Best n3

Me and my brother used to have a nice trio with a friend. DM/SD Scrapper, Earth/Kin troller and WP/SS Tanker. But our tanker isnt playing anymore (or lets says he didnt came back for 7th anniversary with us) but another friend did.

We'r wondering what would be nice for him to play to fit with our scrapper and controllers. Our problem with the old trio was that we lacked defense on some AV or really badass mob groups and my AOO was generating so much aggro the tanker wasnt actually tanking the stuff.

So we thought he could go for support/CC, our ideas so far were:

- Cold/Sonic defender
Good indirect dmg with res debuff and good single target damage debuff. But /cold buff doesnt really bring much to a def caped and DDR caped shield scrapper.

- Sonic/Sonic defender
Huge indirect damage and very good scaleing with shield but we are encountering problems against hard psy hitting AVs.

- Rad/Sonic defender
Loads of debuff of every sort but we r afraid it only works good when stuff is packed tight.

- Any of these primary as secondary on a Illusion controller
Brings direct damage instead of indirect, not sur how its worth the trade. Brings even more control (stacking holds on AVs, survive aggro over the target limit). Brings confuse (how many times this power alone saved my groups on nasty packs with my troller).

- Any of there primary as secondary for a Fire controller
Same comment, only the AoE CC are quite "similar" as the Earth type (hodl/root/stun) so are redoundant but also stack with each other on bosses.

Looks like you need some buffs and AoE damage. I would suggest a Fire/Cold corr or troller. Ill/cold is also a fun combo... but you might get overshadowed if you let them join your team.

While many combo's come to mind I'd agree a Fire/Cold corrupter would fit very well. Fire brings loads of AoE offense and Cold would readily cap the scrappers defenses and neuter AV's and other hard targets.

My problem with Cold is that, besides amazing debuffs, it only brings defense buffs.
My scrapper is caped def for all positions and nearly caped DDR with membranes in Active Def. My severe weaknesses are:
- Dev Earth Quartz
- Nemesis Vengeance (if we play bad)
- AV with strong innate accuracy
- The non reductible 5% hit foes have that can eventually one-shot me.
Cold with make me go over def cap by about 30 or 40%, even it it helps against hardcore defence debuff stacks (or mutiple Longbow Rad bosses) because you cannot really "cap" DDR; it doesnt fix the death problem I have because they come from lack for pure damage resistance.

Thats why I was thinking Sonic Resonance or Thermal but we realised non brings resist to Psy, and Psy AVs are numerous (and kick my butt so hard I dont know how they do in the hospital to put the parts back together). Which leads me to Rad... or Cold

As I understand it, the problem isn't that the WP/SS Tanker was a bad fit, but that the player lost interest?

I humbly submit that your third teammate should play whatever most interests him. Don't stick him with a role (such as "buff pet") that might bore him or make him feel like a tag-along. You can adapt your play to any combo of ATs and powersets but you can't make him want to log in.

I echo fire/cold corruptor. I am currently leveling one, and enjoying the crap out of it.

Thank you, Champion.

Oh no worries we played litterally dozens of MMOs together
CoH also doesnt let anyone be really a "bot", I mean, even support character have a real activity.

(And yeah our tank just lost interest into the game, in the sense he didnt wanted to play CoH again)

Don't forget inspirations! If the trio has a seldom occurring weak point, pop some candies and bring it down. You don't need to have a trio that covers every single eventuality if the cost is to shoehorn people into roles they might not inherently fit into.

Maybe a pistols/dark corr. It's got -to hit and -dam and -regen with a strong heal. Also -res with the patch. The pistols part brings the AOE along with a little utility in -def and more -dam.

Inv/SS Tank would keep aggro off you, I imagine. Also you can look into a Therm for better res.

But really, let him play what he's comfortable with.

SD/FM Tanker

But yeah, what ever your friend feels comfortable playing and enjoys, is a lot more important when what messes well.

How about a traps? That'll cover all the problems you seem to have. It's great against AVs, has great debuffs, and some decent control out of poison trap and seeker drones.

If he wants to powergame it, he can try out fire/traps corr.