Thugs: /pain vs /traps

I am thinking about a Thugs/ MM and wondering what secondary to play. Note, I already have a necro/dark so I have ruled out /dark just to not repeat myself.

I am not really asking what would be more powerful, but more about the playstyle.

What synergies do /pain and /traps have with thugs? What holes/drawbacks are there?

What playstyles work best with each pairing? I want to be active and will probably skip the gun attacks so I will need "something to do"


My guess from reading over the forums is that thugs/pain will be rip through 80% of the PvE content better than /traps, but that /traps will do better with AVs and other challenges.

Not really looking for builds, but impressions/comments.

Thanks!

I have a Thugs/Pain who is level 42 or so, and I have a Thugs/Traps who is level 33 currently. I have the luxury to be able to multi-box them if I wanted, but I've mostly driven them solo/separate from one another. (Together they are brutal btw).

The main playstyle difference is that on my /Pain, I don't do a whole lot. I usually just dogpile into a bunch of guys right along with my boys, because that is where I cast the PBAOE debuff as well as my PBAOE buff, and thats where my regen aura needs to be. But once I get off the buffs/debuffs, there isn't a whole lot to do most of the time. I may occasionally throw out an AOE heal or a single target heal. That's about it. It is very simple, and it only rarely feels busy.

Traps ALWAYS feels busy. I'm always re-casting the FF Generator or throwing down caltrops or acid mortar or opening with seeker drones or planting a poison bomb at just the right place, etc. It can be a very active set, even if you are more the type to set up before a fight. I mix and match on-the-fly in terms of whether I prep/pull/set up for a fight or whether I just go in and drop stuff in place. Either way, you'll always be thinking and always getting off the next doo-dad. It's pretty cool.

Both are fun, but I find traps more fun.

Lewis

I remember back in the day, /traps used to be pretty mediocre -- has it been buffed a bit since then? Is it pretty useful now-a-days?

Cool! I should try it out at some point then . I was gonna do /pain for my next MM, but maybe /traps, this thread makes it sound fun.

Oh, maybe it was trick-arrow I was thinking of as being considered "weak" back in the day. Hows that do these days?

/TA had a couple of the moves' recharge times/activation times increased/decreased in the past year. Ice arrow for instance whips off much faster than it used to now, in fact I think Acid arrow is the longest activating now, well that one and EMP arrow.

I run it on my Ninja MM, he's at lvl 36. It's a wild set to use and is probably one of the busiest out of all the MMs, constantly firing arows, weakening the crowd, keeping them together with glue arrow, dropping their damage with PGA, and blinding them with Flash Arrow (<--which also got an activation time decrease). Once you get Oil slick Arrow things get much easier.

I have a Thug/Pain,Trap and Poison. all lvl 50

Traps are a very active and powerful set to play. It is a Defensive and Offensive a set. It a tactical type play style. Alot it powers you need select and be in the right spot to really get most out of the set. Powers you can do without are Time Bomb and Triage heal take "Heal Others".

Pain set is more relaxed and more about surviving longer then your prey. It is a good set if you like take it easy. It does take longer to kill enemies vs Traps. Namely because traps you can pin down the enemies in to a spot and there are damaging traps.

Both are really good solo and teams though on a fast kill teams traps are not useful do there setup. Pain is good in all times I have found.