Neiska

A crazy thought but... has anyone considered that other people playing things you may not like, powersets you don't like, or sets in ways you don't like is a part of the game?

"My very limited personal experience serves as such evidence as to be irrefutable and undeniable and is thus beyond contest."

I have seen both good and bad KB players. Good ones use it strategically, pushing the big threats off squishies, pushing things into corners, pushing things into aoe and so on. Being able to move an enemy can be a fantastic tool if used right. I think the best use was during a team, it was almost a full wipe, down to just me the Robo MM and the (I think he was a) Defender. The Tank went one way, the squishy DPS went another, both aggroed their own packs and both faceplanted. Then aaalll the mobs from both packs came running right to me and the Defender. I thought I was about to follow shortly after, but the Defender just swooped right beside me and toggled his Repelling Aura on. Stuff was running at us, but it just bounced off. And I was able to heal the ranged attacks that did get through. Honestly it was kind of shooting fish in a barrel for my robos. It took a little bit, but the defender and I took out what splattered our tank and blaster which was a pretty awesome moment. I didn't even know the defender had that, he hadn't used it until that moment. When it was over he just toggled it off and we pressed on. Bad ones just spam it and hit spawns of enemies like a bowling ball, scattering things all over, often away from the Tank/Brute and melee dps, or pushing things out of AoEs and so on, often being as much a hinderance as much as a help. I have been tinkering with a robo/ff build myself. I have only dabbled with one before, never had one at 50 or fully kited out before. It will likely be my next project. Personally when I have knockback powers, I try to have a bit of awareness. Just because I "can" blow a mob across the room doesn't mean I "should," and often enough saving it for a few moments proved to be a very nice counter to something a mob was going to do. Anyway, back to Knockback - like many other tools, it depends on the user. I have seen good and bad tankers. Good and bad Controllers. Good and bad Corruptors and so on. If you are just zooming around blasting things than yea, I can see it upsetting people. But even that style of play has its place, either on speed teams where people just rushing to finish as fast as possible, or an all ranged team which I do see time to time. PS - I do kind of wish we had a reverse knockback powerset or ability, the only one being fold space. But a support or ranged set with some "get over here" abilities might actually be quite awesome to see.

I don't think it really benefits melee over ranged, as they can still benefit from the damage boosts and the tide pool, barrier, etc. Enemies are just automatically slowed when they run in, so you can play it at range if you wanted to. Sometimes if I am just mowing them down, I will Whitecap into the group and the robots will just all follow, and when they snap to defend me when attacked they are already in close range. Thats when I drop tidepool and yada yada. I think it benefits both really. Which is a good thing. Combat options are always nice to have, you can play this one at a distance or close up. The set doesn't really like Group Fly though as all the important powers seem to be ground-focused, which you can't really make use of when flying about.

Fun Fact I just learned about robots myself - Clarion Radial Destiny ALSO boots the protector bot bubbles, for its entire duration. To use it, you just pop Clarion, then click off the buff, and the t2 will bubble you again immediately with the boosted effect. Something around 25% all DEF in total. Which honestly is a fantastic boost for robos with secondaries that don't have +DEF.

Robots/Traps is definitely a big game build, and Marine is certainly a powerhouse. I just made one, but she's only 44 at the moment but man she's defiantly my strongest pre-incarnate MM so far to date. I think a Robot/Marine "might" be able to take down big stuff, but you would have to use personal attacks for -regen. IMO /Marines weakness is lack of any CC or Debuff protection. Top Shelf everything else though. But I have also heard that of all things, /Nature is capable of taking down bit things too. I mean it does have -dam, -res, and -regen in it and certainly has +damage and plenty of sustain. I've never done it with /Nature though, I have only just started playing /Nature myself. So far she's only 30 as a Necro/Nature but so far she's solid. I don't know what /Nature build could, I imagine maybe Robo/Nature as it would have plenty of -regen, damage, and healing? But I read chatter in the Masterminds Discord that Demons/Marine is ridiculous ST damage, it might not even need -regen at all? No idea on that one though, that's just me musing. The only kiss-your-elbow MM build I know for certain can take down the biggest things is robo/traps.

Uh, you are missing some of the Pet Aura IOs there hon, they are in the recharge pet section. (Yes they work on pets!) You can also add some damage procs to your t1 and t3 robo pets, the smashing one. It doesn't look like much but they add up!

Mhm. Recently made my first /Marine, a Robo/Marine. And yea, its stronk. Compared to some secondaries it might be "too" strong honestly. Been chill-mode leveling her, no exp boosters, no power leveling, mostly doing story/contact missions and doing ouros stuff when I hit a dry spell. Need to practice and learn the set and all that. But ya, its... very strong.

Mhm, kind of the same for everyone. I just really like being able to solo +4/8 difficulty once I am all incarnated up at 50. Not all builds can, even then. I am hoping Robots/FF is one of them. I have a few that can but its a bit of a slog because it takes so long to chew down the EBs. But I am tinkering with a demons/marine that looks promising damage-wise.

Not saying the data is wrong but I find it surprising. Energy is middle of the pack? And my Savage Melee is one of my best brutes. One of my best tankers is Fire Melee though. But am surprised to see that Martial Arts and Titan Weapons are on top for brutes. Much as I love the themes of Dark Melee and Spines, seeing them at the bottom makes me a sad Neiners. = (

Beast/Radiation MM? Both pretty low as far as MMs go. I've heard Wind Control is pretty blah too but never played that one.

Oh, well many well built builds can do that. Brutes are likely great for that, Tankers too. You could make almost any of the top performing pairings work. Personally my best pairing was Savage/Bio, but its a bit of a late bloomer.

If by large mobs you mean giant monsters/AVs, only some ATs and powers can, its mostly a case of bringing the right toolkit. You need some form of sustain, debuffs, but most importantly either a lot of damage or a good bit of -regen. AVs and GMs both regenerate a lot. I am not familiar enough with brutes to offer a specific setup, but I imagine Energy Melee might be great at it, its the strong single target set. But keep in mind, the builds that are good at soloing the big targets often arent the best at other things, like speedy/fast teams or AoE stuff. To my mind its a kind of balance. A Robot/Traps MM can solo the big stuff, so can an illusion/radiation Controller, but those aren't really speedy or fast. Fantastic soloers though if you like big game hunting! There really isn't a single AT or power combo that can "do everything." But some come close!

I have a question - How far have you managed to push these? Are they +4/8 soloable and so on? I have one but only got to mid 20s i think, never pushed higher content or tried to solo harder things with /FF setup. Are they viable?

Well ya, I meant new and/or reworked.