StrykerX

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But if you're going to do the tanking for your squad, bots is the way to go. I don't know why but several dozen posters agree. Full bodyguard mode and keeping the aggro on yourself means the damage is evenly spread among all your squad, and, since everyone is suggesting Dark, the group heal is very effective since your squad will usually be equally hurt, you shouldn't be "wasting" heal on untouched minions. Focus your pool powers on personal defense and holding aggro, and you can be out on the pointy end while your firing squad assists.

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There are two main reasons to go Bots if you want to tank. First, Protector Bots will bubble you, giving you more defense (close to 10% more, as I recall) which helps you take more attacks. Second, the Protector Bots also heal other robots, which means they'll take care of at least some of the Bodyguard damage themselves. That's not as important for /Dark or /Pain, but if you rely on Aid Other and Repair for your pet healing it makes a big difference. It even helps with /Storm, since O2 Boost is really a pretty lousy heal. Not that there's much need to heal anything once /Storm really cuts loose...

The Achilles' proc does indeed work in Acid Mortar, as well as the mercs. If you only have one, I'd slot it in your Soldiers since that gives the most chances for it to fire. Though really, Mercs / Traps needs several of those procs so you may want to save some merits or tickets to try to get more.

I'd slot Acid Mortar and Poison Gas Trap with 3 recharge each. I'd also give Acid Mortar a couple of defense debuff and an accuracy. Poison Gas Trap can use a hold enhancement or two, but it's not critical... the -regen is the biggest reason to get it after the nerf.

Seeker Drones are great at soaking up alpha strikes. Slot them with some recharge and maybe a bit of range and summon them right on top of a group of enemies from outside aggro range. The enemies attack the drones, the drones go boom and debuff the enemy damage, and your pets open fire. Add an accuracy if you care about the debuff landing and have a spare slot.

Oh... you may want to check the market before writing off IO sets altogether. If you ignore set bonuses and just concentrate on enhancement value and cost (frankenslotting) you can actually slot most powers with set IOs for about the same price as level 35 generic IOs, which is actually cheaper than buying SOs at 35, 40, 45, and 50. There are plenty of recipes to be had for a few thousand to a few tens of thousand inf, and as long as you avoid ones with expensive rare salvage you can buy the salvage and craft for under 100k. I can almost always frankenslot a character in the low to mid 30s for less inf than I earn just running missions and selling drops on the market. No marketeering or loans from rich alts needed... just sell any salvage you get and any recipes with a demand and you should have a few million by the 30s. Or a few hundred million, if you do a lot of SFs and get some lucky merit rolls.

Agreed on Bots... they're tough, easy to control, and pretty self-reliant. They don't do a lot of damage at early levels, but they do enough to get by and once you get the Assault Bot (and especially after the second upgrade) they are real powerhouses.

As for secondaries, /Dark is indeed powerful and pretty active. I personally prefer /Traps (I love Force Field Generator), but either one pairs well with Bots. Both can handle fairly tough challenges... by which I mean pretty much anything in the game short of a solo Rikti Mothership raid.

The problem is that MMs are basically a DoT class... lots of little attacks that add up to good damage over time. Farming is all about burst AoE damage... dump a few attacks on a spawn, with enough recharge to have them back up and ready by the time you hit the next spawn. Some Masterminds do enough damage to farm, but it's spread out over 20 seconds instead of concentrated into two or three attacks. That means 2-3 times as long per spawn, which cuts down your income a lot...

A good AoE MM does farm better than most ATs, but they can't match a true AoE monster like certain Brutes, Doms, and Kins. On the other hand, if you are looking for a cheap (no +recharge or uniques) farmer a MM can do the job safely... you just can't boost them to the same level as a SS/Fire or a Fire/Psi once you dump a bunch of inf into the build.

The closest you can get is to make a bind that executes a "Goto" and then loads a new bind file where the same key executes "Attack" instead and loads the original "Goto" bind. That lets you hit a button to send the pets to a spot, then hit the same button again when they arrive to make them attack.

