Auspice

There isn't a really easy clear-cut answer, like most people have said.

Pain is a healing set, specializing in restoring lost health to teammates and pets. It works best in tandem with resist-based melee sets that can absorb a few hits without dying. It has no noteworthy offensive potential - PB is not even half a build up worth of +damage, and WoP is even less, and neither are perma without global recharge bonuses. As far as overall survival, traps is somewhat better. Pain relies mainly on synergies with resistance sets and player skill (eg. fast response to lost health) to compensate for the lack of controls present in other sets such as Dark or Traps. Suppress Pain's hands-free +regen makes the set less mind-numbing, as giving allies 15hp/sec or more in extra regen is quite valuable.

Poison is a single target shutdown set, placing high priority on locking down single noteworthy targets. Player skill is pretty important for poison, since you must generally select the most dangerous targets you can and stack Weaken on them, or use PP to take them out of the fight. Poison works best with teams that are pretty survivable already and it is ideal in fights against enemy groups with annoying effects such as Malta (Sappers can be held or weakened so bad that their saps do nothing, engineer stun grenades and tazers can be gimped to very short durations, etc.). Poison is fairly weak in large spawns of enemies, as the number of threats goes up while the number of enemies you can lock down remains constant. It is also not very effective against enemies whose only real source of danger is damage, such as freakshow tanks or Statesman.

It'll be more or less a regular show broadcasted live from inside a bunch of giant team matches.

In options, miscellaneous options, there's an option to 'hide pet something something window something blah'. I forget what it's called.

Tomorrow (as I'm writing this) I will be taking my show to the Arena for a fun night of some kickballs and other misc. 'fun matches.'

"What? The Cape does PvP?"

I'm DJ Blue, The Cape's 'serious' DJ, and it's my intention to bring PvP to a broader audience. The focus on these matches will be having fun and teaching less knowledgeable PvPers how to play a little better. If you are a casual or non-pvper you are more than welcome to come down and give it a shot. If you are a PvPer you are also welcome. The show starts Sunday at 9pm PST, midnight EST at the Pocket D arena terminals. We'll run for at least 2 hours. If you want to listen to the live show and commentary, head to www.thecaperadio.com where you can listen to me run my mouth and play some jammin video game music.

The matches will all be set to level 30 in order to better accomodate people without max level characters. However, we may do some more heavyweight matches if we get a lot of demand for it. If you bring a character under level 28 or so, I cannot really let you participate so if you do want to show up, bring an appropriately leveled character. Also, if you'd like to switch between matches, feel free. Because kickballs are team-oriented, support classes and squishies are very useful. Don't think you have to take a damage class to compete.

Kickballs are an old Arena PvP invention, and the term confuses many new people to the scene. The game starts with two people as team captains, whom I will probably select at random from whoever decides to volunteer to be captain. Each person will take turns selecting team members from the participants until either each team is full or there are no more participants. If we have an odd number, I'll ask for someone to volunteer to sit out, or I will do it if everybody wants to play. If there are too many people (more than 16), preference will be given to the people who have not played yet (you'll have to pick from these people first if you are a captain) so that everyone has a chance to play. If you just want to observe, let us know and feel free, we'll be turning observers on so everyone can see what is happening.

We'll also be doing some other 'fun' matches, like free for alls and all-melee matches (no squishies or stalkers). If there's some demand, we can do a round of duels where people can freely challenge others.

Small Inspirations will be used at the event, as well as arena temporary powers. If you need influence to buy inspirations from the inspiration vendors behind the bar, ask someone. Most people in attendance will be more than willing to spot you some cash.

The rules will be ten minute, timed matches, where the team with the most kills at the end wins. Manage your inspiration trays accordingly!

The last thing that I want to mention is something I feel a little bad for. Please don't use phase shift. Normally I agree that all strategies and tactics should be used and if you can't defeat your opponent, then you lost and that's it. However, phase is really annoying and ruins the satisfaction of 'getting you back' for killing them. I truly believe that phase makes PvP tons more degenerate, way less fun and should be removed entirely. On the other hand, targeted phase (eg. caging) is perfectly fine. Feel free to abuse it.

The main goal is to have fun and enjoy ourselves. This means NO unsportsmanlike conduct. I am specifically referring to trash talking, 'tea bagging' or any such disrespectful actions. This applies also to the losers if they decide to take the fact that they lost or died or whatever personal. If you act like a jerk you will not be invited into this event or any future events that I run. Every competitor should be treated with the utmost respect, even if they are less capable than you. If you are an experienced PvPer and someone is frustrated, offer to teach or mentor them instead of putting them down.

Above all, have fun, kick butt, learn something, and remember that you're not super until you put on The Cape!

Man, this guide needs work. First off, no recommended IO slotting, which pretty much precludes high-end value of your guide. Instead of suggesting exact slotting, I suggest recommending rough enhancement values, such as 90% heal or whatever.

1: Alkaloid - it's 13 end per click, base. It's extremely end-hoggish, and will suck you dry fast. It's a decent power but it's kind of gimp on the levels of single target heals. o2 is strictly better (end drain resistance, disorient protection, perception) for the same cost.

