Nyghtmaire

Almost - aiming for 59%

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Soft_Cap

Yep I remember the change. The same one that allowed seismic smash and/or rock armor at 41 instead of 44, and hurl boulder/fissure at 35.

Since you are going for a hover build, I would not recommend chasing the slashing/lethal ("S/L") defense softcap. If you're hovering, range and aoe positional attacks will pose much more of a threat. Instead, you may wish to layer defense and resistance, especially any energy resistance you can scrounge.

And +recharge, of course, rocks!

I have a sample build below. It uses a couple enhancement boosters to lift range defense up to 32% - or the value it would take to softcap range (and AoE in this instance as well) with one small purple. Also, it uses a gladiator's armor slot. Since you've been gone, these pvp shinies have decreased substantially in price from their +2billion peak to the 200-300 million mark. It is still expensive, but far less so.

The LotG's +recharge are expensive as well. However you may purchase these for 2 hero/villain marks at a pop. Lastly, the mastermind ATO's are not the ideal enhancements for your pets. However a) the recharge bonus is massive, and b) the unique adds a whooping 15% AOE defense to your pets. Overall, I squeezed all the pet unique that were available to your combination in to try and boost the pets' protections as much as possible.

Drawback: I had to drop teleport foe and the medicine pool to fit your personal protection in the build.

TLDR - the slotting and order by which powers are taken can (and likely should) be cleaned up. It is merely an alternative view of a direction you may wish to consider.

On to your questions...

I had it on my first mastermind - a necro/dark. I quickly dropped the power once I could increase my difficulty, thereby increasing the number of enemies in each spawn. For you, I think once you get a ton of recharge going and your secondary powers are up more often, you may find you have different tools to control unruly spawns.

I agree. Effected mobs also have their tohit chance reduced, resulting in an effective increase in your's and your pets' relative defense levels.

That and the bit of extra defense. Also having a hold can be quite handy for briefly controlling a PITA mob, maybe someone that you previously would have TP'd.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, check out this post explaining the soft-cap and why the various levels are important. (Thank you to Plainguy for keeping this in his sig!): Why is the Softcap so Important?

I do not like power boost on my TAs -- the things the power boosts is very limited overall. As for web envelope, you have a similar power that you are required to take from your secondary. Lastly, using these Black Scorpion powers may drive you nuts -- you will get some serious redraw going there switching between bow and mace.

The build:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...CAF91F520C0121

Is there a cheech and chong joke waiting to be made here....

Tankerminding is more of a concept than a substitute for using your secondary. Meaning, they are not mutually exclusive tasks. It is very straightforward though in a sense: if you can build your mastermind's defense rating up to the softcap (45%) then even-con enemies' hit chance is floored. At its most basic, this is a passive state - either you have reached the cap or you haven't.

Where it becomes more complicated (and more active), is when you add things like -hit - either through the /dark or /storm secondaries (by way of example). -hit to an enemy is like +def to you and your pets. So, masterminding opens up conceptually to merely the control of enemy aggro during the time of active battle, not tanking per se.

So back to tankerminding -- the control aspect comes not from the defense state, but from using your secondary to gain enemy attention to YOU instead of your pets, and by using a taunt (provoke) in your secondary power pool.

For example, I have a necro/dark with softcapped S/L/E who nonetheless is very active with her secondary to make sure enemies' hit chance is reduced, stuns are thrown out, immobilizes and holds liberally spread, damage output reduced, etc... Also, she is directing the grave knights to focus damage on key targets, positioning the lich to maximize its controls, and making sure the zombies aren't pulling additional groups.

It is very rare combination of powersets that have your pets taking the damage AND you not having to constantly resummon them. The reason having the mastermind is so attractive to taking the alpha is because of the idea of layered defenses. Defense reduces the chance you are hit. Next, add bodyguard mode and the mastermind is either conceptually privy to a) health pool increased, or b) tons of resistance. Finally, masterminds also have access to patron resist shields, as well as the 'tough' power for additional, actual or native resistance. Third, any healing available from your secondary (or primary, in the case of random demon AoE healing). Lastly, your secondary may have powers to control your enemies. These four areas are all items over which the player has control.

