The case for MM Primary Attacks (or why you SHOULDN'T necessarily skip them)

After seeing a few MMs in action, I felt compelled to give them a shot on my own, and I've rolled quite a few (Demons/Therm, Mercs/Traps, Thugs/Dark, Bots/FF). And after playing around, I noticed a trend among builds here:

Ignoring the primary attack powers.

Now, outside of Demons (because of the -res effect) I can somewhat understand why you'd skip them. They're not worth the damage or the end it takes to use them, and only a few of them have worthwhile secondary effects. But, after trying a Bots/Traps with NO attack powers I found the entire experience to be incredibly boring and dull.

Being stuck with only your Origin attack and Brawl to do damage outside of the single pet you have until you hit higher levels is just ridiculous. On top of that, there are many uses for the primary attacks that I believe get skipped over.

For example:

-Hold procs/Achilles Heel: Most people see powers that do damage and want to slot them for that damage. But MMs aren't supposed to be doing the majority of the damage, their pets are. So, instead of getting these attacks to do extra damage, why not slot them for debuffs and other secondary effects instead. Combined with the Reactive Interface, you have an attack that supports your pets, and by default, your party.

-Active Participation: I feel that an MM that just "AFKs" during combat (doing nothing but slinging heals or buffs with their secondary, if at all) is a lazy and boring way to play. It's especially bad when you have to solo, and you do nothing but stand there twiddling your thumbs while your pets sling out attacks. After all, yes, your attacks aren't comparable, but it IS still damage, and every little bit helps.

And it also depends on the power. For example, Necro's Dark Blast, Gloom, and Drain Life have -hit built in, which works wonderfully with the proper enhancements, whereas a Merc MM has no good reason to take the Grenade.

Likewise, Ninjas and Thugs share similar attacks (one fast, one somewhat slower, one cone), which makes it more up to the player in question as to which they'd want (me personally? I go with the fast attack and the cone, to maximize the number of times or targets I can hit).

But I feel that this unspoken "consensus" of ignoring the primary attacks isn't fair, considering the options you have in terms of sets and procs. It's like saying KM's Repulsing Torrent is useless when you could slot it with Kinetic Crash. You shouldn't be taking attacks strictly to maximize your DPS.

But that's just my 2 cents.

Mercs/Traps

My attacks have NO redeemable quality's but I always take them. Even the END sucking M30. I just don't see the point in having no attacks its like turning yourself into another minion class pet. Your DPS can only go up.

I think this is what I have slotted on live. Need to rebuild this toon. Just haven't felt like playing him lately.

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Most of my MMs take at least one primary attack and it really depends on which set I am using.

For Merc, I took M3 Grenade because soldier's aoe is really lacking due to narrow cones and M3 Grenade has pretty large radius and it offers 50% knockback which adds more soft controls and I get to put two damage procs in (smashing and energy).

For Necro, I took Gloom and Gloom is an awesome attack even on MM. I prefer Gloom over Dark Blast because during the heat of battle, I may not have time to keep blasting so I rather use Gloom than fast recharging Dark Blast. I used to run a Necro/Storm that focus on blasting but that's before they nerf's Pet's Recharge. I used to put -recharge in Lich and Grave Knight and all 4 of us were shooting many dark blasts. It was fun while it lasts.

The only set that doesn't make sense (at least in my opinion) is Ninja. The two archery attacks deal way too little damage. The cone attack is ok I guess. You can slot for energy proc and eventually purple proc for knock down. However, I prefer throwing Smoke Flash on Oni as Oni's damage is better than me and I get to save more power slots and choice.


You are right about Active Participation though. Sometimes if I don't attack at all, I may feel bored.

I think part of the reason why some don't take any primary attack is that the master has useful/active secondary set that keeps them busy already. Between babysitting the pets and using secondary powers, they may not have time to attack themselves. I know whenever I am on a large team, I am so busy supporting my teammates and my pets that I barely have time to attack myself,. When I solo, I have a lot more time to blast.


If you take both ST attacks and slot them, you may be dealing just as much damage as 3 minions (minus the babysitting part!). If you find your minions die too quick for your liking, then don't slot them much and only use them for bodyguard mode and use attack powers yourself.

My bots MM has the tier 2 attack (single slotted, with force feedback chance for +rch) just to spam for the potential proc..

