Ultimate Debuffer

I've gone and confused myself looking in Mids for the Ultimate Debuffer. Something that will get through not just Defence, but Resistance too. The idea is to be able to provide the best support to small, specialist teams for surgical takedowns of AVs on high difficulty in TFs and Trials.

I often run small TFs, 2person LGTFs and 3 man STF etc, and I would like something that gives the iTrials some oomph in a word.

I'm leaning towards a Cold/Sonic Defender - but I've also seen good things from a Sonic/Rad, since they both seem to offer a fair bit but I think Cold/Sonic gives the good stuff earlier.

I've gleaned all the above from Mids, and whilst it's an excellent prog, I'm not sure I'm especially proficient in it so my interpretation may be somewhat off - thus I'd welcome some input into what works well and gives the best results.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Cold/Sonic is your best bet for "ultimate debuffer", so you're already spot on there. Just keep in mind you could also go Fire/Cold Corr or Ill/Cold Troller for better damage or control respectively and still be able to put out massive debuffing, since Sleet is such a beast. Don't forget to pick up Dark Mastery on either a Def or Corr to get your damage multipliers going.

I mostly play trollers, so I had figured an Earth/Cold might be good too, given Earth has such a good -Def

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

In my experience, there is so much +acc and Tohit being thrown around, -def isn't that big an issue. Any crack team designed to take down a trial with as few peeps as possible are already accidentally built for accuracy anyway.

I wouldn't call it ultimate, but a sonic/Dual Pistals always looked interesting to me. Decent debuffs from sonic, and if you use predominantly chem rounds, makes for an interesting layering of resistance buffs and -dmg debuffs. More so with void judgment and paralytic interface.

Also, traps.

Radiation Emission was always really good in my opinion.

Purely for resistance debuffing sonic is the clear stand out. But rad has a wider array of debuffs: defense, resistance, to hit, damage, speed, recharge, and regen. And if you're really mostly interested in debuffing single hard-targets, poison is a real killer.

Ok some interesting points.

I recently read Arcanaville's legendary "Guide to Defence" and frankly it was impressive but I didn't take it all in.

To put that in context, I spent my first five years in the game avoiding the rules, simply so I could discover it the hard way. I have never been a min/maxer but the notion of providing the ultimate support toon that will make a damage dealer/tankish toon's life easy has a lot of appeal; it has that synergy of the damage dealer and the support

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

My favorite is my fire/storm corruptor. Freezing Rain followed by Rain of Fire and Fireball. On AV's and such, add in Tornado. I rarely use or need Hurricane, but when I do it is a great addition.

It may not be the ultimate... but it is great fun.

Ice Ember

If what you want to take down are hard tagets, there's two debuffs you really care about: -res and -regen. Anything else will just be gravy.

For these two debuffs the absolute best it Traps, no questions. For -regen, the -1000% on PGT is hard to match. And it's fairly easily perma. For -res, traps can have between 1 and 3 Acid Mortars out. We'll assume high-but-not-crazy amounts of +rech and say two. Each Mortar does -26% -res, and they stack. So 56% -res. The drawback is that if your target likes to move around (Marauder, Antimatter), you'll have to play smart with Mortar placement. This just means that Traps' advantage is less huge, though.

For second place, I'd say it's a draw between Cold and Rad. Assuming an ultra-high recharge build, Cold is inches ahead: 500% -regen and 60% -res. However, at lower levels of recharge Rad (500% -regen, 30% -res) will come ahead, since Cold's debuffs have bad durations relative to their cooldowns. Additionally, Cold has the very exotic -special (of limited use, really) while Rad has an additional 1000% -regen in EMP (which lasts all of 15 seconds and is on 5-minute timer)

Still, since you dislike Traps, I'd suggest go Cold/Sonic 'fender. The +def shields are very nice for everyone, and Frostwork can make your tanky guy very hard to drop.

If you want to exemp a lot, it's hard to beat a Rad/Sonic defender.

It gets all the debuffs in the set by level 12. And since two of them are toggle powers, you don't need nearly the amount of recharge a trapper would need at that level. Between Enervating Field and your Sonic attacks it's pretty easy to consistently have ~70% -res on a single target.

my favorites not in debuffing but in fun

1) sonic sonic corr-so fun and dmg with scourge on a total focus is freakish.
2) Dark mm, def or troler. I love dark with sonic its fun
3) rad
4) cold

Crab Spider!

Almost all your attacks have -def, including one or two AoEs that are perfect homes for Achilles' Heel procs. Frenzy, being PBAoE, can take BOTH -Resist procs. Venom Grenade adds more -Resist. Go Leviathan for an epic to get Arctic Breath to apply MORE -Resist. Bile Spray is also nice for it's pure Toxic damage, which is rarely resisted.

Several Interface Abilities carry some form of debuff, which can handily be stacked to their limits with all the AoE you can dish out.

In addition, you can stack up to two each of Maneuvers, Tactics and Assault on your teammates.

Here's what Dark Miasma on a Defender can do:

Minimum / Best case

98.75% / 110% -ToHIt (almost twice as much if slotted for -ToHit)
40.2% / 52.5% -Dam
3100% / 3200% -Regen (3000% is up half the time)
152.5% / 242.5% -Run
30% / 60% -Resist
62.5 -Recharge
-Jump
-Fly

Don't forget just how effective Trick Arrow can be at debuffing. It constantly gets overlooked by most people, but it can be one of the most powerful debuff sets, especially if you're looking for AoE debuffs. (Note: I know these are probably out of order, but this is how I remember them.)

Entangling Arrow: Immob, recharge debuff, -fly
Flash Arrow: AoE tohit debuff, perception debuff
Glue Arrow: AoE recharge debuff, -fly
Poison Gas Arrow: AoE sleep, damage debuff
Acid Arrow: defense (all) debuff, damage resistance (all) debuff
Ice Arrow: hold, recharge debuff
Disruptor Arrow: AoE damage resistance (all) debuff
Oil Slick Arrow: AoE defense (all) debuff, chance for knockdown
EMP Arrow: AoE hold, regen debuff, recovery debuff, -END

Six debuff powers that are AoE, two powers that debuff ALL defense, two powers that debuff ALL damage resistance, three recharge debuffs, a tohit debuff, two holds with one AoE, multiple -fly, one -jump, one immob. That's pretty sweet right there.

What really does it, though, is the fast cycle rate of the arrows, with the exception for EMP arrow. Stacking acid arrows and disruption arrows will make short work of any target's damage resistance, and with Flash arrow, poison gas and oil slick, you can mitigate the damage your team takes fairly well. You can really amp this up if you've got an Incarnate TA character, with the Interface tacking even more debuffs on with most of your attacks, too.