StrykerX

Don't forget Thaw... Demons are mainly resist based so they will get hit a lot more than Bots or Thugs, and that includes mezzes. Being able to protect them from being held, slept, and stunned (or at least wake them up if you see one has been) looks rather useful.

The main reason to use Hasten is AV / GM soloing. Acid Mortars stack, so the more of them you can lay down the faster an AV dies. Likewise, getting Poison Trap's recharge under 30 seconds eliminates having a period where the AV's regen isn't debuffed (I don't know if the regen debuff stacks or not).

An Electric/Empathy or Earth/Empathy Controller would be very low damage but still useful. Plant Control actually does decent damage (its AoE immobilize hits unusually hard, plus it has Carrion Creepers) so even with a buff-focused secondary you'd still be doing a fair bit of damage (at least if you use the fun powers).

Another option would be to take a Defender and slot your attacks for secondary effect rather than damage. Since Defenders have the highest debuff strength but low base damage (especially teamed) you could use your attacks as extra debuffs. For instance, imagine what a Rad/Dark/Psi Defender with his Dark Blast powers slotted with accurate to-hit debuff sets could do to a spawn... they'd be debuffed so far into uselessness that they might as well be level one Hellions. (And you'd also have great recharge bonuses if you used Cloud Senses.)

Most likely the devs aren't in a position to actually make changes right now. They're getting I19 finalized so changing the Live code would require redoing I19 builds, which they don't like to do after a certain point. (This is assuming I19 is going live soon.) Hopefully I19 has some MM fixes... if not, it will probably be January before we see anything since I believe the devs take a long break at Christmas.

The biggest problem with starting with a Scrapper or other high survivability AT is that when when you switch to something squishy it's almost like starting a new game. You'll constantly be thinking things like "hey, since when did these stun?" and "wow, I don't remember those being dangerous". If you start on a Blaster, Dominator, or similar squishy character then you actually learn what the various enemies can do and how to counter them. Then later you try a Scrapper or Brute and learn to ignore all your normal tactics and just charge head on into everything, but at least you know some tactics for when they are needed.

Is the Kronos Titan timed (been a long time since I fought one)? If so, I doubt any character can solo it without temps (soloing AVs generally takes a long time, up to several hours). If not, I'm sure an Ill/Rad can do it eventually.

As for a MM vs Lusca, that would be interesting. I admit I was thinking "all GMs on their respective side" but now that we can switch I suppose one of the really good Bots/Traps GM soloists should head over to Independence Port and see if they can serve up some calamari. The only two ATs I've heard of soloing Lusca are an Ill/Rad and a Rad/Sonic, but since a Bots/Traps MM is generally tougher than a Rad/Sonic I'd think it's possible. Or at least it will be when / if the Bots AI is fixed so they don't ignore Goto commands and run into melee...

Stalkers and Brutes can both get Superior Conditioning, which is the only power I know of that actually boosts endurance rather than recovery. So basically any Stalker or Brute with all the +end accolades and as many +end set bonuses as you can cram in.

The best +endurance set bonuses a Brute can get are in Ranged and Resistance sets (plus a couple like Hold, Sleep and Accurate Healing that most Brutes can't do too much with), closely followed by PBAoE, Defense, and Taunt sets. I'd say an Electric / Electric / Energy Brute is about as good as you'll get... and he'll have the added bonus of being able to refill that endurance and laugh at end drains.

Many MMs can solo at least some AVs, though Bots/Traps is the best at it (and can solo GMs as well). Really, almost any AT has at least one or two builds that can solo some AVs (even Blasters), but the ones I know of than that can solo all AVs and all GMs are:

Ill/Rad Controller
Bots/Traps MM
and I think Rad/Sonic Defender and Sonic/Rad Corruptor
(there are probably others too, these are just the ones I've heard of)

Some of the really extreme Scrapper and Brute builds can also solo all AVs, but they can't beat a GM due to no -regen debuffs. If you can afford a perma-PA build then Ill/Rad Controllers are going to be the best, because they literally cannot be killed by anything other than Hamidon unless you mess up. The others can always end up getting a run of bad luck, but since Phantom Army can't be killed, debuffed, mezzed, or harmed in any way as long as you keep it going full time you will never be attacked, and therefore no amount of lucky to hit rolls can hurt you. On the other hand, several ATs do a lot more damage than an Ill/Rad so it's a trade-off.

Procs in Caltrops operate the same way: they check each target on the Caltrop patch once every 10 seconds. As such, slotting procs really doesn't add a lot of damage... on the other hand, Caltrop base damage is so low that procs are better than damage enhancemets. It's not that procs in Caltrops are bad, it's just that many builds have better things they can do with those slots.

I have to admit that the Ragnarok Chance for Knockdown proc in Caltrops would be funny, but that's a lot of inf to invest just for humor value...

