I10 Necro/Dark Mastermind Guide

I know this is going to be obsolete soon, but the info here is still good until they add new sets in I11 when it launches (which will hopefully happen by the end of next month). My main reason for posting this is because I messed up the format so much last time around and it's been bugging me.

I'll revamp the IO section once I11 comes out since I know a lot more about the sets and what to look for (even though Balor doesn't have a single IO on him - I've been busy with other characters who have greatly benefited from the new Invention system) and there will be new rare recipes for us to look at.

So here's the mostly copy-and-pasted I9 guide with formatting fixed:

Geek Boy’s Necromancy/Dark Miasma Mastermind Guide

The first thing I want to go over are some of my ideas on how to play a Mastermind. If you don’t agree with these principles, then it’s likely that you won’t agree with a lot of the things that I have to say in this guide.

1) As a Necromancy/Dark Mastermind, you are not here to do damage. There are some other sets where you can make an argument for taking attacks, but if you see orange numbers over someone’s head, then it’s because your pets are damaging them or you’re not doing something right. It may not seem that way at level 4, but if you stick with it to level 50 you’ll see this is true. Don’t invest in anything that does damage other than your pets. Period.

2) Pets r dum. Really. You can’t simply fire and forget them or you (and your team) will die. A lot. Those pet controls that you’re given at level one are mostly sufficient to keep them going (though there are a lot of good guides for fine-tuning them), but I would suggest creating a button that sets your pets to aggressive at a specific location so that you can force them into melee combat. Zombies and Grave Knights are at their deadliest at close range, so being able to place them in a specific location is a must in boss and AV/Hero battles. This will also help keep you alive since the game’s AI will be more concerned with the mob coming at them than the guy in the back providing debuffs. As an added bonus, they increased their speed with Issue 8, meaning they move too quickly for you to recall them before they cause problems sometimes. There are times when there’s nothing you can do about that, but . . . .

3) Pet AI is not an excuse for you being dumb. You can control them with the tools that the developers have given you, so do it. This AT requires micro-management. If you don’t like it, then you need to move on.

4) While you were formerly useless in PVP, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. With the addition of Bodyguard and some shields from the Epic sets, you’re going to survive a lot longer than you could before. There are still a lot of ways to take you down though, so don’t get cocky.

5) I interchange the words “pet” and “minion.” If you’re really anal about that, then this will annoy you. Don’t bother complaining to me about it, because I’m not going to care. Yes, I get that there’s a difference, but they are synonyms in the current vernacular of most of the player base (myself included). Also, unlike some of the other odd terms that have leaked into said vernacular, “pet” makes sense (a prime example of a word people use that makes no sense is “toon,” which I assume is short for “cartoon,” which has nothing to do with this game, it’s setting, or it’s mechanics).

6) This is a guide for people that are going to take their pets. If you want to run a petless MM, then that’s fine. You go right ahead. It should be an interesting challenge, but this guide isn’t written with you in mind.

Powers:

This is just the standard list of powers, what they do, and what I think of them. I’ll post a few builds at the end, but you don’t have to follow them. There are a lot of variations that work, but I have my own opinions on what works best. Older versions had numbers that I swiped from ThePacster’s excellent guide, but since so many of the numbers have changed with Issue 7, I took the numbers from the Prima Guide for now. These are still the best numbers I can find, but I’m not going to swear they’re right.

The Inventions System:

I’m going to revamp the way I list slotting options to discuss the available IO sets and whether I think they’re worth exploring or not. This is based almost entirely on opinion since there aren’t a lot of full sets floating around out there and I know that I personally don’t have the cash to buy all the things I’d like to try out.

The way I’m going to do this is suggest slotting priority and then briefly discuss the sets that are available. There are so many new options that providing a completely comprehensive list of all the slotting possibilities is unrealistic and would become a chore to slog through. I want this guide to be as complete as possible while still being enjoyable to read. There are some great resources available that crunch every number you might be able to ask for, so we’ll let them play to their strengths and I’ll try to play to mine.

Here’s an example of how I’m going to display the IO information:

Unquestionable Loyalty is available between levels 10 and 30 and (2) reduces Immobilization Duration by 1.1%, (3) provides a Health Bonus of 0.75%, and provides a Recovery Bonus of 0.9%. Since most Masterminds can get by without Stamina anyway, the Recovery Bonus could theoretically help you put it off even longer. I don’t see this set being viable at level 50, though.

First I’m listing the name and the level ranges the IO recipes drop at, then a list of what bonuses the set provides. This is a straight list that I devised to keep it simple. The first bonus provided (reduces Immobilization Duration by 1.1%) is for two IO’s, the second (a .75% Health Bonus ) for three, etc. If there are less than five of them, then there are only bonuses for having two, three, four, and five IO’s in the set (some sets don’t have 6 IO’s in them, so not all sets will have five bonuses listed).

Some useful links:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat ... er=8154516

http://paragonwiki.com/index.php?title= ... ement_Sets

Necromancy:

Dark Blast: Level 1
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 80’
End Cost: 6.5
Cast Time: 1
Recharge Time: 4
Effects: 30.58 Negative Energy Damage, 5.62 decrease in ToHit Chance for 6 seconds.

Your basic single target blast. Not necessarily a bad attack, but it’s got a low base damage and it’s not going to get much more powerful even if you slot it. While I think it’s a good idea for you to have a single attack at low levels, this isn’t the one that I would suggest. As with all Dark Blast powers, this debuffs accuracy.

Also, if you take this at level 1 instead of your Zombie Horde, then you’re an idiot.

Slotting: Very low priority slotting-wise. If you feel you must take this power, I wouldn’t invest many (read: any) slots into it since even fully slotted, it isn’t going to provide much in the way of damage. The IO sets are for Ranged Single Target, which has some interesting sets available, but the minor bonuses that are available aren’t worth losing efficiency in your other powers to gain.

IO Discussion: I don’t see any of the IO Sets working particularly well for a Mastermind unless you just have a ton of slots left over.

Zombie Horde: Level 1
[Levels 1 - 5] -- 1 Zombie
[Levels 6 - 17] -- 2 Zombies (-1 Level)
[Levels 18+] -- 3 Zombies (-2 Level)

Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 19.5
Cast Time: 3.1
Recharge Time: 60

Status Resistance: Sleep, Fear, Disorient, Slow
Damage Resistance: [40%] Smashing, Cold, Negative Energy, Toxic, Psionic

Initial Abilities: Zombie Brawl
Enchant Undead: Projectile Vomit [Ranged Cone], Zombie Vomit [Melee AoE]
Dark Empowerment: Siphon Life

Your journey to being a God among mortals begins. Your first pet is a useful companion from level 1 all the way up. At first you’ll love him and cherish him, but soon you’ll realize just how expendable these guys are and throw them around like the cannon fodder they were born (and expired and re-animated) to be. Zombie Brawl does great damage right away at level 1, but these guys really start to shine once you hit level 6 and they start vomiting on everything. Remember how much it hurt when that first Vazhilok took you down with their toxic damage? WELL WHO HAS THE PEA SOUP NOW, PUNK!?

A word on the final upgrade: yes, it’s nice for your zombies to be able to heal themselves. It isn’t absolutely necessary, though. You’ll want that first upgrade on them before you go into battle (at least when you have a choice in the matter), but the second one should only be added as needed. They fire it off with a decent amount of intelligence, but for the most part they go down in 2 or so hits in higher level missions anyway. The little bit of healing they do for themselves isn’t going to keep them alive long term. That’s your job.

Slotting: How you slot this depends on what other powers you take. If you have the Leadership Pool, you can probably get away with fewer Accuracies, but everyone else should consider going with two or three Accuracies (assuming you’re slotting with SO’s or IO’s and not a set) since these guys will eventually be spawning at –2 to your level. Since you’ll be fighting things that are +2 and +3 to you, that puts your minions chances of hitting without Supremacy (the automatic buff to Accuracy and Damage that minions receive while they’re in range of you) and some decent enhancements at next to nothing. I personally recommend slotting for Accuracy and Damage since their other aspects aren’t really worth slotting. The Accuracy Debuff and Heal are nice, but not substantial enough to make a big enough difference to be worth the slots.

IO Discussion: There are a lot of interesting options for pets in the IO sets, but remember that you can’t slot their secondary effects with the set pieces. They only address Accuracy, Damage, and Endurance Reduction (outside of the special IO’s from some of the sets). Since pets are your bread and butter, let’s look at the available sets a little more closely.

Unquestionable Loyalty is available between levels 10 and 30 and (2) reduces Immobilization Duration by 1.1%, (3) provides a Health Bonus of 0.75%, and provides a Recovery Bonus of 0.9%. Since most Masterminds can get by without Stamina anyway, the Recovery Bonus could theoretically help you put it off even longer. I don’t see this set being viable at level 50, though.

Commanding Presence is available between levels 10 and 30 and (2) provides a Recovery Bonus of 1.5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.13%, (4) increases Max Endurance by 1.35%, (5) and increases AoE Defense by 1.88%. The Health and Endurance bonuses are obviously useful, but remember that the AoE Defense would stack nicely with all of your To Hit Debuffs. Not a viable set at level 50 in my opinion.

Brilliant Leadership is available from levels 15 to 40 and (2) provides a Regeneration Boost of 4%, (3) reduces Confuse Duration by 1%, (4) grants Debt Protection of 1%, (5) improves Run Speed by 2%, improves Flight Speed by 2%, improves Jumping by 2%, (5) and increases Toxic and Psionic Resistance by 1.26%. The Debt Protection would certainly help you get to 50 a bit faster and it’s always fun to run around faster. Also keep in mind that the Psionic Resistance stacks with Shadow Fall. I would replace this set before hitting 50 just to get some better bonuses to Accuracy and Damage.

Edict of the Master is available from levels 15 to 40 and (2) improves Jumping by 4%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.5%, (4) increases Lethal Resistance by 2.5%, (5) reduces duration of Hold effects by 2.2%, (6) and increases Toxic and Psionic Resistance by 1.26%. A larger bonus than Brilliant Leadership, but only covers jumping, this set seems to boost too many things too little for my liking. I would replace this set before hitting 50 just to get some better bonuses to Accuracy and Damage.

