zombie/dark respec help

so the first time around i didnt get any of my attack powers and i went with widow cuz its purty, shes lvl 50 and the no attack thing has worked so far( via more pet centric powers) but i want tosuck less and get my 3 slots back from fitness.

what im getting at is: do i keep shadow fall? is leadership worth it? do i get veng if im gonna be teaming alot? do i need both my upgrades? ancillary or patron!? WHICH ALPHA!?!?! oh god so many questions T.T

I didn't take any attacks on my toon (probably a mistake, and I'm considering respeccing) I did take the fighting pool, BS pool, and leadership

I have roughly 40% smash/lethal defence, and around I think 20-30 to the positional defs. Using an incompletely slotted out orange build. I did have to pick Cardiac though, since I was eating end like nothing sane.

Never skip an updgrade power, I'd say Shadow Fall is excellent. I've heard there's some bug with the damage alpha so don't pick that one.

omg ty XD! so i guess i should just continue with what im doing

well actually now al i need to decide is wether i want widow, mu, chill mastery, or fire mastery

:/ what the consensus on those

The level 40 powers are a delicious thing now:

Chill gives you:
single target blast
targetted AoE sleep (I really love it on my demons)
a self-heal that includes some toxic resistance
a defense based armor to smashing, lethal, plus some cold resistance (I think malta and crey use some of that)
hibernate - self hold, invulnerability so you can recover and regen

Fire gives you:
Targetted AoE kb patch (might not mesh too well with melee zombies, but could help with adds)
single target blast
Targetted AoE fire attack (a real crowd pleaser)
a single target hold
and a self-rez

Soul mastery gives you:
cone ranged damage
resistance shield protects from smashing, lethal, negative and toxic
a PbAoE stun that drains a small amount of health
Targetted AoE immobilize
single target hold (with one of the coolest animations)

mu mastery gives you:
cone ranged damage
resistance shield (smash, lethal, energy)
targetted AoE immobilize with kb resistance
melee AoE attack (PbAoE?)
single target hold

I like chill mastery, took it for concept and because I wanted to see what its like :P. The sleep isn't like an immobilize, but it does take a bite out of your foes' alpha strikes so you can set up.

I haven't taken fire, for a good reason; there is no shield. If you have robots or traps or some high defensive setup, the extra damage would fit in.

I rate both soul and mu highly, you get a damage power, you get a shield, you get immobilize and you get a hold. The question is: how much is knockback a problem? If stuff is getting knocked around out of your dark debuffs, I suggest mu. Oppressive gloom from soul mastery is another layer of debuff in the stun that stacks with other stuns like Howling Twilight.

My vote would be to stick to concept and go soul mastery, but chill and mu would both allow for continued success.

I have two Masterminds: a Ninja/Dark and a Necro/Dark. Here are my thoughts:

Never, ever, take any of the attacks with any mastermind; you have pets to do your damage for you. you COULD justify taking the ranged self-heal in Necro/, but only if your secondary wasn't /Dark, because you already have a heal.

Always take leadership; you can probably skip Maneuvers, but definitely take assault and tactics. Fighting +4 baddies sort of has the funny side effect of making your minions hit less.

Take all the control powers possible; minions have relatively few hard controls. In Soul Mastery, slot Soul Tentacles only for immob, and Soul Storm with holds (NOT damage), slot for tohit debuff in Night Fall (again, NOT damage), and take Oppressive gloom, in order to neutralize all the baddies near you.

I almost never take Tough or any other form of shield with my Masterminds for two reasons:

1) I have bodyguard mode. I use binds to control my pets (look in the guides. i wouldn't play MM's without them), and can go from attack to (essentially) heavy resistance in less than a second, and back again to attack in order to soak up an EB's alpha.

2) If the mastermind gets hit, the player is likely doing something wrong anyways.

These suggestions may seem counter-intuitive to you, but seriously. With both masterminds, I have killed AVs/Heroes solo (sometimes with a shivan), and EBs (at +4) don't stand a chance.

As for Alpha slots, I don't have much experience here. I have been to busy fooling around with 4 new scrappers I made for Praetoria (yes, I'm an altoholic). I would suggest taking the endurance reduction Alpha (especially if you DID take a resistance power), as one of the two uncommons boosts that too. The only time I run low on Endurance is when I am fighting the EB's/AV's. If you have Numina's +recovery +regen, or Miracle's +recovery, or Perfomance Shifter +Chance for end, you might consider the +recharge alpha.