Bots / Traps build help

Hello everyone, I currently have a 23 bots/traps MM. I don't know what I'm doing wrong or if this is a class that won't shine unless I get the assault bot?

Right now, I'm having problems with difficulty setting of just lvl +1. I heard this was supposed to be a really good build. I'm just wondering what I'm doing wrong.

I've been reading all the guides here to make sure I make all the right decisions.

I stacked def buffs on protector bots and FFG. I had 3 +accuracy and 3 +attack enhancements on my 3 battle bots and i have the others at -recharge.

I'm in this mission where I have to kill a clone of myself. But my cloned self keeps 1 hitting my bots. It's even worse when he uses his photon grenade as that's a 1 hit kill on my all bots. I don't understand this. Good thing I didn't decide to fight 2 of myself or even 3 of myself at once.

Do I have to get to lvl 32 or maybe 26 at least to fully be able to see how great this build is? I remember when I did merc/dark and I was easily killing lvl +2 enemies.

Bots, perhaps more than any other MM primary, puts more reliance on the boss pet and subsequent upgrade.

Unfortunately, you're simply at the "ugly duckling" stage most MMs go through, particularly Bots. Hang in there though, get to 32 and you'll see what the hype is about.

Thanks, that's at least good to know. I'd just have to hang in there and go +0 levels on the difficulty and try again at lvl 26.

I am almost tempted to reroll a bots/dark. But I'll hang in there. Thanks!

Once you hit 32 and Upgrade Robot, your real strength will be massive AoEs, rather than concentrated single-target damage. You'll be able to steamroll in the x4-x8 range, while high +level enemies will be slow to take down. In part, this is because of how Incindiary Missiles work: the attack drops one AoE burn patch per target hit, meaning the damage dealt per target increases with the number of targets, up to 8 targets.

I have a few questions regarding your play style.

Are you playing a body guard mode and taking the agg, or are you letting you pets take the agg?

Have you taken poison trap yet?

What I do when playing on a lower level is take the agg 1st, then toe bombing with PT to get that hold to lock down the mobs. Caltrops are good as well because mobs try to run away from you as opposed to attacking. Acid Motor lowers defense letting your pets hit more.

You might want to work provoke into your build early to keep the agg on you and not your pets.

Maybe you could post your build so we can see what's going on.

I soloed Dr V at level 20 and Silver Mantis at level 24, so I feel bots can do good damage before assault bot. It really depends on your tactics and your picks for your secondary.

Thanks for the advices.

Here's my build so far. I just got to lvl 25 so one more lvl for the assault bot! And most of my enhancements were lvl 20 so most expired already. I also just found out I've been slotting them wrong, for instance, I have 4 accuracy buffs and 2 attack buffs on my bots while I have all 6 def buffs on my prot bots and ffg. I didn't know they diminish everytime you slot the same thing. So I just plan on putting 1 accuracy buff and then 3 attack buff and the other would something else.

Here are what I have so far at 25

Robotics

Battle Drones
-plan on putting 1 +accuracy, 3 +attack, not sure for the next 2 enhancement so far. Does -recharge affect their skill recharge from that laser attack? or it only affects battle drone skill recharge?

Pulse Rifle Burst
-I knowI shouldn't have taken this but I remember not having any options when I got this. I only had option of either this or Triage beacon. Since beacon is situational, can't be moved and has long recharge, I just decided to get the one I could use the most and can probably be useful most of the time. Only put 2 slots on it and plan on putting 1 +accuracy and 1 +attack.

Equip Robot
-of course, just a normal -end enhancement

Protector Bots
-I had these with 6+def buffs but since I know better now, I will put 3+def buffs, 2+attack buffs, and 1 +accuracy buff

Traps

Web Grenade
-had it slotted with 4 +immob duration. Not sure what to put right now. Does +accuracy increases chance of hitting mobs, especially bosses to be immobilized? I plan on putting 2 +accuracy and 2 -recharge

Caltrops
-I had these as -4 recharge but I plan on putting 2 -recharge and 2 +slow.

Acid Mortar
-I had this as 5 -recharge. But now I plan on putting 3 -recharge and 2 def debuff if it's available

-Force Field Generator
- I had this as 6 +def buffs. I'm not sure what else to put on it since end isn't a problem and recast isn't a problem also.

-Poison Trap
-only has 1 slot so far. I just put -recharge on it.

Pool Power

Hover
-not slotted. Just had to take it cause I wanted flight but I didn't want to take air superiority. Much more useful for me than Air superiority

Flight
-not slotted

Assault
-only 1 slot so far. Not sure what I can put in it yet

Tactics
-only 1 slot so far since I got it at lvl 24. Not sure what I can put in it yet too.

