To put it plainly, Mercs is bad.
Really bad, compared to the alternatives. They have ninja-levels of survival, less damage than any of the other sets, and utterly useless control and healing powers. (...when the medic is even alive.)
Serum does not exist, and you should never pick the mysterious empty level 18 slot in your primary powerset.
To add insult to injury, pet AI issues has them try to fight in melee at the most inappropriate times.
That said, it's still a Mastermind primary, so you can solo at reasonable speeds, and your little friends can deal reasonable damage on teams - remember to put damage and -res proc IOs in them, and to keep them at range whenever possible. Tankerminding should also be fine.
My own Mercs/Pain character (General Anaesthesia, how could I *not* make the character?) is in the late 20s, and is doing decently enough so far, both alone and on teams, where your buffs and heals will let you turn questionable teams into sufficient teams.
Still... power-wise, any of the other pet sets would be better. What we do for themes~
1. pain isn't suitable for tankerminding at all.
2. mercs are (heavily censored untranslatable foreign slang)! forget them.
3. pain is mostly heal and thugs have no heal, so combination will work quite good. but don't expect that late you will be able to handle tough enemies alone. you can't outheal the damage of a gm without constant damage preventing/resisting means. you will be very good on teams, but only decent solo.
so its mainly the question of the purpose why you making your toon and what you want to do with it after hitting level 50.
roleplay purposes? forget any comments and do what you want. but expect that this toon will gather dust in the corner being underpowered in compare to other toons.
team play only? than again all supportive secondary skillsets with heals will be good.
want to be a beast solo and powerhouse in teams? only very few combinations will allow you to do so, but you will rule the battlefield post 50 content. +4x8 missions with AVs will be not a problem solo.
mm is very versatile archetype. you can make it very weak and useless without much effort. or very strong and powerful, but it require some planing and deep thinking.
Let's just sum up Pain Dom before looking at anything else.
1) Pain Domination is a Buff/Debuff set with healing. Never forget this. It's Buff/Debuff before Healing.
2) Pain Domination works best with a primary that keeps the best close together, and has one huge heavy hitter.
3) Pain Domination enjoys AoEs.
Alright, let's go ahead and look down the list.
1m) Mercenaries: LOLNO.
2m) Zombies: This isn't a bad choice. Painbringer a Grave Knight is pretty solid. And zombies are easy to keep rounded up.
3m) Ninjas: Painbringer a Jounin or Oni = fun. Since this is the only 'pure melee' pet set, it is very easy to keep them in line to keep benefiting from your AoE Buffs and Healing.
4m) Thugs: It's Thugs. Painbringer the Bruiser and go to town. Problem here it's hard to keep the Bruiser and Arsonist in line with the Enforcers unless you send them all melee, which makes the Enforcers AoEing a lot more difficult. I wouldn't suggest Pain with Thugs due to positioning quirks, but it's Thugs. It's OP no matter what. Even with LOLTRICKARROW.
5m) Bots: This is pretty much where you should go with Pain Dom. Painbringer the Assault Bot, World of Pain stacks resistance with bot Resistance and Defense. Everyone is ranged so it's easier to keep them clustered up.
6m) Demons: Since this is a mix of ranged/melee that ends up melee after some time, this is another good choice for it. The stacking resistance easily lead to extremely high levels of resistance, plus a lot of AoE healing going around. Another solid choice.
Basically speaking, you want to decide between Thugs, Bots, and Demons. Ninjas and Zombies would also perform with the set but Ninjas really need -ToHit Debuffs or +Defense in a secondary to be happy.
Have fun!
Hello all, I'm looking to try out a new mastermind set. Specifically, I wanted to try out /Pain because it looks like a fairly solid set. I haven't played very many MMs, but I understand more or less how they are played. In fact, I'm probably going to dip into the Presence pool to try out "Tankerminding." Now, for conceptual reasons, I wanted to pair it with a set that has minions with weapons or guns. So, you may be thinking: "Simple. Thugs." Well, I was looking into trying out Mercenaries. Yes, I know, many have mixed feelings about their effectiveness and I completely agree that the set needs help. Plus, I am aware that Thugs/Pain is a very strong set. But, I'm undecided if I should bite the bullet and stick it out with Mercs, only to regret it later and pick up Thugs?
Therefore, as you all are much more experienced with the Mastermind sets, what are your opinions regarding rolling up a Thugs/Pain vs Mercs/Pain? I'm under the impression that Thugs will always top a Mercs build, but just how effective would a Mercs/Pain be? Is there any comparison to the beast that (I've heard) is Thugs/Pain?
Thank you very much for your time and thoughts.