T_Immortalus
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So when will non-VIP players be allowed to actually comment on the new issue discussion threads?
I just wanted to say:
"When will Illusion Control - Phantasm be getting the same treatment that Gravity Control - Singularity got with issue 22?
It just so happens that the Phantasm, which has only ranged attacks, always moves into melee, and well away from the controller(out of AoE buffs)."
Could somebody post that in that thread or PM Synapse about it?
It's a pretty important issue. -
1) This is definitely a gameplay issue because the power does not perform as intended.
2) I would have posted this in the suggestion forum, because I have a solution, but we don't seem to have one anymore.
A) We can all agree that Superior Invisibility(SI) is meant to be the single best stealth power in the game, along with the limitations that come with that distinction which include the inability to use other stealth powers at the same time and the reduced effectiveness of other powers(and complete lack of some types of powers) in Illusion Control to justify SI's strength.
B) SI is certainly the best stealth power in PVE, single-handedly capping the controller's stealth at a number far above the number Hide gives players.
C) SI provides 200ft of PVE stealth and 1000ft of PVP stealth(according to the detailed info, as intended)
These facts are intentional and a key function of illusion control.
The problem, I have found, is obvious in the function of the stealth-perception equation.
Any stealth above and beyond the cap for any character is effectively "deleted" from the equation determining the distance at which a player can be seen.
Maybe that is intentional. Maybe that is a bug which the developers are unable to fix.
But, it definitely hurts the illusion controller, at least in PVP.
Sure, there are always the stealth immune enemies in PVE to deal with, which are not a big problem, but PVP has a serious issue.
Perception is not exactly balanced properly for PVP.
Players are all given a base default of 500ft of perception radius, meaning they can see somebody that has zero stealth from 500ft away. Perception buffs are also not that hard to come by and reach over 1000ft of perception(a Willpower character, as well as other sets with their own powers, gets 1042ft with just Heightened Senses and Tactics).
The problem is that stealth is capped so low in PVP.
Superior Invisibility normally performs the necessary function of making an illusion controller better hidden than a stalker in PVE, minus the defenses and high damage of a stalker.
It does not perform the same necessary function in PVP.
In PVP, controller stealth cap is MUCH lower than the stalker stealth cap, unlike the behavior in PVE. This caps Superior Invisibility's 1000ft of PVP stealth radius at HALVED 571.5ft.
That's a big problem.
The developers made a key power of a primary power set practically worthless in PVP if anybody just has the very easily obtained Tactics power.
So, Illusion controllers are supposed to be somewhat avoiding aggro due to pets and being better stealthed than stalkers in PVP, but you ensure that they aren't even in the same league as stalkers in PVP despite a clear lack of power in comparison?
That's a big problem.
Here is the simplest solution:
Improve the stealth cap for controllers to 1000ft.
Reasoning:
1) The stealth-perception equation currently, and in the future, deletes any stealth beyond the cap such that stealth will never ever be beyond the perception cap, not even with the stealth IOs.
2) According to number one above and the facts farther up the post, the perception cap is still much higher than the stealth cap proposed, ensuring balance, and high enough perception to see an illusion controller is still relatively easy to obtain, even before they reveal themselves with an attack or trailing pets.
3) SI currently caps the PVE stealth of the illusion controller, so this would do the exact same thing for PVP stealth.
4) Illusion controllers are meant to be better hidden than stalkers, whether that be PVE or PVP, because it is the function they have sacrificed other potential advantages to focus on. They need better stealth than stalkers even if their stealth cap would still be lower than a stalker's by far with this proposed solution.
I think it is fairly obvious that Superior Invisibility does not work as intended in PVP due to the PVP stealth cap. It's also fairly obvious that this leaves an illusion controller very commonly(due to the ubiquity of Tactics and other perception buffs) severely hindered in PVP, especially since the severe nerf to control powers(which are almost all illusion has) with issue 13.
Superior Invisibility, and thus illusion control, absolutely requires the controller stealth cap be raised to 1000ft.
....unless the developers want to take the much harder task of figuring out how to fix how "stealth beyond the cap" is handled. -
Go with Demons, but the secondary is a tougher choice.
Demons are just the best pets I have tried out of all of them. -
Quote:Actually, that rule of "defense with defense and resistance with resistance" only applies when the values are equal between resistance and defense.Originally Posted by TheOOB
Force field I personally think is boring, and I think thermal does the job of protecting you're pets better. Once again Defense stacks best with defense, and resistance stacks best with resistance(-To-Hit stacks best with defense, while -Damage stacks just as well with either).
