Looking for fun AT to support pugs - Def? Dom?

I solo a lot on my Fire/Kin and my Scrapper. I'd like to make something that really helps a team. Since I tend to pug, I do not think any of the anchor-heavy sets are a good idea - in pugs the anchors just die fast. I was thinking of sets that will support a team no matter how badly they communicate

Powers like Ice Slick jump to mind - always helpful and you can drop it wherever the team is. Time Manip seems to have a lot of AoE buff/debuffs that might be good for a crazed team.

Dunno.

Any suggestions? I am guessing it'll be a Dom/Def/Troller/Corr. All sound fun

TY

Time manipulation can keep just about anyone alive, unless they are actively trying to die. Moreover, unlike sets like Empathy, it can keep you alive.

Take Veng, slot it for recharge.

I've had good success with a Sonic/Sonic defender and Fire/Thermal corruptor. Sonic matures early and provides resistance, something most characters can't get. Thermal does everything: shields, heals, buffs, debuffs, and an awesome rez.

The best support character I've played was an Earth/Thermal controller. So much support it doesn't border on the ridiculous, it annexed it.

I'm a big fan of the single ally buff powersets like Sonic, Force Field, Thermal and Cold Dom.

They're fairly PUG-proof in that you can buff someone and let them run off on their own for four minutes without having to chase them down, or worry about getting everyone to gather for a team buff.
Its easy to buff during fights on the run with these sets as they are now.

I'm currently trying Cold Domination for the first time and really enjoying it, but I'll echo Sonic Resonance as a set that benefits just about any team big-time - its the quiet achiever of buff sets.

I'd recommend Defender/Corrupter for a balanced contribution of team buffage and area damage, both of which benefit pretty much any team.

The classic 'make any team a success' toon is the cold/sonic defender. The ice shields are easy for people to see and potent enough that they will come back to you for a recast, all on their lonesome.

The sonic blasts ALL have resistance debuffs, so you can get yer blast on without guilt. I find screech, siren's song, and shockwave not too useful on teams: AOE debuffs are best left to the almighty sleet, and cones are hard to use in fluid situations.

Dreadful wail.... once the crash is gone, I may hafta revisit a toon or two.

You have wonderful utility in Heat Loss, which keeps the whole team full on endurance. Many pugs fail due to blue starvation, and heat loss fixes that wonderfully.

Frost Works turns brutes into Tanks, and toughens up Scrappers wonderfully. If only it was AOE....

And last, you have the nice 'crowbar' debuffs, infrigidate, sleet, and the mighty Benumb.

Sleet is beastly, debuff and mitigation up every spawn. Infrigidate does not get enough love, the slow really helps on hard targets, and it can stop runners. Benumb.... Ahh, benumb. Just throw it on every toughy you see, it'll all work out.

I'm greatly enjoying my Kinetics/Sonics Defender--all the loving that Kinetics brings to the table plus resistance debuffs from Sonics. Who could ask for anything more?

Last Sunday we drew a bank mission with Ghost Widow in it. Successfully she held off our group and managed to drop a few of us while preventing us from doing much to her. I offered to switch to my Kin/Son and with continuous health and endurance recovery, regeneration debuff on her, her resistances lowered, and repeated applications of Siphon Power she went down, no further deaths on our part.

And soloing is pretty easy too.

Thank you all for the great advice! I usually steer away from Cold/Fire/Force Field because I can't stand constantly rebuffing everyone on the team - not fun for me. I don't suppose those armors are AoE now, are they?

Thanks again.

Earth/Kin Troller. I've played a lot of trollers over the years, but I think this combo is my favorite for pure support. Earth offers a solid library of controls, and the -def makes an appreciable difference in making sure all those heals and fulcrum shifts hit as much as possible. Plus is is very end friendly, so running Leadership toggles is no problem. Plus plus you get a very sturdy pet you can make even more sturdy and powerful for impromptu tanking.

Despite lower buff/debuff numbers than Defenders, I generally consider Controllers to be more support-y.

If we're talking about which support combo is most likely to facilitate stability in the majority of PUG situations, I'd be tempted to go with Plant/Thermal or Earth/Thermal Controller. If we're more talking about which character can shore up an already reasonably decent team into taking down the ITF and so on, maybe some variety of /Cold.