Blood Mandate is available from levels 25-53 and provides (2) a Recovery Bonus of 1.5%, (3) increases Fire and Cold Defense by .95%, (4) reduces duration of Stun effects by 1.65%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 3.75%, (6) and increases Ranged Defense by 3.75%. As before, remember that the Defense bonuses stack with your To Hit Debuffs, making them a very effective source of damage mitigation. I would seriously consider trying to accumulate the pieces from this set.

Sovereign Right is available from levels 25-53 and (2) reduces the duration of Sleep effects on you by 2.75%, (3) reduces the duration of Confuse effects on you by 2.75%, (4) reduces the duration of Stun effects on you by 2.75%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) and increases Melee Defense by 3.13%. It also has a special Enhancement that provides a 10% Resistance to all but Pisonics to any pets in a 20’ radius. This is probably my favorite of the Pet based sets.

Since the Lich, Extracted Souls, and Dark Servant have abilities that are more useful than the small amount of damage they put out, any sets you use will be best used in your Zombies and Grave Knights. Keep this in mind when you’re building your Mastermind.

Gloom: Level 2
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 80’
End Cost: 10.7
Cast Time: 1.1
Recharge Time: 8
Effects: 6.72 Negative Energy Damage per .5 seconds for 3.6 seconds, 5.62 decrease in ToHit Chance for 6 seconds.

A single target blast that does damage over time. If you’re going to take a single attack for pulling and debuffing, this is the one to take. Great Damage per Endurance spent, but you’re still not going to be one-shotting much of anything. Ever. When I had this, I went through plenty of fights where I never used it and found myself using it as a debuff more than anything else. It doesn’t do enough damage to grab agro from your pets most of the time, but every little debuff helps.

This was really useful at low levels, but the closer you get to 50, the less you’ll use it. As a side note, I took Dark Blast at first and respecced into Gloom, then removed anything resembling personal attacks from my build. I wish I had skipped taking an attack all together, but if you’re going to take one, take Gloom since it really is so much better than Dark Blast. Use Gloom to get you through to the 20’s when you can respec and get rid of it entirely.

Slotting: Very low priority slotting-wise. If you feel you must take this power, I wouldn’t invest many (read: any) slots into it since even fully slotted, it isn’t going to provide much in the way of damage. The IO sets are for Ranged Single Target, which has some interesting sets available, but the minor bonuses that are available aren’t worth losing efficiency in your other powers to gain.

IO Discussion: I don’t see IO sets being worth the investment here.

Enchant Undead: Level 6
Range: 50’
End Cost: 16.3
Cast Time: 2.07
Recharge Time: 6

If you don’t take this at level 6 then you’re an idiot. Really. Permanently buffs your pets (at least until they die or are Dismissed) in super-fantastic and necessary ways. The buffs are detailed in the individual pet descriptions.

Slotting: A single Endurance Reduction is sufficient, but you can throw more in there if you want to. I ran out of endurance when spawning my pets before respeccing into Stamina. Recharges are also nice to have, but hardly necessary unless you’re a speed freak.

Life Drain: Level 8
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 19.5
Cast Time: 1.93
Recharge Time: 1
Effects: 30.58 Negative Energy Damage, 107 point self heal, 5.62 decrease in ToHit chance for 10 seconds.

A ranged attack that heals you and debuffs the target. This power become superfluous as a /Dark. If your secondary is something that doesn’t have a self heal in it, you might want to take this. Otherwise, I wouldn’t advise wasting the power slot when there are so many things that are so much more useful.

I never even thought of taking this, but in my experience with Siphon Life on my Dark Melee/Regeneration Scrapper, I can see how this could be useful. It does damage, heals you, and debuffs an enemy’s accuracy all at once, which is nice. It doesn’t do any of these things particularly well, though. Again, it’s fine if you’re reading this guide to build something other than a /Dark, but otherwise I would avoid it.

Slotting: Accuracy and Heals only. The damage will be poor and the debuff won’t be significant enough to be worth the slots.

IO Discussion: This power accepts both Ranged Single Target IO sets and Healing sets, so if you’re thinking of taking this and slotting it up, I would suggest spending some time reading up on the Healing sets since the damage isn’t what you’ll find most useful about this ability. I will discuss the Healing sets in length when I cover Twilight Grasp. I will say that it could be a good candidate to throw a slot in for the special Regeneration/Recovery IO from the Numina’s Convalescence set.

Grave Knight: Level 12

[Levels 12 - 23] -- 1 Grave Knight
[Levels 24+] -- 2 Grave Knights (-1 level)
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 19.5
Cast Time: 1.07
Recharge Time: 90
Status Resistance: Sleep, Fear, Disorient, Slow
Damage Resistance: [40%] Cold, Negative Energy, Toxic, Psionic

Initial Abilities: Hack, Slash, Dark Blast
Enchant Undead: Disembowel, Gloom
Dark Empowerment: Head Splitter, Siphon Life

These are your warriors. Their awesomeness cannot be fully explained without seeing them fully buffed and in action. Their sword attacks get the occasional Critical hit, which is enough to bring a tear to your eye. Their ranged damage is nice, but you definitely want these guys on the front lines.

While one might complain about the blandness of the zombie’s look, these guys look cooler with each upgrade.

Slotting: How you slot this depends on what other powers you take. If you have the Leadership Pool, you can probably get away with fewer Accuracies, but everyone else should consider going with two or three Accuracies (assuming you’re slotting with SO’s or IO’s and not a set) since these guys will eventually be spawning at –1 to your level. Since you’ll be fighting things that are +2 and +3 to you, that puts your minions chances of hitting without Supremacy (the automatic buff to Accuracy and Damage that minions receive while they’re in range of you) and some decent enhancements at next to nothing. I personally recommend slotting for Accuracy and Damage since their other aspects aren’t really worth slotting. The Accuracy Debuff and Heal are nice, but not substantial enough to make a big enough difference to be worth the slots.

IO Discussion: There are a lot of interesting options for pets in the IO sets, but remember that you can’t slot their secondary effects with the set pieces. They only address Accuracy, Damage, and Endurance Reduction (outside of the special IO’s from some of the sets). Since pets are your bread and butter, let’s look at the available sets a little more closely. I go into each of the Pet sets in detail in my description for the Zombies, so see their descriptions there.

Since the Lich, Extracted Souls, and Dark Servant have abilities that are more useful than the small amount of damage they put out, any sets you use will be best used in your Zombies and Grave Knights. Keep this in mind when you’re building your Mastermind.


Soul Extraction: Level 18

[Zombie] Soul Extraction => Spirit
[Grave Knight] Soul Extraction => Tortured Soul
[Lich] Soul Extraction => Wraith
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 13.0
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge Time: 600
Status Resistance: Sleep, Fear, Immobilize, Slow
Damage Resistance: [40%] Smashing, Lethal, Cold, Negative Energy, Toxic

Initial Abilities: Fly, Phase Shift, Ghastly Blast, Life Drain, Necroplasmic Grasp

The ultimate “OH SHI-“ power. This resurrects one of your dead pets as what is essentially a ghost to help you out of a tough spot. This does spawn different minions based on what it’s cast on, so if you have a choice of who to cast it on, choose a Grave Knight or Lich. The recharge on this is ridiculous before you slot it, so you’ll want to save it for boss battles until you’ve got three recharges in it since that’s where you’re most likely to get overwhelmed anyway. These are on a timer, but it’s a fairly long one. You don’t have to worry about it despawning in the middle of the boss battle it was spawned in, but don’t expect it to hang around for the whole show if you pull it out on the first mob in a mission.

The main thing these do is debuff and hold, so don’t rely on these guys for a lot of damage. Sure, they help in that department, but their holds are invaluable at higher levels when you’ll have yourself, your Lich, your Dark Servant , and your Extracted Soul spamming holds on those bosses and AV/Heroes.

Another thing to note is that these pets don’t despawn when you die, so they will actually keep the battle going even if you face plant. There’s also no rules against having multiple instances out, so if you have someone Speed Boosting you, you can have two or more of these at a time.

A lot of people claim these aren’t useful since their precious binds for pulling one out at any time by dismissing a pet stopped working. This is a lie and the bind was technically an exploit since they were never designed to be pulled out without some sort of in-combat loss. If you REALLY just can’t live without having these on demand, then just send a single pet in by itself, let it die, then hit Soul Extraction on it. It really isn’t that hard and this pet is very, very useful.

Slotting: You can either slot this for Recharges (which I suggest) so that you have one up as often as possible (near-permanently with three Recharges) or you can go with greater effectiveness when they’re out, but sacrifice how often you have one. Either one is certainly valid, but I went from slotting for maximum efficiency when they’re out to slotting for Recharges once I had more experience with the power.

IO Discussion: While I would suggest slotting these for Recharge, Accuracy, and Holds (in that order), you can also use any of the Pet IO sets in this power.

Lich: Level 26

[Levels 26+] -- 1 Lich
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 19.5
Cast Time: 3.17
Recharge Time: 120
Status Resistance: Immobilize
Damage Resistance: [40%] Cold, Negative Energy, Toxic?
Initial Abilities: Dark Blast, Torrent [Ranged Cone Knockback]
Enchant Undead: Tenebrous Tentacles [Ranged Cone], Life Drain
Dark Empowerment: Fearsome Stare, Petrifying Gaze

HOLY GOD, YES! These are the final pet from your primary, and they are uber. Their damage is nice, but their main use is to debuff your mobs for you at higher levels. They’re basically like having a no pets-MM with you at all times once you have Dark Empowerment.

At each stage of being a MM, you start feeling a bit weak right before you get your next pet. Well, once you have your Lich you’ll never feel that way again. Once they’re fully equipped, they’ll have a hold, a cone fear, a cone knockback, a cone immobilize, a self heal, and some decent ranged attacks to boot. What’s not to love?

