SimonSayz

If you're going to be spamming it between fire attacks or something, I would go with the Achilles proc. However, if you plan on just using it on runners or as a finisher, go with the glad jav proc.

I am going to assume you have the standard Defensive/Follow Macro on your tray or something. The delay between clicking the Macro and the pets attacking is not with Defensive, it's actually with the follow command. A lot of masterminds don't realize you can also order your pets to Stay or Goto and have them in BG mode still, as long as it's Defensive/Stay or Defensive/Goto and you are near them (I think 60 feet). That delay is actually very nice. I love it when some dumb blaster or troller comes and lays snow storm or ice slick on me to try and make my pets do silly things; I just tap follow every now and again and they ignore everything while I still remain in BG mode.

When I'm in RV on mine, people usually can't tell if I'm really in BG mode or not usually because if I order my pets to attack something and they realize I'm out of BG mode and start attacking me, I'll just order my pets into Stay (since they were in Defensive/Attack, it just goes to Defensive/Stay) and I'm back in full BG mode and the pets keep on trucking. And since stay has no effect on them actually staying in one spot they are free to follow whatever attacked me. I just have to remember to put them back on follow before I move out.

This works well when, during fiteklub (I know, lolfiteklub), someone wants me to make the first move. I simple order only half my pets to attack and keep half in Def/Follow. They usually think I'm full out and try to spike me. Once they attack me, I then order my pets to Def/Goto at some position or stay and I'm back at full protection again. Also if your pets start to be retarded and wonder off into the distance while you're being attacked, you can keep tapping follow til your pets start to listen and come back, then quickly switch back to Def/stay and they will immediately retaliate once again.

I suggest if you want to be more aggressive with the MM while in zone or something, you have a macro that only takes half your pets out of BG mode, so you still have some protection but you aren't waiting there for someone to look at your funny, like ****** on a street corner. It takes getting the hang of, but it helps when you need to switch back and forth from BG mode.

I don't have experience with /Pain, but I do have a Thug/Therm MM. I don't really duel with it, but I have fought some people before. The few duels I have had was versus a thug/poison, a few regen scrappers, a brute or a tank, and a plant/rad controller. I'm pretty sure I won all of them. Heat Exhaustion seals the deal when fighting melee toons that aren't elec armor.

In a zone environment, I can hold my own pretty well. It sucks having to buff each pet individually, but being able to buff others not on your team with forge and thaw AND give all my thugs slow protection is great. Once Scrappers and tanks know I'm a therm, they usually steer clear of me until they can spike me together.

So to sum it up, if you want great a great regen aura and the ability to easily buff your team/pets without being too annoyed, go /pain. If you want better buffs and Heat Exhaustion for the added annoyance of individual buffing, go therm.

I have a Thugs/Therm with the Explosive Strike slotted in the Call Thugs and the Call Bruiser powers. Back in I12, the procs would fire off all the time while in Siren's Call and RV, but I noticed lately it hasn't fired at all from the punks in Sirens or anytime I malefactor for that matter. The procs work fine in RV (lvl 50), but whenever I malefactor down to level 30 or below, the procs seem to stop working in the punks only (Bruiser works fine at all levels).

I did the testing with a friend in the Arena. At level 50, the procs in the bruiser and the punks were working great. However, when we played a lvl 31 match, the procs only worked in the bruiser, but not the punks.

Is this a known issue or what?

-Simon

Your build is extremely similar to mine, except that I have an Elec/Shield. I thought about putting the Panacea unique in my scrapper, but I didn't feel like spending that much for (what I thought was) a minor improvement to my end recovery. My end gets a little low if I'm fighting EBs or something, but that's why they have CaBs in the game.

If it turns out that after getting the accolades on it that the end recovery is a little less than where I want it, I may get it later on. For right now though, groups usually only last a few seconds, so it's alright.

Here it is if you're interested.

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-Simon

I'm pretty sure they didn't fix Forts/Windows's mez protection toggles yet (Imdom Will)

When they fixed Mez powers suppressing knockback protection in mez protection toggles, they seems to have skipped over Fortunatas/Windows. So yes, you can mez them and toss them around like a cat in a sack.

I was in the same boat as you Fury, that is until I got lucky a few days ago.

I just logged into Sirens' Call on Freedom as I noticed as someone mentioning something about just getting one of these. I sent them a tell about it and they told me that they had listed one of these recipes at lvl 48 listed already on the market. I was short 150 mil of the asking price (2 bil) on my toon, so I had a friend do an infuence transfer quickly, I placed the bid, felt a little sick for spending that much fake money on one item, and I got it. So yeah, change your filter to Sale only and check crafted and uncrafted frequently or make some friends in PvP zones. Who knows, you may get luckly.

