Welcome to my guide to Ninja Masterminding with Dark Miasma. Ninjas are a very fun MM primary with a wide variety of tricks, however they are pretty squishy - and the control, debuffs and heals in Dark Miasma can increase their survivability substantially. I have found Ninja/Dark to be a fantastic combination, assuming you can keep your ninjas on a tight leash
. I highly recommend that you get to know the advanced pet command system so that you can get your pets doing what you want them to do, rather than what their Hyperactive AI thinks they should be doing!
If you spot any mistakes then please let me know and I will try to correct them in a subsequent version of the guide. Any constructive feedback welcomed.
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What I'll be covering:
<ul type="square">[*] Ninja Masterminding & Dark Miasma - an introduction[*] Mastermind Henchmen Control (including Bodyguard)[*] Ninja Mastermind Powers[*] Dark Miasma Powers[*] Pool Powers[*] Patron Pool Powers[*] My Build[*] Summary[*] Where to go for hard numbers[/list]Hope you're sitting comfortably!
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Ninja Masterminding & Dark Miasma - an introduction
Ninja Masterminding is not for the feint hearted - your ninjas can be very powerful, however they can also get you into a lot of trouble if you aren't careful. Although they have both melee and ranged attacks, they are at their most potent in melee (except for Oni who is pretty good wherever he is). They do require a lot of looking after too - since they are best in melee, they also tend to be on the receiving end of the nastier mob attacks - so anything you can do to mitigate or prevent that damage is very good for their survival. A Mastermind's inherent 'Supremacy' power grants an Accuracy and Damage buff to henchmen that are close to you, so it is a good idea to stick as close to them as you can.
Dark Miasma basically provides a number of tools to help offset your Ninjas' weaknesses. You have good levels of control, and also powerful means to debuff your enemies and to heal your henchmen and team-mates, as well as an extra pet who can further enhance all of those aspects.
Before we look at the powersets in more detail, I should probably explain a bit about Masterminds and how they control their henchmen, since it is particularly important for Ninjas...
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Mastermind Henchmen Control
Mastermind Henchmen can be controlled with a fair degree of precision and are not the blunt instruments that controller pets are - however there is still a large degree of AI used to control them, so they can still cause unwanted aggro if you aren't careful.
I highly recommend enabling 'advanced' henchmen control (accessed from the options button in the pet window), as it gives you much better control over the henchmen, and isn't really that difficult to get to grips with.
Henchman control is divided into two main types: commands and stances - a henchman has one of each of these at any time, represented by two icons in the pet window. Essentially the commands give a henchman a specific task to do, and stances give them a behaviour to adopt. You can use your pet window to assign new commands / stances to henchmen (either individually, or as groups), or you can use macros / keybinds for commonly used controls.
The available commands are attack (my target), follow (me), stay (at current location), goto (a targetted location), and dismiss (de-summon). If you select attack, they will attack your current target and continue until it and any nearby threats are defeated, and then they will automatically return to follow mode. Selecting follow will make them return to your location and follow you around, however their stance may mean that they will still move away to engage certain targets. Similarly stay will make your henchmen remain anchored at their current position but they will still move to engage targets depending on their stance. Selecting goto will bring up a targetting reticule, allowing you to select a location for your henchmen to move to. Once there they will stay there until you tell them to do something else, or their stance causes them to engage an enemy. Dismiss simply de-summons your henchmen - useful if you are wanting to move to a new location and don't want to risk having your henchmen follow, or if you want to resummon fresh henchmen to replace heavily damaged ones, or if you have levelled up in a mission and wish to resummon henchmen relative to your new higher combat level.
The available stances are aggressive (attack any threat in detection range), defensive (only attack threats that are already attacking the mastermind or team-members), and passive (do not attack anything at all). This is one of the most important things when it comes to ninjas, since they are inherently very fast moving and so can quickly be moving to engage things you don't want them to if you are not careful. They also tend to fight in melee, meaning if they target just one thing in a group of enemies, they will likely move right next to them and thus aggro the entire group, rather than just hitting a single enemy in that group from range.
The defensive mode is fine if you haven't engaged anything yet, however it can still be risky if you are travelling through a mission or zone and aren't necessarily concerned if the odd critter takes a shot at you - normally you can just continue and that critter won't bother to follow, however with your henchmen in defensive mode, the moment a critter attacks you, all your henchmen will immediately move to engage, meaning that critter will then fully engage you and them, and in all likelihood attract the attention of nearby mobs too. If you don't want your henchmen to do anything, you should keep them in the passive stance.
Combining follow with passive is the only way to be sure of pulling all your henchmen back to you, even in the middle of a fight - useful for providing them with heals, as well as keeping them away from the edges of a battle where the risk of them engaging nearby groups is increased. I like to have a specific 'heel' keybind for pulling all my ninjas back to me in passive mode in an instant and I use it a lot of the time in battle:
/bind h "petcom_all follow passive"
When you first create a Mastermind, you are actually given a few default macros (these are like keybinds, but they are 'bound' to buttons in your tray instead). You can use these instead if you prefer, but I use my trays for other powers and prefer to have some henchmen controls on specific keys. The default macros may not be set up exactly the way you prefer, so you can always edit what they are doing by right clicking the macro button and clicking 'edit'. The 'Attack' Macro is one I do actually use as the button, as I essentially just use it as one of my 'attacks'. I have mine set up as "petcom_all attack aggressive", although "petcom_all attack defensive" will work pretty well too, and is probably safer overall to use (I am continually cycling my pets between 'attack' and 'heel' in a fight anyway, so it's not so much of a concern for me).
It is also good to make sure you can easily use 'goto' to reposition your ninjas - this becomes especially important once you get Oni, but it is also useful for sending your ninjas in ahead of you to gather aggro from the group you are engaging. Personally I have another keybind set up for this:
/bind g "petcom_all goto"
Note that in this one I haven't specified a stance, so the ninjas will just remain in whatever stance they are already in and just move to the location I select. So if used in the middle of a battle while they are aggressive (or possibly defensive), they will still attack once they get to the new position, however if I 'heel' them first, then goto - they will get to their new location and sit there awaiting further instructions as they will be in the passive stance. This is a particularly useful technique for getting your ninjas into prime location before engaging a group (the value of this is most obvious once you get Oni - i'll come onto that later).
