Neiska

@Herotu - Hello! Hopefully I can offer some more input! 1. Yes, absolutely put KB -> KD procs in your battle drones and assault bot. The reason being, most of your damage will come from your Assault Bots fire patches, and you don't want things getting knocked out of it! 2. I usually slot 2 "auras" in each of the pets - t1, t2, t3. So they effectively share the load, because bots has no "mule" power. Why spread it out? Because of #3 - 3. Definitely put Build up into either Battle drones or your Big boi! Putting it in your drones will mean more effective "uptime", but putting it in your Assault bot can boost its (and yours) main damage - the fire patches. Both are good, I tend to lean toward Assault Bot, mine always seems to get plenty of uptime on it. 4. Not to be overlooked but you can put explosive strike Lethal procs into your robots to! It does matter! 5. Oh yes, group fly is very, very, nice on Robots. Because they stay ranged! So if your enemy has no ranged powers to speak of, and no -fly abilities, they are more or less completely boned. On one map I can go completely AFK and farm with my robot/ea MM, just with group fly on and my +Absorb on autocast. And this is on max difficulty. I imagine it will be quite similar with a radiation MM! 6. As far as slotting 2 damage procs being a waste, well that really depends on your current totals, as well as what other options there are? But in my book, when in doubt, more chances for +damage is never a bad thing. 7. Don't forget for "outside the box" ways to boost pets further! -res procs, interface incarnate, alpha incarnate, I mean, I keep finding people who never knew you can use inspirations on pets. You just drag and drop it onto their hitbox. Purples, Greens, Reds, Yellows.. So long as your pet isn't "mid action" in an attack, it can and will "use" it and get full benefit! I have never played /rad MMs, but I have several Robot MMs! So I hope this helps!

Well, here is a list of what I can think of off the top of my head, as far as what sources MM's have to boost not pet damage, but "effective damage", to perhaps bypass their damage cap - Enhancements - Fury of the Gladitor - -res proc Annihilation - -res proc Achilies Heel - -res proc Incarnates - Interface Reactive - -res/fire dot proc Interface Degenerative - -hp/toxic dot proc Pets (robots in particular) Explosive Strike - smashing proc Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for buildup Now, the wiki says that the -res can stack up to 5 times, per source. So all your pets with Reactive, will only have 5 stacks of -res at most, from the Interface. What I can't answer though, is if Fury/Annihilation/Achilies behave in the same manner, or if they stack at all either with each other or with Reactive Interface. (that's a question for the theorycrafters, who are far more knowledgeable than my humble self, so apologies for that.) But in theory, you should be able to use Reactive Interface (that pets benefit from and can proc themselves), combined with Explosive Strike + Chance for buildup, on top of where ever you can sneak in Fury/Annihilation/Achilies further -res procs.

Mhm, I did not mean to insinuate that "you" personally were unaware, I try to go into detail for future people who may read this and also may learn something. But yes, hopefully Assault hybrid will be more important for us soon, but perhaps there are ways to boost our "effective" damage, such as more sources of -res procs? Any power pool or epic pool choices that may not boost their "damage", but reduce/debuff? We might make more headway in effectiveness if we started thinking of options for that as well?

