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Trick Arrow: loads of holds and debuffs, hampered by some minor bugs
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Bugs in one power, a power which cannot be taken before level 35, and in my experience, have very little effect on Robotics. The robots don't close to melee range frequently, and by the time OSA is available, it's frankly little different from the Burn patches that the Assault Bot creates with its missiles, so if it fails to ignite, the loss of damage isn't the end of the world, the damage output of the robots as a whole overshadows anything offered by OSA.
The only three other bugs of which I'm aware are Entangling's short (.033-0.67 second) delay before the Immobilize is applied to the target; Ice's failure to properly notify the player of a miss ("Miss!" text over critter's head is delayed by several seconds); and Glue's debuff patch disappearing when the focal target is defeated (but the debuff does not appear to fade from critters which have already been affected), none of which should have any significant impact on a mastermind.
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and No Heal.
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Plenty of other options available for that, and TA's debuffs do contribute quite significantly to henchmen survivability, certainly enough to allow the Protector Bots to handle the role as "primary healers" in many, if not almost all situations.
Not trying to derail this guide thread, but TA is a very appropriate and powerful powerset for pairing with an AoE-happy, ranged primary like Robotics.
Interesting guide, with some fun insights. I have a level 22 'bots/FF who I pull out once in a while, but I don't play Villains that much.
I would suggest you add a little more about slotting, including some suggested IO set slotting. What about sets for the first set of robots? At level 22, in my Protector Bots I think I have 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 1 Defense, and plan to add a heal. I thought that was a decent mix of offense and defense, especially since my secondary is all defense. I was thinking about going with 2 Acc/Dam from sets, an Acc/Dam/End and a Dam/End, and then the Defense and Heal. If I use Blood Mandate and Brilliant Leadership, I can get some Regen and Recovery bonus out of it.
What about Repair vs. Aid Other/Aid Self? I went with the Medicine Pool because that was the only way to get a self heal for me, but is Aid Other better than Repair?
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
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What about Repair vs. Aid Other/Aid Self? I went with the Medicine Pool because that was the only way to get a self heal for me, but is Aid Other better than Repair?
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In my opinion and experience, Aid Other is better in every conceivable way and situation, with the sole exception being if you need a means of helping a robot recover some endurance.
Aid Other is on a 10 second recharge, Repair is on a 120 second recharge, so in the time you could heal one robot with Repair once, you could heal all six of your robots twicewith Aid Other.
Additionally, Aid Other's heal percentage is based on the mastermind's HP, not the target's, so even unslotted, it's very strong for tier 1 and tier 2 henchmen (which have less HP than your character). In my experience, one use of slotted Aid Other (62.59% +Heal from enhancements, which is less than two +0 SOs) will almost fully heal my Drones and restore more than half of the Assault Bot's HP. Repair is a full heal for any robot, but Aid Other will also fully heal a Drone (with appropriate slotting), and almost fully heal a Protector Bot, so the comparative value of heals in that respect make Aid Other comparable for five out of your six henchmen, and very good even for the Assault Bot.
And there's the issue with Protector Bots healing. In any situation where you have three or more robots in need of healing, you have a chance of finding that you just healed the same robot that the Protector Bots healed (since there is no way to tell what they're going to do). Aid Other alleviates this somewhat, because the cycle time is so short. It's not the end of the world if you and a Protector Bot overlap a heal, you can wait 5-10 seconds (dependent on slotting) and just use Aid Other on the next one. And Aid Other is interruptible, so if you're quick, you can stop it and heal something else. With Repair, you're just out of luck until it's recharged.
As for endurance... my robots have run out of endurance one time in 40.3 levels. That was when they had a -Recovery debuff on them and I didn't feel like waiting for it to wear off, kept pressing onward and fighting a few more spawns. I have 17% Endurance Reduction in each tier of my robots (from a single Acc/Dam/End set IO) and that's proven to be sufficient for even the longest fights I've been in.
Slotting for Repair or Aid Other would be similar, with Aid Other being very good even with as few as two slots, the same that one would typically dedicate to Repair (for two level 45-50 Recharge Reduction, to deal with the long recharge time), so even lack of available slots isn't really a reason to take Repair over Aid Other.
