What's your favorite form of 'support'?

What is your favorite form of 'support' to play, and what is your favorite form of 'support' to play alongside? I'm serious here, I'm really curious. So please, no smart alecky-answers like "Fire support pewpew". Also, I don't consider 'controls' to be support for the purposes of this thread. In-game, though, you could be my jockstrap any day.

My favorite form of support to play is something that gives long-duration buffs and good debuffs to use in between buff sessions. This is why I love playing my Cold/Sonic and my Traps/DP.

My favorite form of support to play alongside is something that gives me some defense (or the enemies -tohit, that works too) and can maybe heal a little. I like my safety blanket, dangit!

First and foremost I want good players as support, the AT and powersets come in a somewhat distant second.

Getting to the meat of your question though my favorite support powersets depend on what I'm playing and what we're running. If I'm playing a blaster then I love a kinetic (who actually USES SB), cold, bubbler and good aggro control. Debuffs are always welcome on ANY team of course. If I'm playing melee, tank or scrapper doesn't matter, I again like a Kin who buffs and I really like debuffs on the team. When I'm tanking I really want two main things: debuffs and damage... I'll handle the aggro.

As a player when I'm not tanking I mainly play debuffers; although I do have a Mind/Kin 'troller who's fun depending on my mood... and yes, I DO have and use SB . I also love playing a blaster when I'm in the mood to relax and not worry about the rest of the team like I do when I'm tanking.

In the final analysis anything can be "support", as an example CMA is nearly unkillable out of his own resources... most buffs aren't that important so for him "support" is a team with damage to kill the mobs quickly. In that respect a good blaster qualifies as a support character.

My Ninja/TA finds VEATs awesome to team with.

anything that debuffs HP hyuk hyuk hyuk

Bikini tops.

Oh you meant in game.. umm... defense. Cold Domination really.

My favorite type of characters are generally high damage dealers, so I "support" teams by quickly eliminating problem enemies before they can cause too much trouble. When I do play a more support-oriented AT I prefer debuffers, preferably ones with good damage to go with it like /Dark MMs or /Rad or /Storm Controllers. That way I can just focus on the enemies and not split my attention between buffing or healing teammates and doing damage... instead I just unload on the enemy and protect the team by making the things I'm blasting less effective.

I do consider control powers to be good support too, especially AoE controls you can use every fight. My Plant/Storm Controller can make a huge difference on a team by just dropping Seeds of Confusion and Freezing Rain on each mob, then holding the most annoying boss.

As for what I like teaming with buffers are great. I can't stand to play most buff sets personally due to the annoyance of maintaining individual buffs on each team member, but I like playing squishies and my Blasters and Controllers really appreciate being harder to kill or having mez protection. Debuffs are nice too, and of course the best is at least one buffer and one debuffer. Of course healing also helps a lot, but every set with heals also has buffs or debuffs so that's not a separate category.

To play: /Rad. I really like /Rad, probably because it's also one of the best soloing support sets.

Or /FF on a Mastermind. I don't mind rebubbling every 4 minutes on an MM since other than standing around watching the pets kill stuff I've got nothing better to do if I'm /FF.

I suppose I should mention /Dark as well, since I've been playing a lot of /Dark recently, but somehow it's too aggresive for me to think of as a 'support' set... and the range of the heal is not impressive.

To play alongside: /Rad again. The phrase "Gather for AM" always makes me smile.

I like to play Trick Arrow because it allows me to support the team without having to actually interact with them. SB PLZ! SB PLZ! SB PLZ! SB PLZ! SB PLZ! SB PLZ! SB PLZ!

BOOM! Headshot.

Although, I must say I'm warming up to Pain Domination.

I enjoy playing with Empaths, or anyone that can buff me into the magical land of awesomesauce. AB + Fort makes me a happy tanker/scrapper/brute.

I'll second /TA. Lot's of debuffs, but you don't need to buff the team. My Archery/TA Corr is one of my favorites. Oil Slick arrow + Flame arrow!

Depends onwhat I am playing, but Im usually the empath or the bubbler, but if I am playing my scrapper or my blaster, I love an 1) Empath, 2 Bubbler, 3) TA or traps, 4) Thermal

Those all seem good

Although I was playing with ane X-cellent Sonic Res player who actually took a set I found blah, and she/He became king of the team.

Now to think of it I was playing a TF with a Poison/Demon MM, whos poison reall did make a difference at the end of the battle.

