Now for the breakdown on secondaries. As I said above, certain pet types work better with certain secondaries (Force Field+Robots, due to the extra bubbles you can stack with your Defender bots, for example)
Force Field: Recommended with Robots, Thugs, or Commandos. NOT recommended for Meele pets like ninja or Necromancy.
Dark: This has the only AOE heal available to MMs, but it starts out with a VERY small radius (Practically PBAOE Meele) so this works best for pets that tend to stand back and shoot (Commando, Robots) and less well with meele pets.
Poison: Can you really trust a rez from a powerset with this name? Anyway, this one can be effective for all pets, and has a single target heal, but doesn't really scream out "use me" on any particular type of pet...a good choice for masterminds who don't like to spend a lot of time adding extra buffs to their pets, or who want a teammate rez outside of the Medical pool.
Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
Trick Arrow: works well with the meele pets (Ninja, Zombie), due to all the debuffs, but be sure to pick up medical pool to heal your pets. The Ninja Mastermind has the advantage in that it won't "unready" his bow when using secondary powers.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
traps is more than trops...
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traps is more than trops...
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True, but that is by FAR its most useful power. It can be used in many different situations, and makes the others (For example Acid Mortar) more useful, simply by keeping the enemy from being able to get out of their effects quickly.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
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Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
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that is a really poor description.
If you're gonna write something up you should probably play it first.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
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that is a really poor description.
If you're gonna write something up you should probably play it first.
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Very much agree - traps is a great set - more then just caltrops.. They are nice but no where near a cornerstone of the power set.
Take Care,
BinkDeBook
Virtue: CaptainMayhem-50 Inv/SS Tank; NaomiArmitage-50 DM/Inv Scrap; Captn Randomizer-50 MC/Kin Cntrller; Murky Thecat-50 Claws/SR Scrap; Professor Junk-50 Bots/Traps MM; +Others Arc Id #77311, #227436
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Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
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that is a really poor description.
If you're gonna write something up you should probably play it first.
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Been playin it since COV was released. If I wanna use it that way, what business is it of yours to claim I don't play it? O uninformed one? Just because YOU don't use caltrops doesn't mean it isn't a great power.
You play without trops, and I'll play with em, and I'll solo purples, and you can get killed by oranges.
(EDIT) the purpose of this thread was to give a GENERAL Idea of the strengths of the various sets, not a comprehensive description of every power. Of all the powers in Traps, I, personally, have found Caltrops to be the most useful. Crowd control can be very powerful with pets...The FF Gen is nice, as are the various other things, but in GENERAL, I find caltrops the most useful. If you think your mastermind works a lot better without caltrops, I'll be more than happy to fight YOUR mastermind (without caltrops, with traps secondary) against MY Mastermind (Justice server, Necro/Traps) in the arena. While your pets are struggling to get around the corner, mine will be fighting on the trops just fine.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
Come on, Mister loudmouth...put your inf where your mouth is. I'll pit my 3 years of caltrop experience (2 in COH and 1 in COV) against your "Caltrops aren't all that useful" any day o the week. Name the server on which you have the Mastermind on which you claim to have all of this experience playing */Traps, and I'll tag along with your MM for 3 Relentless missions with you not using caltrops. We'll time how long it takes you to finish em, and how many times you die. Then we'll go over to Justice Server, where my */Traps Mastermind resides and do the same, with me USING Caltrops. I'm bettin you spend a LOT more time kissing the floor or fleeing the mission before it is complete (which would count as one "death" since you are essentially admitting that you would die if you stayed inside)
If I win, you give one of my characters a couple million inf, and if you win I do the same for one of yours. Maybe someone else will volunteer to tag along as well as an impartial referee?
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
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Come on, Mister loudmouth...put your inf where your mouth is. I'll pit my 3 years of caltrop experience (2 in COH and 1 in COV) against your "Caltrops aren't all that useful" any day o the week. Name the server on which you have the Mastermind on which you claim to have all of this experience playing */Traps, and I'll tag along with your MM for 3 Relentless missions with you not using caltrops. We'll time how long it takes you to finish em, and how many times you die. Then we'll go over to Justice Server, where my */Traps Mastermind resides and do the same, with me USING Caltrops. I'm bettin you spend a LOT more time kissing the floor or fleeing the mission before it is complete (which would count as one "death" since you are essentially admitting that you would die if you stayed inside)
If I win, you give one of my characters a couple million inf, and if you win I do the same for one of yours. Maybe someone else will volunteer to tag along as well as an impartial referee?
