DrGemini

Greetings fellows and ladies!

When I made my Dark/Dark controller, I expected to see him perform very well. Just from looking over all of the powers, one can see how well both sets work together. Layers of control and debuffs that combine to make one very effective controller.

However, I did some things this weekend which have completely blown away any expectations I had.

First, it should be noted that I first attempted to build more toward control than damage. I thought that my pets would do enough damage on their own. The control was great but the damage was not as good as I would have liked. So, I decided to slot most of my primary for damage. Only Fearsome Stare and Shadow Field did I slot for control. And, I slotted my Shadow Field with the ATO set (which is my only purpled set on the character) complete with the proc.

The result of my revamped slotting has been a controller that puts out damage close to what my Mastermind does... only with more hard control at my fingers. IMHO, Dark Control seems to make amazing use of Containment. I have seen entire mobs literally melt under the constant DoT from the AoE immob. The ATO set has literally turned my Shadow Field into a great hold/dot patch. In fact, the proc goes off so often Shadow Field will frequently 1-shot any minions and do significant damage to everything else.
More or less, I have a character able to go through +0/x8 missions with relative ease even without using pets. And, speaking of pets, I have all of my available pets pretty much permanent. Even the pet from my patron set is permanent. The total package is a character with an army of pets second only to Masterminds with more control than most Masterminds have. I.E. I believe a Dark/Dark might as well be a Mastermind and not a Controller!

As far as Incarnates, I have Ageless, Agility, Phantoms, Degenerative, and Ion all Tier 4. Though, I do almost feel as if the incarnates are more the icing on a really good cake.

Ok, enough rambling. The end result is now the ability to solo a Rikti Pylon with little danger and little effort other than keeping up my buffs/debuffs to make the damage count. And, I didn't even use my Lore pets for the pylon test.

I wanted to stop by with a viewpoint that is probably not stressed enough...

While Incarnate powers are a nifty thing and very powerful, you must remember that they are not an equal substitute for the consistency that a well-played character (of any AT) can bring.

Yes, Destiny powers like Ageless and Rebirth are great, but they still lack the constant strength that Regeneration and Recovery Auras provide. Despite what others may try to tell you, Defenders are still the kings when it comes to supplying strong, consistent buffs, debuffs and heals.


Interface is a great ability to allow all attacks to trigger debuffs. But, they are still inferior to a classic Rad, Cold, etc who can bring the kind of debuffs that can turn a nasty Archvillain into a harmless kitten.

So, any Defender, Mastermind, Corruptor, or Controller wielding any of the classic great "support" powers is still quite effective. And, I dare say, those powers can actually make incarnate powers the redundant ones.

Now, as far as Empathy defenders, incarnate trials are places where there are more people but the need for a variety of powers is still there. Empathy should be looked at as the best (IMHO) set for focusing on whoever the Tanks are for the group during the AV fights. You won't need to be too concerned with trying to support everyone like you would on a normal team. So, focus your powers on the few people who are going to need the most direct support during the trial.
When not in a big fight, you simply have to develop a rythym of healing, buffing, and attacking just like everyone else. If you can go unlock your patron powers from the villain side, take that pet they give you and try to have it out as much as you can. On my Empath, I make use of that pet (which can be easily near permanent now) as a means of allowing me to more easily multi-task. The pet (or pets) allow me to contribute damage even during points when I am having to focus more on support.

Anyways, I hope that helps you figure out how to adapt.

Beast Mastery and Dark Control, I've noticed, are the first two real sets in which the pets seem to have inhereted a decent amount of inherent defense and/or resistance to a lot of damage.
For instance, the Umbra Beast has a minimum 15% resistance to just about everything and has incredibly high mezz protection.
Based on the numbers you quoted, Beast Mastery seems to be following in that path of better natural defenses.

I think it is safe to conclude that there is someone among the development team who has finally realized that Controllers and Masterminds do rely a lot on their pets. So the result of this realization is newer powersets having better pets.

I would, now, like to see them go back and address the other pets (particularly Mastermind henchmen) and give them at least a modest increase to their inherent defenses.

You do know they came out with 4 (i think) additional alpha boosts, right? I would look into them as the new ones can bridge the gap very well for characters that use a lot of debuffs.

Eh, I suppose it is the nature of playing on different servers. But our success has been making a lot of people jealous.

Well, if I am around and not engrossed in my new dark controller...

The point of this TPN run was to prove to ourselves and others that Masterminds can do everything other people do. And, I would say that our group has been doing stuff better than anyone else.