Honestly, if the MMs did actual damage relative to others, I would say the MMs would be OP at that point. Largely the only thing holding them back, is their lower damage. But there are ways to compensate - interface onhit powers, I find the -res one works well for pets, with a dot. musculature alpha - does indeed affect pets! some pets can slot damage procs, and it does make a difference. Some pets can benefit from the "build up" Soulbound IO too. I always slot one into my assault bot. Also not everyone is aware, but you can "drag and drop" inspirations onto your pets. Such as +damage and whatnot. Just click and drag it onto their hitbox! So long as they aren't in the middle of an action, they will pop it and benefit from it, just as if you used it yourself. Some sets have +damage buffs, such as Forge from the Thermal Secondary, which I believe is around 30% or so? Not shabby at all for your T3 pet! And the usual stuff like assault toggle, proper Accuracy/damage pet slotting, etc. Also worthy of note - the theory crafters in discord are musing that putting Assualt into the Hybrid Incarnate Slot might be a big deal for MMs soon, with the quickly re-castable pets. Such as popping Assualt, then Repopping pets (who in turn benifit from the assualt buff), and then rebuff them with your usual pet set "upgrades." So while its not "for sure" yet, but it is "possible" that MMs might be getting a sort of back door damage boost soon. I am not involved with this theory crafting personally, but as I understand it, testing and such is still going on. So while you are right that pets have a lower damage cap, if they didn't, honestly MMs would be pushed into OP'ness IMO. They can already be tailor made for what you want to do, and if the damage on "all" of them were raised, that would make the more offensive-minded setups such as /storm even moreso. MMs damage can vary greatly, depending on pet choice and secondary power selection. I am afraid that with your Robots/FF choice, you are likely dead last for damage output, or close to it. Especially when compared to something like a Thugs/Storm build who might do 2 times as much damage as you do. While I certainly will never win any DPS races, I never felt my damage was completely inconsequential either. Have you considered a different secondary? Your choice in secondary's matters greatly for how a MM will play, what it does, how much damage/healing/support it brings, and so on. PS - Edited for clarification

@Jacktar - Apologies for the late reply! Only just now noticed the thread. And I have an unconventional suggestion - A Mastermind. Wait wait wait, hear me out! I'm serious! STOP LAUGHING! FOR REALS! Are you done with the giggles? Okay, here are the important deets - 1.) Awhile back, they changed how pet AI works. Simply said, if the pets have ranged attacks, they will not run into melee. Instead they will hang back, and pew pew away. The main ranged attack sets, are Robots, Mercs, and a few of the Demons. But I strongly consider robots the best overall choice. Anyway, you pair this AI change, with group fly. Poof! Now you have a whole flying Team of hover farmers! So I rolled up a Robot/Time MM, with group fly in mind. Well, it proved SO successful, that I made a Robot/Electric MM as well, who is now the "main" of the team. 2.) Now here is an IMPORTANT note - Threat tables work differently for ATs with pets. Usually, the threat table is limited to 16 for tanks, 12 for everyone else. (I believe?) Well, what isn't written is that each PET can also have 12 mobs. PER PET. So, do the math - 1 (you) + 3 (t1 pets) + 2 (t2 pets) + 1 (t3 pet) = 7. But I run two MMs! so that's 14. 14 "threat tables", which means - 14 threat tables x 12 mobs per = a grand total of 168 mobs at once! (in theory.) 8 mobs per spawn. So in theory, two MMs could engage up to 21 spawns of 8 mobs EACH. (assuming each pet and MM has 12 mobs on them apiece.) Now in practice, it doesn't work out this way, due to restricted area and available standing space and distance involved between spawns. But I quite regularly fight between 5 and 8 spawns with my MM team on the maps mentioned below. In fact when on the Moon AE map, I pretty much fight half the map at once, the wandering spawns aggro themselves, and at the end of it I have only 1 or 2 straggler groups to mop up before doing the next part. NORMALLY, fighting such a mass of mobs would mean death. But my /electric and /time Robo MMs just compliment each other so well, that they and all of their pets survive just fine. On the hardest difficulty. So not only can they "farm", since they are engaging so many MORE mobs at a time than a brute (their 40+ compared to the brutes 12 or so) they clear maps faster, despite doing less damage individually, they do much more "en masse" vs the map as a whole. Here is how it all comes together- I pilot my /EA, with my /Time on follow. All pets are in bodyguard mode at all times, both with group fly enabled. KEEP your PETS targeted! Super important for +absorb and other powers that require targeting! With my /EA, I focus on +absorb, but when I move from spot to spot, I throw up a cage. I throw on the damage buff if I feel like it, but it largely isn't necessary. She has barrier as well, since ageless and clarion aren't needed with +End and Cage powers. With my /time, I have her on follow mode, and when barrier is down, I click my power boost and my +def to cap "everyone's" defenses. When mobs really bunch themselves up, I throw down a Zone of slow on the patches of fire, just to make sure between that, and web grenade, everything is super slow to escape the wrath of my robots! Even Elite Bosses melt quickly under the giant zone of death I plop down beneath myself. Now, keep in mind, we are all flying. With that, mobs naturally want to run right beneath you, even being so courteous enough to stack and bunch themselves up into a nice big ball! This is where the fun begins... Missile swarm from two assault bots, that stacks great big ole burning patches. My my my.. what a lovely spot for a... Bonfire! (from my /ea.) With a Web Grenade from my /Time! Mwahahah! Burn mobbies! Burn! Yes yes yes! This has proven to be "incredibly" effective. Not only is the team pretty immortal, even on highest difficulty, but on some maps I can fully go AFK and do dishes or do a load of laundry. In case you were wondering, the 2 main maps I run with this setup are - Night at the Movies - Fire, no elite bosses - A nice, big, map with lots and lots of enemies. You have all the space you need to hover. I can even go AFK on this map with my MM team while fighting 4-5 mobs at a time, because they have few ranged attacks to speak of, and zero -fly powers. So my +absorb and +heal on autocast, are plenty enough to deal with whatever damage does come in! So if you want to hover farm with a Mastermind, this map has my vote! Comicon - Fire Moon Map - With this map, its the high risk/high reward. More or less as soon as all pets arrive, I throw up barrier and move to the very center of the map. Throw up Cage, as well as +absorb, and begin killing. You "can" hover on this map, but it has a lower ceiling. But you have to pay attention because its easy to get in over your head and get mobbed. And honestly, it does work better on foot on this map. But you can "hover farm" on it. But I mention it out of a sake for completeness. TLDR - a robot mastermind can hover farm quite well, because most of its damage comes from the assault bot's fire patches. And since you are flying, mobs want to naturally run under you. So they more or less heard themselves into it, with no effort on your part. All that's really required from you, is to make sure you are hovering "over" your assaults fire patches. But you can make it much more complex and effective than that! Hope this helps!

