How about Thugs/Storm? You said Storm was working pretty sweetly, Thugs gives you decent single-target & AOE Damage (better than bots before level 32), 4 to 5 ranged Henchmen (the Arsonist is "ranged but still will run in to punch things") plus your Bruiser running about and tanking for you. Keeping him and the Arsonist alive can be a bit of trouble but O2 Boost is a quick casting & recharging heal which should help. You and the Thugs & Enforcers can hide in Hurricane shooting outwards and you get Freezing Rain to make the cone AOEs even more potent.
I agree. Bots/FF is mega boring.
As Carnifax suggested thugs/storm would be fun I would also recommend bots/storm or thugs/dark. Your pets are tough and you will have an active secondary to keep you involved.
Personally I am really looking forward to demons with Going Rogue to make a demon/storm. 
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
Yeah Bots/FF are good but zzzzz..... huh?!? oh sorry I fall asleep everytime I even think of playing one again.
Thugs/Dark is alot of fun to play. It has a good powerful feel, ie lots of orange numbers.
There are a couple of sets I have been thinking of trying together
Bots/TA - I think it would be like Bots/Traps but instaed of setting traps and drawing the mob in it would work the opposite and have the bots and traps in from range.
Zombie/Thermal - Come on a bunch of flaming zombies running around. It makes me smile just thinking about it.
Ninjas/Dark is my personal favorite. The Genin and Jounin provide great damage and the Oni along with the Dark Servant makes a great control combo. Dark is great because it has a lot of versitility with a heal, a rez, a stealth power, and several debuffs. I solo'ed one to 50 with very few problems.
Bots/Storm works well. I played one to 50. The robots never complain about knockback from storm. When you master the different foci of knockback you can really manhandle groups.
Thugs/Storm is one I don't have experience with but Thugs would surely go as well with storm as Robots. You would have two minions that like to get in melee, so Robots would get the nod as most Range damage oriented.
Bots/Dark is a very durable setup. It's very hard to kill if not the highest dps. One feature I beat like a drum was stacking stuns on my Bots/Dark. The mastermind's photon grenades, the protector bots photon grenades, seeker drones, on top of Howling Twilight put large groups of foes in a vacant eyed daze. That's some awesome mitigation there, too.
I have started a zombie/thermal. It's impressed me so far. I am just level 18 with it.
Good luck!
Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
Bots/dark is incredibly awesome, especially at 50. Basically, you're an invincible debuffing machine (buffing as well if you take leadership buffs). The only way to really die is from holds, so keep some break frees with you. But bots/dark meshes so damn well, you have your buffs from the protector bots, but you also have some great crowd control for your burn patches.
I also recommend a thugs/storm MM. I'm very much so considering rolling a /pain or /dark thugs MM next. Bots has better aoe damage and better for soloing AVs I think because of the -regen capabilities, but thugs is nothing to scoff at either with some incredible damage, aoe and single target wise. Both look really cool as well.
Next, I'm considering either a thugs/pain or /dark.
