Dr Causality

Agree with Nzer on these recommendations: Alpha: Musculature is the one to aim for if you can make it work with your build. It's a notable increase in Dmg since let's your pets go over the 96% ED cap where they stop gaining much for further Dmg enhancements slotting. That can easily mean a dmg increase in the near 20% from pets. Beyond that choosing an alpha that buffs either Dmg or Acc, or even Endurance Reduction will significantly help when slotting out your Pets, since it will give you more flexibility to short slot one of those letting you chase set bonuses or more easily add the pet uniques. Alpha Agility - Could be a good, if you need the +Def and you're not planning to use Dmg procs in you non-pet powers. Alpha and Spiritual are great, but the problem with them now is that with the PPM (proc per minute) chances the +Recharge enhancement buff they give now significantly diminishes your proc chances. So you need to look at your build very carefully when choosing those two Alphas to make sure that any procs you want to use will still have good chances to proc with the additonal Recharge. Interface: Yeah totally agree with Nzer. Demons will already do and give you access to lots of -Res. You should get a lot more value from the -HP. Destiny: Yeah if you're going /Time will be tough to get a better option than Clarion. Hybrid: At least some Hybrid is working on MM pets: Support works as expected. Melee only impacts your MM itself and is dependent on how many enemies are nearby. In general that means it's going to be most useful for farming builds that expect to be constantly surrounded by large mobs. For regular game play it often doesn't buff you much when you need it most, for instance when fighting a single AV. So especially on a MM you're probably much better off with Support. And support is also small a Endurance reduction, and dmg buff that applies to applies to not just to you and your pets also teammates. Hybrid Assault works, with one annoying exception: The Hybrid has to already be toggled on when the pets are first summoned, otherwise they get no benefit. If the pets were first summoned while Hybrid was up, then they should still get it next time you can toggle it back on. But if you had to summon or resummon any pets while Hybrid was down, then you'll have to dismiss and resummon them when it's toggled on for them to received Hybrid. Hybrid Assault can add a significant amount of dmg, so if you can build around Powerboosted /Time to get sufficient Def, then Hybrid Assault will probably be the way to go. For almost all cases MM's and other summon heavy sets will want to go Assault Radial for the doublehit. See this thread for more info:

Being a Tankermind shouldn't mean you have to be in BG mode, spamming Provoke 100% of the time. I religiously use Provoke on most MM builds. If the pet ai was better, then it might be different. But for instance if you mezz all enemies while in BG mode, then your pets completely stop attacking, so you unless you want your DPS to drop down to useless numbers, then you have to be a little flexible about it. I'd say a more useful and functional definition of Tankerminding, is directing all threatening aggro off your pets and onto to your MM itself. But when there's not enough aggro to be threatening, then even the die hard tankerminds like myself will use 'attack my target' or 'aggressive' just for efficiency. If Tankerminding was so strict that not waiting until mezzed enemies wake up for my pets to finish them off, then I'd stay it's that definition of Tankerminding that's not useful. Or likewise if because on teams I will set some pets to 'aggressive' or 'attack my target' so they're not just standing around idle and that makes me not a true Tankermind, then I'd counter that that definition of Tankermind is only useful to describe an extremely inefficient low DPS play style you should avoid. 🙂 Tankerminding is new in the sense that there wasn't even always a Body Guard mode for MM's. Tankerminding came about to describe what was a new playstyle that leveraged BG mode. So I'd say historically my use is well within the definition of Tankerminding and further that it's definitely a still a useful term, because you can play styles where pets take the aggro or where just you don't even worry about who has the aggro at all. Whereas, on my Tankermind builds I try to ensure that all threatening aggro goes to my MM. I think this is where it gets interesting, because as I see it SpiritFox, Xandyr and others are arguing that in fact that isn't the most efficient or necessarily proper way to play. And I think on that point they're probably right. We now have more defense, resistance and sustain then ever before and with dmg procs the MM itself also has the ability to do more damage then they could previously. Together that means pets need less support than before, and by using up time coddling or tending to pets instead of attacking, we're now giving up more DPS because the MM can now actually do significant DPS on their own now. And on that note, being freed from needing to build for Tankerminding survivability of your MM, should open up the flexibility to chase more dmg in your builds. I still prefer Tankerminding because I hate it when my pets die [and even more so when my MM dies], but that doesn't mean that even I think it's the most efficient MM playstyle for the current game. Put another way, the Tankermind style is never going to have the top Pylon or clear times. [The risk averse rarely receive the top honors....]