It will take a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of keeping your henchmen in the appropriate stance, and being able to heel (and heal) and reposition them at will, you should end up with a rather efficient band of ninjas who you can help keep alive pretty well.
Bodyguard
When you first summon your henchmen, they have the follow command active, and are in the defensive stance - so they won't initially attack anything unless it attacks you (or one of your team-mates) first, and they will follow you around as you move. This particular combination is also known as 'Bodyguard Mode', and it enables your henchmen (when they are in range of your Supremacy power) to absorb a portion of any damage that is directed at you - the more henchmen that are in this mode, the more damage is absorbed by them instead of you. With just one henchmen in Bodyguard, you take 2/3 of the damage you normally would, and the Bodyguard henchman takes 1/3 of it. With all six in Bodyguard, you would take just ¼ of normal damage while they would take 1/8 each (each henchman in bodyguard takes one 'share' of the total damage to you, while you take two).
Changing either command or stance to something else will cancel Bodyguard Mode until they return to follow / defensive. Bodyguard mode can be extremely valuable as it greatly increases your personal survivability - however it does mean you have to keep your henchmen healed even more than usual if they are sustaining more damage. It is most useful in tough fights against a small number of targets (e.g. AVs or PvP), where the henchmen will still hopefully attack what you want them to attack, while still increasing your survivability. None of the ninjas are particularly 'tanky' or defensive in nature - they are generally more useful being used for attack, and positioning of them can be very important so goto is very valuable. Retaining them in passive stance is also still important both for avoiding unwanted aggro, and for being able to heal them.
Of all the Ninjas, the Genin are probably least critical to have exactly where you want them, and are also easily replaced, so if you did want to leave them in bodyguard mode you could - however they have the least hitpoints of all your henchmen so are most likely to die unless you keep them healed - and with them being in defensive stance that can be tricky to do mid-combat. So instead it might be best to use a set of of combination binds like these:
/bind b "petcom_all follow defensive"
/bind h "petcom_all follow passive"
/bind g "petcom_pow o goto"
/macro Attack "petcom_pow o attack aggressive$$petcom_pow g follow defensive"
The first two will give you the option of setting all henchmen to bodyguard (b), or all henchmen to 'heel' (in order to heal them easily - even mid combat) (h).
The second two take advantage of the way the command system identifies different henchmen in order to give orders to only some of them - petcom_pow tells the command system that you will be identifying henchmen by their power name (i.e. 'Call Genin', 'Call Jounin', or 'Oni'). The system uses a 'closest match', and will match whatever identifier you use to any henchmen that fit: so using an 'o' will mean the system finds a match with any power name that includes the letter o, so it will apply the command to both 'call j
Ounin' and '
Oni', but not 'call genin'; using a 'g' means it applies the command only to 'call
Genin', and not 'call jounin' or 'oni'.
So the third bind sends your two Jounin and Oni to a particular location, while leaving your Genin where they are (g). The fourth sets your two Jounin and Oni to attack your target (and then anything in range), while setting your three Genin to Bodyguards ('Attack' macro).
These commands should give you plenty of flexibility as you can still position your Oni and Jounin and direct them to attack specific targets, while still being able to recall all Ninjas to you for heals as and when required. You are also able to set all your henchmen to bodyguard in emergencies or for specific situations.
Now that's all out of the way, let's move onto the powers...
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Ninja Mastermind Powers
Ninjas offer a wide variety of attacks, covering a number of damage types (smashing, lethal and fire) and offer some good control, including stuns, knockbacks, knockdowns, confuses, holds, and immobilizes - as well as some slows. You also have the option of some personal Archery attacks if you so wish.
All Ninjas are also inherently very fast moving - which is both a blessing and a curse. As mentioned already, they do require a lot of attention on your part to ensure they don't aggro extra groups before you are ready. They are also have inherent protection from confuse and taunt effects, and also resist any confusion effects that land on them. They also have some moderate defence to almost all attacks.
So, onto the powers in more detail...
Snap Shot (ranged, single target low damage)
Available at level 1
This is a basic archery attack which you (rather than your henchmen) execute. I'm not really a fan of the personal attacks in the Ninja Primary - since your Ninjas are far better overall at dealing damage, and with a fairly endurance intensive secondary like Dark Miasma (which will keep you plenty busy anyway), there's really no need to take any of the personal attacks as they just eat into the blue bar. Even if you are going for a particular archery theme, I'd skip this one and take one of the later archery attacks instead. You can just as easily skip all the archery attacks completely and just concentrate on your henchmen for damage.
Call Genin (tier 1 henchman summon)
Available: level 1
Genin are your tier 1 henchmen, and should definitely be your starting choice when you create your character. They are basically like mini-Martial Arts scrappers (although far more squishy), and with some pretty underwhelming ranged attacks.
They start with just some very basic attacks: Thunder Kick and Shuriken (a ranged throwing star). They aren't very impressive at this stage. Once they get the first upgrade from the 'Train Ninja' power, they can then use Snap Shot (a slightly less sucky ranged attack) and the more formidable Storm Kick. The final 'Kuji in Zen' upgrade will grant them Aimed Shot (a reasonable ranged attack), Crane Kick (a great melee attack), and Super Leap.
You get just one Genin initially which is summoned at your combat level, but from level 6 you will summon two (each 1 combat level below you), and from level 18 you will summon three (each at 2 combat levels below you). Henchmen con colour-wise as Lt's, so by the time you have three of them and they are 2 combat levels below you, they still con as blue.
Tier 1 henchmen are treated as Lt's in terms of their standard mez protection, meaning most mez attacks will affect them, although they will escape some of the more minor ones. Ninjas do have additional protection from confuse and taunt, though for Genin it is fairly low protection. They also resist confusion, so although they can succumb to it, the effect will only last half as long as it normally would.
