What to duo with a Fire/Shield Scrapper?

I recently came back to the game after about a year away, and have restarted playing along with my wife.

She's played Blasters and Corruptors previously, but until now not played any melee sets. She started a Fire/Shield scrapper today. At the time I started a Ice/Thermal Radiation Controller to go with her scrapper, although we stopped for the night at level 4.

My question is what might be a better match. I'm wondering if a more dedicated support, like a Kinetics/ or Empath/ Defender, meshed with something with half decent AOEs like /Archery or /Electric might work out better.

Thanks for any advice.

My personal favorite way to Duo with a scrapper is with a defender. A corruptor would probably be just as fun and powerful to pair with.

Scrappers will gain the most survival by pairing with someone that fills in the void in their defense. Shields, by this logic, will want resistance and healing.

Kinetics and Thermal both fill this role well. Although both sets are not as self-supportive if you ever plan on soloing. Rad and Dark also would work by simulating resist with debuffs.

If you choose any defender, you pretty much cannot go wrong, but sets which focus on +def like Forcefields or Cold Dom might work very well at the lower levels because you would feed into the strength of Shields, but certainly could seem redundant at the end-game.

Kinetics or Thermal if you like buffing, Rad or Dark if you like De-buffing would be my vote.

I'd go with a Trick Arrow/Archery defender or (cue insane laugh) another Fire/Shield scrapper.

Fire/Cold Corruptor!

Fire/kin corr.

The responses have gotten me thinking at the very least. Thanks.

I hadn't considered another Scrapper to the pair, but you're right that Shield uniquely reinforces another shield scrapper, although the range on Phalanx Fighting and Grant Cover is rather small. In the middle game, close coordination would allow some impressive defensive stats. I'd just be concerned about being within that 15' range all the time.

I guess I was looking for something other than a scrapper, as I probably have too many scrappers and brutes as it is. Yeah, yeah I know, you can't have too many scrappers.

The fire/kin corrupter sounds quite good actually. It still provides good mitigation in the form of a strong and fast heal from level 1 and late game can hit damage cap and extra recharge on Shield Charge and Fire Circle Sword.

A Kin or a Cold would work best with a Fire/shield. I'd prefer a kin though. SPeed boost for added recovery and recharge, a good quick heal if needed and Fulcrum shift is the icing on the cake.

I want to try and Duo an ITF with a Fire/Shield + Kin combo one day.

A Rad or Dark is also an option. The -ToHit in DN or RI should combine with the scrapper's +def to hit the softcap quite easily, while in the late-game, these toggles still give another useful debuff effect (-Def or -Dam).

Frankly, the main thing Fire/Shield lacks is any form of debuffing. Seems to me a debuff specialist (like a Fire/Dark or Fire/Rad Corr) would complement them nicely.

I vote for a 2nd scrapper... I don't see any buffers/debuffers able to double the damage output of a team. If it was a bigger team, the buffs/debfuffs would multiply out to more then 1 scrapper, but in a duo... 2 scrappers is going to be hard to beat.

A kin def.

Claws/sr scrapper

They have my vote.

GF

And to the OP, I personally think an Ice/Thermal would work very well with a shields scrapper. The resistances and heals will work perfectly to keep it alive. You can keep a permanent forge on the scrapper for more damage/to hit.

I've always liked Ice on the back end for its consistent soft controls, not so much it's hard ones.

If you IO it enough for perma AB, an Ice/emp is nice too (I hate emps too, but perma AB on a fire/shield scrap, with the 100% recharge and regeneration is a big nod as a duo, of course fort too, which benefits much earlier on for the combo as well)

Likewise though, sonic is a solid choice as well.

nope... i've thought about it some more and I'm still going to say a 2nd scrapper is best. If for no other reason then because this way the other player won't quit the duo because he's not having as much fun.