If you don't want defense then Dark is probably worth your consideration.
Dark has some nice crowd control in addition to all it's -tohit which is just murder against critters. With all that -tohit, it essentially becomes defense for you and defense really is a good thing.
Personally, aiming for high resistance doesn't outweigh high defenses. Thermal would be ok since it will give enough resistance to keep on top of your pets with healing, but as far as crowd control and debuffs go, there is a little left to be desired. Either way it generally comes down to your playstyle, if you've found the other sets just not getting into then give dark a go. Also don't just assume Traps or FF is bad, in fact they're probably the two most powerful secondaries available to masterminds. Give them a whirl too.
/Dark would be pretty powerful. All the -def from the mercs' guns probably makes landing those targeted heals a lot easier too. I just have to think of a good theme for it.
Right now, I am thinking I might go /Thermal and take the concealment pool to get ethereal shift. It's a tight build, and quite weak against psi and toxic, but it has the benefit of being easy to manage, and reasonably good for support on teams. (Though dark is really good for that also.)
For ancillary, I'm thinking heat mastery. I took it on my /poison build and bonfire was just amazingly helpful to give the set some mitigation. I haven't tried using any of the patron pools yet, though, so I don't know if any of their controls might be better.
I have a Mercs/Poison at level 50, and a quite new Mercs/Force Field at 13. I think that Mercs/Force Field is a very good choice, I'm really liking the synergy. I tried it out on beta during one of the level-bump-to-50 times, and my build with Leadership, Medicine, and Field Mastery worked out better than I'd hoped.
As for Mercs/Poison, I thought of that exact same plan for a Serum+Noxious Gas'd Commando, but I guess I had more success, because I found it to work rather well, at least for AV/Hero fights on a team. Telling the Commando individually to go to melee range and stay is vital. But once it's set up, and if the AV isn't a weenie who runs around all the time, it's gravy. Used that strategy on my first (and only) Master of Statesman TF run. My commando even took over tanking a couple times when he was on Serum, and the Brute was healing up. Right now, I'm rather excited to see how my character plays with the Poison changes coming in I21. 
Of course, Dark Miasma should work pretty awesomely as well, since it's just an overall awesome set. 
Proud member of Everyday Heroes (Infinity Heroes), Dream Stalkers (Infinity Villains), Devil Never Cry (Freedom Heroes), Enclave of EVIL (Pinnacle Villains), Phobia (Infinity Villains), Les Enfant Terribles (Freedom Villains), Gravy Train (Virtue Heroes), and more!
Full, detailed character list
Hmm. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about the AV angle. I bet that really does rock for them. I could see it helping a lot on ITF as well.
Quote:
That's the thing with Dark Miasma. It's awesome no matter what you pair it with, which is why I'm thinking I might save it for something else. Also I want to use /FF on another build. It's good on mercs, but it's great on thugs or ninjas. |
Originally Posted by Patteroast
Of course, Dark Miasma should work pretty awesomely as well, since it's just an overall awesome set. |
I've been considering just waiting for I-21 to see what Time Manipulation will bring, but if it turns out to be all about +/- Rech modifications (which MM pets are immune to anyway), then I'll feel like I wasted my time waiting.
/dark is my advice. That is what I run and it is quite powerful. Forcefields would be great too though
I have a mercs /pain up in the late 20s; it is fun but leveling solo has been a challenge. I eventually moved my difficulty to -1 while increasing my equivalency. So far at -1/+3 it it is manageable with a decent feeling of danger and risk. Endurance is an issue if I only heal, but using attacks and lots of LOS pull seems to be good. Grouping is awesome.
Overall, playing this toon feels more like playing a crappy corruptor with petulant attacks than a mastermind. Or better yet, herding gun-toting autistic cats.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
...[I]t would be more proper to say this game is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly dying.
|
Hmm... /pain would certainly be interesting. I like to use it for tankerminding on my bots/pain. You think it would work as well for mercs?
I wonder how well pain bringer works together with serum? I would think that the +End regeneration would take care of the end crash that happens when it wears off, and the +regen while he's still super would mean he's safe even without you there to heal him.
I like to drop serum on the Commando during super tough battles, when I can see that I'm about to lose, and then just leave him there to fight it out on his own while I run away.
The short answer is "I don't know."
However, I'm building my merc/pain towards a tankermind sort of direction. As the build fleshes out and experience catches up to theory ill certainly let you know. As for serum, o have never taken the power. No experienced here. I think I got scared off from it from prior threads on the topic.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
...[I]t would be more proper to say this game is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly dying.
|
That is correct Nytemaire.
Serum is the single most useless power in the game. The benefits from it are VASTLY outweighed by the costs. When the devs went to work that day, they congregated with the objective of creating the absolute WORST power in the game. When they were done, they gave it an absurd recharge timer, laughed, and then coded it into the game. This is the only explanation for its creation that makes sense.
Yes I have animosity regarding this issue. It is un-f'in-believable that we have complained about this power for YEARS and nothing has changed.