Genin are hugely more effective in melee than at range. If you see some of your Genin attacking from range, be sure to use goto and get them nearer the mobs - this will usually get them to switch to using melee attacks. Their melee attacks are Martial Arts kicks and so do smashing damage and also have a chance to disorient - some also knockback foes. The ranged attacks can have some value though, as you can use your Genin to 'pull' quite successfully if need be. Keep them at range and if you pick the target you want to pull, have a single Genin attack your target and they will usually use a ranged attack initially - quickly put them back into follow-passive mode and retreat around a corner and you will usually end up with just the targetted mob following you back.
Being Tier 1 pets, they are the least survivable - so expect to need to heal them a lot - and expect for them to be defeated a fair amount when going up against tougher enemies.
I recommend slotting them 1 Acc, 3 Dam as a minimum - and looking to add a second accuracy later on to offset the fact that they are summoned 2 combat levels below you from level 18 onwards. Slotting for disorient could also be valuable if you have spare slots. The power recharges fast enough for you to be able to replace fallen Genin in combat often enough in most circumstances.
Aimed Shot (ranged, single target moderate damage)
Available: level 2
A stronger Archery attack for you. Same goes for this as for Snap Shot really - avoid it unless you have a particular theme going for your character. At least with this one you get slightly more reasonable damage and can pull more effectively as it has longer range, but your Genin will still be able to pull just as well as you can (they get aimed shot too), and at least they get the aggro when they do it rather than you.
Train Ninja (henchman upgrade)
Available: level 6
Well this is the first of your upgrade powers, and it is as much a mainstay of the set as the henchmen themselves. It will dramatically improve the effectiveness of all your ninjas and doesn't really require any slotting - initially a Recharge enhancement is best, but once you get the second upgrade power you will probably want an endurance reduction in here instead as you can just alternate between them and you'll want to reduce the endurance cost so you can upgrade everyone fully without stopping. You and the target ninja must be on the ground to use this power.
Fistful of Arrows (cone, moderate damage)
Available: level 8
The third and probably most tempting of the archery powers in the primary. I actually had this for a while, since it allowed a decent amount of cone damage while the ninjas used mostly single target attacks, however it is rather expensive to spam - and once you have a few of the dark miasma powers, you will probably be wanting to concentrate on that side of things and leave all damage to the ninjas. If you do pick this one up you can probably ditch it in a respec once you have all your henchmen as they start to do decent area damage themselves later on (particuarly once you have the level 32 upgrade).
Call Jounin (tier 2 henchman summon)
Available: level 12
Jounin are your tier 2 henchmen and should definitely be picked up as soon as they are available (so try to plan ahead and already have a travel power pre-requisite before level 12). They are basically mini-Ninja Blade/Ninjitsu Stalkers and have lots of really nice tricks up their sleeves.
They start with some pretty useful attacks anyway: Sting of the Wasp, Gambler's Cut (Ninja blade attacks), and Caltrops - although you should already have Train Ninja by now, which gives them: Soaring Dragon (another Ninja blade attack), Poison Dart (a ranged single target DoT attack), Placate, and Super Leap. Placate in particular is very useful as it allows them to hit for extra damage. The final Kuji in Zen upgrade will grant them Golden Dragonfly (a very strong Ninja blade attack), Blinding Powder (a cone confuse), and Hide (allows them to hit for extra damage without placate).
Like the Genin, you initially have just one Jounin available and it is summoned at your combat level (so yellow since Henchman con like Lt's). From level 24 you will summon two Jounin at a time and they will be one below your combat level (and therefore con white to you).
Tier 2 henchmen have boss-level protection to mez effects, meaning most mez types will require two or more seperate stacked applications to affect them. In addition Jounin have the ninja protection from confuse and taunt, and their protection is quite high. Even if they do succumb to a confusion effect, it will only last half as long as it would otherwise.
The difference between range and melee is even more marked for Jounin than it is for Genin, since poison dart (their only ranged attack) is an incredibly rubbish attack compared to all their ninja blade goodness - make sure you use goto straight away if you see either of them hanging back. The blinding powder attack can be very powerful - and luckily they tend to use it from about the same range as Oni uses his Fire Breath - which I'll come onto later.
With their top level upgrade, Jounin can use Hide to score critical hits. They cycle in and out of hide on a regular basis (you can see from the henchmen buff bar when it is active), and once they attack an enemy their hide status is revoked until they next cycle it on. This aspect of Jounin was fixed in Issue 7 and now both Jounin can use Hide simultaneously and also don't require Smoke Flashing to initiate the cycle either.
The Ninja Blade attacks deal lethal damage, and some also cause knockdown. The slow from the caltrops is very effective, as is the confuse from blinding powder (after the level 32 upgrade).
I recommend slotting 1 Acc, 3 Dam as a minimum - they probably won't need any further accuracy due to their inherently good accuracy and buffs from your inherent supremacy power. If you can spare extra slots they are probably best used for either Confuse duration (after level 32), or slow - although you may well have tar patch from the secondary and so that + caltrops probably already has things moving slow enough for you.
Smoke Flash (henchman temporary hide)
Available: level 18
Smoke Flash basically hides one of your ninjas for 10 seconds, allowing them to score critical (double) damage on their attacks for the duration. Since Jounin can Placate on their own anyway it is of limited use for them - Oni however can make devastating use of it. Because of that, you can afford to delay getting this until later - although getting it before level 26 is still a good idea as Oni will be able to make use of it straight away. You will need to use it once on a Jounin to allow them to use Hide, but this can be done when you initially summon them, well before you begin fighting - and since Jounin only get hide from the Kuji in Zen upgrade, there is not really any need to use it on them before level 32.
It is quite an expensive power to use, so an Endurance Reduction in the default slot should be a bare minimum - possibly an extra one or two if you can spare the slots. The base recharge is about what you want anyway, since you can't really afford to use it more often than that. It is best used on your Oni at the start of an engagement and it will easily recharge fast enough in time for that.
Oni (tier 3 henchman summon)
Available: level 26
Oni is your tier 3 henchman, and is basically a mini-fire blaster with some control and custom melee attacks thrown in. He is your only pet who can do significant area damage, and although it might not seem like much at first, Smoke Flash makes a huge difference to him, if you can get the hang of how to use it for the greatest effect.
