Neiska

Mhm, typo, my bads. Still, main point was its a late bloomer, and doesn't sidekick down very well, that's a turnoff to some people so its worth mentioning.

Hello @malleable1, I run a box team of MM's too, so hopefully I can help. First off, far as pets go, Robots are the best AOE, followed by Demons, and then Thugs. But the Thugs and Demons have much stronger single target damage than the Robots, plus the Robots are late bloomers. But this isn't necessarily an ill thing either, as 80% of your damage will be from your assault robot, and it will be your level, instead of at a lower level like Thugs would be. I run /Electrical as a main, /time and /kin as a support. One thing to keep in mind when boxing is "ease of play", which can make some powersets like FF more attractive, as well as autocast powers and the like. For example, I don't even use haste on my 3 robot MMs, my /EA has her +absorb on autocast, just so I don't have to worry about it, /time has her heal, and /kin has fulcrum shift. I chose these sets for the following reasons - /Electrcial - because its my overall favorite powerset. It gives absorb, heal, resistances and status immunity to you and pets, endless endurance, two -damage debuffs and a damage buff. One hidden perk about electrical that some may not realize is your Destiny Incarnate slot. If you are playing /Electrical, you certainly dont need ageless becuase you have Endurance on Demand, and you don't need Clariton either because you have Faraday Cage, which means you are free to take Barrier for even tougher pets. /Time - I chose time because it is easy to softcap defenses with it, especially with robots. That, and I already had a robo/time MM before I decided to try boxing MMs. But time gives a nice heal, and Chrono is a fantastic emergency button. It has a toggle debuff, as well as an AoE Debuff as well. It's just an overall balanced set and easy to play. /Kin - The most recent addition to the MM team, she is there almost strictly for more robots, and for a huge damage boost to everything. She keeps everyones pets at damage cap, even everyone's lore pets, which makes them particularly deadly. Couple this with Robots already heavy -regen boost, this makes killing AVs and Giant Monsters pretty simple. A few things worthy of mention - Bonfire - I cant stress how good this is if you play Robots. You can stack it with your assualt patches, and stand in it, forcing enemies to fight you in all of your AoE. Fold Space - A rather new tool I have been experimenting with, it is rather fun to use as an aoe "come here" ability. I also enjoy using it with Group fly to "yoink" things up to me and then let them all "drop" right into my multiple stacks of AoE damage. Group Fly - This is unbelievably good for Robots now. Robots are all ranged pets, and with the recent AI update, they dont fly down to engage into melee either. So you and your entire team can hover high up and simply rain fire down. And for a lot of enemies, there's nothing they can do about it. The few ranged damage powers they do have, is easially handled by protector bots and autocast heals. So unless your enemy has -fly abilities (which most do not), they are more or less completely boned. On some maps, if the ceiling is high enough I can go completely AFK on my Robot MMs, even on highest difficulty. I have had fantastic results with my Robot MMs. I plan on sitting down and trying 3 Demon MMs as well. But nothing says you cant run a mix of pet types either, or even 1 of each - Robots, Demons, Thugs. TLDR - Long-term, Robots are definitely highest AOE damage, downside is they are late bloomers. Up to high 30s-low 40s, I think Demons do more AoE, but as soon as you get Assualt Bot's missle rack at level 32, it pulls way way ahead. Hope this helps! Happy Masterminding!