Let us not speak of Ninjas right now. I've been running some solo +2/+8 ITFs with Ninjas and I'm thinking of renaming my character to "The Expendables." Or "Infinite Ninja", with a battle cry like, "Go ahead kill them. I'll just make more and eventually you'll grow too weak to fight back." I'm probably exaggerating with one-shot. It's more often an unfortunate quick succession of 2 or 3 hits in row, often involving a big aoe. But it's definitely a dead before I can get a heal off situation. The combination of the +Res pet uniques and Incarnate level shifting makes an undeniably huge difference. So "pet instant death syndrome" is most notable while leveling before you have the level shift and Superior version of the Mark of Supremacy. But a bit of the old maths can resolve this for us, but I'm fuzzy on same game mechanic details so someone may have to offer some corrections here but this should give us some ballpark idea: 575HP --- At lvl 50 T1 pets will have 574.95HP, for simplicity let's round to 575HP At least 1.55x Damage multiplier against +4 enemies --- T1 pets con 2 levels below your MM. So even after the level shift they will con -5 below +4 enemies. Someone may need come along an correct me on the details here. Working mostly from memory after the purple patch there's a relative level scaling that impacts damage done. I'm not clear how or if Rank further impacts the relative level dmg scaling. But a Boss or AV should CON at least +5 levels above your T1 pets, give them at least a 1.55x damage multiplier. It's 1.66x if you're not level shifted and could be even higher if Rank equates to additional relative level scaling differences. 35% Res from IO's--- At level 50 with the 2x +10% Resistance and Superior ATO for +15% you have 35% Resistance to all dmg types. Demons have the most Resistance to the broadest range of dmg types, but even they have types with 0% Res like Psi. Bots have 0% to Smash etc. 1.0075 Dmg scaling after Res --- 1.55Dmg * (1-0.35Res)=1.0075 Dmg taken by T1 if it's an unresisted dmg type So for a worst case scenario of getting hit with an unresisted dmg type from a +4 Boss or better enemy at lvl 50, it should take 575/1.0075 Dmg to one-shot a T1 pet or 571 in damage. I'm not clear on how much base damage AV's and Heroes can do, but I think plenty do more than 571 damage in single attack powers. I've definitely taken 1000+ damage hits on TF's. So it's basically just RNGesus between you and T1's being one shotted from an unlucky hit roll. Now let's look at best case scenarios for damage that is resisted. For example Bots get 25% Resistance to Lethal. Demons are probably in the best position here since they have resistance to a broad range of damage that gets an additional up to 15% more resistance stacked from the Ember demon's shield. So against resisted damage T1 Bots can take 575/0.62= 927 in Dmg. Definitely less likely to have a one-shot. And Demons with 25% Lethal, plus 15% Ember Shield and the 35% in IOs' will have a whopping 75% resistance. That means even against a +4 with the relative level dmg scaling they can survive 575/0.3875 which is whopping 1484 in Dmg to one-shot them. While I do seem to recall having taken a 2K+ hits before that would not have been base damage and would have already included damage scaling, so definitely not looking very likely for even T1 Demons to be single shotted much besides Psi dmg. And even less likely if their 2ndary further buffs their Res like /Thermal, /Nature, etc. Easy to see why people like those combos. Also, easy to see why /Sonic is underrated since with pet IOs it can stack 83.5% Res even on pets with no inherent Res like Ninjas. If /Sonic had a heal it still wouldn't be great for tankerminding, but would a top tier MM set.... I think this touches on the important thing about Tankerminding playstyles. Tankermind prioritizes safety and minimizing risk over doing dmg, and particularly with all the tools and damaging doing capabilities we have available now, that risk minimizing compromise is just not as efficient or necessary. Feels like that's overall point you're getting at, that Tankermind is just not optimal in terms of efficiency, for instance if you were looking at clear times, XP or Influence/min etc. Risk aversion has it's costs.

I use those too. But I have severe altitisus, so I make them as Macros, and then have binds to positions in power trays. That way by putting the travel macro in a specific place on power trays the bind works on whatever alt I happen to be on and I can also look at the tray to be see whats' available... The problem is that it's still frustrating how slow you become dropping from Ninja Run to CJ. It hleps if you have a sprint on, but then you're using a lot of endurance. I'm gonna stop complaining. It's really nice to have the Ninja Run option, definitely improved my enjoyment of the game. Also, worth noting it doesn't work as well as with CJ, but even Hover and Ninja Run can toggle passably.

You're reminding me of all the banter and chat the used to happen, while we were waiting for teammates to make it the mission door. I suppose a downside of the current frantic pace, is there's less time for human interaction. Worth thinking about as an overall quality of life thing.

