Kill the genie.

...I am throwing myself at a brick wall. I require help to get it down.

I am a Level 38/Almost 39 Mastermind. Skillset is Necromancy/Pain Domination. I am doing the Scirocco Patron Arc, and I have been asked to kill Serafina, an Elite Boss of my own level.

She has beaten me without effort roughly seven times now.

I have no room to manuever thanks to having to fight her in the dim corridors of an Arachnos Base, she tears my pets and myself apart thanks to high damage and AOE. Inspirations provide little help, nor do the allies provided during the mission-two Fortunatas and 1 Mu Guardian(who tends to spawn by Serafina, so it's hard to judge if he even gets freed by my presence, let alone if he's being useful). Bodyguard Mode does little.

I am completely at a loss. I want to yell or cry. As far as I can tell, I have done as I 'should' have. There is nothing more I can add. I cannot improve my health or theirs, I cannot improve theirs or my chance to be hit or damage resistance. Even if I had the Invention system open, I doubt there is anything that would help in this case.

Skillset: All enhancements mentioned are 37 through 40-no inactives.

Necromancy
Zombie Horde(2x Damage, 2xAccuracy, 1xEnd cost)
Dark Blast(1xRange, 1xDamage, 1xEnd Cost, 1x Recharge)
Enchant Undead
Life Drain(1x Range, 1xDamage, 1xRecharge, 1xAccuracy)
Gloom(1x Range, 1xRecharge, 1xDamage)
Grave Knight(2xDamage, 2xAccuracy, 1xEnd Cost)
Soul Extraction(1x Damage, 1xAccuracy)
Lich(2xAccuracy, 2xDamage, 1xEnd Cost)
Dark Empowerment

Pain Domination
Nullify Pain(1xEnd Cost, 1xHealing, 1xRecharge)
Soothe(1xEnd Cost, 1xHealing, 1xRecharge)
Conduit of Pain
Share Pain(2xRecharge)
Suppress Pain(1xHealing, 1xEnd Cost)
World of Pain(1xRecharge)

Leadership
Assault(1x End Cost)
Maneuvers(1xEnd Cost)
Tactics(1xEnd Cost)

Flight
Hover(1xFlight Speed, 1xDefence Boost, 1xEnd Cost)
Fly(1xFlight Speed, 1xEnd Cost)

Health is slotted with 1xHealing.
Stamina is slotted with 1xEnd Modify.

If there's anything you can suggest, I'd be very grateful. More numbers can be provided if required.

Best advice I can give?

1. Find a team-mate.
2. Kick her butt.
3. Profit.


Others will probably be more helpful.

Bloody Bay for a pack of Shivans.
Summon the Shivan closer to the EB than you are so it will tank her.
Heal it while the rest of your pets do the beatdown on her debuffed self.
There is very little that can't be beaten down with a buffed Shivan to assist

Use inspirations constantly. Try to keep 1-2 lucks going throughout the battle, but no more than 4 at one time.

Get a Shivan from Bloody Bay.

Unless you're normally fighting +2 or greater, replace one of those accuracy SOs in your pets for a damage. While you're running Tactics, your pets will still be capped at their chance to hit with just one and the damage will help kill faster.

While it can't help you now, on your next respec, remove the Defense and End from Hover. The defense in Hover is so low that enhancing it isn't worth it. Same with it's end cost. Also, remove the fly enhancement from Fly. The speed of Fly is hard capped without enhancement.

Wait to 50... Have all your powers.... Semi IO..... Go through arc..... RESPEC!!!

It won't help you right now (unless you have a free respec), but consider becoming a tankermind. If you pick up provoke, you can keep her attention on you, leaving your pets free to attack her without retribution. That, plus hearty use of luck inspirations and bodyguard mode should get you through most solo stuff.

As a necro/pain 'tankermind'? She's an EB *Controller*. She'll eat him for breakfast... unless you mean by 'tankermind' stand there mezzed for the 15 seconds it takes her mezzing attacks to kill him through bodyguard. She hits like a truck - several years back before inventions and such she made mincemeat out of my sm/elec brute several times - mez protection and decent resists or not.

Psionic Tornado, Psychic Scream, Hurricane, Tornado --- all aoe, all control. There's no power on her list that a necro/pain would have a good time with.

I'd recommend grabbing someone, or getting a level or two (or three or four) on her.

ive always figured her to be more of a storm psi defender than a controller and they might have thrown in some mass mez to make it more interesting

Yeah, I was going off the top of my head. I thought she was a mind/storm controller, but her power sets are indeed storm/psi.

Which, when boosted to EB mods, is pretty nasty for any character and is pretty much mastermind kryptonite. My own bots/traps mm, able to tear apart a rikti pylon no problem, is still getting crushed by the psi altars and wandering whirlwinds in Mako's patron mission (didn't run the arcs until 50) for much the same reasons.

Do you belong to a VG? if so, do you have empowerment stations in your base?
There is a slew of hour long (not 15 mins) buffs on those things; some may be slight, but sometimes every little bit counts.
You *should* be able to craft some buffs from them, since they are not technically IO's.
There are 3 optional recipes for each buff, and the recipes are also different between the tech version and arcane version; so there are actually 6 optional recipes for each buff, if you have both styles of the stations.

.

Purple Inspirations. Monitor your defenses. Get them at 45%, keep them there.

Do you have Vanguard Merits open to you? (Requires Paragon Rewards Tier 4 to be complete I think. i.e. 8 tokens) If so you can also grab the Vanguard Psi shield, the Vanguard Psi bomb, and a HVAS pet.

If IOs were available to you, I'd suggest grabbing temp powers like the Stun Grenade to keep her, well, stunned. It's possible to get this in a Mayhem mission in a "Weapons raid" side missions, as well as the Tear Gas temp power. Tear Gas is a hold, which might also be helpful against her.

If you 'can't hold enough insps' two medium purples work exactly like four small purples. 60 seconds of Elude. Won't keep your pets alive, though. (I buy mine from Wents; do you have a friend to do the shopping for you? )

Also I would second the recommendation to slot 1 acc, 3 damage in anything you are using to do damage. The difference between 3 damage SO's and 1 damage SO is literally one and a half times the outgoing damage.

Envennonmed dagger

Ach, the "Team Inspirations!!!" That you get a crap ton of in the card lottery packs. Those work for the pets right? Enough of those and any MM could solo a GM!!!

Also, lower dif to -1 and/or no bosses.

Don't know if it would help, but you can give MM pets inspirations by dragging them to the pet. They use them immediately so time is a factor.

Like others already said if you can't find teammate Shivan and inspirations are your best option. I have managed to kill her on defender with that tactic.

I'll second (or third-) the Shivan recommendation. That's how my solo Stalker handled her... I let the gummy monster play tank and debuff the crap out of her.

Shivans can generally solo any EB (being EBs themselves), if you support them a little. If I remember right, MMs are able to feed Shivans inspirations? If this is the case, get shivans and a couple of emerges, and bob's your uncle.

If not, have the Shivan anyway and have it lead (since it has a boatload of health) by summoning it behind Serafina but right next to her so she turns around - and then have your henchmen attack from the opposite side. Meanwhile, buff up the Shivan with your secondary.