With_Forks

These are my opinions,

I have a Necro/FF and Thug/Poison, both at 50, as well as a Necro/Poison at 32, and a Merc/Traps at 28.

I really enjoy my Necro/FF, and play this toon the most. With all the various bubbles up, my minions are able to survive things my other MM minons die to in one hit. It is also great having 5/6 melee pets, as they stop and hold the mobs (with me telling them of course). They also heal themselves, with is fantastic since my only heal for them is the slow one from the Medicine pool. The zombies can usually survive 3ish hits (with all the bubbles), and in that time, usually heal themselves back up. The knights need a little more direction, as they often times want to pretend to be ranged. They too heal themselves, and I usually don't have to worry about them. The Lich pretty much cares for itself. It rarely is missing health, as it is always healing itself, and mez'ing mobs. I just solo'd all the "Who will die?" missions, and only really had problems with the first, where I was too low to give my minions the ability to heal themselves. After that, we steamrolled through them. As an added note, the personal FF has saved my *** countless times. It basically makes you invulnerable, allowing you to either flee, or heal yourself. More powerful mobs may get one or two hits in, but with Personal FF up, i'll say chances are 9/10 you are going to live and get away.

I did enjoy my thug/poison, but would advise anyone away from Poison as a secondary. Poison just rips through all of a (single) mobs defenses, and turns AV's and GM's into nothing. Unfortunately ALL of poison is debuff, it has no real damage, and is fairly endurance hungry. All Thug minions are range, except the final brute. Sadly, the ranged will often times run into melee, and inevitably be killed easily. Forget you have an arsonist, as he will be the first to die in one hit every time. The brute is just too cool for words. As long as you keep him in melee, for some reason he wants to throw the sidewalk at mobs, he will do a good job of keeping mobs on their aft ends. He is also epic with Noxious gas cast upon him. Gang war is also great... nothing like 10 thugs coming out of the woodwork with tire irons and baseball bats. This combo is not for the solo type, Alkaloid is a horrid heal, and even with the medicine heal, I had a hard time keeping my minions up at +1/0.

Merc/Trap was a theme build, and though it was fun to play, all minions are basically AR... and of one of the most resisted damage types. It always underperformed compared to others. I also noticed the Combat medic had the same problem as the arsonist... died on each pull.

It sounds like you already have a main picked out, and are looking for a secondary. Of the ones I have played, I would suggest FF, as it GREATLY improves survivability of both you, and your minions. It does lack a heal, so you are stuck with the Medicine version, which is a good heal... just slow to recharge.

I went with Street Justice, because it went with the concept I had for the character... and because Martial Arts looks so bad with a shield. Only drawback I have found so far is accuracy seems to be lacking. I seem to miss quite a bit, even with lvl 25 common IO's. I usually only slot one accuracy at the lower lvls, but with StJ I have found I need two.

Got the toon to lvl 26 solo, for the most part, doing only story missions (did turn off EXP at lvl 4, and did DFB 4 times to get the various bonuses, and ran Posi 1 & 2, which obviously I wasn't solo). Compared to my scrapper, I am feeling quite beefy, leaping into the center of mobs, and not having to worry too much about getting beat down. Currently mobs that stun or sleep are my bane, but I seem able to outlast the mez, or am able to pop a break free.

It was kinda slow starting, but I must say, I am liking my new SD/StJ Wonder Woman clone.

I made one of each on the Beta server, and ran them both through DFB until they hit lvl 10. StJ looks more like what I expect Wonder Woman to fight like, but the control of MA's disorients was very nice. This forces me to make a hard decision... stick with my character concept, or ditch it for a toon that will survive better.

Do I go with MA, which will make controlling mobs all that much easier, and increase survivability from not getting hit as much from disoriented foes, or Street Justice, which looks so much more like what I pictured my Wonder Woman clone to be fighting like.

Bah, perhaps a little more testing

I got inspired by a Wonder Woman statue (Yes, the DCUO one), where she stands holding a sword and shield. I've always loved Wonder Woman, and seen her as a sort of female version of Superman... with a lasso and invisible jet.

To that end, I am planning on starting a new shield/X tanker over the weekend, where I would like X to be a brawling type. (I already have a 50 SS/Inv Brute, and BS/WP Scrapper) I honestly have no experience with either StJ or MA... last time I played Martial Arts was years ago, before they "fixed" it, and at a glance, Street justice looks like it relies heavily on combos, much like dual blades. I am curious to hear people's thoughts and opinions, good and/or bad, on these two sets, or if I should be looking at others sets, like Kinetic... or Super Strengh again.