I tried both. I had Repair originally, then respeced out of it to try Aid Other. Aid Other impressed me with its comparative strength and ridiculously short recharge time. Repair impressed me... well, with its animation, and that was about it.
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Trick Arrow: loads of holds and debuffs, hampered by some minor bugs
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Bugs in one power, a power which cannot be taken before level 35, and in my experience, have very little effect on Robotics.
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I was thinking of the Oil Slick bug, and the double-weapon that appears if you customize the bow. The latter is merely a visual bug, but still, anything that makes you appear less awesome is Not Good.
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and No Heal.
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Plenty of other options available for that, and TA's debuffs do contribute quite significantly to henchmen survivability, certainly enough to allow the Protector Bots to handle the role as "primary healers" in many, if not almost all situations.
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I agree, No Heal isn't a fatal flaw. Some teammates might disagree, but who needs teammates anyway?
(kidding)
(or am I?)
Repair vs. Aid Other: the deathmatch
Repair has a 120 second recharge, Aid Other 10 seconds. AO scores 50 points.
From a level 50 Mastermind, Aid Other heals approx. 210 damage. Repair fully heals the target. Repair scores 25 points.
Aid Other unlocks Aid Self. AO scores 40 points.
Repair has an 80 foot range, AO 25 feet. Repair scores 30 points.
Aid Other has a 1 second interrupt time, Repair is not interruptible. Repair scores 15 points.
Repair restores 25% of the target's endurance. Score 10 points.
Aid Other can also heal your teammates. 20 points.
Repair costs 16.25 endurance, Aid other costs 6.5. 25 points on that one.
Repair has a 2.03 second animation, while Aid Other's is 3.93 seconds. 20 points for Repair.
And the winner is... hell, I'm too lazy to add the points, so call it a tie.
One important note: if your secondary has a strong heal, use that instead. Twilight grasp provides a very beefy aura heal, on an 8 second recharge, and debuffs a foe as well. It does fail if it misses, but 2 acc IOs plus tactics are enough to make that unlikely.
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Traps: my first MM used traps. Traps is hands-down the most uneven MM secondary: some powers are very good, and some are very bad. I'll post a quickie guide to Traps later.
Bad Traps powers??? What Triage Beacon because it's a regen buff and placed? Or Detonator because of the long recharge and losing a pet?
Personally I take all the trap powers if I can, but all those powers are useful. But the two listed above can be skipped if you need drop something.
Detonator is the only MM nuke and is alot of fun to show off with on big teams. (pop some red insps on the big pet before you blow them up to take out all the minions/Lts)
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Not trying to derail this guide thread,
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I think this guide was derailed after the first paragraph.
You should not be dumping on sets that you have no experience with.
It is good that you enjoy bots but this guide has nothing new, is full of opinion and is inadequate for anyone starting off.
Have a look at some of the stickied guides before you write any more.
My level 50 MM is also Robots/Traps. I have ever primary power and a little more than half the traps powers (FF generator, acid mortar, detonator, trip mines... and something else I can't remember right now, haha). Aid Self, Aid Other, Resuscitate from the Medicine pool. Maneuvers, Assault and Tactics from the Leadership pool. And Hover and Flight from the Flight pool.
I took absolutely no Patron powers. After studying all the Patrons and their powers, I didn't think any of them were really all that much. As such, I chose Scirroco as my character's patron for thematic reasons (to my Mastermind, he seemed like a big pushover... and after doing his arc, it turned out that was right!).
My Robots/Traps MM is a juggernaut. I chose IO sets that gave bonuses to recovery, so now she does not suck wind when summoning and buffing the robots. I stuffed the Luck of the Gambler and Gaussian's Fire Control sets into Leadership, and I intend to replace the IO sets in all the robot summoning and pulse rifle powers (all of them six slotted) with Orange and Purple sets...
Phew!
could someone please confirm if slotting end reducers on a pet, ie protector bot, you sly little end hog you, helps the pet vs the cost of summoning it. I've been told yes and no in game.
