Looking for some duo advice on ATs

So my friend and I were playing last night and trying to decide on our next duo. We're currently running an empathy defender with my elec/shield brute. We are currently lvl 43 and all but unstoppable. Just a great team overall.

That said, I think we're going to switch roles where he will become the melee character and I take up the support. He would really like to try a tank, but we're not sure what AT would dish out enough damage for a duo AND have enough defense to be viable in a duo. He isn't opposed to going brute either.

As for support, I was looking at maybe going something like Rad for its debuffs or Kin for its speed buffs. But I'm pretty open to any ideas.

Also, would going Thermal with its shields make a scrapper more in line with a brute in defense?

Thanks a ton for any advice/guidance I can get.

My friend played an ice tank and I was on a fire blaster. They are an awesome duo.

Scrapper/Brute/Tanker
Fire Melee
Shield Defense

Defender
Cold Domination
Sonic/Ice/Dark

If you're talking just standard whatever play, occasionally my friend will be on his stone/stone tanker and I'll be on my rad/sonic defender and he dishes out enough damage for us to get through things. I"m certain the -res helps though .
And yes, I do deal my fair share of damage as well.

If you go for a tank you are seriously gonna want sb. Also choose shield because he will get defense and damage bonuses.

There are so many options to choose from. Personally, I'd go with a Corruptor and Brute/Scrapper duo, Tanks are meh.

Ice/fire tank with a fire/thermal corruptor.
Tank gets: High defense, mid level resists, +max hp, aoe and st damage, forge buffing damage, 2 taunt auras, end recovery power with auto hit, and someone to heal him in emergencies.
Corruptor gets: good st and aoe damage, big debuffs later on, an aggro magnet on his team at all times, and a self heal that splashes onto his ally if needed.

Haven't tried it myself, but on paper it looks pretty good and I kinda want to try it myself.

My favorite matchup for a Tank is a defender which can not only offer support, but offer some way to really boost the Tank's damage dealing ability, so your thoughts on Kinetic or Radiation are very good choices.

Have you considered Corruptor as a Tank complement ? They get access to both Kinetic and Radiation as well as offering some great personal damage contribution.

If you settle on a Brute or Scrapper, I would stick with a Defender, and look at sets which can increase their defenses where they are weak. So Thermal would be really great for a Reflexes or Shield toon, because of the added resistances. While FF/Cold/Traps would be really helpful to a more resistance based powerset like Fire or Dark.

Seeing as how you have a Defender/Brute duo right now. I'm going to assume you both have GR.

If your friend wants to go with a Tank, I say go for it.

Plenty of Tank combos to go with, that will deal enough damage. With the exception of my Fire/Fire tanker, I really found I didn't care who I duoed with, as long as I didn't solo on my tanker.

You're duoing, so really content isn't the problem. The problem will be at what you consider an acceptable missioning speed.

And if your friend decides on a tankish Brute, you're just as set.

My suggestion...go with a Fire/ Corrutor.

You'll bring more damage no matter which route you go with.

For Secondary for the corr. it depends on your play style and if you two ever team with others for TFs or not.

Kinetics may be the right choice. You have the aggro management in your partner, and with just one person, SBing isn't bad at all.

However, if you team, you might not care for the "SB NAO!" "SB PLZ!" ect ect that will likely happen.

If you can handle that, I'd suggest Fire/Kin.

However, there is some benefit of going Fire/Sonic Corr. If your partner has some decent AOE capabilities (no idea on the combo your partner is looking at), you can keep your partner shielded (crank up that difficulty), while having a -Resist AOE toggle going for both of your AOEs.

Shielding every 4 minutes, even on a team of 8, isn't bad (though I think SBing every 2 mins is). You also get the benefit of a bit of mez protection yourself.

If your friend goes with a Resist oriented Tanker, Cold Domination may be the better choices, especially if you two ever team up with others.

Cold Domination is, imo, the best debuff/buff Power set, and it's a shame I don't see more of them.

Demon Summoner/thermal and Elec/shield or shield/elec brute/tanker would likely be nice.
As a MM pets provide damage/support while you focus most of your attention on supporting your friend, and thermal adds resists, heals, damage buff, and a couple debuffs. Pets will also add -res debuff, -rech, and some controls with the prince. Electrical melee and shield is a popular combo for major AE damage, shield being mostly def based will gain most benifit from added resists, and between the two of you you'll cover alot of damage types.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler That...was a Herocon 09 exclusive easter egg. The powerset will not have doves associated with it. Namely because you guys would want to color tint the damn doves, or make them hawks/ravens/flying sharks/etc and that's just a headache I do...not...want...to deal with.

For something a little different... if you aren't set on having a "melee" character, try a pair of defenders (or corruptors). I duo'd a Radiation/Dark Blast defender with my brother's Kin/Elec Defender. The only thing that ever gave us any difficulty were AVs...and we did it before IOs came out. Another duo we did was a Dark Miasma/Elec Blast defender with a Gravity/Storm Controller...that pair was a bit slower, but once we got into the 30s it was another powerful combo with lots of debuff, lots of control and decent damage.

