My Ninja/Poison doesn't have any attack moves, simple reason; I'd rather debuff and let the pets do the dmg since they are much better at it then spent my time attacking while I could be debuffing.
You are more than able to be a mm without the attack powers.
It depends on playstyle I think. I have a Thugs/Dark and I've just been trying out a Thugs/FF and the secondary really does make a difference to how involved you get. With /Dark, I find I'm busy all the time and so don't even get a chance to launch an attack whereas with /FF, I picked up a couple of attacks because, quite frankly, I was bored.
Interestingly, I was in a PuG the other day with four other Masterminds and people (including myself) started to complain about poor framerate so I dismissed my pets and spent the rest of the mission as a sort of Dark Defender for the team. Bizarrely enough, I still found myself quite busy.
If I had the power slots to spare, I probably would want to keep an attack or two but especially running with /Dark, there is always a far superior power to pick. 
Edit: Also, it's worth noting that the amount of endurance these attacks cost for the amount of damage they do really isn't efficient. Once you start getting to foes with stronger resistances it's just not worth it any more IMHO.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
My MMs both have Fly as travelpower with Air Superiority as prerequisite. On top of that they have Sands of Mu or the Ghost Slaying Axe respectively. Together with my secondaries (/Dark and /Poison) this is more than enough to keep me busy during fights.
The blasts from the primary sets offer negligible damage when compared to your henchmen. So, they are hardly worth the power and ehancement slots.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
I have 1 attack on all my MM's, burst aimed arrow or the thug double gun shoot thing. It helps on a runaway mob that was 5% health left and your minions dont follow him yet. Also great for agro pulling, since bodyguard can take most of the damage to your pets anyway, wich automatic start attacking. And final, works good to interupt skyraiders engineer's bubble, if your pets didnt attack yet. Finaly, the patron set also gives some nice attacks, often way better then the attacks of your primairy.
Yet on some sets, due the weapons, it get annoying pretty often. My merc/TA i hardly use the gun anymore since u keep swapping the stupid weapon, wasting value time u could have used debuffing the mobs. In the case is use it, its more a '*#$&(#$&
#@ STUPID PET, let me show u how to SHOOT a mob'. in case of the Patron, you even start swapping 3 weapons.. even worse.
Once there was this called 'blastermind', picking all attacks and using the pets as 'shield'. Whatever u go, the attacks are puny low damage, often not even comparable to the damage your pets can ditch out.
Its your playstyle, your call. If you like it, take it, if you dont like.. nobody around that would say you are not a 'true MM'.
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
Thanks for the affirmation guys.
And damn you Sinergy. I'm going to have to try the Blastermind thing just because it sounds freaky. Stupid and weird, but freaky.
-jared
Edit: Where was that FUnky Build thread? I think that if you made a mastermind without ANY pets, you definitely qualify as gimped. I'm not sure that can be debated.
Actually most guides will have no attack builds, despite how nice it is to have an attack, they simply don't scale very well and it's often best to drop them at higher levels and load up on Power Pools or extra secondaries. Lots of thugs seem to take pistol attacks because the "look cool" but they also, sadly, suck with double pistols being the only possible choice for taking if you really, really , REALLY have to get an attack. Mostly they just suck time and end that could have been better spent elsewhere.
None of my Masterminds have a personal attack and I don't really feel the need to get one!
Heres a link to a monster of a thread regarding 'Petless Masterminds' over on the US forums
Ironman Challenge
My Merc/FF (currently at lvl 29) has only took Slug as a personal attack.....it has come in very usefull for pulling but I'll be leaving it out on my next respec at 32
Damn you Crossfire. Petless Mastermind challenge here I go. :sigh:
I almost have to now. Of course I haven't read the whole thread yet...it could make me change my mind.
-jared
Hehe, I do think it will be a long and painful road to lvl 10 or 20 let alone 50 with a petless MM. The best of luck to you if you do try the concept out.
I would give the Ironman Challenge a go if only I had a spare toon slot left on Union and Defiant.....hmm, checks slots on Zukunft, dusts off German/English dictionary
I think my goal will be to get to level 26. I'm sure I'll crack because I KEEP getting distracted by new build ideas but somehow I like the idea of a character "earning" the Big One, as it were.
Again, damn you Crossfire. Damn you plenty.
-jared
On my UD/Miasma MM I haven't got any attack moves. Just doesn't fit my style of play, but I still do stand in the middle of the battle because of the (annoyingly) short AoE effect of twilights grasp. Just got 24 and happy with my 2nd grave knight and now my goal is lich and then the 2nd enchant.
My first damaging power, level 41, Nightfall
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Update:
Mastermind Ironman Challenge sort of started. I'm only doing it to level 26 so it'll be a boy and his demon friend AND I'm not saying no to teaming because teams are why I play. While the true spirit of the Ironman is "I am a mastermind with no pets or friends playing with me", I can't pull that off. To balance that fact, I made my Blastermind arrow themed. To my surprise, I've only eaten the floor about three times since I started.
