Effective Petless Mastermind

Pics or it didn't happen, right? Well, I can top that: here's a video!

Petless Masterminds are not a new idea, but the general concensus is that any such character is doomed to suck. Well, I've found out otherwise. They don't have to suck!

With a careful brew of +HP, +Resist and damage procs, I've made a petless Mastermind that is a capable combatant all on its own. It is more survivable than various stock archetypes, and dishes out more damage than some of its cousins.

I think I went overboard on survavability a bit. It has more hit points now than the Arachnos archetypes, and can take more hits than maybe it should. The video can explain more.

Granted, any sensible player would put the same amount of effort into practically any other archetype and make a character that's FAR more effective, but that's not the point. The point is that I made a petless Mastermind, and I made it work. (-:

Apologies to fans of Paralytic Poison. I completely forgot to use it in the video.

Ok I can't lie, that was pretty cool and I'm actually a little interested in trying that >.>

Posting because I support any and all efforts to break molds and take roads less traveled. Nicely done!

PS First thing I thought when I saw the thread was "I bet there's a dude that knows the value of Air Superiority" and I was right!

1 Way of achieving a pistol/poison erm corrupter. Still more effective to have pets, cute tho.

That's pretty groovy, Food for thought, most definitely.

Good on you!

Its always good to see people stretching what the game can do.

I'm surprised that Poison was your secondary of choice, since it seems to be one of the weaker secondaries in my limited experience with Masterminds.

You were playing on +0/x3 I'm guessing? and it took you over 90 seconds to clear a Council spawn that small? yeah, that's not effective.

Cute? yes. Effective? newp.

I'm fiddling to make my pet-having MM that effective when his pets die/ are'nt around for bragging rights.

Yeah, I mean, that Build is a good jumping off point to prevent:

"PETWIPE! SHIIIIIIII-"*dies*
and to facilitate the occaisional
" down to one sliver of health? stand aside boys"
Edit:
and finally:

"Guh, don't want to run this mish with those Dorks tagging along"

To those who feel the need to remind me that the character would be more effective with Henchmen: don't waste your breath. The purpose of the experiment was to take a Mastermind with no Henchmen and see what I could do with it. If I was in it for the orange numbers, I'd roll a Brute or a Blaster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emberly Posting because I support any and all efforts to break molds and take roads less traveled. Nicely done! PS First thing I thought when I saw the thread was "I bet there's a dude that knows the value of Air Superiority" and I was right!

Thanks! I've always been convinced that a petless Mastermind could work, but everyone keeps saying they'll be worthless now matter what you do. I decided the best way to know for sure was to try it, and I found that "worthless" is definitely not the right word... well, not if you do it right, that is.

Air Superiority is extremely useful, as it's almost a guaranteed knockdown. Many hard-hitting enemies don't do so well when they're on their butts. In the video, Air Superiority wasn't used as mitigation since my HP, Regen and Resist did the trick, but it's a key power in the build for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by New Dawn 1 Way of achieving a pistol/poison erm corrupter.

Since I had to resort to pool powers and the epic set for attacks, the pistols only represent 3/8 of my offensive arsenal. I rely on melee to a fair extent due to the number of damage procs I have slotted and the wonderful damage/hold combo of Knockout Blow, so I don't really think of it as strictly a pistols character.

I'm not really sure what you'd call it... Poison is a grab bag of buff, debuff and control powers, and with the melee and ranged damage on top of that with some significant damage resistance, I'm a little bit of everything. I'm a hodgepodge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Premonitions That's pretty groovy, Food for thought, most definitely.

Whenever you're making a character, remember this: if you can think it, go for it. If you're ever doubting yourself on a concept, just remember that one day when you saw a guy make a petless Mastermind that could hold its own in battle. (-:

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrMike2000 Good on you! Its always good to see people stretching what the game can do. I'm surprised that Poison was your secondary of choice, since it seems to be one of the weaker secondaries in my limited experience with Masterminds.

Poison isn't big into AoE, so it's more useful against individual strong targets than multiple weak targets. On the other hand, Noxious Gas is the kingpin of debuff powers: a hefty mix of -Res -Def -Dmg -ToHit. Note that Envenom is -Res -Def and Weaken is -Dmg -ToHit, which do stack with Noxious Gas. That one target who happens to get caught by all three is sure to cry.

The character's name is Bob the Biohazard; complete with gas mask. The whole "toxic warrior" thing was the concept I was going for, so the poison and Bile Spray were a perfect match. The pistols made more sense than the dark blasts, pulse rifle or bow and arrow... and besides, let's face it: they're pistols!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Premonitions I'm fiddling to make my pet-having MM that effective when his pets die/ are'nt around for bragging rights.

Take the damage resist shield from your epic set. Masterminds are tied with Tankers for the highest damage resistance attribute modifier in the game. Be careful, though, because any stun or hold will shut off the resist portion of the powers and you'll be easy pickin's for whatever happened to mez you.

While your pets are still standing, however, remember that you can charge in and control the aggro. Bodyguard will protect you for the most part, even without the resist shield, and anything that shoots at you won't be shooting at your Henchmen.

Effective is highly subjective, but we all know that.

I congratulate you on what "you" consider an effective outcome.

I would love to see the build posted, not because I wanna steal your secret & go make a petless for myself. Do the means justify the end, in my mind, is what I am curious about.

In closing, you picked a helluva time to invest in this project with a "real" effective dual pistoler on the way.

well it works and its cool, that's enough for me

Thanks for the video Guy ! Always wondered if a MM would be "effective" (oh there's that word again ...) without pets... or maybe without 1 of the pet options. Hmmmmm.

edit : Any chance you could post your build details ? Just curious .

**Damien**