Thug Life: A Thugs / Dark Guide for Issue 7
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Introduction to Thugs:
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With the release of Issue 7 came the brand new Thugs set for Masterminds. These wonderfully unsavory characters and ne'er-do-wells include everything from your common street mook wielding akimbo revolvers, to the meat-fisted avatar of your rage who merrily strolls about flinging chunks of pavement and smashing everything you point at.
The set also allows you to equip yourself with dual automatic pistols, so you can add to the mayhem in a more personal, Hey, how are you doing? way. Only instead of saying How are you doing? you shoot them in the face with a .50 caliber handgun. And then you steal their shoes.
Thugs have a ton of offensive output. They simply shred anything you point them at in short order. As far as defense is concerned...well...they have a ton of offensive output.
That being said, your secondary will pretty much be your Thugs defense. For this reason I chose Dark. With it's accuracy debuffs, area heals, fear and holds it will allow me to keep my mooks on their feet for a good long time, while making sure my victims die screaming in short order. I love to hear them scream...
I hate math a very great deal, so kindly forgive the lack of numbers in the information that follows. Anything written in regards to power selections is MY opinion only from what I have observed in game.
Thugs Powers:
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Pistols
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This fires a single shot from one of your handguns. Not much to say about this. You point...and shoot.
Call Thugs
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This power will summon your lowest level Thug. This street punk is initially armed with a single handgun, and does good damage with it. Further upgrades increase his damage output by adding an additional handgun.
At level 18 you can summon the Arsonist. He's a flame happy mook with a penchant for breathing fire, and tossing molotov cocktails. He adds a nice fiery punch to your otherwise highly resisted Smashing/Lethal damage types.
Dual-Wield
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Fires both of your handguns at a single target, with a chance to do knockback. Can be handy in the early levels, as it will dramatically increase your DPS for awhile. The knockback is also handy in keeping your victims from striking back.
Slotted with range increases it makes a useful pulling power. Also nice for concept, in my humble opinion.
Equip Thugs
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Hooks up your crew with some new hardware.
Take this at level 6 and you will begin to see how nasty your Thugs can be. The increase from having this upgrade and not is more noticeable than any other MM set in my opinion.
Empty Clips
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Empties your handguns in a narrow cone, with a small chance to knockback.
If you're attempting to build a pistol wielding Blaster-Mind this would probably be for you. Otherwise, you probably want to skip it. Drawing more attention to you and your Defender size health bar is generally not a great idea.
Call Enforcer
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He gets a TRENCHCOAT with the level 32 upgrade! In addition to his fashion sense, the Enforcer is equipped with rapid firing machine pistols and can direct the rest of your Thugs to more effectively do battle against your victims via his Leadership power pools.
The Leadership powers do not affect you, the MM, but they do affect other MM pets. In addition, Enforcer buffs stack with other Enforcer buffs.
As I level more, the guide will be updated further! For those impatient to see where I am going, my planned build is posted below.
