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Masterminds
bobokajoee
Member Posts: 9
Hello you Mastermind experts
I was wondering, what is a great combination for a newb to MM?
I know that everyone is going to have different opinions, so don't just say "robo/ff frickin rocks!"
Please give reasoning so I know why you say "robo/ff frickin rocks!"
Thank you 
Comments
I think my problem as a newbie is that I don't actually know what the different sets are better for. Is it all cosmetic, or are some power sets better for area of effect, and others for single target, etc?
Mastermind pets behave different from each other. So a mastermind robot is not the same as a mastermind ninja. (information taken directly from Paragon Wiki)
- Mercenaries: Mercenaries typically use conventional weapons and all Mercenaries have body armor that gives them resistance to smashing and lethal damage and their training makes them resistant to confusion and placate. These guys prefer range but do have some close combat attacks.
- Necromancy: Most Undead henchmen generally have good resistances to cold, negative energy, and psionic damage as well as sleep, fear and disorient. The undead prefer close combat with some mid range attacks with some mezzing.
- Ninjas: Ninjas have superior reflexes and can even super leap. Their training makes them highly resistant to confusion. The Ninjas prefer close combat with a few range attacks
- Robotics: Robot Henchmen generally have good resistances to lethal, cold and psionic damage, as well as sleep, fear and disorient. They are vulnerable to EMP attacks. Robots prefer range attacks. Their attacks have some knockback.
- Thugs: Most Thugs aren't particularly resistant to any damage type, but their lieutenants posses good Leadership skills. 'Call Gang' calls a gang of 10 or so Thug Posse to come to your aid for a brief while. Thugs prefer range attacks although the Bruiser will be the tank, with melee attacks.
Secondar Powers
Dark Miasma: Controlling set that also debuffs the accuracy of opponents. This set has a targeted AOE heal and also a rez ability
Force Field: The Force Field powers give you the ability to create shells of energy that protect yourself and your allies from various forms of damage and harm. Force Fields do not reduce damage, but reduced your allies chance of getting hit in the first place.
Poison: A debuff powerset that can affect anything from resistance to defense. Some holds attacks . This skillset also has an ally rez and a single target heal.
Storm Summoning: Will be implimented in issue 12. Storm Summoning has debuffers and disorients along with some knockback powers. It also has a single target heal ability.
Traps: Traps include ambush devices, as well as gadgets that can be contructed to aid you and your allies. This is a buff/debuff set.
Trick Arrow: AoE debuffs with hold attacks.
Power Pool: many Masterminds take the Leadership powerpool to further buff their minions and pets. This is a boon to your party members you may group with.
So, you see, it's not as simple as OMG FF FTW!!!11! Each set is different and plays different. I loved Robots and Thugs but I didn't care much for Undead and Ninja. I've not tried Mercs yet.
Forcefield was nice but a lot of micromanagement.. I've enjoyed traps. Poison Trap is an awsome hold with a funny animation (the mobs are pukeing) Traps works well with melee minions. Dark Miasma is a great secondary set for range minions. Drop a tar patch and let your range guys take pot shots as they try to get to your group.
Well, that was rather winded, hope it helped.
your arguement is so persuasive, so filled with knowledge and insight. You back up your argument very articulately, with suggestions of improvements and raising examples to glorify your position....oh wait, you didn't
Alright thanx a bunch! When I do rejoin, I'll prolly have my two characters be:
Hero-Illusion/??? troller
Villain-Robo/Trap MM
Hopefully I can rejoin soon, not having the game is killing me!
And so you know, the reason I left both times (that's right, BOTH times) is because I couldn't find the right AT/Powers
Hopefully that doesn't happen again, because I know Co.. is pretty awesome (except for the grind. The grind sucks)
Basically stuff with melee minions take for micro management.
So Ninja and Necro may cause you problems especially ninja who can run after things like a pit bull on crack.
Thugs gets a melee Bruiser at 26 so that is also a concern.
The Mercs are technically ranged but the level 26 commando takes some micro management since his attacks widely vary in the range and he isn't smart enough to manage that right.
So Bots take the least micromangement but mercs and thugs only take a little and the melee sets take alot.
The rest isn't really that big of a deal just pick a secondary you think you would like.
I'm using a necro/dark and so far in the early levels it's going pretty well. It's like having your own personal tank squad. I have a pretty good heal for my minions and some good offense to support them. Just picked up enchant undead and now they are doing great. Another good thing is your minions have unlimited range. You can send them after an enemy as soon as you can target them. This is useful for pulling enemies as once you have them attack you can call them back to you. Overall the MM is my favorite class in CoV.
Thankfully, they actually looked into that the last double xp weekend and smoothed out a lot of the rough areas. Grinding is not as horrid as it used to be. Level progression is steadier. The difference will be evident.
Something else to keep in mind is that some MoBs at later levels are resistant to certain kinds of damage. All MM pets with the exception of Bots do Lethal and Smashing damage (with the exception of a -few- attacks from tier 2 and 3 pets). While Bots do energy and to a lesser extent smashing damage.