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He just jacked his own thread. WTH?
Im just curious what you think of poison trap red? Is it any good?
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Im just curious what you think of poison trap red? Is it any good?
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Quite good. Debuffs mobs passing through it with -regen, and stops some of them for a while. I usually drop one or two of these behind my caltrops, next to the Acid mortar, to pin attackers inside the mortar's firing radius. Wish the gas cloud lasted a bit longer, but you can't have everything. And since SOME people seem to think I don't know what I'm talking about, here are descriptions of all the "Traps" powers.:
Web Grenade: Identical to Blaster Devices secondary version. -fly + immob on single target.
Caltrops: Identical to Blaster Devices secondary version. Location AOE slow+Fear (makes enemies on the caltrops want to run away, not they type of fear that makes them cower) lowers the enemy's attack rate, as they spend more time trying ot get off the caltrops than attacking, and with several slow enhancers in it almost ensures that nothing short of an AV or elite boss can walk past it. Your ultimate insurance against bad pulls.
Triage Beacon: Basically a weak version of the green COT crystals. Speeds up the heal rate of any allies nearby. Makes a good beacon in PVP, since it can be seen at Loooooong range.
Acid Mortar: Aside from Caltrops, one of the powers you really don't wanna do without. Tosses out an AOE -DEF -RES debuff with a small DOT.
Force Field Generator: Acts like a dispersion bubble. Follows you around, protecting you with +Def and +resist for most status effects.
Poison Trap: One shot device, explodes with a -regen cloud and has a chance of putting a Sleep on affected mobs.
Seeker Drones: Summons two little hovering disks that look for nearby enemies and blow up, doing the equivalent of Illusion's "Flash" attack. Summon them in the middle of an enemy group and they suck up the alpha strike pretty well.
Trip Mine: Identical to Blaster Devices secondary version. Location AOE explosion, lots o damage and knockback. Multiples stacked in one location can take out bosses. Works best behind Caltrops, where mobs tend to get stacked up in large numbers trying to get past.
Detonator: Blow up one of your pets like one of those annoying COT mages. Good for punishing those stupid pets that always seem to rush into meele range. They're gonna die anyway, they may as well do some good.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
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Acid Mortar: Aside from Caltrops, one of the powers you really don't wanna do without. Tosses out an AOE -DEF -RES debuff with a small DOT.
Force Field Generator: Acts like a dispersion bubble. Follows you around, protecting you with +Def and +resist for most status effects.
Poison Trap: One shot device, explodes with a -regen cloud and has a chance of putting a Sleep on affected mobs.
Seeker Drones: Summons two little hovering disks that look for nearby enemies and blow up, doing the equivalent of Illusion's "Flash" attack. Summon them in the middle of an enemy group and they suck up the alpha strike pretty well.
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These are easily the four best powers in the set IMO. Also, I've never corner pulled in my life (not that it doesn't neccesarily work). What I usually do, solo here, is throw out seeker drones to absorb the alpha, then TP into the mob with hover on and lay a poison trap. Lay down an acid mortar and maybe some trops if theirs some hold/immob resistent enimies. Use web nade if anythings running. My Thugs take care of the rest pretty easily. It sounds risky, but it isn't because the drones absorb the alpha so well. Never died using it before.
One other thing to note, FF Gen is by far my favorite power in the set. Stack that with Thug maneuvers and they very rarely get hit unless they leave the bubble. I have Aid Other to help with healing.
EDIT: Just noticed something, Poison Trap definetly doesn't apply a sleep anymore. As of I8 its been changed to a hold.
Hmn..you can lay traps with Hover on? now THAT is a significant difference from the hero Devices power...the Ground effect powers like Trip Mine cant be used if you're flying...my traps MM picked Superspeed because I assumed that was the case with all the ground things in traps...can you lay acid mortars and Triage beacon and trip mines while hovering too?
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
Yep, you just must be close to the ground and it skips animation
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Yep, you just must be close to the ground and it skips animation
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Exactly. Its the only reason I took hover. As long as your touching the ground while hovering, you totally ignore the root (though you still cant activate powers).
