Better Living Through Technology: Bot/Trick Arrow

Better Living Through Technology: Robotics/Trick Arrow Masterminds

Part 1: Robotics

Part 2: Trick Arrow

Part 3: Pool Powers

Part 4: Epic Pool Powers

Part 5: Alpha Slot

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of Lasers and Arrows. This is a guide to the Robotics/Trick Arrow Mastermind. If you're looking for a less-used, but still potent powerset, you've come to the right place. While robots are one of the two most popular primaries, along with Thugs, Trick Arrow is pretty much the least used secondary for a mastermind. Don't let that fool you, a /TA mastermind can still be quite a force to be reckoned with. And without even having to dirty your hands by doing any damage yourself. Throughout this guide I will be recommending some choices for IOs. It's hard to find a focus for set bonuses when looking at IOs for Bot/TA. If you go with a no personal attack build (which is typically popular and useful) then you have no need for +damage since it does not carry over to your pets, many /TA debuffs are autohit so you have no need for +Accuracy. It's also not too useful/easy to go for +Def or +Res. +Recovery seems to be a good choice to me, and I will point out some of the best sets to get +recovery throughout this guide. Many sets give +Recovery with only 2 IOs so it's less expensive. Another good (yet also more expensive, both in inf and in slot usage) set bonus to shoot for is +recharge to bring your slow recharging arrows up faster.

There are a few downsides to playing a Bot/TA. First is that it can be slow leveling, especially early on. The robots' damage really blossoms after you get your Assault Bot, and explodes once you get your final upgrade. /Trick Arrow is also somewhat slow blooming, with a lot of debuff that do a little on their own, but slowly start stacking together to become pretty powerful. That said, it can still be a good set even before then, but it can be difficult if you're having trouble finding your own niche. Poison Gas Arrow and Glue Arrow are your best early forms of damage mitigation. A personal attack early on (with the option to respec out of it later) is an option for extra dps. I would recommend Pulse Rifle Burst for the knockback to help a little with mitigation. Photon Grenade tends to draw a lot of aggro to yourself, which isn't a good thing until after you get your extra bodyguards and/or extra defense. Robots do their best damage at range, and that's where you should keep them as much as you can.

When you start getting into the high level areas, another weakness is mez. You do have a few options available to yourself for protection. One benefit is always the fact that even if you are mezzed, your bots often aren't and will keep doing and taking damage for you. Another option is control. If you take, and slot, Ice arrow you can deal with mezzing Lieutenants, and at later levels for bosses you can stack it with your patron hold and/or EMP arrow (which has a 50% chance of holding bosses on its own). Another option is to go for a high defense build, slotting protector bots for extra defense, taking Mace Mastery for the defense shield, and taking Weave from the fighting pool and/or Stealth/Invisibilty from the Concealment pool and/or Maneuvers from the leadership pool.

Bot/TA is useful in many situations, it's viable solo and it's debuffs are useful on a team. Any way you play, you can find a use for Bot/TA. Now its time to dig into the powers quick and dirty with some Robotics basics. I won't go into much detail because there's plenty of other guides that will do that quite well. I'll just make a few notes on each of them.

Pulse Rifle Blast/Pulse Rifle Burst/Photon Grenade: The three pulse rifle attacks in your primary. They deal less damage and cost more end than is useful in the long run. Burst or Blast can be useful in the earlier levels to put out some extra damage, but remember that this does cause redraw with your bow.

Battle Drones: Your first tier pets, simple enough. When you have all three out, they are two levels lower than you so remember to slot enough accuracy to compensate. I recommend Blood Mandate Acc and Dam for 2% recovery, 2 slots any Acc/Dam, and your choice for the last two slots. Sovereign Right or Edict of the Master auras are a possibility, and putting them here means you will never lose their bonus when you malefactor down. Another option is Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing, or any other Pet/Knockback procs you like. I'll also mention Kinetic Crash if you're aiming for a high recharge build, but you sacrifice some of their utility since it needs 6 slots for the +rech.

Equip Robot: Your first equip power. Slot one or two end red.