@Saravarng Hello fellow Mastermind! I am sorry to hear you have difficulties with your /FF MM. Personally I think FF is adequate, but far from optimal, because it is a one trick pony. What it does, it does well, but lacks tools or options for other situations. I do want to offer a bit of encouragement though. If you compare MM damage to almost any other AT, well, 9 times out of 10 you might feel lackluster. But that's not what MMs are for. Damage folks are a dime a dozen, from blasters to corruptors to stalkers to brutes and scrappers, I leave damage doing and focusing to others. I take great solace in knowing that I can bring far, far more to the table than mere "damage." My main MM is /Electric so I will focus on that for an example - With /Electric, I can create a zone of status immunity for myself, my pets, and anyone standing in it. It also boosts their resists to ALL by nearly 18%. I can prevent damage taken with a + absorb, and I pack plenty of punch healing as well. I can even give everyone effectively infinite endurance, letting the people who DO specialize in damage, far better than I could ever be capable of, to really "give them both barrels" or "give them a full broadside!" resulting in a much stronger overall effective team. On top of all this, I am durable enough to outlast nearly everything I have come across yet to date. I am even durable enough by myself that even on the hardest content I could take a wrong turn, and know I am in very little danger of dying. I may not kill them fast, or even before the team finds me, but I sure wont die either! But when people ask what do MMs do, I usually reply with "What do you Want it to do?" because aside from Damage, you can personalize and tailor a MMs to do pretty much anything you want it to. Want to be immortal? A MM can do that in spades! Robots or Demons are great picks for that, and Electric, Time, and Traps are all great pairings! And there are others too! Want to tank? Well you can tankermind! In fact in discord there have been blurps of discussions about how best to include the new Fold Space into tankerminding, along with musings of adding experimental pool into the mix, because apparently, you can load the Vial power to be very proc-favored, which would pair VERY nicely with caltrops! Want to solo? MMs are still one of the most solo capable ATs fresh out of the box! They may not be the "fastest", but they really can be made to solo nearly "everything", which is not something even the fastest farmer can boast. Want to farm? They can do that too! In fact, when I 2 box my /electric and my /time, I clear maps far faster than any other farmer I have tried, simply because I can aggro so many MORE mobs at a time, survive them all, and overlap 2 patches of Assault Bot Fire, Bonfire, Web Grenade, and just watch everything just melt. Even Elite Bosses don't last very long. And I am not fighting 2 or even 3 spawns at once, I am fighting 7 or 8 spawns at once. (at least on the moon map.) So in "total", I am doing far, far more damage than a brute is capable of. Not individually mind you, but in total vs the current map. And trust me, seeing 40+ enemies taking a spamming number of contant "10-10-10-10" damage is a very good feeling. Want to be the healer? Well you sure can! Some MM secondary's are fantastic total support packages, which can make even defenders go green at the gills. And even if you are a healer specalist, you can STILL solo, which some defender setups might have difficulties with. Want to Debuff/CC? Well, /Dark will be your best companion in this friend. I have seen some /Dark setups that were so effective in this that our enemies only wish they were dead, but there are other secondary's that are almost just as good too! I have never tried it, but I have heard fantastic things about /poison. Want fun themes or fun activities? MM's got you covered hon! MM's can do all SORTS of fun things that no one else can, from Hunting down and killing every GM/AV as a /traps, to bringing perma-gangwar thugs for an absurd amount of chaos, or even using burnout for x2 gangwar for sheer and utter lunacy that would make even the Joker approve of. One can even specialize as an Aerial combatant with Group Fly and A ranged pet such as Robots or Mercs, firing down at your enemies with impunity. There are so MANY different things you can do, only on an MM, that no other AT can even dream of. Which to me, is the "real" power of the Mastermind. Their varied approach to combat and "how" you want to fight. A blaster is always going to blast. A scrapper is always going to melee. A stalker is always going to stealth. But with a mastermind, you can personalize it, indeed, sometimes within the same build! Letting you fight in different ways even on the SAME character, which is something only the Warshades and Peacebringers can do, but MM's even trump them in this as well, for they can do multiple roles at ONCE. To summarize, I love Masterminds. I even run two of them, and might possibly start running a team of three! They are the Royalty of Support to my mind, and can literally be made to do anything you want them to do, and leave the damage tunnel vision to the other ATs built for that. So please, don't get bummed out when you see that brute run ahead and fight in the swarm. He is doing what he is meant to do!.... But that's "all" he "can" do. While you, my fellow mastermind, "can" be capable of so much much more, with a little planning, forethought, and discussions with your minions. Best wishes!