As well as the standard Ninja features of extra speed, defence, and resistance to confuse and taunt, Oni also has Smashing, Lethal, and Fire damage resistance. His initial abilities are pretty basic - he has just Super Leap, Fire Sword Slash, and Fire Blast - however you will no doubt have Train Ninja already, which grants him these additional attacks: Fire Sword Hack, Ring of Fire, and Fire Breath. The Kuji in Zen upgrade will teach him Char and Rain of Fire.
You can only ever have one Oni at a time, and he is summoned at your combat level (so cons yellow as a henchman). Tier 3 henchmen have Elite-boss level protection to mez effects so it is extremely unlikely for your Oni to be mezzed in PvE, and very difficult for it to be mezzed in PvP too. In addition Oni has the high level ninja protection from confuse and taunt - and it also shakes off confusion in half the time too, meaning it is almost impossible to stack enough confuse on him to overcome both his protection and resistance to actually get him confused. Of course if you yourself become confused then your henchmen are automatically confused, so beware!
One of the most impressive (and effective) things you can do with Oni, is a critical Fire Breath attack. If executed correctly, it will have any team-mates who haven't seen it before screaming out with glee (and jealousy) as it deals a whole load of Critical Damage over Time to a whole group of mobs. The tricky thing is managing to get it right! You need Oni properly prepared to perform this, and it depends on having him in the right stance (ideally passive, although defensive can work too), as well as the right position (just outside melee), with the right target (one in the middle of the group), and smoke flashed and thus hidden. Fortunately as Dark Miasma, with Shadow Fall, we are able to get all of our Ninjas right up close to most groups of mobs without them seeing us - very important for this sort of trick. It will take plenty of practise to master this, so I suggest practising in lower level zones if you are having difficulty.
The key thing is to make sure that Oni is the right distance from his target - too close and he will open with melee attacks, too far and he will use pure ranged attacks. Just outside melee though, is a 'sweet spot', where he will nearly always open with a Fire Breath attack (assuming he hasn't used it too recently - although it 'recharges' for him pretty fast). You need to use goto to put him in the right position so he will open with Fire Breath on his target, while also capturing most of the group of mobs (you will need to get used to the size of the Fire Breath cone to judge which will be the best target for him to hit).
The other important thing is to make sure he has been Smoke Flashed (and that he is actually hidden) before he activates his attack, otherwise he will not get the critical damage from the attack - this is why it is important that he isn't in 'aggressive' mode, or in defensive mode and already aggroed on something - if his fire breath is already 'queued up' when you smoke flash him, he won't get that nice double damage.
My usual pattern for pulling this off is to have all my ninjas in "follow passive" with my Shadow Fall up - I approach a group and determine which particular enemy will be the target, and where I will need Oni to be in order to get a Fire Breath that will get most of the group. I then Smoke Flash Oni, use goto and send the ninjas to that location (and follow them in to make sure they stay in Shadow Fall), and then get them all to attack the designated target, while I use a Fearsome Stare on the group and quickly drop a Tar Patch. Oni will hopefully Fire Breath, while I have Feared everything and then slowed/debuffed things too with Tar Patch. The other ninjas will have also attacked, with the Jounin often opening with Blinding Powder (which has a similar 'sweet spot' to Fire Breath) and caltrops. Carnage ensues
It doesn't always work perfectly, and in some teams things are moving too fast to bother with this technique for every group, but it is extremely satisfying to see when you pull it off - and not too difficult to get the hang of. Unfortunately Oni's Rain of Fire doesn't benefit from Smoke Flash Critical Damage, but it is pretty good anyway - between the Jounins' caltrops and your tar patch, most mobs won't be able to escape far from it, despite the scatter it causes, and you have the option of a cone immobilise in the Patron Pools too which will stop them fleeing altogether.
While Rain of Fire is the only Oni attack that doesn't get Critical Damage from Smoke Flash, you might think that Char could work very nicely with Smoke Flash too and gain double magnitude (allowing it to get a boss in one hit). Unfortunately no, he won't actually hit a target with a 'double Char' as it were - only the damage is doubled up. Char is still a very valuable attack for him to use though, especially as you can stack Petrifying gaze with it (and a Patron Hold later too if you like).
Oni should be slotted with 1 Acc and 3 Dam as a minimum, and any extra slots you can spare I recommend used for Hold duration. Some people advocate slotting him for endurance reduction as it supposedly reduces the amount of endurance he burns on his own attacks - in sustained fights he does tend to run a bit dry. Personally I don't often see this problem as fights tend to be quite contained and he usually has a chance to recover his endurance while I am smoke flashing / positioning him anyway - I found hold durations for his Char to be more valuable in helping me stack holds.
Kuji in Zen (henchman upgrade)
Available: level 32
Well this is the second henchmen upgrade which adds all the 'bells and whistles' to them. Definitely one to get in order to get the most out of all your henchmen. Its recharge was significantly reduced in Issue 7 but it still has a slightly longer recharge than Train Ninja so you will probably want to have at least one recharge in this as a minimum so it recharges in a comparable time to Train Ninja. It is also worth adding endurance reduction in there too as it is a considerable cost. With the new recharge time, it is pretty easy to get all your ninjas fully upgraded pretty quickly, just alternating each upgrade on them in turn. If you don't add endurance reduction you will quickly run out of endurance before they are all done though. I recommend 1-2 Rech and 1-2 End Redux, 2 of each will be ideal if you can spare the slots.
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Dark Miasma
Dark Miasma is a pretty popular Mastermind secondary, and much of that is because it is a very nicely rounded set - it offers nice accuracy, damage and regeneration debuffs, some heals and buffs, and some good control. Although it shares all the powers of the defender set of the same name, some of the individual powers are substantially reduced in effectiveness from their defender counterparts, but it nevertheless remains a very effective secondary for MM's - and nicely suited to the ninja primary as the -acc in dark miasma combines with the +def of the ninjas to make them a fair bit harder to hit.