Protector Bots: Your second tier pets, and where it gets tricky. They are a jack of all trades and there are many options for slotting. They grant defense, they heal, they stun, but never forget that they still pack some damage, so give at least 2-3 slots for Acc/Dam. The rest is to your taste. Defense is a definite possibility, increasing overall survivability both for yourself and for your other bots. One slot for heal can be useful as well to give their heal a little more oomph. Slotting for stuns is also a possibility, keeping the stunned mobs out of the battle for a longer duration. One slot for end reduction (or at least a ??/end set IO) is useful when they get their second upgrade as they will definately run out of end on occasion. I recommend Blood Mandate Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End, for 2% recovery, then the rest to your taste.

Note: The protector bots' force fields are a lower priority power, so if you are constantly on the move, not all of your bots will have their bubbles all the time. If you notice that you don't have all your bubbles, just pause for a few moments before the next group to allow them to throw out all their bubbles.

Repair: A full heal and some end recovery for a single robot. I had it for a while and enjoyed it, but eventually respecced into Aid Other and haven't looked back. Even with 3 recharge reductions, this just isn't up enough to be useful. Aid Other is so much more helpful and can be spread around, and can be used on teammates, which Repair can't. Also with Aid Other you end up cursing a lot less if your heal goes off right after a protector bot heal.

Assault Bot: Your heavy hitter, love the Assault bot. And when you get the second upgrade, love him even more. I again recommend two Blood Mandates for +recovery, Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing. Also, if you want to go for a purple set, this is the where to put them. I will also mention that some people will skip the first upgrade in favor of the second upgrade because flamethrower has a lower DPS. That's all up to you. And to do this easily, summon your drones and protector bots, then hit the first upgrade, then summon the Assault Bot and hit the second upgrade.

Note: If you are reading an older guide, including this one before the edit, you will see suggestions to slot Performance Shifter: Chance for +Recharge. Do not do this as pets no longer benefit from +Recharge bonuses.

Upgrade Robot: Your second equip power, simple enough. One or two slots for end red.

Now for the more nitty gritty, the trick arrows. Each and every one is useful, and with a nonviolent build freeing up a lot of powers in your primary, you should have plenty of room to take every one. Some are more situational than others, and there are several different ways to play /TA, so even though several arrows could be optional, it's also just as useful to take all of them.

Entangling Arrow: Your required power. It's a basic immob with improved accuracy and a pretty quick recharge. It's useful early on for damage mitigation, and it's useful late in your career for immobilizing AVs. Not too much in the way of IO sets here. You could go with 5 Enfeebled Operation for it's +recharge (and later gravitational anchor if you want to spend the money for it), but I'd just give it 1 acc and 1-2 immob.

Flash Arrow: One of the optional arrows depending on your playstyle. It is an autohit (and unresisted) -perception, and minor (~4%) -to hit. The -to hit is small, but useful stacked with your defense from the protector bot bubbles, and the -perception can be stacked with any stealth for essentially invisibility, and this is a non-aggro power so firing it will not break stealth. Still, it is a situational power that is useful in many situations, but not ultimately necissary. Recommended slotting is 4 Dark Watcher's Despair, that gives you +health (2), +recovery (3), and +recharge (4). Note: do not slot any procs in this power, they will draw aggro if they go off

Glue Arrow: One of your very effective means of AoE damage mitigation. It's a powerful slow, getting near the slow movement cap for even-con minions without resistance, and it will stack with Oil Slick Arrow's slow later on, and it should be slotted for recharge all the way. You can slot 5 tempered readyness if you're going for +recharge, but you're sacrificing a lot of recharge in glue arrow in return. I recommend 2-3 recharge and Pacing of the Turtle: Chance for recharge slow. Impeded Swiftness: Chance for Smashing can add a little damage as well. If you want to use it against EB/AVs, you might want to add an extra 1-2 slots for slow as they will be more resistant.

