Psylenz

Personally, even on a team-only build I find a buff only build to be parasitic and non-optimal. If you took JUST ball lightning and short circuit instead of aid other and aid self, you could contribute AoE damage, and modest endurance drain. What in Statesman's name would you do with a spawn if you tp'd it to you and had no attacks? Resurrect and Resuscitation? Both? Are you planning to miss with heal aura and heal other?

Also consider the nuke. You can target from around a corner and dispatch stacks of foes without them being able to target you.

I know you were going for a gimmick, and I wouldn't kick a teammate for this build on a team, but I would think twice before inviting to a taskforce. It wouldn't be worse than an empath that didn't use powers they had.

I would have combined the 4 TAs with 4 empaths for max buffing and max debuffing. More than 8 oil slicks seems overkill. The AB boost on all the team would be something in itself to witness. Now consider with burnout and AB how many fortitudes the team could stack

Hear hear!! More! (You're preaching to the choir) More!

We are brothers under the spandex it would seem. I love the combat tp approach to eating the alpha. It's the fastest way to apply time juncture with the conjoined tactic of ranged reply from the bots. I usually try to click temporal mending right before the tp so they have some regen while I am grabbing attention. Slow, to-hit, and damage debuff will grab the aggro. Don't worry about provoke.

Oh do imagine, an all-mastermind team with multiple gang wars, multiple living hellfires. It's sick and wrong-- not from damage so much as the ultimate ghetto 'placate' from your mastermind and regular minions.

I admit my mistake. I won't redact my statement. In my defense I have trouble sometimes with the posts on the boards since my eye surgery.

Time is ridiculously strong with farsight and chronoshift.

Short of a lobotomy? Try an in your face defender such as a kinetic, radiation, or time that thrive in the glow of the buffs/debuffs melee range.

Indeed, starting a task force mission with a full set of necro pets plus 2 Wraiths is an amazing advantage.

To what you have said, I would add, "Endurance drain protection!"

Take that carnies, sappers, freakies!

I want to add: these mastermind teams really are juggernauts with the buffs and debuffs (like an 8 defender team). We were sporting >60% defense in the ITF tonight.

I hadn't thought about the possibilities with defenders; I admit I should have. Necro Masterminds have the ability to have two boss class pets out at a time. I need to turn this around in my idealistic all-defender static team mind stance... 4 empaths, (8?), and 4 TA specialists . With burnout the four empaths can have all 8 teammates adrenaline boosted and have 8 Oil Slicks out at a time! 8 disruption arrows and 8 EMP arrows in the mix would makes things REALLY sick and wrong. If the TAs were all archery secondary, you could toss out 8 Rains of Arrows - no nuke crashes!! Well if it's going to get this wacky, then the empaths could all go fire secondary to ensure the oil lights, with 8 infernos. I am not sure what content could accomodate all the firepower

The comparison of tornado to assassin strike is that it is the highest damage attack available to a squishy. I wouldn't use it every mob. I do use it more than once a mission. You DON'T have to mess with your teammates. The corner offices, the dead ends, the offices at the top of the room are mostly enclosed kill zones. If you pick your spots, tornado can tame some of the nasty tunnel junctions. But that's just IT, you HAVE to look where using tornado is favorable or you won't ever use it. Storm summoning is a tool that can be used to create chaos or group mobs up for a quick easy safe kill. And, Mu mastery does have a -kb immobilize in it.

What is next: Stalkers shouldn't use Assassin Strike? Brute should avoid fury. Dominators delay domination??

Tornado does over 60 ticks of damage, up to 400 total damage points base. At its very best it chews on AVs that resist knockback. Sonic cage may be situational, this is a death dealing machine. Oh and then there is the modest defense debuff with a mag 2 stun; too short to enhance, but it's nice on bosses coupled with thunderclap. The pet takes the aggro off you, your pets and your teammates.

Do you use tornado for pulls? No, and you usually don't use fireball or ice storm for an opening salvo on a squishy either. Corner offices, dead end hallways are the tornado's playground. The situations will present themselves as you look for opportunities to use it without hosing your teammates. I could never imagine soloing without a tornado.

The other powers maligned previously are steamy mist and snowstorm. I also suggest two Acc's in Gale. You might get 4% defense from steamy mist with a lot of defensive slotting. Steamy is a good place to put your kb resist, but so is tough if you go the fighting route. With ~50% resistance enhancement you get ~22% resistance to fire, cold and energy (CoT, Rikti, Nemesis). You can slot some good status protection enhancements in steamy mist, and tough as well.

Snow storm with freezing rain will bring anything to a crawl. Slows from snowstorm is -50% base, and it's a big AoE. Do some number crunching and see how being shot at half as much compares to a defensive slotting. Snowstorm needs 2 end reductions, that's it. (Base end cost is 0.65/sec.)

I highly recommend hover and teleport. Hover for placing lightning storm. Teleport for combat. Line up where your bots are approaching the foe. TP in, hit gale, to corner the foes, and then the bots kb will assist in knocking foes to the desired location. Right after you gale them, you can rinse them off with freezing rain. Foes that cannot stand up cannot shoot you. Gale will take them off their feet before they get a shot off. Steamy mist and a stealth proc in tp, or sprint, gives your mastermind superior stealthing ability to hit them before they hit your pets.

Next, what are you aiming for with your IO sets? I highly recommend recharge for lightning storm and freezing rain. The other pets (robots, tornado) can use the extra recharge as well. Luck of the Gamblers recharge bonuses are obtainable easily doing alignment missions. Hover, combat jump, steamy mist, weave are good places for LotG +7.5%. With that in mind, ranged damage IO sets for lightning storm help as well.

If this doesn't strike a chord, at least use all the pet bonus IO enhancements: edict of the master, sovereign right, and the 2 recharge intensive pet uniques.

We had more than 8 folks show up last Wednesday.