Masterminds have IIRC, been intended to be the villainous "tank" - your minions are expendible, use that to your advantage!
Im still not sure about masterminds in pvp. I find them to be a bit "clunky", with only a few types being any use in pvp at all That I have seen), and having to rely on extra powerpool powers to be effective is just a weakness in my opinion.
Without our pets we dont last long, and even with BG mode up it only takes a KB attack/portal drop and we're out of range/dead.
I enjoy PVP with my MM, but sometimes my bots don't even react when I get attacked in BG mode, which is more than a little frustrating.
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and having to rely on extra powerpool powers to be effective is just a weakness in my opinion.
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Erm excuse me? Masterminds are the most self-sufficient PVP archetype out there. Only problem is movement, which may require something like group teleport if you want to keep up with all the Superjumping teammates (note that you dont have to).
Tried my mm today level 26 thug/traps. I was attacked by a blaster in SC he stood no chance in hell, he barely scratched me while I was in bg mode. I'm going to get some taunt powers next.
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Tried my mm today level 26 thug/traps. I was attacked by a blaster in SC he stood no chance in hell, he barely scratched me while I was in bg mode. I'm going to get some taunt powers next.
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Thats right everybody copy Chelsea *sighs* 
Defiant's GoEH/MILITIS METUS
Spines scrappers spamming throw spines is the anti BG mode? :P
it doesn't really matter, provided you can hit an AoE heal very regularly, a Mastermind is at a HUGE advantage with the damage they can take per second compared to other ATs.
on the flipside of this, if a MM wants to concentrate their firepower, they are going to have to sacrifce the bodyguard mode in favour of more damage to the single target.
Also, MM's can suffer from a lot of AoE powers, AoE holds, debuffs, powers-like-fulcrum-shift et al. all benefit from the fact that the average mastermind is carting about a bunch of debuffable minions. I feel that MM PvP strategy will take a wee bit longer to hack out compared to other PvP toons, but this is purely because of the wildly differing nature of MM primaries and potential MM playstyles.
It depends really.... if your talking about 1v1 or group pvp. Pvping today I'd say the only class that would have a good chance standing toe toe to with a mm is a tanker, group pvp being different story of course. The mm has one weakness and thats teleport foe get him away from his minions and hes pretty much done for. I was pvping today along with a few stalkers. I would attack first and use gangwar then spam a few traps causing the heroes to focus on me. You're right that the mm has to be attacked for bg mode to kick in but the heroes I've been pvping with simply can't resist, in the chaos the stalkers can then move in for the kill. Conclusion is a mm is great for distracting and casuing all types of chaos while his teammates move in.
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Pvping today I'd say the only class that would have a good chance standing toe toe to with a mm is a tanker
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So you reckon a scrapper with throw spines, spines burst and energy torrent couldnt? Or a troller confusing MM's pets to death, or with fulcrum, force bubble or with rad debuffs? Or a blaster with fire ball/nova/sniping from distance so that pets in BG dont attack it? I think most ATs can fight a MM and have its chances even tho they dont have tp foe
Thugs/FF. Regardless of who the challenger(s) is, I always have a way to win or draw.
Feel free to try me.
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Pvping today I'd say the only class that would have a good chance standing toe toe to with a mm is a tanker
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So you reckon a scrapper with throw spines, spines burst and energy torrent couldnt? Or a troller confusing MM's pets to death, or with fulcrum, force bubble or with rad debuffs? Or a blaster with fire ball/nova/sniping from distance so that pets in BG dont attack it? I think most ATs can fight a MM and have its chances even tho they dont have tp foe
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Heres a few expereinces I've had with certain players playing these classes.
Tanker
I had an intresting fight with a tanker in sc it lasted for about 10 minutes neither of us getting the advantage over the other, could of lasted much longer until a brute came in, point being is any other class I've encountered would never last this long in a 1v1 before running or dying.
Fire/Ice Blaster
This guy was flying above me using a fire snipe on me, it did about 10% damage to me, my thugs took a tiny bit of damage each. I then managed to ground him with a web grenade after that he didn't last 10 seconds with my thugs attacking.
