Sapph's Power and Tactics Guide to Bot/Dark v2

Sapph · 02-24-2006 09:06 AM

The Mastermind AT is completely unique in the CoH/CoV universe. No other AT gets pets so early, so many pets, or such nuanced control over their pets. In fact, the experience is so different; most people don't even call what Masterminds use pets. They are called minions or henchmen. We will be using henchmen here. Now to the specifics.

Robotics: An Overview

In general, your bots will share a few characteristics. They will have a resistance to lethal/psionic/cold damage. They will have a resistance to sleep/fear/disorient effects. They prefer ranged, and will use energy based attacks. Like all other MMs, you have three henchmen classes, and two upgrade powers. The upgrade powers are called Equip Robot and Upgrade Robot. Your henchmen are as follows:

Henchmen

Battle Drone: Your basic expendable battle bot. They can be quite unintelligent, and will often run to melee for no apparent reason. They have Super Leap as an inherent power, but will not use it as a travel power, only as a means to scale otherwise impassable heights. You get your second bot at 6 and your third at 18. They start with two powers:

* Ranged Blast (Ranged, Energy)
* Smash (Melee, Smashing)

After the initial upgrade, they gain just one ability:

* Heavy Laser Burst (Ranged, Energy/Smashing) BI: 1.78 1.14

After the final upgrade, they gain:

* Full Auto Laser (Ranged, Energy)

Protector Bot: The little defender that could. Your protector bots are perfectly capable offensively, but their primary usefulness to you will be their defender style abilities. You get your second bot at 24. They start with two powers:

* Force Bubble (+DEF(All))
* Ranged Blast (Ranged, Energy)

After the initial upgrade they gain two abilities:

* Limited Repair (Heal Bot) This is not the full heal of Repair in the bot line, but a much more limited heal.
* Heavy Laser Burst (Ranged, Energy/Smashing)

After the final upgrade, they gain:

* Photon Grenade (Ranged AoE, Disorient, Smashing)
* Seeker Drones - These Seeker Drones will follow your bot until they detect an enemy and then they will zero in on their targets and detonate on impact. The small explosive flash of energy does only minor damage, but the concussion can weaken foes. Affected targets will have reduced Damage, Accuracy and Perception and may even be Disoriented for a short while. Your bot can only ever have Two Seeker Drones out at one time and they can be destroyed by its foes.

Assault Bot: This mammoth bot is literally a killing machine. 'Nuff said. It starts with one power:

* Plasma Blast (Ranged, Energy)
* Smash (Melee, Smashing)

The initial upgrade grants two new abilities:

* Flamethrower (Cone, Fire)
* Dual Plasma Blast (Ranged, Energy)

After the final upgrade, they gain:

* Swarm Missles (Targeted AoE, Disorient)
* Incendiary Swarm Missles (Targeted AoE - For ever target successfully hit, an ignite patch will be dropped)

Notes and Tactics

A note about bot control: It appears that bots have two separate path finding algorithms. One for "Attack My Target" and one for "Goto" or "Follow". The AMT pathfinding will cause you nothing but problems. You should always use Follow or Goto to place your bots before activating AMT.

A second note about bot control: Like a bunch of newbs, if you throw your bots in a room on Aggressive Mode, and don't tell them who to attack, they will all pick different targets, sometimes from multiple spawns, they will switch targets randomly, and they will take forever to finish. This is a good way to die. I suggest ALWAYS using AMT for target selection.

Pulling

What I do is set my bots to Passive/Stay. Its best if they are around a corner from the mob you are trying to pull. I then peel one bot off the group, and set him to AMT. As soon as he starts moving, I hit my Go To, and get ready to send him where the rest of the bots are. As soon as he begins the attack animation, I complete the goto command, so he will scamper off and hide. I follow, and drop a Tar Patch on my side of the corner, in case he pulled more than one. Often my trusty little drone will only pull one, however. He's a better puller than I am.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
| * | | * | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | -> | D | -> | | | |
| | | | | * | -> | |
| | | | | | | |
-------- | -------- | -------- | -------- |
H | H P | P H T | P H T |
| | D | D |
| | | |
---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------

The prep. The setup. The wait. The gloat.
H is your henchmen. P is you. You're behind your The * is gone
* is the target. D is your drone. bots, you've pulled because he is dead.
the drone back and
laid the Tar Patch
(indicated by T)</pre><hr />

Avoiding Alpha Strikes

Now, there are a number of ways to do this, depending on the type and severity of the alpha. Here are a few methods.