-Simon

I have one just sitting in my base, and I don't plan on using it (red side). I do, however, need one hero side (the irony), so I am willing to trade it for influence if you need it red side. I am unsure of the going rate for it on the black market; I will check when I get back from work.

Hey guys.

Both of your builds looks awesome, indeed. Great recharge and defense numbers.

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to post my build here for review also.

Here is the final build I had in mind:

Enforcers' attacks do not have knockback. They only have Uzi attacks that do -Def on the targets. And I know the Bruiser's knockdown can turn into knockback if you're fighting something low enough. If you're a MM and you're fighting stuff -2 to you, things will die in 2 seconds anyway. Same on the Mastermind who thinks -2 or -3 mobs are challenging.

Did you even read what I wrote? I never said Thugs don't do knockback. I simply stated what powers that the pets have access to have knockback components in them.

If you want to, come to Champion and hit me up on @Dexterity. I'll run a few mission with you with only specific pets out so you can observe. I also have two Thug MMs on Freedom.

-Simon

Bots have the most by far, as that is their nature.

I think Mercs come in second then Thugs come in third in therms of most knockback for the reason I will list below.

With the level six equip in Mercs, the Commando will get buckshot and slug, both of which have minimal chance for some knockback. After 32, the medic will receive a frag grenade and the commando will receive the M30 grenade and the LRM rocket, all three of which have a higher chance for knockback. Not a ton of knockback, but as it's in some of the pet's main AoE attacks, you notice it.

Before the level 32 upgrade, the Thug's set pets do not have any knockback at all, only knockdown. After the level 32 upgrade, the punks will receive empty clips (small chance for a small knockback), and the bruiser will get hurl rock (high chance for single target knockback). Both knockbacks are pretty minimal, seeing as how if the bruiser is working finally, he will be in melee most of the time and not use the damned rock.

Choose whichever one you think would fit your play style. Either way, I don't believe the knockback from either Thugs or Merc will bother you too much, as with being a MM, you will steamroll content regardless of knockback done.

-Simon

I put 5 procs and 1 recharge in mine and it works fantastically. With my global recharge and hasten, caltrops is easily double or even triple stackable. 1 proc, however, may not be worth your time.

-Simon

I also have a thug/trap MM I recently decided to give attention to.

I only put one Def IO into the enforcers and the The of the Lady Grey proc in them for extra damage, follow by the usual frankenslotting. I then slotted GW with four call to arms + 2 other pet uniques, and I put the last one into thugs. That way if I didn't forget about GW completely and I unleashed them onto a target, they would have some measure of accuracy, while at the same time it doesn't completely gimp the recharge of the power plus I get some set bonuses from it too. I was able to soft cap my pet's defense pretty easily, I could have even went all the way to around 52-54% for them if I tried.

For my Thug/Traps, I went more for recharge and some procs, with a bit of typed defense thrown in. I figure soft capping my MM to positional defenses isn't really important to me when I steamroll most everything anyway, and also when I'm already pretty close to soft cap on smashing/lethal/energy. Not worrying about my positional defenses let me fool around with putting procs everywhere. I love mah procs...

-Simon

It may be enhanceable if you slot Centriole. I know this method works when slotting Cents into pets.

But even so, it wouldn't make a huge difference in normal missions, where mobs are not usually within line of sight of one another. I recommend using the slots for more recharge, maybe one accuracy, and a few procs.

-Simon

So if that's true, does this power accept damage, accuracy, and knockback enhancements?

Thanks for the advice on testing with grey minons. I won't do any more damage tests with those, as it may results

I went ahead and tested it on some white minions without resistance to fire and lethal. I got the same results as before: putting the damage enhancements into detonator had no affect on the damage of the time bomb the bruiser put on the ground after I activated detonator on him.

I also noticed that it had a 95% chance to hit even though I had no accuracy in detonator I believe that it is pulling the enhancements from the pet instead of the detonator power.

It would help if someone else can test this before I bug it. Maybe also test it with knock back procs in detonator while you detonate your pet a big group of white cons for good measure to make sure it passes procs along too.

-Simon

I am thinking about making this mastermind to PvP with on Freedom. It would be purely for annoyance Post-Bloody Bay PvP zones. I will never (beyond the AE farms) PvE with this toon.

