Psylenz

Thugs/Dark and Thugs/Poison would be a good combo. The /dark is enough to provide effective mitigation with the paired thugs leadership. With /poison you get an extra 'kick' of burst debuff for hard targets and noxious gas is so pretty on a bruiser.

I am such a dummy, I thought it had to do with recharge that was slotted in the power. Mine DO NOT synchronize either.

I always considered my Night Widow to be a villain-side defender (good buffs) that happened to have a melee attack set. Stack the buffs!

Another aspect to O2 some squishies forget is the stun resistance. It's not a big deal for melees with status protection, but on defenders, controllers, non-dommed dominators, blasters, and corruptors it can save toggles from dropping.

Rad/rad is a classic. Neutrino bolt and x-ray beam are kinda pew pew pew, but you can proc out neutrino bolt with some nice stuff, chance to hold, resistance debuff whose effects can outshine the damage and defense debuff in rad blast. The really good thing about rad blast is that when you 'paint the target', successive targets have better chances to hit.

Rad/dark is another classic combo. Back before Rad/Sonic was available, rad/dark blast was all the rage. To hit debuffs on targets outside the radiation infection AoE increase survivability. Everyone loves tenebrous tentacles. Dark blast is the only AoE immobilize available to defenders in the secondary. The synergy between dark blast and radiation emission is something you have to experience to enjoy. It's almost surreal.

Rad/sonic is the GM solo'er. It's the bandwagon combination and for good reason. Sonic blast rips through your targets resistances like a defender primary power when you get it all stacking on tough targets.

Psy blast is resisted, but at least rad emission has enervating field to counter some of that.

Electric blast is a set I only enjoy pairing with kinetics for super sapper mode.

I, too, for one agree with Jerikko, a community choice award from the runners-up to be displayed would be a great feature. I also don't mind at all the diverse art styles.

I have to agree with Necro/Storm. It isn't like other combinations, but in no way does storm negate the melee minded zombies. With proper use like a scalpel not a sledgehammer, it is VERY effective.

Robots especially I like to keep protectors on defensive and the longer ranged attack drones on aggressive. They can deal revenge quickly on anything that snipes the group.

My Demon Summoning, I keep the ember demon and gargoyle on aggressive, except again for boss groups. I want the big boys to wade in and rip the ears off my foes. The little demonlings do well at bodyguard mode with the ranged attacks. I also don't mind when all the pets are in melee range with my mastermind wielding his whip attacks. I have a thermal MM so his heal hits almost everyone. Fiery demonling prefers to stay at far range; that's ok with me, too.

I like active masterminds. My first mastermind is a Robots/Poison (that robotics/chemistry mad scientist motif). /Poison is VERY active, hacking, spewing, tossing poison debuffs everywhere. He isn't the best mastermind for big crowds but my oh my can that guy take down hard targets. I also like my Robots/Dark mastermind. I took photon grenade to stack AoE stuns with Howling Twilight. Dark and the grenades keep my mastermind very busy.

As far as actual playstyles, my robots/poison especially plays rather unorthodox. Back in the day, he would always go invincible over unyielding - higher level, smaller spawn size. Against most spawns, OTHER THAN boss spawns where getting one shotted is really easy, he would roll into the spawn using the bots good range and knockback to pile up the group into an obstacle or just on top of each other. The general rule of thumb was if they were knocked down, they were soon dead anyhow. Boss groups are the standard: mastermind leads off with debuffs in bodyguard mode, robots gun down everything with AoEs, and bless the Assault Bot's -regen.

Many of my masterminds take group fly. The only groups I routinely combat from group fly are the Knives of Artemis. Caltrops are THAT annoying, especially to thugs. I use group fly mostly to position the pets for an attack so they don't go insane and path themselves through 1, 2, 3? spawns running up ramps and such to get where I want them to be.

No fire for defenders, no FF for corruptors yet, and no Thermal for defenders either, Thermal is a proliferation I would play.

In other news, there are some folks in the mastermind boards that are convinced that Aid Other trumps Deflection Shield and Insulation Shield on Masterminds.

Sonic blast is very popular with rad emission. Back in the long long ago, many defenders paired dark blast with rad emission. Not as much burst damge, but very capable in its own way.

Just thought I would throw out an alternative.

I have a Dark/Ice level 50 Defender. It's a fun combination to play. I have a little concern for the slotting in ice storm. This power is unmodified from the blaster form. It's a real killer. I wouldn't worry so much about slotting much acc or recharge in it, but I would be inclined to skim a couple slots, maybe the third recharge IO spot in Tar Patch or a slot or two from Petrifying Gaze.

