Beast/Time or Beast/Nature?

I've narrowed it down to those two sets, but can't decide between them, and don't have much experience with either. Currently have beast/time at level 17, don't have a second MM concept in me, so if I'm going /nature I'm rerolling.

I gather they're both pretty decent support sets, so I'm looking for opinions on how they pair with beasts. The primary is fixed, though.

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Virtue
Angel Witch II - Chord of Souls - Storm Witch II - Princess of the Dawn - Standing Horse - Witch of Xymox
Silent Scream - Shadow Witch II - Liquid Serenade - Nebulous Dawn - Ghost Witch II -Xiberia

They're both going to be really solid AND pair especially well when you're comfortable being up close with your pets.

My /nature is only 32, so I can't speak to the final strengths yet, but /time is *really* strong with melee pet sets (strong all around). Both have HoT effects, which really stand out/go well with MM pets. Both have solid protection buffs. The amount of damage they put out should be close at high recharges - time has a -22.5% resist debuff and nature has a 49.5% dmg buff. On a 50pt attack slotted with 100% dmg, this gives you 129 points on a /time and 124 points on a nature. In the long, long run /time will benefit more from +dmg but... meh. The nature buff will be easier to keep up (I think) not to mention it has the tasty end reduction bufff... I think time may be "easier" because its pbaoe defense aura is *so* good and directly compliments its +def buff, but I'm not yet convinced that the difference will be vast. Ask me again in a couple weeks .

So far, the absorb and extra resist is playing really well on my /nature mm, but I'm demons and they have decent resists to start with.

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Guides: Dark Armor and IOs | SS/DA | Crabbing | Fortunata

Both would be solid, but /Time would be much more solid, much easier. A lot of /Nature's buffs require a good amount of global recharge to actually make perma, while you can make Farsight perma on SO's, and Time's Juncture is a toggle. With Power Boost and Scorpion Shield you are effectively far above the soft cap. Beasts have both defense and resistance to build off so both would be good choices.

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I have a Beast/Time at lvl 27 and have just been largely dissatisfied with them. I want to like Beast, but am having a hard time doing so. I know I like Time pretty well, I have an Ice/Time troller who is pretty awesome. Maybe its just me, but I feel like the Beasts are really squishy and don't damage very much. I've been debating seeing if taking it to lvl 32 and giving them better slotting will improve them or if I just let them gather dust.

I was also considering rerolling as Beast/Nature, but I didn't think it'd help since I thought /Time was a pretty good choice. I think the theme sounds more fun though.

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_Victory_
Character List

See i've had the opposite experience with beast/time. I've got mine to 35 and I really enjoy it. I dropped in the mastermind and the 2 pet procs for the +10 AoE def, +5 Def and +10 Resist. Combined with Farsight I keep my pets defense up pretty high, even hitting the soft cap when I fire off Fortify Pack (usually for bosses). Especially nice when the lionesses fire off their def roar for +6 defense a piece (which stacks now). Plus the HoT in time they can be hard to kill.

See, to me, one of the nice things about the Beast pets is they're versatile, they've got some decent innate resists and defense so they work with a LOT of different support sets, no matter which set you pick you can stack up either Def or Res on them.

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I'll weigh in here. I have 3 Time/ or /Time 50s. A Time/Energy Defender, Bots/Time MM, and Grav/Time Controller. I'll probably roll a Water/Time Corruptor in the next few weeks too. I was recently quoted as saying that I don't imagine I'll ever be able to roll a non-Time Support-ish toon again.

That being said, I rolled a Beast/Nature MM on Tuesday and hit 32 around 5:30 this afternoon. I don't PL, I am a teacher and off for the Summer, but even I am amazed at a) How fast I've been leveling (all solo except for one DFB and a Penny TF last night) and b) How much I don't miss /Time on this MM.

As an aside, I am now of the opinion that Time and Nature Affinity are the two best support sets in the game, and any new support sets in the future should come from a similar mold.

As of now I'm only playing on +1/x0, but I have managed larger mobs when I over-aggroed. Here is the strategy that I use: From outside of aggro range, I drop Spore Cloud on one mob, quickly tab to another mob (so they don't kill my anchor), and send in the pets on "Attack my Target". By the time the enemy realizes that it's become debuffed, the very very fast pets are already on top of them. I shoot Corrosive Enzymes at my target, then switch to the non-Spored target and repeat until the mob is done. When there's a boss fight I'll drop Lifegiving Spores under the bosses fight and then follow the same steps as above. Since Beast is 99% melee, my pets are usually quite bunched up which makes Regrowth very effective. I'll use the other buffs as needed, but honestly I haven't needed them much at my current difficulty. Nature was designed to be played from range, and having all melee pets allows me to hang way back, but continue healing them, and I can keep my pets on Aggresive all the time without worrying about Bodyguard mode because I'm pretty far away. I feel that the relationship between Beast and Nature is as synergistic as the relationship between Bots and Time, and that's saying something because my Bots/Time can do some amazing things.

With my Bots/Time, I would open with Time Distortion Field to keep the mob bunched together for Robot AoE Madness(TM). The advantage of slowing the whole mob is less beneficial to a Beast MM because the Beasts already move so quickly. Also, since Beast is almost all melee, the mobs tend not to scatter the way they do with Bots anyway. IIRC, my bots are soft-capped to all three positions (or close enough) which is great and stacks nicely with the Prot Bot's Deflector Shield. Beasts have a healthy mix of Defense and Resistance with Pack Mentality allowing for more native defense. Nature has a nice AM-like Resistance buff and plenty of +Regen and a little +Absorb too for a healthy tripod (is it a tetrapod now with the introduction of absorb) of survivability that I think mixes well with the Beast's already diverse survival package.

tldr; I think you will absolutely love either Beast/Time or Beast/Nature. I think Time edges out Nature in most cases, but in my 4-day, 32-level experience, I think that Beast/Nature has just a little bit more synergy. I actually found myself thinking today that the person who developed Nature must've developed it with Beast Mastery in mind.

That's my two inf. Feel free to post any questions or concerns you have or pm me in game at @Chromium Man. Happy hunting and good luck with your decision.

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Chromium Man Model Designations
I - Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, II - Fire/Energy/Fire Tank, III - Elec/Elec/Elec Blaster,
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Co-founder of Riders of Apocalypse - Triumph Server

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Guides: Dark Armor and IOs | SS/DA | Crabbing | Fortunata

It has some synergy with Necro as well. Stacking -tohit is always nice.

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I've started dabbling in beast mastery/nature affinity, and so far it's been fun, and feels very solid. We'll see how things go as I get the additional tiers of pets and all, of course, but so far so good.

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