Duo Advice with an Ill/Rad

Title explains most of it. My friend is leveling an Ill/Rad controller with the intent of soloing AVs and GMs to try something new he hasn't done. He asked if I wanted to duo with him, I accepted.

So... I'm looking for a character that compliments him well, be it to up damage output, survivability, both, or any other potential boon I could bring to our little team.

Open to any AT, any power sets, and, if applicable, any amount of inf needed to pull off the recommended character successfully. State your suggestions and reasons why.

Thanks.

Make another ill/rad...... between two sets of debuffs, and if you guys play smartly together, you can alternate PA's, to basicly have perma PA between the 2 of you. Or i'd say a tank. The only thing I wish I had with me sometimes when I play my ill/rad is a tank to take agro, and thats only because when I recast PA, the current one I have up vanish's, and for a second I might get agro, especially with phantasm being jacked up and going all melee right now.
So I'd say ill/rad or tank to help your buddy out, but thats just me.

I would personally go with an Earth Rad or Earth Kin to complement his Ill/Rad.

You can lock the stuff down and with the Kinetics you get the perma PA!

There are a lot of good reasons to go with a second Ill/Rad. Leveling up, you will get a second set of PA that you can stagger, double AM, a second set of anchored debuffs, Stacked fear from two Spookies, two Deceives, the opportunity to stack Flash and/or EM pulse, etc. So that is certainly a great option.

Another option might be an AoE focused Scrapper or Tank -- I would consider a An Elec/Shield or Fire/Shield Scrapper. Ill/Rad is weak on AoE damage and has problems with anything that is Psi-resistant. Elec/Shield or Fire/Shield has great AoE and offers Energy/Fire and Smashing damage. The Taunt Aura for Shield is very good, to help keep foes away from your squishier buddy. Plus, an Elec/Shield or Fire/Shield will be pretty good at herding up foes -- he can pull the scattered foes in toward PA and Spectral Terror. His AoE damage will help you get rid of the minions faster, allowing you to focus your pets and yourself on the tougher foes. And he should be decently durable.

(I have duoed that kind of pair quite a few times. Pretty much any decent scrapper or tank will work, though.)

I don't know that I would suggest a second controller, unless it was a Fire/Rad. Most other controllers won't add enough damage. But Fire/Rad could be a good combo, since PA could take the initial aggro, then the Fire/Rad could run into melee with Hot Feet+Choking Cloud to take out the minions. While I generally recommend against Choking Cloud on an Ill/Rad, that might be one of the few combos where it would be worth an Ill/Rad to take Choking Cloud, to stack with the Fire/Rad.

There are a lot of options. Ill/Rad is so good, that it can pair with pretty much anything. Ill/Rad + Warshade makes a great pair. Ill/Rad + AoE Blaster works -- as long as the Blaster holds back long enough for PA to grab aggro. A defender can stack debuffs.

My main is now an ill/rad.. And since i almost always dualbox, i searched for a good addition to that. Mainly because the AOE damageoutput, i decided for Plant/rad/fire.
Seeds will do great (stack on bosses) with the single target confuse of Illusion for controll. Enough AoE damage and AoE containment. GMs and AVs will fall. Additional -res debuff for more damage. One of my safest Duos.
I respecced in chocking cloud for some more safety- win.

Nicest thing you can do with that combo: Place PA between two or three x8 spawns, draw aggro from all, wait until they clump up, seeds with contagious proc in the clump...and then AOE them to death.. it works. It´s nice
Double AM will let forget your endurance and recharge problems.

If you don't want another Ill/Rad. which will be problematic on the damage side of things for a long time, even when you get all your pets, I'd suggest another Knockback king (or queen). Energy blast, or a Storm anything.

Some friends and I ended up with some of our most beloved (by us) and despised (by teammates, who were also sometimes also us, if you follow...) and we had the GREATEST TIME! Crap was flying EVERYWHERE! Nothing could touch us, being in constant motion at all times - don't think I needed to use my healing aura even once. We could just let loose with all the powers we usually have to use judiciously. It was ridiculously fun, and I'd strongly recommend it!

I duoed a Fire/SR and Ill/rad for a while then I got bored of both so I have a pair of 50s I don't care to play.

I'd agree with Local Man about a good AOE scrapper; Fire/Shield or Elec/Shield being top choices. You'll complement the weaknesses of an Ill/Rad nicely with massive AOE damage while your Ill/Rad buddy will greatly increase your durability with his debuffs, PA and other powers while contributing considerable single target damage of his own.

