Duoing TFs with a friend

[TrishaTwilight]

My buddy and are making a duo team to take down all TFs on our own. No worries if it is slow going to start, we just need to make sure we can kill the AVs at the end. That being said, I'm leaning toward a controller as the support character to his brute (though I could be convinced otherwise if there's a strong argument for a corrupter or defender).

 

We are worried about balancing AoE damage that we be love (and we want to run at x8 eventually), and ST damage necessary for AV fights. I know I need to bring the debuffs, so I'm thinking of Radiation for my secondary unless there's a better option - maybe poison or something?

 

I'm struggling with a primary. Fire seems good for hot feet and imps to help with damage output. Grav seems like maybe the ST damage would be beneficial. Mind is my favorite set, but lacks a pet to boost damage, and the AoE damage is sub-par until Terrify. Illusion seems like it could be alright too. But I'm willing to hear all suggestions!

 

If it matters, he's probably rolling electric, dark, or maybe bio for his defensive set. Damage set is as of yet undetermined.

 

Thanks!

[Apparition]

Fire/Dark Affinity.  You'll never look back. 

[Coyote]

Fire/Dark is a good answer. So is Fire/Rad.

For duoing with a Brute, /Ice is also a good secondary for fighting AVs, though the good powers come pretty late.
 

[Broken_Prey]

As the others gave you great suggestions for controller. I would do say take a look at a rad/sonic Def. Rad has all the debuff you could ask for and sonic with -res will make the AV melt. 

[MunkiLord]

1 hour ago, TrishaTwilight said:

My buddy and are making a duo team to take down all TFs on our own. No worries if it is slow going to start, we just need to make sure we can kill the AVs at the end. That being said, I'm leaning toward a controller as the support character to his brute (though I could be convinced otherwise if there's a strong argument for a corrupter or defender).

 

We are worried about balancing AoE damage that we be love (and we want to run at x8 eventually), and ST damage necessary for AV fights. I know I need to bring the debuffs, so I'm thinking of Radiation for my secondary unless there's a better option - maybe poison or something?

 

I'm struggling with a primary. Fire seems good for hot feet and imps to help with damage output. Grav seems like maybe the ST damage would be beneficial. Mind is my favorite set, but lacks a pet to boost damage, and the AoE damage is sub-par until Terrify. Illusion seems like it could be alright too. But I'm willing to hear all suggestions!

 

If it matters, he's probably rolling electric, dark, or maybe bio for his defensive set. Damage set is as of yet undetermined.

 

Thanks!

For this I'd actually start at the end, what end game Task Forces are yall wanting to do as a duo? If you're wanting to do Liberty Task Force or Apex or Tin Mage, I'd focus on what you need to accomplish those, all the others would fall into place. If you're not worried about those, then that will give you a lot more choices. /Ice is tough to beat with all the debuffs and shields for your teammate. Time is an excellent choice too. I would give strong consideration to those in addition to /Rad and /Dark.

[Doomrider]

I'll put my vote towards Fire/Dark as well, but I'm a little biased. 

[Doc Ranger]

Fire/Dark has some extra dmg but less control. Dark/Dark has all the debuffs and control you need to neuter the dmg output of anything coming at you. 

[TrishaTwilight]

1 hour ago, MunkiLord said:

For this I'd actually start at the end, what end game Task Forces are yall wanting to do as a duo? If you're wanting to do Liberty Task Force or Apex or Tin Mage, I'd focus on what you need to accomplish those, all the others would fall into place. If you're not worried about those, then that will give you a lot more choices. /Ice is tough to beat with all the debuffs and shields for your teammate. Time is an excellent choice too. I would give strong consideration to those in addition to /Rad and /Dark.

The goal is to duo all of them! All the shard TFs, as many as we can, even it takes hours 🙂

[MunkiLord]

Cold or Time with good debuffs and buffs might be the best choices. Buffed up Lord Recluse is a good challenge for two people. The Brute having most resists capped or near with you putting them over the defense soft cap would be a good way to go. 