Although almost any Controller that is well played will add considerable safety to the team. I'd just personally stay away from Gravity Control as a team support member.


[PS Time Manipulation is great but I consider it much better for the caster than for the average team. A lot of the safety comes from Farsight. It will certainly make the Time player extremely durable, but I would personally prefer more reliable shielding that doesn't require as much positioning.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mashuguna I don't suppose those armors are AoE now, are they?

They are. The power that isn't in Thermal's case is Forge. Managing Forge can be a bit of a chore or it can be a challenge, depending on your out look. But I was always pretty lazy with it and just cast it between other powers when I had spare moment rather than driving myself to make sure to keep it up on 3 or 4 people at once. Unlike Empathy Defenders, forgetting to cast Forge won't usually dramatically change someone's survivability.

I pug constantly. While defs and corrs offer good support, a controller is best. Because if you get aggro no one will take it from you. So being able to hold foes will save you a lot of pain.

fire/rad or something /time are good (I have grav/time but for thematics, I don't recommend it).

a dark/sonic defender is also awesome. You have a ton of controls plus sonic blast which is -res.

ice slick tends to be bad on pugs - some other controller/dom will throw out aoe immobilizes which prevent knockback and make your slick useless.

You can slot Vengeance with recharge through IOs (def/rech, tohit/recharge, Adjusted Targeting and any of the heal sets recharge, etc.)

One of the most controller-y sets I've ever played was my Earth/Storm. Without much recharge, I could basically keep 3 groups of enemies at bay at all times, and still had other controls ready on long recharges for other groups. It's also got plenty of room for procs, so you can load up on damage also, and plenty of debuffs (just no -regen).

I'll add my vote for something Earth/* in particular /Storm, Cold or Sonic.
Storm for lots of offense, Cold to help with +defense and debuffs (teams without IO builds or otherwise low defense) or and Sonic for adding +resistance and debuffs (heavily IO'd or defense based teams).

But pretty much any well played Controller, Defender, Corruptor or Dominator is going to add lots to a floundering pug. And on a well played pug they'll be one more cog in the machine.

Doomguide

Speaking of AoE buff powers, why are some of the mez protection ones (like in Empathy and Pain) not AoE while the one in Kinetics (Increase Density) is? And ID also gives all sorts of other good buffs.

Just seems sort of odd.

I much prefer corrs over trollers (or defs).
If the team can't do it, Scourge.

Any of the support sets can be very supporty, if built that way, even MMs, but that's not really what MMs are best at. Or even Doms.. I'd go with Def, tho, and call it a day. All the best support powers, and earlier than anyone else gets them, with bigger numbers.

If you don't want anchors, Storm might be a solid choice. Freezing Rain comes early, and is that good.. Hurricane is also a game changer.. If you can be careful with KB, it's godly.. The new AE set rocks for that. I'd drop it in Tornado, even with the changes..

But, Rad/anything is hard to beat. Use the toggles when really needed, skip em when ya don't.. AM always, the damage/recharge buff is awesome.. If you slot the toggles for some recharge, you can almost use them always... Slot RI for tohit more than def debuff..

I'm going to answer the question "what is a foolproof support combo for PUGs?" not "what is best support?" "Foolproof" in this case means able to make any team better, a bad team good, a good team great and a great team godly. In my own stable, I think the character that does all of these very well is an Earth/Cold troller. Earth control + shields is enough to make a bad team good. Sleet will make a good team great and the ability to juggle 3-4 spawns at a time along with the other stuff in Cold makes a great team godly.

Earth/Cold has SO many tools that help prop a team up. I'd second it for sure. I also wouldn't want to solo it without some threat being placed on my life. But as long as you're on a moderately active server, you should be able to get through just about anything with your tools boosting a teams abilities.

/Thermal would be another good one and I guess /Sonic if you wanted to have Mez pro yourself.

Thank you all so much - I am spoiled with ideas

Question: what is so great about Earth? Everyone seems agreed that it has the most control, but when I look at the set I do not see anything jump out as amazing.

What am I missing?

Thanks again - I love the idea of Earth/something.