i am unfamiliar with /pain on a mastermind but i have a lv50 ninja/dark. Very fun to play. Pain has healz and buffs but /dark has the debuffage and the aoe stun power that doubles as a team rez. not to mention that dark's heal power is good too. It has to have a target to hit, yes but does good healing. /dark has a hold and aoe fear as well. and you get a fluffy. I am sure that pain domination has it's upside as well but i am unfamiliar with it.
SJ
Both sets are good mastermind sets. I have only dabbled in Pain, but I do know a lot about Dark Miasma. Pain is heavier on the buffs and heals to be sure. After your demons get to level 32 and the ember demon gets his upgrade he will AoE heal - a lot. After 38, you get the Dark Servant. His base heal is less in strength than yours, but it has a much larger radius. I am biased towards dark since it will debuff things and make dropping foes easier.
Either way should be successful. Play both for a while and see which is more fun. You might end up with 2 demon summoners 
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.
Thanks for the responses. I have decided to stick with DS/Dark for now. I am curious to know how useful whip attacks are in general. Their short range seems to be a bit of a downside. Should I be taking any and if yes, which ones are better?
The whip attacks are quite nice. If you can, get Crack Whip as it is a cone -Res debuff, if you can afford it the other 2 attacks arn't too bad as they will do single target -Res and look awesome...
Also the short range shouldn't be too much of an issue with Bodyguard mode and alot of -tohit debuffs from /Dark.
Have you tried making a DS / Pain Tankermind?
Its a very active playstyle and very durable. You use BG-mode almost always.
Been tanking 8 mans with mine at +3 / x8 with decent performance. I do have both Resist pet auras slotted. And a very fast recharging Provoke. Its very important, since you want to get all the agro you can get and not your pets. With the Regen toggle and a few regen IOs Im sitting on 3% regen at all times.
For heavy mez mobs I use BFs, when needed, not when I see them. After lvl 22 all you need is BF and 1 rez inspiration.
Oh and I have the first whip attack plus the Cone that I picked up at lvl 30. Couldn't fit it in earlier. After 40 you can get more AoE attacks for extra agro management as well.
Good thing with DS / Pain is that you will have pets with 60%+ in resists some even go over 70%. And since you "tank" you should get the resist shield for yourself as well since it helps with AoE attacks on you and your pets.
At the moment I only have around 15% positional defenses, but plan on tweaking it some more. i19 will make this build very good since you get 3 free power slots that will be very much needed. Oh yeah you need stamina.
If you can try and get and slot the end proc uniqe in stamina as well.
My two bits, try it. You will be suprised at how much you can actually survive without having to resummon pets all the time.
Hello everyone. I imagine something like this gets asked a lot, but after searching the boards I am still undecided on my choice. I have just gotten City of Heroes along with Going Rogue, and want to give Mastermind a try. I settled on the concept for the character (yes, I am a role-player at heart) and narrowed down my choices to Demon Summoning as my primary and either Dark or Pain as my secondary.
Could those of you with some experience playing them give me advise on the choice (and maybe even point to a good build) based on the following criteria in their order of importance, please?
1. Fun and active play style, preferably with some variety to it.
2. Good ability to solo (I mostly play casually a few hours a day and won't always have time to look for groups).
3. Still welcome in groups when I happen to have more time available.
4. Good visual effects.
So far I am getting the perception that Dark may be more fun overall while Pain fits the character theme a little better and is likely more welcome in groups due to heals/buffs. I do not know which one is better for soloing.
Thank you in advance for your replies.