The thing about Demons is that they have much more resistance than Robots gets in defense.
Sure, synergy is great, but stacking more of another form of mitigation is better.
As for Force Field being purely defense....I think that works well. It complements the pure resistance of Demons well, rather than other sets that just add "more defense" or a lot less resistance.
Resistance is more reliable than defense though defense is definitely better mitigation when it works.
It's all about preference, and I prefer mixing the two to higher amounts.
Anyway, I am finding Demons/Force Field to be absolutely awesome, even if it isn't as active(thus boring in your opinion). I prefer less active so I have time to use the attacks or manage the pets better. -
Quote:It's a very basic slotting, I put together really quick recently, that will work for multiple pet types.Originally Posted by Katie V
That's...really not an effective slotting for the bots. You're giving up far too much damage, and neither you nor the bots are gaining anything from endurance reduction.
I actually made it that way to ensure they would never have endurance issues because they don't do any damage with no endurance.
I also made it with my Demon Summoning build on my mind a bit, and they need endurance reduction from my experience.
(Edit: I also made the build specifically to allow enough endurance recovery for the mastermind to attack with at least the two later AoEs. My Demons/Force Field build uses even more attacks, so endurance is at a premium.)
Anyway as I said, it's just a very basic slotting that will give the original poster an idea of what they need to slot for. -
Here is a basic build you can use as an example of how to slot Robots/Force Field.
You can swap any pool powers you want, but the primary and secondary set powers are slotted well.
(Edit: The slot placement levels may be off though. The important thing is to slot the proper enhancements and the proper amount of slots into a power.)
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.95
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Force Field
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones- (A) Accuracy
- (5) Accuracy
- (5) Endurance Reduction
- (11) Damage Increase
- (34) Endurance Reduction
- (36) Damage Increase
- (A) Accuracy
- (A) Defense Buff
- (7) Defense Buff
- (9) Defense Buff
- (A) Defense Buff
- (7) Defense Buff
- (9) Defense Buff
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (11) Endurance Reduction
- (40) Flight Speed
- (40) Flight Speed
- (46) Defense Buff
- (48) Defense Buff
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Accuracy
- (13) Endurance Reduction
- (13) Defense Buff
- (17) Healing
- (34) Defense Buff
- (34) Healing
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (15) Endurance Reduction
- (15) Endurance Reduction
- (36) Range
- (36) Range
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (17) Endurance Reduction
- (50) Defense Buff
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (19) Endurance Reduction
- (19) Defense Buff
- (25) Defense Buff
- (37) Defense Buff
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (21) Endurance Reduction
- (21) Defense Buff
- (23) Defense Buff
- (25) Defense Buff
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (23) Endurance Reduction
- (33) To Hit Buff
- (43) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (31) Endurance Reduction
- (31) Defense Buff
- (46) Defense Buff
- (A) Accuracy
- (27) Accuracy
- (27) Endurance Reduction
- (29) Damage Increase
- (29) Endurance Reduction
- (31) Damage Increase
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (39) Endurance Reduction
- (40) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (33) Endurance Reduction
- (33) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (37) Endurance Reduction
- (37) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (39) Endurance Reduction
- (39) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (42) Endurance Reduction
- (42) Resist Damage
- (42) Resist Damage
- (43) Resist Damage
- (43) Endurance Reduction
- (A) Accuracy
- (45) Endurance Reduction
- (45) Immobilisation Duration
- (45) Recharge Reduction
- (46) Immobilisation Duration
- (A) Accuracy
- (48) Endurance Reduction
- (48) Endurance Reduction
- (50) Recharge Reduction
- (A) Endurance Reduction
- (50) Endurance Reduction
Level 1: Brawl- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift- (A) Flight Speed
- (A) Jumping
- (A) Healing
- (A) Endurance Modification
- (3) Endurance Modification
- (3) Endurance Modification
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Yes, keep all pets on "Defensive Follow"(Bodyguard Mode) and command specific ones to attack, or all of them to attack using a macro like "/macro Attack petcom_all attack"(creates an icon in your tray that says "Attack" and commands them to attack without breaking defensive stance so that they return to bodyguard once they stop attacking).
I have 3 macros on all my masterminds.
My two main ones are the first.