Having hijacked your post over into a general discussion of Tankerminding, it's only fair that we actually answer your questions. Theory It might take a bit to explain the what and why of my take on the top combos. Tankerminding at it's core is strategy for dealing with incoming damage. It's a damage redistribution system that helps spread out large amounts of damage that your MM or pets on their own would not be able to survive. Anything that lessens the damage that gets redistributed or increases the amount of damage you're capable of redistributing will make for a more efficient effective Tankermind build or system. So like Redlynne mentioned Def and Res are essential on Tankermind builds, as they filter or lessen the damage that's redistributed across your MM and pets. It's also worth mentioning the somewhat newer Absorb mechanic that /Nature has alongside Def and Res. And additionally any -Dmg debuffs, mezzes, Knockback or Knockdowns, to a lesser extent -Tohit etc. will figure in to effective Tankermind Strategies. But for me the important thing still left out, is capacity over time, or the amount of sustained damage that can be redistributed. Sum: Overall capacity to take sustained damage over time on my take is the big picture that separates and ranks top tankermind combos. Once you've already gotten your combo of Def, Res, Absorb, Debuffs, the way to further magnify and shore up your Tankermind's overall capacity to sustain damage over time is with AOE heals and large amounts of Regen. AOE heals are relatively small amounts per target. Taking your /Thermal 2ndary as an example, Warmth fully enhanced at lvl 50 will max out at around 180HP heal per target, which is not much. But considered as a whole it's healing up to 6 pets and your mastermind, for a total of 1260HP (7 x 180HP/each...) The beauty of BG mode is it redistributes damage to your pets, so having Thermal's heal in BG mode means your MM has a capacity to sustain 1260HP of damage every time Warmth is recharged. Single targets heals do not offer the same benefit to Tankerminds Given this: On my take all the top Tankermind combos will have an AOE heal or large aoe Regen, but notably with Incarnate you can now get a large aoe Regen power with Destiny Rebirth. Next up is Def and Res options. Unlike Def, Resistance doesn't have a softcap, meaning you keep benefiting from more Resistance all way up unitl you hit hard cap which 75% for MM and 90% for pets. MM's get access to very large Resistance Shields once they are high enough level for Epic Power pools. Fully slotted the Resistance shields deliver in range of 40 to 47 Resistance to Smash/Lethal and with Mu even Energy. That's more than half-way to hard cap. Whereas the Epic Def Shields top out around 21% Def which is not even halfway to just softcap defense. But more importantly, it's basically impossible for a MM get to an always on 75% hard cap resistance without using the Epic shields. (Barrier, Rune of Protection etc. will all have down time.) But you can get to the lower threshhold of 45% soft cap defense without relying on an Epic Shield. So you'll typically be able to get to a higher overall sustain combo of Def and Resistance by choosing Resistance based Epic Pools. Additionally, there are the builds that plan to fill Def or Res with Inspirations. For PVE content you only need to get to 45% softcap def to get the max benefit whereas, you need to get to full hard cap Resistance of 75%. And cruelly Def and Res Insp are the same value even though you need to go more than 1/3 higher on your Resitance value. So it's much easier to fill in for missing Defense. Putting that all together: the best Tankermind combos will typically have Resistance Epic shields, making 2ndaries that give Def buffs the optimal pairing. The final bits are the ability for your MM to hold aggro and survive being mezzed. When your MM is in BG mode, at soft cap def and hard cap S/L resistance being mezzed is surprisingly not much of threat. You don't take much damage, and while your mezzed your pets will keep fighting pulling the aggro to them, which tends to prevent you from being indefinitely chain mezzed. But what you need to worry about is being mezzed drops toggles like Epic shields which can mean your def and resistance drop. You also can't melt away damage with heals, so being mezzed also drops your capacity to take sustained damage. Malta robots are prime example of how badly this can go for a MM. The hold drops a Epic Shield causing you take much more damage, which also happens to be an aoe, effectively hitting your pets twice, since they take the aoe damage once directly and a 2nd time when it's redistributed from you. When the pets die your capacity diminishes further you can be dead almost before you even know what happened. (Only three 2ndary sets offer the MM themselves mezz protection, beyond that your options are: Sorcery's Rune of Protection or Clarion Incnarate both of which are not up permenantly and Break Free Insp's) In sum: Tankerminds need to know how being mezzed impacts their Def and Resistance, and have a strategy for dealing with whatever that increase damage risk is. No combo is going to check all the boxes, so you'll inevitably end up needing plans to fill your gaps. But of all the 2ndaries /Time, especially once you hit later levels, checks the most of the boxes and checks them most completely. /Time has a Def based buff letting you choose the more the powerfull Resistance based Epics: Check. Has an two aoe heals: Check. /Time's Def buff is click based so doesn't get detoggled when mezzed: Partial Check. Once your 50 with Incarnate Clarion gives mezz protection and powerboosts your Def: Check. Has some other mitigation and debuff powers, plug good opportunities for procs to turn a couple powers into respectable dmg attacks. In sum the absolute top Tankermind combos will probably have a /Time 2ndary. But as for the specific combo it probably depends on your desired playstyle, stay at range, melee, more attack attacks, mostly debuff/ support etc. My personal preference is probably Thugs/Time. But if I had to choose an overall best it would be probably be Demons/Time. Demons adds a resistance buff, an aoe heal and stacks surprisingly large amounts of -Res increasing your overall dmg. But if you wanted to stay entirely at range, then best would probably be Bots/Time. But other non /Time combos can also be very strong. It's difficult to pick the exact combos since as mentioned before desired playstyle is important. So I'll just list notable 2ndaries for Tankerminds that aren't /Time: /Nature - The Aborb, massive amounts heals/regen, and resistance shield make for sturdy pets. The Absorb plus reistance means T1 pets are not as prone to being one shotted, and more pets alive means more sources to spread out and heal away the damage your MM takes. /Nature's struggle is filling the Defense. /Traps - Def and mezz protection. Good -Regen and debuffs. Has Triage Beacon Regen for some aoe hitpoint sustain. Slotting the ATO Mark of Supremacy IO for it's +Regen buff to pets makes this into a much better Tankermind set, as does adding Destiny Rebirth once Incarnates are available. /ForceField - Slightly more Def /Traps and also has mezz protection. But no heal and doesn't even have /Trap's Triage Beacon Regen trickle. Definitely needs the Mark of Surpremacy ATO and will be much stronger for Tankerminding once you get Incarnates. One great thing about /FF is you can skip many of the powers making it into a very flexible set that can choose a ton of Power Pools and Epics. /Dark - Biggest aoe heal a MM can get, plus a healing pet, so it has a sizable sustained capacity to take damage. Has some Def and some Resistance. Good debuffs including a -Dmg toggle, stacking -Tohit, a -Res , and even strong -Regen for AV's when you use Howling Twighlight as a debuff. A very balanced all around powerful versatile set. One notable thing about /Dark is it's strong at early levels. Whereas for instance /Time will be relatively weak. /Dark might be the best low level Exemplar for Tankerminds. Borderline Tankermind 2ndarys. /Pain - Overall probably not as strong as sets listed below. But for Tankerminding in particular it's checks the main boxes except Def. Aoe +Res shield. Aoe heal and an additional aoe +Regen aura toggle. Plus two single target heals and a large single target +Regen and Dmg buff. This set can keep Lore Pets alive, and they do more damage than MM pets. Strong but not best for Tankerminds: Some other sets are very powerful but because they don't buff the MM directly are not optimal for Tankerminding: /Thermal - The shields only buff the pets not your MM. Does have an aoe heal. Great Res shields for pets, that are only exceeded by Sonic and great debuffs. /Cold - The Ice shields only buff the pets not your MM. No heal. But strong Defense for henchment/pets. Exceptional single target debuffs. And does have some Def and Resistance for your MM too. /Storm - Only has a single target heal, that can't be used on your MM. Like /Cold it does have some Def and Resistance for your MM. Has great -Res, Knockback or Knockdown mitigation, a -tohit, plus a rare -Range debuff from Hurricane. /Storm is capable of doing massive amounts of damage from the Lightning and Tornado summons, which is further magnified with high recharge so you can simultaneously summon them. /Sonic - Combined with pet IO's can get pets up to 83.5% Res, meaning pets with inherent resistance will be over hard cap. Has Mezz protection like /Traps and /FF and one Resistance Shield that buff the MM. Has significant -Res debuffs. Like /FF definitely needs the Mark of Surpremacy ATO for +Regen from pets. No Deff buffs or heals. So that's what you need to fill in from Pools and Incarnate. This tome I already wrote is all I have in me for now. I may come back and edit this to fill in and include some actual Tankermind combos that I'd rate highly for different Tankermind playstyles. But at least for now this is it....

