Web Grenade: Meh....I just use it for a bit of added heat in a fight. Haven't slotted it.
Caltrops: Useful for slowing down runners or buying a little extra time when mobs are closing in on melee, but it does just fine with only two slots.
Triage Beacon: Awful. I plonk it down to make it look as if I'm actually doing something in combat, but that's about it. Slightly more useful than Slug though, I suppose. o.O
Acid Mortar: Removed this with the level 24 respec. Just didn't seem to have that big an impact on battles, despite it being slotted up. People sing it's praises though, so your mileage might vary.
Force Field Generator: Three slotted, you're looking at about a 20% bonus to DEF against almost everything. Incredibly useful I find, and doesn't seem to get attacked that often.
Poison Trap: I use it as crowd control and breathing space. Helpful against Elite Bosses and Heroes as well, because of the -regen. Six slotted this baby.
Seeker Drones: Once slotted with ToHit Debuffs and Accuracies, these'll ruin anyone's alpha strike. Love the little things.
Trip Mine: Beautiful, just...beautiful. Recharges quite rapidly - even more so with Hasten - and can lay the smackdown on even the toughest mofos.
Detonator: Didn't take this. Seems a bit pointless for a ranged powerset - AT - needing to go into melee for a short blast of damage.
I took web grenade, triage beacon, acid mortar, force field generator, and seeker drones.
With my respec I switched to web grenade, caltrops, and force field generator.
Apart from wishing I'd stuck with triage beacon instead of caltrops, respeccing everything out pretty much sums up my experience with this secondary...
I so wish I'd gone with dark miasma, which I was going to do except that I already have a /dark defender...
I found triage beacon too minor an effect to be useful in combat, so I was really only using it to shorten the waits between combats. However, I almost never use caltrops (it probably would have been useful at the beginning of the game, but now I'm rarely close enough to the enemy to use them!), and I find waiting for all 6 henches to heal a bit dull, and often charge in with one or two half dead, so I could still use it 
Seeker Drones were truly awful. I mat take poison trap or trip mines, although I don't think I'd get much use out of them. I'm quite looking forward to detonating my ninjas though 
I bought Web Grenade, Caltrops, Triage Beacon and force field generator which i later respecced into Web Grenade, Caltrops, Force Field Generator and Acid Mortar.
I found the Triage beacon to be a clumsy power at best. It slightly increased regen but the amount of times i placed it only for the combat to shift and i have to move away from it and lose the benefit of it is unbelievable. If it were mobile like the FFG then i'd definitely reconsider it.
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I bought Web Grenade, Caltrops, Triage Beacon and force field generator which i later respecced into Web Grenade, Caltrops, Force Field Generator and Acid Mortar.
I found the Triage beacon to be a clumsy power at best. It slightly increased regen but the amount of times i placed it only for the combat to shift and i have to move away from it and lose the benefit of it is unbelievable. If it were mobile like the FFG then i'd definitely reconsider it.
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Solo I use Triage a lot, in a group far less.
Solo, I can keep my firing line in the AoE of Triage, and it does help a lot to mitigate incoming damage, especially with 3xSO Heal's in it.
Grouped, especially with a melee class in the team, then it's not much use for anyone else, but I tend to drop it in a position where it'll keep my bots alive, and at least for the early parts of the fight, help the rest out. If the battle moves away from thr Triage, than I'll stay in its effect with my bots and provide supporting fire.
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
Recall Friend is supposedly of benefit to a /Traps MM as a number of the placeables can actually be teleported with the power. Not got the power yet myself though, so I'm not clear exactly which powers are useful with the power, although I suspect it's likely to be the ones that add a name and health bar on your "pets" window...
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Recall Friend is supposedly of benefit to a /Traps MM as a number of the placeables can actually be teleported with the power. Not got the power yet myself though, so I'm not clear exactly which powers are useful with the power, although I suspect it's likely to be the ones that add a name and health bar on your "pets" window...
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To me, Recall Friend is essential to almost ANY mastermind, to fix things when one of your idiot pets gets stuck on a piece of scenery.
As to moving traps around, the only placeable iten that can be repositioned is the acid mortar. And since it only has a 60 second/10 shot lifespan, and recharges in less than 60 seconds with a single recharge SO, I don't bother. especially since if you need to reposition it, you're unlikely to be in a position to actually manage to reposition it due to the power activation time and iterrupt possibilities on Recall Friend.
TP Foe + Trip Mine/Poison Trap, however
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
Respecced out Triage Beacon (rubbish), didn't take Caltrops.
Liking:
- FF Generator with 3x Def buff SOs
- Acid Mortar with 3x SO Def debuffs (superb for taking down AVs/Heroes)
- Poison Trap: 2x Hold, 2x Slow - with AoE enabled bots I can shred held mobs easily
- Trip Mine: needs slotting but happy with it. Don't need TP foe, just any kind of handy doorway or choke point
Had been wondering about Detonator: if you say it's no good, then fine, but had been thinking that it's more satisfying to blow up a dying drone than let it be defeated.
Is it time for the dance of joy yet?
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- Trip Mine: needs slotting but happy with it. Don't need TP foe, just any kind of handy doorway or choke point
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I don't have TP Foe myself, I was merely comtemplating the application of the power to a couple of trip mines and a poison trap
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Had been wondering about Detonator: if you say it's no good, then fine, but had been thinking that it's more satisfying to blow up a dying drone than let it be defeated.
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The problem with that otherwise cunning plan is that there's an activation time on Detonator, so if you notice a bot is dying, then there's a good chance it'll die before you make it go Kablooie!
And given that I keep my bots at range if at all possible, then making a dying bot go up in flames is unlikely to hit multiple mobs.
With Melee type minions, I can see a point, but not for Mercenaries or Robotics.
Try it out, I'm just saying that from my POV and given the way I play the game, Detonator is somewhere between zero and naff all use
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
And powers I couldn't do without.
Oh, and what I've seen of my PB's Seeker Drones has guaranteed I'll never, EVER take them...
Really, there's only one power in the /traps set that I wish I hadn't taken. Detonator. It just feels wrong to me. OK, so I can sacrifice a bot to gain a single blip of high damage, but in doing so, I lose a portion of my sustained Damage Over Time until things calm down enough that I can spare the End and Time to resummon whatever I sacrificed.
Nope, not for me, not the way I play Toybox (which would appear to be conservatively from how I've seen other bots/*** MM's play.)
OTOH, I couldn't do without Force Field Generator, Web Grenade and Triage beacon.
Poison Trap and Trip Mine are very useful in the right circumstances, but those circumstances only come up rarely, so I don't consider them essential.
Caltrops I didn't take so I can't comment on how useful or otherwise I find them
So, all you ***/Traps bods out there, how do you use your secondary pool?
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.