Pets in the Postgame, or being lonelier than the Maytag Man?

I'm looking at rolling up a new alt since my most recent main has hit 50+1, and am wondering whether a MM is a worthwhile choice for a character to use in the endgame. Normally I'd just ask people in-game, but on my last four Apex/Tin Mage TFs, I haven't seen a single MM.

Do MM pets have the survivability to be even vaguely useful against 54 enemies? I've noticed that against the AoE heavy AVs like Scirocco, many of the melee pets evaporate quickly, but that may have been a flaw of player direction (failing to keep them behind him/being unable to do so thanks to brilliant pet AI) rather than a lack of potential.

I'm mostly looking at the MM as valuable on such teams for their buffs and support, rather than leading the proverbial damage charts, but I know a Corr (my last char) can do both quite well. I'm not adverse to having the ratio shift a bit one way or the other, but it'd be painful to lose ground on both.

I'm thinking of doing Necro, with the most likely secondary being /Pain, followed by /Thermal or /Dark. Are the melee pets more likely to be ineffective in the new 54 content than ranged? Most of all, is it any fun?

MMs can be pretty versatile when played to their fullest. They are also very easy at the base settings (and even several levels above base), so people may choose not to bother learning any of that extra versatility, since it is not normally needed.

I have been practicing speed running task forces with my 50 MM, Dem/Storm/Mu. Some are easier than others: STF, Apex, Kahn, and Cuda are easy, Tin Mage is harder but doable, ITF is OK, but mission 2 is hard at full speed, the new trials are nice and open, but Lambda part 3 can be rough (the trials however generally expose every ATs weaknesses at least once).

I am not sure how rough it will be on melee pets. The demons usually start from range and then close to melee, but I can often keep them at range with BG mode on or by giving them a quick follow me/passive command and then turning them back on defensive.

I play Ninja/Trick/Soul (yes, I'm a glutton for punishment...) and I for one can tell you that in any content involving 54 anything, your pets aren't even speedbumps. If anything so much as sneezes in their general direction, they're dead.

On the Apex TF, I was basically a Raptor Packing Trick Shooter ... with no pets. The ninjas just DIED HORRIBLY in seconds, and couldn't figure out what BLUE meant to save their miserable faceless minion lives. The only thing I could do in the Battle Maiden map was debuff. Trying to go on offense (using my pets) was beyond futile.

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

If your gonna go necro then I think dark or thermal. I'm leaning more towards dark because of the issue of having to apply shields to the pets. I start to think Force Field and get a queasy feeling in my stomach.

Dark gets you another pet which fits well thematic wise to the build, the pet isn't bad either. The issue with dark is your defense is coming from a toggle -ToHit debuff of Darkest Knight. The debuff can be resisted by bigger bosses and AVs. But beyond that Dark has some nice stuff going on. Debuffs, heals your pet heals also, defense.

Thermal has the bubbles which are cool looking, but it is very reactive type of set. Basically your buffing the pets every 4 minutes and then trying to heal up what ever gets in.

I would rather risk the Darkest Night move with shadow fall and use Twilight Grasp along with the pet heal which is pretty regular to heal up what gets through Defense cap and Body guard mode. I think the chance of getting defense cap along with the high resistance of body guard beats out what Thermal offers.

Another comment Necro is a melee pet. I really do feel if your not offering these pets any sort of defenses against an AV or EB even your pets will be getting killed off pretty quick. No pets, no body guard.

I'm an Incarnate (read: level-shifted) Bots/FF. I don't individually bubble my henchmen (unless one is under heavy fire) and I have no problems contributing to L54 content.

Apex, Tin Mage, BAF Trial, Lambda Trial is all good for me - worst that happens is I lose a couple of bots and need to resummon during a quiet period.

Now, with Necro I'd reckon you're going to be doing a lot of resummoning against L54 AV's which tend to have fairly hard-hitting melee AoE's. I'd recommend going /Dark Miasma as the -ToHit stacking will have a good chance at keeping your henches safe (as well as having all the tools needed for endgame fights - namely Res and Regen Debuffs)

Most TFs are fine. Biggest problems I have:

1. Speed TFs. Robots never follow as fast as I can move. I usually lose at some, sometimes I lose them all.

2. Battle Maiden's blue patches of doom on the Apex TF. These things will kill a pet faster than you can pull them out of it. I usually just end up resummoning the Assault Bot for his -Regen and going with just that one.

Hi

My Demon/Dark Miasma MM have no problems contributing in strikeforces/incarnate stuff.

The pet res/def auras help a lot, as do the level-shift for pets (+1 level for the pets due to alpha shift)

But as always with masterminds there will be the occasional resummon and subsequent rebuffing of pets- but I find that it's not more often than with regular content.

/Tom