My thoughts - I didn't even use RoP for status, my main use was using it combined with barrier for durability on a squishy AT, such as blaster or some corruptor setups. If I can't survive basic combat, the last thing I was worried about would be status protection. Before it was 90 seconds uptime, with a 600 second downtime. With enough recharge you could cut that down quite a bit, but even with as much recharge as I could manage I believe there was a 24 second gap where both RoP and Barrier would be down, which basically meant instant death. Now if my math is right, that gap could be as long as 54 seconds, but I have yet to sit down and actually do it ingame to find out. But either way now even if you got every scrap of recharge that was possible to get, RoP's duration/cooldown now isn't enough to rely on to be used as a resistance buff, rather than a "status protection" panic button. I also used it as an additional layer of protection on my Widow, for times when her resistances got overwhelmed. I do understand the change, they wanted it to be more of a panic/emergency button than a buff. My issue is that now its more difficult to make a quasi durable offense AT, at least for people who used Sorcery pool. I also now wonder as to what qualifies as OP, or where is the line drawn. I mean, a fine argument could be made for nerfing CC and Debuff abilities as well as those are OP at endgame. Or fighting pool itself, as more builds take it, than builds that don't, specifically for weave and tough. I mean, if we are going by how many people take X pools as for what is OP or not, then I would take a look at Fighting, Leadership, and Combat Jump pools as nearly every melee and many non-melee builds all take those 3 pools. Now I am not arguing for those pools to get nerfed, I am only using them as an example for context. It just seems like the "finish line" so to speak isn't equal for all builds/playstyles/game mechanics, and that there are far too many "shoe in" powers that aren't mandatory per say, but they might as well be. My two cents for what its worth.