I believe you can do the same thing with macros if you have a power tray you aren't using (which is likely since you get nine).

- Make a macro for Goto that also switches that tray to an unused one

- Set up the second tray exactly like the first one, except that the Goto macro is replaced by an Attack My Target macro that also switches back to the first tray

I don't remember the tray switch commands offhand, but I know Khelds can chain tray swaps with their form shifts in a macro. If it works, you'll be able to click a button to send them to their target and then click the same button to have them attack. You still have to click twice, but at least the whole thing only requires one space in your tray (and an empty tray, but if you're using all nine space isn't an issue ).

Now that your first two attacks can be used while mezzed you need to take them on any Blaster... you'll spend quite a bit of time mezzed at higher levels. As for the snipe, I personally like them for openers... snipe a lieutenant for good damage plus a nice defiance buff, then hit your AoE barrage to finish him off plus any nearby minions. I'm not sure I'd bother taking it for Archery though since Blazing Arrow is almost as strong without the drawbacks.

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Should all masterminds take the leadership pools?

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Leadership is handy, but you can do without it. The biggest benefit is Tactics, which not only gives a To-Hit bonus but also +Perception and Fear and Confusion protection. /Pain gets all of that except the To-Hit from Enforced Morale so they can skip it easier, though it's still useful if you fight grapes. Maneuvers only makes a real difference if you already have lots of defense to stack with it, and Assault is a minor damage boost but nothing vital.

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Is fitness needed or just nice to have?

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Pretty much needed for Dark or Storm, nice to have for Traps, not sure about the others. If you have an active secondary, you use your personal attacks, or you run multiple Leadership toggles it really helps.


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Is the presence pool warranted?

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It really helps against EBs or higher. You can tank whole spawns if you build for defense and are /FF or /Traps, or tank single tough enemies with pretty much any combination provided you have a way to heal. Even without healing or high defense, Bodyguard alone will let you take the alpha from an EB and then you can let the pets take the aggro... good way to keep them alive long enough to apply debuffs. You probably won't need a taunt unless you plan to actively tank tough enemies (which most MMs can do to an extent, but some much better than others).

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Should I take everything from traps? Are there some things that just suck?

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Trip Mine is situational. It's great if you have high defense so you can run up and drop them at an enemy's feet, or if you solo a lot and are patient enough to plant minefields. On a fast team it's pretty useless though, since by the time you plant it everything's dead. Detonator is also pretty situational... it makes a big boom, but costs you a pet (and the boom scales up with the pet tier so for best results you lose a tier 3). It works really well for Necro though, since you can blow up a Lich and then raise him as a ghost. I'd take all the others, though some (like Seeker Drones and Caltrops) don't need heavy slotting if you are tight on slots.

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Are the EPPs good for a MasterMind? Which ones? What would I need to give up to take them?

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The main thing the EPPs give you is a shield and an immobilize. Scorpion Shield in Mace Mastery is nice for /Traps or /FF since it gives defense and those sets have a fair amount to stack with it. Mace also gives you Power Boost, which is nice for /FF since it boosts the strength of their bubbles. Mu Mastery gives you a nice resist shield and also the only AoE immobilize with -KB, which is great for Bots since you can immobilize a spawn in a burn patch and it won't get knocked off.

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Should I ignore the .. three? attacks in Thugs.

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If you don't have any veteran attacks, you may want to take one or two to help at low levels and respec out of it later. At higher levels the MM's personal attacks are very weak... if you have spare power choices and slots then take one or two, but you'll usually have better options.

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I can't stand not having a Travel Power. Are using those two slots going to gimp me? (CJ/SJ)

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Not at all. In fact, Combat Jumping is very handy on a Mastermind (or any other AT with no status protection) since it protects from immobilizes and you can drop a KB Resist IO in it. Even the defense can be handy if you go /Traps or /FF, since those sets can soft-cap and every little bit helps when doing that.