1) /macro Defend petcom_all defensive follow
2) /macro Attack petcom_all attack
3) /macro GoTo petcom_all GoTo
I then use the default passive+follow macro icon to keep them from stopping to defend themselves as they try to keep up with me traveling.
There are 2 advantages to my macros and play-style:
1) The pets are easily under absolute control without having too many macros due to separate commands for specific pets. They all do what I say at the same time.
2) The pets focus-fire everything down.
The best way to ensure as little damage as possible comes your way, and thus ensure survival better, is to focus the pets on the same target so that you remove an enemy from the game as fast as possible. That amount of focus is very strong.
The way I play is pretty safe as I let the pets take the aggro and distribute it amongst them where their defenses can work against the damage instead of my mastermind's weaker defenses and spreading damage.
A different play-style would need a different setup.
Edit:
FYI, I play Demons/Force Field and Robots/Force Field. This play-style and strategy works extremely well for Force Field, especially with those tougher pets.
Demons are my new favorite pets. They may not have defensive synergy with Force Field, but they make up for it with a lot better/more debuffs than Robots, more varied damage and a lot more resistance than Robots. -
I actually haven't played most secondaries for masterminds, or primaries either, since a few years ago.
But....
Demons/Time Manipulation:
This is pretty good, but entirely reliant on debuffs and heals, with the faults of those things as well.
1) It has no mez protection so that you are not able to easily and constantly keep everything up, especially considering the slow resistance and recharge buffs.
2) Debuffs all have a target cap of no more than 16 targets in the AoE, and single target are even less useful against groups. Masterminds tend to ramp up the amoutn of enemies on the better builds, which debuff secondaries have more trouble with than buff secondaries due to the target cap.
3) Debuffs can be/are resisted by tougher enemies so you need a lot to perform well against the tougher enemies. Time Manipulation has lower overall numbers than sets like Traps and Poison so weaker performance.
4) Slow is the only major thing Time has going for it. It's -to-hit is not very large as well as the defense buffs are not too large(unless using Power Boost which may be nerfed later).
5) Debuffs are enemy-centric, or stuck to a location, in all but the -to-hit. You'll aggro the enemies with the first debuff so the more you have to put up the longer you have to survive the alpha onslaught.
I find Time Manipulation lacking overall, especially at lower levels, compared to Traps. It is also lacking compared to the major buffing secondaries in my eyes.
Demons/Force Field:
Maybe this isn't as good as Demons/Sonic Resonance for synergy, but Demons have a lot of resistance, debuffs(including very nice slows and -resist) and varied damage types(including the very nice Toxic) to put behind the very good shields of Force Field.
While Sonic Resonance makes Demons better at what they already do, it practically guarantees that every attack hits, even if for reduced value(which it doesn't cover psionic or purely positional).
Force Field covers all attack types with rather high numbers just on its own.
Sure, you don't have the synergistic leadership auras from Thugs Enforcers or Robots Protector Bots, but they aren't so big as to make a huge difference.
Also, the Demons' Resistances are much stronger than any defenses and resistances that Robots or Thugs have.
Also, the absolute easiest sets to play as a mastermind are Force Field and Sonic Resonance. They have mez protection to the big 3(hold, disorient, immobilize) always up, always on powerful buffs(with a 255 target cap unlike a debuff's 16 cap) and the advantage of being able to keep the powers on from spawn to spawn due to them being ally-centric. They also have nice sort of gimmick powers like the amazing Personal Force Field.
My favorite combination used to be Robots/Force field, but now it is Demons/Force Field.
If I had to choose other than Force Field then I would go with Sonic Resonance. I may end up picking Sonic Resonance if I find it fairing better than Force Field as well. -
Quote:Does it keep any of the pets from going all "I challenge you to a duel! /slap"? :POriginally Posted by Psylenz
Group fly to fight KoA does function much better with Bots and Thugs as compared to melee sets like ninjas, demons, or necros.
Pretty much all pets have melee leanings these days. Also, I'm going with Demons so they will be melee oriented.
I wasn't going to use it in combat anyway, just for traveling easier if it was possible. -
First, Demons are definitely the best pet. I've played Bots and Demons and I've been converted to Demons due to their overall more/better debuffs, much more resistances and more varied damage types(like toxic, which is great for damage).
Second, Traps is likely just as good for Demons as it is for a Bots/Traps. Yes, you don't get the bubbles that the Robot's Protector Bots give to work with your big bubble drone, but Demons get much better resistance and debuffs to compensate.