@Majinbewbs - ive heard good things about it, despie necro being a middle teir pet set, it naturally favors being in melee, which is good for /traps. @Trebmasi - hi hi and welcome to masterminding! Your question is largely personal taste, as well as what you want to be able to do. Some pets pair well with some secondary's more than others. But bots/traps is the iconic AV/GM killer, but other options I have heard being good are Demons, Necro, and oddly, Beasts. As I understand it, the general idea is to play a pets/trapper either as a tankermind setup like the bots, or with a pet set that naturally favors being in close range/melee combat, which is Demons, Necro, and Beasts. Demons comes with their own res buffs, so there is that. And have a varied range of damage types which can be nice. Necro has a bit of CC built in, but is largely ST focused as a pet set. But it could be quite good. Beasts I have no personal experience with yet, but my impressions are it favors close range, and comes with its own built in leadership and damage boosts. Hope this helps!

Demons/Thermal is strong - Buffs, some strong ST debuffs, heals, and a very juicy +dam buff on your big boi will be noticeable. My best demons were done with /Electric, /dark, /time though. Time is all around dependable. No real strong or weak points, but what it does it does well. It heals, +def buff, chrono shift makes for an excellent panic button for when things get hot. Electric is top teir durability, particularly with a res pet set like demons. You get status immune for pets, +absorb, heal, a -10% aoe dam and -20% ST dam debuff, which stack. Also endless END if you slot it right. The downside to Electric is it is something of an acquired taste. Some people love it, some people hate it. It is definitely strong, but it is very defense minded. So if you like being immortal with near immortal demons, give Electric a look. Dark has some strong CC and debuffs built in. I am not crazy about the set personally, but it is effective. Just bare in mind it is focused more on not buffing yourself and pets, but weakening enemies. It does have a top shelf heal though, but its the strongest debuff set. Those are my top picks for a Demon MM. If I had to recommend one, I would suggest Electric. If you prefer offense to defense, Time, Thermal, or Dark all might be more to your taste. And if you are new to MMs entirely, I usually recommend Time for its all around ease of use and balance. Hope this helps. Happy Masterminding!

I can see this thread taking a downturn fast.

Thank you everyone for your imput, it is appreciated! Haven't decided yet, still doing theory crafting and such in mids. Am leaning toward Bio or Dark right now.

Hello @Hyperstrike, Thank you! Your build looks great, but one question - your final power slot is empty? Is that open pick, or am i missing something?

Thank you both! But do those things apply to Tanker as well, or are those at specific? Because I am making a Claws Tanker.

Mhm, I read that it was removed on the wiki. But I haven't checked the other ATs and such if they still have similar features or not, or if there are other mechanics/behind the scenes stuff tied into T1 powers, which was my main question. But thanks for the follow up!

Correct me if I am wrong but, isn't there background things tied into many of the AT's and their T1 powers? Not all of which are immediately known or obvious? Here's an example: Bruising for Tankers? Here is a copy/paste form the Homecoming wiki - Bruising Bruising is a damage resistance debuff that was added to the game in Issue 18. On a successful hit, any tier 1 Tanker secondary power set attack will bruise an enemy target. This bruising effect causes a resistible 20% damage resistance debuff which lasts for 10 seconds. Bruising cannot stack, even if there are multiple tankers attacking the same target; thus, it is a good idea for multiple tankers to spread attacks out on the whole spawn. And this is off the top of my head, but if there is this it wouldn't surprise me if there were other similar effects for other ATs? I am no expert but it seems like a lot of work to redo that, to make it a power selection feature, rather than tie it into a T1? Moreover, isn't the game already balanced with this in mind? I am not saying it may/may not change things greatly if it was removed or changed. (But I do leave that up to the number-crunchers like Galaxy Brain to figure out.)