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could someone please confirm if slotting end reducers on a pet, ie protector bot, you sly little end hog you, helps the pet vs the cost of summoning it. I've been told yes and no in game.
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Endurance Reduction affects both the summoning cost and the costs of the powers that the henchmen use. Win win.
Thanks Lumi, time to reslot up those bad boys!
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Aid Other is on a 10 second recharge, Repair is on a 120 second recharge, so in the time you could heal one robot with Repair once, you could heal all six of your robots twicewith Aid Other.
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Luminara, that's incorrect. Recharge = Cast time + recharge.
Repair has its place. Assault Bot an inch from death? Boom, full health again.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
Traps: a 30 second overview
The Traps secondary for Masterminds is like a Twinkie that's slightly stale and dusty. It has some good stuff in the middle, but the ends are dry.
Web Grenade: as far as powers that you have to take, this one is so-so. It inflicts a mag 3 immobilize which stacks with itself, and a 50% -recharge which doesn't. The immob is useful at level 1-5, when you have one bot with one attack. But, when your Deadly Robots quadruple in power at level 6, keeping mobs away from you stops being an issue.
Web Grenade gets better at level 32, when the Assault Bot gets Incendiary Missiles. Forcing a mob to remain in a burn patch is brutal. However, you'll need to stack them to immob a boss, which means boosting it's hold, accuracy, recharge, and endredux.
Slotting: at level 1, throw in a +acc and forget about it. If you intend to root bosses later, go with a set. I used the Enfeebled Operation set, which has good set bonuses and is dirt cheap at the BM. The other two sets that go to 50, Trap of the Hunter and Gravitational Anchor, have good set bonuses as well.
Caltrops: bleh. The damage is microscopic, it doesn't do -recharge, and the range you deploy it at is pitifully short. It does a decent job of keeping enemies out of melee range, but you already have a power that does that (see above).
Slotting: eh. 1 recharge or range. Interestingly, it takes Pbaoe, targeted Aoe, and slow sets, so you could conceivably use damage procs to create Caltrops of Doom. If you've tried this, let me know.
Triage Beacon: a sad, sad joke of a power. If you 3-slot it with heals, you _might_ see your health bar move... if you squint at it... and you're drunk.
Slotting: no.
Acid Mortar: DING DING DING! Finally a power that's unequivocally good. This baby hoses a critter's defense and damres, and well as causing minor damage and drawing aggro onto itself.
Here's a neat trick. The mortar's perception radius and range are both slightly greater than the perception radius of the average mob. Walk up close to where a baddie can see you, and drop the mortar. It will fire upon the group, who will then blow their alpha strike on the mortar!
Acid Mortar really shines against AVs. It's like having a rad debuffer with you, without having to share the XP 
At 50, one recharge is roughly enough to make it perma; with more, you can have two at once!
Slotting: 2-3 recharge, 2-3 defense debuff.
Force Field Generator: another winner. This is basically Dispersion Bubble, but with no ongoing end cost.
Slotting: 2-3 defense. Don't bother with recharge, it's available long before it expires.
Poison Trap: a set-defining power. The Green Globe of Doom holds nearby mobs, makes them hork their cookies, and hoses health regen for 30 seconds. It auto-hits, and the -regen and vomit are unresistable. This is ok against random spawns, but invaluable against AVs.
Slotting: 2-3 recharge. Although slotting for hold really isn't worth it (it has no chance against AVs), there are three damage procs among hold sets for an extra touch of DOOOOOM!
Seeker Drones: at first, this looks like a good power. It summons two flying flashbang grenades, which deliver a mag 2 stun and debuff damage, accuracy, and perception. However, the AI on the drones is awful. They flit merrily about, ignoring the mob pounding on you, then aggroing the group 200 feet away. To add insult to injury, Protector Bots will waste their end bubbling them. You pretty much have to summon them on top a foe... and even then they sometimes don't go off!!!
Slotting: 1 accuracy, 1-3 tohit debuff, maybe 1-2 recharge
Trip Mine: a very good power... that's useless here.
Trip Mine is great for Blasters and Corruptors. Set up half a dozen at the fork in the hallway, fire a shot at a group, retreat behind cover, and chortle evilly as the mobs are spattered across the walls.