Okay, there is something that’s “not to love.” I’ll admit that Torrent can be a pain, but for every time this guy knocks someone out of your Tar Patch, he’s saved your can ten times. This is an occasional annoyance, but it isn’t as big a problem as some people make it out to be.

Slotting: This is one where you can go wild. Depending on whether you have Leadership, you can go with one or two Accuracies, you can slot for Hold, Immobilize, Heal, To Hit Debuff, Fear, Damage and a partridge in a pear tree. My only real advice is to 6 slot this ASAP and don’t concentrate solely on damage since it isn’t his primary function. Currently I have it slotted for two Accuracies, two Fear Durations, and two Hold Durations. Your mileage may vary, of course.

IO Discussion: While this power will accept the Pet IO sets, I wouldn’t suggest using those since they primarily slot for Damage and Accuracy, which isn’t the best use of the Lich’s abilities. I personally split my slots between Accuracy, Fear Duration, and Hold Duration, but there are a lot of ways to go with this.

Dark Empowerment: Level 32
Range: 30’
End Cost: 22.8
Cast Time: 2.07
Recharge Time: 10

Say it with me now: “IF YOU DON’T TAKE THIS, YOU ARE AN IDIOT.”

This is your final buff for your pets. I usually won’t go into battle without my Lich and my two Grave Knights fully Empowered. The powers they receive from Dark Empowerment are what defines this powerset.

Slotting: Issue 7 saw the recharge on this taken down to less than what it was before with three Recharges in it. I would suggest going with a single Endurance Reduction unless you’re really worried about upgrading during combat. If you are, then add more Endurance Reductions since the timer is so short now. It’s still longer than the recharge on your first upgrade, so you may want to add Recharges to flavor in here.

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Dark Miasma:

Twilight Grasp: Level 1
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 80’
End Cost: 7.8
Cast Time: 2.37
Recharge Time: 8
Effects: 212 point Heal to all allies within AoE, 3.75% decrease to ToHit chance for 20 seconds, 7.5% decrease to damage for 20 seconds, 50% decrease in regeneration [PVE only], 90% decrease in regeneration [PVP only]

A Point Blank Area of Effect Heal that debuffs the crap out of your enemies (debuffs their Accuracy as well as Regen rate). You don’t have a choice in taking it, but if you did you would be an idiot not to. In my opinion this is one of the best heals in the game even if it does require a to-hit check. Yes, it hurts when it misses and yes, it has a smaller radius than the Defender version. It’s still great.

Slotting: I suggest having 2 accuracies in here even if you’re running Tactics because YOU’LL NEVER WANT THIS TO MISS. Get 3 Heals and a Recharge if you can spare it. The debuff is nice, but I wouldn’t bother enhancing it.

IO Discussion: There are some very interesting bonuses in the Healing sets, but I’m of the opinion that since Twilight Grasp requires a To Hit check to determine if you get your Heal or not and none of the IO sets have Accuracy bonuses, they are of limited appeal since you can’t realistically 6 slot any of the sets. With that said, here are the options available to you.

Regenerative Tissue is available from levels 10-30 and provides an increase of (2) 4% to Run Speed, (3) increases Max Health by 1.5%, (4) improves all Healing powers by 4%, (6) and improves the Recharge Time of all your powers by 5%. Certainly some very useful buffs as you level, but the IO’s effectiveness will suffer as you approach level 50.

Triage is available from levels 10-30 and (2) provides and increase of 4% to your rate of Regeneration, (3) increases Max Health by 0.75%, (4) and improves all healing powers by 2%. The main advantage to this set is that it leaves room for Accuracy and possibly Recharge, though the actual bonus per IO is fairly low in comparison to SO’s of the same level (assuming you’re 22+).

Harmonized Healing is available from levels 20-40 and (2) provides a 1.5% boost to your Recovery Rate, (3) reduces duration of Confuse effects on you by 1.65%, (4) improves all of your Healing powers by 3%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 1.88%, (6) and increases Toxic Resistance by 1.88%. Remember that the AoE Defense could stack nicely with your To Hit Debuffs.

Miracle is available from levels 20-40 and (2) improves your rate of Recovery by 2.5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves all of your Healing powers by 5%, (5) increases your AoE Defense by 1.88%, (6) and increases your Psionic Defense by 1.88%. The boost to Psionic Defense stacks with your To Hit Debuffs, but remember that Shadow Fall is providing Resistance before you start adding up your defenses.

Doctored Wounds is available from level 30-53 and (2) reduces the duration of Fear effects on you by 2.2%, (3) increases Fire and Cold Resistance by 1.26%, (4) improves all Healing powers by 4%, (5) improves the Recharge on all your powers by 5%, (6) and increases Toxic Resistance by 1.26%. This set would be very tempting for the Recharge bonus, but that would only leave one spot open for addressing the To Hit Check required to get Howling Twilight to go off in the first place.

Numina’s Convalescence is available from levels 30-53 and (2) provides a Regeneration bonus fo 12%, (3) increases your Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves all your Healing powers by 6%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 3.3%, (6) and increases your Ranged Defense by 3.75%. Remember that the Defense bonuses stack well with your To Hit Debuffs. What this set really has going for it is the special Regeneration/Recovery IO that provides a 20% bonus to Regeneration and a 10% bonus to Recovery for 10 seconds every time you use this power and that you can realistically put two regular Accuracy IO or SO’s in this power, then fill in the other 4 slots with pieces from this set (which gives you the 3 bonuses that are the most desirable) without losing too much of your Heal or Recharge rates. A very, very attractive set.

Tar Patch: Level 2
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 90’
End Cost: 7.8
Cast Time: 3.1
Recharge Time: 90
Effects: 90% decrease in Run Speed while in AoE, -Jump, -Fly, 22.5% decrease in Damage Resistance while in AoE [PVE only], 22.5% unresistable decrease in Damage Resistance while in AoE [PVP only]

Take this power. Love it. Kiss it. Comb it’s hair and read it bad poetry. Whisper sweet nothings in it’s ear at night.

Really, I can’t stress this enough: TAKE THIS POWER. It is incredible without ever having to slot it. Slows are always nice, but when you combine that with the debuff to your enemy’s resistance? Oh yeah, baby. You know Daddy loves you. Who loves you? That’s right. Daddy does.

Slotting: The best part about this power is that you don’t ever need to put an extra slot in there if you don’t want to. No, you won’t get to stack them without putting some recharges in there, but it comes up often enough to be placed on every other mob or so. Usually you’ll kill things so fast that you won’t need it, but when it comes time to take down that AV/Hero you’ll be blessing me for telling you to take this. Recharges as needed, but I don’t see the point in putting a Slow in there. Would they be nice? Sure. Needed? Hardly. Recharges > Slows.

IO Discussion: Since the Slow IO sets don’t have an adequate amount of Recharge available in them, you’ll be best off slotting for 3 Recharges, then adding interesting pieces of the Slow IO Sets if you have left over slots to put into Tar Patch (I personally can’t put together a build where I can manage to make that happen, though).

Curtail Speed is available from levels 10-30 and (2) reduces the duration of Immoblize effects on you by 1.1%, (3) improves the duration of your Slow effects by 2%, (4) increases Lethal Defense by 1.25%, (5) and improves the Recharge of all your powers by 2.5%. Only one of the IO’s from this set provides any Recharge and it leans heavily towards Accuracy, which is useless for this power as it is auto-hit.

Impeded Swiftness is available from levels 10-30 and (2) reduces the duration of Immobilize effects on you by 2.2%, (3) improves all of your Slow powers by 3%, (4) reduces the duration of all Stun effects on you by 2.2%, (5) reduces the duration of all Hold effects on you by 2.2%, (6) and increases Melee Defense by 2.5%. Like Curtail Speed, this only has one IO in the set that provides any Recharge boosts and adds heavily to Accuracy, making it a poor match for Tar Patch.

Pacing of the Turtle is available from levels 20-53 and (2) reduces the duration of Sleep effects on you by 2.75%, (3) improves all of your Slow powers by 2.5%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all your powers by 6.25%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) increases Ranged Defense by 3.13%, and has a special IO that has a 20% chance of reducing the target’s Recharge times by 20%. Again, the set boosts Accuracy heavily and barely touches Recharge, making it a poor choice for Tar Patch in my opinion.

Tempered Readiness is available from levels 20-53 and (2) provides a boost to your Recovery rate of 1.5%, (3) improves all of your Slow powers by 1.5%, (4) increases your Max Endurance by 0.9%, (5) improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 3.75%, (6) and increases your Ranged Defense by 1.88%. The compromises you would have to make to get 5 slots from this set into Tar Patch would not balance out the 3.45% Recharge bonus, making this set a poor choice for Tar Patch as well.

Darkest Night: Level 4
Range: 70’
End Cost: .3/second
Cast Time: 3.17
Recharge Time: 10
Effects: 22.5% decrease in damage to enemies in range of target, 11.25% decrease in ToHit chance to enemies in range of target

This is a great debuff that reduces the Accuracy and Damage of everyone surrounding the anchor you cast this on. The base debuff is very powerful, so when you slot this up it becomes ridiculous. Whenever I’ve fought characters with Dark Miasma, this power was my bane.

Slotting: At least one Endurance Reduction and then get three To Hit DeBuffs in there ASAP.

Howling Twilight: Level 10
Accuracy: Auto-Hit
Range: 80’
End Cost: 26
Cast Time: 3.17
Recharge Time: 180
Effects: 50% decrease to Movement Speed for 30 seconds, 50% decrease to Attack Speed for 30 seconds, 7.64 Negative Energy Damage, 15 second Disorient of 2 strength [PVE only] only, 10 Disorient of 3 Strength in PVP only this will suppress or 15 seconds on affected targets, 50% decrease in regeneration [PVE only]. 90% decrease in regeneration [PVP only], 15 second Fear of strength 3 [PVE only], resurrects allies within AoE with full Health and Endurance


This is the Dark set’s rez, and it is very nice. It resurrects and teammates (not pets, though) within a small AoE around you as well as having a low level Disorient that auto-hits in an AoE around the targeted enemy. The Disorient only works on minions, but I use this power even when I’m soloing to even the odds every so often. Especially when you have a mob with several Spec Ops or Flamethrowers. I also never fail to be amused by seeing an entire ambush stumble around in their Disoriented daze.

