15/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

Re: Re: Rad/Dark Def, Anyone?

well my toon is only lvl 2 u think it would be a good idea to switch em?

05/22/06 23:27

LordXenophon

Posts: 4
Joined: 02/28/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

That depends on your reasons for going the way you did. What was your plan?

Enter the Vault of the Forgotten Page
Visit Lord Xenophon's Card Shop

05/22/06 23:29

Vamp Jester

Posts: 7
Joined: 05/15/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

well...

QUOTE

That depends on your reasons for going the way you did. What was your plan?

i just hadent tried the rad primary yet

05/22/06 23:37

LordXenophon

Posts: 4
Joined: 02/28/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

The rad primary is actually a good set. There are some who would tell you that it makes the best healer, mainly because the heal comes with a defense debuff for your foes, Accelerate Metabolism comes early and the res is also an awesome buff.

Enter the Vault of the Forgotten Page
Visit Lord Xenophon's Card Shop

05/22/06 23:51

Vamp Jester

Posts: 7
Joined: 05/15/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

what about for soloing?

City of Heroes
Justice Lass, LV50 Kin/Psy Def
Sister Psyche2, LV35 Ill/FF Troller
Dove., Lv18 PB
'Ghost, Lv11 Dark/Regan Scrapper

City of Villians
Ghatta of the Shadows Lv11 ninja/dark MM

05/23/06 00:04

LordXenophon

Posts: 4
Joined: 02/28/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

It you're going to play this build solo, then at least you won't have to yell at anyone for taking down your anchor. This is a major problem with that set, because 3 of your best debuffs are targeted AoE's.

If you really want to focus on to-hit debuffs, I would reccomend a DDD or FF/DB. Either way, every power makes someone harder to hit or less likely to hit.

Enter the Vault of the Forgotten Page
Visit Lord Xenophon's Card Shop

05/23/06 00:35

blacktomcat

Posts: 1
Joined: 01/11/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

QUOTE

Your best friends in the dark set will be Gloom, Dark Pit, Tenebrious Tentacles and Night Fall.

I agree with most of your choices, but Dark Pit? Meh! It's a low magnitude AoE disorient that does no damage. That means that the Lieutenants and Bosses will be beating on you even with the minions out of commission. There are definately better ways to spend a slot than Dark Pit.

=^..^= . o O (Nothing to see. Just a cat.)
(_""_)~

05/31/06 10:56

bigspeer

Posts: 3
Joined: 02/22/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

i agree about dark pit. i took it once and found it to be not useful at all. and it needs at least 2 acc to be effective. boo this power.

05/31/06 11:00

sieglord

Posts: 2
Joined: 08/20/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

Well, Dark is a great blast set for defenders, and Accelerate Metabolism is going to be your best friend (especially when you start stacking it with Hasten). The Radiation toggle ( I forget what it's called) will go a long way towards evening the odds if you're going solo, but don't put too much faith in your heal, unless you are willing to 6-slot it quickly (if you do, go 4 heal, 2 recharge reduction).

If you build it right, you can be a debuff machine, capable of seriously nerfing both Def and Acc, but be careful when facing multiple bosses and LT's. It can be a good solo build, but I think you would be better off in a group. Jsut be ready to constantly switch you toggle target (they ALWAYS kill your target first, no matter how you try to tell them not to).

08/21/06 02:37

Hobsnob

Posts: 3
Joined: 08/07/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

QUOTE

The rad powers don't really increase the damage the enemy takes except by making the enemy easier to hit

Enervating Field decreases damage resistance and damage. So they hit you for less while you hit them for more. The base resistance debuff is 23%, which is pretty nifty. And with Accelerate Metabolism increasing your damage anyway, you are going to be doing a lot more.

I have a level 24 radiation defender, so I can help you on that front even if I can't with Dark Blast.