Maybe it's just semantics, but on my take what you're describing here is Tankerminding. You don't have to keep spamming Provoke or stay in Bodyguard mode permanently. And the problem with letting pets tank is even at defense cap they will get hit 5% of the time, and especially T1's routinely get one-shotted. So keeping the attacks directed at your MM means fewer henchmen or pet deaths. But sure it's probably more efficient to treat them as expendable and just let 'em die here and there, so you can focus on attacks and debuffs. [Acceptable Losses] Tankermind is definitely a thing for solo play. You can do a pretty good job of holding aggro from your pets and you can certainly make sure your MM takes the Alpha. It's on teams where it's a not a thing. A MM will never be able to fully fill Tank/Brute role on Teams, because Tanks, Brutes, Scappers, Blasters etc will all be able to pull more aggro. *Edit* I wanted to ask you two do slot Provoke for Taunt, right? It's dismal 8s duration out of the box, which means its not even perma unless you have global recharge. If it's part of your core strategy, then it always needs some Taunt Enhancement slotting to be effective. But also if you don't have a sizeable amount of +Tohit or Acc bonuses, then it will also need some accuracy slotting. Single slotted Provoke is still useful, but you'll need to lower expectations accordingly.... The biggest challenge I think MM's have is that when in Defensive mode pets stop attacking targets they were already fighting if the enemies get mezzed or stop attacking the MM and pets. Commanding the pets to attack takes you out of Bodyguard mode, and out of BG mode MM's can be one-shotted by AV's due to the MM's low HP pool. This is particularly an annoyance on teams, where pets will frequently just stand around if left in BG mode since teammates have all the aggro, but if you're out of BG mode then you're vulnerable to the RNG timing of a couple big attacks. The compromise on teams is to leave one or two pets in BG mode and just attack with the rest. But I definitely wish pets in Defensive mode would continue to attack anything they were already fighting and would also attack anything that attacked not just the MM but also the MM's teammates.