Slotting: It’s an auto-hit, so your smart options are Recharge and Disorient. If I ever find the slots I’ll go for three of each, butI would personally enhance Recharge first unless you’re focusing on an IO set.

IO Discussion: The IO sets tend to have a good amount of their individual Enhancements focused on Accuracy, but they don’t focus on it so heavily that it renders them almost useless the way I feel the Slow sets do for Tar Patch. You’ll be sacrificing some Recharge time if you focus on getting an IO set, but you’ll have to weigh out whether you find the set bonuses are worth the loss of Recharge time for yourself.

Razzle Dazzle is available from levels 10-30 and (2) provides an increase to your Recovery rate of 2%, (3) increases your Max Health by 1.5%, (4) improves the duration of your Stun effects by 2%, (5) increases Melee Defense by 2.5%, (6) and increases your AoE Defense by 2.5%. Those Defense bonuses would stack very well with your To Hit Debuffs.

Stagger is available from levels 10-30 and (2) provides a Run Speed increase of 2%, (3) increases Fire and Cold Defense by 0.63%, (4) improves the duration of your Stun effects by 1%, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 2.5%. Some nice bonuses, but you’re going to lose a lot of Recharge time on this specific power by going with the Set IO’s over SO’s or regular IO’s.

Rope a Dope is available from levels 30-53 and (2) provides a boost to your Regeneration rate of 6%, (3) increases your Fire and Cold Resistance by 0.95%, (4) improves the duration of your Stun effects by 2%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 1.65%, (6) and increases Psionic Defense by 1.88%. I’m not very impressed by this set since it does so many things, but none of them particularly well. Too many small bonuses to too many things for my taste.

Stupefy is available from levels 30-53 and (2) provides a boost to your Recovery rate of 2.5%, (3) increases your Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves the duration of your Stun effects by 3%, (5) improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 6.25%, (6) and increases your Ranged Defense by 3.13%. This is the high level set I’m most impressed by, but the minor bonuses don’t necessarily make up for not being able to use the power as often.

Shadow Fall: Level 16
End Cost: .3/second
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge Time: 15
Effects: 35’ Stealth radius (will suppress for 10 seconds if you interact with a clickable object or attack) in PVE, 389’ Stealth radius (same suppression rules apply) in PVP, 3.75% increase to melee and ranged Defense while within AoE, 15% Energy, Negative Energy and Psionic Resistance while in AoE, 129% Fear Resistance while in AoE, 5.19 point Fear Protection while in AoE

This is a team Stealth and Resistance to Energy, Negative Energy and Psionic damage toggle that I love. No, you aren’t completely invisible, but it lets you get close enough to get yourself set up for Fearsome Stare or any other powers that you want to aim with precision. You’ll really notice the difference in how quickly things attack your pets when you have this off.

As much as you’ll love these boosts for your pets, your teams will love you for the extremely rare Fear and Psionic Resistance this shield offers you and everyone near you. In the RSF fighting Malaise? NO PROBLEM!

Slotting: You’ll need two Endurance Reductions in there and then it’s up to you. You can slot for Damage Resistance (smart) or Defense (not so smart). Of course, I originally slotted for Defense since attacks that don’t hit you do no damage at all, but a percentage of 20% is better than a percentage of 2.8%. The Defense is nice, but it isn’t worth the slots. With the addition of the new IO system, there are other slotting options to consider. Endurance is a big issue with this power, but most of the IO sets more than address that problem. In my opinion, the IO Sets for Damage Resistance seem to be better suited to squishy characters like Masterminds (well, they are outside of BG mode anyway) than they are for characters that already have Mez protection (like Tanks, Scrapper, Brutes, and Stalkers), so they’re worth at least considering. Especially since you’re likely to be 5 or 6 slotting this power whether you take an IO set or not.

Impervious Skin is available from levels 10-30 and (2) reduces the duration of Sleep effects on you by 2.2%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.5%, (4) grants 2% debt protection, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 5%. The set also has a special IO that reduces the duration of status effects on you by 30%. All very useful bonuses while you level (though the debt protection is useless at level 50).

Steadfast Protection is available from levels 10-30 and (2) provides a boost to your Recovery rate of 1.5% (3) and increases your Max Health by 1.5%. It also has 2 unique IO’s, one of which provides an overall Defense bonus of 3%. The other special IO reduces Knockback effects by –4. Another group of really useful bonuses, especially for a character that doesn’t already have their own Knockback protection.

Impervium Armor is available from levels 15-40 and (2) provides boost to your Recovery rate of 2.5%, (3) increases Psionic Defense by 1.88%, (4) increases Max Endurance by 2.25%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) and increases Psionic Resistance by 3.13%. The set also has a special IO that provides additional Psionic Resistance. For Masterminds, this is an additional boost of 2.55% on top of the existing 3.13% for having the full set. This will also stack with the natural Resistance to Psionic in Shadow Fall, making this a very attractive set. In fact, even though this set isn’t available at level 50, it’s probably my favorite.

Reactive Armor is available from levels 15-40 and (2) reduces the duration of Immobilize effects on you by 1.1%, (3) increases Energy Defense by 1.25%, (4) increases Lethal Defense by 1.25%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 1.25%, (6) and increases Toxic Resistance by 1.25%. Not as flashy as the other sets, but all of those Defense bonuses would stack nicely with your To Hit Debuffs.

Aegis is available from levels 30-53 and (2) provides a boost to your Run Speed of 5%, (3) increases Fire and Cold Defense by 1.58%, (4) grants 2.5% debt protection, (5) increases AoE Defense by 3.13%, (6) and increases Toxic Resistance by 3.13%. The set also has a special IO that grants a bonus Psionic Resistance of 3% for Masterminds.

Titanium Coating is available from levels 30-53 and (2) reduces the duration of Sleep effects on you by 2.2%, (3) increases your Max Health by 1.5%, (4) reduces the duration of Stun effects on you by 2.2%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) and increases Melee Defense by 2.5%.

Fearsome Stare: Level 20
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 70’
End Cost: .8.5
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge Time: 40
Arc: 45 degrees
Effects: 17.88-second Fear of strength 3 [PVE only}]; 20% chance of 11.92-second Fear of strength 1 [PVE only]; 17.88-second Fear of strength 3 [PVP only] (this will suppress for 15 seconds on affected targets); 11.25% decrease in To Hit chance to enemies for 20 seconds.

A cone Fear power that many people will claim is no longer necessary. That’s because they’re comparing it to it’s previous, broken state. This power is still incredible without you ever having to put anything other than an Accuracy in it. Once you’ve cast this, anyone affected will not be able to attack you unless they’re attacked as they stand there and shiver like little sissies. When they do attack, their accuracy is debuffed, so it’s less likely to hit you anyway.

Slotting: The recharge is pretty decent on this, but along with Accuracy you may want to put a few Recharges in there. The debate is whether to slot it for Fear Duration, To Hit Debuffs or Recharge since having two applications stacked is better than having a single attack that lasts a little longer, but if something is attacking you through the Fear, you want them to miss. The duration is nice out of the box, but you can never have too much of this very good thing. With the addition of some very attractive IO sets, there’s even less you can do wrong with the slotting of this power than there was before.

IO Discussion: I always end up with 6 slots in Fearsome Stare on any of my builds, so moving to IO’s instead of SO’s is a very easy thing for me to do with this power. Some of the Fear sets are really, really nice, too.

Horror is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of your Fear effects by 1.1%, (3) increases Max Health by 0.75%, (4) reduces the duration of Stun effects on you by 1.1%, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all your powers by 2.5%.

Unspeakable Terror is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of your Fear effects by 2.2%, (3) increases Negative Energy Resistance by 2.5%, (4) grants 1.5% Debt Protection, (5) improves Recharge time of all of your powers by 5%, (6) and increases Psionic Resistance by 2.5%. Those Resistance bonuses would stack nicely with Shadow Fall, though the Debt Protection would become useless at level 50.

Glimpse of the Abyss is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Fear effects by 2.75%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 6.25%, (5) improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 6.25%, (6) increases Psionic Resistance by 3.13%, and has a special IO that adds a chance for Psionic Damage to this power. Very effective bonuses in this set.

Nightmare is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Fear effects by 1.65%, (3) increases Negative Energy Defense by 1.88%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 3.75%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 1.65%, (6) and increases Toxic and Psionic Resistance by 0.95%. This set boosts the individual attributes of Fearsome Stare more than Glimpse of the Abyss does (since it has a special IO that boosts none of the natural attributes of the power), but the set bonuses aren’t nearly as attractive. Both would be very effective, though.

Petrifying Gaze: Level 28
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 70’
End Cost: 7.8
Cast Time: 1.67
Recharge Time: 16
Effects: 9.53-second Hold of 3 strength versus [PVE only]; 7.15-second Hold of 3 strength [PVP only] (this will suppress for 15 seconds on affected targets).

A single target hold. No, it isn’t as nice as it used to be, but I still find this to be very useful. Great for getting that Flamethrower locked down before he can turn your Undead Army into shish kabobs.

Lots of people downplay taking a Hold, but I see the role of a /Dark Mastermind (much less a Necro/Dark MM) as one of primarily controlling the fight. You can debuff and heal as well or better than most Corruptors and lock down mobs better than a lot of Dominators. If you don’t see this as your role on a team, then you might want to pick a different Secondary rather than neutering this one.

Slotting: Accuracy, Hold Duration and Recharge. In an ideal world I would suggest two of each in that order (assuming you’re slotting with SO’s or IO’s). No, this doesn’t hold things as long as it used to (it was nerfed before CoV came out), but taking out all the enemies in a mob who do fire damage is incredibly important. Remember that this fits your real purpose, which is controlling the mobs to keep your pets alive so they can kill them.