Lately, I have been experimenting with something unconventional - masterminds. I made a 3 box team of masterminds - robo/EA, robo/time, and robo/kin. Essentially I load in, put the /time and /kin with toggles and autocast powers on follow with the EA, which I pilot. Then I run to the middle of the moon map, trying to aggro as many monsters as possible. This is usually between 6-8 groups. Then I tell all pets on all 3 MMs to follow until we are in a nice tight ball, and stack 2 bonfires with 3 assault bot fire patches. Things inside just melt. Not just bosses, but Elite bosses as well, and this is on +4/8 difficulty. During the initial clearing of the first 6-8 spawns, I usually get another 1 or 2 that wonder in. By the time all of those are finished, there are usually only 1-3 straggler groups left on the map that I have to chase down to clear. Total clear time? Roughly 4-5 minutes. 3 minutes, if I use all 3 lore pets. (all 3 use longbow.) I can clear all 5 moon maps in under 25 minutes. The /Electric gives +absorb, +resists, status immunity like knockback to me and pets, and endless END without using ageless. The /Time makes it easy to softcap everything's defense, plus another heal, debuff toggle, and AoE debuff. The /Kin is mainly there for even more pets, and to keep everything damage capped at 300%, even the lore pets. Together, it is pretty easy to manage, and pretty powerful. And it is surprisingly fast for farming. I ran 2 of them against the time my 2 brutes took, and the MMs were faster. It isn't a "damage per target", the brutes easily win that, its the "how many monsters can I fight at once". While the brute is fighting 12 or so mobs at a time, I am fighting 80+ at a time. So if you consider net damage vs map in total, my MM wins. I am not claiming MMs are better farmers than brutes by any means, only that it is something new, and people seem generally amazed to see it in action. I only claim that I personally really enjoy boxing MMs, as its a "my army vs yours" feeling to it, and where else can you fight so many at a time? It turns a normally boring farming activity into something on edge and exciting, and very very profitable. I plan on continuing more MM tests, Demons are next, then depending on that I might look at Thugs. But if people are looking for something new to try, give 2 boxing MMs a try. It isn't very difficult (at least for me), and its surprisingly quite good. At least with the robots, because you can stack everything up in a "Deathball" where everything just burns to cinders. Feel free to ask any questions, many I have helped have seemed generally excited to see my Robo army in action. Best wishes!

My thoughts - Peacebringer - I have never tried, so I have to bow out of this one. Warshade - I struggled some as a warshade. It is a very stance-based AT. It can do many things which is nice, but I would rate it as near the bottom of any role you assume. But still having such fluid options can keep a character from being boring. But I have never seen a Warshade that was "above and beyond" or impressive. Widow's - My widow was alright. She had pretty good dps and team buffs but was squishy no matter how durable I tried to make her. I compensated by using the old Rune of Protection because the way Widows resistances work - at full hitpoints you have low resists, and low to medium hitpoints you have higher resists. All well on paper. What can end up happening though is a large alpha hit can 1 shot you, due to low hitpoints and low resists. And even if you are at lower hitpoints and have higher resists, you can still get 1 shot by a hard alpha hit, because, well, you are low hitpoints. But Claws was pretty good single target DPS, and Psi Wail/Aura of confuse are quite good, and the team buffs are just the icing on the cake. I disliked having to rely on "iffy" survivability though, and it was aggravating to no end to having to deal with nonstop runners and no real tools to help prevent it. Crabber - While I adore the playstyle and "feel" of this AT, sadly I have more or less shelved my crabber though, due to trying to do anything on 4/8 to be quite a slog. They are great for team support, but for solo it can be a bit grueling. They have a very good AOE chain and debuffs, but their damage is pretty iffy, despite having a high pylon ranking due to them and their pets all piling on. Their pets are too squishy for higher difficulty though, and without barrier they can and will die. And if you take barrier, you wont have ageless or other things. And unlike Masterminds, Crabbers have no way to heal or support their pets aside from toggles, and unlike Controllers their pets aren't immortal either. Which makes their pets largely disposable dots with legs at best, instead of actual "pets." Again, they look good on paper, but they can be lackluster solo or later on. Personally if you don't mind soloing on 2/8 or 3/8 difficulty they can be fantastic, but if you like to play on 4/8 then you will have problems if you solo crabby. I do love its playstyle though, it does feel like you are playing a piece of mobile artillery, and you can have an endless AOE attack chain which is quite lovely. So while great on teams, the class lacks oomph for solo play. Honestly I wish they would turn their terrible T9 into even something like a taunt aura, to take advantage of their tankiness and help the pets actually last long enough to be useable on higher content without barrier. Bane - I have never played one, but I have teamed with some. More or less it looks like a mace stalker with buffs added on. But I don't really have any experience to comment on them. One thing about crabbers, they can be "quite" tough. Their resistance cap is 85%, higher than brutes. Not many people build them this way though, most crabber builds I have seen stop around 60% or so resistance. Which is a shame, if the AT had a taunt ability they could function just fine as another tank option. My two cents on VEATS.

Hello staff! A few of us were wondering if there is any chance of an updated 2021 list of AT stats and such? Thanks!