Twilight Grasp (ranged, single target -acc -dam -regen, PBAoE heal)
Available: level 1
No choice here as you have to get the tier 1 secondary power, but that is fine as this will prove to be a staple power for you, and one that is key to your ninjas' survival. Unfortuantely it is significantly reduced in effectiveness from the Defender original, as the radius of the heal is *much* smaller - however the strength of the heal is still one of the highest in the game. The key to keeping your ninjas alive, will be to make sure they are in the area of the heal when it goes off. This means either moving to them and hoping they don't move again while the power goes off, or making them come to you with a follow command (preferably combined with a passive, to ensure they don't immediately run off again) - beware that when they come to you, they won't necessarily come all the way into the range of the heal - they often stop just short of it, so it is often worth just moving a short distance towards them to make sure you get them. It is also a very nice heal for your team-mates, as long as they know how small the radius is and are happy to stand next to you.
The debuff portion of the power is also helpful - especially against stronger enemies like bosses and AV's (or in PvP), so don't restrict yourself to only using it for the heal. The -regen isn't listed in the power description, but it is there - you can see the tell-tale green -regen rings on a successfully hit target and this part of the power is particularly useful against the stronger AV's in Issue 7 which have enhanced regeneration. It is important that it hits consistently though, so I recommend 2 accuracies, although 1 will probably do if you aren't fighting particularly tough foes that often. 3 Heals is also a good idea, and if you have any spare slots then a recharge or 2 is useful too.
Tar Patch (ranged, location AoE, slow -fly -jump -res)
Available: level 2
This is a very effective debuff power, both for the slow effect, and the damage resistance debuff (which allows everyone to hit the mobs in the patch for more damage). The -fly is handy too (if you can get fliers down onto the patch), and while the -jump isn't of much use outside PvP, it can be very deadly indeed against Super Jump-centric players. It doesn't need too much enhancement - 3 recharge reduction is a good start, and maybe a slow or two if you have spare slots.
Darkest Night (ranged, toggle AoE, -acc -dam)
Available: level 4
Darkest Night is a great power for dealing with tough enemies like bosses, AV's, and PvP opponents - it reduces the accuracy and damage of them, and anything around them for as long as you can keep the power going. It will draw aggro to you, although with the proper slotting most of them will be missing you anyway. It can also be used pretty effectively to seperate nearby groups from one another. If you drop Darkest Night on an enemy in the middle of the nearer group and then run back out of sight, that group will all chase back towards you, moving away from the second group, allowing you to engage them more safely (and with them already debuffed of course). I often use it to draw a group of mobs out of a possibly dangerous room.
It is a moderately expensive toggle however, so 2-3 endurance reductions are a good idea - along with 3 tohit debuff enhancers.
Howling Twilight (ranged, AoE disorient, -slow -rech -regen, PBAoE rez)
Available: level 10
Well this is arguably the best rez in the game, since it can rez all of the rest of your team at once (so long as you yourself are still alive and you have a nearby enemy to target off, and your team are all close to you), and it also restores everyone to full health and endurance with no ill-effects. On top of that, it is also an auto-hitting AoE Mag 2 stun which will disorient any minions around the target you are using it off. It is also heavily debuffs all enemies around the target as well by slowing movement and recharge, and also debuffing their regeneration rate. It deals minimal damage to enemies too, but that is a rather negligible effect.
The disorient only affects minions (on its own), so it perhaps isn't quite as useful as it might be, but remember your Genins' MA attacks have a chance to disorient too, so they can stack with the low mag disorient applied by Howling Twilight to affect Lt's and Bosses too - although of course that is down to chance. The debuff portion of course is universally useful. Note it doesn't have to be necessarily used as a rez at all - you can use it purely for the disorient/debuff effect too. Henchmen cannot be rezzed using this power.
If you do take it then I recommend slotting for recharge first, then disorient (don't forget it autohits so no need for accuracy). Even with 3 recharge it will take quite a long time to come back up though, so don't expect it to be as 'staple' as the other controls in the set).
Shadow Fall (PBAoE, toggle stealth, +def (ranged/melee), +res (energy/neg energy/psionic))
Available: level 16
This toggle power basically grants you and everyone around you stealth, a small amount of defence to ranged and melee attacks, and a moderate resistance to energy, negative energy and psionic damage.
This has proved to be a key power for me - primarily for the stealth it affords you, and everyone around you. As long as you aren't sprinting, your ninjas will typically remain within the effect of the shadowfall as they follow you around (as long as there aren't any obstacles in their path to slow them down). This is very valuable for getting ninjas into position without being detected, in particular so that Oni can remain undetected before executing his ciritcal fire breath attack.
It is also one of the rare powers that grants psionic damage resistance - an area of weakness for nearly all characters. It isn't too expensive to run so 1 endurance reduction will probably be sufficient. The damage resistance is far more worthwhile to enhance than the defence so I recommend 3 of those too to make the most of it.
Fearsome Stare (cone, fear, -acc)
Available: level 20
This is where the control capabilities of Dark Miasma really start to kick in properly - this is a huge cone that will fear anything other than bosses and higher in one hit (and has a small chance to even fear bosses too), and will also apply a moderate accuracy debuff to everything too. Feared mobs simply cower on the spot and will only attack once when they are attacked, and then go back to cowering until they are next attacked. This synergises quite nicely with the overall single-target nature of your Ninjas' attacks, although obviously Oni's Fire Breath and Rain of Fire will cause mobs to stop cowering when they are hit by them - the damage they deal is worth it though, and of course they are still accuracy debuffed anyway, and Oni can take a reasonable beating.
Since it has no damage component itself, Fearsome Stare can generally be used fairly safely as an opening attack - since the mobs generally won't get a chance to get an attack off. Anything you miss however will attack you, as will any bosses in the group. If you have pets in bodyguard mode then you will take less damage from any retaliation though, as well as have those bodyguarding pets instantly attack the mobs that attacked you.
Definitely a power worth 6-slotting - it needs at least one accuracy, and personally I like to have 2 so it reliably hits higher level mobs. 2 Fear durations will ensure it lasts a good while and 2 recharge will bring it back up quite often (3 is even better if you are happy with just the 1 accuracy).