2: Envenom doesn't stack with itself other than the -regen component which does. It also costs a lot of endurance per click. It's not a very good power, kind of like a single target acid arrow - other powers in other sets are considerably better than this.

3: Weaken is poison's set-defining power. It's tohit debuff is mediocre but the -special effect is simply overpowering against single powerful enemies. The best slotting for this power is hamios or accurate tohit debuff sets.

4: NtB's cone is average size compared to most cone attacks. It's narrower than throw spines/seeds of confusion and wider than soul tentacles, but pretty much equal to most other powers. 30 degree cone is par for the course. It's a less potent Shiver (shiver's recharge debuff is huge) but with a 25% chance for mag 2 hold. It's essential for any poison.

5: rez is a rez, nuff said there

6: Antidote is awesome if you team. You have to be proactive about using it, but even robots can be easily held and only have mag 2 stun protection, meaning they can get stunned easily and often. You can also slot resistance sets in here due to the cold and toxic resistance, which means you can slot a res/def or -kb IO. Antidote is probably one of the best mez protection clicks in the game, up there with thaw (slow protection) and ID (smashing resistance, kb protection !)

7: PP is not very good. It's literally petrifying gaze but the animation is much cooler. It has no secondary effect at all. It's decent, and I have it in my build, but it's totally a skippable power, especially if you team a lot. It is nice when paired with a patron hold to two-shot hold bosses, and can hold a PvP hold set, which is awesome. Overall nowhere near a 10/10 power especially when ice arrow does everything it does better.

8: poison trap's sleep also has a bad proc chance, meh. Horrible power.

9: BEST. POWER. EVER. If you use pet micro to put your pets in the fray, NG is absolutely crippling. Its pulsing MAG 1000 HOLD can shut down even GMs, and it has debuffs of literally every color of the rainbow. If you have problems with this power, you are not using goto commands enough. When fighting AVs, my team can tell when this power is active because of how much faster the AV dies and how the AV doesn't do anything while it's up. This power is even useful for wrecking large spawns, as its pulsing effects stick for a very long time, assuming your pet doesn't die. This is absolutely, positively, the best hold power in the game. No other power delivers 1000 hold magnitude with a near-perma sticky debuff. Having to micro a pet to use it is a very minor price to pay.

Farm more.

Storm is strictly better in PvP than dark.

My necro/traps is a monster, I never had pet survivability issues all the way to 50. Slot fearsome stare up on the lich and post-32 is pretty much smooth sailing.

I think it pairs just fine with anything, honestly. Necro takes more skill to play, since it requires a little pet micro.

I make 50 million a day easily. 10 mil really is nothing. If you aren't making that much you are honestly not trying to make inf at all. That's okay of course, as there is a lot more to this game than influence, such as RP, leveling alts, hanging with friends or PvP. But if you're trying to make money and aren't making over 15 mil a day you're pretty much doing it wrong.

Anyway, on the topic of Mercenaries:

You can control the spec op controls, sort of, if you just resummon every spawn or every other spawn. It takes 2 slots to get enough recharge (or a lot of global recharge, ew) to where spec ops are up frequently (45-ish seconds) but getting tear gas every spawn is pretty worth it.

Mercs still suck though, guys. Don't play them ~

Finally? Man, I've been preaching share + suppress hax since i13 beta, just nobody listened. I was like "SELF DAMAGE REDUCED BY BODYGUARD" and deaf ears.

People just think all there is to pain is rocking the aura and petcom_all aggressive.

Don't listen to them, mu electric fences does the job if you herdicane foes into one nice patch (just spam electric fences while you herd). Tornado is pretty crummy though in general, and it has a mind of its own. It will often chase after spawns you don't want it to, and the KB it generates will often blow guys out of corners even if you herd them into a corner with hurricane.

It's a panic button, imo.

Soulbound proc only works on the pets, Gavin. It also doesn't work on any pets except for the tier 3 pet and soul extraction.

WTF skip share pain?

You've got to be kidding me.

It's a gigantic heal with a minor penalty (-100% regen and can't heal). Pain masterminds get a +400% regen pbaoe toggle! So you still run around with 400+% regen depending on health and other bonuses, and bodyguard mode reduces the health cost for share pain.

DON'T SKIP SHARE PAIN CAUSE IT'S OVERPOWERED

Oppressive gloom is pretty much better than invoke panic in every imaginable way.

Never seen a huge issue with this, and I've teamed with dozens of bots masterminds. It's always the drones that get out of line.

If it's that big a deal, just map a bind to bring your probots back into line (eg. /petcom_pow pr follow defensive) which will stop their combat AI for a few seconds and force them to return.

Any good MM slots for pet recharge and scatters their pets to keep them out of AoE. Pain pets actually have a huge advantage since they can hit through debuffs a lot better thanks to WoP. Most MMs can't even kill a pain in BG, and a good pain has a minion resummon every 30 seconds-ish which is way faster than you can kill them without dropping BG. Any smart MM that sees his pets going down faster than he is is going to go into partial BG and make you pay grievously.

Storm is -not- the best 1v1 mastermind build.

