Friend is a tank, what AT would make for a good duo?
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AquaJAWS,
Posted on: 2011-07-17 21:19 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Assuming you're starting in praetoria, and can use any AT, and that you're gonna stay away from the other melee ATs (stalker, scrapper, brute) it depends on what you want in addition
Blaster, you're going to get a lot of extra damage, but less of other mitigation, like heals control, etc
Defenders, you'll get a lot of buffs/debuffs/healing but you'll be lacking in the damage area
Controllers, you'll get crowd control and buffs/debuffs/healing but not as much damage until later in the game.
Corruptors, you'll get better damage than defenders but less buffs/debuffs/healing.
Dominators, you'll get damage and crowd control
Masterminds, you'll get some buffs, and damage, and fun with pets
It depends on what type of role your friend likes because all could work, but I would probably go with a dominator or corruptor so you get decent damage, not as much as a blaster but still good, and then good crowd control from dominators that comes in handy later in the game or some buffs from a corruptor. A dominator or corruptor will provide a more tools than just a blaster.
Some consideration should also be made for which power sets are taken as well. Some have extra control or buff aspects in addition and/or work well with different tanker sets.
I'd go with a blaster or corruptor. I'm thinking something /kin corr. What all do you plan on duoing?
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A Corruptor would compliment a Tanker very well. In fact, in this very situation, I don't see another AT, besides maybe a Controller or Mastermind, filling in on the Tanker's 'weaker' attributes.
Support sets will allow the Tanker to go freely and act like 'those scrappers'. Especially support sets who are also somewhat more self-sufficient than others; as in this situation, an Empath may find that his heals are staying off cooldown too often to his or her liking.
But since the Tanker won't be dealing a truck ton of damage on his own, the more offensive aspect of a Corruptor will certainly help there.
I'd also toss my vote for a /Kin Corr, although you can roll just about anything and make it work. Really, it's not like if inspirations didn't exist 
If Praetorian, then I would suggest either a Sonic/Thermal Corruptor or a Sonic/Sonic Defender.
This way you can get his resistances up to much better levels (other than Cold) that he won't have direct access to on his own without Power Pools and IOs. Thermal's nice because of the Heal and Resistance buffs. Sonic Blast's good for increasing your Tanking friends' damage. Sonic Resonance is good for increasing your friend's resistance and reducing the enemy's, plus having a control here or there, but be careful as they have to be used VERY wisely.
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I can further agree to the Corruptor or Defender and will put forward the consideration of Sonic Resonance to further buff your Tanker friend with resistance to go with the defense, plus adding on a PBAoE -res for them. Ideally a Fire/Son Corruptor due to the higher damage.
Kin is always welcome for a melee character too, of course, and under which case I would suggest a Defender to get those delicious buffs sooner. Pair with Son or Dark for even more support (Fire Blast, of course, if you go Corruptor or wait for the proliferations, but then I'd also suggest a /Son Mastermind)
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A Kin/Sonic Defender could be interesting. You'd get recharge and damage buffs for the tank as well as an excellent heal to keep him going, plus significant resist debuffs to speed up combat. Sonic/Sonic would also be nice since you'd add resists to the tank's defense and even more resist debuffs.
If you want more damage then a Fire/Thermal or Fire/Dark Corruptor might be fun. You get good ranged damage plus early healing and buffs (Thermal) or healing and to-hit debuffs (Dark) to boost the tank's defense to the softcap earlier than he could do it on his own.
I'd probably go with a Fire/Thermal or Sonic/Thermal Corruptor myself. An Ice Tank's biggest weaknesses are fire and psionic damage, and Thermal provides massive fire resists plus decent resists to other things and excellent healing. It also adds a nice buff and a couple of debuffs later on.
Though if you want a cool theme you could go Ice/Thermal instead... you'd have less damage but more control and you can color coordinate your powers with the tank. 
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My favorite tanker in all the land runs with my ice/ice or fire/fire blaster. He herds the map, I decimate them. Good times.
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I have a similar-ish setup with my fire/elec blaster. We also had a bit of fun just going around clearing hazard spawns earlier on, which is strange since I normally don't enjoy hazard zones much.