I'd like it a lot more If it didn't de-toggle Ninja Run. I find CJ annoying to use, because I usually have Ninja Run as my primary travel power. But Immobilize protection, +Def and slot mule for a LotG, leads me to take CJ fairly often anyway.

This is exactly what I do. Except I prefer the Steam Jump version. But I still take them both, because the cooldowns are separate so if you happen to need more than 30s, you just toggle to the other one for continuously up travel. The only time I take travel powers are tight builds that need KB protection slots (and/or ranged def) that are also trying to unlock part of a Power Pool. *Edit* Another exception, if a build needs permanent Stealth and I already have Hasten, then I take SuperSpeed with a Celerity. (i.e. Mind Doms that use aggroless confuse and sleep powers...)

If Rikti were break it down it might sound like this: Power acquisition status: permanent Power classification type: temporary In game play experience it means you permanently have access to the temp travel power, but if your teammate decides to set the dial to "Master of _________" which disables temp powers, then you're going to be walking to the bus stop and begging for rides to mission doors from teammates.

That's an interesting idea in that, if a single power was coming up short on Accuracy, then your trick could be used to fill gap. Or if you needed to overcome a debuff. Worth keeping in mind.

That's good trick! Would be really good combined with Snipes. I guess I'm wondering how useful the +Tohit procs will be on a MM? It won't go to your pets and with the short 10s duration you wouldn't even want to count on it for Accuracy of your /TA powers.