<ul type="square">[*] Set one bot to Goto/Agg, and put him right in the middle.[*] Set them all to Goto/Agg, and put them right in the middle (I might only use this in a large group when my summons were all recharged)[*] Summon a fluffy right in the middle (assuming you have Shadow Fall to get close enough)[*] Howling Twilight. Auto-hit and disorient. The cavalry better come in fast, though, because in a few seconds, their heads will clear.[*] Fearsome Stare. You better have some Acc and Duration slotted, because anything you miss will be looking right at you.[*] Send in the Brute. What's one brute, more or less? [/list]

Upgrades

Assuming you have three recharges in your 2nd upgrade, this is my upgrade order, I find it to be the most effecient. YMMV.

Drop toggles
Cast Assault Bot, Protector Bots, Battle Drones (in that order)
Double upgrade Assault Bot
First upgrades on Battle Drones
Double upgrade first Protector Bot
First upgrade second Prot Bot
If you have Stamina, raise toggles. Otherwise Rest, then raise toggles.

By this point the second upgrade will likely be ready (or nearly ready) for the second Prot Bot. Proceed into mission, upgrading as available.

Pet Management

Avoid the Agg stance at all costs unless you have a specific objective in mind, and you really know what you are doing. I often run on Passive. However, be aware that your Prot Bots will not bubble or heal in Passive, so you may want to put them in Def. For bots, you almost always want to use AMT. You want to concentrate your fire, and minimize your aggro. It is a mathematical certainty that you will kill faster and take less damage by concentrating on single targets.

Be aware of your surroundings. If you have a large team in an indoor mission, don't block access to doorways. However, if you have ranged ATs on your team and they have LOS, you can use your bots to block access from the mobs to your mates. If you are not the meatsheild, consider staying in back of the group. If your pets close to melee, make sure they aren't keeping your melee teammates from being able to hit the mob.

Be liberal in your use of the goto command. Pathing can be funky, but goto can often clear it up. Be liberal in your use of the stay command. When pets act wild, and Follow isn't working, sometimes Stay/Pass is all you need.

Think about AoEs. If you know you are going to be encountering an AoE happy foe, consider deploying your bots in a horseshoe, and pulling the mob in.

Think about knockback. Your bots have it, and Tar Patch does you no good if your first attack knocks them out of it. Consider arrangements where knockback will knock them into a wall, and your Tar Patch extends to the wall. There is nowhere out. ;p

Recommended Build

Now to the build. My build is centered on one ideal: Let my bots do the fighting. All of it. I don't take a single attack. There are just too many good buffs and debuffs. Buffs and debuffs are what I like to call a Force Multiplier. A defender running Assault solo is great, and I'm sure he likes that 12% buff. But when a lvl26 MM runs it, she gets her Assault bonus times SIX. I am of the opinion that given a choice between an attack and a buff/debuff, there is NO choice. With that said, lets move on.

Also a note on Stamina: I know there are those out there that say its not neccessary, blah blah blah. When you are running Tactics, Assault, Darkest Night, and constantly spamming Twilight Grasp and Tar Patch . . . well, you'll see.

LEVEL 1 POWER CHOICES:
Robotics: Battle Drone. This is obvious. Take it and use it. I slot as follows: 2 Accuracy 3 Damage and 1 Knockback. If you plan on teaming with a lot of melee types, you could easily drop the knockback slot and apply it elsewhere.

Dark Miasma: Twilight Grasp. No choice here. But its a nice power. Twilight Grasp is a PBAoE heal that will have one of the primary debuffs of this set: Acc. It requires a target, but unlike the Kin set, if the target dies during casting, you still get your heal. If you are near your bots, as you should be with this build, they will all get a nice heal. I six slot this. 1 Acc, 2 Heal, 2 Recharge Reduction, and 1 End Reduction.

