New to Masterminding


Bookkeeper_Jay

 

Posted

Hi all, so after years of putting it off, i find myself rolling a new MM.I must say, even tho im only lvl 3 right now, i can see that her future is leaving me in the dark.
First, having never played a MM before, im unsure of tactics, ie.. bodyguard mode. is this auto on when i set to follow?
Second, She's thugs/pain, and i truly have no idea at skippable powers ie.. weapon attacks.
Thirdly, i have no idea at power pool selections, although i can see that leadership would be a tremendous help.
If anyone could please post a build that i can draw from i would appreciate it very much.
Strange to see that after years of playing this game and seeing countless MM's in action i have no idea how to maximize a build with them.Which IO sets would be best ect..
Thank you for any help.


 

Posted

Leadership I believe is a must.

Skippable powers? Definitely the first and third personal attacks. The second one - dual wield I believe - isn't bad. You may need it early, but I suggest skipping them when you respec later. Your primary attacks will be worth diddly in the long run, but early on they're good.

Take provoke to make enemies attack you and have the bodyguard mode mitigate damage for you. Your pets are in bodyguard mode as long as they are in the following stances: Defensive plus any of follow, goto, or stay.

Tactics: Once you hit 26 and get the bruiser there is a great tactic for him that I know. Give yourself a macro that orders just the bruiser to attack, but leaves the rest of your pets in defensive follow. He will get the aggro, build his fury while you heal, and as soon as he gets attacked the rest of your pets will open up.


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Posted

The default button "Follow" in your tray does NOT set bodyguard mode. It sets Aggressive stance for some reason.

To fix this, right-click on the Follow button in your tray, and choose Edit from the pop up menu. Backspace over the word "Agressive" and type Def in it's place. There must be a space between Follow and Def. The whole command should look something like this: petcomall Follow Def

The guns are handy as you level. I took the first two attacks and didn't regret it. You may wish to use your second build later to remove one or two of those attacks.

Nothing from your /Pain Secondary is skippable. I delayed Soothe and took Share Pain because it was larger. Nullify Pain is the small heal, and Share Pain is the big one. I did eventually pick Soothe, later in the 20's, just because two heals means more healing.

From Thugs you must of course take all your pets and their upgrades. Oh, and Gang War.

Stamina will be required for this too, I think. Leadership is good but not absolutely required. However Tactics is quite nice.

Your travel power is skippable. Make sure to get the Temp Travel powers, and don't forget to buy Jet Packs in Grandville.


 

Posted

My Thugs/Pain is level ... 42 or 43 now. I forget.

Anyway, I didn't take any of the gun attacks. I also took Share Pain, but I didn't slot it and I never use it. It just hasn't been important. I find Nullify Pain and Soothe to be much more important.

I took Stamina and Hover/Fly and Leadership (late in the build) for my pool powers.

But really, you can't go wrong. Wade in, try all the powers, decide what you like for yourself, and respec later once you feel confident.

Enjoy!

Lewis


Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan

 

Posted

Share pain is great for MMs in defensive/bodyguard because it shares the damage between the pets. With the toggle AE regen buff, the damage becomes minimal and a thus becomes an incredible power: huge heal, no downside. It won't stop the +regen of the AE toggle.

i have all primary except the attacks, and all secondary, but taken in an odd order workable to my AT... I love to rez, give me the recharge buff for it anyday!


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Posted

One minor correction: pets are only in bodyguard mode if they're in defenseive follow/goto/stay AND within range of Supremacy (60') AND have line of sight to you. Usually, this isn't a problem.


 

Posted

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought bodyguard only worked if your pets are on defensive/follow. Are you saying that it works in defensive/stay and defensive/goto as well?


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought bodyguard only worked if your pets are on defensive/follow. Are you saying that it works in defensive/stay and defensive/goto as well?

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously. Go To, Stay and Follow all work towards BG mode when the pets are defensive.


 

Posted

Wassabi,

I still didn't find the power necessary, but that's cool. I dont think the power is bad or anything, I just didnt need it. Also, I don't usually run in bodyguard mode anyway. I do on occasion, but not often.

Lewis


Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan

 

Posted

I stay in BG, until I'M ready to attack. I use goto to group my thugs (except brute) for better healing and buffing (more control too) and mostly keep them between mobs and me. When you are out of BG, it helps and then you can't draw too much agro.

When they're trying to run off to chase someone down, they respond faster to Stay than Goto. I only use passive when all else fails to get them back or stay.