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Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
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that is a really poor description.
If you're gonna write something up you should probably play it first.
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Been playin it since COV was released. If I wanna use it that way, what business is it of yours to claim I don't play it? O uninformed one? Just because YOU don't use caltrops doesn't mean it isn't a great power.
You play without trops, and I'll play with em, and I'll solo purples, and you can get killed by oranges.
(EDIT) the purpose of this thread was to give a GENERAL Idea of the strengths of the various sets, not a comprehensive description of every power. Of all the powers in Traps, I, personally, have found Caltrops to be the most useful. Crowd control can be very powerful with pets...The FF Gen is nice, as are the various other things, but in GENERAL, I find caltrops the most useful. If you think your mastermind works a lot better without caltrops, I'll be more than happy to fight YOUR mastermind (without caltrops, with traps secondary) against MY Mastermind (Justice server, Necro/Traps) in the arena. While your pets are struggling to get around the corner, mine will be fighting on the trops just fine.
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wow.
caltrops is the best power in the /traps set?
why is it that my necro/traps mm never took it until i did a respec at 41 and that's because i dropped gloom (do to my never using it) and needed to take another power?
withOUT caltrops, i've played on um, what's the villain version of invincible? relentless right? played on relentless even while, essentially PL'ing a couple of friends' MMs from like lvl 3 to 14.
i've never seen the need to pull. but, i know how to play my MM and use every power he has. if you're ONLY pulling purples, then yeah, team with someone that's good at playing their /traps MM. i think infernal gave me a headache and the others, well, they were fun to go against. lord forbid i take a couple of minutes to lay out a path of trip mines.
why?
because pretty much every power in traps has a use for ooooo every time i'm in a fight.
situational powers my butt. the only one i didn't like (and why i respec'd) was detonator.
perhaps you play a /devices blaster well, but trying to play an mm like a /dev blaster is limiting yourself in an insane way.
trip mines, even with only 2 rech and say 3 dam/1acc still comes up a LOT with hasten. then you have just so many other wonderful toys to play with, that it's insane.
but i don't see how you could think you can compare /dev to /traps. i don't get a targetting drone, that invis thingie, nor do i get an auto turret. those are all REAL biggies. matter of fact, i would LOVE to trade out detonator for auto turret.
if your love of /traps is caltrops, and you're defending it as the endall/beall of the set, please, skip over traps in your summary.
in GENERAL, i can't say there's a best OVERALL power in traps. i never go without the FFG. that'd be ludicrous. my healing comes from the lich (who is always threatening to dismember me first chance he gets) and triage beacon. seeker drones are great, especially when they overlap. acid mortar makes every fight go faster. ghost/lich lock down a LOT of things real quick, web grenades stops runners.
now, this is assuming i'm limiting myself to one group of mobs in a room and i haven't actually done the MM thing (which i normally do) and actively engaged every group of mobs in sight. tends to make the mission go faster. exception to that rule is if the big bad is an EB or higher. better to clear out most of the room before aggroing the big bad/good.
i'm afraid that if a lot of MMs read over your description of /traps, that you'd get people that like to crunch numbers and go into VERY detailed explanations, pointing out how you're not optimizing your playing for maximum (or even close to it) efficiency.
but hey, every super hero has it's jokers/riddlers who run at first hint of trouble and it's lex luthors who don power suits to duke it out with the big man.
Political correctness is a stench in the nose of God. Yes, your God(s) also.
BTW- Traps - Poison Trap has been a Hold since day one of CoV. Back when it started they use to vomit from it, then it didn't for a while when the broke it, and then they finally fixed it (forget when, check the patch notes 
).
The Poison - Poison trap - was a sleep.
And by far my favorite items in the Traps set are:
1) Force Field Gen - With this (and my Protector Bot's Shields I am almost unhittable)
2) Poison trap - I teleport at the baddies, and drop this all the time.
3) Acid Mortar - nothing like a high hit point device, that debuffs, and annoys the baddies
4) Web Grenade - Lock em down, so the bots can take em, out with annoying others (And I spam it all the time).
Caltrops are great for corner pulls, but by far not the best power in the set. Do I corner pull yes? Is it the only way? No. If I corner pull it is basically, drop Caltrop, drop a Trip Mine, and a Poison Trap, launch a Seeker drones, and bring em back to me. The caltrops are actually there so they trip the Mines and the Poison Trap, and stay in the right spot, otherwise they speed past them and out of the effects.