Hasten
-also one slot so far. Have it as -recharge atm.

I'd put more ACC in the tier 1 pets, they're a couple of levels below you and need the help.

Bots is a grind in the mid 20s. Teaming might be a good way to get you over the hump, all those traps that help your bots will help the teammates as well.

Level 32 will be a beautiful thing, we promise!

I'm not sure if there's a channel I could go to but I'm currently on Justice server and very few are willing to group and even if I get invited, the group disbands within after the 1st or 2nd mission .

You can still make use of your other 3 slots in FFG.

1) Karma -kb IO. This shouldn't be terribly expensive, I don't know current rates.
2) LOTG +7.5% recharge. This is expensive but you can get it with hero or villain merits (2) in 4 days of play.
3) Kismet +6 to-hit. Not sure how much this is today.

Any and all of those will make life better.

Here is my current build. I've soloed close to 60 avs and took down a DE GM last night. Keep in mind this build is expensive, but everything here this toon earned through regular play, and 95% of the time I run solo. I usually run +0/+8 missions because you can burn through the maps faster.

The only mobs that give me issues are DE & Pretorians. Malta were hard until I slotted my Incarnate slot, Longbow and Arachnos were tricky until I slotted Knockdown in caltrops.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Alex Big: Level 50 Technology Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones

• (A) Commanding Presence - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
• (7) Damage Increase IO
• (43) Damage Increase IO
• (43) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus

• (A) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (19) Trap of the Hunter - Immobilize/Accuracy
• (40) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Recharge
• (50) Trap of the Hunter - Endurance/Immobilize

• (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
• (3) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown
• (40) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

• (A) Harmonized Healing - Heal/Recharge
• (5) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
• (5) Recharge Reduction IO
• (7) Numina's Convalescence - Heal
• (39) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge
• (40) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (9) Recharge Reduction IO
• (9) Recharge Reduction IO

• (A) Analyze Weakness - Defense Debuff
• (11) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
• (11) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Defense Debuff
• (19) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Recharge
• (39) Analyze Weakness - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
• (39) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge

• (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
• (13) Sovereign Right - Accuracy/Damage
• (13) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus
• (48) Defense Buff IO
• (48) Defense Buff IO
• (50) Defense Buff IO

• (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
• (15) Perfect Zinger - Accuracy/Recharge
• (15) Perfect Zinger - Taunt
• (33) Perfect Zinger - Taunt/Recharge

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (17) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
• (17) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (25) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (34) Defense Buff IO

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

• (A) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold
• (21) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold/Recharge
• (21) Unbreakable Constraint - Endurance/Hold
• (34) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold
• (34) Recharge Reduction IO
• (43) Hold Duration IO

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (23) Defense Buff IO
• (23) Defense Buff IO
• (25) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up
• (27) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Recharge
• (27) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (37) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage
• (37) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage

• (A) Absolute Amazement - Chance for ToHit Debuff
• (29) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge
• (29) To Hit Debuff IO
• (46) To Hit Debuff IO
• (46) Recharge Reduction IO
• (50) Recharge Reduction IO

• (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (36) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (37) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Karma - Knockback Protection
• (42) Defense Buff IO
• (42) Defense Buff IO
• (42) Defense Buff IO

• (A) Gravitational Anchor - Chance for Hold
• (45) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize
• (45) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Recharge
• (45) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Recharge
• (46) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge

• (A) Lockdown - Accuracy/Hold
• (48) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold

• (A) Accuracy IO

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

• (A) Healing IO
• (31) Healing IO
• (31) Healing IO

• (A) Empty

• (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod
• (31) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance
• (33) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy
• (33) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge

• 13% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 13% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 13% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 13% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 13% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 13% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 13% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 13% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 5% Defense
• 27.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 53% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 5% Enhancement(Immobilize)
• 72.29 HP (9.002%) HitPoints
• Knockback (Mag -4)
• Knockup (Mag -4)
• MezResist(Stun) 4.4%
• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.75%
• 13.5% (0.225 End/sec) Recovery
• 78% (2.615 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 10% Resistance(Smashing)
• 10% Resistance(Lethal)
• 15.04% Resistance(Fire)
• 15.04% Resistance(Cold)
• 10% Resistance(Energy)
• 10% Resistance(Negative)
• 10% Resistance(Toxic)
• 10% Resistance(Psionic)

• 10% Resistance(All)

• 5% Enhancement(Immobilize)
• 15.06 HP (1.875%) HitPoints
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)