However, MMs have no need of this. When Trip Mine becomes available at 35, your team of Deadly Robots will be, well, Deadly. If you need to spend a minute before each group preparing for battle, you're doing something wrong.
Slotting: damage, I guess.
Detonator: there is _no_ situation where losing a minion will turn defeat into victory. (It is kinda cool to watch, tho. Take it at 49 just for fun).
Slotting: damage, recharge, whatever.
You really spent 30s on that didn't you? 
I disagree with regards to trip mine. My MM has it and it works very well in certain situations. Especially against some EB's and AV's in particular. You plant a lot of them at a choke point, and have your bots stand out of sight. Get a bot to pull aggro, then wait for them to come to you.... BOOM! They fall down, and then you let them have it.
Usually works pretty well.
EDIT: I should note, that in the time it takes to deploy the max number of trip mines before they expire, you can also lay down two to three poison traps. Those WILL go off the same instant the mines do. And your foe will be down a big chunk of HP to boot. Sic your bots on 'em and put down the acid mortar.
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Aid Other is on a 10 second recharge, Repair is on a 120 second recharge, so in the time you could heal one robot with Repair once, you could heal all six of your robots twicewith Aid Other.
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Luminara, that's incorrect. Recharge = Cast time + recharge.
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Okay. I'm looking at Oxybeles' build in Mid's now, it says Aid Other has a 2.93 second cast, Repair is listed as a 2.03 second cast.
So you could heal five of your bots twice and the sixth once with Aid Other in the time that it takes to use Repair once and wait for it to recharge.
That's still a tremendous advantage in Aid Other's favor.
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Repair has its place. Assault Bot an inch from death? Boom, full health again.
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I still stand by my assertion. I'd rather heal it once for half HP, then heal it again 5-10 seconds later, and risk that 0.90 second difference and 5-10 seconds than try to heal it with Repair, have it die on me and lose the use of Repair for 60-120 seconds because it finished firing off on a dead bot, leaving me up the creek when the rest of my robots start suffering.
A quick guide to Darkness
The MM Dark secondary is awesome. Although it's more thematically tied to Necromancy or Ninjas, a Robot/Dark Mastermind is the pinnacle of awesomeness. Fitting it into your character concept is difficult, but not impossible.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...us_Kitty/4.jpg
Twilight Grasp The power you have to take is one of the best. You and everyone nearby is healed, while a foe gets a penalty to accuracy, damage, and regen. It has a mere 8 second recharge and a reasonable end cost.
OTOH, if it misses, no heal. Don't skimp on the yellows, and if you are very low on health yourself, eat a green instead.
Slotting: 2 accuracy, 3 at low levels. 3 heal. Add an acc debuff if you like, but it's not really worth it, IMHO.
Tar Patch This is Caltrops on steroids. Like Caltrops, you drop a patch which slows enemy movement to a crawl, and prevents jumping and flying. Unlike Caltrops, the patch is _big_, and has a good range. Instead of the teeny-weeny damage Caltrops does, Tar Patch debuffs damage resistance.
You can use this one of two ways. Placed between you and a spawn, it keeps them out of melee range. This is handy at low levels, less so later on. Dropped on top of a spawn, it keeps them in place and makes them more vulnerable to damage. This will draw aggro onto you, so order the pets to attack a second before.
Slotting: 1-2 recharge. Add slow buffs if you like. Throw in the damage proc from Impeded Swiftness for some extra ouchies.
Darkest Night Another winner. A foe and all within 25 feet take a hefty penalty to accuracy and damage, no to-hit roll required. Great against regular spawns and AVs alike.
There are a few things you need to be aware of. This will draw aggro onto you, both from the target and everyone in the aura. Order the bots to attack a second beforehand, or eat a purple or two. Also, when used on any mob that's not an EB/AV/GM, they tend to run away. This can be handy on a mob you don't want to fight right now, annoying on a mob you _do_ want to fight, and fatal if the mob runs into another spawn and aggroes them. Tar Patch comes in handy here.
