Hi again seebs. Your posts always intrigue me.
I am liking my Demons/Thermal a lot, and I have many, many villains, corruptors and masterminds, with the /Dark Miasma secondary. That said, I do like the powers you took, just not the order I would have leveled up with. Are you looking to respec for when you exemp down on teams lower than your current level? If not I wouldn't sweat it unless you have slotting issues. The level 30s are where you can make up for a lot of neglected backslotting since you get 3 slots at a crack at 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, and 40.
My latest leveling style for /Dark Miasma villains is to take clicks first and toggles second. Of course this was due to taking stamina at 20, but you are very slot starved in the first 20 levels.
For a lot of mastermind sets, provoke is needed to get the aggro to hit the mastermind for the distributive benefits of assigning damage. In my opinion, you don't need that for /Dark Miasma. I can't quote the specific numbers, but I know from experience that tar patch, fearsome stare, and howling twilight generate threat from you. Howling Twilight is a significant debuff and stun with a slow component. Your foes detest being slowed. Twilight grasp itself generates threat because of the debuff nature in the power. Darkest Night is flaky. I have seen hard lieutenants even longbow bosses run like scared Japanese school girls in the shadow of Godzilla when they are the darkest night target.
Speaking of getting attention, crack the whip is an AoE attack and debuff. I like taking it early also for the bodyguard theme. Nothing says "Over here, demons!" like smacking a fresh spawn with crack the whip as your opener.
I would prefer tactics over provoke. The added tohit from tactics isn't the best buff, but you get +perception, and that helps sooooo much against nasty arachnos and other foes that would blind you.
There are a lot of good patron sets to choose from. My Demons/Thermal uses chill mastery. I have on a thermal melt armor a nice targetted AoE debuff. I lay out Flash Freeze, an AoE sleep for the initial volley in my attack chain on hard groups. I can then use melt armor without waking them. Tar Patch, Fearsome Stare and Darkest Night would be in the same category -- non-damaging debuffs. Now you might say, what about bodyguard, don't you want them on you? Boss groups flash freeze helps because I do NOT expect the Flash Freeze to sleep them all, just by 95% successful roll tohit limit and most bosses resist sleep. That's where your trusty demons chime in, dogpiling the first guy that attacks _you_. The mastermind group can use Flash Freeze as a filter kind of ghetto pull. If they do all get slept and you finish the debuff sequence, then it's crack the whip time again.
Thematically, the chill mastery fits since you do have a cold demonling and your trusty Demon Prince that utilize the cold powers. This would give the mastermind both hellfire whips and chill powers which I enjoy.
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.
You have a point about tactics. I'm coming from a bots/traps, where I have all three of the leadership buffs -- because the attacks are pretty much useless. Still getting my head around DS.
And I would like to exemplar down decently, and one of my big problems is that no matter what I want to move lower, there's something else awesome I have to postpone to get it.
Okay, I haven't even started to figure out slotting. I'm just looking at powers. The actual character is level 32 right now, and is not quite on this build, and has a freespec lying around.
As-is, the character has Maneuvers rather than Assault, and Provoke rather than Petrifying Gaze. My plan is to postpone Provoke until I have a second attack to feed off its taunt effect, basically.
Hover is in the build because it is a nice place to put a Kismet and/or a stealth proc. I could put the Kismet in Shadow Fall, but I'd much rather enhance that for things that matter to it more, like endredux. A single level 25 endredux IO in Shadow Fall saves nearly enough endurance to run Hover all by itself. I slightly prefer Hover to CJ for these purposes -- the character has no reason to be on the ground, and I have an easier time controlling things from the air sometimes.
I'm posting this because I'm still a bit frustrated with the order of things, and in particular, the number of things I'm inclined to regard as fairly important which have been postponed ten or fifteen levels past when they first became available (*cough* howling twilight).
I don't really know enough about APP/PPP powers to have a strong preference among them, I just grabbed one that looked like it'd fit thematically.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
charlene draft: Level 48 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Demon Summoning
Secondary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Presence
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Summon Demonlings -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Tar Patch -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Darkest Night -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Enchant Demon -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Corruption -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Hover -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Summon Demons -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Assault -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Shadow Fall -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Hell on Earth -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Fearsome Stare -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Recall Friend -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Teleport -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Summon Demon Prince -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Petrifying Gaze -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Howling Twilight -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Abyssal Empowerment -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Crack Whip -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Dark Servant -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Provoke -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Night Fall -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Oppressive Gloom -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Soul Storm -- Empty(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Supremacy
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)