MM Playstyle: An Informal Discussion

Let me begin by saying that I like MMs a LOT. I have numerous mixes and matches on 3 servers, most at 40+.

Let me also state that I don't spend a tremendous amount of time with the Market. I leave slots empty until DOs, slot SOs until lvl 27ish where I drop in lvl 30 common IOs and ride from there most of the way. I don't knock Set builders...I use what drops or what I can find cheap but I don't kill myself farming or whatever.

All that being said, this discussion deals more with MM playstyle than anything else. My first MM (Zombie/Dark) is a joy to play because he's always doing something. My Bot/FF on the other hand is almost a chore because I don't like replacing the bubbles and he doesn't feel like he has anything to do while his pets are merrily blasting away. I like for my MMs to DO something during the swirl of combat.

How do you all play your MMs and what seems to be fun for you? Do you like bubbling everything in sight and then reading the paper or are you the aggressive type with guns blazing? Which sets seem to suit you and which don't? What haven't you tried yet but would like to time permitting (when /Pain came out I was salivating until I made one!)?

The floor is open...

I like active masterminds. My first mastermind is a Robots/Poison (that robotics/chemistry mad scientist motif). /Poison is VERY active, hacking, spewing, tossing poison debuffs everywhere. He isn't the best mastermind for big crowds but my oh my can that guy take down hard targets. I also like my Robots/Dark mastermind. I took photon grenade to stack AoE stuns with Howling Twilight. Dark and the grenades keep my mastermind very busy.

As far as actual playstyles, my robots/poison especially plays rather unorthodox. Back in the day, he would always go invincible over unyielding - higher level, smaller spawn size. Against most spawns, OTHER THAN boss spawns where getting one shotted is really easy, he would roll into the spawn using the bots good range and knockback to pile up the group into an obstacle or just on top of each other. The general rule of thumb was if they were knocked down, they were soon dead anyhow. Boss groups are the standard: mastermind leads off with debuffs in bodyguard mode, robots gun down everything with AoEs, and bless the Assault Bot's -regen.

Many of my masterminds take group fly. The only groups I routinely combat from group fly are the Knives of Artemis. Caltrops are THAT annoying, especially to thugs. I use group fly mostly to position the pets for an attack so they don't go insane and path themselves through 1, 2, 3? spawns running up ramps and such to get where I want them to be.

I'm a Bots/FF Mastermind (but also have reasonable level Necro/Poison and Demons/Pain in the wings) and find that every Mastermind plays slightly differently.

The bulk of the time as MZ at lower levels I'm not using the little shields, instead I'm picking out targets in the crowd, issuing "Attack" commands and changing targets when I see a runner or a target low on health.

At high levels I'm opening up on a spawn with hold-proc'd Web Envelope and Web Cocoon'ing runners/harder targets plus using Pulse Rifle Blast (again, proc'd for Hold) to stop/kill runners.

Regardless of level, I am prone to hovering around the battlefield to use Force Bolt or Force Bubble to help keep the spawn under control.

Playing my Demons/Pain is a lot more stationary, but more active in Secondary use at all levels - I run in with the Demons so that my AoE heal is in position to aid them then top up/anti-mez any Demons that need it. This leaves me with less time to focus on/micromanage what the Demons are doing.

My Necro/Poison is on a relative backburner, but again is active on the secondary front leaving the undead to wander freely.

Of the three MM's I run I much prefer MZ - being able to focus more on the battlefield is more to my liking than just letting the henchmen AI go nuts.

I agree that some enemies, like Artemis and pretty much anyone tossing fire, make the pets go insane. Never thought about Group Fy before...have to try that one.

One thing I sometimes do is control individual pets or small groups instead of the whole mob. My Zombie/Dark's Attack button excludes the Lich so I have someone to share damage with (and his buffs/debuffs work at range anyhow).

On buffer MMs I like to buff the Tier 3 all to hell and send them to attack while the rest of the team is in support. The Thugs Brute is especially good at this since he likes melee anyway.

Some good comments. Anyone else?

I've had several L50 MMs over the years, and each combo does play differently. However, my control preference is pretty simple: place the pets such that their AI does a good job targeting and that their AoEs are useful.

Most exemplified by my Ninja/Storm. Use the Storm powers to move critters or keep them in place, at the same time sic'ing the Ninja on them. Result: a Big Ball of Violence.

My level 46 Necro/Dark plays like an ambusher.
I generally keep them in passive whenever not fighting, I've never really needed bodyguard mode on him. I'll pick a corner and set my cadre of cannibals there. Then I'll run to a group and lay Darkest Night on one in the middle, then run back around the corner. I usually target the 1st one to come in sight and click Attack, then start laying down Tar pit, Stare and Healing as needed. Clicking Howling if the mob is really large or things go south. I generally only summon the Dark Servant for boss fights.
Solo naturally. I made a rule for this guy to not team ever, for concept reason.


Robots/Storm on the other hand is a mass of chaos. I generally leave them in passive until I want them to attack. Using gale and Hurricane to deny the mobs any chance of escape from the pew pew deathcapade. I use Aid Other as needed in conjuction with O2. Spamming Nem Staff and Blackwand on runners and just in general. For most groups I don't even need to worry about using Rain or anything else. They all die before it's needed.

Demon/Thermal So far only level 16 so not much to go on yet. But already plays very unique from the others. I leave the Demons in Aggressive all the time. So far I haven't had much need for the shields as at this level the heals are currently enough to prevent any pets from dying. Playstyle is more run and gun. Started out as a concept reason but turned out to be pretty fun. Using my two whip attacks to soften them up a bit as my creatures rip them apart.

