Carnifax

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Well I like to be as effective as possible, Hasten comes before it, VERY good power, then Superspeed being a travel power you really don't need to slot to have the fastest (unslotted) travel power it's a no brainer.

You really don't need vetical travel in this game, if you really need vertical travel in missions or to just get around better go with slotted Hover.

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Don't agree here. Non-vertical travel powers are a complete pain. Superspeed can be so annoying when you manage to fall into the sea and have to negotiate those ramps back up to get onto the docks. Striga being a prime example.

Not to mention Terra Volta (although I did get out of that enclosed area by jumping. Whats it called? The Chasm or Canyon or something. Took ages though. Was like playing Sonic or something). Faultline and Boomtown were horrible with Superspeed too. Not that you get many missions in them, thankfully.

Plus of course not everyone has any point in taking Hasten. My MM for example would find it a waste.

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1. This is the Controller forum, so I'm talking about travel power for a Controller, not Masterminds.

2. Hasten rocks for Controllers, end of, and it leads up to the second fastest travel power in the game, end of. What's the point in taking Superjump/fly when it's slower than Superspeed, less usefull for runaways in missions and you can navigate any zone just fine with only it?

You get a better view and can do AFK traveling I suppose, like I said though Superspeed is a more efficient choice than anything else. Well, slotted Hover is good though.

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Erm, nope. TP is faster. If you want to be truely efficent getting around ALL zones, including Shadow Shards, TP is the way to go. Plus, as I and other mentioned the non-Z axis travelling of SuperSpeed is annoying in lots of zones such as Skyway, IP (hate it when I plop into the ocean and have to go find a ramp again) etc.

And I was pointing out that Hasten isn't needed on all builds really. That said I can't think of a Controller build that doesn't need Hasten, especially after the I5 changes to AOE holds.

Oh, thought of one. A */Kinetics probably could skip both.

Or mimes!

[shudder]

I'd agree with Tufty here. Fearsome Stare is a great power. AOE Fear cone with more -acc thrown in for good measure. If you're mainly sticking with PvE I'd get this instead of Petrifying Gaze as it'll affect multiple enemies for you. So you should be able to floor the entire groups accuracy (and have them twitching in fear).

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I assume Siphon Speed has no affect on Fly speed as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere?

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It affects all movement speeds, including that of Fly. I have my fly slotted 2 x flight speed and 1 x end reduction and I notice a definite increase in speed when I've used siphon speed (or more accurately, I notice a very annoying drop off in flight speed when my siphon speed wears off )

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Interesting. Well I'm in the happy position of not really needing it at the moment and being set up so I can grab it at 18 if needed. Ta

I was inches away from picking Fly at level 16 on my Dark Kinetics last night. Went with Increased Density instead in the end as I too hadn't found it too akward using Siphon Speed and Hover when I needed it. So for the moment I'm surviving happily with no travel power.

I assume Siphon Speed has no affect on Fly speed as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere?

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welcome to being very very very very very slow. When you get granite your attacks will be slowed your movemnet will be slowed and you damage will drop as well. I was not going stone till people could tell me what it was like later on I.E. granite

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Erm, isn't this a Stone Melee / Dark Armour build thread, not Dark / Stone?

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Well I like to be as effective as possible, Hasten comes before it, VERY good power, then Superspeed being a travel power you really don't need to slot to have the fastest (unslotted) travel power it's a no brainer.

You really don't need vetical travel in this game, if you really need vertical travel in missions or to just get around better go with slotted Hover.

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Don't agree here. Non-vertical travel powers are a complete pain. Superspeed can be so annoying when you manage to fall into the sea and have to negotiate those ramps back up to get onto the docks. Striga being a prime example.

Not to mention Terra Volta (although I did get out of that enclosed area by jumping. Whats it called? The Chasm or Canyon or something. Took ages though. Was like playing Sonic or something). Faultline and Boomtown were horrible with Superspeed too. Not that you get many missions in them, thankfully.

Plus of course not everyone has any point in taking Hasten. My MM for example would find it a waste.

Yep stuff Twilight Grasp with +Accuracy enhances first and then healing ones. Plus its better to start healing early. I'd be healing a teammate once they've lost over what your heal returns. This might seem overkill but by trying to keep members well "topped up" theres less impact if one misses on you, you've got the rest of their life bar to retry.

The Howling Twilight AOE res can be useful. If its just a case that a teamie was unlucky and the rest of the team are holding the mobs then use it. But if its a case that the teammate was mown down by a newly aggrod group steaming in its better to leave it off and run.

Howling Twilight is handy as an AOE stun when you're soloing too.

Yeah, if it sticks to this standard of quality I'll happily keep reading until next year

O2 boost is pretty terrible but I have used it to unmez sleepers.

Plus I've saved a Squidies life with it a few times. But compared to other heals its terrible.

Agreed with Super Speed. Can be so headwrecking trying to get around when you're stuck to the ground. Used to use it with Carnifax, dropped it for Teleport which is a great power.

So I got Siphon Speed last night. Does the speed boost affect your Hover speed too? I saw this alluded to on another thread.

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I would prefer improving the melee ones the reasons being:

1. Being in melee (or near it) involves more risk than ranged combat.
2. Melee attacks do more damage.
3. A brute is no Tank and a Stalker is no Scrapper! Villains are no way near as effective in managing aggro or in melee combat as Heroes and a MM pet's should be able to pick up the slack.
4. IMHO there is far to much empahsis on ranged combat now in CoH and CoV which has been detrimental to the melee based alts.

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Zombies are fine anyway. Sure they might pick up a little extra aggro and drop quicker but you can always bring em back. I've had no problems with them and certainly don't think the suffer more than ranged pets.