I think the OP was talking about the personal attacks in the primary, not the pet attacks. I'm also assuming it will be Flares, Fire Blast, and either Fireball or Fire Breath. As for the pets themselves, I'm really hoping for fire and ice. I'm not really excited about demons, but I'd love to make an elementalist, so if the demons have elemental attacks they'd be close enough.

Really good players with ultra-high end IO builds have soled just about every AV and Hero in the game with Bots / Traps. They've also soloed some Giant Monsters and the ITF. Even low-end builds (including SO only builds) can solo at least some AVs, and moderate IO slotting lets you solo quite a few.

I'm sure there are AVs that Necro / Pain can solo, but since I've not really played either of those sets much I'm not sure which ones. I'd assume that since Necro is a primarily melee set you'd have real trouble with AVs that have powerful PBAoEs or melee heals, but the ones with more of a ranged focus are probably doable assuming you can keep your pets alive.

If you want an easy test, fight an Elite Boss while using Bodyguard. If you end the fight with both you and the pets in good shape, you're probably tough enough to try an AV. If anyone is badly hurt, or you lose a pet, you probably don't have the staying power to go the distance with an AV... though a high-recharge build might be able to replace the zombies fast enough. Assuming you are tough enough, you just need enough damage to take the AV down... and the only way to know if you have that is to try it and see.

Pool B recipes are so common that I can't imagine them ever being very profitable. Plenty of people run real missions so there's always going to be a supply of these recipes... at most, they'll go up to significantly above vendor price (but still pretty cheap) and more folks will stop vendoring or deleting them and put them up for sale.

Note that I consider tens of thousands cheap, but it's well above vendor price. Unless a vast majority of people start running only MA missions I can't see the Pool Bs hitting the six figure mark consistently.

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gang war takes both

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This. Drop both Resist uniques, both Defense uniques, and a couple of recharges (or Acc/Recharge IOs if you care about them hitting) in Gang War and you have all four uniques wihout sacrificing any slots in your main pets.

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NO It's not, It's ALL a Nemesis Plot!!

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Who do you think Frostfire really works for?

/Traps and /FF are the two "tanking" secondaries. I'd actually go with Bots rather than Thugs though... Protector Bots will bubble you and give you around 10% more defense. With Thugs/Traps or Thugs/FF you can get the pets themselves up to near soft-capped defense, but your own defense will be lower since Thug leadership buffs only affect pets. On the other hand, Thugs get a Brute for their tier three minion and with extra defense from you he tanks fine.

As for builds, Masterminds are very forgiving. Just about anything will work as long as you keep the following in mind:

- Tier one pets eventually spawn at -2 levels to you, which means they will often face enemies +4 or more levels above them. They need maximum accuracy and damage to compensate... I suggest 3 generic Accuracy and 3 generic Damage IOs (or even SOs, though generic IOs are cheap and never go yellow or red on you after leveling mid-mission) for a budget build. If you can afford a full set of Blood Mandate you get the same effective slotting plus some nice bonuses, including defense.

- Tier two pets will be -1 level to you, so they still need good accuracy. For Thugs or Bots, they also provide defense buffs... I'd go with the Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End IOs from two different sets (preferably ones with recovery or regen as the first bonus) and two defense IOs. Though if you can afford it and go Thugs, one defense and an Achilles' Heel -resist proc would be better since Enforcers have lots of attacks than can trigger it.

- Tier three pets need an accuracy and three damage (except Lich, which needs control and debuff slotting). They don't need a second accuracy (unless you plan to fight purples) since they're even level, which makes this a great place to slot the Defense Aura and Resist Aura uniques if you can afford them.

- For Thugs, Gang War can accept both Pet Damage and Recharge Intensive Pet sets. That means you can stick both Resist Aura and both Defense Aura IOs in here along with a couple of recharges and leave all your main pet slots free for enhancements and procs. Having both defense auras, the Enforcers' Tactics buff, and Traps' Force Field Generator will make all your pets very hard to hit. If you go /FF instead, they won't be just hard to hit, they'll be "Super Reflex Scrapper in Elude" level hard to hit.