There is also a minor bug, in that if you attempt to deploy Darkest Night on a target that's out of range, the animation will play anyway. This is a known issue that will hopefully be fixed soon. In the meantime, always check to be sure that the effect appears on the target.
Slotting: 2-3 acc debuff, 1 endredux if necessary. Dampened Spirits and Dark Watcher's Despair both have good set bonuses and are fairly cheap at the market.
Howling Twilight First and most importantly, you can't rez a pet. So, if you mostly solo, this one is skippable (but not totally useless, see below).
If you team a lot, this is quite handy. All fallen comrades near you are revived with full health and endurance, and 20 seconds of debt protection; while a mob and all nearby take minor damage, a mag 2 stun, and for 30 seconds are slowed and have a huge regen penalty. This is the _only_ mass rez in the game, which will make you everyone's best friend at Hami and mothership raids. On the other hand, if no mobs are nearby, your friends are off the the hospital.
You can also fire it off even if no one is dead. The stun isn't really relevant (it can only affect minions) but the -regen part is deadly against AVs. Oh, did I mention it auto-hits? Unfortunatly, it has a three minute recharge and eats a third of your endurance, so using it as an anti-AV weapon requires some slotting.
Slotting: as a rez, just use one recharge. If your team is dying faster than that, you're doing something wrong. To use against AVs, 2-3 recharge and 2-3 endredux.
Shadow Fall PBAoE stealth, defense, Fear protection, and resists vs. Energy, Negative, and Psionic damage. A decent dose of protection, and it helps prevent mobs from catching you by surprise. Plus, despite having a Mighty Army of Deadly Robots, sometimes it's just easier to ghost a mission.
(Oddly, this also reduces your jumping by 20%. Although this is far from crippling, it seems out of place here. Anyone know why this is here? Anyone? Beuhller?)
Slotting: 1 damres or endredux. The defense bonus is only 3.75%, not worth slotting.
Fearsome Stare I haven't taken this one yet- too much other Good Stuff- but it looks good. Although the bots' fondness for AoEs makes fear marginally useful, it also delivers an 11.25% tohit penalty.
Slotting: accuracy, -accuracy, fear, recharge, take your pick. Many strong sets could go here.
Petrifying Gaze It's a hold. Holds are good.
Slotting: try to get a set of Ghost Widow's Embrace: it has good numbers plus strong set bonuses and a damage proc. If you're rich, grab the purple Unbreakable Constraint instead.
Black Hole The only crappy power in the set. Making foes intangible will confuse the pets and piss off your teammates. I suppose it could be useful as an "oh crap, I pulled too much" power, but Fearsome Stare could do the same.
Slotting: no.
Dark Servant It's another pet. Pets make you awesome. Therefore, Dark Servant makes you more awesome.
Slotting: I've found that two recharge is about right: not perma, but almost always there when you need it. Other than that, I'm not sure what's the best slotting for Fluffy. Accuracy, hold, heal, acc debuff, sets... go nuts.
Mmm about your sloting on some defences (like shadow fall)
if you have a bots/dark, you have a LOT of potentail +def for
you and your bots. I have one (lv 41 currently) with my protector
bots, shadows fall, and manuvers I have a lot of +def, add in
hover and BS sheild if I've sloted my def I'll be near the soft cap.
My bots will be nice to if I add the + def unique with all that DEF
(also near that soft cap (or low enough to be noticable)
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A quick guide to Darkness
The MM Dark secondary is awesome. Although it's more thematically tied to Necromancy or Ninjas, a Robot/Dark Mastermind is the pinnacle of awesomeness. Fitting it into your character concept is difficult, but not impossible.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...us_Kitty/4.jpg
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Nanite clouds. This is what I came up with for a robot/dark MM I made, on a server I don't go to very often, admittedly!
But, yeah. It's not necromancy or dark magic. Those are nano assemblers, and your robot/cyborg body manufactures them.
Seeker drones on traps is an awesome alpha-soaker. Stick a couple of range enhancements on it and you can spawn the drone behind the nearest enemies. they turn and start attacking the drones. The drones have a chance to blind, hold, disorient a few minions, and while they are busy fighting them, you can run in and drop poison gas trap to hold most of the rest, then set up your acid mortar, and by this time, your pets are mopping them up.