Hello, First off I am sorry if this isn't the right procedure or method on how to do this. But I am hoping to find a good basebuilder to help me build a private base/lair, and am willing to pay infamy for the help. I have no idea if people still do this, or how much the cost might be. But I have saved up 2 billion infamy for the project. If anyone is interested please contact me here! Thanks in advance!

Personally I dislike it when people get (achem) passionate about politics, or real world social events. Most of the time, its argumentative or accusing. No matter what stance or viewpoint I generally dislike being subjected to such things in my hobbies. I get bombarded with it nonstop in everyday life, I don't want or need that in my escapism.

Robo/Electric MM, with Fold Space, Group Fly, Bonfire. Love using group fly and dropping enemies into my stacked bonfires and assualt robots fire patches.

I think there is a lot of space in this topic for personal preferences, which is not a bad thing. But this can be broken down into several sub-points - 1. What difficulty are you playing on? This matters for enemies effective level (and required rolls) vs yours. 2. What activity are you doing? Are you playing spawn by spawn story mode, exploring the open world, or running into the midst of 15+ swarms of enemies? 3. Which AT are you playing? Some ATs/Styles are encouraged to defense softcap, others are more encouraged for the "you die first" mindset, while others are "lol whats damage" CC specialists, and still others are "get them my minions!". AT matters quite a bit as far as what is usually encouraged buildwise. 4. With which AT, which powersets are you using? Some sets have so much regen/recovery/absorb/resistance/other forms of mitigation, they could have 10% base and still be just fine. 5. Are you a theme/roleplay focused player, or do you min/max and try to redline your character with a dose of Superdyne with a burst of Aim/Buildup/Burnout for maximum carnage? 6. Perhaps most importantly of all, is the question - What are your personal tastes? Do you like being immortal? Or is "just enough" well, enough? Or do you focus on offense, and scrap as much survivability as you can manage? Or do you try to avoid the entirety of the equation with an "outside the box" thinking for a build? An example would be a friend of mine who plays energy blast/regen sentinel. Basically they focus on keeping things at a distance or on their rumps, where his heavy healing is plenty for what damage he does end up taking. None of these are wrong or incorrect. I would argue that the majority of the game, capping defenses/resistances isn't even needed, but some activities certainly require such. Personally, I tend to think defensive minded, and favor Masterminds and Tanks. So my characters tend to be on the more durable side of things. Heck, I have messed about in mids just to see how far past the softcap one can go, just to do it. So each to their own, as long as you personally are enjoying the game, and enjoy your character, then I say the rest is just garnish. In a game like CoH, only you can "grade" your character/theme/build/goals. Best wishes

Thank you for the replies, She said she liked it because it wasn't a braindead set, you had to think. I guess it flows too well for her now? (thats just a guess on my part.)

@5099y_74c05 - Sorry if i am late to the MM point, but I think you may have forgotten to mention something. MMs shine in one particular instance where no other AT's can, where aggro is concerned - the number of targets you can engage at once. IIRC, the "aggro cap" for tankers is 16, and everyone else its 12 (feel free to correct me if I am wrong here), but the fine print says that both pets and rechargeable pets have their own aggro tables. This means that the MM can aggro far, far more than either the tanker or brute is capable of. I do it routinely on my MM all the time. So Everyone else (without pets) - 12 Tankers - 16 Ats with rechargeable pets - varies by # of pets Masterminds - 12 (you) + 36 (3 t1 pets) + 24 (2 t2 pets) + 12 (t3 pet) = 84 possible targets engaged at a time, in total. This is several times more than even a tanker is capable of. Now, with available space, distance between spawns, and other such things this makes such a lofty number unreachable in nearly every map. But I quite regularly fight 6-8 groups at a time with my MM just fine. I would argue in fact its more beneficial to fight in this manner, at least with my setup. As it takes me roughly the same amount of time to kill 16 mobs, as it does 40. so its just more efficient to fight "en masse". As far as I can tell, not many other people play their masterminds in this way, but it is certainly possible. The amusing thing though? I farm far faster with two masterminds, than i do with two brutes. But no one in their right mind is going to argue that the mastermind is the OP farming class, and yet I can clear the moon map under 5 minutes with my MM team, simply by running to the middle and engaging as many targets as possible at a time, and then picking off the stragglers when the big battle is done. So with all this in mind, when it comes to how "much" an AT can handle, I would argue that the MM is more than the brute and tanker are capable of, simply due to the MM effectively bypassing the target limit.