am sure a newb at bots/dark, but if your the kind That wants to be in the middle of he fight with your pets, "supporting them"
o ya, dark the one for you
dark is the way to go for debuffs and more debuffs, o and a very nice heal that goes with bots must of the time
"must blind goto commands to keep the few dumb ones who like to melee back to your healing range"looks at you protecter bots"
hell, you have the best res power in game, i didn't take it to res people, get this, its a group aoe Stun for like 15 secs, and -regen of 500% for 30 secs, it just has +res any dead human players added onto the devs, who are they kidding, this is killer debuff spell, forget its a res power, to a teammate needs it LOL
i can see why people say slot any build with great stuff and it be greater, cease if you slot that up for near 100% recharge with your other debuffs, group threats? whats that
what group threats, their no threats to dark Mwahahaha , so many useful dark powers, however i want more power, and i cant tell you how powerful dark is at high levels as i don't have my dark pet yet, and stuff
if you want to support and just watch your pets, and or party members you team up with, while being in rts mode, in the sense, none thing can kill you, or if you just wish to tank stuff, , FF, force fields,
form what i can tell, traps is a jack of all trades, a little of ff shields, a little damage/tohit debuffs, a little tiny heal, a litte cc, all in 1, so their jack of all trades, but being jack of all trades, can pull a lot of stuff off like the other MM's
mm primes , bots, always the way to go sense, the bots self heal, and got a shield for Them, AND you, the and you part is very useful defence
if you just want the pets defence, without self healing pets, go thugs, read 16 self buffing added def for pets only, bots has only 7 more defence , but it applys to you
now if melee your thing, ninja = best single target dps, necro = self healing decent damage , but they hate fire, remb , they hate AOE , where as range pets, thank god can somewhat sure get out of a aoe and kill their enemy
if you pack something like dark, remb, get as much regen as you can, you be burning mana faster then you can count, i have 5 things tuggles running, 1 shadow fall, all 3 leadership debuffs, and dark nite, going full time in combat, its a epic LOLZ of buffing, think of all your - tohit and -damage debuffs on the enemy as massive hp/shield buffs, that are only good for each enemy your fighting at that sec
remb, dark takes you really having to be "Their and reacting in super fast, real time debuffs the sec you see a threat, powerful stuff"
their my take on what mm could be for you, if any of this stuff intrest you
<getting back to game to level my dark
My highest-level Mastermind is a Thugs/Storm, and I love all of the tools it brings. It's also an EXTREMELY active set. If you plan on going for IO sets, you'll want to go mainly for recharge, recovery, and defense bonuses, in that order. Ordinarily Storm requires an emphasis on Recovery, but as a Mastermind most if not all of your attacks are concentrated in your pets, so you don't have as much of a constant endurance drain as a Controller, Corrupter, or Defender. The set can still be a bit of an end hog at times, though, especially when you're furiously spamming your single-target heal to help your poor minions that insisted on running through some caltrops. 
I noticed ALOT of Thug mentions, YES, they ARE that good! I could write guides on Thugs/Storm and Thugs/Pain. The secondaries are almost polar opposites, but both get it done very well.
/Storm gives you a very chaotic way to mess up your targets, keep em off balance, and soften em up.
/Pain is more about you and your team, it takes whats already there and cranks the volume to 11.
Thugs ... they hit on ALL ends. The Punks (after lvl 6) can lay down lots of suppressive and knockdown power. That lil psychotic Arsonist a Fire damage GOD. The Enforcers are good at shredding whole groups with their Dual Uzis. And the Bruiser ... he smashes EVERYTHING that so much as looks at him funny.
Mercs .. I LIKE them, but it is common knowledge they just don't hit as hard as the others. Which REALLY sucks since I LOVE the sound of ALL THOSE BULLETS flying! I think the idea was that they trade raw firepower for debuff powers. STILL though, if they just gave the Spec-Ops 'Stealth Strike' or used the new AR animations for the Commando, that would really help even them with the others. I'd LOVE to see the Commando have 'Scourge', that would put him over the top.
Shigeru Miyamoto "A delayed game will eventually be good, a bad game is bad forever."
I'll second Bots/Storm. As mentioned when solo knockback isn't a problem. With your slows and debuffs running you'll do plenty of damage with the bots and you'll get AoE with all the upgrades. I was able to take down a couple of the non-signature AVs without much hassel like Silver Mantis with just basic IO slotting.
You'll have a lot of surivability with the bots and yourself especially in bodyguard mode. The build is good for teaming as well. Sure you'll have to watch the knockback and may have to limit the use of things like hurricane but you'll have plenty of other tools the team will love. It really is a good choice that synergizes well.
50s - Energyman, Elec^3 Blaster - Light Bringer Prime, Triform PB - OxyStorm, Robo/Storm/Mace MM - Widow Lotone, NW - Psi-Vox, Ill/FF/Earth Control
Go for nin/therm dude, I'm having a blast with mine so far. They're way tougher with the fire shields.
FLAMING ZOMBIES!
...Sorry, I'm just having too much fun with my little level 12 Zombie/Thermal. They're darn sturdy.