**This Section Reserved for a future leveling build posts**

So it's looking like I'll need to roll a Ninja/TA MM as that's what leading as worst MM combo poll. So I'm starting to work on build plans and testing for any proc slotting tricks that can be leveraged. I'm fairly new to /TA having only played one back on Live and some here on Beta: What strategies and tricks are there for /TA MM's to use? How do you prefer to initiate fights? What powers work well in tandem? Including with those from Power Pools and Epics? Etc. In terms of just procs IOs and powers here's what I have so far regarding TA: Am I missing anything? Entangling Arrow Power- Long Immob on low cooldown should allow to stack significant singel target Immob. Procs - 4s Cool Down and 1s Activation mean procs chances won't be great. Looks like 29% for 3.5PPM. Could use 1 x Immob Dmg, 1 x Slow Dmg, and 1 x Immob Purple Chance for Hold. But that's only an avg of 20.9 dmg per proc on a single target and 29% chance for Mag2 Hold. Not worth slotting unless I end up with slots to spare. Flash Arrow Power- The -Tohit portion is a small -3.75% that won't be very impactful or worth enhancement slotting. But maybe there are some tricky strategies or combos that can exploit the -90% perception? I haven't used -Perception Debuffs heavily before, so I'm not all the clear on how it works once you have aggro. Seems to just entirely stop working once you've pulled aggro. If that's correct then will only be useful to get closer to mobs or help prevent unintentionally pulling nearby mobs. I could see skipping this on a tight build, but in tests was useful for /TA's shorter ranges, in additional to helping avoid the accidental aggro that MM's are so prone too. But if you skip, you'll basically be be limited to taking an early single target MM attack in it's. place. For Ninjas the best of the two is Aimed Shot which still relatively low dmg and with a 4s cooldown won't be very proc-able. Procs - Massive 35' Radius creates low proc chances dropping 3.5PPM down to 18.9%. Can only slot 1 dmg proc. The other options 'Chance for -25% Rech' and 'Chance for +Tohit' are not very impactful. Probably not worth slotting for procs. Slotting even one proc means this power is no longer aggroless, severely limiting the utility. Glue Arrow Power- Very strong Slow Movement that can reach up to 179% over a large radius. This power could prove very useful in strategies that kite and keep enemies at range from your MM. Procs - Long 60s Cooldown with zero recharge slotting makes for strong 90% chance on 3.5PPM despite the large 25' radius. But can only slot a single Dmg proc. And one 'Chance for -Rech' It's not going to be a great proc power, but that one proc will get 3 chances to proc over duration. So if you're going to use it regularly anyway for the massive Slow, then might as well get the free dmg from that one proc. Ice Arrow Power - With global recharge and some hold enhance can easily be made into a perma Mag3 hold. Procs - Longish 18s Cooldown on single target makes for strong 90% proc chances. Can take 5 x Dmg procs turning into a respectable attack. With 0% Rech the Lockdown 'Chance for Mag2 Hold' still has an 82% chance turning the power into a fairly reliable Mag5 hold. Superior Entomb 'Chance for Absorb' proc even with the it's 23% recharge enhancement still has a 81% chance. That Absorb might be a useful little bit of sustain. But this won't be nearly as useful while leveling since the standard Entomb with it's 2PPM value will only have a 51% chance. Poison Gas Arrow Power - Strong -18% Dmg debuff over a wide aoe. The Mag2 sleep is much more impactful than I expected on paper as it seems to keep re-applying the sleep, so even attacks don't necessarily wake enemies backup. Unfornately, many of the other debuff powers and pets continually interrupt the sleeping making this not as useful a control power. Oil Slick's KD's wakes up enemies, as does the DoT from Acid Arrow. And some of the pet powers significantly work against the sleep too. For Ninjas the culprits are the DoT's like Oni's RoF, Jounin's Caltrops. Since there no useful procs for this power, If you were going to build around it, then optimal use would probably be maxing recharge enhancement and global recharge to allow some double stacking the sleep patches and then use when Oil Slick is down or to deal with extra mobs being pulled. But it will mean carefully not using other powers like Acid Arrow, and even then your pets will likely use a DoT power. Procs - I was curious what the mechanics would be on the Heal proc given that this seems to summon a psuedo pet. In my tests it triggers once on cast, but due to the psuedo pet it does not have a chance to proc more than a single time because it's procing on summon, rather than per enemy. A single 5% heal on long cooldown isn't worth the slot. The Psuedo pet means the 'Chance for Placate' proc does nothing. (This is really a shame because there's a super cheesy mechanic that I've been wanting to more thoroughly test when you have both an aoe taunt and aoe placate....taunt forces enemies to attack you, but placate means they can't....) Acid Arrow Power - Small Radius, but good -Res debuff that doesn't with duration equal to cooldown meaning it doesn't need any any recharge enhancement to maintain. Procs - Low cooldown but relatively small radius make for acceptable proc chances in a power that's up frequently. Can hold 4 x Dmg and 2 x -Res procs. Might be worth taking an Alpha with Accuracy just to be able to 6 slot procs in this power. Disruption Arrow Power - Small Radius, but good -Res debuff that doesn't with duration equal to cooldown meaning it doesn't need any any recharge enhancement to maintain. Procs / Slotting - No procs that can be slotted. Needs some Recharge Enhancement to make perma, but it appears not to stack so not much value in having it up more than its 30s duration. Oil Slick Arrow Power - Long Cooldown, but large radius and strong mitigation with KD. When ignited Burning Oil Slick can do signficant damage. The Ninja's T3 Pet (Oni) can reliably ignite the Oil Slick with it's Rain of Rire, but that's on a long cooldown, so it's very random it will land at the right time. MM will it's own source of Fire or Energy Dmg to reliably light the patch. This is probably the signature core power for /TA. But you'll need significant global Recharge to be able to use it every spawn. Since the proc chances are already fairly low, it might be worth giving up on procs and slotting for Recharge Enhancement. But despite the low proc chances, given the duration you should get at least 2 - 3 chances to proc depending on when the patch is ignited. So not proccing is definitely giving up some damage against large mobs. Procs / Slotting - Proc chances seemed rather low in my tests. From @Bopper's PPM thread it sounds like Oil Slick with 3.5PPM should have around 15% chance to proc, which is not great. But in my few tests seems possibly even worse than that. From reading through other forum threads it seems like the two psuedo pets have separate chances to proc the different procs types. *Edit* [So with a helpful clarification and correction from Bopper] It seems that procs from TAoe only proc when the patch is ignite. But procs from Def Debuff and Slow should fire in both Psuedo pets, making them obvious better proc choice. Overall, I was not impressed by the proc results I got, but I probably need more testing before a final decision. If slotting for procs it seems that Slow and Def Debuff procs should have priority and TAoe procs only slotted if excess slots were available. EMP Arrow Power - Looks like a ranged, but otherwise much worse version of /Rad's EMP Pulse. 300s Rech means it won't be up enough to use as part of your rinse-repeated fight strategy. The MM massive 29 Endurance version will make the -1000% Recovery even more painful to work though. Would be nice to have against robots and machines, but I'm thinking overall very situational and skippable. *Edit* it does have a -1000% Regen, but at only a 15s duration not sure how valuable that will be. Procs / Slotting - Could certain be procced out at 90% chance, even when slotted way over 100% Recharge Enhancement. But at 300s base cooldown, you just won't be able to use this very often and when you do you'd have to be prepared for the -Recovery debuff. I'm going to be running Manuevers, Tough, Weave, Epic Shield, and maybe Assault and/or Tactics. That will be a lot of toggles to survive through the -Recovery... Overall Level 50 Solo Strategy Working in Mid's it became apparent that without any Def or Res buff from the 2ndary, I simply wouldn't be able to hit the good soft capped numbers I'm used to without very significantly undermining slotting in other powers. /TA is just not going to make the in your face Tankermind type of MM I usually build towards. Even getting more limited Def numbers gave up enough global recharge that Oil Slick will probably be more like every other spawn. What I end up settling on and what's worked best so far strategy wise was, Building for one sm purple insp away from soft cap of Ranged/Energy/Negative Def, and getting S/L Resistance capped at 75%. This combined with Bodyguard mode, and TA's soft control mitigates most of the damage my MM takes The opening fight strategy is using debuff patches to open and keep enemies in place Then use Provoke to keep the enemies stuck in the patches and attacking my MM at range, while the Ninja pets run into fight at melee. This seems to keep most of the damage off my pets. At this point use Epic aoe Immob as needed to keep enemies in place in the patches If enemies begin to escape patches, then you kite to the side of the patch using Provoke to get them to chase you back into the patch to their doom... I'm having a really tough time settling on Power Pools. I think I simply have to have Manuevers and the Fighting Pool for suvivability. Beyond that Hasten with Global Rech gets Oil Slick cooldown low enough to use every spawn. Medicine would be great for healing away dmg, and topping off pets between mobs. Hover would be very helpful for staying at range against AVs. But I can at most take two of those pools. I'm leaning towards Medicine being the one to give up. It needs 3 powers and even then the animation times of Aid Self and even Aid Other are terrible. Since Aid Other is single target it's much too slow to keep all pets healed in battle. And Aid Self with it's 4.48s animation is even pretty bad for a self-heal. Probably better to accept some pets will die and use Insp combining or Destiny Rebirth for heals. I need to test against some AV fights, as that will be the real struggle.