[Coyote]

Another option is a Dark/Sonic Defender.

-Damage debuffs are affected by the AV's Resistance to damage... so if you debuff the AV's Resistance, you actually improve your own -Damage debuffs. Dark puts out a lot of -Damage (I think 60% from just Darkest Night and Fluffy, not counting Twilight Grasp), so if you add in Sonic's -Resists to that, you can put better than -100% Damage, which will help a Brute stand up to just about any AV. And the -Resist will also help it to do more damage.

[oedipus_tex]

A Defender on a 2-member team gets a 20% damage buff, so I would probably consider that as an option for this specific task over either Controller or Corruptor (remember, the Defender also gets superior buff stats in most cases).*

 

Dark Miasma/Beam Rifle would be a pretty good AV slaying companion while maintaining some control abilities and decent (not great) AoE. Plus the nuke is ranged.

 

 

*EDIT: But I forgot Dark Miasma is not a set that particularly benefits Defender over Corruptor. Take a look at individual powers to see how each fares.

 

 

Time/BR is another good option. That one almost certainly favors Defender.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[Mercurias]

Some strong options I can think of for you supporting your brute friend, in no particular order:

 

Fire/Rad Controller: Solid Control and AoE damage. Solid support and enemy debuffs.

 

Illusion/Dark Controller: Powerful, survivable, has solid control, great support, and you’re a secondary tank with PA.

 

Fire/Time Corrupter: Great support and debuffs, as well as great damage. Can easily softcap defense to everything.

 

Rad/Sonic Defender: Made your brute friend hit way harder, while making enemies hit way less. This is a fantastic support character that is able to solo on its own. 
 

VEAT: Solid characters that deal large damage and give big passive buffs due to double leadership. Bane spiders are my fave.

[Tahliah]

I think for this scenario, I would go ill/cold, ill/kin, or ill/dark.  With ill you get Phantom Army, Spectral Terror, and Phantasm (i.e. lots of damage and some control).  Also Deceive is very helpful at times; it's single-target on ill troll, but can still be very useful.  You also get Superior Invis which will come in handy on a lot of TFs so you can get to the end and TP your brute in to the "real fight" heh.  With /cold, you get great shields for your teammate and debuffs.  With /kin, you get good debuffs and helpful tools like Speed Boost and Fulcrum Shift.

 

You could even go ill/dark for max pets (with Dark Servant) and great debuffs.  /Dark also has great tools like Tar Patch, Darkest Night, and Black Hole (among others, it's a great set).

 

Personally, I would probably go ill/kin or ill/dark, but the other suggestions so far in the thread are all solid.

[TrishaTwilight]

9 hours ago, Tahliah said:

I think for this scenario, I would go ill/cold, ill/kin, or ill/dark.  With ill you get Phantom Army, Spectral Terror, and Phantasm (i.e. lots of damage and some control).  Also Deceive is very helpful at times; it's single-target on ill troll, but can still be very useful.  You also get Superior Invis which will come in handy on a lot of TFs so you can get to the end and TP your brute in to the "real fight" heh.  With /cold, you get great shields for your teammate and debuffs.  With /kin, you get good debuffs and helpful tools like Speed Boost and Fulcrum Shift.

 

You could even go ill/dark for max pets (with Dark Servant) and great debuffs.  /Dark also has great tools like Tar Patch, Darkest Night, and Black Hole (among others, it's a great set).

 

Personally, I would probably go ill/kin or ill/dark, but the other suggestions so far in the thread are all solid.

With illusion, do you think I would be able to meaningfully contribute to AV fights? I suppose PA/Phantasm contribute well, I guess I'm thinking a bit too focused on what my character is doing. Which I suppose would be throwing out debuffs!

 

Is there enough -regen in dark or kin to help with AVs?