Kaijukore: my Ninja/Trick Arrow Blastermind
I also made an actual story about how the character is actually just a WW2 magical prison built to house a japanese demon that eventually will break free(the Oni, see level 26) so at least my Blastermind is on his own for plot reasons. That lets me sleep at night and feeds my roleplaying addiction.
By the way: Glue Arrow or Fistful of Arrows? Fistful strikes me as aggro doom for me (I live by the snipe and run) but it's also the ONLY area attack I get. Glue arrow strikes me as incredibly useful but
glue arrow vs fistful of arrows.
Thoughts?
-jared
"who is having far too much fun with this character"
Kaijukore (on Union)
Global @Billy Horrorshow
Glue arrow is probably the gem of the Arrow set, but if you've got no pets you'll need the attack. Hmm...
Flip a coin!
Glue Arrow it is. If I can't plink it to death with two attacks (3 if you count the vital taser dart...sigh), getting a cone attack that does less damage than Aimed but costs almost twice the endurance just seems goofy. (Thank you Tomax's guide to all things CoV). Sure being able to DAMAGE a group sounds nice, but as long as my arrows can keep them retarded and unable to hit, I'm happy.
Oh and I've learned that corners + Entangling Arrows are my friends. Nothing makes a mob smaller than plinking a few before making a run for it. Damn. I can't believe how much fun I'm having playing a coward.
Btw, if anyone has any advice to give on the other Arrow levels, I'd love to hear it. Since I kind of have to focus on those to keep me alive (with a little help from secondaries) I'd like to avoid something that just isn't going to work. Ice Arrow seems like a given but does Poison Gas Arrow work as well as its description implies? Am I correct when I notice that using AoE Arrows DOESN'T agro mobs affected, only the one that I hit? (I keep flash arrowing a mob that was busy pretending to fight one another and, aside from the one I tagged, the rest just sit there blind not realizing I've taken on of their number). Trick Arrows don't aggro if they don't do damage...or is that just flash arrow because of the perception debuffer?
-jared
My Lvl 50 Necro/Dark MM has no primery power attacks, nither does my new Thugs/Dark MM.
Its simply down to preferance and play style. I choose none so I don't get any agro. Altho sometimes I do wish I had something better then an immob ray 
Just flash arrow won't aggro. Hmm well I played TA a bit so here's my impressions.
Entangling Arrow, you gotta take it, but eh it's alright enough so this shouldn't be a problem. Just use it to keep things still, or drop fliers.
Flash arrow. Not really a fan, the -acc is tiny and the -perception isn't really that useful in PvE. For PvP I love it (As do stalkers once told what it does 
) but for PvE i't totally skippable if you want too.
If you're going without pets you'll want acid arrow as soon as possible, it'll really boost your damage and it's a small Aoe effect so you can pick off two weakened mobs without it before reapplying usually, I didn't think that much of it till checking what the difference the damage output was, needless to say it's nearly always the second arrow I fire after a control now O.o . Get it soon as you can!
You'll love glue arrow too, the slow it gives is just insane! One of the harshest i've seen, will make kiting even easier if you hit all the spawn but a few, and the -recharge on thier attacks means after thier initial attack cycle the incoming damage for you is greatly reduced, did I mention it never misses? Because it doesn't. It lasts ages too.
Sleep arrow is a bout a 50% chance to sleep the people in it's AoE, but as a bonus the arrow itself will never miss so it's great for reducing the alpha mobs put out, also comes with a nasty reduction on thier damage (30% if I remember right) which is going to further increase your surviablity.
Disruption arrow isn't really a petless MM power as it requires the enemy to stay still and really you should be kiting them! Once you get pets, or if you plan to team it's a great compliment to Acid arrow.
Oil slick arrow just kicks [censored], while you sighed at your taser you'll soon take it back when you realise pretty much the only way you've got to ignite the damn thing is to use the afore-mentioned taser. Coupled with glue arrow this makes spawns go dead. There's a bug where pets won't enter ignited oil patches on your side, but since you petless that's not really a problem. When you do pick up pets remember it, especially if you have melee heavy set like ninjas or zombies, it's really annoying!
Emp arrow is the final arrow, and yep it's killer a huge lengthy AoE hold and Endurance drain with some -regen tacked on too. Sure the recharge is long, but this thing is a free kill on a spawn when up, or one of the best panic buttons in the game for when things get nasty.
I quite like TA and it's certainly a rare thing to see (Unlike dark >.> ), can't wait to play mine more! Right now I got too much of a thing for /poison, but I will go back to my TA sometime!
Hope all that helped!
Thanks for the breakdown. Really.
Since Flash Arrow was my first "this is required for me to survive" I slotted it a bit more than I should. Oops.
And I definitely will have a way to ignite the oil slick. Oni's are fire-tossing bastards, if online reports/stats are to be believed...that's still a long way away from that (because then technically I'm not a Blastermind then because I have a partner) but it is closer than the Oil Slick Arrow of fun and doom. It's also good to know taser ignites it too. I took that origin because it fit the character but man, I don't think I could have survived the lower levels without it "shocking" my enemies into not attacking me almost every time I used it.