Traps = awesome. Stacking traps in a team full of them is really a sight to see (linky in my sig).
p.s. Drones also debuff accuracy and damage, which is another plus.
My Guide to the Hero-side Venomous badge
(622 Badges on my badge-guy)
number of lvl 50's: 24
number in the 40's: 3
[u]Galleryview[u]
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Traps: a 30 second overview
Web Grenade: as far as powers that you have to take, this one is so-so. It inflicts a mag 3 immobilize which stacks with itself, and a 50% -recharge which doesn't. The immob is useful at level 1-5, when you have one bot with one attack. But, when your Deadly Robots quadruple in power at level 6, keeping mobs away from you stops being an issue.
Web Grenade gets better at level 32, when the Assault Bot gets Incendiary Missiles. Forcing a mob to remain in a burn patch is brutal. However, you'll need to stack them to immob a boss, which means boosting it's hold, accuracy, recharge, and endredux.
[snip]
Seeker Drones: at first, this looks like a good power. It summons two flying flashbang grenades, which deliver a mag 2 stun and debuff damage, accuracy, and perception. However, the AI on the drones is awful. They flit merrily about, ignoring the mob pounding on you, then aggroing the group 200 feet away. To add insult to injury, Protector Bots will waste their end bubbling them. You pretty much have to summon them on top a foe... and even then they sometimes don't go off!!!
Slotting: 1 accuracy, 1-3 tohit debuff, maybe 1-2 recharge
Trip Mine: a very good power... that's useless here.
Trip Mine is great for Blasters and Corruptors. Set up half a dozen at the fork in the hallway, fire a shot at a group, retreat behind cover, and chortle evilly as the mobs are spattered across the walls.
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If you want to solo AVs (and really, theres not much below that that you have to work hard at beating with a bots/traps) these three powers are quite useful. Web Grenade will hold them in the flame patch, and as a note, most AVs and bosses don't resist Immobs so one shot will pin them. Seeker Drones to pull a now-debuffed (to the tune of 40% - damage, won't sneer at 40% "team resist all") AV. Onto your pile of a dozen or so Trip Mines, which both clears out the chaff and focuses the AVs attention on you, where you want it, so damage is dispersed many ways in BG mode. Plus it dents him/her a bit, always handy in a long fight.
Oh, and caltrops with procs are a very decent source of ongoing damage in long AV fights, plus providing crowd control when you really don't want meleers coming up and beating up your bots. While not many melee fighters including AVs can drop *you* in BG mode, plenty can 1-shot your bots.
I use Trip Mines fairly regularly in normal spawn fights too, after dropping Poison Trap with my various defenses running I can set it without too much risk of interruption from the few foes not puking and speed up spawn takedowns noticably.
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as a note, most AVs and bosses don't resist Immobs so one shot will pin them.
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Web Grenade is mag 3, it will not Immobilize any boss or AV with a single application. Bosses and AVs require mag 4.
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A quick guide to Darkness
The MM Dark secondary is awesome. Although it's more thematically tied to Necromancy or Ninjas, a Robot/Dark Mastermind is the pinnacle of awesomeness. Fitting it into your character concept is difficult, but not impossible.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...us_Kitty/4.jpg
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Nanite clouds. This is what I came up with for a robot/dark MM I made, on a server I don't go to very often, admittedly!
But, yeah. It's not necromancy or dark magic. Those are nano assemblers, and your robot/cyborg body manufactures them.
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Did you play Anarchy Online? Nowadays, nanites seem to be the plot device that a science fiction setting uses whenever a 'magic' effect is required. (Insert A. C. Clarke quote here).
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Not trying to derail this guide thread, but TA is a very appropriate and powerful powerset for pairing with an AoE-happy, ranged primary like Robotics.
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My Fastest trip to 50 was my Bot/TA MM. I hear a lot of people put TA down, but I think they are mostly referring to Defenders. Slot Flash Arrow well. Spam it and Glue Arrow whenever you can and and you'll do well. That's my experience.
Nice guide.