Both characters are very good alone, together each brings strength to fill in a weakness in the other.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Just checking in again and I can't help, but notice that no one has really recommended any villain ATs.

I know I had said any AT, but speaking with him again, he's interested to see suggestions for villains, maybe a corruptor or dominator?

Oh, and how well might a Kinetic/Shield scrapper do? I know they aren't particularly strong with AoE, but how about ST?

While I have no experience with this combo, I am certainly impressed with this guy on Champion server and his Mind/Fire Dominator.

See this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=232036

In his signature you can see screenshots from some impressive feats using it - notably Solo LRSF and Solo MoITF.

Anyone with experience with this combo have any thoughts on how it would work duo with ill/rad?

Okay, it's between an AoE-orientated scrapper(we'll go with ?/Shield as suggested in multiple posts) and a Mind/Fire dominator(mainly because of exampled feats).

Scrapper is going to bring some nice damage to the table, viable primaries being: BS, Elec, and Fiery. First two would help with the KD they have. Elec has an extra mini-nuke to alternate with Shield's. Lastly, Fiery will eke out some extra damage with DoT.

Only drawbacks I'd see would be the smashing and lethal damage, but they're by no means great hindrances.

Mind/Fire will give an extra layer of CC and at least some decent damage from Fiery Assault. I imagine Confuse and Mass Confusion will be that much more effective with the debuffs from /Rad as well. There's also some synergy with Telekinesis, which I know receives mixed views, but would help in gathering mobs into the /Rad toggles.

The drawback remaining would be being without someone or something to hold aggro while PA is down. Again, shouldn't be a huge issue with the additional forms of control.

Anything I'm missing? Feel free to break the stalemate.

My suggestion would be some type of AoE focused scrapper or brute. SS/Shield, Elec/Shield, or fire/shield would all be good choices.

Ill/rad is hell on wheels against single hard targets, and is fully capable of soloing most AVs and some GMs. It lags in AoE damage though, so having an AoE toon paired with it should help the journey to 50 go faster.

Anything. But since you asked for something specific, Plant/Fire/Fire Dominator would be way up there.

Fire/Rad or Sonic/Rad corruptor.

Or possibly a Rad/Sonic defender.

Sonic/Mental/Soul blaster would be a nice choice for AoE carnage (Total of 4 cones with NightFall and Soul Tentacles), and the ST attacks of Sonic would speed up AV/GM fights considerably.

Actually, in thinking about it, Sonic/Mental/Soul blaster is my recommendation. It works on just about every level with an Ill/Rad troller. Sonic adds -Res to the fight, it can get up to 4 cones for ranged AoE damage, Drain Psyche will add some -Regen to GM fights.

Another Illusion/Rad or something /Kinetics

I would go with some fire/ Corr or a fire/mm blaster.

I have never found anything that didn't duo pretty well with an ill/rad. Not saying there can't be any, but I haven't found them.

I had a friend tell me that illusion/cold was the big thing right now with perma PA, 200.5% recharge and damage over 400 dps where /rad is similar but only about 260 dps.

I'm not entirely convinced. I have played with tons of people over the years and dont recall ever meeting anyone that runs ill/cold. Nor has the thought crossed my mind to make one. Maybe I'm missing the big lure to /cold but I don't recall off hand anything that another powerset doesn't do better. That being said, if there is indeed merit to this claim then it might be ideal for a duo with an ill/rad if it indeed can power out over 400 dps.

So I posted this to see if anyone can confirm that ill/cold is actually worth investing in. Well, that, and to find out if it is as good as this guy was claiming.

One of my fave toons is my fire/sd scrapper; when your duo is retired you'll still have a fun and useful toon to play.

Since no one's mentioned SS/Fire brute, i'll throw that in. Massive AOE and will get full benefit from all of /rad's buffs. I find mine to be more suited to farming than PvE, but since PA helps draw some of the aggro, and you've got mezzes on the team to deal with problem baddies, this might be a fun and interesting ride.

Plant/rad or fire/rad sounds like a lot of fun, too.

Really, ill/rad is pretty versatile and pairs well with anything. I'd maybe stay away from heavy kb sets, but that's just me.

Ill/cold can be that good, but it requires massive investment. Perma PA and double stacked sleet are the active ingredients here. Still, wouldn't be my 1st choice to pair with an ill/rad.