Marc/Darks Set Theory Help

I'm looking to respec my Marc/Dark Mastermind and I really have no idea where to start. Right now I have 90% SOs and 10% random IOs from levels 15 to 45 that I found on the way. Please don't recommend Mids because I use a Mac so it is not an option. =)

What set bonuses are even important? I'm not looking to solo AVs, I typically play on -1/x3 with bosses turned off. Just looking to get the kill speed up so I can run on +1/x4 with bosses turned on and not sit there being bored watching some Freakshow Tank (or any other boss with massive S/L resists) pretend my boys are trying to give him a massage.

Not looking to be a tankermind either but I could use some tips on keeping the idiots alive. From what I can tell, set mods only help me so maxing defences only goes so far. Recharge is only somewhat important: helps get double tar patches and fears, but beyond that, I'm not seeing the value--am I missing something?

Before I look into what powers and pools I want to aim for, what kinds of set bonuses are most useful to the merc/dark combo?

I usually don't worry much about set bonuses on my masterminds as the most common set bonuses don't affect your pets. However, if you are going to build for anything I would suggest some mix of +recharge, +regen and +hp. Basically anything that helps you get your secondary powers back faster, heal faster and live longer. With dark a little accuracy bonus wouldn't hurt either since so much of your secondary has to hit to be effective. The following sets might be usefull:

- 5 Doctored wounds in Twilight grasp for the recharge and heal bonuses (Only do this if you can afford to 6 slot twilight grasp as you need to slot a L45+ accuracy IO as well). Alternatively you could slot 3 numina's convalescence for the HP and regen boost, but numina's are a LOT more expensive and harder to get than DW.
- Slot either 4 siphon insights into fearsome stare for the accuracy bonus or 5 Glimpse of the abyss for the recharge. The set bonuses on siphon insight aren't as good as those on glimpse of the abyss but you are better off enhancing the to hit debuff on fearsome stare than the fear.
- Slot 4 Dark Watcher's despair into darkest night for the recharge bonus.
- If you can 4 slot Petrifying gaze put 4 basilisks hold IO's in it for the 7.5% recharge.
- 3 Luck of the gambler in shadow fall will buy you a nice HP and regen boost, alternatively you can slot 5 red fortune for a recharge boost.

I am a big believer in frankenslotting your pets to cap damage, get good accuracy (60%+) and on the pets that tend to go through endurance fast maybe even a little end reduction. At level 45 slotting the following pet damage IO's will give you 65% accuracy, 40% end reduction and capped damage in 4 slots (I am assuming all IO's are L45+):

Blood Mandate: Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam/End, Dam
Sovereign Right: Acc/Dam/End

That leaves up to 2 slots in each pet for procs, etc. If you haven't already you definitely want to slot an achilles heel chance for res debuff proc in Soldiers and a touch of lady grey chance for negative energy damage proc is also nice. All 3 pets can take those procs but the AH proc is best in soldiers since it won't stack with itself and they have the best chance of making sure it goes off at least once. The Lady Grey proc would probably be usefull in all pets (every attack that does a def debuff would have a chance of triggering one of these procs - for the soldiers thats pretty much every attack, for the other pets its not as frequent but still covers a lot of their attacks). You probably want to slot a Sovereign Right: Resistance bonus aura IO in one of the pets for 10% bonus to resistance, since Mercs are resistance based and your best bonuses from shadowfall are also resistance based.

No other specific slotting thoughts come to mind.

EDIT: After posting this I remembered that there was an online hero planner you can use on a mac - SuckerPunch's online planner at http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner

Here is a sample build I did in suckerpunch's planner - it isn't as nice an output as you get with Mids and doesn't show you the numbers like Mids would but I don't have much experience with this planner so someone else might be able to tell you how to get more out of it. (I am one of those evil PC users who uses Mid's for all his planning :-).