Petrifying Gaze (ranged, single target hold)
Available: level 28
Another really nice power - this is a basic single target hold similar to the sort of thing Controllers and Dominators get early on, although this one does no damage and doesn't have anything like the duration:recharge ratio of controller holds. It is still a full Mag 3 hold though and so can hold Lt's in one hit. It also looks extremely cool
You'll have trouble stopping bosses with this power alone, due to the duration not being particularly long and the recharge not being particularly fast, however with decent slotting you can turn it into a very decent lock down for troublesome mobs. It will also happily stack with both Oni's hold (which he cycles fairly regularly), and also with Dark Servant's Petrifying Gaze too (although that is a lot more random as you can't control what Fluffy targets). If you pick up the Patron Pool Hold then it will of course stack with that too.
I recommend 6 slotting this to make the most of it: 1-2 Acc, 2-3 Hold Duration, 2 Recharge is my suggestion.
Black Hole (ranged, AoE intangibility)
Available: level 35
Well this is probably the most universally unpopular power of the set and one that most Dark Miasmists skip. It makes a group of enemies intangible, meaning they can't harm you at all, but at the same time they cannot be harmed either (attacking them results in an 'Unaffected' message above their heads). Most team-mates won't recognise the power or simply won't be able to tell which mobs are phased and so just get confused or annoyed by it - especially if they waste a particularly good power on an intangible enemy.
Despite its drawbacks, it does have a couple of moderately useful applications. You can use it as a 'boss filter' - since in its default configuration it will only affect minions and Lt's, this will allow you and your team to concentrate on any bosses and then tackle the rest of the group once they come back into phase. With the damage output of your ninjas, you will make such short work of most bosses though, and you will probably just be waiting around for the rest of the group to become tangible again.
Another way to use it is a panic button - if things are going rather badly for the group, activate this power to cover your withdrawal and allow you to regroup. If you slot it with an Intangibility enhancer then it will also affect bosses (intangibility enhancements are peculiar like that and affect magnitude rather than duration), allowing you to shut down everything in the area.
Personally I don't think it is a particularly good power for a /Dark MM as it will typically just slow you down and the occasions when you would need a panic button will be rare if you use your other powers properly. If you do take it then slot it with an accuracy or two and then either with or without an intangibility enhancer, depending on whether you want it to affect bosses or not.
Dark Servant (pet summon)
Available: level 38
Ah, good old Fluffy
Another pet for us to play with! This one however, isn't like our Ninjas - he can't be controlled and simply follows you around like a controller pet and attacks anything within his detection range, meaning he can cause problems if you aren't careful. Thankfully he tends to stay at range and so the chances of this happening are usually reduced - and you can always dismiss him if needed.
Dark Servant, or Fluffy as he is affectionately known, is another of the Dark Miasma powers that has been reduced in effectiveness compared to the defender equivalent - in this case his duration has been reduced to 2 minutes from the defender version's 4, and yet he still has a base recharge of 4 minutes - meaning unenhanced, he will only be available half the time.
So what's good about fluffy? Well for starters he has several Dark Miasma powers himself - he has twilight grasp, petrifying gaze, and a single target version of darkest night, as well as a couple of additional powers - tenebrous tentacles (a cone immob), and chill of the night (a PBAoE accuracy debuff) - meaning he adds to the survivability of your ninjas considerably simply due to the additional healing and debuffs he offers. On top of that he has more hitpoints than all your ninjas, and indeed you, meaning he can be summoned in the middle of a group of mobs as quite an effective alpha-soaker - his chill of the night debuff means he can take quite a lot of aggro and only take moderate damage. He is no tank though so won't last long like that most of the time, but it can be a neat trick in some situations. He is definitely worthwhile though so definitely pick him up as soon as he is available.
If you want him to be available all the time you will need to slot him with 3 recharge enhancements, although even then he will have a slight downtime of a few seconds. It is also worth slotting him with an accuracy enhancement to help his twilight grasp, petrifying gaze and tenebrous tentacle attacks. Beyond that I recommend filling him up with accuracy debuff enhancements, since these will help nearly all of his powers. You could enhance his hold, but as it is so random who he uses it on it probably isn't as universally useful as accuracy debuff enhancements.
If you aren't worried about having him available all the time, you can instead enhance other aspects of him, like his heal or hold - this will mean he is more of a powerhouse for when you do need him. 1 Acc 3 ToHit Debuff 1 Hold 1 Heal could be good for example.
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Standard Pool Powers
You can choose from a maximum of four of them and although I suggest Fitness be one of them, the rest is very much up to you. Leadership can be very handy (tactics will help with all your tohit powers, and those of all your pets), and you'll be wanting a travel power too.
Concealment - This isn't such a useful pool for a Dark Miasmist, since stealth can't be used with Shadowfall, and Shadowfall doesn't slow you down like Stealth does. Invisibility is a better version of stealth, but you can't attack with it up, so its main use is for adding safety to travel, but Shadowfall is pretty decent anyway. Phase Shift is more of a panic button since it can only be up for a maximum of 30 seconds, and you could always take Black Hole from Dark Miasma if you are in need of a "Panic Button". Grant Invisibility could be useful to make your henchman even more invisible under shadowfall, but you already spend enough time buffing them - you probably don't want to do it even more.
Fighting - Since your henchmen should be their ones getting their hands dirty, there really shouldn't be any need for the fighting pool at all. There is plenty of stuff in the secondary to keep you busy, and their are better attacks in the primary should you wish to go that route. You get a better armor in the Patron Pools anyway and don't have to waste a power choice on a mediocre melee attack to get it. Bodyguard should be all the personal protection you need for the most part anyway.
Fitness - Well endurance is a commodity in short supply and with Dark Miasma's toggles and various control 'attacks', you can quickly find your blue bar shrinking. If you happen to need to resummon any henchmen in battle you will be in real trouble without stamina, especially if you upgrade them too. I really recommend getting stamina for Ninja/Dark - especially if you plan on taking the leadership pool.