The only way to increase pets' recovery is to use a recovery buff power on them, which /Traps does not have (/Pain does, but I think that's the only set that can boost recovery). What you can do is slot the pet powers with endurance reduction, which will lower the cost of the pet's powers. However, there is a limitation to that:

- Endurance reduction from normal enhancements (TOs, DOs, and SOs) and Hamidon Enhancements / SHOs applies to every power a pet uses.

- Endurance reduction from set IOs applies only to pet powers that can use that set

For instance, if you slot the Demon Prince with an Essence of Curare Acc/End IO (a Hold set), it will only apply to his holds. None of his other powers will get the endurance reduction, or the accuracy for that matter. That makes choosing IOs a bit tricky in some cases. Note that Pet Damage IOs also follow this rule: they only apply to damage dealing powers.

Demonlings - All their powers do damage, so the usual full set of Blood Mandate or frankenslotted mix of Pet Damage IOs work fine.

Demons - The Ember Demon's heals are endurance hogs, but slotting heal sets won't help his attacks. I'd go for a generic End Reduction IO plus a mix of Pet Damage IOs that also include some endurance reduction, or once you hit 50 a couple of Heal/End Hami-Os.

Demon Prince - He also needs a generic End Reduction IO and probably a generic Accuracy if you care about things like Shiver hitting. His hold does damage, so if you don't care about Shiver or Chilling Embrace you could go four Acc/Dam Pet Damage IOs and a couple of generic Endurance. Almost all of his powers slow, so you can also go with Slow sets for endurance reduction and hit most of his powers. Like the Demons, Hami-Os are probably the best bet once you can use them.

Finally, I've heard reports that Demons may be bugged right now. In particular, the Demon Prince may not actually be benefiting from endurance reduction at all. If true, all you can do is wait for the devs to fix him.

Damage auras are often the single most damaging power you have when you look at total damage inflicted. They don't do much to any individual target, but they keep on hitting everything near you for the entire fight so it really adds up. I'd suggest going for ED capped damage, lots of endurance reduction, and enough accuracy to hit reliably. About four slots should do the job if you frankenslot it. Procs really don't add much in auras, though the Armageddon proc is useful if you can afford it (and don't have a real PBAoE to put it in) since it hits harder and more often. The Fury of the Gladiator resist debuff proc might also be worth using if you're rich.

The endurance cost on Death Shroud is a bit high to run it before Stamina, but once you have SOs (and more importantly, SO-strength Multi-Strike and Cleaving Blow or Scirocco's IOs to frankenslot with) it'll probably be pretty endurance efficient if you fight decent size spawns. If you only fight groups of 2-3, it's a little harder to justify until you get your total endurance use down to a manageable level. Once you have your attacks and toggles well slotted for endurance and get a few recovery bonuses (and Dark Consumption) you should be able to run Death Shroud without killing your blue bar, but until then I'd only use it when fighting several enemies. The extra damage on one or two targets isn't worth having to stop to recover endurance, but even if it drains your blue bar the extra damage on five or six enemies at once will be more efficient than taking them down one at a time.

I don't have a Rad/Elec, but I do have a Rad/Fire I've been working on. I would definitely recommend Irradiate at level 4, because it not only gives you a very early AoE power, it has a nice defense debuff so you make a whole spawn easier to hit. Defense debuffs are almost worthless at high levels since you usually have a 95% chance to hit anyway, but they can be great early on.

Skipping Charged Brawl should be fine, you can take Havoc Punch when you get a chance so you'll have one nice melee attack. That should be enough to handle the occasional incidental melee until you get Shocking Grasp (and maybe Thunder Strike, if you can stand the long animation) since you aren't going to be blapping.

Lightning Field puts out good damage if you stay in melee range all the time, but not if you just duck in and out. I'd skip it unless you are going full S/L softcapped Blapper or are going to team a lot and know you'll be able to stay close to a large spawn for the entire fight.

Lightning Clap stuns minions for a few seconds, but only minions. It can be useful, but in general it isn't the minions you have to worry about. I'd take it on a Blapper, but since you are presumably only going to jump in long enough to fire off your PBAoEs I'd skip it.

I'd personally recommend Combat Jumping. It will let you quickly jump in, hit Irradiate or Power Sink, and then jump back out to cone range. It also lets you avoid being immobilized (which is bad if you just moved in to Irradiate range) and gives you a handy place to slot a Karma -KB IO and a Kismet 6% to-hit IO. Hover might also be decent though, since you can fire your cone(s) from above and then drop down to use PBAoEs and it also can slot the Karma and Kismet IOs. Medicine is also always handy on a Blaster... you can hit Aid Self after a fight to greatly reduce downtime, or duck out of sight and use it mid-battle.

AR / Fire / Mace or AR / Fire / Mu could both use the AoE immobilize together with Burn, Ignite, Flamethrower, Blazing Aura, and Hot Feet to unleash a truly massive amount of fire DoTs on a group. I'd use Mace for that and try for high S/L defense though... you'll take a lot of melee attacks.