The Robots Mastermind: how to be awesome
Let's face it: you want to be awesome. Everyone does. We don't plunk down $15 a month to be average. We want people to look at us and say, "Wow, that person sure is awesome!" Well, I've played every AT in the game and I can tell you that there's only one surefire way to be awesome: a Robotics Mastermind.
Now, there are other strong ATs out there. Brutes and Scrappers can deal massive damage and be indestructible as well. Peacebringers are versatile and fun. Blasters can obliterate entire spawns, and Warshades... uh... have cool looking powers. But none of these have what a robot MM has... a team of Deadly Robots. Robots that shred huge groups in seconds, eat +2 EBs for breakfast, even take down AVs... and look extremely cool doing so.
Why other Masterminds suck:
OK, I'm exaggerating. Any well made MM can be quite powerful. However, only robots can be an Unstoppable Engine of Destruction, _and_ be awesome at the same time.
Necromancy: I wanted to like Necro. I really did. . I ran a Necro MM in Beta, then tried it again a few months back, and just wasn't thrilled either time.
The undead do have a definite cool factor to them. Grave Knights look badass, and the Lich is sweet looking too. The basic zombies look kinda blah... until they hork pea soup over your foes. Pea soup... OF DOOM!!! However, coolness aside, the Necro set suffers from lackluster performance.
First the good points. The Grave Knights deal huge damage with their Tuning Forks of Doom. The personal attacks all debuff accuracy, good if you are being attacked yourself. Soul Extraction is a great way to turn around a losing battle. Most of the damage is Negative and Toxic, which isn't resisted much.
On the downside.. the AI. To be blunt, it sucks. The zombies will run everywhere except where you want them, aggroing other groups. They will endlessly chase a foe to melee even when a ranged attack is ready. The zombie's attacks do about as much damage as a moist rag. And although the Lich is a good control pet, it does almost no damage. A top level pet should kick butt, not debuff.
Ninjas: another set with a cool vibe to them. I mean... they're _ninjas_. What's cooler than that? (except robots!) However, although I haven't played them, I've heard many tales of poor AI and paper-thin defenses.
Mercs: these guys kick [censored]. Strong damage, all done at range, plus a splash of healing and debuff. The only downside is that the damage is all Lethal, which is resisted often.
However, in a four-color world, they don't cut it. Let's face it, what role does the military have in comics? Cannon fodder. Some Big Baddie arrives, the army arrives and fires their puny weapons for half a page without even denting it. All they do is establish that the Mighty Hero is needed.
(Aside: I realize that comics about "Our Fighting Forces" were a vital part of the Golden Age. However, these were not superhero comics, and they generally sputtered out after WWII.)
Thugs: another [censored]-kicking choice. Strong damage, at range, plus self-buffs. Only real downside is the Lethal damage, and the scattering caused by the bruiser's hand clap. They look cool too: tats, leather, the bruiser cruising in on a hog. Good stuff.
But, once again, what place do thugs have in a four-color world? Cannon fodder. Usually not even good cannon fodder. The hero is chatting up some chick when he sees a stickup, then mops up the thugs with zero effort. Their only purpose is to allow the hero to pass of some witty one-liners. Thugs are a credible threat in some 'gritty' titles- some runs of Batman come to mind- but still, does Batman ever lose?
Conclusion: only robots can kick [censored] and be cool at the same time.
The powers:
Pulse Rifle Blast: this damage from this is tiny. It's like a ranged Brawl. On the other hand, you can customize the look of your Pulse Rifle now, so if you find a look that accentuates your coolness, go for it.
Slotting: eh. Not really worth it. You might do a decent bit of damage if you proc it up, tho.
Battle Drones: this summons robots. Robots are good.
Slotting: 3 damage and 3 accuracy. Yes, 3 accuracy. When you summon 3 drones at level 18, they will be two levels below you. For them to consistently his +3 mobs (which you can do, because you're awesome) you'll need all the +acc you can get.
Pulse Rifle Burst: this does a decent bit of damage, but due to the slow recharge you won't be kickin' [censored] with it. It does have a good chance of knocking down the target, so it can be useful as a defensive power. Plus... coolness.
Slotting: eh.
Equip Robot: makes your robots more awesome. Take this at 6.