Conversely, you cannot direct your pets to use a certain power. You cannot decide when one will heal itself or use a control ability. Sometimes, you may even have trouble making them stay at range or in melee - depending on your desire. You can suggest which enemies your pets *should* attack, but that also can be an iffy proposition. What you are left with is the idea that as the player, you have more control as to how a fight develops, and you have many tools to take alpha strikes.

Conclusion, don't think of yourself as a "tank" so much, in the classic MMO sense. Work on making your tools work for you. That will change based on the combo, your level, your difficulty, and your IO investment.

Not bad at all. Work on expressly moving your tier3 into melee range with a goto command.

heals: triage beacon is not a *healing* power so much as a *regeneration* power. The more max health a target has, the greater the effect. Pets have pretty low health, so low effect - relatively speaking.

recharge: If you use sets, you will likely have ample global recharge. Otherwise, expressly slotting recharge in a pet summon power is usually considered a waste of enhancement even in instances where it is even possible (usually the ATO or purple).

Demons are designed to function both in melee and at range. The tier3 works best in melee by most accounts, and that fits my play style nicely (demon/storm). Many players feel that demons are one of the most powerful primaries.

Bots should be at range for best effect. Many secondaries have tools to keep enemies at range. Drawing attention to yourself instead of the bots is another tool to that effect.

Dark is a monster; it works well with everything and has many slotting options.

The second tier pets are the real damage dealers in the necro set. If dark is your secondary, you basically have three sources of control: yourself, the lich, and fluffy. It is very safe. The lich also does a fair amount of damage on its own (especially with incarnates), and fluffy has access to an IO proc that provides a nice damage bonus.

As to soloing, every combination can solo at a level higher than the base difficulty. Every combination 'works.' When you write about wanting to solo, what do you mean?

If you are dead-set against having your mastermind do any tanking, I'm not sure what to tell you. You're going to get aggro no matter what you do, and there will be points (many in fact) where, through catastrophic failure of one type or another, all your pets get wiped out. And a petless mastermind can be a sorry thing.

/traps can do amazing things without its pets. So can /storm. With /dark, I usually can resummon in the midst of the crazy with relative impunity. There are tricks for the others as well (ff comes to mind quickly).

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. How is the Night Ward Zone "I content" -- incarnate content? Sure it is new, but it also seems to have the same combat ratings, etc... (i.e. no boosted hit ratings or the like). And since a thugs- and bot- /traps can have the pets AOE defense capped at 30, the key is not being in bodyguard mode when in the AOE. Overall, it reminds me of fighting Malta, but I could have been XXXXX [under the weather] when I played in that zone...

And yes, healing has its place. But not getting hit in the first place is pretty awesome, too.

I think (in regards to the OP's questions) bots/ff seems so safe in that a) it is fire and forget, and b) it is forgiving to user error. Because more often than not masterminds get destroyed when they stay in BG mode during an AoE attack (cascading failure due to minion loss), or the character fails to manage aggro. Overall this is one of the safest AT's - even the sets that are relatively low performing. And once a player gets some basic commands feeling comfortable, learns the benefits and restrictions of bodyguard mode, and groks the importance of positioning, things get MUCH easier.

OP - I pretty much enjoy all the mastermind primaries. It certainly is true that the AT suffers from level 18 until 24. If you have not read these, check out the following guides:

Dechs Kaison's GD Mastermind - takes you off-site but kicks some major pancake.

_and_

Master Zaprobo's Guide to the Modern Mastermind

Good luck!

Hold on a sec - I think the rules in this thread clearly forbid the use of pets in completing any challenge.

Hehe. Strong AND pretty is the only way to live. I love that thread (started on Justice)

Now THAT sounds foreboding! I sense a new rallying cry - might even make it to my warcry.

F10 ftw

The Horror! The Horror!

(I would so buy this set in a heartbeat...although it might better on a stalker: hey what's that noise? I don't know- i don't see any thing....)