Psylenz

I don't think bots 'struggle'. They are definitely single target minions until level 32, except the Assault bot gets a flame thrower at level 26. Bots resist lethal and psy damage. In the early levels in the rogues that means hellions (edit: damned can be tough), skulls and Lost are pretty darn easy. Mez me you rector, I don't care, my bots will deal with you.

Bots are easy on the end because you don't have to resummon a kamikaze pyromaniac every other spawn. It's my experience that Bots have better range after the level 6 upgrade of the first tier. It's not a true snipe, but they seem to be able to attack and hit targets from range before the foe can close and return fire. That's an important factor since the robots also have kb to their advantage. My own personal rule of thumb is: if my robots and the mastermind knock the boss down just one time, he is DONE. The accumulating attacks will finish him before he can recover to regain the upper hand.

I ramble.

Now let me suggest a Necro/thermal build. Necromancy pets are usually described as very squishy. It's not really true. They have different resistances than bots, thugs or demons. Their biggest weakness is of course fire. After your thermal mastermind coats the undead with the thermal shields, one of the biggest strengths is fire resistance from the shields. A dark mastermind has heals, but he doesn't have the same prerequisite of mitigating the incoming damage. I know, I know: shadow fall, fearsome stare, darkest night and all the tohit deubuffs are incredible, and Necro/dark works. Thermal covers situations where aggro is accidentally grabbed. Necro/storm also mitigates incoming damage in a different way, but the steamy mist is a big fire resister, too.

Now the playstyle is really different since your necros puke early and often, a toxic attack that is rarely resisted but you want your grave knights to fight melee style with their big freaky swords. It's a heretical stance, but when I get that far, I put my little zombies on bodyguard and leave the grave knights on aggressive. Let them have their fun and follow along with support, and here I am talking on my Necro/thermal. Have a little macro for your knights: Attack my target. It gets really good when you get the Lich for support. That big guy eventually gets fearsome stare, one of the best powers in the game.

I will let someone else tell you the wonders of Demon Summoning.

This is interesting gameboy. I built a controller on the blue side for doing the Posi on specially selected 3 hero teams (Ice/FF) before they changed it to be more fun and less time-consuming. I wonder what your opinion is of taking photon grenades instead of a pulse rifle attack? It would stack later in the MM's career with the stuns in the protector bots level 32 upgrade powers.

It's an interesting idea. I am all for improving the horrid Mastermind's Poison secondary poison trap and the quickest solution is to port over the /traps version unchanged. That would be easy I think and not game changing in any shape or form.

The Soldiers of Arachnos get a venom grenade. Wouldn't it be nice if they shared with their mastermind friends?

Temp powers of Stun grenades and hand grenades are very handy, too.

This is totally my attitude, emphasis added.

A lot of defense, that is your strong point. When you build your minions, get the most from damage and accuracy, but since you are going defense in the Protectors: Acc X 2, Dmg X 2, Def X 2 is your basic formula for protector bot slotting. Take manuvers. Since I19 is getting inherent fitness powers, you have more options. Taking Concealment for additional defense and defense set bonuses is even more appealing. Invisible robots don't grab unwanted attention, either. With the I19 upgrage, I would even suggest taking the Robot Primary: Photon Grenades for grabbing aggro and stacking stun potential with your Protector Bots after level 32.

I am leveling up a Praetorian/Hero Robots/FF I will check back with a Mids level-up build.

I really really hope it does NOT work this way. Even a week would leave me short of time to go through and respec all my alts

Bubble up!

PGA sleep to me is the secondary effect. I like it for the -damage, AoE -damage.

psst, don't forget Khan/Barracuda TFs

A very good point, it should be obvious, but it isn't, you can't use the freespec you may have already before the I19 comes out or you won't be able to slot up newly inherent powers like health or stamina.

Zero? Ok, you lost me there. Good bye.

No sheath, he keeps it in his pants.

They nerfed all -recharge effects on pets with the last AI tweek that they did for all the minions. All the other enhanceable effects are good to go. I agree with Nalrok's slotting except that I would six slot the lowest tier for 3 damage. I also wouldn't slot the hold for duration in the Demon Prince since they don't usually last as long as the first hold duration. I would switch it for damage.

Also, I would start looking at sets especially the Demon Prince as early as levels 27 and 29. This might sound heretical but I slot my Demon Prince with economical sets (not Hami's or purples yet) as so: Edict of the master Acc/Dmg; Dmg IO; Pacing of the Turtle Acc/slow, Dmg/slow, Acc/End, End/Recharge.

Results:

75.5% damage
62.8% slow
62.8% acc
59.6% end cost redux
18.4% recharge reduction (nearly worthless)

set bonuses:

2.75% addnl sleep resistance
Improves slow powers by 2.5%
Improves accuracy of all powers 9%

I concur with Westley, Repulsion bomb is an offensive power, AND even though the stun in repulsion bomb isn't 100% auto hit like howling twilight, it still plays into the defender manual of stacking with teammates stuns, not 100% likely, but capable of boosting a stun mag high enough to stun bosses. My forcefielder stacks repulsion bomb, pionic tornado and psychic scream to offensive effect for 3:30 minutes between bubble cycles.

I don't mind presenting the merits of different defender sets. Saying a particular set is the ugly red-headed stepchild of city of heroes is something else. There are definitely situations where Forcefields shines in the late game: the last room of the Lady Grey Taskforce, the Kahn Task Force, and the Statesman Task Force come to mind. I have touted the abilities of defenders for a very long time, and in my opinion there is precious little that an all defender team can't accomplish - even a team with a defender of every stripe.