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Posted

well tactics is a waste a big waste sorry but ur wrong the enforcers have tactics and if u slot them just once for +to hit and a single acc in ur minions thell never ever miss..and manuvers is a must cuz ur minons reliy and humm manuvers from your enforcers again and guess what it stacks yay..also assult sucks enless ur on a team, wait ur an mm your your own team so its so worth it and vengance it pet crack uve never lived till u seen vengance on all minons and ur gang war... my thugs was a dark so hes all about the def...and the gun powers are usless in my opinon i tried each and dont have a 1 now the pets do such a better job and i dont have to waste end...lastly i never took a travle power only cuz i had so many pool powers but find what works its a good set.. have fun


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
well tactics is a waste a big waste sorry but ur wrong the enforcers have tactics and if u slot them just once for +to hit and a single acc in ur minions thell never ever miss..and manuvers is a must cuz ur minons reliy and humm manuvers from your enforcers again and guess what it stacks yay..also assult sucks enless ur on a team, wait ur an mm your your own team so its so worth it and vengance it pet crack uve never lived till u seen vengance on all minons and ur gang war... my thugs was a dark so hes all about the def...and the gun powers are usless in my opinon i tried each and dont have a 1 now the pets do such a better job and i dont have to waste end...lastly i never took a travle power only cuz i had so many pool powers but find what works its a good set.. have fun

[/ QUOTE ]

If you can't understand any of that... don't worry. He's not saying anything useful. If you can read through the lack of punctuation and intelligence, just ignore it anyway.

The slotted to-hit buff from enforcers is about 1/3 the bonus that an unslotted tactics gives. Granted, there will be two of them, but still, the to-hit bonus from enforcers is not enough on its own if you intend to fight anything +2 or more.

Maneuvers is kind of useless. It's actually the reverse of the tactics case. Fully slotted maneuvers gives you ~5% defense, but each enforcer slotted will give you about ~10% from each.

Assault is the more worthwhile power to unlock tactics as it adds 10% damage to all of your minions, and you won't need to sink slots into it. You can put those slots somewhere else useful.

Mids doesn't have all the info from pets, these are the numbers I remember from right clicking on the powers in game.


Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
well tactics is a waste a big waste sorry but ur wrong the enforcers have tactics and if u slot them just once for +to hit and a single acc in ur minions thell never ever miss..and manuvers is a must cuz ur minons reliy and humm manuvers from your enforcers again and guess what it stacks yay..also assult sucks enless ur on a team, wait ur an mm your your own team so its so worth it and vengance it pet crack uve never lived till u seen vengance on all minons and ur gang war... my thugs was a dark so hes all about the def...and the gun powers are usless in my opinon i tried each and dont have a 1 now the pets do such a better job and i dont have to waste end...lastly i never took a travle power only cuz i had so many pool powers but find what works its a good set.. have fun

[/ QUOTE ]

If you can't understand any of that... don't worry. He's not saying anything useful. If you can read through the lack of punctuation and intelligence, just ignore it anyway.

The slotted to-hit buff from enforcers is about 1/3 the bonus that an unslotted tactics gives. Granted, there will be two of them, but still, the to-hit bonus from enforcers is not enough on its own if you intend to fight anything +2 or more.

Maneuvers is kind of useless. It's actually the reverse of the tactics case. Fully slotted maneuvers gives you ~5% defense, but each enforcer slotted will give you about ~10% from each.

Assault is the more worthwhile power to unlock tactics as it adds 10% damage to all of your minions, and you won't need to sink slots into it. You can put those slots somewhere else useful.

Mids doesn't have all the info from pets, these are the numbers I remember from right clicking on the powers in game.

[/ QUOTE ]


and neither are you, no need to be nasty...
Actually everything he said is useful..


You don't need a travel power, get the mahem jump pack and/or the raptor pack. Like that you can pick up other powers earlier

You don't need the attack powers, per say but leveling up they will help level faster you until you can respec out of them later. I do agree they aren't needed once you hit 32 have all your pets and the last buff. I still may pick one up for RP purposes/fluff.

Leadership pool. I took Manuvers, then all except for vengence, they do stack with your enforcers leadership for pets. And when you're on a team with other leadership classes(particularly VEATS you'll notice that your teams overall defense skyrockets.)

I grouped with 4 VEATs, another leadership MM not too long ago they/we hardly got hit it was crasy.

for all pets 1 acc ,3 damage is fine, for enforcers you can add a to hit and defensive buff in there.

For the Bruiser I added a knock back, will probably add a stun.