I'm with you on the whole 'afk' feel, and I prefer having at least 1 attack so I'm actively doing something, this was especially true on my Bots/FF, but my Bots/Traps I'm finding a bit more active.

quite like not having to focus on primaries tbh, I have enough to do with /Dark secondary, provoke and Mu Fences. I wouldn't have any time with primaries as it is what with the constant spamming of the "Go To" macro every 5secs to stop the pets misbehaving

For me, it's a tossup.

For example, on my Demon/Therm, I've taken all three attacks because they're useful, at least for the -res effect on each of them.

My new Necro? I'm not sure. I may just take them all anyway for the heck of it since they're all -hit, which isn't bad when you stack on Twilight Grasp and Darkest Night.

I find I can't spare the power picks and slots for the (usually mediocre) attacks. The vet attacks are better.

I often take and slot up the patron immob and/or hold, to me those powers are more likely to win battles.

Ninja/Trick/Soul here.

Trick Arrow is a very busy and very click heavy secondary (ie. EVERY power in Trick Arrow is a Click!). I don't have "time" to juggle offensive attack powers into the mix, honestly. And even if I did, the personal attacks in the Ninja Primary only accept Ranged Damage sets (Snap Shot, Aimed Shot) and Target AoE sets (Fistful of Arrows). They all do piddly poor Damage for way too much Endurance.

For Secondaries that have Toggles, or which are more concerned with "set and forget" types of Clicks with multi-minute durations (Force Field and Sonic come to mind), taking the personal attacks in your Primary so you "have something to do" makes plenty of sense. But that isn't necessarily the case for ALL Primary/Secondary combos ... some of which need to make extensive use of the Presence and Medicine Pools in order to achieve even minimal viability.

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

Skipping henchmen, temps and judgement I can with the lvl shift, flawless reactive, 1 dgm proc in both PGT and caltrops, no procs in seeker drones, 3 dmg procs in brawl and 2 in acid mortar I can solo a lvl 50 PI spawn of 7 or 8 minions in a reasonable amount of time using just the amount of endurance required to setup force multiplication, mm personal attacks would speed that up a little bit at an exorbitant endurance cost the reason why people skip them is entirely reasonable

I always take some attack powers on my MM mostly because I want to be able to fight with them without having to close to melee range to use brawl or Sands of Mu.

I generally take 1 attack power to give me a little damage capability. Plus, it serves as a Taunt when I want to pull an enemy to my minions/traps/ambushes, etc.

For my Necro/Pain, I like Gloom because I can slot a couple of -tohits in it. That way, I'm doing some damage AND helping keep me and my corpses safer.

Before 26 your attacks are stronger than your pets because of the level drop so it is definatley worth taking at least 1.

The only MM I have taken the attacks on was Demon and that was specifically because they are -resist which in turn allows my pets/party to do more damage. I currently have all of said attacks, ranged, melee, cone and find them useful in their own right... ranged for pulling, melee was just to try, and cone, well, multiple target hits are always fun.

In the end thou, I will eliminate the 2nd attack and quite possibly the first, only keeping the cone. And that will be the only MM I possess with any attacks out of the main pool. As others have said, the end use vs damage is really rather pointless when generally there is something more you could be doing that will benefit your efforts more.

Of course, these are my choices and fit my play style.

Bots/Traps... I toe bomb in melee
Ninja/Storm... procs in gale
Undead/DM... procs in fearsome stare
Thugs/Pain... does anyone need to do anything for them

In the end, the builds I make don't have enough spaces in power selections to usually include any personal attacks, other than vet rewards, and even those after the first 10-20 levels become used as much as any of the pool powers.

I tend to play it by ear too, I've got one MM of each primary but I think it's mainly your secondary/playstyle that determines whether your attacks are viable.

My golden rule is this - any second that the MM him/herself stands around not casting a power (any power, even Brawl if nothing else is up/applicable) is wasted potential. There's nothing stopping you from directing minions while also animating a power. If you need practice doing this, pick up a decent RTS game and work on your micromanagement.

I have Photon Grenade on my Bots MM for the extra mitigation potential when soloing, which I do a lot of (the token damage doesn't hurt either). Being able to stack up stuns and take bosses out of the fight when grouping is gravy.

A trick i use on one of my MM's is having a keybind that uses my one attack and also commands my pets to attack my target. I only attack when i need to give orders so my end cost is minimal and i have more room on my tray for other things. The attack may seem redundant but the damage and knockback does help some and i don't fall asleep in battle.

If I were going to use my attacks then I would especially want to take advantage of bodyguard mode