LEVEL 2 POWER CHOICE:

Dark Miasma: Tar Patch. Great power. Targeted AoE that is perma-able. +Slow, -Fly, -Jump, -Res. That -RES is a HUGE boost in long fights. Check the tactics section - this power can completely change your pulling strategy. I five slot this. 3 Recharge Reduction, 1 Endurance Reduction, and 1 Slow.

LEVEL 4 POWER CHOICE:

Dark Miasma: Darkest Night. This is also a big help in the big boss battles. -DMG and -ACC. Again, the ToHit Debuff. It happens a lot in this build, and if you slot for it, you will be able to consistantly floor mob's ToHit. Its a toggle, and so my five slots here go: 3 End Reduction and 2 To Hit Debuffs.

LEVEL 6 POWER CHOICES:

Robotics: Equip Robot. In a game of mandatory powers, this is high on the list. No need to slot it much, it stands on its own. I slot with an End Red and/or a Recharge.

LEVEL 8 POWER CHOICE:

Leaping: Combat Jumping. I hear a lot of MMs will be taking Teleport. Thats all well and fine; insert the lead in to the travel power of your choice. I picked this because I love Super Jump, and because the ability to get out of an immob is useful to me. I slot for End Red.

LEVEL 10 POWER CHOICE:

Leadership: Assault. And here it begins. Three slot with End Red, and love the 11% boost to damage it gives. Coupled with the boost from Supremacy, this is a 36% boost - better than an SO, and with none of that nasty ED business to bring it down. It is pricey, though. Three slot with EndRed.

LEVEL 12 POWER CHOICE:

Robotics: Protector Bots. Since you already have Equip Robot, you can see them shine right from the get go. Their bubbles offer DEF to all types, and they will bubble all friendly henchmen and you. They will repair all friendly robot henchmen, and they have attacks too. Five slot these puppies. You have three real slotting options. If you are using Manuevers, and are planning on slotting Shadow Fall for def, you can do the def slotting: 1 Accuracy, 2 Damage and 2 Defense Buffs. If you want to go wild with the soft control, you can slot 1 Accuracy, 2 Damage and 2 Disorient. Otherwise 1 Accuracy, 2 Damage and 2 Heal. Once you get Upgrade Robot, replace one of either the DefBuff, Disorient or Heal (whichever you went with) with 1 EndRed, because they WILL run out of end.

LEVEL 14 POWER CHOICE:

Leaping: Super Jump. Or whatever travel power you chose. I like SJ.

LEVEL 16 POWER CHOICE:

Fitness: Hurdle. Or Swift. Whatever. You are going to be running some toggles, though, so Stamina is still on the list, ED or no.

LEVEL 18 POWER CHOICE:

Dark Miasma: Shadow Fall. Lets face it, as a Mastermind we are the squishiest of the squishy. A little stealth never hurt, ESPECIALLY if you plan on doing some PvP. The DEF and RES are minimal at best, but every little bit helps. I three slot this for End Red.

LEVEL 20 POWER CHOICE:

Fitness: Health. Or Swift. Or Hurdle. Whatever. You know what the goal here is, and you know how to get to it.

LEVEL 22 POWER CHOICE:

Fitness: Stamina. We are running some heavy toggles, and respawning and upgrading bots in mid battle can be end intensive. Per ED dogma, this gets just three slots.

LEVEL 24 POWER CHOICE:

Leadership: Tactics. You might skip this power, and slot Acc in your bots instead. But remember that most of your bots are going to spawn at a lower level than you. If you are fighting +2, they are +3 or +4 to your bots. This gets six slots: 3 Endurance Reduction, and 3 To Hit Buffs. This combined with Supremacy should be enough to make your bots hit. Remember that ToHit is more powerful than Acc - this makes up for a LOT of Acc slotting.

LEVEL 26 POWER CHOICE:

Robotics: Assault Bot. What else? This gets just four slots. 1 Accuracy and 3 Damage.

LEVEL 28 POWER CHOICE:

Dark Miasma: Howling Twilight. This is NOT only useful for teams. If you are a pure solo machine, it is an auto-hit high mag AoE disorient. And nothing is better on a team than being able to rez 5 people at once. I three slot for recharge.