I'd recommend Traps for a secondary. You get Force Field Generator, which gives you and your pets defense and also hold and stun protection. You also get Acid Mortar, which is a fantastic debuff (slot for recharge) and Poison Trap, which was nerfed but still can hold things and, more importantly, has a huge regen debuff. Acid Mortar and Poison Trap combined are what let you take down elite bosses (or higher) quickly... add in Web Grenade to keep them at range (and in burn patches) and Seeker Drones to debuff their damage and you really won't ever have to worry about getting help to deal with an annoying EB at the end of a mission. I know Bots/Traps can solo some full AVs / Heroes with only SO slotting, so I'd be surprised if Thugs / Traps can't do it with moderate IO investment (like enough defense to make up for no Protector Bot bubbles while tanking AVs).

I would not suggest going /FF. It's very, very safe... but also slow. You get no real damage or debuffs, so you basically go read a book or watch TV while the pets chew through each spawn. /Traps will get you to 50 faster and almost as safely, and will let you go big game hunting (AVs and Heroes) if you want to... I suppose /FF can solo them too, but with no debuffs to speed things up I'd suggest packing a lunch if you try because you'll be there a while.

Both. I have a couple of "mercenary" villains who are not evil, but rather just willing to work for the highest bidder. They'd be just as glad to work for the good guys as Arachnos if it paid better and would be perfect for a "neutral" alignment... or failing that, switching back and forth multiple times between factions. I also really, really want to make a heroic Mastermind. I prefer playing the good guys but Masterminds are by far my favorite AT.

I thought the /Dark heal is an AoE centered on you, not the target. Just wait for the AV to fire an AoE at you, then duck over to the pets and fire off Twilight Grasp then back away before the next AoE lands.

One other thing... the pets don't have to be on Follow. They're in Bodyguard mode any time they are affected by Supremacy and are in any Defensive mode other than Defensive / Attack. That means you can use Stay or Goto to position them while in Defensive stance without losing Bodyguard, which is ideal for avoiding AoEs that would hit them in Defensive / Follow. Just keep them within 60 feet and in line of sight.

(Yes, since Bodyguard is based on Supremacy you have to be in line of sight. Even if you are closer than 60 feet if something like a corner is blocking a pet from recieving your Supremacy buff that pet will not Bodyguard you either.)

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Well if they had just came out and say hey guys these powers are bugged but underperforming. We will buff them at a later time. Sure people would be mad but thats a hell of alot easier to deal with than what we are getting now. I am fairly confident that once this goes live those sets wont see a real buff for many years to come. We all know how long it takes for changes around here. Look at defiance, look at war mace, look at ice melee, look at invulnerability, look at the patron powers.

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To be fair, the devs can't really tell if they're underpowered or not until they fix them. If some people are spamming massively recharge-boosted pseudopets while others are using no recharge boosts then the datamining will be all over the place... once the bug is fixed the devs can get a more accurate view of how well they perform when used as intended.

Nice guide! One suggestion though: Call Reinforcements could probably benefit quite a bit from the Soulbound Allegiance set (the purple pet damage set). Unlike the other pet damage sets, it has a lot of +recharge (just under 90%) and unlike Hamidon enhancements it has nice set bonuses. It's expensive, but might be worth it.

I've been using a similar method on my Heroes (except staying with common IO crafting instead of sets) and recently started playing villains. I've found that it's harder to find dirt cheap recipes to vendor (though not impossible, it just takes longer) and the common salvage is a bit higher priced (though again, you can find stuff to vendor if you look hard enough). On the other hand, common IOs seem to sell for more. So once you get your initial nest egg, you make plenty of infamy selling Accuracy, Damage, End Reduction and probably other enhancements. I go for those three because almost everyone needs them and the End Mod market is a bit crowded. My Axe/WP Brute is making up to 3 million profit a day at level 27 from logging in 2-3 times to craft and sell (I'm currently playing other alts).

