Psylenz

If you can get a dedicated teammate or partner that uses short circuit on a defender or blaster, it's a combo that is full of win. Duo Kin/Electric defenders are 'sick' in the amount of mitigation involved.

Follow/Aggressive and Follow/Defensive can both be interrupted by aggro or attack. To bring them back in a hurry use Follow/Passive and switch them when they return to a more constructive stance.

That's rough to read. Try exporting using the Titan forums format.

Sure I may be a little self-serving, but when I play my lowbie empath on virtue, I say things like how were the clear minds and did anyone not get their share of fortitude. Because, I know there IS a lot more than heal.

Funny thing was, too, one of the recent teammates said, did you notice the foes just seemed to melt? I thought, yep, it's called HOWL.

I also have a recently adapted policy of thanking the forcefielders, ice shields, sonic ringers and thermal shielders profusely. They make a lot of difference.

I have played some Kinetic. Sonic blast is a good fit for increasing damage. The powers I think you would want from kinetics are: transfusion, siphon power, siphon speed, speed boost, increase density, inertial reduction, transference, and fulcrum shift. Siphon speed and inertial reduction will take you a long ways. The must have sonic powers are shriek, scream and howl, to me the rest are optional but there are some shiny ones like screech. There is a lot of flexibility in your secondary selections. Shockwave is the cone power with knockback. Nuking can be fun, too, since your buffs aren't toggles.

There are some key emphases to making a successful kinetic:

Accuracy - should you take Amplify or go the leadership route?

Stealth - I like the concealment pool. You have the option of speed boosting your team and making them invisible to 'stealth' missions in taskforces and the like. Also, some stealth for the defender to get into fulcrum shift range is very beneficial.

Endurance - After transference, endurance management is easy. But, how does a defender get there? You can gut it out, slot for more endurance cost reduction. You can take stamina at 20 and later respec out if you desire to pick up 3 other powers like... leadership

Animation - When you get to around level 25 and have your recharge reduction slotted up, siphon speed stacking, maybe even using hasten to keep the clock ticking faster, you will find as you get in your attack/buff/debuff rotation, you will max out, you will have more buttons available to push than you have time to push them. Animation time will literally max out the powers you can cast. This is a thrill to be sure, but it can get a little frustrating and make you very 'clicky'. At this point when someone asks for speed boost, especially if they roam outside transference range, you just might snap. But oh, the challenge

Bots/Storm works well. I played one to 50. The robots never complain about knockback from storm. When you master the different foci of knockback you can really manhandle groups.

Thugs/Storm is one I don't have experience with but Thugs would surely go as well with storm as Robots. You would have two minions that like to get in melee, so Robots would get the nod as most Range damage oriented.

Bots/Dark is a very durable setup. It's very hard to kill if not the highest dps. One feature I beat like a drum was stacking stuns on my Bots/Dark. The mastermind's photon grenades, the protector bots photon grenades, seeker drones, on top of Howling Twilight put large groups of foes in a vacant eyed daze. That's some awesome mitigation there, too.

I have started a zombie/thermal. It's impressed me so far. I am just level 18 with it.

Good luck!

Anshar, I have seen a variety of stances, buffs, and statuses of my necros when I zone from missions. I, too, notice the necros will zone out of a mission and be 'npc's' and not on my pet bar but they follow me around. One time, I was in a mood it didn't bother me between missions, I ran to the next mission door, and the 'non-pets' were attacked by a Family gunner. Suddenly as the zombies counterattacked to being attacked, they were 'added' back into my pet bar and were controllable by me again.

Many times, I enter a mission with buffed pets, I am thermal, and the buffs drop when I am in the mission. It's still entering a mission 'bare' where a door ambush takes your MM out with no bodyguard to help at first.

Flaming Zombies

Ice/Cold controller - very cold, very slick, very safe

And as of tomorrow with the impending I 16, I suggest Zombies/Thermal?

Ahhh the skies will be lit and the smell of smoke will waft all the way across the Rogues Isles and Paragon City as unused freespecs are burnt in a massive frenzy...

Here's hoping it's ... TOMORROW!!

Robots/Storm

Your bubble prevents verbal and mental messages from being sent to your minions.

Make sure the arsonist is in defensive mode most of the time. If it's any consolation, his AI seems to improve when you get the bruiser. Levels 19-23 are the 'trying' times for masterminds. The second enforcer improves your defense greatly at level 24. One last thing, for the bruiser and arsonist, I wrote a macro specifically to set them on follow/passive to reel them in before they go 'rogue' and aggro too much.

Good luck!