IO Discussion: I’m not particularly fond of the Hold IO Sets and feel you’d be better off hitting the market looking for Accuracy/Mez SHO’s instead. 3 of those with 2 Recharge IO’s and an Endurance IO is about as perfect a setup as you’re going to find on a Hold power as far as I’m concerned.

Neuronic Shutdown is available from levels 10-30 and (2) reduces the duration of Immobilize effects on you by 2.2%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.5%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 5%, (5) improves the duration of your Hold effects by 2%, (6) increases Melee Defense by 2.5%, and has a special IO that has a chance to add Psionic Damage over Time.

Paralytic is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves your rate of Recovery by 1%, (3) increases Energy and Negative Energy Resistance by 0.63%, (4) grants Debt Protection of 1%, (5) and improves the duration of your Hold effects by 1%.

Essence of Curare is available from levels 30-53 and (2) reduces the duration of Fear effects on you by 1.65%, (3) reduces the duration of Confuse effects on you by 1.65%,(4) reduces the duration of Stun effects on you by 1.65%, (5) improves the duration of your Hold effects by 1.5%, (6) and increase Ranged Defense by 1.88%.

Ghost Widow’s Embrace is available from levels 30-53 and (2) increases your Run Speed by 5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.88%, (4) increases Max Endurance by 2.25%, (5) increases the duration of your Hold effects by 2.5%, (6) increases Psionic Resistance by 3.13%, and includes a special IO that adds a chance for Psionic Damage.

Black Hole: Level 35
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 50’
End Cost: 13.0
Cast Time: 1.03
Recharge Time: 120
Radius: 20’
EFFECTS: Intangible for 30 seconds [PVE only]; Untouchable for 30 seconds versus critters only; target may only use self-affecting powers for 30 seconds [PVE only]; 30-second Immobilize of strength 3 [PVE only]; Intangible for 10 seconds [PVP only]; Untouchable for 10 seconds [PVP only]; target may only use self-affecting powers for 10 seconds versus players only; 10-second Immobilize of strength 3 versus players only.

For the record, I have never played with anyone who uses this power or even has it in their build. I’ve been playing since October of 2004. You do the math.

This makes a group of enemies Intangible. This means that while they can’t attack you, you can’t attack them either. I can see how this could be useful, and I had no desire to take it since in most situations this power has the ability to make your team very, very mad at you. That was before I read the descriptions of Lord Recluse’s Strike Force, though. Then I took it in the late 40’s, used it about 3 times, hated it, and respecced back out of it.

Slotting: Accuracy and Recharge, maybe. I was recently informed that Intangibility Enhancements actually adds to the magnitude of the power rather than the Duration. I hate the power too much to test this, but take that into consideration before you pass up on this power, too.

IO Discussion: I have no interest in taking this power, much less worrying about the IO sets that might be available for it.

Dark Servant: Level 38
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 26.0
Cast Time: 3.17
Recharge Time: 240
Initial Abilities -- Petrifying Gaze, Tenebrous Tentacles, Darkest Night [Single Target]

Wow. I have honestly been surprised more than once at this guy’s effectiveness. Take him at 38, put three recharges in at 39 and enjoy near-constant Dark Servant love (I swear that isn’t as racist as it sounds). He can hold, he can Debuff, he can do decent damage (though you’re not going to have enough slots to add to that portion of him and it isn’t his primary function anyway).

This guy has enough HP that I tend to spawn him into the middle of a mob to get their attention as I throw off Fearsome Stare and Petrifying Gaze before sending in my little army. With the addition of the new Bodyguard feature, this is an even better strategy than before. If the spawn is gigantic, he might die before he either heals himself or I can get close enough to do it for him, but more often than not (and this includes AV fights) he’s still standing at the end of a fight he started while I’m respawning my zombies and a Grave Knight or two. My DS even managed to hold off Infernal (spawned as an Elite Boss) longer than I could stay alive. This includes my DS killing several of his Behemoth buddies as I desperately tried to heal myself and respawn my completely wiped out army.

Slotting: You may or may not want an Accuracy, but I didn’t enhance for Accuracy and this guy never misses no matter how you slot him. From there, you’re an idiot if you don’t throw in three Recharges so that you can make him near-perma. Once you have three Recharges in there, three To Hit DeBuffs are the most efficient way to slot him since that is the most reliable aspect of his powers. You can’t control whether he’ll use his Holds or Heals or who he’ll use them on, but he debuffs just about everybody he comes into any kind of contact with. He takes IO’s from the pet sets, but Recharges and To Hit Debuffs are the way to go here.

Power Pools:

Concealment:
You already have Shadow Fall (DON’T YOU!!??). I don’t see the need.

Fitness:
You can go either way with Fitness. I made it to 50 without Stamina, but found that my pets were dying so often in the 40’s (lots of Elite Bosses and enemies who were generally tougher) that not having it was a real pain. Once I hit 50, I re-evaluated, respecced, and worked it in. I couldn’t be happier with the decision. If you’re planning on taking Leadership, then you’ll DEFINETELY need Stamina. If you mainly solo, you can probably get by without it too, but if you plan on teaming the whole time, expect to have to respawn your pets, thus necessitating Stamina.

Flight:
Yes, Team Flight works. I don’t have it, but I’ve seen it used. It is situational at best, though. With the changes to Swift and general Flight Speed it isn’t as bad as it used to be, but I still don’t see this as ideal unless you want to go the Hover for Knockback Protection route.

Leadership:
See the next post. This is such a sticky subject that I want to tackle separately. I’m not a fan of using it on a /Dark Mastermind, but you can read all the reasons why in the second post of this thread.

Leaping:
Super Jump is the ultimate utility travel power and it would be nice to have Acrobatics, but there’s nothing here that’s going to help your minions. Acrobatics really isn’t as useful as it is to other AT’s since you won’t be pulling agro from your pets often enough for Knockback to be a big problem if you’re doing things right.

Medicine:
You already have a Heal and a Rez. I don’t see the need.

Presence:
There are some interesting PvP concepts I’ve seen involving Taunt and Bodyguard Mode, and Fears are never a bad thing. I don’t know where you’d find room, but there are certainly some possibilities here.

Speed:
CoV’s maps are too vertical for me to consider using Superspeed as my main travel power, but it DOES stack with Shadow Fall for what amounts to PvE Invisibility if you want it as a secondary mode of transportation (or don’t mind relying on the Temp Powers from your Mayhems and such). Hasten is really nice when you’re trying to hold a particularly tough opponent or when you’re spawning your pets as well.

Teleport:
This one was my choice. Teleport Foe is the best pulling power ever and is a good way to amuse yourself. I never stop being entertained by watching my minions kill a lone enemy so fast that they can’t even draw their weapon. Recall Friend is extremely useful for teammates and minions alike. Teleport Team isn’t as useful as it sounds, though it does come in handy getting through some of the Orenbaga maps when your pets are determined to fall down into some crevasse as well as for annoying teammates since you can’t decline it. I’ve done some interesting things with it, but it isn’t as useful as you might imagine since your minions don’t always float long enough for you to throw out the second TP. I haven’t looked back since respeccing out of Team TP.

IO Discussion: All of the travel sets have +Stealth IO’s available to them. Consider them, especially if, for instance, you’re running Combat Jumping or Hover all of the time. Putting a +Stealth in there is like taking the first power in the Concealment Pool, but never having to put a power choice or any Endurance towards it.

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Patron Pools:

Since you can only take one of the pools per character, I’ll give my ideas of what will be good and bad about each one (including Ghost Widow even though I gave my reasons for picking the powers from her pool in the “My Build and Reasons Why” section). From what I can tell, they seem pretty balanced so you should be able to just pick whatever sounds good to you. I’ll just give the description provided in the Patch notes along with my thoughts on the individual powers.

I’ll be copy and pasting the IO information into all of the sets since they are exactly the same other than Damage type and graphics (for the most part).

Ghost Widow:

This is the set that I’m going with for thematic reasons.

Basically, you get a standard shield and some more control options, which are always nice.

Night Fall: Level 41
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 16.38
Cast Time: 2
Recharge Time: 20
EFFECTS: 3.36 Negative Energy damage every .3 second for 3 seconds; 5% To Hit decrease for 10 seconds.

Unleashes a cone-shaped burst of particles from the Netherworld. All targets within the modest range of this power take Negative Energy damage and have a reduced Accuracy.

I already had an opportunity to take attacks before and I skipped them for the same reasons.

Slotting: I suppose if you’re going to take it, any advice I put here isn’t going to mean much.

IO Discussion: This takes the Air Burst, Detonation, and Positron’s Blast IO Sets. Positron is probably my favorite of those, so if you can’t live without this power and you 6 slot it, that’s what I’d suggest you go with.

Dark Embrace: Level 41
End Cost: .1625/second
Cast Time: .67
Recharge Time: 4
EFFECTS: 20.62 Smashing resistance; 20.62 Lethal resistance; 11.25 Toxic resistance; 11.25 Negative Energy resistance.

You tap into the energy of the Netherworld to protect yourself from damage. This Dark Embrace shrouds you and grants resistance to Lethal, Smashing, Negative Energy, and Toxic damage.

A standard shield. The nice thing about this is that with Shadow Fall, your Negative Energy Resistance should be higher than most Brutes.

If for some reason you skip Shadow Fall or are reading this for something other than a Necro/Dark, I would suggest you put some thought into whether to take this or not. Just like a Blaster, Controller, Defender, Dominator, or Corruptor, a shield on it’s own isn’t going to do much for a character with low hit points and no Mez Protection. If you have Shadow Fall, then this compliments it since it fills in the gaps that Shadow Fall doesn’t cover. If you have gone 43 levels without a shield of any sort, then you’re going to be fine for another 7 levels.

Slotting: These all use a small amount of Endurance, so one Endurance Reduction is fine coupled with three Damage Resistance (assuming you’re slotting with SO’s or IO’s). The Damage Resistance sets were already covered in detail in the entry for Shadow Fall, so if one (or more) of those sets sound good and you have enough slots, throw it into this power.

