If you go Traps, be prepared to take almost the entire set.
You can single-handedly shut down just about anything. Between Acid Mortar and Poison Trap, you cripple entire groups. Seekers, Webnade, and Caltrops keep them from running (And trapped in the Assault Bot's fire patches). Triage Beacon is your "Get off my lawn" campy trap. THEN you get Force Field Generator to top it all off.
I opted for the TeamTP and drop in on groups in Bodyguard mode. BG>TP>TrapSpam. You can also play the 'hang back and laser light show' game.
I don't have experience with Bots/Dark, but I would imagine it plays the hang back game rather well, with Twilight Grasp, +DEF, and ToHit debuffs. You'll need Howling Twilight and Twilight Grasp to slow down regen (Why would you pass up Howling though? It's amazing...)
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Sue: Level 50 Technology Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones -- (A)(3)(3)(5)(5)(7)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- (A)(45)(46)(46)(48)(48)
Level 2: Caltrops -- (A)
Level 4: Triage Beacon -- (A)(7)(9)(9)(11)(11)
Level 6: Equip Robot -- (A)
Level 8: Recall Friend -- (A)
Level 10: Acid Mortar -- (A)(21)(21)(25)(33)(34)
Level 12: Protector Bots -- (A)(13)(13)(15)(15)(17)
Level 14: Teleport -- (A)(34)(37)
Level 16: Force Field Generator -- (A)(17)(19)(19)(39)(46)
Level 18: Swift -- (A)
Level 20: Team Teleport -- (A)(34)(37)
Level 22: Poison Trap -- (A)(23)(23)(25)(33)(33)
Level 24: Health -- (A)
Level 26: Assault Bot -- (A)(27)(27)(29)(29)(31)
Level 28: Seeker Drones -- (A)(39)(40)(40)(40)(45)
Level 30: Stamina -- (A)(31)(31)
Level 32: Upgrade Robot -- (A)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- (A)(36)(36)(36)(37)(43)
Level 38: Assault -- (A)(39)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- (A)(42)(42)(42)(43)(43)
Level 44: Power Boost -- (A)(45)(50)
Level 47: Vengeance -- (A)(48)
Level 49: Hasten -- (A)(50)(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- (A)
Level 2: Rest -- (A)
Level 1: Supremacy
/Traps is a set, I am convinced, that was designed for MMs. Thanks to your pets, (and the defense bonuses you get) you should be easily capable of toe-bombing any and all of your Traps.
I generally don't bother with Teleport - I just run right into a group while in BG mode. As soon as the Bots open up, the aggro's off of me, anyway. In the later levels, when dealing with enemies that might have a tough alpha... well, that's a job for the Seeker Drones.
Seriously, you will want to take most of your Traps. Detonator is questionable, but everything else is very good.
Be sure to devote some slots to Web Grenade... particularly by the late 20s. It's a power you will be spamming as often as you can, and you really want to be able to immobiles Bosses and Elite Bosses - and still be able to drop your other Traps too.
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I guess I play it different than some, but I like the Seeker Drone pull when it's available and the Photon Grenade Pull when it's not.
I view all personal attacks as a general waste of time. Maybe for pulling, but I have temp and veteran powers for that. Traps is pretty much the only MM secondary that could really edge someone into taking a personal attack, as Caltrops and Triage Beacon seem rather unpromising at first glance.
I use my drones to pull when I feel the need. Usually I just dive right in and remember to use them as the sparks fly...
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I view all personal attacks as a general waste of time. Maybe for pulling, but I have temp and veteran powers for that. Traps is pretty much the only MM secondary that could really edge someone into taking a personal attack, as Caltrops and Triage Beacon seem rather unpromising at first glance.
I use my drones to pull when I feel the need. Usually I just dive right in and remember to use them as the sparks fly...
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Personal attacks are NOT a waste of time... early in your career. I don't remember the thread, but this came up a couple months back - and someone had all kinds of scary numbers to back him up!
But what it ammounted to was that - with even one personal attack - the Mastermind will actually be able to produce a significant amount of their over all damage. It's only around the time you can pick up the Tier 3 pet, and certainly after the 32 upgrade, that your personal attacks become completely meaningless. After that, the only reason to have one at all... is to be able to pull out your weapon. This makes it worth using a Respec on your character.
With Traps, this is especially true. Caltrops are good, but not great, and Triage Beacon really needs SOs to be worth anything. Take an attack early, and respec out of it sometime after level 22.
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Make a bot/dark and a bot/trap MM and have fun with both.
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Make a bot/dark and a bot/trap MM and have fun with both.
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My bots/traps MM was my first 50 redside and he was a beast with just SOs and generic IOs later on. I took aid other/self, hover (hate TP without hover, especially with the levels on red side), recall friend to fix stuck pets (they used to get stuck a lot), TP, and group TP for porting in with the acid mortar (back when you could port it around *sad panda*).
I'd recommend picking up your two attacks in lieu of caltrops and triage beacon early on and then respecing out of the attacks and into caltrops/triage beacon once you feel your attacks aren't doing much. You should be able to solo Heroes without any sets or set bonuses. It's that powerful. I did that before bodyguard mode went in, too. 
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Personal attacks are NOT a waste of time... early in your career.
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Agreed. Heck, I had both my first and second p-attacks during CoV beta.
Got rid of them real quick though :P
Not much experience with Traps, I'm interested mainly due to FFG, Acid Mortar, and Seeker Drones, but I do love me my /Dark powersets. So, thoughts?