And even though I'm only a few powers in, I'm already liking Trick Arrow. From everything I've played in the past area of effect things are more scarce and sought after. This? This is just nutty fun.
-jared
Blastermind Advice question:
What will keep me alive longer:
Health, slotted like crazy
or
Heal Self, slotted like crazy?
I prefer the first because I need my stamina and my play style with Kaijukore so far is "don't let them hit you so there's no need to heal" but there's a crossroads there. One I've heard people cite Health as one of the useless powers, but at the time I thought they were just whining that they couldn't buy Stamina at level 14. I've never had either, so advice would be totally appreciated. When the game difficulty ramps up, I'm going to need something to deal with this.
Aid Self is far and away better than health for keeping yourself alive. And since you'll also want Aid other for your pets and teammates it's a good progression. 6 slot em both 3 health 2 int red and 1 recharge. Mmm!
Unless your getting leadership or using a lot of your blasts you can actually skip Stamina, as TA is a very end friendly set. If you do get Stamina, grab health, but don't bother slotting it unless you got "spare" slots to place.
Kaijukore, my Blastermind is now level 9...and still lots of fun. And I haven't faceplanted since the other day.
Thanks for the advice on Glue Arrow. While it does make most fights look like a porn re-enactment, it's totally saved me a couple times. Particularly using it on the door of the Bank so the mobs don't all come in and slaughter our ill-prepared team. So thanks.
By the way, if it wasn't for Flash Arrow, I don't know how I could have survived a few of the mob doom moments. I know that pulling is a normal thing but pulling after a flash arrow (unless the Mob is Longbow for some stupid reason) means you can fire into a crowd and ONLY the one you shot leaves the mob to come get you. I know that's just good pulling but when you're week and mobs = death, having the flash arrow pulling magic keeps you alive.
-jared
PS: Of course you don't NEED to pull the big mobs so much when you have pets like a normal Mastermind, but, well, yeah.
Personally, Dr Mechanibus doesn't have any "basic" attacks (photon gun/ grenade), and just lets his pets do all the fighting. However, if I need to draw the aggro off of a damaged 'bot, whe Web Blast from his Epic mace powerset helps.
I find that, with mass leadership and forcefield buffs going on, there is little need to get up close and personal
Merc/poison.
Yeah the temptation to just buff/debuff is strong, but I still find that those extra bits of damage I can throw out help, and its not as if there is anything else I can take in place of my three attacks (5 if I include my shark stuff).
I do tend to do "hot dumps" as well, where I provide covering fire for my minions while they equip or to keep that pesky AV off of my commandoe for a second while my medic heals him.
I would say, /traps can be most devastating. In that line, necro/traps would be a pretty good no-pet set. Ok, you need 1 pet to get the 38 power going, with necro they instant explode. Then use (i think its called) soul extract, and you get a ghost that will wack some extra.
Remains the tripmine, fill it up and tp foe.
On the other hand, just get a corrupter ../devices then.
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
Blastermind update.
Up to level 11 (had a week vacation in Italy so that explains the slowdown) but I've been seriously introduced to faceplanting. (I've also learned that no one in CoV seems to know about the Flash arrow pull trick, but that's for another time when I describe the horrors of team pulls) I'm typically getting slaughtered by enemies that I didn't notice before turning a corner, so I'm thinking....Stealth? It gives a defense bonus (which would be a godsend right now) but I don't know much about the power, really. Other solutions just mean being careful but I'm pretty cautious its the surprise mobs that are 3 feet from the corner that keep eating me alive.
Also I'm thinking I NEED to get Fistful of Arrows, only because it'll let me wound the above-mentioned mobs all at once instead of my cowardly glue + entangling + Ice + hide behind corner and plink the ones that actually can still run around it" trick.
Also the next level is level 12 and if I'm going to get either aid self or Health I need to decide very soon.
Any advice for a suddenly-struggling Blastermind?
-jared
"who is still having too much fun with Kaijukore, even if he won't stop eating the floor"
Here's a weird question. I know that in the later game a mastermind barely needs any attacks of his own...since, after all, his pets are his attacks. I had a conversation with someone and wanted to know what the veterans thought of the logic:
Is it wise for a mastermind to have no attack powers directly linked to himself? If Poison is your secondary (and you focus on debuffing/etc), it's entirely possible to never have to attack an enemy yourself. Now somehow this just feels wrong. I know I'm new and maybe everyone respecs out their attack abilities later in the game, but is a level 20 Mastermind that has no direct attacks (besides the default mutagen & brawl) that don't require pets goofy-stupid in some way that I'm not thinking about?
Is it smart to ignore the seduction of Gloom, Photon Grenade, & Empty Clips (not to mention the "basic" attacks)? Or is it just a playstyle thing (how dirty does the master get his hands kind of thing)?
-jared
"total newb, if you will"