Slotting: 1 recharge or endredux.
Photon Grenade: wow! A ranged AoE disorient!
(checking Redtomax)
...a 30% chance of a mag 2 disorient for 6 seconds.
Uh... no.
Protector Bots: this give you more robots, making you more awesome.
Slotting: this is a matter of choice. For an all-out offensive build, go with 3 damage, 2 accuracy, and 1 disorient. To play more defensively, slot in 2 defense, 2 heal, 1 accuracy, and 1 disorient. Feel free to mix and match until you find something you like. I should mention that, when you get Upgrade at 32, the Protectors will run low on endurance due to throwing Seeker Drones and Photon Grenades on top of attacking, healing, and bubbling. This can be fixed by adding an endredux. I found that swapping out a damage for a damage/endredux from a set works well enough.
Repair: this is a maybe. If your secondary has a strong heal, skip this. If not, it's a choice between Repair and the Medicine pool.
Slotting: 3 recharge. Repair has an insanely long recharge. If you can't spare the slots, don't take it.
Assault Bot: you are now godlike.
Slotting: 3 damage, 1-2 accuracy. If you can afford it, add the defense and resistance aura globals.
Upgrade Robot: you are now REALLY godlike.
Slotting: 1-2 recharge, 1-2 endredux.
What secondary should I choose?
I'm gonna catch some flak for saying this, but... choose whatever secondary fits your character concept the best. Although the secondaries are a bit uneven, none are flat-out bad.
Poison: a nice mix of debuffs and holds, plus a heal, buff, and rez. (you can't rez a robot, tho.) Might be difficult to fit in thematically, but I'm sure some of the more creative players can find a way.
Trick Arrow: loads of holds and debuffs, hampered by some minor bugs and No Heal. Again, might be a challenge to fit with your character concept.
Force Field: provides strong protection for you, your pets and your teammates, but no heal or debuffs.
Storm (coming in I12): This could be interesting. Plenty of debuffs, a heal, plus the mighty Lightning Storm. However, unless they change it, you'll have to take the craptastic Gale at level 1.
Traps: my first MM used traps. Traps is hands-down the most uneven MM secondary: some powers are very good, and some are very bad. I'll post a quickie guide to Traps later.
Dark: my current MM uses this, and I like it a lot. It has one clunker of a power, Black Hole, but the rest are all good. I'll post a quickie guide to Dark later too.
Pool powers:
Fitness: masterminds are perhaps the only AT that can easily skip the Fitness pool. (maybe defenders can, I dunno). If you don't have Leadership, and you don't spam Pulse Rifle attacks, you should have no end problems at all. However, Leadership is very worth taking (see below), but it guzzles end, which might make Stamina useful after all.
Leadership: if you can spare the slots and end, go for it. Assault and Tactics are must haves; Maneuvers isn't as big a boost, but still good if you can shoehorn it in. You can't Vengeance off a dead robot, but if you team a lot, it's a good way to turn around a fight that's going bad.
Speed: MMs have very little use for Hasten, although some take it with just one slot to speed the summoning process. I don't recommend Super Speed for a villain. Unlike Paragon City, the Rogue Isles are not friendly to the vertically challenged.
Leaping: my favorite travel pool. Combat Jumping gives you a bit of defense, and Super Jump is fast. Don't bother with Acrobatics; you won't be knocked down much, and when you are, it's barely an inconvenience.
Teleport: having taken a Warshade to 50, I can tell you that Teleportation is a fast and convenient travel power... once you have Stamina. (hint: keybinds are your friend). Recall Friend helps you get teammates together, and grab a stranded bot. I haven't found Teleport Foe useful, although some Traps players swear by it.
Flight: Hover gives you defense and keeps you out of melee range, while Flight is the best way to get around Grandville.
Patron Powers
Mastermind patron powers consist of a smash/lethal shield, an AoE immob, and AoE DoT, and a single target ranged hold. In my opinion, the shield is worth taking, the AoEs are crap, and the hold is good but not worth taking a crap power to get. (although the animation on Ghost Widow's hold is extremely cool). Again, take the set that fits your character concept the best.
You are now awesome!