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Originally Posted by Tahliah
My favorite tanker in all the land runs with my ice/ice or fire/fire blaster. He herds the map, I decimate them. Good times.
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Ice/fire tankers are going to gather large groups around them. Trust me, it's the only tanker powerset that I've ever really enjoyed, and that's part of the reason. Further, psi damage is a big problem for an ice tanker, so it'd be nice to have something that would help with that.
A fire/dark corr would neatly deal with the holes in the defense while taking advantage of an ice/fire tanker's style. You've got damage reduction from darkest night combined with -to hit, which works beautifully with an ice tanker's defense-based primary. Shadow Fall can give MASSIVE psi resists at the same time if you glue yourself to your tanker.
The fire and the darkness can take advantage of large groups with Tar Patch and fire's tendency toward AoE attacks. And your pet isn't one that's going to mess with a tanker's herds by knocking them away or anything.
Man, now I want someone to make a fire/dark to run with my tanker. >.>
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The Ice tank will want some resistances for the later game stuff to really fill in all his gaps. I second the sonic/sonic defender, sonic/thermal corruptor, or thermal/sonic defender when i21 goes live.
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Quote:
Are you saying other Tanker powersets don't gather large groups around themselves? Are you saying there's any Tanker powerset out there that doesn't like to gather large groups around itself? Because I'm a little confused.
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Originally Posted by El_Spark
Ice/fire tankers are going to gather large groups around them. Trust me, it's the only tanker powerset that I've ever really enjoyed, and that's part of the reason.
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Fire/thermal sounds nasty. Or rad/thermal. I bet rad/kin would be pretty neat too if you were willing to get in close. Let the tank clump them, then you fulcrum and irradiate and neutron bomb them. Good times.
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Thanks so much for all the responses. Really now thinking about a fire/thermal for the damage angle while still helping him with buffs. Although the dark angle is also something I need to consider.
I wrote off Controllers and Dominators right away because of the holds and CC, assuming tanks would get annoyed. Perhaps I was incorrect?
I would say a Thugs/Thermal MM. You get to help buff his resistance through the roof. You also have good heals and a rez to keep everyone alive. Then you get Forge to pump his damage and two decent debuffs later on help kill stuff faster.
Then of course you have everything Thugs have, which is assloads of damage.
FCM and I duo a lot, and have a couple of pretty effective Tank+Something pairs... My two WP/DB tanks spend a lot of time running around with his Fire/En blaster and Spines/Fire scrap. Our KM Tank/DP Blaster pair did pretty well in Praetoria, as did the Traps/DP defender and WP/Mace tank.
The really scary pair are his Shield/Energy tank and my DB/WP scrap, though. Median and Ash are just ludicrous together. They're our go-to pair for taking apart large groups.
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I'll echo some sentiments;
Sonic/Thermal Corr
Demon/Thermal MM
Sonic/Sonic Defender
If you can wait for Issue 21;
Thermal/Sonic Defender
Demon/Sonic MM
Resistance buffs + damage seem to be what you want.
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Fire/Kin Corruptor.
Kin will be able to keep both at damage cap and can toss a **** load of -damage at a mob/mobs which is effectively resisitance. Anything that does hurt the tank can be healed back right quick. Endless endurance and unsupressed combat travel.
And fire because, well, its fire.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if they plan to duo almost exclusively, wouldn't a defender do damage comparable to a corruptor (before scourge) due to the 20% damage boost? I would vote a */sonic defender, between the 20% damage boost and the extra 5% resistance reduction the damage that you pump out should be close enough to a corruptor.
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Echoing calls for a corruptor.
Fire/x would be my call, and go for something with a -res aoe power like dark or rad. Let him herd everything up, drop the aoe -res, spam aoe fire attacks. Rinse and repeat.
I had a fire/cold corr that duo'd exclusively with a ss/fire brute and that was a brutal (pun intended) combination. Tankers obv wont pump out the same damage, but you'll be able to do the killing 
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My friend is making an Ice/Fire tank and I'd like to make something that will work well in a duo. I've been trying to decide if a blaster might be the best option for the high damage, or perhaps a defender or corrupter for the support options they provide. Maybe something else. Just looking for ideas.
Thanks in advance.