We have completed Master of BAF and Lambda very easy. We have successfully run Keyes and TPN. The Underground was the only trial so far that wasn't a success - the Avatar's end drain seems to hurt us a lot more than expected.
As far as non-incarnate stuff, we have run Statesman TF, Imperious TF, and Lady Grey TF without any trouble.

I believe we may be on track to easily accomplish all of the level 50 content.

The funny thing is we actually have to turn away non-Masterminds who want to run with us because they are jealous of our success. I mean, who else walks into the BAF and makes the "Master of" BAF an instant win?

Yesterday was another round of my Sunday Mastermind group on Freedom. We decided that it would be fun to try the TPN trial. I figured the need to avoid killing the cameras and civilians might pose a challenge for us. And, I did caution the group that we might end up with a couple of failed runs before we figured out how to control our pets in that environment.

However, with some planning and good execution, I believe that the 14 of us managed to prove everyone WRONG about how difficult the TPN is.

1. You CAN use AOEs during the first part while outside. The key is to stay away from the buildings where the cameras hang out. All you need to do is have someone pull the mobs away from the cameras. Taunt/Provoke does this easily. Using the taunt/pull tactic, we avoided killing any cameras very easily.

2. Masterminds and/or pet-heavy characters are not at a disadvantage. If your group is smart about pulling mobs away from what you don't want to kill, your pets will not aggro on the wrong stuff. However, with how little of the fight is done while outside, this shouldn't even be an issue. Uncontrollable pets should be avoided. But, Masterminds should NOT feel useless.

Basically, if your group leader (or group members) cannot handle the simple mechanic of pulling the mobs away from the civilians/cameras, then you are on a bad group.

3. Once again, Masterminds working together own everything.

If this isn't enough proof that some people just don't know how to play the game, well, there is the good old ignore function.

I'd like to put in a good word for Time Manipulation. I can, and do, solo AVs very well.

I tank and kill the AVs on Dr Khan pretty much solo while the rest of the team beats up on Reischman.

I have never played Bots/traps but here are some things I've learned as a Ninja/Time.

1. Incarnate trials are designed to be a lot tougher than normal content. Just accept the fact that until you get all of your level shifts and have slotted a good Destiny to help buff your pets, your pets are going to die more often.

2. Similar to above, all of the incarnate stuff is currently geared toward a large group (16-24). And, it is generally accepted that out of that group there will be a significant amount of buffs to compensate for the tougher foes.

3. On Apex, you need to simply discipline yourself to watching for the blue circles of death and ordering your pets to move out of them ASAP. If you lose any bots, find a safe spot and re-summon ASAP. Also, since you are traps, while some of your stuff may not work so well when you have to move a lot, you need to figure out what stuff you can use on the fly and use it as best you can. Don't forget that your pets can use whatever Interface you slot to be applying a debuffs as well as whatever other powers they have.

As a whole, playing on the incarnate stuff means you have to be willing to adapt to tougher situations.

And, as for your second question, any mastermind with Time Manipulation is a good combination. The whole set lends itself well to supporting your pets.

Maybe it is just me but I find it very annoying that someone came in here and literally suggested that you *pay* to achieve what you can do with very little effort on your part. That just comes across as someone trying to take advantage of someone like the OP who is seeking advice on how best to help out his buddies.

This event is as Co-op as we can make it so everyone can participate.

We typically only run for about 2-3 hours. Gives us a small chunk of time to have some fun without taking up the whole day.

Thinking by the reaction to this that it probably isn't that great of an idea. The whole idea of trying to make 300 mil on something like this just doesn't feel right.

For today's event, we will be doing 2 Underground Trials. The first run will be normal with no special things. The second run will be an attempt to hit all the bombs for the badge.

Come join us in RWZ @ 3 PM EST if you want to join us!

Just a reminder that this is happening again today @ 3 PM EST.

Today we will be doing a couple runs of the Underground Trial. One run will be normal and the second run we will see if we can get the Bomb badge.

Either way, it should be fun with all those pets plus Desdemona!

Yes it is! We had a lot of fun and hope to repeat our success. The initial goal is just to try and run as much as we can that lets the most people participate. Incarnate Trials are co-op and fit nicely.

If the event gets enough of a regular turn-out, I could see dividing up into 8-man teams and running smaller content together.

Dear Devs. Please spend Issue 23 fixing all of the current stuff that is broken. The end.