It's hard to beat /Trap but /FF has gotten a lot better. The new aoe buff saves you a lot of endurance, time and boredom.
With the new change, you can cast two bubbles at the beginning of each group and then just simply blast. If you like the pistol attacks, /ff is a good choice because you are not tied to setting traps all the time.
If you choose /FF, I would encourage you to take personal attacks because you'll find yourself a lot of free time. Aid Other is still required. Pets get hit less often but they still get hit.
The only advantage /FF have over /Trap is that the shields STAY on them. FFG may still have mobility issue especially when one of your pets run forward. The minions don't have any resistance and defense. The shields will help them a lot.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have said there was no advantage whatsoever to FF over Traps for a MM. Today, I can now think of one, that you can power boost your bubbles to provide a huge +def buff for your league. That still isn't enough to inspire me to recommend FF over traps though.
Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
If you choose /FF, Power Boost is a no brainer.
But yeah, /Trap is hard to beat. It does have some minor advantage now.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
can still soft cap your Thugs def w/ relative ease w/ Traps because of the Enforcer's double stacked Maneuvers.
Traps all day, every day.
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Yeah and gangwar can take another set of pet unique. Ugh. I hate how some primaries have access to two sets of pet unique and some don't. The only secondary that gives pet recharge is Tornado. Even Dark Servant doesn't give that (but Dark Servant does take a lot of other sets).|
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
can still soft cap your Thugs def w/ relative ease w/ Traps because of the Enforcer's double stacked Maneuvers.
Traps all day, every day. |
Another set of pet unique gives 5% defense and 10% resistance which is more than what Genin has innate. lol
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
thugs/traps is probably THE powerhouse of the masterminds, av/gm solo beast.
......except suicide arsonist, who just don't want to live another day.
he annoys me like hell, that only reason i don't have this combination.
if you have spare patience and "aid others" it might work out.
Take something like the following and modify to taste.
Enforcers (8.5x2) + Uniques (10) + Maneuvers (4.2) + FFG (15.9) ~= 47.2 Pet Defenses
Meanwhile the bonuses give you 45/44/48 defense.
It's just a template, I never finished the build to try to make it any better.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Code:
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poor Ninjas...they could use a buff lol
|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
Yeah and gangwar can take another set of pet unique. Ugh. I hate how some primaries have access to two sets of pet unique and some don't. The only secondary that gives pet recharge is Tornado. Even Dark Servant doesn't give that (but Dark Servant does take a lot of other sets).
Another set of pet unique gives 5% defense and 10% resistance which is more than what Genin has innate. lol |
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Well, to make design purpose more interesting, I would only add Defense Debuff Resistance on ninjas and fix Oni's AI so he would use whatever it's recharged. |
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
poor Ninjas...they could use a buff lol
|
If they make Oni's AI better, Oni's damage potential is extremely high. He has 2 melee, 3 range and 2 aoe.
I'll make a clear distinction between Ninja and Necro. I'll make sure Ninja out-damage even more than other sets (at the loss of survival) and make Necro survive even better. Zombies need to have Lethal resistance and Grave Knights need to have both S/L. I find it odd that it is range pet like Robot that has more survival than Necro.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
it's weird that the AI suffers from "too many attacks syndrome" that it doesn't know what to use when a power is recharged...
Quote:
It's due to "stance" issue. Oni's AI keeps checking for "stance", whether to keep using range (check distance) or to go forward to use Melee attacks. Oni's AI is constantly struggling to find the right stance. In a way, yeah, he has too many attacks. |
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
it's weird that the AI suffers from "too many attacks syndrome" that it doesn't know what to use when a power is recharged...
|
Oni has:
Fire Blast 4s
Ring of Fire 4s
Char 8s
Fire Sword 3s
Fire Hack Sword 6s
There shouldn't be any major delay in his attack when he draws the sword out but if you have Oni, study him. He has so many pauses. I've also noticed that Oni uses more attacks when you don't assign him target. He would switch target and use more attacks.
In comparison to Demon Price, all of his attacks have 8s recharge which doesn't leave too much room for Prince to decide which attacks to use. 8s leaves good space in between each attack. As for Oni, once several attacks are recharged, which one should he use? Should he use Fire Blast or Ring of Fire? Should he keep using Fire Sword or Char? Oni needs a re-vamp because his design is based on the old pet AI where once he is at melee range, he uses mostly melee attacks and nothing else and vice versa. With the new pet AI change, he doesn't know when to use what.
The most aggressive minion in the game is Genin. Yes, I know they are fragile but they sure don't hold back when it comes to attacking. They use Crane and Exploding Throwing Star as soon as they are recharged and they constantly shoot stars even at melee range.
The most aggressive boss pet is Lich. Yes, he doesn't do much damage but he constantly uses powers whenever they are recharged.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Can't decide between Thugs/FF or Thugs/Traps... Offensively, Traps is better than FF due to its debuffing utilities but what about defensively? FF would get Thugs to higher defense numbers but the debuffing/controls in Traps seem to make everything more survivable. So are there any advantages to playing FF over Traps?