Flight - Flight is a very nice travel power in City of Villains since so many of the zones are huge and being able to sit back and relax as you cross a zone is rather handy - fly is by far the safest travel power. You also get to admire all the nice artwork from the skies. The downside of course is that it is the slowest travel power, so crossing those zones takes much longer. Your ninjas travel by SuperJump (or by auto-porting to you if you get too far away) so fly might not be the best travel power if you plan to travel with the ninjas very far. You also need to be on the ground to upgrade your ninjas.
Leadership - Ahhh - tactics, sweet tactics. This is a great pool for you to take. Tactics gives you a tohit bonus on all your powers which is a very valuable boost to ensure you get those hits in on the nastier mobs (which of course is when it's likely to be most important). ToHit buffs work slightly differently from Accuracy Enhancers and are particularly effective when used against mobs with high defence or if something is debuffing your own ToHit. It also benefits all your team-mates and of course your henchmen too, meaning they will miss far less often. It also provides protection from confuse (very useful against Circle of Thorn Succubus bosses and against certain PvP opponents as it will prevent a single application from taking hold on you or your Genin) and also increases perception (allowing you to see stealthed/invised characters from further away and counteracting -perception attacks like Arachnos Night Widow smoke grenades). I recommend slotting 1 End Redux and 3 ToHit Buffs in Tactics. In order to get tactics however, you need to take at least one of assault or manoeuvres. Assault gives a small damage boost to all your powers (and those of your teammates and henchmen) and also provides taunt resistance which can be useful for PvP. Manoeuvres provides a small defence bonus for everyone which could be tempting, but the base amount is so low since Issue 5 it is barely worth running. Vengeance is an extremely nice buff to everyone's accuracy, damage, defence and also gives all-round status protection, but of course only useful if you haven't been doing your job properly and one of your team-mates has been defeated - it won't work on defeated henchmen.
Leaping - Leaping can be a nice pool to take for the Ninja Mastermind, since it is how our henchmen travel anyway. It can also give us a bit of protection if we are going into melee to heal our ninjas as we can get immobilise and knockback protection from this pool (Combat Jumping and Acrobatics respectively). Acrobatics also gives a small degree of protection from holds. Superjump is one of the faster means of travel but you need to keep your eye out when travelling through dangerous zones as it offers no stealth bonus so landing in a bunch of angry mobs is not advisable - although with Shadowfall this shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Medicine - Not a particularly useful pool since we already have an excellent aoe heal in twilight grasp which heals both us and any team-mates / henchmen. Stimulant can be useful but not really worth using an entire pool to get. We also get a far better rez power, although it does require an enemy mob to activate.
Presence - Rather unlikely to be useful unless you are wanting to go for a concept character to provide stacked fears - but Dark Miasma's fear power is very good on its own anyway, and far superior to those in this pool - and even if you did want them, you would have to take one of the taunt-like powers first which are typically completely at odds with what you want as a Mastermind.
Speed - Traditionally I have always taken Hasten on my characters as it is such an incredibly good buff (a massive reduction in recharge times on all powers). Since ED however, and Hasten no longer being perma, I've found the difference between a Hastened and non-Hastened build to be not so great. Taking Hasten will allow you to get more Tar Patches out, and to ensure perma-Fluffy. You can get along fine without hasten if you want to, but if you do take it, Superspeed is a nice travel power as it has a stealth bonus in PvE which can stack with Shadowfall to allow you to get around in almost total safety (although of course it offers no stealth bonus to your ninjas who will be left in the dust). The main problem with Superspeed is the lack of vertical movement - and in zones like Grandville you may regret not having that extra dimension at your disposal.
Teleportation - Teleportation can be the fastest method of travel when it is slotted up and so can be very handy for crossing large zones - your slower team-members will love you if you also have Recall Friend to bring them to a mission door on the other side of the map once you get there. Teleport Foe can also be a very nasty tool for dropping an unsuspecting enemy into the middle of your ninjas, as well as being a way to thin out a difficult-looking spawn of enemies.
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Patron Pool Powers
Love them or Loathe them, the Patron Pool Powers do offer some nice additions to our overall abilities - in particular each set offers a nice armor to enable us to take more of a beating and not be so concerned with getting in close with our ninjas, even if none of them are in Bodyguard mode.
The most important thing to remember about Patron Pool Powers is that they are a
PERMANENT CHOICE FOR YOUR CHARACTER - you cannot change to a different Patron Pool at a later date (although you can choose different powers within your chosen Patron's Pool via a respec system). Think of them essentially as a 'Tertiary Powerset' as it were. Make sure you absolutely certain about which Patron you want as if you change your mind you would have to re-roll your character to get a different one.
This isn't quite as catastrophic as it might first seem, since all the Patron Pools are mechanically quite similar - they all have similar armor, a cone or area immobilise, a cone attack, and single target hold - the main differences are cosmetic, and of course the story behind how you become associated with your particular Patron, so the main driving force behind your choice should in theory be your character's concept / backstory and which set of powers look best with your existing powers.
There are 4 available Patrons: Ghost Widow, Black Scorpion, Captain Mako, and Scirocco (the Lieutenants of Lord Recluse). Their powers are visually very different, but in reality are pretty similar in effectiveness.
Ghost Widow - Ghost Widow's powers have a dark blast feel about them, but with some extra colours thrown in - they mainly deal negative energy and can reduce accuracy, meaning they can stack nicely with your dark miasma accuracy debuffs. Nightfall is a moderate damage cone attack which can be a nice filler if you aren't doing anything else. The shield (Dark Embrace) offers resistance to smash, lethal, negative energy and toxic - the negative energy resistance will stack with your Shadowfall and give you personally a pretty balanced level of resistance to everything bar fire and cold damage. The immobilize (Soul Tentacles) is rather like Fluffy's Tenebrous Tentacles and deals pretty low damage, while the hold (Soul Storm) is probably one of the funkiest looking holds in the entire game (you fire a whole load of coloured streams at an enemy and they end up being suspended and spun around in mid-air with the streams flying around them) - it also deals some negative damage to the target.