Ice Arrow: A single target hold, simple enough. Unfortunately, the recharge and duration mean that it takes a lot of slotting to make it very useful. If you take it, slot it heavily for Acc/Recharge/Hold. I have it, I use it as a great form of mez protection, but even well slotted, it will only stack on a boss for a few seconds. I recommend early on using Basilisk's Gaze which will give you +Recovery (3), +Recharge (4) and +Regeneration (6) as well as having another Chance for Recharge Slow proc, though this set caps at 30. Lockdown is also useful to max out the Acc/Recharge/Hold and it has a useful proc: Chance for +2 mag hold. This would give you an early chance to hold bosses before you get your patron hold. And again I'll mention the purple set Unbreakable Constraint: get 5 for the +recharge if you've got the money for it. Another fun option is to slot it with 1 acc and the rest procs: Neuronic Shutdown: Chance for Psionic DoT, Ghost Widow: Chance for Psionic, Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing, Impeded Swiftness: Chance for Smashing, Basilisk's Gaze: Change for Recharge Slow, Lockdown: Chance for +2 mag hold, and Pacing of the Turtle: Chance for recharge slow. Haven't tried it, but it could be great fun.

Poison Gas Arrow: Your next very effective means of AoE damage mitigation. It's a powerful -15% Damage (and -dam is always unresistable) and a 50% chance for sleep. This is a great opener in the early levels combined with glue arrow. The 50% sleep will help minimize the aggro and when the bots wake them up, the bots now have the aggro. It's best to slot this for recharge. If you want to go with sets, Call of the Sandman can get you +health (3), +max End (4) and +recharge (5), as well as having a chance for a self-heal proc. Though it's not that useful as this is often a good opening power. Induced Coma: Chance for Recharge Slow is useful, and stacks with Pacing of the Turtle: Recharge slow if you have that in glue arrow. And Fortunata Hypnosis is one of the cheapest purple sets. You can get +recovery (2), or +recharge (5).

Acid Arrow: Your first def/res debuff. This is your first power that will start helping take down EB/AVs. It's a very small AoE so don't rely on it hitting more than one target often. Slot for some accuracy and def debuff, the recharge is fairly good to begin with so slotting for more isn't a priority, although if you want to spread the debuffs around as much as possible, recharge is the way to go. the -res also stacks with Disruption Arrow. Recommended set slotting: Touch of Lady Grey for +Health (2), +recovery (3) and maybe +regen (4). Achilles' Heel: Chance for -res is useful here too. And there's Positron's Blast: Chance for energy, and Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Energy for some bonus damage. Also, you can frakenslot with Targetted AoE to help get the most Acc/Rech, just avoid anything with damage as it will be pretty much wasted here.

Disruption Arrow: The next debuff. It's a location AoE -resistance that stacks with the -res in Acid Arrow. It's somewhat slow recharging and can't take sets. It helps to take mobs down faster, and useful for EB/AVs as it's unresistable. Slot it for 2-3 recharge, maybe 1-2 end reduction if you're taking a lot of pool power toggles.

Oil Slick Arrow: More or less the best power in the set. It's a great debuff, -def that stacks with Acid Arrow and slow that will stack with Glue Arrow, it does great damage (and technically a pet for nonviolent concept characters), and it does damage mitigation with its knockdown - keeping enemies on their butts and not attacking you. This is a location AoE debuff that spawns a targettable pet called "Oil Slick Arrow". Your bots will light it 80%+ of the time as long as they are attacking enemies in it, and 95%+ once you get your final upgrade. Also, any teammates with AoE fire or energy powers will light it as well. If you don't want to take the chance, there are ways you can light it as well. If you are magic or technology origin, you can use your origin power to light it. A useful macro is "/macro OSA "targetcustomnext Oil Slick Arrow$$powexecname XXX" where XXX is the name of any fire or energy attack. Also, if you have an energy damage proc in Acid Arrow, it has a chance to light it only if the proc fires. Note: an energy damage proc in Oil Slick Arrow will *not* cause it to light itself. Slot it for +Dam and +recharge. 2 Positron's Blast will get you +recovery. For procs, you have the same choices as Acid Arrow: Posi: energy, and Lady Grey: negative, and Achilles' Heel if you want to stack as much -res as possible on EB/AVs, and it even takes slow sets if you want to add another Pacing of the Turtle: Recharge Slow to stack -rech as much as possible. You can also go with 5 Posi's Blast (or eventually Ragnarok, the purple equivilent) for +recharge.