I've had every power in traps, I use almost every power (triage beacon is great for what it is worth, and has saved my life a ton). The only power in traps that was just too hard to use, and not worth it is was Detonator - looked cool- but sucked over all. Hence my respec on my Bots/Traps MM at 47.
If you feel caltrops to be the best power in the set, then you're welcome to your opinion, I think others here are just trying to point out that Traps isn't just corner pulls, you can be highly aggressive with it as well (read poison trap, seekers, etc).
But then this is just my opinion.
Take Care,
BinkDeBook
Virtue: CaptainMayhem-50 Inv/SS Tank; NaomiArmitage-50 DM/Inv Scrap; Captn Randomizer-50 MC/Kin Cntrller; Murky Thecat-50 Claws/SR Scrap; Professor Junk-50 Bots/Traps MM; +Others Arc Id #77311, #227436
Nice guide. Not super, because nothing was covered in-depth, but an easy ready for sure. Quick and easy, so I think it is more suited to newbies rather than advanced players looking for numbers and in-depth strategies.
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Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
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that is a really poor description.
If you're gonna write something up you should probably play it first.
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Been playin it since COV was released. If I wanna use it that way, what business is it of yours to claim I don't play it? O uninformed one? Just because YOU don't use caltrops doesn't mean it isn't a great power.
You play without trops, and I'll play with em, and I'll solo purples, and you can get killed by oranges.
(EDIT) the purpose of this thread was to give a GENERAL Idea of the strengths of the various sets, not a comprehensive description of every power. Of all the powers in Traps, I, personally, have found Caltrops to be the most useful. Crowd control can be very powerful with pets...The FF Gen is nice, as are the various other things, but in GENERAL, I find caltrops the most useful. If you think your mastermind works a lot better without caltrops, I'll be more than happy to fight YOUR mastermind (without caltrops, with traps secondary) against MY Mastermind (Justice server, Necro/Traps) in the arena. While your pets are struggling to get around the corner, mine will be fighting on the trops just fine.
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wow.
caltrops is the best power in the /traps set?
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Why is everyone putting these words in my mouth? I said it was GREAT, and that IN MY OPINION it was THE MOST VERSITILE (as in, can be used in almost every situation, as either offensive or devensive, etc) and that I would never make EITHER a Dev or Traps character without taking them.
Yet saying that it is Great and Versitile is FAR from saying that it is the BEST. Like all things, "Best" is subjective, and depends on what you're trying to accomplish at the time. Damagewise, Caltrops is pathetic. Trip Mines and Detonate are FAR more effective at damaging enemies, for example. It is an effective barrier to mobs' advance, but no more than that.
Yet nearly everyone is obsessing on one little comment in the initial (and yes, this was designed to help Noobs to the Mastermind decide sets they want to play, not as a be-all-and-end all Strategy guide, as most of you seem to be assuming) posts, to the exclusion of all the VERY BASIC outlines I was intending to confer. You guys sound like Al Gore trying to tell half the scientists in the world that he invented the internet and knows more than they do about Global Warming.
Give yer egos a rest dudes.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
maybe because you DID mention traps, and you mentioned a so/so power in it as the only power worth mentioning and you talked about pulling with a mastermind using caltrops...
why would a mastermind have to pull? why would you mention caltrops as the one power you mention when talking about traps?
people are honing in on it, because you're trivializing a lot of great powers and honestly, it sounds like you don't play /traps and you're talking about it like a blaster using devices or something.
MMs take their powersets pretty seriously. So if this is a 'noob' guide, you're misleading folks with haphazard comments like that.
Political correctness is a stench in the nose of God. Yes, your God(s) also.
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traps is more than trops...
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True, but that is by FAR its most useful power. It can be used in many different situations, and makes the others (For example Acid Mortar) more useful, simply by keeping the enemy from being able to get out of their effects quickly.
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'by far it's most useful power' doesn't mean "the best power"?
Political correctness is a stench in the nose of God. Yes, your God(s) also.
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traps is more than trops...
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True, but that is by FAR its most useful power. It can be used in many different situations, and makes the others (For example Acid Mortar) more useful, simply by keeping the enemy from being able to get out of their effects quickly.
