the second strongest mastermind

Hi. I have noticed that everyone, well nearly everyone thinks robotics is the strongest powerset because of some reason. But, does anyone know the second best mastermind pet for soloing those pesky AVs? because I want to kill an AV so bad for the 1st time with my dark miasma secondary. So please tell me which is the second best mastermind pet and please don't forget to say why.

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Why do people write down here?

lvl 50 Robotics/dark miasma mastermind
lvl 50 fire/kinetic controller

I'd say that Thugs is second best. It has good damage, leadership in its tier 2 pets that helps with survival, and a pocket brute who will go toe to toe with the enemy and keep their attention while the rest of your minions act like a firing squad (except for the arsonist, who just acts like an insane pyromaniac). Also, you have Gang War, which is great for emergencies such as needing to resummon most or all of your pets, as well as giving a burst of damage for as long as they last.

Mercs would be third, to me. They can heal themselves with the medic you get at level 18, and the commando is a good 3rd tier pet.

Zombies would be fourth. They have little protection other than the mezzes that the lich throws out (the lich is a mini-dark defender) and their occaisional self-heals. The damage is good, but they take a lot of damage as well, and the AI is kind of screwy sometimes.

Ninjas are dead last, in my opinion. Their AI is the least effective, so you have to baby-sit them all the time, and their admittedly high damage output is made more difficult to impliment due to their attacks mostly being in melee. Melee wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for them being very squishy, and having such rough AI that they make mistakes that can easily get themselves killed.

Having a Ninja/TA (yes, you may laugh uproariously now) I can definitely say that Ninjas are almost totally defense-less against incoming damage. Their native self-protection does not even approach wet kleenex level. This means that your best tactics for employing them do not revolve around stand-up, drag-out fights where your ninjas go toe to toe with whatever it is you're up against. Essentially, what I've found myself doing, simply in order to keep my Ninjas alive so I don't have to keep constantly resummoning them all the time, is to change tactics from a "rush in and kill them where they stand" kind of scrapperlock bulldozer playstyle over to more of a "divide and conquer" type of playstyle leveraging Flash Arrow and Teleport Foe abductions. It's slower soloing, but it's also very reliable, and lets me chop up enemy groups into smaller chunks where I can maintain a permanent advantage of numbers (lots of numbers, few enemies being murdered) so as to take apart almost all of my foes sequentially, rather than in parallel.

Ironically then, Ninjas "work best" when they can gang up on isolated targets (I call it "feed 'em to the Ninjas!") rather than operating as a(n uncoordinated) group of blappers+stalkers with a fire controller backing them up. Then again, this would be the case with ANY Pet-centric archetype, so that's not exactly high praise.

Ninjas really are ADHD children who forgot to put the pillows in their pajamas armor.
They do great single target damage ... but you almost have to be Ninjas/FF in order for them to live long enough to make use of that damage in mass combat.

And against AVs? They're not even kleenex.
ACHOO!
Dead.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Robots are not merely the best for AV soloing. Ninjas/Dark Miasma, Necromancery/Dark Miasma, or Thugs/Dark Miasma also work in this example. Necro/Dark and Ninjas/Dark may take much more preparation and concentration/coordination, but they definitely work.

Disclaimer: never bothered trying to solo an AV; this is just my feelings on the MM sets I've played extensively.

I'd put necro well above mercs, having leveled both. The medic has a tendency to run in and die, while the whole crew of zombies has a heal that hurts the baddies. The lich's controls and stuff are constantly used, whereas the merc control abilities are up about once in a blue moon. Zombies crap out smashing, lethal, dark and toxic damage. Mercs are lethal damage with the odd fire or smashing thrown in as a joke. Given even a modicum of attention, I found that my necro MM was far more effective than my merc MM.

Can't speak to Thugs, the entire powerset is distasteful to me. Robots, I tried to start up a few times but CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK. Ninjas, why even bother? Maybe if there was no timer on resummoning.

Thugs/dark is very strong. Thugs/poison used to be the uber pvp build and is a boss/AV/GM killer. With gangwar you can absorb the deadliest of first hits with your posse. Thugs also have built in leadership from the enforcers. Thugs have 3 primary sources of damage types, lethal, fire, and smashing. Dark secondary gives you an additional debuffing/healing pet. Poison gives you minion based click debuff that neuters most targets. Even Statesman pukes in the aoe of noxious gas. The bruiser makes a perfect synergistic fit for bearing the noxious gas debuffs.

I have not played thugs/traps, but I am easily convinced it could carry the fight to the AVs as well.

Thanks everyone for your help and currently im leaning towards Thugs/DarkMiasma.


if you have a reason for me to change that please tell.