By the time you get to 50 with the pet Resistance IO's Sonic can get 35% Resistance from three unique pet IOs: 10% Sovereign Right 10% Expedient Reinforcement 15% Superior Mark of Supremacy ------------------------------ 35% Resistance for pets. Sonic Shields fully slotted at lvl 50: 23% Barrier/Haven 17% Sonic Dispersion ------------------------------- 40% Total Resistance for pets/teammates -------------------------------- Together that's 75% Resistance for your pets. If you choose an Alpha that boosts Resistance like Cardiac or Resilient you can increase that further up to another 8.5% for pets, to a total of around 83.5% for pets. That's almost to the 90% hard cap Resistance even without any inherent resistance from the pets themselves. Necro's inherent Resistance is: 25% Smash/Cold/Negative/Toxic/Psionic for Zombies (T1) 26% Cold/Negative/Toxic for Grave Knights and Lich (T2,T3) So they can hit 90% hard cap resistance to those damage types even while leveling before they can slot the Superior ATO's they get access to at level 50. Sonic also has some good -Res and aoe Mezz Protection. Any pets with a heal like Necro, Demons, or even Bots and Mercs fill in for lack of heal in the Sonic set. For the MM themself, I like @Ironscarlet's idea of using the Chill Mastery Epic since Hoarfrost and Frozen Armor give you a self-heal, and Def that Sonic is missing, plus a big max HP buff to get the most out of your resistance. Then you can pick up aoe Regen from Destiny Rebirth and likely have a very sturdy MM build. Also, since Resistance doesn't have a softcap mechanic, I suspect that fully IO'ed teammates are more likely to benefit from Resistance buffs, than they are from Def buffs. Sonic seems undervalued given all it can offer. If I were putting together a MM superteam, I'd definitely want one Sonic.

Due to large model size and all melee attacks, I'm thinking 8 x Beast/TA might be the worst MM team you can make. I suspect that against single targets like an AV or even GM only a fraction of the Beasts would be able to get close enough to attack with the remainder just milling about hopelessly trying to get within range. Should seriously undercut the team DPS. 8x Thugs/TA seem like they would clearly be best all identical /TA MM team. 8x Demons/TA would be interesting because even with the 25s cool down 8x Abyssal Reconstruction Heals going off might actually add up to a significant source of sustain (if slotted for heal it should total about over 2400HP/min in AOE Heal..._) . And not that 8x /TA would need more, but Demons would stack an insane amount of -Res. They would also likely floor -Rech and -movement debuffs. 8x Assault Bot Burn Patches combined with /TA's -Res would be insane damage against multiple targets. Similarly, assuming it stacks all the -500% Regens from their Plasma Blasts would floor AV Regen. 8x Necro might stack enough -Tohit to actually be an effective debuff. 8x Lich could permanently stack 24 Mag aoe Immob and although the cooldowns are too long to be up permanently between the Lich and Soul Extraction pets would stack a decent amount of single target hold (maybe in the Mag12 to Mag16 range) Ninjas - Probably mostly just amusing, but having up to 16x Jounin Caltrops out at a time would be pretty insane. And despite it's 120s cooldown they'd probably sometimes stack enough Confuse from Blinding Powder to Confuse entire mobs, even if only for 22s. But the best stacking Ninja would have going would probably be from Oni's single target Immob and Hold since they both have longer duration than cooldown and the Immob is a mag4. With a single Oni that doesn't do much, but with 8x Oni they be should permanently around stack Mag32 Immob and Mag24 Hold against a single target. With the MM's themselves having /TA's Entangling Arrow for Immob and Ice Arrow for Hold, combined with an Epic Hold, which could all have a chance for hold proc, it should be possible for the team working together to easily perma Hold AVs through their purple triangles. (From some napkin math I'm thinking they could easily stack and maintain well over Mag100 Hold...and even more Immob due to Entangling Arrows long duraction.) Mercs seem to have the least to gain from stacking. Spec Ops mezz or crowd control powers have very long cooldowns and short durations making the stacking not very impactful. And their advantage of being able to slot the Achilles -Res proc, doesn't help on and all Merc teams because the -Achilles proc is flagged not to stack. A single Merc player can reliably maintain the Achilles proc on their own, making the others a wasted slot. Thinking about that I'm wondering if despite Ninja/TA probably being worst solo, on identical 8x team Merc/TA might actually be the worse than Ninja? The only thing Mercs might have going is with the new pet ai you might be able to leverage their long range, but I doubt that would be as good as being able to perma hold an AV with minimal effort. So maybe 8x Beast/TA worst due to game mechanics of model size and only melee attacks. Followed by 8x Mercs/TA since they don't really get any stacking benefits?

