One Man's Radiation/Electric Defender

[BlueBard]

Upon hitting 20, I had been faced with a quandary over Rezzonate, my Rad/Electric Defender.  I have been strenuously advised that I need Stamina and to respec to get it.  I really agonized over this.  Teaming I almost don't need it (yet), as Vigilance was keeping me fairly well energized for the most part.  But I am definitely feeling the pinch while soloing.

Should I drop one of my two elective electric powers?  But that goes against my concept and considerably weakens my attack chain.  I have enough trouble soloing as it is.

Should I drop Stealth?  Again, it goes against my concept but more importantly is key to my ability to solo Rezz while preserving most of his support power for teaming.

Mutation?  No, I felt I needed to keep that one for team support.   Coupled with Recall Friend I can help keep the team in the mission.  Besides, it's great word play on the name: Rezz can rez.

Recall Friend and Teleport?  No way.  Teleport is another power crucial to the concept and besides which I'm just now getting to the point where it's cool to use after I upgraded my PC at home.

I was almost talked into dropping an electric power, but I realized there was one power I could drop to make this work: Radiant Aura.  I never really wanted it anyway.  Rezz is not a healer.  I know, seems selfish of me, a Defender, to drop a healing power.  But I realized that I could get Health and at least put two slots in it, if not three.  That would compensate for the loss of self heal provided by Aura so that I can still solo as need be.  I never had more than one slot on Aura anyway and it wasn't a great deal of benefit.  I can take Swift as a prerequisite for Stamina and it will help me move around while Stealthed.  At 22 I can pick up Stamina, rebalance my enhancements, and be done with it.

So, here's what the build is generally going to look like post-respec, barring any last minute change of mind:

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name: Rezzonate
Level: 20
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Radiation Emission
Secondary: Electrical Blast
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01) --> Radiation Infection==> Empty(1)  Empty(3)  Empty(5)  Empty(11)  Empty(15)
01) --> Charged Bolts==> Empty(1)  Empty(9)  Empty(13)
02) --> Lightning Bolt==> Empty(2)  Empty(3)  Empty(7)  Empty(11)  Empty(19)
04) --> Accelerate Metabolism==> Empty(4)  Empty(5) Empty(17)
06) --> Ball Lightning==> Empty(6)  Empty(7)  Empty(9)  Empty(17)  Empty(19)
08) --> Mutation==> Empty(8) 
10) --> Swift==> Empty(10)
12) --> Lingering Radiation==> Empty(12)  Empty(13)
14) --> Health==> Empty(14)  Empty(15)
16) --> Recall Friend==> Empty(16)
18) --> Teleport==> Empty(18)
20) --> Stealth==> Empty(20)
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01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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My thought is that if I can keep AM running most of the time in addition to my debuff powers, it will provide more benefit to a team (and me!) than the minor healing my Aura was providing.  So I'll probably 3 slot with recharges, or maybe 2 recharges and an end mod.  Maybe more.  Not quite sure yet how I'm going to slot it.  Maybe steal a slot from Charged Bolts.

[captainspud]

Radiant Aura is kinda crummy anyway (especially before SOs), so dropping it now and picking it back up in the mid-20s is probably a pretty good plan.

[B A D]

Yar,   Rad is the "jack of all trades " Defender. Radiant Aura isn't why you're on the team (ask anybody who's played with Saint... :P) your Rad Candy and Debuffs Are. Its good to have if you can afford the IO sets (Saint has Doctored Wounds)  but you CAN live without it and still be very effective.  But...  Where the hell is ENV Field? Thats the money maker!!  You must get it. NOW! Go home . Leave work. Respec. I have  spoken!

[captainspud]

Ehh, Enervating Field isn't all that great. It causes, at best, a 20% swing-- you take 20% less damage, you cause 20% more. Taking 20% less is almost a non-issue-- if something's going to kill you, 20% protection isn't going to help much. The 20% additional inflicted is decent, but it's too hard to keep it up during normal combat, so it essentially becomes a "boss-killer". And since "boss-killers" are the icing, not the cake, you can definitely wait for EF.

Radiation Infection, on the other hand, can have a HUGE impact. Fully slotted (the big difference between the two-- RI can be slotted, EF can't) it will FLOOR your opponent's accuracy. From 50% accuracy to 5%. That's a 90% reduction in incoming damage. And on top of that, you're hitting much more often, so the fights are over faster.

RI is an essential tool. EF is useful, but delayable. The numbers don't lie.

[B A D]

I have to heartily disagree.  I see a marketable effect when the ENV field goes up on an AV over Rad Infection. and Does't ENV Field put a kibosh on Regeneration as well?

[BlueBard]

So I should probably slot about 3 Acc Debuffs in Rad Infection, then?

Right now I've got it 5 slotted with 1 Defense Debuff, 1 Accuracy Debuff, 1 Endurance Reduction, 1 Recharge Reduction and 1 Range.  I was planning to convert all of those to IO's post-haste.

How would you recommend I slot this pre- and post- Stamina?

[captainspud]

RI doesn't hit AVs so much, because instead of flooring them, it cuts their accuracy to around half of normal, or more. But AVs are a non-issue until the 30s anyway (Faultline doesn't count, those AVs are wimps), and by the time they start showing up, you have enough picks and slots to take and fully slot both RI and EF anyway, so it doesn't matter. RI's more important early, but they're definitely both helpful in the long run.

Of course EF gives an immediate, visible effect-- it actually changes the numbers flashing on your screen. Higher outgoing, lower incoming. Defense is more nebulous. RI's net effect on combat is HUGELY greater than EF's, but you actually have to look to see it, so EF's going to be more satisfying.

And no, EF doesn't have any -regen. Only LR and EMP do that.

[captainspud]

How would you recommend I slot this pre- and post- Stamina?

Mine's 3EndRedux and 3AccDeBuff, but the 3 redux is probably overkill since the end drain isn't that much to begin with. You could probably get away with 1EndRedux if you're tight on slots.

[Raptor]

I've got an Ill/Rad controller that worked well enough to become my 2nd 50.  He has RI slotted 3ToHitDebuff/3DefenseRedux.  Floors their accuracy and defense and works great.