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'by far it's most useful power' doesn't mean "the best power"?
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Nope.
Specific example: A Swiss Army Knife is by far more useful than the butter knife you make sandwiches with, or any other single knife, since it has many additional gadgets built in. That does NOT, however, make it the BEST knife, which is dependant on the situation. For example, Rambo, fighting in the jungle, is going to find a combat knife to be better (in that situation) than the S.A.K. or the afforementioned butterknife, while someone spreading butter on toast won't want to use a combat knife or a S.A.K.
Do you understand the distinction now?
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!
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traps is more than trops...
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True, but that is by FAR its most useful power. It can be used in many different situations, and makes the others (For example Acid Mortar) more useful, simply by keeping the enemy from being able to get out of their effects quickly.
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'by far it's most useful power' doesn't mean "the best power"?
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Nope.
Specific example: A Swiss Army Knife is by far more useful than the butter knife you make sandwiches with, or any other single knife, since it has many additional gadgets built in. That does NOT, however, make it the BEST knife, which is dependant on the situation. For example, Rambo, fighting in the jungle, is going to find a combat knife to be better (in that situation) than the S.A.K. or the afforementioned butterknife, while someone spreading butter on toast won't want to use a combat knife or a S.A.K.
Do you understand the distinction now?
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But caltrops is also not the swiss army knife of the set. That would probably be Acid Mortar because it can tank decently when it aggros enemies, it debuffs, and it does small damage.
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Now for the breakdown on secondaries. As I said above, certain pet types work better with certain secondaries (Force Field+Robots, due to the extra bubbles you can stack with your Defender bots, for example)
Force Field: Recommended with Robots, Thugs, or Commandos. NOT recommended for Meele pets like ninja or Necromancy.
Dark: This has the only AOE heal available to MMs, but it starts out with a VERY small radius (Practically PBAOE Meele) so this works best for pets that tend to stand back and shoot (Commando, Robots) and less well with meele pets. Seriously, you don't even mention fluffy. you spoke of caltrops in another section, but you fail to mention tar patch??? if for some reason you're insistent on pulling, what better than hit someone with sayyyy TG for the debuff, and pull them thru tar patch?
Poison: Can you really trust a rez from a powerset with this name? Anyway, this one can be effective for all pets, and has a single target heal, but doesn't really scream out "use me" on any particular type of pet...a good choice for masterminds who don't like to spend a lot of time adding extra buffs to their pets, or who want a teammate rez outside of the Medical pool.
Traps: Villain version of blaster Devices secondary, with a few modifications. Like Devices, it works best with corner pulls, dropping trops on the corner and pulling baddies onto them. If you're a pulling type personality who likes to have a good retreat option always available, this is your powerset.
Trick Arrow: works well with the meele pets (Ninja, Zombie), due to all the debuffs, but be sure to pick up medical pool to heal your pets. The Ninja Mastermind has the advantage in that it won't "unready" his bow when using secondary powers.
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Force Field - why is it not recommended with melee like ninja/necro?
Dark - has the only aoe heal available to MMs? doesn't triage beacon do some sort of healing in a pbaoe sort of way? and you should use TG only with ranged pets? i guess, if you play an MM that's unable to have his minions maintain aggro. on my /darks i'm right next to my guys so that they GET the heals. with all the debuffs/-acc/-res available to dark, there's no reason at all to hide in the corner like a nancy.
poison - you mention a rez outside of the medicine pool. may i direct your attention to screaming mimi delight of the dark miasma set, otherwise known as howling twilight. which can be used either as a stun/debuff with a long timer, OR as a rez (if you happen to be an MM that takes pity upon other ATs and teams up to let them soak up some of your uberness).
that's a quickie review of your quickie reviews. if you want to talk smart alec and down to people, i'm more than happy to break down the rest of the incorrect things you've said about secondaries, point out how you emphasize powers that don't "define" the set while ignoring set defining powers and then move onto your primary set breakdowns.
learn manners, because winning teh interwebs isn't what it's cracked up to be.
Political correctness is a stench in the nose of God. Yes, your God(s) also.
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Necromancy: Pets of medium toughness. Expect to spend a good deal of time healing zombies. One or more of your zombies will ALWAYS close to meele range. Soul Extraction power gives you a seventh (flying) pet with long very long range attacks suitable for pulling from long range. This pet's strength varies depending on which of your 3 base pet types died to give you the dead body to summon it from. The ghost is always -1 level to you, like your mid-teir pets.