Soul Tentacles: Level 44
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 40’
End Cost: 12.74
Cast Time: 1.67
Recharge Time: 20
Radius: 40 degrees
EFFECTS: 4.12 Negative Energy damage; 3.05 Negative Energy damage every 1 second for 8 seconds; 100% chance for a 15-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 versus critters only; 100% chance for a 10-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 versus players only.

You can create a cone-shaped rift to the Netherworld that allows the souls of the damned to slip into our reality. These Soul Tentacles will snare all foes within range, Immobilizing them while their drain their life. You must have one other Soul Mastery power before selecting this power.

A nice control option to pair up with Tar Patch.

Slotting: Two Accuracies and Immobilization Durations to flavor. Each one adds a surprising amount of time to this thing.

IO Discussion: The Immobilize IO sets aren’t as exciting as some of the other sets available to this build, but there is some utility there.

Debilitative Action is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of all of your Immobilize effects by 4%, (3) increases Cold Resistance by 2.5%, (4) provides Debt Protection of 2%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 2.5%, (6) increases Toxic Resistance by 2.5%, and has a special IO that adds a 2% chance for this power to Disorient the target.

Rooting Grasp is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 2%, (3) increases Max Health by 0.75%, (4) increases Damage by 1%, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 2.5%.

Enfeebled Operation is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 3%, (3) increases Negative Energy Resistance by 1.88%, (4) increases Lethal Defense bt 2.5%, (5) improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 3.75%, (6) and increases Melee Defense by 3.13%.

Trap of the Hunter is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 6.25%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) increases Ranged Defense by 3.13%, and has a special IO that gives a 20% chance of causing minor Lethal Damage.

Soul Storm: Level 47
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 40’
End Cost: 12.74
Cast Time: 1.67
Recharge Time: 20
EFFECTS: 3.36 Negative Energy damage every 1 second for 11 seconds; 100% chance for a 10-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus critters only; 100% chance for an 8-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus players only.

Like Ghost Widow, you will be able to summon the souls of your victims to do your bidding. Soul Storm enraptures a single target, Holding them while their life-force is drained from their body. You must have two other Soul Mastery powers before selecting this power.

In my opinion, this is absolutely necessary so that you never have to fight an unheld boss ever again. Just stack this and Petrifying Gaze and clean up the rest of the mob at your leisure. So, so useful.

Slotting: The same as Petrifying Gaze. See that power for discussion of IO’s and my own personal opinions on how one should slot Holds.

Black Scorpion:

A lot of the people I play with like this one for all the –Fly’s and I can’t say that I disagree with them. I think I went through all the weapon-drawing that I cared to going to 50 on my Broadsword Scrapper, though.

Web Envelope: Level 41
Accuracy: 105%
Range: 80’
End Cost: 12.74
Cast Time: 2
Recharge Time: 20
EFFECTS: 100% chance for a 15-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 for critters only; 100% chance for a 10-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 for players only; 20% Run, Fly, and Jump Speed decrease for 15 seconds; 20% Recharge decrease for 15 seconds.

The Nullifier Mace can lob a modified Web Grenade. Upon impact, the Web Grenade expels a strong, tenuous, and very sticky substance that can Immobilize most targets in a wide area. This non-lethal device deals no damage and does not prevent targets from attacking, although their attack rate is Slowed. The Web can bring down flying entities and halts jumping.

-Fly, Immobilize and Slow all in one handy little attack.

Scorpion Shield: Level 41
End Cost: .1625/second
Cast Time: .67
Recharge Time: 4
EFFECTS: 11.25 Defense versus Smashing attacks; 11.25 Defense versus Lethal attacks; 7.25 Defense versus Energy attacks; 13.12 Toxic resistance.

Black Scorpion's technologies are impressive indeed. This energy shield grants you Defense to Lethal, Smashing and Energy attacks, as well as improves your Damage Resistance to Toxic damage.

Defense is nice since if you don’t get hit you take no damage at all. Apparently this one provides you with both Defense and Damage Resistance, so that’s very appealing.

Slotting: One Endurance Reduction is fine, then I’d suggest three Defense.

IO Discussion: While it can be debatable if the Damage Resistance IO sets are worth it, there’s no doubt that there are some real gems in the Defense IO sets.

Karma is available from levels 10-30 and (2) provides Debt Protection of 1.5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.5%, (4) and has a special IO that reduces Knockback effects by –4.

Kismet is available from levels 10-30 and (2) provides a boost to your Recovery of 1.5%, (3) reduces the duration of Confuse effects by 1.65%, (4) grants Debt Protection of 1.5%, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 3.75%.

Gift of the Ancients is available from levels 15-40 and (2) provides a boost to your Recovery of 2%, (3) increases Fire Resistance by 2.5%, (4) increases Max Endurance by 1.8%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.2%, (6) increases Psionic Resistance by 2.5%, and has a special IO that increase Run Speed.

Serendipity is available from levels 15-40 and (2) improves your Regeneration by 4%, (3) increases Max Health by 0.75%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 2.5%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 1.25%, (6) and increases Toxic Resistance by 1.25%.

Luck of the Gambler is available from levels 25-53 and (2) improves your Regeneration by 10%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.13%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 6.25%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) increases Psionic Resistance by 3.13%, and has a special IO that increases the Recharge speed of all of your powers.

Red Fortune is available from levels 25-53 and (2) reduces the duration of Immobilize effects on you by 2.2%, (3) increases Fire and Cold Resistance by 1.26%, (4) increases Damage by 2%, (5) increases the Recharge time of all of your powers by 5%, (6) and increases Ranged Defense by 2.5%. Both this and Luck of the Gambler are amazing sets, but I think LotG may be the stronger of the two (though not by much)..

Mace Beam Volley: Level 44
Accuracy: 105%
Range: 50’
End Cost: 18.98
Cast Time: 2
Recharge Time: 32
Radius: 50’
Arc: 35 degrees
EFFECTS: 15.29 Smashing damage; 15.29 Energy damage; 30% chance for a Knockback.

Fires a volley of multiple kinetic energy blasts from your Nullifier Mace. These blasts spread out in a wide cone and are powerful enough to knock down some foes. You must have one other Mace Mastery power before selecting this power.

A blasting attack that you don’t need.

Slotting: Don’t.

Web Cocoon: Level 47
Accuracy: 105%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 10.66
Cast Time: 2
Recharge Time: 32
EFFECTS: 100% chance for a 10-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus critters only; 100% chance for an 8-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus players only; 50% Run, Fly, and Jump Speed decrease for 15 seconds; 50% Recharge decrease for 15 seconds; disable Fly.

The Bane Mace can fire a more powerful version of the common web grenade. The sinewy fibers of this grenade are strong enough to completely Hold one target. Targets able to resist the Hold are still likely to have their attack and movement speed dramatically Slowed. Web Cocoon can also bring down flying targets and prevent foes from jumping. You must have one other Mace Mastery power before selecting this power.

Hold, -Fly, -Jump, Slow and –Recharge all in one attack. Very, very nice. Almost enough to make me regret my decision to take Ghost Widow (too late now!).

Slotting: Same as Petrifying Gaze unless you’re more concerned about the Slow aspect of it.

Captain Mako:

You shoot sharks at people. What’s not to love?

School of Sharks: Level 41
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 50’
End Cost: 12.74
Cast Time: 2.37
Radius: 50’
Arc: 30 degrees
Max Targets Hit: 10
Recharge Time: 20
EFFECTS: 4.12 Negative Energy damage; 3.05 Negative Energy damage every 1 second for 8 seconds; 100% chance for a 15-second Immobilize of strength
3.57 for critters only; 100% chance for a 10-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 for players only.

You can call forth a school of vicious Shark Spirits that will swim out in a cone formation and will encircle your foes, draining their spirit energy. The encircling Shark Spirits will immobilize most foes while they deal Negative Energy damage over time. Both you and the target must be near the ground for this power to activate.

An immobilize is always nice to go along with things like Tar Patch.

Slotting: Two Accuracies and Immobilization Durations to flavor. Each one adds a surprising amount of time to this thing.

IO Discussion: The Immobilize IO sets aren’t as exciting as some of the other sets available to this build, but there is some utility there.

Debilitative Action is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of all of your Immobilize effects by 4%, (3) increases Cold Resistance by 2.5%, (4) provides Debt Protection of 2%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 2.5%, (6) increases Toxic Resistance by 2.5%, and has a special IO that adds a 2% chance for this power to Disorient the target.

Rooting Grasp is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 2%, (3) increases Max Health by 0.75%, (4) increases Damage by 1%, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 2.5%.

Enfeebled Operation is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 3%, (3) increases Negative Energy Resistance by 1.88%, (4) increases Lethal Defense bt 2.5%, (5) improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 3.75%, (6) and increases Melee Defense by 3.13%.

Trap of the Hunter is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 6.25%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) increases Ranged Defense by 3.13%, and has a special IO that gives a 20% chance of causing minor Lethal Damage.

Bile Spray: Level 41
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 40’
End Cost: 18.98
Cast Time: 2.67
Radius: 60’
Arc: 30 degrees
Recharge Time: 32
EFFECTS: 21.41 Toxic damage; 30.58 Toxic damage every 1 second for 5 seconds.

Sharks will eat anything, so their stomach acid must be powerful indeed. You can regurgitate this acid and spew a corrosive spray of bile at a foe. Affected foes in the cone will take Toxic damage over time. You must have one other Leviathan Mastery power before selecting this power.

As much as I’m against taking attacks on a Necro/Dark, the description on this power almost makes it too awesome to pass up. In the end, you don’t need attacks though.

Slotting: Accuracy and Damage if you can’t resist the power.

Shark Skin: Level 44
End Cost: .1625/second
Cast Time: .67
Recharge Time: 4
EFFECTS: 20.62 Smashing resistance; 20.62 Lethal resistance; 20.62 Cold resistance.
The power of the Leviathan Mako has shown you seems to have no end. Shark Skin improves your Damage Resistance to Lethal, Smashing and Cold damage.

A standard shield. Too bad you have to wait until level 44 to take it.