I didn't give this build too much thought really, as I just wanted to see what possible powers I could fit in. I put the Centrioles in the pets and range IOs in my powers so I that could stay out of range of the enemy while my pets and I blast away.

Here's the build:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Phlying Phail: Level 50 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Mercenaries
Secondary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Soldiers -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Centri(3), HO:Centri(3), Acc-I(5), LdyGrey-%Dam(5), Achilles-ResDeb%(7)
Level 1: Entangling Arrow -- TotHntr-Acc/Rchg(A), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(17), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(19), TotHntr-Dam%(19), Range-I(21), Range-I(21)
Level 2: Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Ruin-Acc/Dmg(23), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Range-I(25), Range-I(25), LdyGrey-%Dam(27)
Level 4: Glue Arrow -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), Slow-I(9), Range-I(9), Range-I(11), Range-I(11)
Level 6: Equip Mercenary -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Hover -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 10: Ice Arrow -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(45), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), Lock-Rchg/Hold(46)
Level 12: Spec Ops -- HO:Centri(A), HO:Centri(13), HO:Nucle(13), Acc-I(15), Achilles-ResDeb%(15), LdyGrey-%Dam(17)
Level 14: Fly -- Srng-Fly(A), Srng-EndRdx/Fly(34)
Level 16: Aid Other -- H'zdH-Heal/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 18: Aid Self -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(27), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(29), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(31), Mrcl-Rcvry+(31)
Level 20: Acid Arrow -- AnWeak-Acc/DefDeb(A), AnWeak-DefDeb(33), Range-I(48), AnWeak-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(50), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(50), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 22: Maneuvers -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 24: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(34), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(36), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(36), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(36)
Level 26: Commando -- HO:Centri(A), HO:Centri(37), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), BldM'dt-Acc(40), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(40), ExStrk-Dam%(48)
Level 28: Disruption Arrow -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 30: Group Fly -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(34)
Level 32: Tactical Upgrade -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Teleport Foe -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(40), Range-I(43), Range-I(43)
Level 38: Oil Slick Arrow -- UndDef-Rchg(A), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg(39), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(39), UndDef-DefDeb(39)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(42), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Teleport -- EndRdx-I(A), Range-I(45), Range-I(45)
Level 47: Team Teleport -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Supremacy

Didn't feel like starting a new topic and this is fairly recent, so I'll use this thread to ask a question.

I recently did some testing with detonator in Cap Au Diable against some Luddites. It seemed to do the same damage with or without the damage enhancements. Is this working as intended? If it is not, can someone second build their toon or something and help me verify this?

I'm going to drop it down to just two recharge IOs and put it at 49 til someone can verify it.

-Simon

You could do just as well with Merc/Dark in PvP as Thug/Dark. Right before I deleted my Merc/Storm (I ran out of slots) I went to RV one last time to PvP. I thought it was funny when people tried to run from me; all they would accomplished was invoking the snipe attack on my tier two and three pets. That in addition to the CC the Spec ops have can make it really annoying for anyone who fights you. It was also pretty easy to keep my pets in check and not have them aggro NPCs in the zone because they are all ranged, and stayed without my PBAoE stealth all the time.

I'll list a few things you could benefit from over thugs in zone PvP (not bashing thugs at all, I'm just giving some reasons to not reroll):

-The Smashing/Lethal Resistance help in PvP, where many many people can hit past defense based sets.

-SpecOps have Web Grenade without any upgrades, which means you can ground annoying enemies with fly and super jump in Sirens, Bloody Bay, and Warburg before many villains even have access to web grenade.

-Snipe Attacks... situations where people want to hit and run can turn into hilarious moments.

-Mercs accept some debuff and damage procs, which can work well in combat situations to increase overall DPS. Examples are the Achilles' Heel proc and the Touch of the Lady Grey Proc for the soldiers and spec ops, and maybe an explosive strike proc for the commando.

-The medic. Yes he can be retarded, but he can also save your skin if your heal keeps missing. He also has a chance of giving you Mez protection every now and then via stimulant (yes, he actually still gives PROTECTION when he uses stimulant in PvP zones. I bugged it back in I13 beta, but it still isn't fixed).

-Some of the Merc's attacks have Defense debuffs, which is what /Dark lacks. It can make those fights with shield and super reflexes users go smoother.

There probably more, but there is plenty reason to not reroll. /Dark works with any MM primary.

*Excuse the typing, I didn't bother spell checking.

-Simon

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name:NOS 4 A2
Global Contact: @Dexterity
Level of Classification: 50 Mastermind
Origin: Technology
Super Rank & Super Group: Elite Boss of L.O.S.T.