• 12% (0.402 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 15.06 HP (1.875%) HitPoints

• 10% (0.335 HP/sec) Regeneration
• MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
• 3% DamageBuff(All)
• 11% Enhancement(Accuracy)

• 5% Defense

• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.75%
• 10% (0.335 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 10% (0.335 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 9.036 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)

• 4% (0.067 End/sec) Recovery
• 2.52% Resistance(Fire,Cold)

• 10% (0.335 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 16% (0.536 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 24.1 HP (3.001%) HitPoints
• 4% DamageBuff(All)

• 4% (0.067 End/sec) Recovery

• MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
• 3% DamageBuff(All)
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• Knockback (Mag -4), Knockup (Mag -4)

• 4% (0.067 End/sec) Recovery
• 2.52% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
• 15% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 3% DamageBuff(All)

• 9.036 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 1.5% (0.025 End/sec) Recovery
• 10% (0.335 HP/sec) Regeneration

JoeKent, I was considering working on the Incarnate slot on my bots/traps but was unsure whether Recharge would be better, for more trappy goodness but which does nothing for the pets, or Damage, which would pretty much just affect the pets, since I have no personal attacks (other than vet ones, which are plenty).

Did you really see a lot of difference from the Musculature?

Thanks everyone, I'll make sure to save that build and use it as a guide for when I'm not sure which abilities to get.

I just got to lvl 26 and I have to say, with the assault bots, everything became awesome. I'm running at 0/+2 atm but I plan on trying 0/+3 or 4 when I log back in again. Everything became easier once I got that big awesome robot. I'm now looking forward to lvl 32! I almost rerolled but I'm happy I hanged in there!

Sry, I'm very new

How do I join the channel?

I intended switching to hero side once I reached lvl 20. I only wanted villain to unlock the arachnos soldier. But since my friends were villains, I decided to stay since they're helping me a lot in leveling up with them.

I'm beginning to see what the fuss is all about in Bots. Last night, I duod with a low level 5 friend and we were steamrolling everything at 0 / +5 difficulty. Looking forward to Upgrade. 4 more levels to go!

Joe, whats your total def when you play? I can't see how my Herobuilder is reading things right. 81% def to S/L? I know the bots buff you but I didnt think thats countable. I was looking at your build and comparing it to mine, Your pets have better def but you shouldn't. Other than that you got better rechg and slightly more damage.

Thanks I didn't know about that.

I just got to 32 finally yesterday afternoon. I'm currently 33 when I finished last night. I'm really glad you guys talked me into hanging in there. It was all worth it.

I do have a few problems though and I hope you guys can help me.

Right now, I'm forced to doing 0/x5 difficulty because of my pets. I'm able to do 0/x8 but it's always risky. It's easy when my pets stay on ranged and never gets into melee range. But they just LOVE to get into melee range. Once one of them goes to melee range, they instantly get killed and everything goes to heck from there. But when I'm able to get them to stay where they are, everything's great. I'm only able to do this by clicking on the heel command but this makes them stop what they're doing and run back to me and I have to make them attack again and then, they would try and go into melee range again and die.

Is there a macro that would let me make them STAY in one spot no matter what and still be able to attack without moving? If you're able to make your pet attack a certain target or follow you, it should be really easy to make another command that just makes them stay where they are no matter what? (this was more of a suggestion to the devs than you guys hehe) This would help greatly since for some reason, the foes that I fight especially lieutenants and bosses just LOVES to run away. If I'm not fast enough, my bots would follow him/her into another army of enemies with more bosses and lieutenants and that's where it always gets really ugly.

If I could prevent my bots from automatically almost always running into melee range, it would be awesome.

Oh and also, I think I made the mistake of getting Seeker drones. They're currently useless to me. I never use them because of the long recharge. Same thing for hover but I have no choice since I wanted flight and air superiority was kind of useless to me. I'm planning on respecing and I was wondering if Seeker Drones really wasn't a good skill or I'm not just using it right? Also, how's foe teleport and teleport as a travel power? I'm villain side atm so I'm not sure if it'll help. Will I need hover to teleport just fine? I know I can use foe teleport with mines to teleport a foe straight to it but I'm not sure if it's good as good in paper as it is in action.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Ah yes, the melee "feature" added to I17.

The devs "improved" pet AI in issue 17 so that once they have fired their ranged attacks they charge into melee. It was done to make Demos playable. Unfortunately it makes ranged pets borderline unplayable at higher difficulty.