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What are you supposed to do down here?

i have a new ninja mm, made it right atfer i buyed the Martial Arts booster
i could not resist the urge to make a ninja MM at this point

am founding them insane high single target damage, best i seen while leveling up

i packed poison
sure the ninja die a LOT, but poison is the best single target dps/av debuff for mm by far

best single target dps pets teamed up with best SINGLE target secondary power set for mm

, my pets may not last long, but ever av i came across has Got gang *****

i have a 50 bots and thugs, i know what my dps is like with them all
,and none thing can match my current ninja mm for raw dps on 1 target

alright, maybe one can, electrifying fences mu power, teamed with all the stacking burn patch's of the assault bot, by far the must over powered Pet/power combo for MM, i know a lot of bot friends addicted to that combo


if you don't care about being a unstoppable solo god, such as smartly played bots/traps

but having the must wicked single target dps, as if you plan to team with others, who can tank the mobs, you have it Easy,
in teams, you be the new star

the fact poison is a DESIGNED BOSS killer, is insane useful to groups
if a AV appears and you got a poison with all hes powers ready, that boss will not know what Hit him


that ADD ninja's have comes in very handy when chaos is afoot, such as in big teams,

you can't beat the new Martial Arts ninja MM power in looks ether

Ninja Run travel power + your ninja's following you looks so badass in game, i now feel like am really a ninja



if you ever see a group of ninja fly by you on freedom doing flips in mid air

,it could be me , i found my self just jumping around the game world for hours watching my ninja do hes moves with my other ninja right behind me, i cant help it, its so cool to watch its addictive,
jumping on buildings, and flying across the map with a gang of ninja right behind you doing the same thing

you have the feeling of being the badass ninja leader of team of badass ninja Assassin's

yup if 1 word can be given to ninja/posion its: Assassin's

Depends on the secondary.

Traps can make literally ANY primary capable of killing AVs, but it goes best with thugs and bots. Poison is a boss killing secondary, period, but with thugs its insane because your strongest minion is the best overall tank offered to MMs and is perfect for noxious gas.

Thugs/traps is also insane, the FFG gives you a visible area to keep your thugs in, making it easier to keep all thugs within enforcer leadership range, but until you get that second enforcer the set feels pretty squishy.

Dark is awesome, its got the utility and healing to help keep up all the sets well, but zombies, bots, and thugs really make it shine. Thugs and bots give you defense to stack onto the -tohit from every power in dark, and zombies are awesome because their self heals mesh well with dark's heals (and the lich and fluffy together is like having soft capped defenses on everything on anything that isn't an AV). Dark doesn't always seem it, but it really is a melee oriented set. Fluffy has a massive aura -tohit plus two darkest nights plus fearsome stare with tar pit to keep everything in one place (like in an arsonist's burn patch)

Force fields won't ever solo an AV, but after SOs you probably won't die to one either. I've heard good things about TA, but I have no intention of PVPing, so traps is everything trick arrow is with better debuffs and the ability to lay trip mine fields (which is more fun than anything I've done in this game so far, try putting your pets on passive and laying down a field, then pulling regular spawns. Overlapping KB effects can send npcs hurtling everywhere and a field of 15 mines (very, very easy to accomplish) will slaughter a +0x8 spawn in seconds while you sit back and emote for FRAPS)

If you're going dark, then go thugs or necro. I highly recommend thugs. They're the lease visually appealing of the sets, but incredibly effective. You park fluffy and the bruiser in melee and you park the rest with you just outside of PBAoE range. They'll be within range of fluffy's heal, within range of yours (you can dash in next to the bruiser if he's hurting) and you'll be able to drop all your debuffs to keep everyone where they are. Thugs/dark is strong early, as heals are the best mitigation at low levels. It really picks up at 18 once you get your arsonist and have tar pit, and when you hit 32 things get pretty insane, 30% resistance drop and a heavy slow on top of burn patches and bruiser AoEs hurts entire spawns pretty badly. If you have trouble with a spawn, you can drop gang war on them to break the alpha, then summon fluffy into their midst and drop a tar patch and darkest night on the boss (in that order)

At that point, pretty much everything is completely neutered and busy, and you can go ahead and let your pets have their fun.

My vote is Thug/Dark. You really can't go wrong with it. Massive heal that debuffs, massive regen debuff in Howling Twilight, pretty significant -tohit even considering AV resistance to debuffs. Plus a easily stackable -res patch. Bruiser has the HP to take the hits and you can easily heal him, rest of the pets have massive damage output to take down AVs in no time. I personally tried to take down a few GMs solo, and probably would have succeeded on my own if other people hadn't come along and "helped." Friggin Kill-Stealers >.<

~WP