GuyPerfect

I think Hellfire Whip is more likely to surface as a melee set than ranged.

But Corruptors, as I'm sure you are aware, are not petless Masterminds. It's a matter of principle, really. I wanted to know if it could be done, and much to my surprise, it can be done quite well. And this thread is a pretty good example of why it matters to me: people say it's impossible, but here I am having done it. It's not as ridiculous as it sounds!

Now, since I consider myself an expert in the field, I present a public service announcement...

Petless Mastermind Rule #1
If you aren't very familiar with how powers work and/or don't have a lot of resources to throw at it, then for the love of Cole do not attempt to make a petless Mastermind. Pulling it off requires an encyclopedic knowledge of the game mechanics and will cost you a lot of time and Inf in the process.

Since you're not at all likely to have the thing ready for prime time until level 50, you may want to avoid teaming petless. Use the alternate build with Henchmen while leveling.

Petless Mastermind Rule #2
You absolutely, totally, without-a-doubt cannot make a petless Mastermind perform well by enhancing the damage of its attacks. Almost all attacks available to Masterminds are low base damage, which means you can spend 4 or more slots per attack to double it to what amounts to "moderate" damage in the long run.

Petless Mastermind Rule #3
Mastermind is the squishiest of any archetype; they usually deal with this by having Henchmen take aggro or at the very least keeping Henchmen around for Bodyguard. Without Henchmen, you're stuck with 800 HP and no mez protection. Any amount of extra aggro will mean a faceplant if you're not prepared for it (and sometimes if you are), and for that reason teams won't like you too much. And you won't like you too much.

Most petless Masterminds bite the big one early because they can't survive worth squat.

Petless Mastermind Rule #4
If you do decide to go for it, people on the forums won't accept your goals, at least not historically. People in-game, by personal experience, generally don't care if you're petless or not. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that it can be done well if you know what you're doing, so don't be discouraged by min/maxing naysayers who subscribe to the religion of the floating orange numbers.

Petless Mastermind Rule #5
Pics or it didn't happen. Videos are better. For example, here's a really old video of my first petless Mastermind, back before Inherent Fitness or Incarnate Abilities. People will still talk smack (note that comments are disabled for that video), but proof-of-concept is enough to turn the heads of most people.

When I get back home around my recording equipment in a couple weeks, I'll make a new video showcasing the above Mastermind with its revised build and Incarnate Abilities.

It wasn't too bad; mostly unpopular sets like Slow, Hold, Defense debuff... The hardest one to get ahold of was Cloud Senses (Accurate ToHit Debuff) since this was back before Alignment Merits and nobody had one for sale on the market.

Damage proc distribution:
* Reactive Total Radial Conversion covers all attacks
* Brawl - Touch of Death, Mako's Bite, Hecatomb (I think I got it for some 135 mil)
* Boxing - Touch of Death, Mako's Bite
* Air Superiority - Touch of Death, Mako's Bite
* Pistols - Apocalypse (I think I paid some 175 mil for it)
* Dual Wield - Explosive Strike
* Empty Clips - Explosive Strike, Positron's Blast
* Envenom - Touch of Lady Grey, Shield Breaker
* Weaken - Cloud Senses
* Neurotoxic Breath - Impeded Swiftness
* Paralytic Poison - Ghost Widow's Embrace (the power's slotted for hold and +HP)
* Bile Spray - Positron's Blast
* Knockout Blow can actually be six-slotted with damage procs, but I slotted it for damage and hold instead.

Afterward, Chivalrous Squish (DeProgrammer's petless Mastermind) whomped Romulus Augustus (level 50 EB) in 1:17, also with no temps, insps or outside buffs.

He was Traps, though, so I don't consider that truly "petless," but quite an accomplishment nonetheless. Here's to Masterminds with no Henchmen!

As usual, I'm the exception to the rule.

Mastermind base HP is 803.2. This build contains 17 damage procs.

Or a pogo branch. Or pogo sign. Pogo Limbaugh?

She's Invulnerability because she has Super Strength. It's one of the devs' unspoken rules that you can't have Super Strength on an NPC without also having Invulnerability.

You fight Back Alley Brawler in the Lord Recluse Strike Force. Isn't he explicitly labeled Freedom Phalanx when you target him?