EMP Arrow: An optional power or must-have power depending on who you ask. It is the best AoE hold in the game with improved accuracy, no end crash (its downside is a large end cost, and a short period of -recovery, but you can still pop a blue insp), a 50% chance for an additional mag that will hold bosses, and damage to robots. My problem is the extremely long recharge. If for some reason you're struggling with aggro management, take this power. If you've got everything covered already, IMO you don't really need this. I haven't spent much time with this power, so I'm not sure the best way to slot it. 1-2 Acc, then end reduction and hold to taste.

Concealment pool is one way to go, it gives some added defense, you can stealth missions with the first power and flash arrow without your pets. You can get grant invis to make your pets invisible too (though IMO the duration is too short to be that useful) It can take defense sets, so if you are going for +recharge, you can stick a Luck of the Gambler +recharge here. Note: if you take invisibility (not stealth), it will shut off all of your buffs to your pets, including Supremecy, Leadership, and any pet aura IOs

Fighting pool isn't too bad of a choice if you want to aim for a high defense build by taking Weave. Also, Tough can take the steadfast protection IO for an additional 3% defense even if you never turn the power on. And Weave can take defense sets, so if you are going for +recharge, you can stick a Luck of the Gambler +recharge here. The downside is you have to pretty much waste a power choice on either Boxing or Kick, both melee powers where you should never be in melee range if you can help it.

Flight gets a quick mention for the coolness factor that if you get group fly, the robots activate rockets on their feet. There are other benefits to help keep your bots together better, and group teleport is also another option worth mentioning for some use in battle.

Leadership is useful for added defense, damage, and/or accuracy to taste. Vengeance is an amazing power if you team, but remember you can't use it on a fallen bot. Also, it can use up quite a bit of end, but this isn't as much of a problem as other sets as /TA tends to be end light. Also if you are slotting for +recovery as I suggest here, it shouldn't be much of a problem (I run 2 leadership toggles). Slot for end reduction. Tactics is useful if you PVP for +perception. Maneuvers could take Gift of the Ancients for +recovery (2) and +max end (4) and/or Luck of the Gambler's +7.5 recharge, and a second LotG gives not bad +regen.

Medicine pool is very useful. Take Aid Other for sure. Bots are resistant to some status effects and have good defense with the protector bots bubbles so Stimulant isn't that necessary unless you want to use it on teammates. Aid Self depends on your playstyle. Take it if you prefer to tank yourself and use bodyguard mode for survivabilty. Skip it if you send the bots in ahead to take the aggro themselves. For slotting, Doctored Wounds is a less expensive choice to get some +Recharge (5). Miracle can get you +recovery (2) and both Miracle and Numina's have the +recovery procs, but they are expensive.

Presence is useful if you're trying for a high defense build to pull the aggro to yourself and away from your bots, though /Force Field and /Traps have a much easier time getting a very high defense.

And travel is pretty much up to your taste so I won't dwell on it. Blessing of the Zephyr is useful for any travel set to get +Ranged Def (2) and +AoE Def (3). Also, one note from Luminara, whose build uses swift, hurdle, and combat jumping for movement and took Jump Kick from the leaping pool, six slotted with Kinetic Crash for some lovely set bonuses: +run speed (2), 3pts Knockback Protection (4), and +7.5% recharge (6)

Mace Mastery (Black Scorpion): This was typically the preferred way to go before the added Epic pools since it is the only patron shield that is defense so it stacks with the protector bot bubbles even if it's only smashing, lethal and energy. Web envelope is a wide area immobilize, and it has -recharge that will stack with any pacing of the turtle: recharge slow procs you have, but with the slows from glue arrow and Oil Slick Arrow isn't absolutely necissary, and it causes redraw. Never took Mace Beam Volley as I went nonviolent so I won't comment on that. Web Cocoon is a single target hold that is very useful if you use Ice Arrow. Using this with Ice Arrow can stack to hold a boss or it can hold two lieuts. Slot it the same way as Ice Arrow. New with I13 comes power boost, available at level 44 after taking one other Mace power. Trick Arrow doesn't get as much utility out of this as other sets, but it will enhance Enangling Arrow's immob, Flash Arrow's -To Hit, Ice Arrow and EMP Arrow's Hold, and Acid Arrow and Oil Slick Arrow's -Defense, possibly one or two more, but I'm not positive on them so I won't list them.