One thing I'll add is that you really don't need to bother starting that early. You don't actually need enhancements of any kind in the first 11 levels, so I generally slot any TO drops I can use and hoard my inf until level 10 or 11. Then I vendor enough recipes to afford level 15 IOs (much easier at level 10 when you can carry 10 at a time) and place bids for recipes or crafted IOs. As soon as I hit 12 I can slot up with level 15 Accuracy and Endurance IOs and maybe some Damage (that sometimes has to wait until the mid to late teens because hitting and keeping the blue bar from bottoming out is more important so I don't slot damage until I have 3 to 4 slots in a power). Those are fine until level 22, when I upgrade to level 25 IOs (some of which I may be crafting myself). And from there, it's craft and sell until I can afford sets.

Yes, but if the reward vs time was balanced better it would be a lot easier for people who aren't farmers to get to run certain TFs. Right now, only people looking for a badge or actually interested in the content ever run most SFs / TFs. Sure the hardcore farmers will crunch the numbers and run whichever is fastest (even if it's only 5 minutes faster per recipe), but a lot of people who aren't hardcore farmers still avoid long TFs. A better reward would encourage more people to do them, and as long as that reward isn't better than running Katies for the same time period it won't hurt balance.

Why does it matter? Simple... there aren't enough people willing to run most TFs. Try getting a group for a TF that takes longer than 2 hours some time (especially on a lower population server)... it's a royal pain. Equalizing rewards would let people who want to do a long TF possibly get some of the people who are just looking for drops to join in.

So in short, it makes it easier for people who aren't in large SGs to run longer TFs by giving the recipe hunters enough reward to join in. You won't get the hardcore "Katie in under 30 minutes" teams but you might get people who would otherwise have been running Katie PUGs for several hours.

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As for the solutions, It pretty much gives more than one Pool C recipe for completing a TF. I'm not sure it would be a good idea to give more than once recipe for completing a TF.

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I think the whole point is to do just that. Right now all TFs / SFs have the same reward, but the time required varies tremendously. A six hour Shadow Shard TF gives the same reward as a thirty minute Katie run. Adding tokens based on average time to complete would mean that six hour Shadow Shard monster you just finished would give you several recipes... just like the multiple shorter TFs you could have run in the same time period would.

As for soloing TFs, I'm sure it's possible for a few builds on both hero and villain side, but I doubt it's common. After all, most builds can't solo an AV or Hero and the ones that can are still going to take way longer to do so than just running a Katie / whatever the quick villain SF is. Soloing a TF is for bragging rights... it's no where near as fast as a team for getting Pool C drops.

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Every AT gains at least 1 powerset -- Masterminds only get a Secondary, no new Primary. Brutes get 2 new Primaries, and 1 secondary. Everyone else gets 1 Primary and 1 Secondary.

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Wait... blasters too? Blaster support sets, like mastermind primaries, are unique. You'd have to build an entirely new set.

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Well, Mastermind primaries are truly unique... there's nothing remotely like them hero-side to port over. Blaster secondaries aren't direct copies of any other set, but they are made up of powers from other sets. So any non-weapon based melee set could be easily turned into a Blaster secondary by simply removing the taunt and a couple of attacks and adding in a single target immobilize and support powers. Unlike the Mastermind, that can be done with no new animations.

Or they could just give Blasters Traps...

Good luck in your new position Cuppa. You were one big reason I've always thought the devs here actually LISTEN to players (unlike too many other games), and I hope your new community appreciates you as much as we do. And I hope your new office has great coffee and plenty of it...

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By powers, you mean caltrops right? Lots and lots of caltrops. The defining feature of these fems are their tendancy to stack a bazillion caltrop patches on you. If they have any other power, I can't see it throught the haze of red 2's or 3's that fill up the screen

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They also have a sleep dart that lasts about 0.000001 second designed to detoggle you. You know... to make sure you aren't using hover to avoid the caltrops...

Whether the +perception from inspirations stacks or not is irrelevant... you can't realistically run around with multiple Insights active all the time. They don't last long enough. Unless you want to keep running back and buying more Insights every 3 minutes...