What's the best dual-box tag-a-long?

[EmperorSteele]

So occasionally when I play, I'll load in a second account and team with my FF/Psi defender... just for shits and giggles mostly; but some days, I want to do a TF but don't feel like PuGing (even though it'll take me twice as long... bit I technically get twice the rewards, so...). Pop some bubbles, set follow and an auto attack (proc'd out Dominate) and I'm good to go.

 

But I've been starting to wonder if I could be doing something better here? Like, instead of /Psi, what about sonic or rad for the debuffs on their attacks? What about a Corr for more damage on each attack? Heck, maybe another Support set might be better? Hell, maybe have a pocket TANK instead to hold agro while I melt face and don't need shields?

 

So, with the basic understanding that this alt character is supposed to be "Fire and Forget", what would you all reccomend?

[Spaghetti Betty]

I'd recommend some kind of /Time MM. Pretty simple setup. Summon and buff the pets, set them to Defensive Follow. Tab out every few minutes to buff yourself and keep the heal on auto. This should make any toon significantly stronger while providing backup DPS and damage sponges.

[Glacier Peak]

Yeah that pocket tank idea is actually pretty sweet. Keep in mind though it will bring a lot more mobs to the party. I usually keep the alt logged out until I've stealthed through the map to ensure spawn sizes stay tiny. 

[nihilii]

Indeed, FF/sonic is pretty good for a passive one-shot wonder. Putting the very first attack on auto lets you stack about -36% res on its own, plus the slight damage it does. That's more than a full-strength defender debuff. You can also stuff the defender procs in there to get aggro.

On picking a different support set, FF is near the best you're going to get for a passive approach. Sonic is another good option. You get an extra -30% res toggle you can slap on your main and never worry about. So, make that sonic/sonic, you're going to maintain ~-66% on singletargets.

 

If you want to try a tanker, think Shield. Slotted Grant Cover will give your main +16% defense for free. As for a secondary, /rad is often a good pick: you have Irradiated Radiation dealing damage passively, you can auto Atom Smasher if you need AoE output, Radioactive Smash if you need ST, Radiation Siphon if you need survivability for your tanker. Picking /soul as an epic tends to be an even greater choice than it already is for normal characters, because the "ranged" part of Gloom becomes even more valuable (characters on autofollow will often be out of melee range, without careful positioning on your end).

The one potential dealbreaker with Shield is the click mez protection. If you're not averse to tabbing every now and then, that's fine. It doesn't have to be every 2 minutes, mind you. Typically I've found it's not needed to actually activate the mez protection unless you're mezzed. A shield tanker will be softcapped, so few hits are going through to start with.
 

[SilverVersion]

I have a rad/rad defender I'm leveling on a second account, and it works well so far. Useful things:

~Accelerated Metabolism. Press the button whenever it's up. I also have hasten on autofire; once I slot properly, that should make AM perma. This especially helps when I'm using my defender to level another toon that doesn't have proper recharge & endurance yet. 

~PBAoE heal. As long as the defender is following the main, this is a one-button heal without needing to target whichever toon is dying.

~The three AoE debuffs. I only bother with them on hard targets. Two are toggles, so I only have to set those up once per fight, and the third (Lingering Radiation) is mostly there for enemies with regen and can be ignored otherwise.

~PBAoE Hold toggle: Zero-attention mez for the minions and some lieutenants that get near my healer.

 

I don't use the actual attacks much, other than a macro that makes the defender use his basic attack on my current target. But, rad blast has some PBAoEs that would be low-attention damage while on follow.

 

Rad defender is notably squishier than FF, so I have to pay attention to aggro & stray AoEs sometimes to keep the defender alive.

 

Also, a note about my setup: I run the second client on a separate computer, then use a program (Input Director) that lets me send keystrokes from my main computer to the second one. Then, I assign my main computer's keypad to control the second client. This makes it possible to control the second toon more actively, such as mashing the heal button while simultaneously fighting with the main toon, without having to constantly alt-tab.

[SilverVersion]

I've been thinking about a pocket tank. For low-attention tanking, we want toggle auras with damage/taunt and PBAoE click abilities on a shortish cooldown to leave on autofire. The reliance on AoEs and the need for better passive taunting probably means tanker rather than brute. It'd be good to have options for setting either a self-heal or a stronger PBAoE damage to autofire, depending on whether the main toon currently being escorted has support abilities or not.

 

Primaries that caught my eye:

 

Bio Armor. Genetic Contamination: damage aura toggle with -DMG debuff. DNA Siphon: PBAoE damage, taunt, self-heal, & endurance recovery to leave on autofire. Adaptation also lets you shift between better defense/resist, better regen, or better -resist debuffs, which could be nice depending on your much support your main toon can give it. Note that Bio Armor doesn't get its PBAoE damage & self-heal until 18 and its toggle damage aura until 28, which means it can't exemplar to level toons very well.