Hello Tankers, I would like to get some imput on my next project, a claws tanker. But I have no idea what armor would pair well with it, as I don't really see any synergies to speak of. And I don't have enough game knowledge yet to know what armor set is good for which activity. My only requirement, is I would very much prefer to have a damage aura. As far as what activities, I would say general purporse. I'll run radios with her, AE missions, ITF's, Trials, etc. Might even try my luck at a GM or two. So with that in mind, I think that leaves - Bio-Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, and (maybe) Radiation Armor. Here are the Armors, as I understand them with their Pro's and Con's. (But please by all means correct me if I am wrong.) 1. Bio - All around strong set, but is a late bloomer. Relies a bit on recharge, but has +absorb, a lot of regen, stances to suit the situation. I think it has a psi hole, but not 100% sure on that. I have run Bio before, and was happy with it. I am not sure how well it would pair with Claws though. 2. Dark - Another strong contender, but I have never had a high level one and the set does seem very toggle heavy, which leaves me worrying about endurance issues with the speed of the Claws powerset. 3. Electric Armor - I have never played Electric Armor, but it does seem to have some END perks which is nice. But you don't see many Electric Tankers, which makes me wonder if there is a reason for that. Is it a buggy set? Large resistance holes? Or is it something else? 4. Fiery Aura - I have a fire brute already, so this is really my last pick. Not particularly crazy about the set, and I doubt claws would add much to it. 5. Radiation Armor - A very solid set, with a cold instead of psi hole. No damage aura though, but does have a debuff aura, and meltdown would help fill the lack of buildup with claws. If the aura was a damage aura, this would be my pick, based on my limited knowledge. So do any of these pair particularly well with Claws than any of the other sets? Or is there another option I haven't listed here? Thanks bunches in advance.

I think it would be fair to say that people will find both good groups and bad, not just in this game but any multiplayer game these days. If it was so terrible, why stay? If what I was experiencing in a team made me self reflect and not enjoy it to this described degree, I would have left. But that's just me.

My two cents for what its worth ~ 1. People are free to play the game as they like within the design, philosophy, and tools provided. Given that everyone has the same access to all of these things, it can be considered generally "fair" with only time invested and personal tastes accounting for differing favored things. 2. That said however, just as you are free to play your way, so are others. Both people are free to leave, as well as free to start their own groups where they can set the difficulty rating, levels required, and so on. For example, someone "could" make a DFB group where level 50 is required. I am in no way saying this is a good idea, only remarking on that it is possible. 3. Different people will enjoy different things. This is normal, I would say to be expected in fact. And I think its something of a fools errand to try to control or micromanage this. 4. With #3 in mind, some people will like challenging themselves. Or it could be as presented, people looking for a carry. What I disagree with is the presentation that assisting and helping others is somehow a bad thing. No one is "making" or "forcing" anyone to do anything, as everyone is free to leave and form their own group for whichever activity they prefer. If the fully geared, incarnated, and leveled folks leave that +4, I suspect the remainder will have difficulty anyway, and will either have to wait and fill the slots, or lower it to something more in line with their current character advancement. 5. Personally, I have no issues against AE. A friend of mine spends a great deal of her time making her own missions, bosses, and things, just as some people do bases. I use AE myself, most often to farm or powerlevel a new at powers combo I am curious about. But I find the insinuations made that people who use AE require handholding to be of somewhat ill taste, and beneath everyone involved. Just my mere humble opinions.

