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They resist all in PvP I believe.|
Originally Posted by The_Pancake_King
Well I've recently got the MM itch again and I've decided to scratch it with a thugs/traps build. I had played and enjoyed a mercs/traps MM years earlier, but always looked at the 'thugs' powerset with envy, until now that is!
 Anyway, I've been playing him quite a bit and he is now level 40 going on 41. I completed GWs patron arc (lots of fun!) but I can't seem to decide on what patron pool to use, and also what to do with my respec! See, while playing my thugs/traps I hardly did any research. I just plopped enhancement slots into whatever looked shiny, crammed some cheap SOs in them as I went (lots of damage and accuracy in the pets), and went on my way. I don't have mids on this computer, but basically I took every primary power but 'pistols' and 'empty clips', and every secondary power but 'detonator'. I then took nearly the entire leadership pool (missing the accuracy one I think), hasten, and super speed. My slotting is downright horrible, but it doesn't really matter since I am about to respec anyway. My thoughts so far on my MM: 1) Can't wait for free fitness! I find I can't use my leadership toggles and still manage to put out lots of traps without popping pills all the time. 2) I need defense! Numina exposed my crappy defenses for the world to see, and only chugging green pills and the distraction of my bruiser pounding her face in saved me. I'm guessing that MMs nowadays take tough and/or weave, but I've never taken those before so I'm not quite sure how to go about building a defense. 3) Tired of re-summoning arsonist! To this end, my next build must have the medicine pool. I don't want to stand around the triage beacon for a minute after every fight. So having said all of that, does anyone have any good IO setups (non purpled out) for an up and coming thugs/traps MM? Also, what are the prevailing thoughts on the patron shields and MMs? I looked at them last night, and I got somewhat confused because the descriptions in game seemed to differ from what I have read online (for example, some of the shields said they resisted ALL when online they say only S/L and cold, for example). |
I haven't personally tried them but the MM APPs which they get from Blasters look far more attractive to me than the PPPs. Villains can automatically pick from them when they hit 41.
For more defense Cold Mastery would be a good bet. Frozen Armour is defense based and you can get Hoarfrost too which would work well with BG mode. Hibernate is also interesting for any set with lots of pets (my Illusion/Stormie loves it)
Electrical Mastery is also interesting for more control via Shocking Bolt and EMP and a resistance shield and a resistance God Mode in Surge of Power.
Well, speaking as someone whose Thugs/Traps MM just hit 50, I'd advise Scorpion for your PPP. He gives Smashing/Lethal DEFENCE, not Resistance, which adds on top of your happy little Force Field Generator. With that, Combat Jumping, and not especially slotting for Set IOs, I hit ~38% Defence. My Shield Tank in her 30s would kill for that. And as the "Soft Cap Your Invulnerability Tank's Defence" guide points out, nearly all damage has a S/L component.
As for Sparky the Suicidal Pyromaniac ... Medecine only helps about 1/4 of the time. His favorite hobby is to charge up to melee range and spray Fire breath into the Freedom Phalanx/Vindicators pre-play huddle, and wonder why the Bruiser isn't there to tank for him. (Medecine is invaluble however when one of your Enforcers accidently tries to solo the AV while everyone else is killing THE GUY YOU TOLD THEM TO) 
Another vote for Chill Mastery here. Frozen Armor not only takes Defense enhancers, but resists as well, so you can slot a Steadfast unique and maybe one day, a Glad Armor unique as well. As mentioned above, Chill gives you not only Frozen Armor, but Hoarfrost is very very nice and Hibernate gives you a good 1-slot power.
I haven't made my i19 buid for my Thugs/Traps yet, I imagine it will be quite similar to my Bots/Traps, with the notable exception of Thugs getting to slot unique IOs from recharge intensive pets.
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On my Thugs/Traps builds I went for Mace Mastery for the AoE immobilize (Helpful to Arsonist's burn patches) the defence based shield (That doesn't look as bad as Chill Mastery's Frozen Armor in my opinion) and at least according to Mids Power Boost affects Force Field Generator (Not sure if it actually does, the ranged pet bug is making me get repelled from my MM's... and the name switching...)
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I would say exactly the opposite, the MM APPs are very unappealing compared to the PPPs. The PPPs have a nice mix of useful powers (a shield, a single target hold, an AoE immobilize, a ranged cone attack and one other power). It's not a perfect solution (there isn't really a lot of variety in them) but it's a decent mix. Several of the APPs, on the other hand have what is (to me at least) a pretty questionable power mix. |
Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
I haven't personally tried them but the MM APPs which they get from Blasters look far more attractive to me than the PPPs. Villains can automatically pick from them when they hit 41.