I've been playing Demons/Time and, while I'm not at max level, I am less impressed with Time Manipulation than I am with Force Field.
Time Manipulation relies on clicking(reapplying debuffs and buffs) and debuffs(which are resisted and have low target limits) and heals instead of solid defenses and more consistent performance.
If you work hard, you can probably get Time Manipulation to perform rather well, but there are other sets that are still just better for whatever reason.
I vote Force Field, Sonic Resonance and Traps above Time Manipulation. The first 2 are probably the easiest to manage with the latter probably beign the strongest with more effort. -
It's the "OMG New Good Set!" craze, along with IOs to insane expensive levels.
Time Manipulation is good, but not "OMG the best!" and certainly not "game-breaking".
1) Power Boost is the reason, if anything. That power's interaction with Farsight may very well be nerfed. I actually expect it to be nerfed.
2) Time Manipulation masterminds do not have the invulnerable aggro-magnet pets that illusion does. Therefore, it isn't as good in that way.
3) Time Manipulation is very dependent on debuffs, like radiation emission is, but doesn't have as high levels of debuff, especially lower regen debuffs.
Debuffs are resisted by those stronger enemies so the more the better. Time is lacking, especially for a mastermind.
4) They're talking about masterminds.
It's a lot easier to solo AVs/GMs as a mastermind than most other archetypes and set combinations. I have soloed Avs as bots/ff, and even was soloing Jack In Irons one Halloween before my team crossed the long zone.
I would actually be surprised if the better MM builds couldn't solo AVs. MMs are just awesome.
5) I've been running a Demons/Time MM. I like force Field more.
Time just lacks the survivability, at lower and mid levels, compared to Force Field. Mez protection is also huge, which Time has none of. You don't have to worry about buffs being resisted or too many targets exceeding the debuff's target cap either.
Time Manipulation is good, but busy and not as good performance as some other secondaries. -
Quote:1) That makes sense. I guess I just wanted Group Fly to be useful and have less of a gauntlet of enemies slaughtering my pets and having them right with me immediately when I stop. It would be good if it really worked as a group travel power.Originally Posted by Psylenz
On my masterminds, I do not use group fly (group travel) to haul pets across zones. I move out at top speed; whatever pets catch up, catch up. They will 'pet tp' to you at intervals. Resummon at the mission door.
I use group fly for two distinct situations: one, where I want the pets to move with me to a position without the insane aggro-crazy pathing up stairs or ramps. The other time I use group fly (and the only instance I use it for extended periods while fighting) is against the Knives of Artemis and the piles and PILES of insanity creating caltrops. If you are a teammate is such situations: tough noogies.
2) I thought Caltrops had a -fly component? That makes Group Fly a bit useless, if you are within range of Caltrops which usually happens since it is tossed at your feet. -
Quote:I won't have IO access soon, so I am looking for efficient SO/HO slotting for them.Originally Posted by Vanden
A BotZ -KB or Winter's Gift +Slow Res in Fly, a LotG +Rech in Afterburner, and then just use Steam Jump or the Jump Pack to cap both.
I don't like powers that are not always available relatively quickly, so the jump pack is out of the question as well(plus it's another toggle to click).
I'm looking at Afterburner for SPEED because going fast is fun. I have fun with Super Speed, in builds with power picks to burn, but it's definitely not as good as flying. -
After playing Demons/Time to level 25, and several Robots/Force Field to 50....
I recommend Demons/Force Field.
The defense and mez protection of Force Field is awesome, even without synergistic pet powers.
Couple it with Demons' high resistances and debuffs(especially the slows or killing faster do to -resistance) and you've got very nicely layered survivability.
I think Demons/FF is likely even better than Bots/FF.
Time Manipulation leaves the demons a bit squishy, at least before Farsight. Time's Juncture drops due to mez a lot, and that is pretty much all of your best defenses(not being hit).
Time Manipulation is good, maybe slightly better than Thermal, but I'll pick Force Field instead after playing it.
Edit:
Time Manipulation is also VERY busy and VERY endurance heavy.
Force Field is just much more relaxed and easily maintainable, and it leaves you room for the whip attacks and using them often.
If you plan to "tankermind" then Force Field is clearly the better choice since it focuses on unresistable buffs(with a 255 target cap) rather than resistable debuffs with a target cap of no more than 16 enemies.
Time Manipulation doesn't fair as well against too many enemies or the really strong ones.
