Tank for duo with a blaster

As the title says, I'm about to start a duo with my friend who will be playing a blaster.

My first consideration was play a support class to keep him alive, but I figured the best possible idea was to simply soak damage for him, so he stays alive, and I take all the beatings. So that being said, I'm not sure what I should build to stay alive, but keep things looking at me, and only me.

I've pretty much exhausted the primaries save for willpower *which I wont play as a tank*. So I'm open to any other primary. Secondary, it seems like a more controllery one could be or more use, or maybe AoE centric?

All suggestions are welcome, but it should be noted I'd really rather not play Willpower nor Dual blades.

Also, if it helps. I have no information as to what specifically my friend will be playing as a blaster, but I'd venture a guess at either Fire, AR, or Energy. Secondary could be anything.

Thanks!
pC

You probably don't need a heavy duty tanker for a duo, although once Stone is outta the way everything is fair game.

Electric/Stone or Fire/Stone make excellent small team tankers. A primary with some damage, and a secondary with solid aoe mitigation.

Anything would work for a primary, although you might want to consider something with a heal and end recovery (Fire, Elec, Ice).

For a secondary, I'd look for a decent mix of ST and AOE damage with some mitigation for when things get hairy. Stone, SS, DB, WM, BA, and DM would all work.

So you're thinking I can safely avoid Stone? That's good news

I was leaning at the moment, fire/elec, the only problem being lack of KB, which I would have to scrounge up some money for some IOs or run Acro.

I know nothing about the elec secondary however, so, if anyone can throw 2 cents in on that, I'd be most appreciative!

I go either Ice/SM or Invuln/SM.

My two cents, based on just my feelings...

Ice/Ice
Ice/dark
Shield/ice
Shield/dark

Shield might not help you pal as much as it could, unless he stays close. The slow is good from the ices. The dark has some good control and heal and would just look cool with the ice.

First off, I love Tanker-Blaster duos. That's my favorite flavor of duoing by far, and I do it quite often w/RL friends & SG-mates, playing on both ends of the duo.

Second, *any* Tanker-Blaster duo works well, though I wouldn't want to play, say, WP or Invul w/an En blaster, since I might needs mobs to stick close to me for mitigation. But assuming you want somewhat optimal pairings...

If you're the tank, your primary responsibility is to soak the aggro and let your blaster friend go nuts w/his AoEs. You'll want a strong & fast acquiring aggro aura and decent mobility. Of course, you'll want survivability, but honestly, things will be dying pretty fast around you as long as the blaster friend can concentrate on damage-dealing while you hold aggro.

To that end, I recommend either Invul or Ice as the primary. They have two of the best (well, 3 if you include Icicles) taunt auras in the game, which pulse fast, last a long time & are auto-hit. Stone's is also auto-hit, but pulses slowly and you're not exactly mobile in Rooted or Granite, one of which you'll need for mez protection. Shields is also auto, but I don't think it's quite as strong as Invinc or CE (can't remember AAO's pulse rate ottomh either), though of course you'll have a lot more offense to offer up, and can prolly trade nukes w/the blaster. WP's aura is weak and the 3 resist-based primaries all have to hit checks on their auras, plus they pulse slowly (2s).

Your secondary should complement the blaster. If he's going for Fire, Archery or other AoE oriented, but little mitigating powersets, try something like Stone Melee w/very good ST damage (for a tank, anyway) and good mitigation. If he's going Sonic, go Fire or Elec to take advantage of his debuffs. If he's going Ice or Psi (ST-heavy), go again, Fire, Elec, SS or Ice for AoE goodness. Really, though, I think the secondary in this case can be left to personal choice. The only thing I'd avoid is matching damage types, i.e. all fire or all lethal.

BTW, if your friend is doing, say, a Fire/Fire blaster, I'd prolly roll up an Ice/Ice to complement it. Good concept, plus fire & cold damage are both little resisted, and a Fire/Fire blaster can do all sorts of nasty things to mobs w/Ice Patch (RoF, Burn, HF, BA...).