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this could be reworded to something a bit more helpful, such as:
tier 1 - cannon fodder who get a nifty ranged vomit attack
tier 2 - scrankers - tank/scrapper mix and you get TWO unlike other sets who only get one tank!
tier ghost - a semi troller available at lvl 18, with hasten and recharges, you can get this guy out, a lot (of course you have to send a single minion in as a sacrifice, but small price to pay)
tier 3 - lich - you get a dark/dark type pet who can lock down all sorts of enemies with PG and FS & who debuffs like mad (with the occasional TG heal).
all undead seem to wear rags soaked in gasoline, so be wary of fire.
why are you obsessed with pulling? MMs burst into missions and lay complete waste to everything in their paths. they don't pull and hide. you get ambushed and half the time you+minions outnumber the ambushers -- why in the world would i be pulling? am i going to send my lich in a corner so that he doesn't mistakenly lock down the entire group i'm pulling? if you're pre-lich, you don't have to wait until your 20s to get your tank, you get your first tank at lvl 12~!! (unlike other powersets).
Political correctness is a stench in the nose of God. Yes, your God(s) also.
Alright. Lots of Mastermind guides deal with how to set up macros, control pets, and so on, so I leave you to seek those out yourself.
This one will deal with the burning question: Which kind of mastermind do _I_ want to play?
Now for the pets' perspective on this, I leave you with someone who has had lots of experience being a minion: Jeeves.
Hi, folks. Now I've been a follower of a lot of villains, and I can tell you, it's important to have the right kind of boss. For example, If you're a Thug, it's no good to have a boss who doesn't know the value of a good Gang War summon. And can you believe that I've seen Necro masterminds who don't even know the difference between summoning the ghost of a Lich and the ghost of a Zombie? I mean, aside from the Lich one having nearly twice the hitpoints? Anyway, da boss here will give you the lowdown on what you can expect from each of da powersets. Got dat chart ready, boss?
Yes indeed, Jenkins. Now babysit my Rikti monkey while I go over it.
Now then, Here is a brief summary of each of the main powersets available:
Robots: Overall, the most durable pets. Good ranged attacks, and bubble/healerbots (they only heal your pets, not you) as mid teir pets. Robots are the best pets at self-maintainance, freeing up some of your power slots for attacks/secondaries that might otherwise need to go to medical pool. Recommended Secondaries: Force Field (Stack with bubblebot bubbles for VERY hard to kill pets), Darkness or Traps.
Necromancy: Pets of medium toughness. Expect to spend a good deal of time healing zombies. One or more of your zombies will ALWAYS close to meele range. Soul Extraction power gives you a seventh (flying) pet with long very long range attacks suitable for pulling from long range. This pet's strength varies depending on which of your 3 base pet types died to give you the dead body to summon it from. The ghost is always -1 level to you, like your mid-teir pets.
Thugs: Fairly fragile. Expect to spend lots of time healing your Pyro pet, as he makes your enemies very angry. Gang War power gives you a small horde of fairly wimpy extra pets, good for distracting mobs while you heal your "real" pets. Recommend a good healing secondary, preferably darkness, since it has an AOE heal.
Ninjas: Like thugs, ninja are fairly fragile. Heals are a must with this set, as not only are your pets fragile, but they rush into meele almost as much as zombies do. If you don't get a healing secondary, you will want to get medical pool so you can at least heal one pet at a time. The temptation is to take Trick Arrow secondary, since it doesn't put your weapon away between secondary power attacks and your primary set attacks. Your second tier pets get Caltrops with the first powerup, so try to pull mobs to doorways. You get a cool Japanese devil (oni) as your third teir pet.
Mercinaries: A good compromise pet type for those who prefer to stand back and shoot. Your third first-teir pet is a medic, who will heal your pets or you, kinda at random. Traps makes a good secondary, letting you plop down caltrops and pepper your enemies with machine gun fire from relative safety. My personal favorite is to get Group flight and keep my pets up in the air, raining lead on the foe from above (but keep in mind, you cannot upgrade a flying pet, so have your pets upgraded before you take to the air, and Traps doesn't work as your secondary in this case, since you can't use most of those powers from the air.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!