Paired Corruptors

My wife and I generally like to play on big teams, but there are times that we can't find one to join and don't feel like starting one ourselves. So we're creating a duo for just the two of us to play together. We both like damage, and are well aware of the power of stacked buffs, so a pair of corruptors seems like it would work well. I'm just trying to figure out what powersets to play. Right now my thoughts are leaning towards either fire or archery for the primary (neither of us will be happy if we're not doing good damage) and traps or dark for the secondary. I've played dark a few times, and I know how good it is. I've never played traps, but it seems like it has potential, especially since with twin force field generators and twinned maneuvers, we would be close to the softcap by level 22. We'd kind of like to both play the same powerset, but would be willing to give up on that idea if using 2 different sets would be better for performance reasons. Any thoughts on the above sets or other suggestions on what would make a quick and powerful corruptor duo?

Traps and dark miasma are both fine secondaries, so either of them will get you both through. If you're looking for a themed pair, you could always go with a more tech/weapons/mercenary duo, with one of you as archery(or AR)/traps and the other as DP/TA. With the combined debuffs, you'd pump out damage fairly easily. Plus, the set combinations are just plain fun. I've never enjoyed myself more than I have playing my DP/TA corruptor.

Edit: You could also try pairing a dark/rad and a rad/dark together. Both capable of huge debuffs, decent healing and rezzing, plus a pretty penny worth of damage. You'll have a nice synergy with each other, which is always helpful.

I'm not sure how fire/dark would work in a duo, but it's a pretty good combo for soloing. Tar Patch + Rain of Fire = "ha ha, you can't get away!", and you can get those two powers pretty early (Tar Patch at level 2, and Rain of Fire at level 6, I think).

I haven't gotten too far with my fire/dark yet, but the high level ones I've seen pretty much mire down their enemies with -Acc debuffs and laugh as they miss while stacking Fire's DoT on them.

I would personally think that if you "both like damage" that a Brute and Corruptor would be the best for duoing.

Pick a good Brute like Fire/Invul or Dark/Invul, pick a complementary Corruptor, say Dark/Dark or Fire/Dark respectively, and go to town. You'd be awesome even solo, better together, and you could team with anything and it would just make it better.

Slight preference for Dark/Invul broot with Fire/Dark cor but that's just cause I want to see what that combo would do.

I hadn't even thought of alternate archetype combinations...

What about two masterminds? You and your wife would never actually have to team with anyone ever again, if you didn't want to.

I personally think you are going about it wrong. I think a pair of defenders will work better due to the larger returns from (de)buffs. I know from experience that 2 emp/sonic/dark defenders will destroy just about anything in the game. I know, I know, you are probably thinking that 2 empathy defenders aren't going to pump out the damage you want. Well you'd be wrong to assume so, and I'll tell you why, along with other reasons the combo is so strong.

Fortitude + 2 assaults + new vig + soul drain = 210% damage buff that is always on. Now that is in the later levels, and the majority of the game will not have soul drain on your tray since it comes in at 47. But even without that, you are sitting at about 90% damage buff at all times before adding in enhancements. Also add to that the -res that both players are stacking on enemies. You can easily lay down over a 100% resistance debuff in a matter of seconds if you coordinate your attacks.

But that is just the raw damage aspect of it, lets look at recharge for a second. Up until lvl 32, you have your normal hasten cycling going. This by itself can let you keep alternating your 4 (2 endurance, 2 health) RAs in time for only a 5-10 second break between firing, allowing stamina to not be needed, but since i19 makes it inherent, it will just save some stamina slots. But now lets look at your recharge post 32. You get adrenaline boost, which gives you a +100% recharge bonus. Add that to the 70% from hasten, and you have them both perma with only standard IOs or SOs slotted in your character. This puts that attack chain to the point where your -res stacking is in full swing, and it allows you too get soul drain perma with no set bonuses once you get it and slot it for recharge.

Now let's also look at the accuracy of the build. With fortitude on each player, that is an 18% tohit buff before enhancing. Add in tactics because you can afford the power picks, and you get another 25% unslotted tohit bonus. Once those get slotted, you can ramp up the difficulty to +4 and hit them reliably with only one accuracy IO slotted into your attacks, not to mention the tohit buffs from soul drain later in the characters' run.

But won't all those +4 mobs rip those squishy defenders to shreds? No way. Adrenaline boost's +regen makes you regenerate at regen scrapper levels. Not to mention you can fit in tough and an epic shield to get you up close to the defender resistance cap. And just so you know, the regen and resistance is just the backup plan should you capped defenses get in a fight with the random number generator.

Yep, that's right, fortitude(23% slotted) + weave(~8% slotted) + 2 maneuvers(11% slotted) + combat jumping(~4% slotted) will bring you up to around 46% defense to ALL damage types, that aren't from Hamidon of course, which will keep that resistance and regen plenty capable of keeping you alive, especially considering the mezz protection clear mind gives.

If all that wasn't enough, once you get into dark mastery and grab oppressive gloom, you can both stay close together and stack up to a mag4 stun on everything in melee range, and anything that stumbles out can get hit by screech to be stunned again.

If you can't tell, I really love this combo, and as far as "balanced around SOs" go, I would say it is the best 2 person combo out there for almost every situation in the game. I have come across nothing that can stop them once they get going, and almost evey new power you get makes them a LOT stronger.

I would say this will be the most fun for the two of you to play, and the cool part is, their abilities really jump up exponentially when they are teamed compared to when they are solo. Solo you will feel like a horrible character after being used to the duo, and then when the other joins the team, you feel like the game needs to let you go raise the difficulty to +6 x10.