Quote:
They ARE! I was checking out the resists at level 3 with the first shield and was impressed at the range of resists Zombie Horde has. Add 20% on top of that from the Pet IOs and I'll have mini-tanks!
|
Originally Posted by MowDownJoe
FLAMING ZOMBIES!
...Sorry, I'm just having too much fun with my little level 12 Zombie/Thermal. They're darn sturdy. |
/poison is also very good with thugs, but more concentrated on ST debuffs than storm or dark, but with the bruiser offering a mini tank and a lot of mitigation post 32 theres great synergy between the sets, very active, great for PvE and PvP, and capable of downing AVs, the ST heal does take quite a bit of slotting to become useful though
Legion of Valor / Fallen legion
Victory
I've got a lvl 27 Thugs/TA (which for some reason seems like an odd pairing to me, but has worked very well so far).
My only gripe with Thugs so far is the Arsonist's tendency to get himself killed, although his damage is very nice. Plus the sound of uzis and pistols firing off like crazy is a beautiful sound indeed.
I'm also really liking TA, and I hear a few powers have really nice synergy with Thugs, most notably the ability of your Arsonist to ignite your Oil Slick Arrow. The only bad part is unlike some other sets TA doesn't have a direct means to heal your pets, and I tend to use up a lot of respites sometimes.
Can't wait to get this guy higher level though. I'm able to solo +0/x4 relatively well thus far. Probably not a big deal but the mission I did was against Tsoo so it felt good to me >_<
I made a decently in depth guide to Thugs/Storm. You can find it in the guides section.I will warn you though...if you DO make a Thugs/Storm,you will have a LOT of fun.And possibly make a few people jealous at the same time. ;p
A bunch of 50s and too many alts...
Neo's Guide To Thugs/Storm (need to update it)
www.facebook.com/bbirgephotos
Questions about Fire/Rad? Just ask!
My first character was/is a Necro/Dark Miasma MM. It's an interesting set, but tends to be pretty either/or. Either I'm walking all over the opposition, or they have flamethrowers and the zombies just vanish. Stupid Longbow. I might try a Necro/Thermal, since that would cover one of the main weaknesses of the set. (The other is that since the zombies and knights have both melee and ranged attacks, they'll probably use whichever is least appropriate.)
Mercs seems to need a balance pass though, since lots of people seem to feel they're the least useful set. I mean, they're getting outpaced by *zombies.* How embarrassing is that?
I really want a mastermind. I love the concept of minions doing your work, and I've seen them take AVs with apparent ease. But for some reason, all the MMs I've had just arn't doing it for me.
All the serious MM's I've had are:
-Robot/FF (Next to invincible, but too darn boring)
Level 39
-Merc/Storm (Mercs were too weak, Storm was working pretty sweet though)
Level 35
-Ninja/Traps (Ninjas were amazing damage, however I can't stand the 50million crouching animations, and that only 2 traps follow you, but 3 clog up the pet window)
Level 33
I guess judging from my other characters: (Ice/Nrg Blast, Spines/EA Stalk, Fire/Kin Troller, Rad/Ment Blast, Ill/Emp Troller, SS/Shields Brute) I like Range, and Damage. (Minus the brute, that's one I built for farming)
But what I *think* I want from an MM is versatility. Something that can solo, decent at ST and AoE damage, work well with teams, take on an AV (and hopefully win) if need be, and not be suck-tastic at PvP. That's probably a little much to ask for, until I noticed everyone seems to love Bots/Dark. Which got me playing with Mids, and it has amazing synergy.
However from what I've seen on the forums Bots/Dark is a popular FotM, and I'm not a big FotM. (Yes, I had an Ice/Nrg when it was a FotM, however I was new then and had little knowledge of what was cool and what wasn't, by pure luck I choose one. And the Fire/Kin I made for farming, yea, farming.) So, that's why /Thermal is probably a no.
If there is a sweet build that can manage all that, (or most, though I'd prolly want AVs and PvP at the top) I would love to know what it is, as far as builds I think I'm getting better at building to my needs, though if there is any advice on what works and what doesn't, that would be sweet too...