My wishlist - 1. "Posion" based primaries/secondary's. Like Poison Melee, Poison Blast and so on. I think the closest things we have is Spines and Bio Armor, and neither of those really feel all that posion-ish. Spines is okay, but always felt more physical. Not overly fond of the graphics either. I know there are options which is fantastic, but wish there was a min vfx option for them too. 2. A Melee MM secondary - Just for those days when you want to do something different and fight beside your pets, not stand in back and support them, or spam provoke "tankerminding". 3. A kiss elbow honest to goodness "sniper" set. I dont mean a single sniper power, I mean a ranged set made for extreme damage, extreme range. The sniper powers are fun, but nothing really fits the super-sniper feel I once wanted to go for. My best feel was rifle/devices, but that was kind of blah. 4. I wish they would go over all of the VEATS. The Epic ATs don't feel so epic these days. Widows can be pretty good though. I am not expecting an entire redesign or anything, but a few tweaks here or there might be good. The VEATS are the least played ATs after all. 5. A "bodymorph" set, like the characters Warblade or Venom. Again, I think the closest we have to that is Spines. But that doesn't fit the theme to my mind. I mean a set where you grow a weapon from your fist, or turn your arm into a shield, and so on. Think something like powers from the Prototype game! Just me thinking aloud!

Hello @EnjoyTheJourney! I am no expert by any means, but have run demons/ea and love masterminds. Here is what my humble eyes have spotted - 1. You have hover slotted for slow resist. Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Faraday's Cage sort of remedy this? So, its kind of a wasted slot, unless I am missing something? 2. One thing you can do is slot for -end. I have never done it myself, but I have heard good things from others who focused on this effect. One person claimed to keep everything entirely locked down and helpless by keeping them END drained. 3. If you are taking them for fun, nothing wrong with corruption and lash. But every guide from the minmaxers say those are largely bad to use. That are two powers you can put somewhere else, as EA is a very busy set as it is, with lots of clicky-spammy powers going on. Here are some options - 3a. You could swap them for Assault + Vengeance, for more damage and another LoTG mule. You have END to burn running /EA, so I always taken all leadership toggles. 3b. Another option if you wanted something different, would be to take 2 flying powers. Group fly is fairly good now, with no -acc penalty, and it keeps your ranged pets out of harms way quite well. Your tanky melee pet will still run in, but your ranged stuff will stay ranged. Its also good for missions like hami raids if thats something you like to do. 4. Another thought is to take superspeed and burnout. Burnout is very good! I used it with my thugs MM for x2 gangwar. With this, you could use it for x2 Hell on Earth to help boost your normally lowish EA damage. That would be another 38% damage buff on something, like a lore pet, and twice as many cinders running around. I never tried it myself but it might be quite good! 5. Lastly, you may want to try swapping Mu's for another epic pool. I suggest trying out bonfire if you have never tried it. It is like CC but with dots built in. Its fairly strong and on a semifast recast. With my robo MM, the fire patches and bonfire line up perfectly, and dropping bonfire on my big robos patches of fire keeps things from running out. You could do this same sort of tactic, just on whatever you are targeting with your Hell on Earth Power perhaps? Anyway, I don't see any glaring holes, so that is good. Just spit balling a few ideas about options and changes to suggest. Hope it helps! Good luck! Happy Masterminding!