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner v5.0
+ http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Mercenaries
Secondary: Dark Miasma
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Soldiers => Blood_Mandate(1), Blood_Mandate(3), Blood_Mandate(3), Sovereign_Right(5), Achilles_Heel(5), Touch_of_Lady_Grey(19)
01: Twilight Grasp => Accuracy(1), Doctored_Wounds(9), Doctored_Wounds(11), Doctored_Wounds(11), Doctored_Wounds(31), Doctored_Wounds(33)
02: Tar Patch => Recharge(2), Recharge(7), Recharge(7)
04: Darkest Night => Dark_Watchers_Despair(4), Dark_Watchers_Despair(17), Dark_Watchers_Despair(17), Dark_Watchers_Despair(23), Dampened_Spirits(43)
06: Equip Mercenary => EnduranceDiscount(6)
08: Swift => SpeedRunning(8)
10: Combat Jumping => Karma(10)
12: Spec Ops => Blood_Mandate(12), Blood_Mandate(13), Blood_Mandate(13), Sovereign_Right(15), Touch_of_Lady_Grey(15), Achilles_Heel(19)
14: Health => Heal(14)
16: Shadow Fall => Titanium_Coating(16), Titanium_Coating(36), Titanium_Coating(36), Luck_of_the_Gambler(36), Luck_of_the_Gambler(37), Luck_of_the_Gambler(40)
18: Super Jump => Jump(18)
20: Fearsome Stare => Siphon_Insight(20), Siphon_Insight(21), Siphon_Insight(21), Siphon_Insight(23), Nightmare(33), Nightmare(37)
22: Stamina => Recovery(22), Recovery(25), Recovery(25)
24: Assault => EnduranceDiscount(24)
26: Commando => Blood_Mandate(26), Blood_Mandate(27), Blood_Mandate(27), Sovereign_Right(29), Sovereign_Right(29), Touch_of_Lady_Grey(37)
28: Petrifying Gaze => Basilisks_Gaze(28), Basilisks_Gaze(31), Basilisks_Gaze(31), Basilisks_Gaze(43)
30: Tactics => Adjusted_Targeting(30), Adjusted_Targeting(33), Adjusted_Targeting(34), Adjusted_Targeting(34), Adjusted_Targeting(34), Empty(43)
32: Tactical Upgrade => EnduranceDiscount(32), EnduranceDiscount(33)
35: Recall Friend => EnduranceDiscount(35)
38: Dark Servant => Basilisks_Gaze(38), Basilisks_Gaze(39), Basilisks_Gaze(39), Basilisks_Gaze(39), Dark_Watchers_Despair(40), Dark_Watchers_Despair(40)
41: Dark Embrace => Titanium_Coating(41), Titanium_Coating(42), Titanium_Coating(42), Titanium_Coating(42)
44: Oppressive Gloom => Stupefy(44), Stupefy(45), Stupefy(45), Stupefy(45), Stupefy(46), Stupefy(46)

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Inherent Powers
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Brawl => Empty(1)
01: Sprint => Empty(1)
02: Rest => Empty(2)

In most cases I went for recharge, regen and HP bonuses when I could, with some accuracy bonuses thrown in. In all cases I tried to maximize the enhancement values in each power rather than go for the best set bonuses, since the better set bonuses are iffy for masterminds.

Thanks, appreciate the thoughts and the help with Suckerpunch. On my leveling build I have a lady grey in my soldiers, but I've heard it's buggy. Is that still true?

Should get the achilles heel eventually, I've had bids out for various levels of it for about a month, still haven't managed to actually buy one.

On petrifying gaze, I was kind of mixed. I'm thinking of going leviathan mastery and using that hold instead since it packs some very nice extras for only 1 more endurance and 3 seconds longer recharge. Plus I just like the sharks =). The armor is certainly nice as well. Dark mastery fits better thematically.

I have one of the defense aura for pets IOs, but not the resist one yet. Worth using somewhere? I leveled with it an maneuvers, figuring they'd at least be a smidge better than nothing and stack well with any Soldiers of Arachnos I team up with. But I don't team all that often hehe.

Thinking about the Achilles Heel -Res proc and the Chance for Neg Damage proc it appears that the -Res in Soldiers is really the best choice, but is it better to slot both and lose a smidge on the other mods or max out base damage, recharge, and accuracy?

I don't currently have howling twilight, I solo too much. Been thinking of picking it up though.

I also think it's among best powers in /dark.

It's excellent dmg mitigation tool if s**t is going to hit the fan (aoe autohit stun)
It can be used to negate alfa's, tho I personally use Fearsome Stare for this purpose.
-500% reg debuff is just awesome against hard targets like av's etc.

Hmm, I honestly thought it was like vengeance and required a corpse to target. I'll have to experiment with it some.

Thanks for the tip!

what's the recommended slotting for it? Any key sets I should look for?