I was looking for help with my necro/poison mm in my previous post, about two weeks ago. This post I was looking for suggestions on primary and secondary for survivable minions. I ended up going thug/ff, and it seems to be going well. Minions seem to survive (lvl 20 @ +1/0) without taking much damage. If nothing else, personal ff has made it impossible to faceplant. Survived 3 wipes in Posi 1 last night by popping it at blaster overpulls.

I am still having a hard time keeping my minions alive on my 33 Necro/Poison MM, even decked out with IO's, personal minion commands for each minion, and slotted out leadership abilities. I love the aspects of playing a MM, so I thought I would try again by rolling a new MM toon (Not deleting the 33 Necro/Poison).

What I am looking for most are minions that have a chance to survive, and won't be killed in one shot so easily. I know the T1 are basically meant for fodder, but I would at least like to pretend I have a chance to save them before they are wiped out. I am not sure if I should be focusing on a certain minion set (Is one of the minion sets more hearty?), or if I should be focusing more on my secondary to keep them alive.

I've read through all the MM guides (sadly 10+ issues old) on this site. Though some offer some good ideas, and synergy, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or opinions from you, the more experienced.

I just hit 30 with my Zombie/Poison MM, and I have noticed that a lot of mobs are able to one shot my 3 zombie minions. I faced a lot of freaks this eve, and I noticed the Stunners chain lightning decimated nearly all my pets in one hit.

I am currently set at +1/0 No AV's, and I do have Maneuvers, with 3 Def Enh IO's slotted. I know anything I slot that buffs my damage/defense/resistance has no effect on my pets... so is there any way to make my pets live longer?

Perhaps it is my choice of secondary (Titan Weapon), or because of my low lvl (15), or even perhaps I blow as a tank, but I find I am having a hard time keeping mobs interested in me on my WP/TW tanker.

I just ran a DFB, and I had to do my damnedest to keep pulling mobs back to me. I understand that my real job is to hold the majority of mobs, to allow my party to deal with a smaller group, but I found the brutes and scrappers continuously pulling mobs I was focusing on, away from me.

DFB is fairly forgiving for any class to deal with the mobs, but if I am having problems holding agro this early, I don't want to possibly put a party of serious players through my apparent horror of tanking.

Is TW too slow (at least to start) to be an effective tanking choice? Should I switch to a primary with a damaging taunt aura? Does a damaging taunt aura even work better than a debuffing one?

I am sure I will get the usual, "there is no best", but what are the top taunt auras? I'd love to keep titan weapon, but if it is not viable, there is no point in continuing using it.

I have read through just about all the (horribly outdated?) guides on this site, and have read through hundreds of posts about various powers... but no one ever seems to take, or even talk about, some of the deeper powers in the "travel power pools." (The alternate pools that open at lvl 4 that include concealment, flight, leaping, medicine, etc.)

I took super jump for my brute, as I envision my character leaping about. But now that I am a good number of levels in, and have filled out an attack chain as well as a myriad of toggle defenses, powers like Spring attack are calling to me, and sound like something my brute would do.

Is there a reason no one ever talks about the other powers in ANY of the travel/alternate power pools? Do powers like spring attack just sound cool in the written description, but suck in practice? If so, why does no one actually SAY they blow, or at least give a reason.

Is there anything else in these powers, that might be good or useful?

I had the points, and it is close enough to the end of the month for another 400pts, so I bought it. You do get the weapons, as well as the costume pieces... Didn't try the Vanguard costume change emote.

I am a little apprehensive, as all the sites I have found state the only way to unlock vanguard pieces is with the Vanguard merits. Of course it seems the information of nearly every CoX site is horribly outdated.

Store says 23 costume unlocks with the purchase, but that would have to include a full set of light and heavy for average man, average woman, and large man. I also remember there being 2 to 3 different "hat" options, and 2 to 3 "head detail" options for all 3 optional slots. I also don't know if the "costume change" emote is part of the package.

The (outdated) weapon list has 2 Vanguard rifles, 2 axe, 1 bow, 1 broadsword, 1 katana, 1 claw, and 2 dual blades (same art as single katana and broadsword, so unsure if it counts). I am not sure if there is Vanguard art for mace, beam rifle, pulse rifle, or dual pistols.

With the number of weapons, and the number of armor pieces needed to cover both the light and heavy versions of the 3 body types (yes, some would be shared), I am thinking the weapon art is not included in the store purchase.

Back in the day, I grinded all the emblems needed to unlock all the Vanguard large male armor pieces art, and the broadsword art, on my main toon. It was such a horrendous task, I never did it for any of my other characters.

I am curious if anyone knows if the 400 point Vanguard costume bundle, in the paragon store, just opens the armor pieces art for all your toons, or if it also includes the weapon arts.