I actually added a knock back on my Thugs. Again this is a personal preference, I simply like seeing mofos dropped like that

Gang War 3 recharges, 2 ACC as they miss lots

If your */Dark I can help out with slotting for Dark powers ..all I gotta say once you hit 38 and get "fluffy" the game got really fun man MM's are Op'd. Which is saying lots because MM's are fun/op'd out the box.


 

Posted

Uhm, gotta log in to double check, but slotting to-hit in enforcers as I recall isn't really worth it. Slotting 2 defense though is. I think both enforcers combined give 5% to-hit buff to the henchmen.

Yeah, unslotted each enforcer gives 2.5% to-hit. That gives 80% to-hit. Supremacy then adds another 10% to-hit bringing it up to 90%. With a level 30 common IO (34% accuacy buff) your final to-hit with henchmen is 120%, bounded to 95%. A single ACC enhancement is more then enough. Slotting a to-hit buff into enforcers raises their +tohit from 2.5 to 3. Slotting 2 raises it to 3.5. Not really worth it in the long run since they should already be running around with 90% tohit most times.

Edit, also, with a single acc slotting and the plethora of def debuffs thugs do pets will be hitting 95% of the time even vs +2's. I know cause I'm fighting them now


"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton

Madam Enigma's History

 

Posted

Don't tier 1 pets start at 56% to-hit because they spawn two levels below your character?


 

Posted

no, they have 75% to-hit same as you.


"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton

Madam Enigma's History

 

Posted

I figure since, when on a team or soloing you'll be fighting at least 2+ extra ACC is always helpful.. Now I'm attacking things 3-4+ over my level and the pets, fluffy hardly miss.

Great class though, sorta like Brute , you really can't mess this class up unless you decide to pick up all the attack powers and not any of your pet buffs


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
no, they have 75% to-hit same as you.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's my point, my 75% base to-hit drops to 56% against a +2 (to me) enemy, and an even-con (to me) enemy is +2 to my tier-one henchmen. Are you saying pets are immune to the purple patch?


 

Posted

If you do pick Thugs as your primary then you have a unique chance to slot the Defense and Resistance IO's into Gang War which give a HUGE boost to your pets. I have all 4 of the Unique's slotted in Gang and with just 4 slots I increased my pets defense by 10% and my resistance by 20%. With Maneuvers running as well as the Enforcers leadership powers and World of Pain all my pets have 40% defense to melee/aoe/ranged attacks and 40-50% resistance for the tier 2 and 3 pets and the Brusier has nearly 70% resistances. Combined with you heals and a nicely slotted Web Envelope to immobilize mobs I can take out half the life of lvl 53 minions and lt's with just 2 attacks from the Arsonist alone.

If you have the cash to sink into IO's then a fully pimped out Thugs/Pain MM is phenomenal. The sheer volume of damage you can pump out and the amount of damage you can take is bewildering. I also have perma WoP for myself and all my pets and perma Painbringer for my Bruiser. That alone turns the Bruiser into a tank and able to easily go toe to toe with AV's. Just incredible.


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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
no, they have 75% to-hit same as you.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's my point, my 75% base to-hit drops to 56% against a +2 (to me) enemy, and an even-con (to me) enemy is +2 to my tier-one henchmen. Are you saying pets are immune to the purple patch?

[/ QUOTE ]

What I'm saying is that when my henchmen attack an even con enemy (to me), they still hit based on MY level. The pet level appears to matter for HP and damage, not accuracy. I find just a single SO worth of acc lets them hit 95% of the time when I'm fighting +1's (+3 to the tier 1's). Such slotting isn't enough for ME to hit a +3 that often. Even with 10% bonus to-hit (which my claw scrapper doesn't always have).


"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton

Madam Enigma's History

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I have all 4 of the Unique's slotted in Gang

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I would do it that way. You can also put the two recharge intensive buffs (res, def) in Gang War, leaving you 4 slots to get your gang war numbers up to actual decent numbers (recharge, acc, dam). THEN, you can min/max the pet set IOs to get good numbers in your regular pets in only 5 slots, leaving you 2 slots in the regular pets for the normal pet IO set res and def IOs.

Lewis


Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have all 4 of the Unique's slotted in Gang

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I would do it that way. You can also put the two recharge intensive buffs (res, def) in Gang War, leaving you 4 slots to get your gang war numbers up to actual decent numbers (recharge, acc, dam). THEN, you can min/max the pet set IOs to get good numbers in your regular pets in only 5 slots, leaving you 2 slots in the regular pets for the normal pet IO set res and def IOs.

Lewis

[/ QUOTE ]

I would use Lewis' method.


Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.