returning thug/poison

Come back after almost 3 years off, and am getting worked into the game flow again.

I had started a MM shortly before leaving and recall him rolling along fairly well. Lvl 21 and was set to +5 for missions. Fired up my toon, retrained myself on binds and getting around in game. Pretty much got rag dolled. Dropped to standard missions. Still feeling gimped.

Were there some major changes to MM, */poison or thugs/* that i haven't caught up on? I remember steam rolling low end missions and raising the level and it being a good run. Lvl 21 ma/sr scrapper from the same time seems just fine.

Antidote seems really weak as well as the weaken and envenom skills. Thugs HP pool seems a little shallow. AI seems a little better for getting around but still dumb as a post for leg humping the closest thing they can find out of LoS.

Scraped through a couple of the new player created missions and got most of my DOs up to +3. They were only a point or two lower but tickets seemed handy for that. Might just be I'm not back into the groove of the game yet but figured I'd ask while sitting at work trying to figure out IOs...

A few things. First, 21 is probably the worst level there is for you. You don't have Single Origin enhancements, you have only 1 Enforcer, and you are likely fighting Scrapyarders. Maximum difficulty is a bit much.

Second, do you have Stamina? It's a must for /Poison. Third, it gets quite a bit better with the Bruiser, since you can use him to take alpha strikes every spawn and it's easier to keep him healed with your single target heal.

And there's a new feature you may not know of; henchmen upgrades are now AoE. They take a lot more endurance, but upgrade all henchmen in range at once. So if you are trying to upgrade everyone one by one like in the old days you are wasting a ton of endurance.

I haven't downloaded a planner yet.
This is where I'm at

call thug (dmgX3 acc)
alkaloid (heal x2 end rech)
envenom (reach acc X2 debuf X2)
weakness (reach acc -to hit X2)
equip ()
hover ()
swift (fly)
enforcer (dmg X2 + hit acc)
fly (fly)
health (health X3)
gangwar ()
stamina (end mod 2 blank) still need the enhancers...

will probably be getting neurotoxic next level.

Then either med or leader pool.

I noticed the upgrade thing the second time i re-summoned. (Clothes didn't change.) That i did like. Guess not a whole lot will change till 26 when i get enforcer. I'll need to get caught back up on leader and med pools and decide what I'm doing. Pretty sure i just hit 21 when i quit didn't fill the stam slots and need to find where i get them as a Nat.

About to hop back in see how many arsonists i can loose.

First thing, you say 3 years ago, I wonder if that was before or after the bodyguard feature arrived. It's best for your health to have the minions set on Follow/Defensive. They will shoot anything that looks funny at you after you lead with envenom *my preference*. Bodyguard mode also tends to restrain them from going apesical on anything in LoS. As mention by previous posters, your powers will double their enhanced amount with single origin enhancers. Level 23 is more enhancers which I suggest to put in your pets. They can stand more damage and accuracy.

More slotting nitpicks: you would be healthier putting the last two slots in health in other powers. Weakness could stand more accuracy when you can afford it. Gang War begs for 3 slots of recharge reduction. It's an uber power, almost a game breaker. You get a cloud of minions who each have single target attacks which contain a provoke part in them so that eveything hitting you mostly likely will be hitting them instead.

Remember, level 24 is the bonus round when your second enforcer arrives; that is a BIG BOOST to the thug experience. You are on track just keep on being persistent.

I've been leading with them attacking. I'll try swapping that around see how much better it works.

Not sure why the health was 3 slotted most likely at the time there was some real good benefit to it. Most of my other toons are pretty heavy on attack/support slotting.

Noticed last night in the half mission i ran before bed weakness missed a lot so will happily add some acc to that.

Probably have a respec token i can use at a later date once i get back up to speed on the enhancers. I have the vague concept on the sets but not which to put into use.

few other questions.
- do leadership skills stack or negate the enforcer buffs?
- does group fly work on my thugs?
- am I missing something in the patron powers or are they of small use to a MM?