My dark/ice went the spiritual route. Tons of recharge fits nicely with the stun component in some spiritual alpha abilities. Howling Twilight and Oppressive Gloom can use extra stun benefits.

I had something to post but it got eaten

Short and sweet, put heal set IO mules in health not frostworks. Frostworks works, but it's kind of situational. The big exception I found was when my Ice/cold corruptor used Frostworks on a Dark/Dark Brute.

Your are slotting heavily for -recharge. IMHO, I would fit in hasten, too.

Gah, no TK

I guess you had to break an egg to get an omelet.

Just my 2 inf, but in the tough fights, I like to be in melee range -- of the Dark Servant, wallowing in the Chill of the Night.

It's been a while but our supergroup had a Dark/electric level 50 that he deleted... so he could roll a dark/electric to run through the content... again. He didn't want more than one character.

First, as Luminara stated, they are different, target a foe, or target the ground. Stacking 20% recharge debuff is a BIG thing, especially if you have a) a psy blast secondary on yourself or a teammate, b) another defender/controller/corruptor with -recharge primary to stack. In the lowbie levels, I have teamed a trick arrow defender with a teammate with snow storm and the stacked -recharge and slow movement is devastating - think masses of trolls in the hollows.

I have a Traps/Dark blast defender. It's the opposite 'good' twin to a proposed corruptor. The -tohit in dark blast really is a fit for traps because traps is lower in tohit debuff than the other debuffs. Traps is a killer set really, extra good on larger spawns. It has superior debuff to regen, resistance, and defense. It has other powers that stun, hold, reduce damage potential, and perception. The pseudopets of seeker drones can and will take the nastiest first attacks from foes reducing your chance of dying on the first assault. Increase in your recharge rate is critical to a traps build!

I love my electric control/electric assault dominator to death. I had given up on dominators before the fix to domination, but wanted to give it another shot when Electric Control came out.

Electric Control's feature power is Static Field, available at level 12. It's a targettable AoE much like tar patch. It's main feature is a sleep effect that will re-apply to foes even if they are awakened by attacks. This is not your cousin's salt crystals that are one and done when they take damage. The other effects are reduced endurance, reduced speed, and reduced recharge rate. As in all unbelievable deals, this power will also transfer endurance lost from foes to you and your allies in the static field. Even running the low levels in Praetoria, my frequent tank teammate was appreciative of the endurance boost to his sparsely slotted build before SOs.

The second most important power of electric control is conductive aura. This power shocks foes in a PbAoE aura around your dominator. The power costs no endurance to run. The power drains endurance from foes that will boost your own endurance and also to a minor degree your regeneration.

With conductive aura, your dominator should crave to be in melee range of your foes. The convenient part of electric assault is that you have three decent melee attacks: charged brawl, havoc punch, and thunderstrike.

I took all the electric assault powers except Zapp, the snipe. I am disappointed that voltaic sentinel is considered a tier 9 power, but I wouldn't consider dropping it.

With Tesla Cage, you have a nice single target hold that is quick to recharge out of the box. For a control power, it does pretty good damage, too. Because you want to get into melee, you have to set the table with your controls. Tesla Cage, Chain Fences, and Static Field are the bread and butter that enable you to move in and sap your foes into submission. As your build matures, Paralyzing blast and Synaptic Overload can be alternated between groups for even better control.

One last point in this long winded filibuster: many EC users say there isn't enough -recovery in electric control. Jolting chain, while not a superstar power, is simple and elegant. It does two things basically. JC knocks down foes, which is sweet mitigation in itself. JC also does -10% endurance drain PER TARGET. This power, while I haven't slotted it at all except for accuracy is up almost all the time after getting permadom. The other feature is that the gremlins, which I consider indispensable, do two things: electric brawl - melee attack - and jolting chain. The little dickens are harder to herd than a regular mastermind pet, but with practice and luck, you can get -10% endurance drain TIMES 3 on regularly recurring basis. That's endurance drain. Three times the knockdown is added gravy.

I take group fly frequently on masterminds because some pets are really stupid about pathing to targets up stairs and ramps even if the mastermind is in bodyguard mode. Second my mastermind doesn't hear any yelling at all from the minions when I 'pick them up' with group fly and drop them where I want them. Third, until my mastermind gets kinetics, I will have to satisfy myself with group fly. (By the way, have you seen what minions do even when speed boosted after they encounter caltrops? The fear component gets really, really ugly.)