Controller x 2
I don't own coh so I'm not an expert to their powers these 2 controllers though were using a lot of wind and ice based imob,holds etc, to try and get me away from my minions. It could of worked but the amount of powers they were using on me left them with little endurance to do some damage to me, when I recovered I took them both out thanks to gangwar, caltrops and other traps. (however these guys were lethal in group pvp later)
Spines scrapper
There was 2 type of spines scrapper I fought. One that was jumping around spamming impale not really doing much, and a spines/regen that went in for the melee. The one that went in for melee died after I rooted him.
These were based on the expereinces I had as my first day as a pvp mm which was yesterday. Some people think an 8 man stalker team is bad I'd say an 8 man mm team is even worse, they're a very underrated class.
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Some people think an 8 man stalker team is bad I'd say an 8 man mm team is even worse, they're a very underrated class
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Man, you're speaking my language. What level is your thugs MM?
Tanks i dont tend to find a problem with, so far the only problem for me 1v1 wise was a dark/dark scrapper thanks to those aoe's of his that would get him all his life back since all my botts where around him which can easily be solved by getting to grips with the goto commands.
As for team matchs i find elec/elec blasters to be a problem with their AoE damage and end sapping ways.
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and having to rely on extra powerpool powers to be effective is just a weakness in my opinion.
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Erm excuse me? Masterminds are the most self-sufficient PVP archetype out there. Only problem is movement, which may require something like group teleport if you want to keep up with all the Superjumping teammates (note that you dont have to).
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I agree, but a lot of MMS I have met have started taken extra power pools to "survive" in the pvp environment (not counting travel pools)...Though to be fair this does mainly seem to be the "stand back anc watch" variety of MMs.
The ability of MMs in pvp does depend on the lvl they are playing at.
In SC I can take out Most MMs fairly quickly, with only the odd one or two being overly tricky. And thats with my sonic/em blaster. Robot MMs tend to pose the greatest diff when I am solo.
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Though MMS can solo, I think they do work much better in a triad/quad, often with a stalker or cloaked brute in proper bodyguard mode and maybe a handy corr/dom.
Though I do have to say, if you have a stealthed bodyguard and you happen to play a bubble MM..Dont bubble them!! Its like painting a huge neon sign over their head and just asking the enemy to pop their yellows/hit tactics/CM before attacking. Or in my case abort the attack 
Dark Armour hey? Yeah, I been there. This one had a Katana. He challenged me, and I accepted.. out of pity. I hovered above him, surrounded him with five thugs, evenly spaced to weaken his AoE heal; Dark Regeneration. I was far up enough to avoid danger while buffing my men with Dispersion Bubble, Insulation Shield, Deflection Shield, Supremacy and Aid Other, while they buffed each other with that beloved super-Maneuvers. The poor scrapper was gunned down within eight seconds, KO-blowed to death.
The chances of him landing a hit on me was far greater than my minions. What with only Hover and Dispersion Bubble; no super-Manuevers, and no Scorpion Shield yet.. But I had Aid Self at the ready, and Bodyguards, and in the unlikely event of settling for a draw; a Personal Force Field. Thugs are generally the most damaging burstwise and single target anyway, he would have died before long before me, what with having to jump-to-hit.
PvP is like a chess game at times and I like it because every powersets (and build) has its own advantages over another. A good PvP'er observes his challenger, recognizes his or her strengths and exploits the weaknesses, while covering his own.
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Some people think an 8 man stalker team is bad I'd say an 8 man mm team is even worse, they're a very underrated class
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Man, you're speaking my language. What level is your thugs MM?
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Level 26 thugs/traps
Well it seems after using my own MM Robots/dark in 3 rather large scale matches in arena fights i must say im rather impressed. The 3 matches i was in Free for all and 2 team matches 1 being 2 teams of 7,8 and the other 3 teams of 7. my master mind came out on top in all of them despite the fact i was the obvious target being the only mastermind in all the matches i only really died 3 times in total and the first 2 where in the free for all im glad i took the presence pool as well since as said before its great for when you want to get peoples attention off of your pets