MriBruce

That does sound really cool, and I will keep it in mind the next time I make a demon character. (Like on another server or something.) Thanks!

Y'all were tremendous help with demon secondaries, and I appreciate it - I ended up running several to 22, and it came down to a coin flip between thermal and dark for most fun and most productive. I ended up keeping the demon/thermal one, since I haven't really done thermal before and it is thematically such a great fit.

Since mastermind seems to be a sweet spot for me, I'm experimenting with centering my chronic altitis with various kinds of minion. Thugs and mercs just don't interest me much, but undead and ninja do. So...

What secondaries have you found particularly good with each of those? What has neat mechanical synergy? What would be a path to sorrow for me?

Edited to add: my snap judgments would be for dark or time with undead, and I'm less sure about ninja - maybe poison or trick arrow. (I'd do traps but I already have robot/traps going at the moment and am trying to avoid any duplication until I cover each of the primaries that interests me at least once.) But I'm really, really open to alternatives.

Thanks! Helpful stuff.

Well, yeah, unquestionably, doing the job is the surest proof.

By the way, I always enjoy seeing the Sima Qian quote in your sig file. Records of the Grand Historian was one of my favorite readings in Chinese history studies.

I'm patient...but not that patient. Thanks!

By the way, I'm happy to see someone else slotting Stamina first. I do it so I don't forget it later.

Like it says on the tin. I'm particularly interested in taking out Street Justice for a tanker spin, since I like it a lot on brute, but I may change my mind about that. I'm more interested in the primary at this point. There are times when I just want know I'm as durable as I need to be, and defeat foes as fast as is compatible with that. I prefer AOE when I can get it, but it's not the only thing I like.

I've seen several mentions, for instance, that Invulnerability is stronger in most ways than Willpower on SOs. What else stands out, for good or ill, when you're looking specifically at SO builds?

(If there are any prominent concerns or unexpected benefits with secondaries, then yes, please do tell me about them too!)

It helps if I provide the slightest clue in preferences, doesn't it? I like hover-blasting when it's feasible, this'll probably be a 50/50 solo/teaming character, and I am willing to give up some damage for personal safety.

Wow, thank you. And yeah, should have set: I love hoverblasting, I don't know what fraction of play will be solo but it'll be substantial, and I'm not yet sure what balance of mitigation and damage I like but I do like some significant mitigation in the mix. So this looks really, really good for my use.

As it says on the tin. I'm trying out a bunch of stuff to see how I feel about it with the prospect of SO-only builds. What would y'all suggest? (And the full text as well as Mids block would be appreciated - Mac user with strange emulator trouble here.)

Thank you very much!

Like more folks these days, I have the obvious reasons to be interested in some SO-only builds. What would y'all suggest for DP/MM and Psi/MM? (Oh, by the way, I'm a Mac user who's been having some hard-to-diagnose emulator weirdness, so text as well as Mids blocks would be appreciated.)

Thank you kindly!

I was debating posting exactly this same question; I'm glad you beat me to it.

I've had a lot of fun messing around with the various options. Death From Below is great for quickly getting a character to the point where I've got multiple pets to play with, yay.

I like how different Dark and Thermal feel in practice, and yet how effective they both are.

I'm loving StJ/Shield brute.

Oh, yeah. I should have said blaster, corruptor, etc - something that isn't pet-oriented, and may or may not be control-oriented.

Any recommendations for those of us who slack best at range?

Ah! Well, that's what I didn't get. Thanks!

It needs to be in the angle brackets like that, or am I misunderstanding?

Well, I can get my pets to say "em facepalm", with "petsay_all em facepalm", but it's not quite the desired effect, somehow. Am I missing something obvious? Or unobvious?

Thanks, everyone! I particularly appreciate the converging advice on simple macro setups. Will try that out today.

Mmm. Thanks. Good fodder for thought! And experimentation.

Oh wow. Nifty. Thanks!

Thanks, that's helpful! Particularly where you describe the tests you made. I can try some of my own.

Robots is the first power set I played, and one thing about it is that there's a clearcut choice for bodyguard mode: get the protectors doing it. It's not clear to me that this is true for any of the other sets that interest me - demons, ninjas, and necros. (Thugs and mercs aren't my aesthetic. Nothing wrong with them, just not my thing.)

However, I've missed the obvious before, and I have this nagging feeling I'm doing it again. For each of the above, are there henchmen better kept on defensive while others go aggressive? And if so, which?

Thanks again to the folks brimming over with info. I really very deeply appreciate it.