Dark Armor/Stone Melee - you can ignore minions with oppressive gloom and the blaster can unload his AoEs on them with no fear, you get Fault so you can stun the whole world combined with OG, and you can insta-hold a boss with S. Smash, besides having very good ST damage for a Tanker and a damage aura.

I only have a couple level 50's and they are mostly tanks.
I would hands down, if you have a blaster to do the damage, take a Ice/Ice tank.
My ice tank is only 39 I think but is very rock solid. The slows and ice slick make it so that the blaster can full tilt rain of fire and mobs can hardly move.

Second Choice, Sheild/any. Sheild tanks can be quite nasty and their taunt aura can help alot.

Wp/ss!

I'm throwing in my suggestion of Fiery/Fiery for the duo.

At lower levels you can get your main defenses by lvl 12 allowing for greater flexibility in secondary/pool power choices earlier on. Yes you'll need some help with kb protection, but that can be relatively easily achieved through IO's. Adding in Tough and/or Weave in the later levels makes it that much sturdier.

Although it's argued that it's lost it's reign as the most damaging tank to SD, you've got two things SD doesn't have; a +end power in consume, and a self heal in Healing Flames, both of which can keep you going.

Fiery Armor is by no means the sturdiest tank without a bit of work, but it can do quite well without being IO'd to the gills.

Finally, even without having taunt on my fire tank I've been complimented by fire/fire blasters for keeping them alive.

I will chime in on the whole "Duo" idea and say that Pairing a Blaster and a Tanker would be a fun combination because of the "taunting" nature of Tanks, however...

some of the Best Duos that I have been involved with are:

Scrapper + Buffing Defender (scrapper damage with added tougness thru buffs)
Tanker + DeBuffing Defender (tanker toughness with added damage thru debuffs)
Blaster + Controller (hold still while we do this)

So, for your Blaster friend, you might also consider a Controller as a partner.
Many controllers can mitigate "alphas" and depending on their secondary can "buff" the blaster and control a spawn while the blaster lays waste, or "debuff and control" the spawn while the blaster lays waste. Additionally, Blasters and Controllers generally stay on the "near-side" of every spawn so can work in tandem quite well, whereas Tankers, like Scrappers, jump "into" spawns and can often get "tunnel-vision".

....where did my blaster partner go? ...oh, oops... Hey dude, do you need a wakie or are you gonna run back from the hospital ?

if the point is duoing, and you want a Blaster type feel, have you considered instead pairing two defenders?

I've done a lot of duos with my gf, (and amongst them was a blaster/tank duo) but nothing has had more survivability and more damage prowess than our /cold & /kin defender duo.

Heck its prolly the kind of thing that would get me flamed in the tanker forums, but, survivability does NOT mean having a tank there, the game gives many other options to achieve that goal.

Since we're talking about extremely effective duos now, how about dual Fire/Rad Controllers? Twins of everything you love about a Fire/Rad that gain great powers right out of the box, and only get better.

At high levels, a Fire/Kin will out-perform a Fire/Rad in out and out murdering, but the trip is the important thing, and twin Fire/Rads can stack, well, EVERYTHING. Stacking /Rad debuffs, Stacking holds, Stacking Flashfire, Stacking Hot Feet, Stacking AM, Stacking heals for when you take damage, and later on you'll be rocking SIX Fire Imps who will hurtle around rooms melting the faces out of your irradiated opponents.

My friend and I made this duo, and she wanted to name them Fat Man and Little Boy.

I refused the names, but the duo was still awesome.

I think we mustn't forget that the OP was looking for Tank suggestions for a Tank/Blaster duo.

Since nobody else will say it I will INV/SS. Why? I've been there already and myself and my friend made it to 50 and my friend is an AR/DEV blaster. Built right there is no issue with INV/SS tanking anything the system can dish out.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Invulnerabilty/Dark Melee. Way powerful. Light AoE damage, Incredible Survivability, High ST damage. Take taunt ASAP. Taunt keeps all attention on you, with Dark you get extra survival powers (a second heal, and later in the build a very strong End recharge). Very sweet tank IMO