MM force field defense soft cap

Forgive me if this has ever been hashed out before...

On a whim I created a new robots/force field mastermind. I've played the robots set before, but never force field. After reaching level 20, I started wondering how possible it would be to reach the defense softcap for both my minions and myself.

To that end, I started looking at IO sets that have the most defense bonuses; good for myself but not really for my robots most of the time. I was kind of hoping some more knowledgeable players here might have some advice?

If my math is correct the pet unique, maneuvers, the protector's shields and all the other shields should softcap your pets.

Everything else sorta depends on on how many bonus powers you want to pick up and whether you want power boost to try to get closer to itrial cap.

IO set bonuses don't apply to your pets, except the few pet IO sets that have uniques. Those give you an aura that applies to all your pets.

Your two castable shields (~17%), dispersion bubble (~11%), maneuvers (~4%), the protector bot shields (~10% unenhanced), and the Edict of the Master set unique (5%) will get you to 47% positional defense for all of your bots. That's with 2 level 50 common defense IOs in all of the Force Field powers, and in maneuvers. None in the Protectors, as mentioned. If you want, you could go a little higher on the slotting, or pick up some extra defense in the Alpha slot, but it's mostly irrelevant for regular content.

For yourself, dispersion, maneuvers, hover/combat jumping (1 slotted with a defense IO for 2.8%), Scorpion Shield from the Mace Mastery patron pool (~20% to smash/lethal), and the protector's bubble will get you to around 48% to smashing and lethal, and a little over 40% to energy, with everything else hovering just under 40%. A little slotting on the protector shields should get you closer to softcapped everything, and you might pick up some extra defense from IO sets by accident.

edit: And as a sidenote, I believe Personal Force Field is one of the very few powers still in the game that will give you Base Defense. Your base defense checks against literally everything that rolls to hit you, and with 1 defense IO gives 84% base defense. You could probably go dance in front of Hamidon, if you like.

Just as something to think about, you may want to consider trying Bots/Traps over Bots/Force.

While you won't be giving your pets quite as much defense, the Traps FFG is better than Dispersion Bubble, and you bring substantial and valuable debuffs and some damage to the table as well. Force Fields only has three powers that are really good. The rest range from situational to incredibly terrible.

Note that this advice comes from someone who started CoV with a Bot/Force mastermind and still plays him occasionally... it's just a very underwhelming secondary.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Dominators don't get epic holds either. And Brutes don't get epic melee attacks. I think I'm beginning to see a pattern.

Pics 'cause it did happen:

I haven't checked my def in a long time, but when I did, it was 30%+ to everything. S/L was 50%+. This is with Nerve + Power Boost + Clarion (Tier 3 Radial, I think) and Scorpion Shield. My IOs are not slotted for Def. I used to run my MM without Fitness, so I'm slotted for Recovery. I've never bothered to change it.



On my bots, I summoned and was careful to hit the Protector Bots with Clarion. Here's the result. I'm not sure, but I think this might be enough def for most missions. Maybe.





In both cases, I think I let Power Boost fade (but not Clarion, it's actually up a lot) so the Dispersion bubble and Maneuvers are not boosted from PB, but Clarion is still running.