Redside is Best Side! We have Cookies, Taco Tuesdays, No Pants Fridays, and better Dental Coverage!

Hello scrappers, and I am asking for a friend. She is having difficulties with her main, a titan/bio scrapper. Ever since the TW change, she more or less hates it. We used to go on missions and things often, but now she says playing it is depressing. So I wanted to ask, what are the other top performers now? I have done some testing, mostly with energy melee and katana, but what would be the best options? She said she liked the "flow" and having to think of the old TW, and wasn't looking for a braindead primary set. (her words, not mine) So any recommendations or suggestions? I have only played one scrapper, so I have little experience with them. So what are the current top performers you scrapper experts would recommend she looked into? Thanks bunches in advance.

Credit where credit is due dear.

@Wavicle @arcane - much more helpful answers, thank you. Will pass those on. A few of them got pretty depressed at the rumors so just wanted something positive to pass on.

@Wavicle - First, i wasn't asking for myself. I don't even take RoP anymore, and I haven't in a year. But there has been discussions ingame that more or less is a "now what?" among the DPS centered folks, and I haven't seen any "well there is X, Y, or Z" at all. Which was my entire point in my post, was "well, what options do they have now?" because there doesn't seem to be many alternatives. I don't play squishes though, so I am uncertian what to tell them.

Thank you for the non-answer. I will be sure to pass that on to the 5 players in my SG who are shelving their squishies in light of this RoP change.

I have tried provoke on a robot/ea, robot/time, robot/traps, and a few demons. Most of the time, I really dont think I can justify the pool slot. It can miss, has a low target cap, and doesn't last overly long. And its the weakest taunt (i believe), which makes it easially over ridden by pretty much anything that wants to. Which leads to the following - When solo, there really isn't much need for taunt, as I can simply stand where I want them to engage me, and force them to come to me. Long ago I gotten in the habit of standing in my own robots fire patches, which worked far better than anytime i tried provoke. When on teams, even with provoke I rarely kept attention for any amount of time, and I certainly didn't outaggro tankers, brutes, scrappers, stalkers, blasters, corruptors, widows, warshades, peacebringers, etc. About the only one I could out aggro was the defender. Which makes me question the point of it. I have had much better results with group fly as well as fold space, and am currently working on theorycrafting for experimental pool, namely for that vial power which i heard is fantastic for proc-slotting. Just my experience with provoke on many MMs. Yours might certainly be different.

So what are the fragile builds supposed to do now, lacking RoP? Even if you slot for it, if you want to be semi durable on say, a corruptor, you are more or less forced into /time now, unless I am missing something? Or do they not want "squishes" soloing on hardest difficulty? I also wish to add I tend to favor tankers and masterminds, I have shelved my blasters, corruptors and even my widow when they all used the old RoP. With the new one, I shudder to think what it might be like soloing as a blaster now. I don't see many of them capable of the highest difficulty rating until near endgame levels and slotting now. And even then, I question if many of them would be able to. I am not doomsaying, far from it. I am more or less curious as to what the alternative will be for such builds now.

With respect to everyone in the thread, I would like to point something out. I disagree with the notion of "team stealing", simply because the star-passer, makes a choice. It's their decision, to pass the star to whomever. No coercion or intimidation was involved. They can pass it to a 50, just as well pass it to a level 15, and it would still be the same tool being used. About people "requesting" the star. Well, some people ask in different ways. Some might get aggressive or insistent, or even outright demand it. Even in such cases, I do not consider it "team stealing" as OP insinuated. There is additional pressure certainly, but the current star holder has to select the option to pass the star, to whomever they choose. They are using the tool, as it was designed. No more, no less. The only way I would agree that it was "team stealing", is if the person requesting the star didn't get it, and then talked everyone else into quitting the team, and forming a new one, omitting the previous star holder. To me, that would be a form of team stealing. Which I have never seen or experienced. (I hasten to add I am not claiming it never happens, only I have never experienced such a thing.) People certainly free to come and go as they please, for whatever reason or urge compels them to do so. I do have to pause and self reflect here though, and ask isn't life rather short for a thing such as this to be a heated debate? We all have access to the same tools, regardless of playstyle and activities. I consider this a non-issue. Surly I am not the only one to view it as such? Best wishes

Still sort of bummed at the RoP ongoing tweaks and changes. Some people (corruptors and blasters mostly) used RoP combined with Barrier to survive. Even at max recharge, there was still a 30(ish) second gap in protection IIRC, but now it will be even wider. Personally my favorite use for it was on my Widow to help absorb alpha strikes when my defenses weren't ready. I am curious as to what the new solo blaster/corruptor builds will be, since RoP/Barrier juggling won't be sufficient anymore. And I have yet to see any ideas or suggestions put forward in that regard. TLDR - The squishes who used to rely on ROP still got a whole lot squishier.