[Apparition]

5 minutes ago, TrishaTwilight said:

With illusion, do you think I would be able to meaningfully contribute to AV fights? I suppose PA/Phantasm contribute well, I guess I'm thinking a bit too focused on what my character is doing. Which I suppose would be throwing out debuffs!

 

Is there enough -regen in dark or kin to help with AVs?

 

Many of the first GM soloers were Illusion Controllers.  Kinetics, no.  Dark Affinity though has a lot of -regen in Twilight Grasp and Howling Twilight.  Combined they will give you -550% Regen, more than Radiation.

[TrishaTwilight]

4 hours ago, Apparition said:

 

Many of the first GM soloers were Illusion Controllers.  Kinetics, no.  Dark Affinity though has a lot of -regen in Twilight Grasp and Howling Twilight.  Combined they will give you -550% Regen, more than Radiation.

Thanks! That helps. Is Howling meaningful though, given the long recharge?

Dark is making a pretty compelling case!

[Apparition]

2 minutes ago, TrishaTwilight said:

Thanks! That helps. Is Howling meaningful though, given the long recharge?

Dark is making a pretty compelling case!

 

Depending on how you slot, and in endgame what Incarnate abilities you take, you can easily get Howling Twilight down to a minute or less.  It's very meaningful.

[TrishaTwilight]

6 hours ago, Apparition said:

 

Depending on how you slot, and in endgame what Incarnate abilities you take, you can easily get Howling Twilight down to a minute or less.  It's very meaningful.

Messing in Mids Reborn has been an absolute blast and a half. Dark has been selected, now I just need to land on a primary!

[Doc Ranger]

Illusion isn’t really going to give you the feeling of playing a real controller. 

[TrishaTwilight]

4 hours ago, Ice_Warden said:

Illusion isn’t really going to give you the feeling of playing a real controller. 

You think maybe Fire would be more beneficial?

[Doc Ranger]

Yes Fire is fun. It really depends on how much defense you want vs how much damage you want to contribute. Dk/Dk is safer but Fire/Dk contributes more dmg. 
 

If the brute loses aggro on a mob you might faceplant more with Fire 🙂

[oedipus_tex]

If you're going Controller or Defender you absolutely must have a source of -Regen. to get through the harder AV fights 

 

I do not personally know if Time offers enough on its own. Beam Rifle has some -Regen that stacks with it though, which is why I suggested a Time/BR combo.

 

 

 

[oedipus_tex]

By the way, an option you may not have thought of would be a Mastermind. A MM/Brute combo could probably solo most of the game. 

 

I'd personally go Something/Thermal Radiation as a MM. 

 

 

[Coyote]

2 hours ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

This is a great point. /Dark has some -Regen in Howling Twilight but it would only be applied around 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. Something to consider for sure.

 

As a note, Fluffy will usually have 2 stacks of Twilight Grasp on the AV, and you should be able to manage 3-4 stacks, and each stack is -50%. It's stackable and it lasts for 20 seconds, so you can manage about -300% Regen just from Twilight Grasp stacked.

 

Then, Howling Twilight has an uptime of about 50%, and when it's up you're at 667% -Regen (you're at higher, actually, but the AV is floored at 667% unless it's higher in level, in which case the higher values actually help more). So the AVERAGE -Regen, assuming 50% HT uptime, is just under 500%. This makes it about as strong at -Regen as the other good -Regen sets (Ice and Rad, but still not as good as Traps), and it puts out much higher -Dam and -ToHit (over 100% -ToHit, which even an AV will notice). IMO, the top 3 AV soloing debuff sets are Traps, Ice, and Dark, with Rad being in 4th place. Although I'd drop Ice to 4th unless paired with Earth or Illusion, since it's not as good with personal defense and it really wants to be paired with a good tanking pet or partner.

[TrishaTwilight]

22 hours ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

This is a great point. /Dark has some -Regen in Howling Twilight but it would only be applied around 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. Something to consider for sure.

From my investigation, the heal has a small -regen as well. Is it just too small to matter?