Try and get the two toggle debuffs, Radiation Infection and Enervating Field, early on. The endurance can be a slight problem, so I would put an endurance reduction in each before Stamina. Afer Stamina they don't really effect endurance too much. They make such a huge difference to the team and the endurance cost at the beginning will be overwhelmed by the benifits - it means you have to heal and attack less, so you save endurance there anyway. And Accelerate Metabolism increases endurance recovery there also.

Call out who you are putting the toggles on. If not, your team is likely to kill your target, dropping the toggles and the effects. This is one of the biggest problems a radiation defender faces. If this still doesn't work put the toggles on the boss or whichever has the best defence. These are more likely to survive for longer.

Hobsnob

Thanks to Invasion Designs

City of Heroes/Villains
Brigadier - lvl 50 INV/SS/Pyre Tanker
Keishi - lvl 31 Kat/Dark Scrapper
Project IcyFreeze - lvl 27 Ice/Storm Controller
Twilight Blade - lvl 36 Claw/Nin Stalker
Keishi Kurai- lvl 32 Nin/DM Mastermind
Galvanic - lvl 30 Elec/Elec Brute
Astral Twilight - lvl 36 Warshade

All on defiant
Global - @Brigadier

World of Warcraft - Vashj
Eidelar - lvl 40 Night Elf Rogue
Doralia - lvl 30 Human Priest

08/21/06 03:14

Gon_Edain

Posts: 0
Joined: 08/22/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

QUOTE

The rad powers don't really increase the damage the enemy takes except by making the enemy easier to hit, so you want to maximise this effect. I believe you can add to-hit debuff enhancements to your area toggles, but the defense debuffs will help you more.

Had you gone the other way, you'd have an excellent to-hit debuff early on (Darkest Night) and very fast attacks that deliver minor defense debuffs which stack quickly. The only real advantage I see to going the way you did is Accelerate Metabolism.

Enervating field increases the damage the enemy will take. And radiation infection takes care of the to-hit debuff, so I'm not sure what you mean here. Sounds like an interesting combo, give it a try and tell us about it.

My 50s:
On Champion
Cosmic Wizard - Rad/Rad Defender

On Freedom
Xenith the Evolved - Mind/FF Controller

On Infinity
Cosmic Wizard - MA/Invul Scrapper
Gon-Edain - WP/Stone Tank

On Virtue
Jonathan Sage - MA/Regen Scrapper

Members of Hyperforce, The JustUs League, and The Brotherhood of Bronze

And a host of alts on every server!

08/21/06 04:57

Tem6

Posts: 0
Joined: 09/13/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

With the increase in the regeneration rate of AV/GM, I would say that the Rad primary would make you popular when it comes time to fight them.

GUARDIAN
The Illegal Army
Cyberdoll 41st Robotic/FF Mastermind
Little Ms Gunslinger 30th AR/Traps Corruptor

Triumph
Heroes 4 Hire
Team-Six 33rd MA/SR Scrapper
Sun Block 32nd INV/EM Tanker

08/21/06 10:10

bigspeer

Posts: 3
Joined: 02/22/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Rad/Dark Def, anyone??

QUOTE

With the increase in the regeneration rate of AV/GM, I would say that the Rad primary would make you popular when it comes time to fight them.

this doesnt really seem to be an issue anymore.

the last 3 GMs i've faced (adamastor, jurassik and kronos), there have been no more than 12 or 15 heroes to take them down. we took down kronos last night with no rad or dark defenders to give the -regen. jurassik only took about 12 heroes to take down, i think we had a rad def with us.

since they scaled back the regen rates of the GMs, they seem rather weak. i also think it depends which monsters they are. babbage and paladins seem tougher because most of the heroes that go to fight them are around 10-20ish. kronos last night was in FF and everyone on my team was at least 32 with the exeption of whimcycle (29). once we went at it, he was down in able 5-10 minutes.

08/21/06 10:58

Don't Forget! - Rate users posts to reward or demerit their posts with Credibility!