EDIT:
Ah, scooped. There was a page 3 of posts.

(-:

For the record, I'm a big advocate of maximum compatibility. The only reason this didn't support the Euro client already is because neither I nor any of the testers had access to it. In the end it was a very minor tweak to support it, and it's certainly my pleasure to take care of everyone who got left out.

A mini-update, version 0.9.4e, is now available and can be found at the address in the first post.

Patch note:

• Added detection support for the original European client.

Many thanks to everyone who's stuck it out with Titan Sentinel v0.9.3 over at City Info Tracker. As the game changed, so did the needs of the players, and the old software (which was released in December) became woefully out of date. Problems have cropped up here and there, and for months now we've been telling users "Just hang on! Titan Sentinel v1.0 is almost ready and it's totally awesome!" Obviously, no Titan Sentinel v1.0 yet, but the problems with v0.9.3 remained.

The thing is, just like how Paragon Studios was keeping City of Heroes: Freedom a secret from us until they just suddenly spilled the beans one day, we over at Titan Network have been laying the groundwork for something that approaches Freedom's level of epicness. In the company of things like a totally new website, the Sentinel project grew too big for its britches and a mere application update would be terribly inadequate. I can't give away the details as to exactly what's going on behind the scenes just yet, but expect yet another pair of socks to get blown off.

The work on Titan Sentinel v1.0 is top-notch, but due to the mysterious circumstances outlined above, it's not ready for release yet. However, like the v0.9.3 problems above that, something needs to be done. So what we did was borrowed chunks of code from v1.0, retrofitted them onto v0.9.3--directly solving its shortcomings and providing a considerable boost in quality--and the result is Titan Sentinel v0.9.4. With any luck, this will be the last you see of the Titan Sentinel project before the mega bomb hits.

You can grab Titan Sentinel v0.9.4 at the following address:
http://cit.cohtitan.com/sentinel/

Patch notes:

• Various improved detection routines have been borrowed from Sentinel 1.0 for this release, including: game client, character, Alignment and zone.
  • The new game client detector requires you to use the NCsoft Launcher.
  • Alignment is now detected immediately and does not require the icon to be visible on the screen.
  • Zone information should now reflect when a character is on a mission, arena or Supergroup base map.
• Alignment and Power Pool selections are now reported to City Info Tracker.
• Corrected an issue with build exports for users configured with non-ASCII regional character sets.
• Corrected an issue where unsent character badges were being retained and sent with the next character that logs in.
• Characters without images uploaded to City Info Tracker will now be shown with their Archetype's icon rather than an assumed Hero/Villain Alignment.

Duck for cover! It's Guy Perfect, the world's most pedantrous grammar Nazi!

People seem to be using "corp" and "corps" interchangeably, so I thought I'd point out which group is called which and what each word means.

Freedom Corps
Pronounced "core," is a military organization consisting of officers and enlisted personnel or of officers alone. Longbow is a division of Freedom Corps.

Hero Corp
Pronounced "corp," is a shorthand form of the word "corporation," and in this context refers to an organization that works for profit. They very much are mercenaries, except they work for a company rather than freelance.

The truth of the image is actualy obscured behind the City of Heroes logo.

See, this is an action shot. They were all posing for a picture, when Synapse made a disparaging remark about Manticore's stature. BaB and Numina were trying to flee the impending conflict, Positron and Citadel didn't notice it, and Synapse was attempting to run away when he was tripped by Manticore grabbing his feet.

The momentum yanked Manticore perfectly horizontal, leaving his quiver spinning in the air. At the exact moment when this painting was snapped, Synapse was in the process of falling over. Manticore is obscured by the CoH logo.

Toggle and auto powers aren't actually persistent buffs. They both actually apply, for example, a 0.75s buff every 0.5s, except the effect does not stack. This means any buffs or debuffs to their effects will take effect almost immediately after the buff is applied.

Longer-duration mods like click powers and ally buffs won't be affected by Power Boost unless they are cast after Power Boost is activated.

The recharge time of the Lore abilities is 15 minutes no matter what kinds of buffs or debuffs you have. This cannot change, even with Spiritual Alpha.

Patron pets are affected by both, and accept Recharge Enhancements.

Dark/Ice Tanker. ♥

Extra Credits, with an 's'.