I haven't tried an Electric/Electric Blaster, but I do have an Electric/Kin Controller and he is very good at sapping. I could drain an elite boss before level 20, and can quickly sap a large spawn with Static Field, Conductive Aura, and Jolting Chain. The only real drawback is that you have no -recovery debuffs, so they still get to attack occasionally... but it's a lot less often and they generally can't use their heaviest hitters. An Elec/Elec Blaster does get -recovery, but loses buffs, hard controls and heals.

As far as causing knockback mayhem, Storm/Energy, Grav/Storm, and Illusion/Storm are all good. Grav/Storm has the added benefit of tossing large objects at people, which then get blown around by the Storm powers.

For survivability, nothing in the game can compare to a Stone Tanker but they have huge drawbacks. A Dark/Dark Tanker could probably be almost at tough with the right IOs, and a Bots/FF Mastermind is virtually unkillable (but boring to play). Bots/Traps is almost as tough and a lot better offensively.

Actually, there's one thing even tougher than a Stone Tanker, but only if you have billions of inf to spend. A perma-PA Ill/Rad Controller can solo anything that can be soloed... but considering the massive recharge needed for that you are looking at multiple full sets of purples so I doubt it can be done under 3-4 billion inf.

Mu has a cone that applies a recovery debuff in addition to draining a bit of endurance, so it would make an Electric / Electric Blaster a better sapper. I'm not sure what Mace would bring to an Elec / Elec though, aside from S/L defense that was already available in Ice.

The combination I'm looking forward to is getting an AoE immobilize on an Ice Blaster. I was going to go Ice/Electric/Cold on my Ice/Elec Blapper, but now I'm going to go Ice/Electric/Mace... I still get the S/L defense but I also will be able to root a spawn in place, fire off Blizzard, and then duck out of sight while they eat the entire 15 seconds of DoT.

1) The KB is no big deal. The missiles occasionally knock a few things around and some of the single target shots do a bit of KB, but it's no worse than a Blaster who occasionally uses M30 Grenade or Explosive Arrow really.

2) Robots do good solid damage, and (when the stupid AI is working) they do it from range. Necro is a bit lower damage and has to get closer, which can potentially cause problems on teams if you have too many teammates who also want to be in melee. Not a big deal, but a slight concern. Neither solo particularly fast (for MMs) pre-32, but Bots really pick up after the second upgrade.

3) Neither does that much to protect a team. Necro does have some to-hit debuffs and controls, but you can't really choose when the Lich uses those controls. Your secondary is going to provide far more protection to a team than the pets do. Necro will probably do the most to protect a team of any pet set, but I'm not sure it's enough protection to really matter. If you want to keep the team (or your pets) from getting hit, go /Dark and slot Fearsome Stare and Darkest Night for to-hit debuff... it won't really matter what pets you use at that point.

One important thing to keep in mind is that set IOs in pets only apply to those of the pet's powers that can use that set. That includes Pet Damage IOs... they only affect powers that actually deal damage. That means that, for instance, slotting Ember Demon with Blood Mandate will significantly reduce his endurance use from attacking, but it won't affect his heals or resist aura. Likewise, slotting a Heal / End IO won't help his attacks. Some of the demons have endurance heavy powers other than damage and all of them have pretty draining attack chains, so I'd suggest the following:

Demonlings - Just use Pet a Damage set like Blood Mandate since they only attack.

Demons - I'd use either a generic Endurance Reduction IO or some Hami-Os that include endurance. Unlike set IOs, HOs (and SHOs) apply to every power a pet uses.

Demon Prince - Again, generic or Hamidon IOs are the way to go for endurance. He has non-damaging slow and control powers that won't be affected by Pet Damage IOs. He also needs non-Pet Damage Accuracy to make sure his holds and such hit.

Ninja Run plus Sprint or Hurdle is faster than Fly and almost as fast as Super Jump. You don't really need to be faster than that unless you just want to... I have a level 45 MM that gets around very well on just Ninja Run and Sprint. Super Speed can be handy for the stealth, but the lack of vertical mobility means you often take longer to get to a door than a Ninja Runner unless you also have Super Jump or slotted Hurdle.

(Anything but Energy or Dark Melee) / Willpower Brute. With Willpower, the more enemies you have around you the harder you are to kill... hordes of -1 foes would be easy to handle. Super Strength is good for AoE with lots of recharge, but if you want to keep it cheap while still having good AoE you may want to go Electric Melee. But really anything but Energy and Dark has at least moderate AoE. I personally like Battle Axe because... well, you get to clobber people with a big axe.

Perhaps the ultimate in relaxing (at least at high levels) is a Bots / FF Mastermind. Just re-bubble the bots every four minutes and stand there with Dispersion Bubble running and none of them die. You can easily softcap all the bots, so the Protectors can keep them healed pretty well. Aid Other can help patch up the occasional damage between fights, but since you essentially have six Super Reflexes henchmen they just don't get hit enough to need a lot of healing.