LEVEL 30 POWER CHOICE:

Dark Miasma: Petrifying Gaze. This is a departure from the previous guide. I never needed Repair, but oh what a difference a hold can make. When you come across spawns with two nasties (Spec Ops with the Sapper Grenade, or Flamethrowers), you can sic your minions on one, and hold the other. Throw as many Hold and Rech on this as you can manage.

LEVEL 32 POWER CHOICE:

Robotics: Upgrade Robot. Nothing needs to be said here. The recharge on this is a little longer, so I slot 3 Recharge Reductions.

LEVEL 35 POWER CHOICE:

Teleportation: Recall Friend. To be honest, I couldn't think of anything else to take. And it WILL be helpful when your bots get stuck on some doodad sticking out of the wall. This gets one Endurace Reduction enhancement.

LEVEL 38 POWER CHOICE:

Dark Miasma: Dark Servant. I imagine after 37 levels of obedient pets, the Dark Servant will seem obtuse, but it can do helpful things. Besides, who would pass up another pet? I six slot. You can focus on one specific area, or you can go wild. Useful enhancements include Heal, Hold, Immob, To Hit Debuff, Recharge and Taunt. I slot 1 Acc, 3 Recharge and 2 Hold.

Finally, I have found Khaiba's Mastermind Numeric Keypad Pet Controls to be invaluable in my quest for world domination. Acaos greatly helped me vet some of the typos and other errors. Aenix gave me a good common sense tip about power orders. And Hart for clueing me in to the worderful world of Howling Twilight, which I had never used before. AmazingRando gave me some dark news about ProtBot bubbles.

Jane_Little · 02-27-2006 08:47 AM

Nice bit on pulling there and on the start up buff chain.
Why no fearsome stare?

Jane Little Inv/Axe Lvl 50
Jane White Dark/Regen Lvl 50
Jane Dark BoardSword/Inv Lvl 50
Dig For Fire Fire/Axe Lvl 50
Jane Gravel Fire Melee/Stone Lvl 50

Sapph · 02-27-2006 11:04 AM

A few reasons really.

1) No room for it. Not powerwise - I could always drop the 'port. Slotwise. TP Friend requires no extra slotting to be effective, Fearsome Stare does.

2) Part of the cornerstone of the build is aggro-minimizer. The last thing I need to do is piss off a cone.

3) Its use as a soft control is greatly minimized after 32, when bots throw out AoEs like Octopi at a Red Wings game.

But, YMMV, so if you really like it, you know . . . you're not obligated to follow my build. ;p

Mastamind · 05-03-2006 05:58 AM

Yeah, I agree. Fearsome Stare isn't that useful. Just get the cone fear, it's a lot more useful. Fearsome Stare is a waste of endurance and slots.

Rider_NA · 05-03-2006 08:58 PM

I wonder, would it be useful to get Group Fly instead of Recall Friend?
Obviously, assuming that Fly was my travel power of choice.

Sapph · 05-04-2006 02:42 AM

If Fly is already your travel power of choice, I would definately pick it up. Very neat animation. That doesn't obliviate the need for Recall Friend however. There are just too many times when your bots get stuck somewhere, and you can't afford to run away until it self-ports to you.

Rider_NA · 05-06-2006 11:36 AM

Hmmm.....I see, yeah Recall Friend does sound pretty useful, but what should be the best advise? I mean, out of those powers, which one would be best (or less worst) to give up for Group Fly?

Well....maybe the smartest idea might end up being to get the Teleport poll instead of Fly.......but I dunno, I really like fly........

Sapph · 05-06-2006 12:15 PM

I would say the only soft spots in this build are for Recall Friend or Petrifying Gaze. Both are great though. You might just wait for I7 and shift Petrifying Gaze or Group Fly to 41.

Sapph · 10-06-2006 05:48 AM

A quick little update for PPPs. I'll make a v3 later.

Essentially, I recommending picking up a shield to offset squishiness, especially a res based shield. I recommend an AoE immob to stick mobs in your Tar Patch and keep them rooted for Assault Bot's ignite patches. And, possibly, a hold. If you already have Petrifying Gaze, a second hold can let you be far more effective against mez resistant mobs.