 

Dark Armor. Dark Shroud: damage aura toggle at level 1. Dark Regeneration: PBAoE damage & self heal for autofire. Cloak of Fear: fear & -acc aura toggle. Cloak of Darkness: If your main toon can stealth, then this gives your pocket tank a better stealth option than celerity without needing to pick up Concealment.

 

Electric Armor. Lightning Field: Damage aura toggle at level 1. Also brings built-in protections against endurance drain and -recharge, which seems particularly deadly to a multibox tank you're not paying attention to. The self heal is unfortunately on a long timer, which might be a problem if you're using the pocket tank to escort a squishy DPS instead of a support toon.

 

Radiation Armor. Beta Decay - Taunt aura toggle, with -To Hit & -Def debuffs instead of damage. Radiation Therapy - PBAoE damage, -regen debuff, self heal, & endurance recovery. Ground Zero: If you don't mind an extra button to push once in awhile, this PBAoE damage, -DEF debuff, and a team heal on a 90s cooldown.

 

Edit: Somehow overlooked Fire Armor. It also has a level 1 damage aura (Blazing Aura), though its self-heal (Healing Flames) and its PBAoE damage (Consume) are on separate abilities, so you can only leave one on autofire. Also comes with Burn to leave a patch of damage on the ground, if you're willing to press an extra button during longer fights.

 

~

 

For secondaries, anything with a PBAoE attack on a shortish cooldown will do. These secondaries, though, caught my eye for also having something extra:

 

Fire Melee. Two PBAoE damage powers, if you don't mind pressing an extra button - you get Combustion (dot) early, and fire sword circle later.

 

Radiation Melee. Irradiated Ground: a toggle that leaves patches of damaging ground.

 

Spines. Quills: Damage aura toggle.

 

 

Pick whichever primary & secondary strike your fancy, throw in some toggles from Fighting & Leadership, then call it a day. I'm going to go make a pocket tanker now to see how this works out.

Edited March 3, 2023 by SilverVersion
forgot fire armor primary

[Parabola]

I've always used mm's for this kind of thing. The combination of autonomous pets and toggle or long lasting support powers is hard to beat.

 

The idea of a pocket tank is intriguing though. What about stone? Eventually you'd just be able to leave it in granite making it very hands off.

[Hedgefund2]

I'm adding another vote for MMs.  Put the pets on aggressive and this will provide more supplemental damage than any other AT you can choose, at least without serious micromanagement.  The gravy on top is a support set for whatever your primary toon is.

 

When I went about trying to solve the question in the OP I wanted minions that were self sufficient and fairly well mannered.  I also wanted a secondary that would insure that the end AV(s) would be defeated.  I landed on Bots for the first part (they heal each other and USUALLY are content to stay at range and pew pew) and Traps for the latter.  There are many ways to skin this cat and I'm not going to engage in a debate that bots/traps is "the best" for this task, I've used other MM combos that were just as effective, they just might require a bit more alt-tabbing out to manage, or some other technique as described above.

 

J

[SeraphimKensai]

Note that of the server population is low enough you can run three accounts at once (if your PC can handle it) I'll often do that and solo a wst TF and load the other accounts in for last missions so they get the bonus merits.

[SilverVersion]

I like the mastermind idea. Robots definitely sounds well suited to the hands-off approach, as Hedgefund2 said. It looks like Mercenaries and Necromancy are the other minion sets that have some form of self-healing, and Mercenaries are similarly ranged-focused. I've only leveled Thugs myself, though, so I'm not sure how well they survive in practice when mostly ignored.

[SeraphimKensai]

On 3/3/2023 at 11:25 PM, SilverVersion said:

I like the mastermind idea. Robots definitely sounds well suited to the hands-off approach, as Hedgefund2 said. It looks like Mercenaries and Necromancy are the other minion sets that have some form of self-healing, and Mercenaries are similarly ranged-focused. I've only leveled Thugs myself, though, so I'm not sure how well they survive in practice when mostly ignored.

You put them in defensive and follow and then have the mm target through your other character with an attack on auto to get the robots to engage. You alt tab back as necessary to use it's secondary.

 

I do this when I run 3 of my robot masterminds all at once. It works well enough and I rarely lose any bots with /time, /ea, and /kin.

[EmperorSteele]

My experience playing MMs has been... not great. However, between the buffs they recently got and the hands off approach to getting the most out of the auto attacks, I'm heavilly leaning in that direction, thanks to the responses in this thread! I'll try to remember to let y'all know how it goes!

[BazookaTwo]

I pair a SS/Invul brute with my Thugs/FF