Leviathan Mastery (Captain Mako): This is nice if you like the shark effects from what I've heard. I won't go into detail because I only know what I can read from paragonwiki. School of Sharks is a cone immob and DoT, Bile Spray is a cone DoT, Shark Skin is the resistance shield, Knockout Blow is an extreme melee damage with knockup, and Spirit Shark Jaws is the single target hold, also with DoT. This seems useful if you want to add some more damage to your controls, and if you like sharks.

Soul Mastery (Ghost Widow): This has Night Fall, a cone attack with -Acc, which stacks nicely with your defense. Dark Embrace, the resistance shield. Soul Tentacles, a cone immobilize with damage that doesn't interfere with the knockdown from Oil Slick, and with a little extra range will be about the same size as Night Fall. Oppresive Gloom, a PBAoE stun toggle. And Soul Storm, the single target hold with DoT.

Mu Mastery (Scirocco): This is an electric themed set which could conceptually work with the robot angle, and it has Static Discharge, a cone attack. Charged Armor, the resistance shield. Electrifying Fences, a DoT immob with -KB. Thunder Strike, a Melee stun with knockback, and Electric Shackles, single target hold with damage.

Chill Mastery: This has an Ice blast, an AoE sleep which you could pair with Poison Gas Arrow, Hoarfrost - a click max +HP power, it does include a defense toggle that will stack with your protector bot bubbles, and it comes with Hibernate - which can be a useful "oh crap" button, though it won't necessarily save your pets, and it shuts off all of your buffs to them.

Charge Mastery: This is another electric themed set which could be a match with the robotics like Mu Mastery. It has the same cone attack, melee stun, and single target hold, though the hold is moved to the beginning of the set. And instead of the others it has Surge of Power - a short term resist buff like Electric Armor's tier 9 power. And EM Pulse - which is similar to EMP Arrow with a stun instead of a hold, damage, -regen, and bonus damage to robots.

Heat Mastery: This has a single target ranged attack, bonfire - a location AoE with massive knockback. It's difficult to use properly, but can be quite useful for damage mitigation, especially if you can send foes flying into a corner. A ranged AoE, a single target hold, and Rise of the Phoenix - a useful self-revive with added damage and stun.

Field Mastery: This has a resistance armor, a single target ranged energy attack, a cone knockdown/damage, ranged AoE attack, and a short term resist buff similar to Invulnerability's tier 9 power.

And there you have it. Hope you enjoyed.

Special Thanks to Azucar for help fine tuning the guide, and Luminara for helping in all my early posts asking questions about build and strategy help.

So far so good on this build for me! Thanks for the time putting together the guide!

It is a bit of a slow starter since so many of the arrows in /TA are only fair by themselves, but stacked together they work very well. At level 38 right now, and so far I've taken everything in Trick Arrow.

Not sure if I'll keep EMP Arrow or not. It is such a great hold, but I haven't really had any aggro management issues (very little debt so far). May keep is as a panic button, or take Stamina just for the QoL, or take Tactics, mostly to use against Night Widows and Succubus as I don't have accuracy issues. Any thoughts on that?

My defense for my bots is great... with the protector bots slotted for 2 defense, they give 22% defense to the rest of the bots, plus 4% from Maneuvers and 5% from the Edict of the Master IO. 31% defense and if I fire Flash Arrow first that's the equivalent of 6% more defense, dropping most critters to 13% ToHit. So my bots are hard to kill, and Acid/Disruption have the main target debuffed by 30% -res, so they drop fast.

Any keybinds/macros you have found especially useful? I have a few simple macros, one to put everything in bodyguard mode, one for passive, one to put the assault bot only in aggressive, one for the battle drones only in aggressive, one to tell them all to go to a spot.

It's a good build for solo, and a great team build from what I'm seeing. Solos pretty easily on Ruthless, which is my preference for xp/hour and drops/hour.

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So far so good on this build for me! Thanks for the time putting together the guide!

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Thanks for reading it, I'm glad you found it useful.