Turbo_Ski · 10-06-2006 06:47 AM

[ QUOTE ]
A quick little update for PPPs. I'll make a v3 later.

Essentially, I recommending picking up a shield to offset squishiness, especially a res based shield. I recommend an AoE immob to stick mobs in your Tar Patch and keep them rooted for Assault Bot's ignite patches. And, possibly, a hold. If you already have Petrifying Gaze, a second hold can let you be far more effective against mez resistant mobs.

[/ QUOTE ]
wait wouldn't a DEF based shield be just as good since it already stacks with Protector Bot's shield and ShadowFall....I had to post about something in Sapph's guide :P nice guide by the way.

Sapph · 10-06-2006 08:34 AM

Thanks. Shadow Fall does indeed have DEF. But it also has RES. It may be personal prejudice, but to me, if you have to pick a small amount of DEF or a small amount of RES (and lets be clear: with MMs, we are talking about small amounts), then RES will be more noticable.

Roseheart · 10-09-2006 07:17 AM

Pretty nice guide, but I use a bit different of tactics. From the CoH Builder program, I have designed it as follows:

01 : Twilight Grasp acc(01) hel(19) hel(19) hel(21)
01 : Pulse Rifle Blast acc(01) dam(3) dam(5) dam(9) rng(21)
02 : Pulse Rifle Burst acc(02) dam(3) dam(5) dam(9) rng(34)
04 : Tar Patch recred(04)
06 : Battle Drones acc(06) dam(7) dam(7) dam(15) damres(34) damres(37)
08 : Equip Robot endred(08)
10 : Combat Jumping endred(10) defbuf(11) defbuf(11) defbuf(15)
12 : Protector Bots acc(12) dam(13) dam(13) dam(17) damres(37) damres(43)
14 : Super Jump endred(14)
16 : Shadow Fall endred(16) damres(34) damres(40) damres(17)
18 : Swift runspd(18)
20 : Acrobatics endred(20)
22 : Health hel(22) hel(23) hel(23)
24 : Stamina endrec(24) endrec(25) endrec(25)
26 : Assault Bot acc(26) dam(27) dam(27) dam(29) damres(31) damres(31)
28 : Petrifying Gaze acc(28) hlddur(29) hlddur(31) hlddur(33) recred(33) recred(33)
30 : Kick (Fight) acc(30) dam(36) dam(36) dam(36)
32 : Upgrade Robot endred(32)
35 : Tough endred(35) damres(37) damres(42) damres(42)
38 : Dark Servant acc(38) recred(39) recred(39) hlddur(39) hlddur(40) hel(40)
41 : Weave endred(41) defbuf(42) defbuf(43) defbuf(43)

I like being part of the action, and play essentially a blaster until level 6. Kick also comes in handy to get baddies away from you quickly. Comments? Questions? Am I completely insane?

"May all your hits be crits." - Knights of the Dinner Table

Heroes: Roseheart (Spine/SR Scrap), Jesus Freak (SS/WP Brute), Animatic (Axe/WP Brute)
Villains: Krazeek (SS/Elec Brute), Oblivion Probe (Bots/Dark MM), Officer Loveless (Stone/Regen Brute), Thrashcore (Sonic/Devices Blaster)

Sapph · 10-09-2006 12:01 PM

I would say so. IMO, taking a MM's weapon primary powers is worse than insane - it's foolish. First, it takes up slots you could be using for Darkest Night and Howling Twilight - two awesome powers. Second, it will /significantly/ increase your end usage - which is important for you because for some reason, you decided to take Tough and Weave - two powers that have been neutered beyond recognition. T&W used to be manditory in my Scrapper builds. Now I never use it. Endurance cost is far too high for such a negligable benefit.

You got a baddie you want to leave you alone? Target your bots on it. Hold it. Immob/Tar Patch it and run away. No need to take an otherwise useless offensive power.

Finally, offensive powers bring aggro - without them, you often won't need to kick mobs away, because they won't even be looking at you.

Of course, this is all just my opinion on max effectiveness. You should, as always, play the way you enjoy.