A few thoughts - 1. Different people will enjoy different activities. I would hope people agree this is by design in a game where you can pretty much play anything, limited only by your imagination. Some people like to quietly solo. Some people like to farm. Some people like to lead a team of heroes against global threats. Some people like to play the market/auction house. Some people like exploring. Some people like base building. Some people like hanging out and roleplaying with their friends. Some people host costume contests, dance parties, games of chance, or trivia. I have even come across a blackjack game in progress. None of these things are wrong. I would argue to be expected. 2. With regards to teaming itself, well, I do lead teams. I regularly offer spots when I am farming. Not everyone likes farming. That is fine, I have no argument against that. And they are certainly free not to join my group as well. But this has lead to some interesting conversations as well as making many friends, simply because I farm with Masterminds, and have become quite good at it. Which seems to be a somewhat rare thing to see, which leads to questions and discussions on the how's and details. And as far as I can tell, people are genuinely excited to see it. What I do not do, is I do not lead teams on random missions. For a variety of reasons. I largely dislike the "gogogogo" playstyle that all too often pops up among a random group of strangers. I may join a team that includes friends, because our playstyles and personalities mesh well. But the random PIs or ITFs where it is gogogogo I do not find particularly enjoyable. Even if no one dies, and the mission goes off flawlessly, I dislike being encouraged to run about like a headless chicken. I would much rather do my own thing and get more infamy, more drops, more experience, then be a part of such things. I do however, join teams where I don't lead, largely as a support role. I don't focus on the damage or killing enemies, I focus on everyone's health, endurance, so on, particularly with low levels involved, as my setup can manage all of that for the entire team. 3. On the "stealing the star" topic, I would argue that would depend entirely on who is giving it. If the lead star leaves the group, they can pass to whomever they wish. Or, if they just leave, then whomever gets the star gets it. And it is up to the remaining TEAM to decide whom should get the star, to my mind. And one person on the team stating "they stole the star" does not make it so, if the rest of the team doesn't feel the same fashion. And in my experience, for the most part as long as missions keep succeeding, most people don't care who has the star. Indeed, some don't even want it or be responsible for selecting the next mission and whatnot. I would like to close remarking on the irony in simultaneously presenting a case of "we need more random team leaders" and within the same paragraph, go on to say "stop stealing the leadership star" which to my mind, is a self defeating argument. Just my thoughts on it. Best wishes to everyone, regardless of favored activity. Star or no star.

For me, its my Robots/Electric. Standalone she's my main character, and can do any content I have yet to try with her from AEs, to PI missions, story arcs, Incarnate content and trials. She brings a ton to the table for any group she joins be it status protection, +absorb, healing, endless endurance, damage buffs and debuffs. And she has enough damage to solo on the hardest difficulty setting as well, which is a big plus for me. But my favorite thing though, is 2 boxing her with my robo/time MM, and taking them on a mission together. The overlapping assualt bot patches x2, plus bonfire, plus the time's zone of slowing and web grenade, its just a giant ball of flaming death. My two MM's together can clear AE maps faster than my two brutes can too. Not because of individual damage output, but of how MMs can more or less bypass the aggro/target cap table. Two brutes fight 2 spawns of 8 mobs each? Well, my two MMs engage 6-8 groups of 8 mobs each. And not only do they kill them all faster than the 2 brutes do, I hardly loose any pets in the process. So it's an overall win/win!

@GuardianSaint - Here was my first attempt at Demons/EA. There are lots of things you could change or swap out, but this one performed wonderfully. I never got around to further improving this, as I made the change from Demons to Robots. But I hope this serves as a starting point! Demons-EA.mxd

@Jacktar - well I am on everlasting if you want to see my robo/ea + robo/time MM team at work, can show you how it looks/plays. Glad to hear you like it though!