Berzerker_NA

If you find that Ninjas set annoys you, just skip Genin. I know it makes you weaker overall, but are you playing the game for sheer power, or for sheer fun?

Genin are the squishy part of the set. They're the ones who keep on dying and dying and dying and make you crazy having to constantly wear out your fingertips pushing buttons to heal or buff or (most often of all) resummon.

If the sense of un-complete-ness at having to play with only three pets is an issue, then certainly this won't work for you, but for high level content I'm not always sure having the extra three pets is worth the hassle. Your tier 2 and tier 3 actually have *some* chance of surviving the Boss/AV's opening AOE. If you're on a team, I'm sure they won't be unhappy to have a few less midgets running about.

It also would make blasters into a good "opposite number" for brutes. One class starts with survivability and works its way up to damage in a fight. The other starts with damage and has to work its way up to survivability.

I'm thinking it would be cool to change the damage bonus effect. Instead of just getting a damage bonus when you chain your attacks together, I think you should also get a defense bonus. Effectively you're laying down suppressive fire and so the enemy can't hardly get in a shot edgewise.

You'd still be vulnerable for your first few attacks, or if you run out of end, but it makes blasters viable in extended combat situations. Not every enemy in the game has few enough hit points to simply out damage them. Blasters have no recourse as things stand. I would think a def bonus that only kicks in when you're facing someone with too many hp to kill quickly would be a good compromise.

Also, when I think about it, that really is the way that comic book blasters survive. If someone like Cyclops of the X-Men (classic example of a guy with only one power - blasting) comes after you, he's going to keep laying on the eye blasters to keep you off balance and on the run. That's how he keeps himself safe in a battle. He's not super fast or super tough, but he stays alive. I can well imagine Flambeux (from the Atlas Arc) managing the same way. You're so busy dodging her fireballs you can't shoot back.

Play style matters a lot. It's good to have at least one single target personal attack, because your henchmen have a tendency to leave enemies standing around with like 5% of their hp left, and move on to attack the next one instead of finishing that guy off. It's nice to be able to help them along.

I usually don't recommend the AOE personal attacks because they're end hogs. Especially the cones are a hassle, because they're narrow arcs, so you have to stand really far back or you'll be spending all that end just to hit one target anyway.

I've been keeping my /release_pets macro as a button on my 3rd bar, top right where I never need to think very hard about where to find it.

The first female pet we get would *have* to be a lioness, wouldn't it? That does it. I'll have to make a bestial beast master to make the pet inappropriate.

I always take at least one personal attack, for the costume option.

Ninjas

- I take snap shot because I hate Genin. It has limited proc options, but is ideal for the procs it can take because of fast recharge and high accuracy (only Devastation -hold, entropic chaos - heal, or Apocalypse Damage.)

- Can't comment on the other bow powers. It's too bad they have no side effects.

Thugs

- Usually take dual wield. Good damage and small chance of KB, good for finishing off enemies.

- Don't bother with Empty clips because it's a cone, which means you have to stand back in order to catch very many enemies in the AOE, and your proximity to your pets matters a lot if you're using all the pet procs.

Mercs

- All mercs options are fun. Grenade will probably annoy your team due to the KB, but it's nice if you put Force Feedback +Rech proc on it.

Bots

- Photon Grenade is great because it accepts Stun IO procs, which are awesome.

- I skip the 1st laser blast, but usually take the second

Necro

- Life Drain is great. The others are OK

There's nothing bad to be said about Demons and BM attacks. They're the only sets where you'd really cry if you couldn't fit them.

Leadership doesn't really do as much for MM's as you'd think. Different Archtypes get different bonuses from the different pools. For leadership, a Defender gets the biggest bonus and I think Corruptors get 2nd biggest. A mastermind's bonus is close to the bottom.

Also since you're /Storm, you're not going to have a lot of endurance to spare for those auras.

If you can spare the powers, going Concealment - Grant Invisibility - Ethereal shift can be really handy on /traps. When ethereal shift is up, all of your henchmen shift with you, so can heal them, buff them, even summon more of them over that 30 seconds, all the while totally immune to attack.

For traps, it's even more awesome because you can set up your acid mortar and poison trap, and maybe a landmine or two.

If you can't afford it, or it doesn't appeal to you, you can always buy the temp power on Wentworth's. Also another very important temp for killing AV is poison dagger.

Probably the reason they have it not stack is to avoid the same effect that happens from Thugs' Enforcers, where two or more Thugs MM's can massively supercharge their pets by staying in close proximity.

Just imagine what two or more BM MM's would be like for damage.

If you do go Necro/Sonic or Force Field, you will probably like having that uninterruptable heal from Life Drain. The downside is you can't really max anything out. For /FF you get your pets up to around 35% def and then stop (perhaps managing to get their AOE defense up to 45% though, for tanker minding.) For /Sonic, the upper division pets have no native smashing/lethal defense to stack on, so you'll probably only get resistance up to a max of 60% with both resistance procs. However, they'll be resistant to absolutely all damage types. (Psionics will likely only get up to 46%, as their lowest resist.)

Yeah. However, if I'm not mistaken, End redux from a pet damage IO will not reduce the end cost of a power that deals no damage. So for example, the pet's heal powers won't be helped. And probably their (non-damaging) howls won't either.


If you want global end redux to all of the pet's powers, you need to slot a generic enhancement that doesn't come from a set of any kind.

I'm curious why nobody says to go Necro/Sonic? It's not a perfect pairing, but it's not bad. Is it just because few players like to play Necro to start with?

A lot of the Daemon Prince's end problem stem from the fact some of his attacks are not damage attacks (but nearly all of his attacks are slows). If you slot damage IO's with End in them, they will only affect the attacks that deal damage. His other attacks will be un-reduced. The safe bet is to use a generic end redux IO that has no type.

I don't know if Dire Wolf's problem is that same or different. Haven't played the BM set yet.

The enjoyability of both sets goes up if you simply skip the tier 1 pet. I know it technically makes you less powerful, but it also does away with over half the tedium of the game, because otherwise you'll be constantly resummoning them again and again and...... again.

You've only got one heal, so if the enemy has AOE's, and most late game enemies do, you'll never keep up with the needs of six pets.

I like the sound of their self heals. Also I think sometimes I could skip the tier 1 pet to make them more manageable (since 2 of the tier one's don't self heal.)


While we're on this topic, I've been wondering: Does Fortify pack affect you the MM also, or just your pets?

Beasts would be my fourth choice of /Sonic. My first three would be Bots, Demons, or Undead. Not necessarily in that order.

Or well, they would have been, but I don't want Disruption Field to go to waste in Single Player so Bots is out. The main trouble I see with beasts is they only have 3 damage resistance types (except the Dire Wolf, which has 4). Also I'm just not familiar with them yet. It's a risky move at this point.

I wish they'd just leave the IA alone, but give us the ability to forcibly immobilize them. Presumably the AI must already have programming to allow it to deal with being immobilized by an enemy troller.

Just add a /command "Immobilize_pets" or "petcom_...Immobilize", which when activated places a magnitude 100 immobilize on the pet in question. It won't charge into combat if it's not free to move.