Storm is absolutely the best anti-Mastermind build, though. Virtually nothing in MMs really can deal with storm. Traps -could- place its -def away from the stormie, so that it doesn't get hurricaned. This does not really work in practice. Poison could weaken hurricane (and powerboost + weaken is very powerful) but even still it does not gimp the mass knockback, whch ruins your pets' dps and in the end storm wins the war.

I've never straight up -dueled- GV's necro/storm but I've fought against it in team matchups where the teams were roughly equal except for his necro/storm and my mercs/psn. The necro/storm completely dominated that match, even though I stayed on him and kept weaken on him pretty much the whole time. I just spent so much of my time knocked around or stunned by tornado that occasionally weaken would drop and I'd be -tohit janked for ever. The big thing that eventually happened is that my pet recharges eventually couldn't keep up with the necro/storm's dps and I died.

Regarding /pain MMs, they are invincible more or less if WoP is up and they have even competent slotting. Take out their minions with AoE if you can, or just ST burst them down. You want to try and get them down to 1-2 pets if you can. If you can do that, they'll be forced to run or phase. If this sounds too difficult, let me tell you - it is too difficult.

Don't tell your probot to attack. Keep him in defensive follow or goto, and this problem really never happens.

It depends on your definition of cheap, since they're 5-9 mil last I checked (which is a pretty big drop in the bucket for some people). But really, thugs aren't squishy at all, you're absolutely right. Even with SO +def slotting, you can go like 2 dam 1 acc 3 def and have super tough pets. I think so many people neglect slotting for defense on enforcers that they think thugs are squishy. My thugs/pain almost never has pet casualties, and it isn't because of my crappy common-IOed secondary. If my pets aren't squishy, then a thugs/traps with def slotting for FFG should be far less squishy, and a thugs/dark or FF should be nigh indestructible.

Storm is top tier on teams, if you know what you're doing. You only need 3 powers, O2 / FR / hurricane. Steamy would be good except for the stupid perception bug. FR is like having all of TA in one power, and hurricane lets you herd guys into AoE debuffs if used properly. Only crappy Storms suck on teams. Good stormies herd guys up and lump spawns together into one big AoE cacophany of pwnage.

Yeah I realize that there's maybe like 99.5% bad stormies, but that's just due to player incompetence.

Anyway, Necro is tons more survivable than any set except for bots due to massive -tohit/fear. Mercs is far less survivable than thugs despite higher resistances. Thugs have 7.5% base defense per enforcer, and it's slottable. Sure the arsonist faceplants a lot but that's one pet. I can solo with my thugs mastermind without any powers running, using only micro, and have a way lower casualty ratio than with mercs. I realize this is partly because the spawn dies like 300 times faster, but death is a great form of mitigation.

If you're set on playing mercs, play mercs. They aren't very good, but if you're into BUDA BUDA BUDA I mean there's no other set.

JM, I think you've forgotten how to play a mastermind with SOs. I have like half a billion inf in the bank too, but I don't expect most people to have that kind of change. Thugs aren't squishy, even without uniques. 2-3 SOs worth of defense in enforcers pretty much makes thugs unstoppable even without auras, heh.

Anyway, mercs/pain is pretty rockin. The advice of one pain, one dark is pretty good, although you could replace the pain with a traps or a FF or storm and it would be just fine too. I recommend your friend pick out a primary they like though, as pretty much all the primaries are superior to mercs.

Squishy or not, anyone with SS and who is competent will run from a MM. We simply do not have the burst damage to nail someone down before they run and a lot of people will phase.

There are a few answers. Poison's noxious gas, Storm or FF's knockback can be used to buy you some time, and traps poison trap if you get lucky. I think the best answer is to team with a mind dom so you have a lot of lockdown time so your DPS can do the job. Even still, most good pvpers have phase shift, and in that case the dom doesn't really need you, except maybe for healing or buffs.

That being said ninjas are the highest damage overall, so if any MM can spike people down it's ninjas with double jounin smoke flash up.

MMs can kind of run the gamut, for instance mercs/pain to function as a stealth emp only with ridiculous amounts of durability and some support effects, or ninjas/poison with terrifying offense.

As far as slotting stuff goes, I wouldn't put procs in jounin as they don't fire enough. I'd just stick to damage, the pet auras, and possibly recharges to get them resummoning faster in case they go down.

Uh not really, ever heard of superspeed?

I can count 0 the number of times I've been ganked by tp foe on any mastermind since i13. The tp foe invincibility really hurts that strategy, since you can't be hit for a pretty long time when you get tped.

Inviting MMs is a crapshoot. Just put your pri/sec in your LFT and have it say you have pet binds (you DO have pet binds, right?).

The alternative is to say something cute in your LFT. "Will spam heals for food" on my paindom pretty much means I get harassed nonstop while marketing at the BM.

Controller pets die when you die, too. So do patron pets. So does gun drone, voltaic sentinel, etc. etc.

Any "owned" pets die when you die, with the exception being soul extraction (don't ask, I don't know why). I'm pretty sure it's not a hardcoded limitation but it's definitely intentional that the devs made your pets go down when you did.