Quote:
As someone who has tried all his primaries and secondaries on a Mercs/Poison Mastermind, I think Poison's Poison Trap is way more useless than Serum. |
Originally Posted by Crazyfist
Serum is the single most useless power in the game. The benefits from it are VASTLY outweighed by the costs. When the devs went to work that day, they congregated with the objective of creating the absolute WORST power in the game. When they were done, they gave it an absurd recharge timer, laughed, and then coded it into the game. This is the only explanation for its creation that makes sense.
|
Serum does a decent job at doing what it was designed to do... the problem is that it was designed to do something that doesn't matter much except in just a few situations. It'd definitely be more balanced if it either had a much lower recharge, longer duration, smaller crash, or a combination of all of those. But I think there are a good number of more broken powers in the game than it. And hell, my example of Poison Trap from Poison won't be all that valid anymore in I21, so there's still hope.
Proud member of Everyday Heroes (Infinity Heroes), Dream Stalkers (Infinity Villains), Devil Never Cry (Freedom Heroes), Enclave of EVIL (Pinnacle Villains), Phobia (Infinity Villains), Les Enfant Terribles (Freedom Villains), Gravy Train (Virtue Heroes), and more!
Full, detailed character list
Serum won't help you farm, or make much of a difference in how fast you gain XP, but it's great if you like to do TF's like Imperious, where there's a super mighty AV fight waiting at the end for you and your team.
Most of the time you're using it so rarely that when you finally get into a situations where it would be handy, like where your team is about to wipe out, you end up forgetting to use it. That's my experience of it anyway.
Quote:
I would rather have poison trap. Hands down. Poison trap isn't the greatest either though.
|
Originally Posted by Patteroast
As someone who has tried all his primaries and secondaries on a Mercs/Poison Mastermind, I think Poison's Poison Trap is way more useless than Serum.
Serum does a decent job at doing what it was designed to do... the problem is that it was designed to do something that doesn't matter much except in just a few situations. It'd definitely be more balanced if it either had a much lower recharge, longer duration, smaller crash, or a combination of all of those. But I think there are a good number of more broken powers in the game than it. And hell, my example of Poison Trap from Poison won't be all that valid anymore in I21, so there's still hope. |
Quote:
I say again. It is utterly and completely useless. It does almost nothing for 60 secs, and then takes all the end away from your commando. The thought that casting serum on your commando would save your team from an imperious wipe is... regoshdangdiculous... I am /dark, and I fist most AVs with my mercs. |
Originally Posted by 8-J
Serum won't help you farm, or make much of a difference in how fast you gain XP, but it's great if you like to do TF's like Imperious, where there's a super mighty AV fight waiting at the end for you and your team.
Most of the time you're using it so rarely that when you finally get into a situations where it would be handy, like where your team is about to wipe out, you end up forgetting to use it. That's my experience of it anyway. |
BTW, the Clarion incarnate power is 10^6 times better than serum. Our only real cryptonight tbh are those controller/dominator bosses, EBs and AVs. With clarion, you and your team effectively neuter them. I guess many other MM primary/secondary combinations need the defenses of barrier, but if you don't really need it, I HIGHLY suggest taking Clarion.
How do you mean that it does nothing? Well slotted, it can boost your commando up to the 90% soft cap on most of his resistances. I pretty much never get into a situation where he doesn't live out the whole time limit, unless I'm up against psionics, or -res attackers.
On a super tough battle, I place it on him, heal him to full, tell him to attack the boss or EB, and then retreat. After I'm about half a zone away I start resummoning the other henchmen as they die (and they all will), then when he crashes, I dismiss and resummon him and then equip them all before the mobs can get to me. Basically I get a second wind, and usually he finishes off the boss.
I never have a problem keeping the commando up. Perhaps its because I play /dark and have tons of heals and -to hit. But regardless, I stand by my statement. Serum is next to useless and simply eliminates a pet's power bar. Screw that retarded power.
Hmm.. maybe that just tells me how great dark is.
just my 2 cents: mercs are the most bugged and underperforming minions.
Yes, but they also look the coolest. What can I do? My vanity exceeds my play expectations and I'm forced to take them.
They're also pretty decent if you like to team a lot. The -def debuffs together with being ranged (so I can stand back from the group with them, like we're all just blasters). And the occasional sporadic mezzes from the spec ops are nice too.
So, in conclusion, I went mercs/storm again. IDK why, but it seems to be working out. I don't even know why I gave up on the old one. I'd narrowed it down to either that or Therm. Part of me wishes I'd gone therm, but the rest of me is glad to have so many controls/mitigation to keep my mercs alive with.
I'm trying to decide what would be the best secondary for my next mercs toon. I don't know if it's just because it's more difficult to survive with them or what, but I do enjoy playing them.
I've gotten a mercs/storm and a mercs/poison up into the 40's. The /storm got kind of tiresome because I couldn't fit the powers I wanted into the build. The /poison didn't turn out like I hoped, because I couldn't get my Commando to move near enough to the enemies to benefit from Noxious Gas. (I was hoping Serum + Noxious gas would turn out to be a lethal mix.)
I don't think I would try /Force Field, or /Traps because the mercs have no inherent defense to stack with those. Has anyone tried /Pain, /Thermal, or /TA?