Slotting: One Endurance and three Damage Resistance.

Spirit Shark Jaws: Level 47
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 80’
End Cost: 10.66
Cast Time: 1.87
Recharge Time: 32
EFFECTS: 4.12 Lethal damage; 3.05 Lethal damage every 1 second for 8 seconds; 100% chance for a 10-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus critters only; 100% chance for an 8-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus players only; disable Fly.

You can summon a massive Spirit Shark that will attack your foe from below. The Shark will grip your foe with its massive jaws and attempt to Hold the target while he mauls it, dealing Lethal damage over time. Flying targets will likely be pulled to the ground. You must have one other Leviathan Master power before selecting this power.

A Hold with –Fly and what sounds like an incredible animation. Sounds good to me.

Slotting: Same as PG.

Scirocco:

Any attack that does –End sounds nice, but there’s nothing here that guarantees that you’ll get Endurance back from the attacks. If this set had something akin to Power Surge, I would have been all over it. As it is, this still sounds nice and the lightning animations in this game look really cool.

Static Discharge: Level 41
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 40’
End Cost: 18.98
Cast Time: 2.07
Radius: 40’
Arc: 45 degrees
Recharge Time: 32
EFFECTS: 29.36 Energy damage; drains 7% of total Endurance versus critters only; drains 1.25 Endurance versus players only; 100% chance to decrease 100% Endurance recovery for 4 seconds; 10% chance to restore 4.29 Endurance to self.

Hurls multiple bolts of Mu electricity in an arc that deals damage and drains Endurance from all affected foes in the area.

Another attack you don’t need.

Slotting: Blah blah blah.

Charged Armor: Level 41
End Cost: .1625/second
Cast Time: .67
Recharge Time: 4
EFFECTS: 20.62 Smashing resistance; 20.62 Lethal resistance; 20.62 Energy resistance

When you toggle on this power, you are surrounded by a charged field that makes you highly resistant to Smashing, Lethal, and Energy damage.

Another shield that would compliment Shadow Fall quite nicely since they both add Resistance to Energy Damage.

Slotting: One Endurance Reduction and three Damage Resistance.

IO Discussion: See the info for Shadow Fall.

Electrifying Fences: Level 44
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 40’
End Cost: 12.74
Cast Time: 1.17
Radius: 10’
Recharge Time: 20
EFFECTS: 3.05 Energy damage every 1 second for 8 seconds; 100% chance for a 15-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 for critters only; 100% chance for a 10-second Immobilize of strength 3.57 for critters only; drains 4% of total Endurance versus critters only; drains 1 Endurance versus players only; 20% chance to decrease 100% Endurance recovery for 2 seconds.

Electrifying Fences attempts to Immobilize a group of foes in an area. This power deals some Energy damage over time as it slowly drains some Endurance. You must have one other Mu Mastery power before selecting this power.

An Immobilize with some –End sounds nice to me.

Slotting: Maybe add some Endurance Mods in this one? I dunno. I’m getting slotting recommendation fatigue at this point. All of these powers are about the same anyway. Otherwise, two Accuracies and Immobilization Durations to flavor. Each one adds a surprising amount of time to this thing.

IO Discussion: The Immobilize IO sets aren’t as exciting as some of the other sets available to this build, but there is some utility there.

Debilitative Action is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of all of your Immobilize effects by 4%, (3) increases Cold Resistance by 2.5%, (4) provides Debt Protection of 2%, (5) increases AoE Defense by 2.5%, (6) increases Toxic Resistance by 2.5%, and has a special IO that adds a 2% chance for this power to Disorient the target.

Rooting Grasp is available from levels 10-30 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 2%, (3) increases Max Health by 0.75%, (4) increases Damage by 1%, (5) and improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 2.5%.

Enfeebled Operation is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 3%, (3) increases Negative Energy Resistance by 1.88%, (4) increases Lethal Defense bt 2.5%, (5) improves the Recharge time of all of your powers by 3.75%, (6) and increases Melee Defense by 3.13%.

Trap of the Hunter is available from levels 30-53 and (2) improves the duration of your Immobilize effects by 5%, (3) increases Max Health by 1.88%, (4) improves the Accuracy of all of your powers by 6.25%, (5) reduces the duration of Hold effects on you by 2.75%, (6) increases Ranged Defense by 3.13%, and has a special IO that gives a 20% chance of causing minor Lethal Damage.


Electric Shackles: Level 47
Accuracy: 100%
Range: 60’
End Cost: 8.58
Cast Time: 2.17
Recharge Time: 32
EFFECTS: 4.58 Energy damage; 100% chance for an 8-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus critters only; 100% chance for a 6-second Hold of strength 3.57 versus players only; drains 15% of total Endurance versus critters only; drains 7 Endurance versus players only; 100% chance to decrease 100% Endurance recovery for 8 seconds; 30% chance to restore 4.29 Endurance to self.

Electric Shackles binds a foe's limbs, leaving the target Held and helpless. The target is drained of some Endurance and some of that Endurance may be transferred back to you. You must have two other Mu Mastery powers before selecting this power.

A Hold with –End and a chance to return some of that back to you. Stacking holds is a useful tactic anyway, so having a chance to get some Endurance back is very nice as well.

Slotting: Same as PG with the possibility of adding End Mods to flavor.

IO Discussion: See PG and keep End Mods in minds.

A lot of people aren’t real excited about the Patron powers, and I suppose I can see why. The simple truth is that Masterminds don’t need another pet, so there really isn’t the irony that a lot of people complain of in us not getting a summons even though every other AT does. Why would we need one? A Necro/Dark can easily be running eight pets at once. What good would a ninth that you can’t control do? Instead, they’ve made our Patron Pools patch holes in our abilities. I find them useful, but your mileage may vary.

My Build and Reasons Why:

First of all, here’s the build that took me to level 50 (with a few respecs along the way):

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Balor
Level: 50
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Necromancy
Secondary: Dark Miasma
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Zombie Horde==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Acc(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(7)
01) --> Twilight Grasp==> Acc(1) Acc(7) Heal(9) Heal(9) Heal(11) Rechg(11)
02) --> Tar Patch==> Rechg(2) Rechg(17) Rechg(19)
04) --> Darkest Night==> EndRdx(4) TH_DeBuf(23) TH_DeBuf(23) TH_DeBuf(25) EndRdx(43)
06) --> Enchant Undead==> EndRdx(6)
08) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(8) Acc(19) Rechg(21)
10) --> Howling Twilight==> Rechg(10) Rechg(45) Rechg(45)
12) --> Grave Knight==> Acc(12) Acc(13) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(15)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14) EndRdx(17)
16) --> Shadow Fall==> EndRdx(16) EndRdx(25) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(37) DmgRes(37) EndRdx(37)
18) --> Soul Extraction==> Rechg(18) Rechg(40) Rechg(43) Acc(43)
20) --> Fearsome Stare==> Acc(20) Acc(21) Fear(31) Fear(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(33)
22) --> Hasten==> Rechg(22)
24) --> Super Speed==> Run(24)
26) --> Lich==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Fear(27) Fear(29) Hold(29) Hold(31)
28) --> Petrifying Gaze==> Acc(28) Acc(31) Hold(34) Hold(34) Rechg(36) Rechg(36)
30) --> Recall Friend==> Rechg(30)
32) --> Dark Empowerment==> EndRdx(32) EndRdx(34)
35) --> Team Teleport==> EndRdx(35)
38) --> Dark Servant==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Heal(39) Heal(40) Hold(40)
41) --> Dark Embrace==> EndRdx(41) DmgRes(42) DmgRes(42) DmgRes(42)
44) --> Soul Tentacles==> Acc(44) Acc(45) Immob(46) Immob(46) Immob(46)
47) --> Soul Storm==> Acc(47) Acc(48) Hold(48) Hold(48) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
49) --> Black Hole==> Acc(49) Acc(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Supremacy==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------


Level 1: No duh. If you don’t take Zombie Horde at level 1, you shouldn’t be playing a MM. No choice with Twilight Grasp, but it’s what you would take if given the choice anyway.

Level 2: I used to have an attack here, but once I got into the 30’s, I found that I was only using it by accident. If I need to pull, I’ll use TP Foe.

Level 4: Another necessary power that is good to have some slots in ASAP.

Level 6: Enchant Undead. If you ever look at any of my builds, I almost always take a travel or stamina pre-requisite at level 6. This is an exception to that rule. Take this at 6 because you NEED THIS POWER.

Level 8: I’m following my “grab a travel pre-req ASAP” rule here. I chose Teleport for a few reasons, but I took Teleport Foe specifically to be able to grab my opponents and place them neatly into my circle of death. It is a beautiful thing. Even if you don’t take Teleport as your travel power, you should consider taking this power.

Level 10: AoE rez and auto-hit disorient. Very useful whether you deem a team worthy of having you along or not.

Level 12: Grave Knight. If you don’t take this at level 12 there’s a good chance that you’re currently dribbling onto your nappie.

Level 14: Travel power. Duh. I took teleport because I wanted something that would provide some support for my pets (Teleport Foe and possibly Teleport Team somewhere in the 40’s) that would give me vertical movement. Plus, I like it. Sue me.

Level 16: Shadow Fall gives a defense bonus, stealth, and resistance to certain damage types to everyone near you. You have 6 to 8 pets. Do the math. I went with three Endurance Reductions so that I could make up for not having Stamina, but it is still an endurance heavy toggle.

Level 18: Soul Extraction is a great panic power and I’ve finally acquiesced to those who insist that you slot it for recharges. Now I can have one out whenever the other one dismisses itself (and have even managed two when I was Speed Boosted).

Level 20: It feels so weird to be suggesting something other than Stamina at level 20. At any rate, my only regret is that I couldn’t get this power sooner. Fearsome Stare is your number one crowd control ability (well, other than your “Send in your pets and make everything die” ability). No, it isn’t as broken as it used to be and yes, the Defender version is better. It’s still seven shades of awesome.