Have your friend do a Fire/Fire tank, and you roll a Fire/Kin corruptor. Fire tanks crank out damage at the expense of some survivability. The Kin has SB to make Healing Flames come up faster, and one of the best heals in the game. A Fire Corr loaded up with AoE can quickly attract a dangerous amount of aggro, but the tank will be focusing that on himself via Taunt. It's a highly synergistic combo: super sturdy but terrific offense too.

Once you get Fulcrum Shift make sure to crank up your virtual team size to get more minions and get to the damage cap!

if your going to duo you can try what my wife and me do, and that is to write down the next few characters that you want to play and try and pair them up, with the best damage and support combo that can help each other out.

Tanks pair up great with Corruptors to help with the damage.

Then try and match up the tanks armor set with whatever support set would help them out the best.

here are a few but you can always play whatever except for a stone you will want a kin

Stone - kin
Dark - kin, cold
Fire - cold
electric - cold
shield - cold, thermal
Willpower - cold, Thermal
Ice - Thermal, Sonic
Invulnerability - cold or thermal maybe early on

These are just some options you can always use whatever or play traps, Rad, TA

If you want something a little bit different, try a Stone/Fire Tank and a Plant/Kin controller. The tank can gather the foes into a nice tight group, then the Plant/Kin can hit them with Seeds of Confusion, Roots and Fulcrum Shift. Tank then hits build-up, Fire Sword Circle and Combustion. Group dead.

My Stone/Fire tank is actually used for some farming. He puts out enough damage with Build-up-FSC-Combustion to kill or nearly kill good-sized groups of minions. Mud Pots will usually finish off the minions, while I use my attacks on the Lts. and Bosses. I'm currently softcapped to Smashing/Lethal in Stone Armor, and can always pop into Granite if things get tough. Once you get Speed Boost, that movement penalty from Rooted won't be a problem. Another option might be a Invul/Fire, which would not have the movement penalty of a Stone Tank with Rooted, but you also miss out on the damage aura. But Invuln, once fully slotted, is nearly as survivable as Granite.

My Plant/Kin was created as part of a duo with an Elec/Shield scrapper. He would gather them up into a nice tight group, and I'd hit them with Seeds and Roots. Then the group was just about entirely neutralized for Fulcrum Shift (or Siphon Power in lower levels) for an easy killing. We were killing groups fast long before Lightning Rod, Shield Charge and Fulcrum Shift.

Another random suggestion: Dark Armor/War Mace Tanker with Dark Blast/Radiation Corruptor. The Tanker takes Oppressive Gloom and you take Dark Pit and the rest is a story about stunned bosses who the Tanker Clobbers if one of them somehow gets missed. That's before factoring in the fact that enemies can barely hit your tank at all.

A Cold Dom/Sonic Defender would also pair well for somewhat different reasons, although then your teammate is stuck looking at that hideous armor for the duration of his career.

My wife and i are gonna do 2 Doms. Shes got an earth/earth and ive got a plant/fire. Im very new to Doms but am very impressed so far. Plant/Fire has very good mitigation and damage. Earth offer a ton of debuffs. I think they'll be super after IO'd.

I would try Electric/Archery controller and a Willpower/Fire tank.

Tons of control and good damage.

It's been fun reading all the replies to this thread - it's great to hear everyone's experiences with different combination's, and get new ideas. Just wanted to add a couple things, and apologies in advance if you already know...

An empath defender is the most team-dependent toon I've ever played. A scrapper is just about the least team-dependent. It's not necessary to run with the far ends of the spectrum like this, unless that's what you especially enjoy, in which case, try a melee damage AT and a dark/dark defender - you'll never want to be on a team without a dark ever again. It will spoil you for life!

Few "support" toons require a tank, or much of anything else for defense - they ARE the defense. What they need is someone to do the damage. A tank probably isn't your best choice there, imo, since they are also defense/support. There are some higher damage tanks out there, sure, but a brute, scrapper, blaster, or stalker would do a fair amount more. If it were me, I'd want to pair a tank - even a damage one - with any of the above damage dealers (though a blaster might be a bit painful until the tank can really hold aggro well). A dom or a corruptor would also do quite well - their damage is more moderate, but they have lots of mitigation.

Trollers work well with ANYTHING at all that does some damage. Plus, when they get high enough level to get some epic attacks, the tables get turned, and they turn out to be the damage, and everyone else on the team is supporting them. Anything/kin or rad will be uber. (Earth primary has arguably the most control, with fire the least. But any will be fine)

My husband and I, like the previous poster, have been having a high old time finding combination's to run all the new arcs in Praetoria, and found dominator duos have worked very well, since they have the controller primary, but damage secondary. We've also worked well with a troller/dom combo, and as well as troller/scrapper and brute combos.