anonymoose

You've picked a good MM to start out with, the AI currently favours melee pets and /dark is fun and active and powerful and survivable.

Playing a MM instead of a brute requires a couple of adjustments.

The biggest one is getting used to the idea that you personally aren't doing much damage. Fortunately something killed by a pet is just as dead

The second adjustment is that your secondary consists of support powers. Dark Miasma has several fantastic tools to help your pets and your team, get to know them and use them whenever they're recharged.

You know what it's like to run a melee toon on a good team. You're hitting like a freight train and the mobs can barely scratch you, because some guys back there are doing a decent job with buffs and debuffs. Well, now your job is to spam the -tohit and -resist and even heals, so that your pets last longer and hit harder.

I don't know if anyone has written a demon/dark guide but the necro/dark guides might be of some help, and of course the Defender and Corr forums have very helpful Dark Miasma guides.

Parting thoughts -

I don't micromanage my pets, it annoys the hell out of me. If one of them runs off and gets himself killed, there's another one just waiting to be summoned, why stress out? They'll generally follow you around until the violence starts, so get a feel for how close you can get to mobs before the pets start attacking.

This doesn't hurt my play much, IMHO. I only have 4 level 50 toons, but 2 of those are MMs and I've got another at 47 who might even hit 50 next weekend.

Bodyguard mode - if you don't know what that is, do a forum search. Your /dark MM could become as survivable as your toughest brute if you're doing it right.

GL, have fun!

I can only speak firsthand to bots/FF, bots/traps and necro/dark.

None of them are effective in traditional blueside Hami tactics. Any of them are OK in a redside hami i.e. MMs are only there to taunt with their sacrificial pets.

They're all fantastic in ship raids. The lich spams heals like crazy, your passive buffs help more people, and there are huge crowds for your pets to AOE.

They're all crap at speedruns, don't even bother. Kill-all or kill-most is where you'll shine.

Bots/traps is a stereotypical AV build. It also provides lots of defence for the entire team and absolutely mulches crowds. Mine has moLRSF, moBSF, moSTF, not sure about Khan.

Disclaimer - MMs aren't great at the new TFs.

Necro/dark isn't an allstar TF build like bots/traps but it adds a ton of survivability to the team. I love to see a Dark Miasma toon on my team no matter what AT.

Bubblers are nice to be teamed with but I find them boring as hell to play, ymmv.

Teaming with a good stormy is a rare pleasure. Teaming with a bad stormy...

/signed

I have mixed experiences with the high level TFs.

My bots/traps has done most of the high level TFs, and in fact has more MO badges then any of my other toons.

On "kill all" or "kill most" TFs she excels. Big groups to debuff while the pets spam aoes, hooray!

On speedruns she's not much use until the boss fights, i.e. can't stealth worth beans with the pets up, even FFG draws aggro.

My first STF was a good example. The first mish is tailor-made for a trapper, a big crowd of enemies spawn in a predictable location, and we rolled over them.

The next mishes were OK, but when we got to Cap the others guys were stealthing from security chief to security chief and me and the pets couldn't keep up. One of the ambushes spawned right on top of me, and ISTR that was a MO run and the heroes were freaking out, but I got to show off a little and demonstrate how masterminds treat Arachnos ambushes . So I wasn't dying constantly, but the team's tactics didn't make use of my mastermind, I might as well have doorsat until the last fight and had someone 'port me in.

I haven't run Apex and Tin Man since the first week they came out, the minelayers and BM were annoying and I was mostly useless. I'll have to try it again, hopefully people have figured out some tricks.

The Performance Shifter endurance proc is a fantastic IO for a new toon where endurance is always a problem.

Your build doesn't have any IOs at all, and you're probably about to tell me you can't afford anything fancy. However, since you're level 20+ you're getting tips. If you run those tip mishes + alignment mishes it only takes 1 villain merit to buy the PerfShifter proc, it's a bargain. Of course you're getting XP and drops while running the tip mishes too.

I've never tried it, but ISTR reading that feeding red insps to your pet before blowing him up affects detonation's damage?

I've been meaning to try this power out for a while, maybe I'll make use of that 3rd build...

I'm far from a Dom expert, but something I read in a long forgotten thread transformed my mid-teens plants/thorns from a frustrating wuss into a fun toon.

You've got a bunch of melee attacks, but you don't have the lovely defence/resists/regen that melee toons use to keep themselves alive. If you wade into crowds you won't last long.

Instead of passive survival powers, you have ACTIVE survival powers. If every critter in the crowd is confused or held or asleep, you're as safe as a granite tank.

I run superspeed so it's easy to position myself for surprise attacks. First attack is always seeds of confusion, it's the core of the set. If anything wasn't confused, hit them with the ST hold. Now you're safe, switch to attack mode and hit them hard, you want the mobs down before confuse wears off.

6-slot seeds of confusion ASAP. Frankenslot for acc/rech/confuse, those recipes are dirt cheap.

6-slot the ST hold, it's your plan B. (There is no plan C). Frankenslot for acc/rech/hold with lovely cheap recipes.

I'm only in the mid 30's now, quite frankly most nights I only have enough mental energy to play a brute... Duh... But the basic playstyle hasn't changed much. Priority one is preventing incoming attacks, but once I'm safe I now have more attacks to pick from.