Level 22: I really only took Hasten as a prerequisite to Superspeed so that I could stack the stealth from Shadowfall and Superspeed to zerg missions that I didn’t feel like treating as a Defeat All. It’s helpful during pet summoning and in holding Elite Bosses and Heroes/AV’s but the Endurance crash at the end was painful without Stamina.

Level 24: Only there for the Stealth and to have a way to traverse the ground quickly since Teleport can be tricky at times in a place like Grandville.

Level 26: Lich. Duh. Watch your effectiveness quadruple. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but getting this guy is a big deal. I slotted some of his aspects instead of his damage, but that’s because it isn’t his primary use. Yes, his damage is nice, but those holds and debuffs will make your heart sing.

Level 28: This hold isn’t nearly as great as it used to be, but it keeps those Flamethrowers (fire damage HURTS) out of the mix. Also useful for all the Hold stacking on tougher enemies when you, your Lich, your Dark Servant and an Extracted Soul are throwing them out.

Level 30: Great utility power for teams and for pets who are stuck. No need to slot it, though.

Level 32: Another “NO DUH” power. You’ll weep with joy at how much this helps.

Level 35: Have fun annoying your teammates with this power that sounds more useful than it is. The only time I’ve really found it “useful” was when I pulled myself and another Mastermind past some caltrops so that we wouldn’t have our pets go all retarded. Seriously, the AI with Caltrops is broken (though that’s an issue for another day).

Level 38: Fluffy! Another power you’re an idiot for not taking. The recharge is pretty long compared to the Defender version, so don’t expect it to be permanent without some significant slotting.

41: Dark Embrace fills the Damage Resistance holes that are in Shadowfall. The only Damage types I have no Resistance to are Fire and Ice. Not bad for a squishy. The other bonus is that is uses very little Endurance, so a single Endurance Reduction makes it very manageable.

44: Soul Tentacles didn’t excite me when I first picked it up, so I waited an extra level before I slotted it. Holy crap does it last a long time now, though. I wish it had a –Fly, but when combined with Tar Patch and the Immobilizes from my Lich and Dark Servant, I rarely have an EB/AV/Hero who doesn’t stay where I want them to. Really neat animation, too.

47: Having a second hold has been a godsend and the animation is awesome to boot. As quickly as I could spam holds between myself and my pets before this point, it became even easier to lock everything down once I had this. Being able to hold every boss I come across within about 5 seconds is very, very nice.

49: I took this in anticipation of the Recluse Strike Force, but witnessing it’s ineffectiveness against those Heroes, I quickly got rid of it.

I feel like I’ve gone into more detail than I needed to here, but I can answer anyone’s questions if you want to post them in here. I’m not necessarily an expert and I’m neither a number cruncher nor a min-maxer (though I have my moments), so I know there are things I could have done to be more “efficient.” In fact, I may well do them in the future. As it stands right now, I can solo almost everything that I come across. No, I haven’t soloed any AV’s or Heroes, but I came pretty close a few times pre I7 (besides, you’re not SUPPOSED to be able to do that).

Here’s a build I moved to once I hit 50 since I was finally starting to feel like I could actually use Stamina at that point. I know that I’m the guy always posting how you don’t need it even with /Dark, but I’m starting to feel the burn in high level missions where I’m spamming heals, holds, debuffs, Howling Twilight and respawning pets constantly whenever I’m on an AV team. I never ever need it solo, but it sucks to have to rest every couple of groups on a large team while everyone else plunges in.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Balor 2
Level: 50
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Necromancy
Secondary: Dark Miasma
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Zombie Horde==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Acc(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(7)
01) --> Twilight Grasp==> Acc(1) Acc(7) Heal(9) Heal(9) Heal(11) Rechg(11)
02) --> Tar Patch==> Rechg(2) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
04) --> Darkest Night==> EndRdx(4) TH_DeBuf(19) TH_DeBuf(19) TH_DeBuf(25)
06) --> Enchant Undead==> EndRdx(6)
08) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(8) Acc(37) Rechg(37)
10) --> Howling Twilight==> Rechg(10) Rechg(43) Rechg(43)
12) --> Grave Knight==> Acc(12) Acc(13) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(15)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14) EndRdx(34)
16) --> Shadow Fall==> EndRdx(16) EndRdx(34) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(36)
18) --> Soul Extraction==> Rechg(18) Rechg(37) Rechg(40) Acc(50)
20) --> Fearsome Stare==> Acc(20) Acc(21) Fear(21) Fear(23) Rechg(23) Rechg(25)
22) --> Hurdle==> Jump(22)
24) --> Swift==> Run(24)
26) --> Lich==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Fear(27) Fear(29) Hold(29) Hold(31)
28) --> Petrifying Gaze==> Acc(28) Acc(31) Hold(31) Hold(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(33)
30) --> Stamina==> EndMod(30) EndMod(43) EndMod(46)
32) --> Dark Empowerment==> EndRdx(32) EndRdx(34)
35) --> Hasten==> Rechg(35)
38) --> Dark Servant==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Heal(39) Heal(40) Hold(40)
41) --> Dark Embrace==> EndRdx(41) DmgRes(42) DmgRes(42) DmgRes(42)
44) --> Soul Tentacles==> Acc(44) Acc(45) Immob(45) Immob(45) Rechg(46) Rechg(46)
47) --> Soul Storm==> Acc(47) Acc(48) Hold(48) Hold(48) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
49) --> Super Speed==> Run(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Supremacy==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------

This guide isn’t the be all end all, so if you find that some of this doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong.

Well, unless you’re taking attacks. Really. I’m right about this one. They suck and will continue to suck even if 37 slotted. Damaging things isn’t your job. Ever. I’m not saying that’s the case for other Mastermind sets, but I believe it’s true for this combo.

So have fun out there.

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Useful info from Malaekai:

[ QUOTE ]
It's great to have all this valuable info in one thread for the Necro, so I will post my goto bind strategy here. It should be noted that this isn't my only goto bind, but my most used on. I also use Khaiba's binds in addition for individual group control, but this strategy covers about 95% of fights.

An easy way to send only certain pets into combat is to put one letter in their name they share, that no other pet has.

For instance I always want to send my zombies and knights to melee while my ghost and lich hang at range. I would name my pets as follows (just examples to illustrate point, not real names):

Group 1.) Melee:

Bob - Zombie
Nob - Zombie
Cob - Zombie

Slab - Knight
Crab - Knight

Group 2.) Ranged:

Harry - Ghost
Sally - Lich

Now notice that all the zombies and knights included a b in their name, which neither the ghost nor lich has. In addition the ghost and lich both have a y in their name that none of the zombies/knights have.

Now you use two binds:

/bind t petcom_name b goto def (use whatever key you like for "t")
/bind g petcom_name y goto def (use whatever key you like for "g")

Note above: If you don't want the pets in defensive mode when they arrived (which will make them man up to whatever mobs attacked them), then you can put them on aggressive by substituting "agg" for "def" in the bind. This will make them attack whatever's in their range (and possible attack it before it attacks them) but is potentially dangerous when used in a team setting.

Using these two binds and fitting pet names, you can send some pets to melee when they all start at range, or send some pets to range when you all get jumped at melee.

Also, this isn't only useful for the 26+ necro with all his pets. In can be used with two zombies and a graveknight (level 12) for instance. You can make the knight go to melee and the two zombies hang at range (although one would usually try to rush melee anyway, you can pull him back with this command) Just follow the naming guidelines above to give each group a mutually exclusive letter and you're all set.

And just to include the simplified version for completeness, if you want a goto bind that moves all pets to melee, use:

/bind <key> petcom_all goto def (or agg)

[/ QUOTE ]

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any reason you chose to get another travel power at lv 49 super speed and getting rid of recall friend at lv 35 from your I9 build? just curious. i followed your I9 guide and i found that recall friend works very well with howling twilight. if 1 or 2 person face planted, and there is no enemies for me to use howling to revive them, we go to next mob, i recall both of the dead party mates, use howling twilight and revive them both same time.

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After tooling around with several different MM' and just losing interest, I finally got smart and went with what I love and know, which is /dark. Chose Necro for the good synergy.

Stumbled upon this guide, perfect timing.

Being still a 'newb' when it comes to this AT, I think this guide is gonna be very useful as I agree with the 'role' of this particular set build.

Now I just need to go sift through some good MM macro/binds.
Thanks.

... and yep...those zombies are dumber then burnt toast.

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Awesome guide...thanks

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�The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

@Mr. Magnifico

Hey Geek_Boy,

Thanks for an awesome build guide.

2 questions:

1. You mention that you don't like leadership for necro/dark and you said you'd discuss in a later post. I didn't see anywhere on here where you address why. So how come?

2. Do you have any I12 updates or did you retire this character?

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I'm a bit confused as to why a Necro/Dark couldn't use the extra damage from the PPPs?

The one thing my level 39 Necro/Dark is missing is a bit of damage, especially AOE damage. Yesterday I aggroed an entire room (3 spawns, one a boss, another a "guard the glowie" spawn). Once I TPed the Dark Servant into the mess (he's slotted with ToHit debuff/Recharge IOs to perma him, maximise Chill of the Night, which is an awesome debuff, and allows him to spam heals and tentacles twice as fast as usual, all in just 4 slots) and started laying down Fears with the Lich I was basically untouchable but I could really have done with an AOE to help take them out.

I'm pretty sure I'll be taking Mako or Mu for the cone attacks + AOE Immobs once I hit 41 & 44, slotting them for damage & PROCs (should be able to get 2 PROCs into the AOE Immob I believe)

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I rarely read this site anymore and just haven't had a chance to finish up the I12 guide I started (which should turn into an I13 guide anyway).

As far as the damage from the PPP's goes, it's pathetic. Any attack a Mastermind does should either be through his pets or should serve some other purpose. If you're pulling with it or it adds some sort of debuff that's one thing, but otherwise you're basically wasting Endurance that's better used on your debuffs, your heals, and doing jumping jacks.

Seriously, the damage is very low, it uses lots of Endurance, and you have better things to do. If you want to do lots of AoE damage, make a Fire Corruptor.

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