Black Scorpion - Black Scorpion's powers are centred around the Mace and have a mixture of spider web-type attacks and red energy beams. His immobilize (Web Envelop) is ranged rather than a cone, meaning it is a little more flexible - but where everyone else's immob's cause some damage, this one instead applies a slow, -recharge, -fly and -jump - so even if you can't actually immobilise everyone, at least their movement will be severely impaired; this can be very deadly in PvP for example. His Scorpion Shield is the only one that is mainly defence based rather than resistance (although it offers resistance to toxic in there too) - it protects against smashing, lethal and energy attacks. The Mace Beam Volley cone attack deals energy damage and has a chance to knockdown, which adds a nice element of extra control. Like the immobilize, his Web Cocoon hold deals no damage, but again applies the same debuffs which makes it particularly useful for bosses, AVs and PvP opponents.
Captain Mako - Captain Mako's powers are heavily themed around shark spirits and water - they deal a mixture of lethal and toxic damage. His School of Sharks immobilize power is a cone and deals some lethal damage - it sends a group of spirit sharks 'swimming' through the ground and then encircling the targets. His cone attack (Chum* Spray) deals a moderate amount of toxic damage, which is yet another different damage type for you to diversify into (and one that is very rarely resisted). His shield (Shark Skin) offers resistance to smashing, lethal and cold damage. Mako's Spirit Shark Jaws hold is another very cool looking attack - it is a giant spirit shark that jumps up out of the ground to grab the target, dragging them to the ground if they are flying, and then proceeding to thrash them for lethal damage.
*It got renamed to Bile Spray while on test, but is affectionately still known as Chum Spray.
Scirocco - Scirocco's powers are basically themed around red electricity and deal energy damage, while also draining endurance, halting endurance recovery, and some have a chance of returning the drained endurance to you. The cone damage attack (Static Discharge) deals energy damage and drains some endurance from the targets and halts endurance recovery (with a small chance to restore some to you). His Charged Armor offers resistance to smashing, lethal and energy damage - meaning it can stack with Shadow Fall to offer a good level of energy resistance (useful against pesky Energy Melee's). His Electrifying Fences immobilize deals a small amount of damage and drains endurance from the target, while his Electric Shackles hold deals minimal damage, but as well as draining endurance from the target and halting their endurance recovery, has a chance to transfer some of it to you.
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My Build
I really only include this as an example of how a Ninja/Dark can be built - it is by no means a min/maxed build, it is simply how mine suits my gameplay. My character is Pirate themed, so Captain Mako and his sharks made the most sense to me as a Patron.
This is pretty much my build as it is now at level 40 (there are a couple of slotting differences - hindsight is a wonderful thing - but they are so minor I can't be bothered to waste a respec to shuffle a couple of slots). I have played into the Patron Powers a bit on test and so I am confident of the slotting up to 50.
Level 1 Call Genin - Acc (L1) Dam (L3) Dam (L3) Dam (L5) Acc (L17)
Level 1 Twilight Grasp - Acc (L1) Acc (L7) Heal (L9) Heal (L11) Heal (L34) Rech (L46)
Level 2 Tar Patch - Rech (L2) Rech (L5) Rech (L7) Slow (L29)
Level 4 Darkest Night - EndRdx (L4) ToHitDeb (L9) ToHitDeb (L11) ToHitDeb (L15)
Level 6 Train Ninjas - EndRdx (L6)
Level 8 Swift - Run (L8)
Level 10 Teleport Foe - Acc (L10) Acc (L46)
Level 12 Call Jounin - Acc (L12) Dam (L13) Dam (L13) Dam (L15)
Level 14 Teleport - EndRdx (L14) Range (L37) Range (L40)
Level 16 Shadow Fall - EndRdx (L16) DamRes (L17) DamRes (L19) DamRes (L19)
Level 18 Hurdle - Jump (L18)
Level 20 Stamina - EndMod (L20) EndMod (L21) EndMod (L21)
Level 22 Fearsome Stare - Acc (L22) Acc (L23) Fear (L23) Rech (L25) Rech (L25) Fear (L33)
Level 24 Smoke Flash - EndRdx (L24)
Level 26 Oni - Acc (L26) Dam (L27) Dam (L27) Dam (L29) Hold (L43) Hold (L46)
Level 28 Assault - EndRdx (L28)
Level 30 Tactics - EndRdx (L30) ToHit (L31) ToHit (L31) ToHit (L31)
Level 32 Kuji in Zen - EndRdx (L32) Rech (L33) EndRdx (L33) Rech (L34)
Level 35 Petrifying Gaze - Acc (L35) Acc (L36) Hold (L36) Hold (L36) Rech (L37) Rech (L37)
Level 38 Dark Servant - Acc (L38) Rech (L39) Rech (L39) Rech (L39) ToHitDeb (L40) ToHitDeb (L40)
Level 41 Chum Spray - Acc (L41) Acc (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L43) Rech (L43)
Level 44 Shark Skin - EndRdx (L44) DamRes (L45) DamRes (L45) DamRes (L45)
Level 47 Spirit Shark Jaws - Acc (L47) Acc (L48) Hold (L48) Hold (L48) Rech (L50) Rech (L50)
Level 49 Howling Twilight - Rech (L49) Rech (L50)
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Summary
Well if you haven't gathered it already by now, I'm rather fond of my Ninja/Dark MM
I think it's a fanstastically rounded combination that does really well in PvE and can also be quite potent in PvP as well. I'm not a PvP expert by any means and only dabble from time to time, but the build I posted here does pretty well, even in my relatively amateur hands.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to develop good control of your ninjas though - their higher than normal runspeed and melee tendencies make them particularly aggro-prone.
Hope you find this guide useful and have fun with your Ninja/Dark Mastermind!
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Where to go for hard numbers
I haven't included many hard numbers in this guide, but for those who like to know the actual numbers for powers, I thoroughly recommend
RedTomax' website. He has full, accurate (as in the ones used by the game itself) statistics for all powers in the game bar damage information, and even that is getting added in as it is discovered using the
Damage Scalar system introduced by Iakona. Here are the pages relevent to Ninja/Dark MM's:
Ninjas
Dark Miasma
Leviathan Mastery (Captain Mako)
Mace Mastery (Black Scorpion)
Mu Mastery (Scirocco)
Soul Mastery (Ghost Widow)