Don't really think they need a boost at all.

I regret not taking TP for my MM.

Well no, not true actually. I intend to respec out SJ and get TP at level 27 I think. Should have a few slots to throw into it then to make up for no Stamina.

Personally I think TP is a bit of a pain before level 26 or so and then its great. And I'll get a lot more use out of Recall Friend than I do from Combat Jumping (Recall Friend & Howling Twilight FTW).

My Controller uses TP and you zip around the place. Much faster than any other power.

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Have you seen Master Zaps numeric keypad controls?

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Yes I have - the 4, 6 and 8 referred to are my NumPad numbers. I haven't had the control buttons in my trays since about day two of MMing.

For a few days I tried telling other MMs about them, because I have pet chat showing, so I can see when some are just set to aggressive all the time, but virtually all the other MM I bumped into seemed to think I was saying they didn't know what they were doing, so I've stopped saying anything now.

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Oh soz. Didn't realise.

I keep the "Follow Passive" command bound to normal 2 so I can mash it repeatedly screaming "HEEL, HEEL" at the monitor when wanderings occur. Like Crufts with rotting corpses

Have you seen Master Zaps numeric keypad controls?

Fantastically useful, it lets you choose by your minion type so, for example, you can set the Tier 1s to tank one group and set the Tier 2 to attack that loose lieutent thats harrassing your teamies.

I still have the default "Attack Aggressive" and "Follow Passive" commands bound as 1 & 2 on the numbers row as panic buttons but in combat the numeric controls are great. They'll let you place your minions using the goto command. I'll send them right into the midst of a group on passive and when they get there set to aggressive for a second, to grab aggro and then get them all to attack one mob and switch them back to passive.

True. I find the MM pretty easy but my minions are rarely on aggressive and always on a tight string. I generally use passive attack with them. There's nothing worse than a MM who lets his pets run after runners. Sure fire way to get an Add group.

Also since your Endurance and Health are usually pretty Ok as a Mastermind you are one of the few ATs that have little need for stamina. So in the teens / early 20s you have all those nice sounding secondaries which others have to wait until the mid 20s to get. So my level 22 feels powerful because he has the like of Fearsome Stare, Shadowfall and Howling Twilight, which I would have had to leave if I was a corrupter, for example.

True, given that you can probably skip Fitness (my Necro certainly can) you could reinvest in the Medicine pool to make up for no healing.

As i said there's loads of */Dark MMs and Corrupters out there (my mm included ) so it might be nice to play something a little different. It's why I went Kinetics.

I've noticed an oddity on Defiant where the number of low level (pre 15) MMs is much lower than the mid-20s.

I'm currently using an alt mostly as my MM is part of a duo and I don't want to power away from my friend. So I've made a Dark Kinetics specifically for teaming with Brutes and Masterminds (especially necros / other meleers). So I'd say that your MM should be better off since you'll be lower level than the initial wave of MMs who are all up at 25 now and thus will have fewer "rivals" for team spaces.

Trick Arrow is considered weak. You should have something to heal your pets. Dark Miasma & Traps seem to be the two most common secondaries, and lots of corrupters have them too.

I'm the other way around. My Dark Kinetics corrupter has a lot easier time of it than my Fire/Thorns dominator.

Mainly because the Fire/Thorns is such an aggro magnet with Fire Cages and the AOE of Thorns.

Anyone else ever wish you could play all your alts together in a team? It'd be such fun and I always seem to build mine so they compliment each other anyway.

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Nowt wrong with th AI manily lots wrong with various MMs people seem to think that the AI should do all the work while they stay safe.

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Exactly. Minions are supposed to be a bit dim. You boss em around. Generally I've to order the zombies & knights into close combat or some will stick to ranged. But thats good practice anyway as it lets you bunch them up for heals (provided you're not fighting AOE-ers of course...)

You'd think the Mastermind bit in the name would give people a clue

I've noticed a bit of a delay between issuing an order and them responding, around 1-2 seconds which can be annoying when they go after runners. But they are zombies in fairness. And as long as I'm paying attention its no problem.

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Totally agree there, Lmao at your intended punishment tho

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Villainous Language FTW!

Just remembered. Woke up this morning from a dream where a new Corrupter set was made up of Prodigy songs. So like Firestarter was +def res etc

Me? Addicated? I don't know what you mean

More stars for you Grav. Nicely put indeed.

Actually I've just started a corrupter alt and I've noticed theres loads of corrupters running around Mercy now. Have all the MMs made new alts? It'll be interesting to check the /who list in a few months to get the percents of ATs playing.

Yeah my Necro/Dark seems to be one of the combos that melds particularly well. The debuffs are mostly to accuracy so my pets never get hit. And when they do the AOE heal sorts them all out. Plus it looks cool, which is always important The only character who feels more powerful is my Illusionist/Storm. But she's 39 so it could be just the flashyness of the high level powers.

A MM without a heal would certainly be a different kettle of fishheads. Especially soloing. Good luck with him.

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Hell, my Corrupter got to level 8 quicker than Dread got to 7 and she solo'd the entire way, Dread has his bot's to help.

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LOL. Thats not quite a fair comparison. A MM with just his minions is soloing too.

The point Jack made about different powerset combos is a good one too. But the nerf bat is an AOE weapon in general...

My new corrupter IS actually built to be a healer / buffer. Basically I was thinking of what Alt I'd love to have running in a duo with my Mastermind main. Figured Dark Kinetics goes really nicely. But this was my decision and I wouldn't expect anyone to turn around and say "You're playing that corrupter like a defender noob" or something. Or if they did I'd use villainous language to make them cry like a wee girl

Corrupters are great that way though. Lots of room to experiment.