My choise would be TA though. Especially on my Grav/FF, we can walk through pretty mich anything, and if he ignites his Oil Slick, I can Worm hole all the baddies right on it! Then hold them in it...Pure win!

To play: Rad

To play with: An Empath who understands their set is more than leet heelz.

To play I'd say /Dark. I fell in love with it on my Bot/Dark MM - so much in fact that I'm thinking of pulling my Zombie/Dark MM out of mothballs... yeah, that much. /Rad is good too, and I like my Ill/Rad troller, but letting a toggle run doesn't feel as epic to me.

To play with? Just about anything, but I like sets that drop those large slow patches, like Dark or Ice; Rain Of Fire is pretty nice too, if that can even count as "just support".

Support? You mean the Tanks, Brutes, Scrappers and all the other AT's that are not Ill/Rads or Fire/Rads.

All the other AT's are support "more uncontrollable pets" for my /Rads.

Any variety of traps is probably my favorite, but dark, rad, and cold are all close contenders. When it comes to the blast sets of defenders/corruptors, nothing beats sonic blast.

Give me a team of traps/sonic or rad/sonic or dark/sonic or cold/sonic and we'll melt anything.

If I have to pick one to team with, it'd probably be Cold Domination for its buffs, debuffs, and heal+hp. Any support is great though, from Cold Dom to Trick Arrow and everything in between.

Just dinged 50 over the holidays with my bubbler and he's probably my favorite support character now. His impact is sort of sneaky, though. As long as the bubbles stay refreshed, it's very rare to see anyone die - except maybe the bubbler himself. Keep as many of the squishies in the dispersion bubble as possible and they don't get mezzed, so they can keep supporting/blasting away. The team just runs smoother, faster and more consistently. Great for teams of all levels, too.

I like my Rad/Rad Defender, but the primary is a bit slow and on most high-level teams goes unnoticed until you get to an EB, AV or a defense-heavy opponent (Paragon Protectors, Nemesis with stacked Vengeance, etc.). The secondary also seems like a weak choice in hindsight, mainly because characters tend to carry enough accuracy to overcome the majority of opponents' defenses and, well, I've got the primary's toggles if the opponents' defenses need dropped.

I have a Traps/DP def that is quickly becoming my favorite to play. She's never redundant. Close behind is an Earth/Cold troller.

As for favorite to team with, for me, the answer is an unqualified "it depends". My Invul Tank is most pleased with a Sonic. Actually most all my Def based toons love the Sonics. Or, if the Emp will keep AB on me perma, that's easily my favorite support to team with, but outside of double boxing I haven't met that Emp yet.

I would have to go with my Rad/Sonic Defender. The sets synergize very well, and there isn't a single type of debuff that isn't covered. I just finished slotting the character up, and I bring to the team:

On every enemy:
-50% Enemy DEF
-50% Enemy ToHit
-500% Regen
-75% Recharge
-25% Enemy Damage
-150% to 200% Enemy RES

Procs:
-20% RES
-20% Recharge

Group Support:
Permanent Accelerate Metabolism
Vengeance --> Fallout --> Mutation combo

Personal Stats:
Permanent Hasten (Approx 210% Recharge)
DEF capped to Ranged, Smashing, Lethal and Energy

The character is a complete beast. ArchVillains melt in seconds in ITFs. Did a Khan last week where Reichsman went from full health to dead in less than the time it took for Accelerate Metabolism to recharge.

I'll have to give another vote for Cold Domination. Even though it lacks a heal, it has almost everything else. Defence buffs, defence debuffs, resistance debuffs, -Regen, -Damage, plus all the various effects from Benumb, and the +recovery from Heatloss. The KD from Sleet is really cool too. And if the toon is well setted out (Read: Tons of recharge) it can outperform any other toon in terms of debuffs too. My Fire/Cold corruptor is one of my favorite toons to play as well. She's setted out with enough recharge, that with her T4 Recharge alpha Benumb and Heatloss are perma and Sleet is up every 14 seconds. She brings sooo much to any team she gets on.

Just from what I currently play, and according to the OP's description (i.e. controls & damage aren't "support"):

First tier: Cold, Rad

Second tier: Son, Dark, Kin, TA

Third tier: Therm, Storm

What I actually think *contributes* the most:

First tier: Cold, Rad, Kin, Storm, Dark, Son, TA

Second tier: Therm

Don't currently play Emp or FF, but from my experiences w/them, I'd put them in the 2nd tier for both lists. Yeah, I don't much like Therm.