Help pairing with a Fire Scrapper...

Hello knowledgeable masses of Cox,
I am new to the controller types. I have a brute, corruptor, dominator, and 2 scraps, all lvl 50. My buddy is starting out a fire scrapper, what would be a good complimentary primary and secondary to play with?? I have NEVER played a troller, could use some tips from the experts...

Thanks in advance for any and all knowledge given,

Brakkus

Pretty much anything, but the most beneficial buffs for a fire scrap would probably be a controller variant with either force fields (for the shields) or empathy (for fort and the occasionaly heal).

Plant/Rad would be good too. Your friend would dish the damage and you'd provide anchors for all kinda debuffs, and still get Acc. Metabolism, a heal and keeping the mobs confused most of the time with Plant so they wouldn't attack your friend.

But really, most combos would work. Earth alone has so much control (and a tanky pet) your scrap friend would barely be in danger. I'd say with Earth you could even go /kin to sb him (and FS later) so he kills faster and use your heal targeted through him. Unless you're planning to play at x8, then I'd recommend something with more debuffs like Rad, although Emp works well too. Just seems like a waste, all the potential of Empathy for one single teammate (and maybe the pet if you don't go Mind/).

Anyway I'd go Plant/Rad, great combo for control + buffs/debuffs and you can nuke your friend if you take Fallout for bonus fun points.

Exactly the answers I was looking for.... Thanks all!!! I am leaning towards earth/kin and plant/kin now. Anything Earth is enjoyable for me to date and Plant I have never ran with but will consider. Thanks again!!!!

If you've never tried Plant, you should give it a go. It is a pretty neat set.

Did you ever say what your friend's secondary is? Is he Fire/Fire? Fire/Regen? Fire/SR? Fire/Shield? Depending on which he is, that could change what the "best" fit might be, though of course /Kin will be universally good for any scrapper.

If his secondary is a resistance set (Fire Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, and to an extent Invuln) then I might personally prefer an /Empathy controller. I know, I know. Kin is "better" ... but I do kinda like layered resist + defense, so it could be cool to do Earth/Emp, Illusion/Emp, Plant/Emp or even to be thematic Fire/Empathy. Actually to be totally thematic you could do Fire/Kin, but the social stigma of it all could be irritating.

Anyway, Plant/Kin seems like the go-to answer, but as a player, I enjoy /Empathy more.

Lewis

i would say /thermal or /cold domination to pair with a fire scrapper

therm has heals and buffs and debuffs, cold dom has good defense buffs an hp buff and a HUGE end buff as well as debuffs

If you want an unusual class that is fun to play and makes this quite safe for your friend, I recommend Plant/Cold. Between Seeds of Confusion and the defense shields, the Scrapper won't have much to worry about, and you'll do a lot of damage yourself with plant. At higher levels, Sleet, will speed things up, and Cold, with the shields and debuffs, will also allow your friend to go toe-to-toe against AVs very effectively.

His Fire/Fire Scrapper...

...hmmm...I'd say /COLD for sure. For Theme I'd likely say go Ice/Cold and pickup Frostbite to go with his Burn.

Ok, he has decided on fire/regen. How will cold stack plant/cold or earth/cold hold up? so far I am thinking plant or earth for primary and kin/cold/rad for secondary. Does him being regen make a difference on what i pick? I hate end issues, so kin sounds appealing, I love anything cold or earth, and i have NEVER tried plant. Any more suggestions?

Thanks again for any or all suggestions in advance, you all have never failed to let me down!

Brakkus the Thankful

If he has /Regen as his secondary, I would go with a set that can both heal AND provide him with defense or resistance. Basically, the Defense and Resistance will slow the rate at which he needs to heal, but you'll still be able to heal him, yourself, and your pet (if you have one). However, Kinetics is still amazing, so I wouldn't rule it out.

Therefore, I'd consider Thermal, Empathy, Cold, and Kin in roughly that order.

Thermal lets you heal, slow down his incoming damage, buff his damage, and debuff enemies.

Empathy doesn't have the foe debuff, but it can still heal, slow down incoming damage (Fortitude's defense), and buff.

Cold doesn't have a heal, if I'm not mistaken, but it does have a HP boost (that doesn't heal, IIRC). However, I don't like the HP boost. Still, it lets you give him defenses, and it has some other tools for reducing his incoming damage via debuffing the foes, not to mention increasing his damage by debuffing damage resistance. Just no heals are really available to you here.

Kin (and even Rad) are still good, but maybe less interesting.

Plant and Earth are both fine primaries. I prefer Earth, but you might consider Plant simply because it has some fun and unique powers (Seeds of Confusion, Carrion Creepers).

Earth/Thermal and Plant/Cold would be strong choices. Truthfully, any combo you make will probably be quite fun.

Lewis

If he's going Regen, then I would definitely lean towards something like Cold with passive defenses rather than a healing set. If you're healing atop the regen healing himself, there may be some inefficiency of both of you healing over each other. Also, more healing won't address a challenge of a Regen, surviving a big Alpha, whereas defense shields will do that.

Really there isn't a bad choice here on troller powers, just some better then others. So instead of saying "What troller can best help my friend?" to "What troller do I want play that my friend can help me with?" Say take a fire/kin ( or rad, or storm), those guys needs some help in lower levels... your friend can help you there (and have matching themes- Fire). You could do a Illusion/Rad, Ice/Kin (which I have one, safest toon I ever played and much beloved by a scapper I use to play with), Trick Arrow, Storm, really anything would be a solid choice.

So my advise is pick a troller that starts a little weak at lower levels, and use your friend to help you get pass that. He doesn't need that much help as a fire/reg scapper, so best just pick a troller that looks fun to play and fits your style.

And a Kin adds so much more then just SB... a very good heal that's great for the melee guys, Transfusion (which your friend's scapper will love due to negating his endurance problems), and the big daddy of them all, FULCRUM SHIFT!

There pretty much isn't a "right" answer to this, but here are my thoughts on the Sonic vs Thermal thing.

While ok overall, Sonic's most important contribution is AoE mezz protection, and that's not that useful here. The big bubble provides slightly more Resistance for the Scrapper and mezz resistance for a Troller who isn't in point position. The big bubble is great (tho IMO the worst of the 3 big bubbles) on large teams and in raids, not so hot for melee types who have their own status protection.

Now, Sonic's debuff ring is pretty good. But it's also an endurance hog in a set with poor Recovery. It's also only -22.5 Resistance. And, if you fight anything higher level than you that gets resisted. For this particular scenario, it is strictly weaker than Thermal's Forge power, which grants +40% damage, and never gets reduced when fighting higher level enemies. (The debuff ring isn't terrible, it just comes into better use on a bigger team.)

In the end, for pairing with most Scrappers or Tankers in a small group, I'd recommend Thermal over Sonic.

How IO'ed out is the Fire/Fire scrapper? If he's pretty durable on his own, go Fire/Kin and don't look back. The occasional heal (and Transfusion's a fantastic melee heal) will be all he'll need for survival. Just add more offense and a good AoE immob (so things don't run away from the scrapper, esp if he uses Burn). Fire > Plant for more overall damage.

If the scrapper needs more help taking on, say, +0/x6 spawns, I'd consider */Cold. Great defenses, pretty much infinite end w/Heat Loss (esp combined w/Consume), and good debuffs for fast killing. Primary, again, Fire's prolly best, but Plant would give you more control.

Honestly, though, any controller combo will be able to pair well w/a Fire/Fire scrapper. The above would just be able to go through missions and whatnot a bit faster.