I guess that goes for any set, so Thermal may be better due to more emphasis on buffs. -
Is the new version of Mids' accurate when it comes to Afterburner and Fly?
I slotted 3 Flight Speed SOs in Afterburner, on Mids', and Fly was boosted to 85 mph without any slotting of its own.
Is Fly really that high or does Afterburner increase flight speed as well as increasing the cap?
Mids' also says you can get Hover to 69 mph flight speed with Afterburner active. That's faster than Fly alone. That's crazy.
So what is the true story on how Afterburner works? -
I plan to take Corruption for sure, to keep up debuffs, on my Demons MM.
I hope to have room for at least one of the other whip attacks.
Those debuffs are great and toxic damage is very nice. -
Afterburner, there was a thread in the forums explaining how it really worked and how best to use it.
If anybody has that thread bookmarked, please post the link so I can read it. -
This is starting to seem a lot less useful than I thought it may have been.
I guess it is another case of CoH having very very situational and annoying mechanics with certain powers, especially travel powers.
I wish they would get ideas from the competition, things that won't get them in trouble.
For example:
Pets could definitely follow better very easily.
I used to play WoW, during a long break from CoH, and they made pets follow awesomely as they would desummon when you mount up to travel and resummon when you were dismounted and ready to fight, automatically.
The pets in WoW also followed a sort of "summoning circle" pattern around the character. Any pets you have, for any reason, follow you starting directly to your left, and keeping up perfectly, and then placing themselves in a circle around you, starting from your left, counterclockwise around you.
WoW never seems to have pet follow issues, and making the pets of CoH behave just as well seems pretty obviously easy after seeing a working example in WoW.
Pets, and the travel power interaction with them, really need to be worked on to improve them. This is especially important when they are asking free players to spend extra for the archetypes with pets.
They're still fun for those of us that have learned to deal with the issues and workaround them, but the pets are still far from "a well-oiled machine" and thus difficult to interest people in.
By the way, anybody else seen how Wow pets behave?
It seems they just copy the player's actions, if they can, but off to the left, and catch up when something happens.
If CoH just changed the way pets follow from "standard behind the character trail" to s system where pets keep position in a circle around the character, each of them at a 60 degree position of the 360 surrounding a character(with additional non-MM pets trailing behind as usual since they are not essential like MM pets are) with similar code to now when they "fall out of following position" so that they keep up, then it would look so cool and work so much better when Masterminds try to keep pets close.
(Edit: I even think the issue of stairs and other terrain issues could be fixed by this, but that may require doing something like giving pets some sort of very temporary flight, that they activate when they get stuck, to get over/around the offending terrain since jumping doesn't seem to work, perhaps because it is not triggering properly.)
I certainly have better ideas, that definitely would work, than the current system. I'm surprised that no other game has really attempted to emulate and improve upon the Mastermind from City of Heroes yet, given how awesome it is and how much room there is to greatly and easily improve it.
Anyway, it seems I'll have to try testing Group Fly somehow, but will likely end up abandoning the plan if it is a pain to make it "work as intended".
It sucks that we have to work to compensate for obvious design flaws that should be fixed, and quite probably fixed easily. -
Also....
How does Group Fly behave with Afterburner?
Is it useful for increasing the speed or is Group Fly too slow, like Hover, to benefit from it?
I know Group Fly loses the ability to affect others when Afterburner is active(which I wish it would still work), but my idea is to just work with Group Fly and Afterburner instead of Fly at all.
It may be slower, but if I'll be using Group Fly then it will mean one less toggle to mess with if I am going to take Afterburner.
I also wish we could select Group Fly as the second choice in the pool(to take instead of one of the other choices), but I'm not sure how that would make sense.
Mayeb it could work since now the tier 3 choice is a tier 1-2 choice, if it was made the new tier 3 since Fly has changed to essentially be tier 1-2. -
Do pets stay within range as you fly with Group Fly, or do they lag behind(as they do when traveling on the ground) and end up falling?
Do they stay within range if you fly straight up, thus providing the least range for them to fall behind due to a non-spherical Group Fly bubble(if it is non-spherical, I do not know)?
Do Demons specifically do well with Group Fly?
Does lag affect Group Fly with pets too badly?
I imagine a bad rubber-band may mean the pets are out of range and fall. Does this happen?
(I have to be concerned about lag as my internet is not exactly fast or perfect all day, every day.)
I'm rather curious about the above because I have gotten a bit tired of my Demons taking too long to follow me and being killed by enemy groups they run through. If Group Fly works with them well, that would alleviate the issues and allow me to take my pets quickly through messy areas.