I've had a heck of a time running at +8 team size until I changed tactics. I let the seekers go in 1st and soak up the alpha. Then I rush in and toe bomb poison trap to keep the mobs locked down and follow up with my photon grenade and web envelope to keep the mobs from running off.

Works about 90 % of the time, but you still have pets run off to aggro new mobs every so often. AVs like Rommie, Nosfaratu and Recluse are still a pain because they fire off massive pbaoes that shred pets in melee range.

Maybe now that Castle is gone we can get the new powers guys to look into pet AI.

EDIT: Seekers stun, debuff accuracy and reduce damage by up to 40%. They are your best mitigation. Use them to open up every fight to stun and debuff your mobs.

Ah I didn't know about that on seekers. I'd have to quickly slot them. -accuracy and reduce dmg are great against bosses. Thanks for that info.

Oh also, how do I control the seeker drones? I can't tell them to attack anything. The options just like the ones on my pets isn't available on them.

edit: What I usually do is first in every fight that's big is set up my traps first, acid mortar, poison trap, and caltrops then, I have either me or my bots pull the enemy and run back far enough. Once the traps are triggered that's when I have the full time attack and this is usually when one or 2 of my bots goes melee range. Can't wait to get the trip mine now, that would add a whole extra dmg on my traps. And now with seeker drones, I can start the fights with them. I don't know why I didn't think about this. Thanks!

My basic strategy for fights is:

1) Target something big near the center of the group. This will be my target for my targeted AoE powers.
2) Click on the "seeker drones" power to bring up a targeting circle.
3) Move forward until the targeting circle is just behind the front members of the group, then click to summon the drones. They'll appear in the middle of the group.
4) As soon as the enemies start reacting to the drones, fire Electrifying Fences (to keep everyone in place) and Provoke (to keep them from attacking my bots).
5) Charge in and toe-bomb something with Poison Trap.
6) Back off a bit and place an Acid Mortar.
7) Apply Provoke, Electrifying Fences, and Web Grenade as needed until there are no more targets, then move on to the next group.

I try to set the difficulty so that it takes about 40-45 seconds to defeat a group of enemies, because Seeker Drones recharge in 47 seconds on my build.

Triage Beacon and Caltrops only see use if I'm facing two or more groups at once; Trip Mine is used for toe-bombing EBs and AVs.

Thanks so that's how you do the drones.

I just got the rhythm of setting up traps, then pulling the whole mob of monsters on the traps that I've laid out. Then I have my bots go into town with them. This works so far. I'm going to up the difficulty to 0/6 and see if I can still do it then. I'm currently lvl 33 and about to be lvl 34 so I won't have electrifying fences for a while but I'll really keep those in mind in case my trap and run tactic stops working.

Also, just making sure, in order to get contacts for the main story arc is to complete each of the missions for each contact of the previous zone? I know about the doing 5 newspaper missions to get a contact. But I just finished doing missions for that contact and he didn't give me another contact and he only gave me a measly 8k bonus exp for completing all the missions. Usually, the story arcs one give great bonus exp after finishing all their missions. Is there a guide that lets me see which contact I need to finish in Sharkhead or Cap Au Diable in order to be given another contact going to St. Martial?

Thank you again and have a nice day.

no worries, some day i'll be killing AV alone.

some of my comments:
personal attacks, provoke and so on. worthless. seriously. traps is all about mitigation of agro, not building it. toss 2 patches of caltrops and watch them running in wain. and btw, check the numbers of damage a caltrop patch can do, especially with damage procs, thats a nuke quantity. way more your personal attacks can do. so tackle/slow them with web grenades/web envelope, toss caltrop patch after. thats the proper way to prevent your bots from being smashed in to smithereens. thats the way of traps.
full tactics buff line is strongly recommended.
scorpion shield with +def, web envelope and web cocoon are MUST HAVE powers. my bot/traps mm has about 50% defense on smashing/lethal WITHOUT tough/weave, only with tactics.
tripmine - is meeehhh. stand your ground and repel of anything incoming is WAY better then running after enemy and hoping for being NOT interrupted. 3/4 of time you will loose your bet. only exception of the rule is poison gas trap, -reg is the best in game available AV killer, no kidding.

normal rotation is: start all the tactics, seeker drones from maximum distance, web envelope+web grenade on boss, caltrop patch. spawn is dead. may be you need to refresh the web grenade on boss, depends on how tough he is. big groups, elite bosses or AVs - acid mortar + poison trap to kill them faster.

P.S. your drones will die anyway, regardless of what you do. stupid AI cause them to run in to melee range, so get used to it. at least they die less then arsonist from thugs or medic from mercs.