Funny thing is an 8 x Thug/TA MM team would actually own. Hell even 2 or 3x should do very well. Stacked Enforcers Leadership would mean pets all at soft capped Def. All that stacked -Res from /TA and things should just melt. Plus Bruisers being the only melee would take most of the aggro making them easy to buff and heal with single target Aid other and Spirit Ward for Absorb.

You have a good point. We're mostly considering self-sufficiency and solo play when we pick /TA as worst. If a well balanced team already had Def, Res and Heals covered, then /TA's couple fast acting debuffs would be a valuable fit on a the game's quick moving steamrolling teams. But by not providing buffs /TA is also not as flexible in forming well balanced teams since the other teammates need to provide all the buffing. Yeah I guess that's another aspect of /TA's shortcomings. Some of the other sets that do provide buffs also have as good or even better debuffing powers. I'm game, as I already committed to rolling whatever is chosen as worst in the poll and it seems like a fun challenge. But wouldn't the shittiest MM team likely just be 8 x /TA MM's? So that our entire team still gets nothing besides debuffs from our 2ndary? 🙂

Haha. Yeah the consensus on this is pretty damning so far. But I will say you can make an already bad situation notably worse by also doubling down by pairing it with an underperforming pets set, that doesn't fill in for any of Trick Arrow's shortcomings. Protector Bots for instance Defensively shield themselves and your MM, filling in for TA's missing Def buff, so you can focus more on filling the other gaps. Bots also fight from range which should further help mitigate damage since it synchronizes better with TA's ability to keep mobs at range with slows and immobilize. Bots also have some built-in resistance and a heal from the Protector bots. And then there are pet sets like Thugs, Demons, and Necro have a 4th power you can slot pet unique into. So you can make TA far worse by pairing it with a pet set that has no buff for your MM itself no heal or resistance a smaller def buff fights from melee where pets will take both ranged and melee damage. and finally that doesn't offer a 4th pet power for extra room to slot all pet uniques while still getting good set bonuses and proc slotting. This makes me wonder excluding TA, what's the next worst combo? And is TA so bad that even the best TA combo like Bots/Thugs/Demons would still be worse than the worst non-TA combo?

Thanks for this. It's exactly this unknown, unexpected way I was missing. Without it I was struggling to articulate my joke attempt without a deep dive into the waters of self-deprecation.....and who knows maybe I could write an interesting newsletter. But what if....Emperor Marcus Cole declared everyone must read my new 1,000 page monthly newsletter before receiving their monthly food ration.

Careful what you wish for. 🙂

Doh. You're right. I'm forgetting about the very forgettable Merc MM attack powers. Rambo it is. Merc/TA is far more thematically congruent that I was imagining.

Heh that's not how I see it. Rambo has guns, bazookas....but a TA MM has....a debuffing bow. Your T3 Commando is more like Rambo and the question as I see it is, 'Why would Rambo be following a squishy bow wielding trick arrow debuffer?' I mean could Rambo trust anyone who doesn't use guns? But maybe sympathy could explain it: Rambo: "Pathetic! This helpless MM doesn't even know how to use guns, they'd be dead without me..." Still seems tough to explain how your MM can then be the strategic battle field leader of Mercs using guns, despite choosing to only use a bow. But it would at least help explain pets ignoring our MM commands: "Bow brain over there thinks we should leave that other spawn of enemies alone, but what they don't understand is I have this here Grenade launcher to provide cover for when I charge them head first..."

Lol. Granted petless is the worst, but purposely omitted from the Poll: Because a petless MM, is like a Cult leader with no cult. But maybe more to the point because it's taking the worst combo thing to a whole other level, as it's basically expanding it into "What would be the worst combo, if you skipped the set defining best powers."

Thematically a terrible combo. It will take a fairly inventive back story to make sense of how your Bow wielding MM is in command of a bunch of Mercenaries with guns and modern warfare gear. Does make me wonder how much of the least played combos comes down to conflicting themes versus poor performance?