Slings and Arrows

I've had an idea for a magic-themed archer character.
After looking at my available options, I've settled on an MM with Something/TA. (I like to solo quite a bit, and I just don't have a warm fuzzy for Archery/TA Corruptors.)

That being said, the MM primaries that strike me as fitting a mystic character are:

Necromancy
Ninjas
Demon Summoning

I could make my concept work with any of the above really, so now we get down to mechanics. Which would you guys suggest?

I think Demons/TA might have the most synergy & be the strongest combo early one.

- Your personal attack "Corruption" can light Oil Slick.
- The Demon Prince's Holds should stack with Ice Arrow holds.
- TA has heavy Debuffs that your Demons can take advantage of.

That's my two cents at least

I've got a Ninja/TA/Soul MM myself, so I can speak to this combo.

Ninjas essentially have absolutely no native protection worth speaking of. They get a piddly poor Defense which doesn't even save them from damage at levels 1/6/12/18/24/32/50 ... and there's NO WAY to improve that Defense short of being a Force Field secondary. Yeah, you could slot the proc from the Pet Sets, but like the old saying says ... twice nothing is still nothing.

Pretty much the ONLY strategy that I've found that "works" with Ninja/TA is to go Tankermind. You actively need to be drawing aggro onto yourself (get Presence Pool) and buff yourself up with +Defense Set Bonuses while using Bodyguard Mode to mitigate a lot of the damage. This strategem is "rather" effective in solo play, and sees mixed results in team/league play (simply because situations are much more chaotic and fluid, and you have less control over engagement speeds and timing).

The main thing you're going to be fighting against, with Ninja/TA, is the fact that your pets simply canNOT stand up to aggro ... so you have to take it onto yourself (because You are more survivable than your Ninjas are). And while TA does have a nice toolkit of debuffs to work with, they actually don't DO all that much to promote the survival of your Ninjas (who have the native tensile strength of wet rice paper in a high wind). And honestly, if you're thinking of "unloading" a pile of Debuff into groups of hostiles, be aware that it actually takes A LONG TIME for TA to animate all of those attacks. In teams, I often can't even finish deploying my debuff powers on a mob group before most (if not all) of the group is wiped out by the AoEs of my teammates.

Ninja/TA can be done ... and it can work, if you *really* WORK at it ... but it is almost certainly not going to be as "rewarding" an experience (methinks) as combining TA with almost any other Primary ... or indeed, using a different Secondary altogether. That's because TA does very little to directly promote the survival rate of your Pets. Heck, Aid Other and Aid Self along with Provoke from the Presence Pool will do more to directly promote the survival rate of your Pets than your entire Secondary when choosing TA!

On the flipside though ... even in sitautions where your Pets are completely useless simply because they get flattened too fast to be of any use (AV battles, such as Incarnate Trials and the like) ... you'll still have your TA Secondary, which can (almost) always be deployed to good use in AIDING A TEAM.

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

Yeah, I'd agree - go demon.

I have a Nin/TA (and Nin/Pain, which ... ow...) They're certainly a handful. /TA helps with them, to a point, but not as much as some other secondaries. (Believe it or not, I *do* like playing that one on occasion.)

However, at least there's a bit of synergy there in that Oni can also light OSA. I don't believe that anything in Necro can, just off the top of my head - so, really, least synergy there.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Are you planning on going Magic Origin?

If so, Apprentice Charm should be able to light the OSA. (at least I think energy attacks ignite it??)

Meaning you don't have to worry if your primary has a means to light it.

Sorry to necropost, but I was wondering whether or not they had fixed Oil Slick so that the pets no longer flee it or are afraid to enter it? I've noticed that my demons will SOMETIMES enter the oil slick, but most of the time, they just ring around it and use ranged attacks instead.

I can confirm that pets are still afraid to enter the burning oil slick more often then not.

For my mercs, thats good. Retarted AI still thinks a rifle should be used at melee ranged.

Bright side, Oil Slick can also ignite by itself, not sure if this is WAI but happened to me quite often.

I had noted Oil Slick igniting from my Acid Arrow....didn't think that was possible but it worked.

But since I hover over the fray while commanding my Demons, I had just really noticed the "run up to patch and use ranged" approach more often than not. Every once in awhile, the Prince will run into the flames to stomp on someone but they almost always ring the edge and use ranged attacks.

Better than Fleeing in terror but still not sure that is how it is supposed to work. Makes sense I guess from a 'realism' perspective. I'd been absent from the game for a long while and wasn't sure if the problem had been addressed (still listed as an open issue in the MM issues thread sticked above).

Nope, not 50 yet. I've even tested this by dismissing all of my pets first thinking that maybe they snuck in a shot or something and set it alight, but Acid Arrow sometimes (not always) ignites Oil Slick. Makes no sense according to my college chemistry...but I admit to being drunk for much of that semester so maybe.

For me, I often shoot acid arrow right after dropping Oil Slick so thats why I see it so often.

One thing I can say is Ninja/TA is very good in PvP.

Ninjas do a ton of ST damage, combine that with Oil Slick, Disruption Arrow, and Acid Arrow=watch the numbers fly.

Oni's hold, Ice Arrow, Patron Hold = hold bosses and players.

Oni's Rain of Fire on Oil Slick is nice as well.

Don't worry too much about Ninjas survivability, unless you are going Bots/FF/Traps(and even then) every MM pet dies, easily at 50.

I've really been scouring the boards for a decent Demon/TA build and have come up short. I want to try and cap out on Ranged defense since I've taken Hover/Fly for mine, but thus far, I've not had a lot of luck.

Can anyone point me to a decent build that I could try?