Then look at AOE abilities, some pets, like ninjas do crazy damage on one MoB at a time, and can technically out damage a Bot, however a full team of Ninja pets can't kill a full even con spawn of MoBs as fast as 3 drones with the full auto upgrade. However those ninjas can take down a boss better than those drones can. Add in the other 3 members of the Bot crew and well there raw damage output is phenomenal when it comes to bots.
Uhh, I forgot where I was going with this at 3.30am lol, sorry not trying to sound like a fanboi about bots, I like the Thug set as well, just can't make myself level my Thugs MM because I want my first veat.
The problem with a Bots MM however comes from the lack of having to micromanage them, you WILL get bored. My "main" I made back when CoV was launched, and it's just now 46, I've leveled 20+ other toons and tore through hero side but I've yet to get my first and main toon to 50 because I seriously get bored. He's a bots/ff. Only thing that really gets through my bubbles is psy damage.
Want a taste of religion? Lick a witch.
All depends on the enhancements my friend XD
O-N-L-Y 2?!? ( ' ; Fire up 6 - 8 - 12 alts until you find that special combination. Hero-side you can crank through the sewers and some bank radio missions to get to 8 in about 2.5 hours then into the hollows to really try out your powers.
I have been playing a Robot / Traps Master Mind. I started him in April and as of 6/9/2008 he has made level 38. I have played mostly solo and found that the bots do extreemly well. Traps has two attacks that do very well with bots and those are Acid Morters and Poision Traps. PT will hold mobs while AM will drop their defenses. Once you pick up the second upgrade power, your little army of robots can do some serious damage and allow you to run at much more difficult levels. I am now facing level 40 Bosses and having no problems.
What ever you decide to pick up, I know you'll have fun with it. Good Luck !
if you're into masterminds... ill/storm will give you the most pets (and quasi-pets) blue side.
similarly, for a mm itself, if you take necro, you get a bonus pet (the lvl 18 power, ghost). for secondaries, dark miasma gives you a dark servant, while storm gives you the same as blue side -- tornado and lightning storm. both dark miasma and storm summoning have tons of great utility powers. then again, traps has a bunch of gizmos, not so much pets (ffg might be considered a pet, since it follows you, and i believe you can still teleport acid mortar, seeker drones follow you around, etc).
as you can probably guess -- i have quite a number of high level pet characters. three of my pet toons have made it to lvl 50, the other dozen or so are anywhere from lvl 4 to 44.
BUT, if you do enjoy pet classes... get your villain to 50 and make a soldier of arachnos. red side epics, imo, are much better than the hero side epics.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
I made a post, decided it was pointless and deleted it.
Bots/FF for ez mode.
Want a taste of religion? Lick a witch.
I would also take into consideration how you are gonna keep your pets upright and how you deal with bosses. For the moment forget about the primary, let's just talk secondary.
I have a */poison MM, which comes with a single target heal, Alkaloid. It gives a short term toxic resistant and heals for decent amount, but it is only single target. Any mobs with AE attacks will drop your pets faster than you can spam your heal. However, poison has an excellent set of debuffs. Weaken reduces Acc/Dam, Neurotoxic breath is -speed/recharge and Envenom is -defense/resistance.
FF has the best defense but you have no way to heal your pets if an attack gets through. You also have nothing to deal with bosses as the repel power is problematic vs Bosses and Elite Bosses. Versus an AV/Hero it is pretty much useless.
Dark Miasma has some nice combo powers. The heal combines an -acc debuff with an AE heal, which can heal yourself as well. At higher level you also get another pet from this powerset, the Dark Servant. The main drawback is the heal requires a to hit to be successful, which can be iffy vs AV/Hero. The AE stealth Shadow Fall is nice, but can cause issues with escorts.
I also have a */Trick Arrow MM. This set has numerous debuffs, making it very good if you plan on soloing Elite Bosses or AV/Hero. Huge drawback is absolutely no heal or defense of any kind for you or your pets. I had to take the Medicine power pool to get the Aid Other power for pet healing. That is of course not nearly as good as Alkaloid as you have to be much closer to your target to heal them and it is interruptable.
Traps has some decent debuffs but they are stationary. The trick is you have to have the mob move onto the trap or it won't work. The Triage Beacon can be a decent heal when properly slotted but it's stationary forcing you and your pets to have to stay nearby it to get any benefit.
With Issue 12 they added Storm Summoning as a secondary. I have used it before on my defender, but am not sure how it would work with a MM. It does have a single target heal like poison, plus some debuffs. Though Gale would be rather useless, you'd blow the mobs away forcing your pets to have to chase after them and possibly getting out of Supremecy range.
I created a mastermind today.. ROBOTS + STORM
well, i dont like to do all the attacking and clicking so i let my henchmen do the dirty work.
i just stand back and buff them using storm. very lazy grinding...
Bots / Storm is a cool build. It will really come into power as you get hurricane and finally thunder storm. You will own the maps! Have Fun with the build!