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Not sure if I'll keep EMP Arrow or not. It is such a great hold, but I haven't really had any aggro management issues (very little debt so far). May keep is as a panic button, or take Stamina just for the QoL, or take Tactics, mostly to use against Night Widows and Succubus as I don't have accuracy issues. Any thoughts on that?

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Personally, I don't use EMP or Tactics. I don't seem to come across either Succubi or Night Widows often enough to take a power just for them. And I almost always have a yellow lying around just waiting to be used in those occasions.

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Any keybinds/macros you have found especially useful? I have a few simple macros, one to put everything in bodyguard mode, one for passive, one to put the assault bot only in aggressive, one for the battle drones only in aggressive, one to tell them all to go to a spot.

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I haven't really messed with keybinds/macros, but I know there's a lot of useful ones out there. I know there's at least a couple guides just on keybinds for MMs.

I feel the need to slightly update this with the new IO sets in I13. Notably the new hold sets which should work well in Ice Arrow. Also I'll have to look at the one or two new patron powers added. Been juggling around a lot of characters, old and new with I13 and now this is another thing on my to-do list.

Now if only all this will keep me occupied until I14 open beta!

Love the fact that the new forums allow old edits. This guide is now updated through i15, though i13 was the last issue with pertinent changes.

Changes:

Changed suggested slotting for the robotics upgrades now that they are AoE so they don't need recharge.

Added new hold sets as suggestions for Ice Arrow.

Added new patron powers in the patron pools sections.

Fixed table of content links that were broken with the forum change.

Alpha Slot:

For this guide, I would suggest that the Alpha Slot is a good choice to fill any hole that you may have been missing through IO sets thusfar. Throughout this guide, I've suggested to slot IOs for recovery bonuses, and mentioned where you can get some recharge bonuses as well. Either way you go, the alpha slot is a good way to add some bang in the other category.

Cardiac: If you have been slotting for recharge through your IOs, then this is a good choice for an Alpha Slot. For Rare, you get 45% or 33% additional end reduction on all of your powers. This is also helpful for your summons and upgrades. The additional range is also slightly useful, though the resistance, fear, sleep, and intangibility don't get any real use.

Spiritual: If you have been slotting for recovery through your IOs, then this is a good choice for an Alpha slot to get a lot of those good arrows up more often. You can get up to 45% recharge with a Rare, or you can get 33% recharge along with 33% heal bonuses - if you take the medicine pool, and 33% slow bonuses.

Musculature: This is another possible choice to get more damage out of your robots. Although you should be near the ED cap for damage already, so you won't see much bonus out of this option until you get to the rare level, which ignores half of ED. You can also use this to buff your to-hit debuff from Flash Arrow, and defense debuffs from Acid and Oil Slick Arrow.

Nerve: This is probably the least desirable option out of the current Alpha slots, as many of the arrows are auto-hit, and you should be able to slot enough accuracy in your bots already to compensate. Unless you're trying to go for a high defense build, in which this will give you some bonuses there. You also get bonuses to your holds.



Judgement Slot: Your AoE attack, it pretty much just depends on your taste for whichever theme you would like. My character is one with no personal attacks at all, so I'm planning on skipping the Judgement attack entirely. My quick notes are - Cryonic is useful to help stack with your other slows, or you can add a chance for a hold. Ionic also has a chance for a hold. Pyronic is just straight up damage, and it can light your Oil Slick Arrow, though you won't need it as much after the Pyronic. And Void has the -damage chance.


Interface Slot: This is the proc ability, which works with all your pets' damaging attacks, as well as any of your own damaging attacks. Diamagnetic has a chance for a small to-hit debuff - which will stack with any of your defense, and flash arrow, and -regen, which is helpful on AVs. Gravetic has a chance for -recharge and slow which adds to your glue arrow and oil slick arrows. Paralytic has a chance for -defense which adds to acid and oil slick arrow's debuffs, and -damage which stacks with poison gas arrow, and void judgement. And reactive is what many consider the best for pure damage, with it's DoT as well as -resist, which adds to your acid and disruption arrows.

Hello, I'm pretty inexperienced with IOs and I would appreciate it if you offered me some information about them.. such as when to get them, how to slot them, and how to get the money.

I'm currently reading your Bots/TA guide and I'm really into it. I just get really confused when it comes to IOs.