It would also be interesting to see how a combination of Group Fly and Team Teleport would perform, which some builds may have the space to allow. -
@Vinceq1980 and Gospel NA:
The topic is about whether or not Time Manipulation is "the new tankermind".
It is not about "how can you improve it?".
Every set can be made pretty good, especially Time Manipulation, but it is not the best for a "tankermind", and sometimes just doesn't work.
Here is why:
1) Time Manipulation is almost wholly dependent on debuffs.
They can and are resisted by the enemies that "tankerminding" is done against. any other enemy is easy enough for the pets without the Mastermind tanking.
2) Those debuffs that are so important to Time Manipulation have a target cap.
They can only affect maybe 16 enemies at most. Time Manipulation really starts to fail when you are fighting over the aggro cap, such as Masterminds do when they crank the difficulty up to x8, because each enemy above the cap is not debuffed.
3) Probably the most important power in Time Manipulation is Time's Juncture, an offensive toggle.
If you're "tankerminding" then you are bound to get hit by a mez at some point, severely reducing your survival.
(Yes, you can take certain powers and inspirations to deal with it, but those are limited to certain levels and certain max amount of storage space. They're not the best choice even if they work, and they make the fight even more busy with an already busy archetype.)
4) Other sets just plain "tankermind" better, though they are not exactly easy to do that either.
Time Manipulation certainly will be more difficult to use to do the same considering how busy the set is.
Really, the first 3 points are the most important.
Debuffs have that target limit that prevents optimal effectiveness against many enemies while they are resisted by the tougher enemies, making them less valuable in both situations. One of your most important defensive powers also has the detoggle issue because it is an offensive debuff toggle.
Time Manipulation is far from ideal for "tankerminding". It's rather simple to see.
So, if you really want to "tankermind" then you're interested in performance more than a specific theme, or whatever makes you choose one set over a better one for the job.
You either want Time Manipulation and want to make it as good as you can or you want a "tankermind" and should look elsewhere for one that can reliably do so. -
If I have to pick one, which I want to anyway:
I would pick Demons/Force Field.
Demons just seem to be the best pets.
They have very desirable and powerful debuffs(slows and -resist).
They have more exotic damage types including fire, cold and toxic.
They have resistance buffs much more than any other pet set.
Demons are just awesome.
Force Field is very good as well. It's probably the easiest to manage set with some of the most desirable buffs in the game. The defense buffs, toxic resist buffs, endurance drain/recovery debuff resistance and mez protection all work extremely well with any pet set.
It works even better with demons due to the layered defenses of defense in front and resistance and mez protection behind that.
The best part is that Force Field leaves you free to manage your pets and your position in relation to them most of the time. It even gives you time(and defense to avoid interruption) the heal from the Medicine pool to heal your pets if need be(usually won't be needed with Force Field and Demon resistances).
If I had to choose a second choice it would probably be Demons/Sonic Resonance, and third would likely be Robots/Force Field with 4th being Demons/Time Manipulation. -
Quote:You know the shocking thing?Originally Posted by Nyghtmaire
No problem - the secret mastermind password is ...
/releasepets
(and thanks to Bloodspeaker for putting this in his/her sig!)
My Demons/Time Mastermind has NEVER had the pets freeze after a loading screen since issue 21.
I think they finally fixed the pet freeze bug.
But, the temporary buffs applied to pets now blink forever(while active) if you refresh them while they are blinking.
I think the two are related since the pets used to have the upgrade icons appear after a loading screen with an ever increasing number until they required /releasepets.
I'll take the flashing buffs bug every day over the freezing bug. -
Demons are just the best pets, especially for survivability. They're great even with only SOs.
I definitely recommend Demons for a Mastermind. I'm using Demons every time now, when I used to use Robots exclusively(and I recommend Robots as well, but not as much as Demons).
Demons/Time is pretty good, but I feel Demons/Force Field and Demons/Sonic are better, and certainly easier than Time. -
Quote:I made a mistake and updated my post with a new suggestion.Originally Posted by Pricey Socks
I already have maneuvers at 14. My reasoning for grant invisibility is I was running out of ideas for powers. I figured I could just cast grant invis on my pets before a big battle. I wouldn't bother trying to keep it up, but it might be nice to have at least in the beginning
Oppressive Gloom will help since you'll likely be in range for it anyway due to Time's Juncture and all.