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Chill Mastery is ok (especially if you lack a heal in your secondary) although for a defense shield I'd still prefer Mace Mastery in most cases. Flash Freeze strikes me as a pretty questionable power for a Mastermind. Even if you are very careful and only order your pets to attack specific targets most pets have an AoE attack of some type and are going to wake the rest of the spawn up pretty quickly. The main reason I can see to take Chill Mastery is if you specifically want Hibernate although I'm not really sure how useful that's going to be for a Mastermind, if you Hibernate and your pets die then your dead when you come out, if they don't die you probably didn't need to Hibernate in the first place (notice that MMs were the only Villain AT apart from Brutes/SoAs not to get Hibernate in Leviathan).
For Charge Mastery I cannot envision ever taking over Mu Mastery. They have 3 powers in common but the lack of a shield power in Charge Mastery is a deal breaker for me, I think most Masterminds would find an always on limited coverage shield a lot more useful than a god mode power. I can see some usage for Surge of Power on a Tankermind for limiting the damage pets take through bodyguard but I think Charged Armor is going to be more useful. EM Pulse versus Electrifying Fences I consider a wash, one's a useful positioning tool and the other is a useful panic button, depending on preferences I could go either way.
In Heat Mastery the lack of a shield is, again, a deal killer for me. If they replaced Fire Blast with Fire Shield it would be a decent set. It's got Fireball as a nice AoE, Bonfire as a positioning tool, Char as a single target control and RotP as a self rez (with the stun/kb giving you time to resummon your pets).
Field Mastery is probably the best of the MM APPs and does fill a hole in the existing PPPs by allowing a MM who's satisfied with the support from his secondary and wants more personal offense the option of getting it while adding a shield for personal protection (since by going offensive he'll be drawing more aggro).
I don't think anyone mentioned it but Numina isn't a great benchmark for defence builds, she is a /psi user which has no positional component on most of her attacks so it goes straight up against your /psi defence which is unlikely to be very high. She destroys softcapped builds quite easily.
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"
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A fair point, although Traps is one of the few sets which does provide strong Psi Defense. If you take the fighting pool it's reasonably practical to softcap Psi defense alongside the more standard type/positional set of defenses.
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Originally Posted by PrincessDarkstar
I don't think anyone mentioned it but Numina isn't a great benchmark for defence builds, she is a /psi user which has no positional component on most of her attacks so it goes straight up against your /psi defence which is unlikely to be very high. She destroys softcapped builds quite easily.
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Well I've recently got the MM itch again and I've decided to scratch it with a thugs/traps build. I had played and enjoyed a mercs/traps MM years earlier, but always looked at the 'thugs' powerset with envy, until now that is!
Anyway, I've been playing him quite a bit and he is now level 40 going on 41. I completed GWs patron arc (lots of fun!) but I can't seem to decide on what patron pool to use, and also what to do with my respec!
See, while playing my thugs/traps I hardly did any research. I just plopped enhancement slots into whatever looked shiny, crammed some cheap SOs in them as I went (lots of damage and accuracy in the pets), and went on my way. I don't have mids on this computer, but basically I took every primary power but 'pistols' and 'empty clips', and every secondary power but 'detonator'. I then took nearly the entire leadership pool (missing the accuracy one I think), hasten, and super speed. My slotting is downright horrible, but it doesn't really matter since I am about to respec anyway.
My thoughts so far on my MM:
1) Can't wait for free fitness! I find I can't use my leadership toggles and still manage to put out lots of traps without popping pills all the time.
2) I need defense! Numina exposed my crappy defenses for the world to see, and only chugging green pills and the distraction of my bruiser pounding her face in saved me. I'm guessing that MMs nowadays take tough and/or weave, but I've never taken those before so I'm not quite sure how to go about building a defense.
3) Tired of re-summoning arsonist! To this end, my next build must have the medicine pool. I don't want to stand around the triage beacon for a minute after every fight.
So having said all of that, does anyone have any good IO setups (non purpled out) for an up and coming thugs/traps MM? Also, what are the prevailing thoughts on the patron shields and MMs? I looked at them last night, and I got somewhat confused because the descriptions in game seemed to differ from what I have read online (for example, some of the shields said they resisted ALL when online they say only S/L and cold, for example).