Ninja/Thermal on the other hand is currently 22 and has needed the shields for every level... I keep them all bubbled, usually use smoke on the Jounin sending him in for the alpha. I stay busy trying to keep these crackheads alive with healing and inspirations. When they click it's a beautiful thing. But the slightest variant and everything goes to hades in nanoseconds. Like having a crew of weak blasters with me.

Let's see...

Thugs/Dark: Bruiser and Arsonist on Aggressive, rest defensive, get close enough for the two to have fun, throw out Fearsome Stare, and just sit back, chasing after the Arsonist as needed. If Dark Servant is recharged, cast him in the middle of the group. He doesn't die very often.

Bots/Traps: Assault Bot on Aggressive, rest defensive, run into the middle of the group and see if I can toss out a trip mine before the bots mow everything down.

Mercs/Traps: Commando on aggressive, rest defensive (does the medic heal from passive?) easy spawns have me shooting with Burst, harder ones has ne tossing out what traps seem needed.

Necro/Dark: Grave Knights on Aggressive, rest defensive, see Thugs/Dark for rest.

Ninja/Storm: Easiest way I've found is to toss out Freezing Rain then tell my henchmen to take out the harder targets first, then let them run wild. Rarely bother staying in defensive mode.

Demons/Dark (I like /dark, can't you tell?): Tier 3 and second tier 2 on aggressive (forgot names), rest defensive, repeat normal /dark strategy.

Most of my other MMs never got to a level where I could work with strategies easily.

I have to agree with Necro/Storm. It isn't like other combinations, but in no way does storm negate the melee minded zombies. With proper use like a scalpel not a sledgehammer, it is VERY effective.

Robots especially I like to keep protectors on defensive and the longer ranged attack drones on aggressive. They can deal revenge quickly on anything that snipes the group.

My Demon Summoning, I keep the ember demon and gargoyle on aggressive, except again for boss groups. I want the big boys to wade in and rip the ears off my foes. The little demonlings do well at bodyguard mode with the ranged attacks. I also don't mind when all the pets are in melee range with my mastermind wielding his whip attacks. I have a thermal MM so his heal hits almost everyone. Fiery demonling prefers to stay at far range; that's ok with me, too.

Robot/Traps: Summon Seeker Drones far above the mob, so they won't die before their animation is over. I then run into the mob to drop a combination of Poison Trap and Caltrops, while positioning my henchmen a distance away to start firing, then after that it's mostly just Provoke spam so they leave my robots alone.

Ninja/Storm: Push the mob into a wall with Hurricane and Gale, or corner pull with Snow Storm. Once the mob is effectively herded together, then engage to get the maximum potential out of the AoEs available(Oni Breath/Rain, Jounin Caltrops, Lightning Storm, etc.).

Merc/TA: Depending on the mob, I might corner pull to herd them up, then Glue Arrow, Disruption Arrow, Acid Arrow, and Poison Gas Arrow, along with Provoke spam. More substantial mobs I might throw in an Oil Slick Arrow and an M30 Grenade, with some proper positioning so not to scatter the mob.

Thugs/Psn: This character uses Oppressive Gloom, Provoke, Neurotoxic Breath, and Nox. Gas to dominate a large mob while the henchmen tear it apart. I typically pitch in Empty Clips for the knockdown, along with Envenom/Weaken on larger threats.

To sum up: I do my leading front an center in the fray, face to face with the enemy.

Ninja/TA/Soul

After going through about 5 respecs, in which I kept trying to buff (and debuff) sufficiently to bring my ninjas somewhere near the softcap (so they'd LIVE long enough to do at least SOME damage...), I simply gave up. I'd been going through build after build after build where I kept trying to dump aggro from myself onto my ninjas, while simultaneously trying to keep my ninjas strong enough to handle the aggro.

Ninjas, of course, fold like origami paper in the hands of an unexperienced 4 year old ... namely: rip, tear, shred, mangle, maim, bend, fold, spindle, mutilate ... resummon. These guys have all the staying power of wet rice paper in a typhoon (ie. none to speak of). No matter what I did, those damn ninjas were squishier than blasters against a mez heavy group. They were ... pathetic.

So then I threw in the towel, and went to a tankermind spec, where the whole point was to keep aggro on ME, rather than shunting it onto my ninjas, and sharing out the incoming damage through Bodyguard. Since I was able to build for +Defense with global set bonuses, which did absolutely NOTHING for my ninjas, it actually made a lot of sense to respec into a heavily defensive build for myself, which would Provoke (Presence Pool) hostiles into attacking me (with a pretty good chance of MISSing me) which would then draw the aggro of my ninjas. So long as the aggro was on ME, rather than on my ninjas, their weaksauce (as in, Low Grade Dishwater) defensive stats became irrelevant since they weren't being directly attacked ... *I* was. And because of Tankerminding, I could take several times the number of attacks (and hits) than they (individually) could, giving me time to deploy Aid Other to keep them in the fight, and often Aid Self so as to keep ME in the fight.

Once I stopped trying to boost my ninjas' survivability for its own sake, and instead "cut them loose" and simply worried about making everything attack ME, so as to draw retribution attacks from my ninjas without them drawing aggro ... everything fell into place. Now I run a very strong Tankermind build, in which I get to spend almost all of my time concentrating my attention downrange and deploying debuffs and controls.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I do prefer the more active secondary to a passive one.


But I haven't played a more passive one since I got better at playing MMs in general, so I dunno, may reroll a shields one.

That being said, in general I find MMs to be easy mode, and fairly disengaging sometimes, so unless I fall in love with the character, I find it tough to keep my attention focused.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

This is great! So many MMs...so many ideas!My own latest attempt at Ninjas is called Dr Rediculous and he's a parody of the typical mas scientist (the Ninjas are actually Robot/Zombie/Pirate Ninjas...). Here's hoping that I can make him work out. I'm trying /Trick Arrow (no chuckles from the back!) so we'll see...