Personally I would rank EA as the tankiest set, if not among all sets, certainly among masterminds. You get a heal, absorb, status immunity to pets, a -10 dam AOE and a -20 dam ST (that stack for -30% on a single target), and more. And it pairs very well with demons. You can res cap every pet you have. By that I don't mean just the MM pets, but also the little cinders as well as lore pets. All my stuff was res capped. They never "died", they would time out and despawn. It was "that" though. However, EA is entirely defensive minded, the only offensive buff it gets is like a 10% damage buff, and thats about it, for your pets anyway, You can also get effectively infinate energy with EA, leaving your destiny incarnate slot open for other things instead of ageless, which is also a nice bonus. But if you don like /ea there are other options - Time is a contender as you mentioned, particularly with mace mastery due to power shift shinanagins. Its got strong healing and you can easially hit the defense cap, but the /time doesnt really stand out on anything else. It is solid and relialable though, and Shift makes a good emergency button. I had good results with /thermal too. The buffs stack, you get a few good debuffs too, and a good heal. I consider it a buff set with perks. But my demons/thermal does okay, even on hardest difficulty. I have heard good things about demons/dark, but I never tried it. Not a fan of the reactionary playstyle of /dark, but it is definitely potent! But for my personal vote, so long as you dont mind being "absurdly" tough, I would +1 to EA. My demons/ea was so tough I could go afk on the highest difficulty maps (+4/8), go make myself a sandwitch, a cup of coco, come back, and still be fine. "Thats" how tough it can be. I have MMs far tougher than any tank or brute I have made, and my demons/ea was my toughest. But my Robot/EA isn't far behind. Hope this helps!

I take group fly with my Robot/EA MM, and its absurdly good. When alone I always have it on, but I turn it off when with others, because they are rarely built for flying combat. For an entire ranged setup, you can nearly go AFK if the mobs dont have any ranged attacks or -fly powers. And all the robots are also ranged, so they never really swoop in to melee. The assault bot flys in close for the flamethrower, but that's it. But yea, for Solo play, on a ranged build, its fantastic.

I would just like to say that I have done this dance before in other games. And while many valid points are made, the one thing I would like to add to the conversation based on experience is this - All too often, when you try to "nerf" the powerbuilds, or things that are only op in certain circumstances or setups, you might also make the weaker setups/builds, weaker. For an example, let us say the "fix" was changing damge procs. Certainly, that puts a dent into some build setups that use them as a sort of "icing on the cake", but what about builds that rely on damage procs to do any meaningful damage, such as some MM, Controller, or Dominator setups. Sure, nerfing the damage procs reduced the effective power of the powerbuild, but I would argue that such a fix impacted the other setups more, the ones who aren't over the top OP, and in fact, weaker. (note I only use this example for context. I am not suggesting this change etc.) So if those in the Theorycrafting would do me a small favor and consider an actual changes effect not just on the "redline" top end 600m inf build, but also the super causal "training wheels" someones-first-50 sort of setup as well. Because some changes might have unforseen consiquences or impacts on those builds/setups/playstyles that many would consider need propping up, not to be made weaker. I've seen it happen before in other games, both small and private ones as well as MMOs. And I do respect all viewpoints here, and the passion. It shows people actualy do care, which is wonderful to see. That said I would urge caution and do the actual math and theory-testing to any change across as many different types/builds/playstyles as possible, before labeling something as a "fix all" to balance issues.

Well, wouldnt it be a simpler thing to run teams with self imposed handicaps? Fewer people? No heals or support? No taunter? And so on?

A lot of this still reads to me as - "I don't like to solo hardest difficulty, so others shouldn't be able to either." or "We need to balance things around X, Y, and Z. But A, B, and C things don't count." As if disregarding a section of the community when making/suggestions could in any way be truly considered "balancing". And regardless of context I will never support policing other peoples gameplay. Personally, its being able to solo hard content, that keeps me and many like me around. Take that away, and I can guarantee you the community will lose people. And I honestly question where this "people soloing hard content are bad" train of thought came from. Is it people not being able to fill teams? People unhappy with some team members they get? (Strong builds going too fast for player#2546), is it some people trying to nerf farming/AEs?(again) From my seat, the same tools and methods are available to everyone equally. I don't think its a good thing to take some of them away. And not everyone is going to like/enjoy playing the game as someone else does. Try to overly moderate/nerf people into a specific play-style will do more harm than good to the community. Just saying. A lot of people enjoy soloing as well as teaming. And if some of these changes come to pass, personally I would feel my desire to play lessen. I wouldn't "team" more, I would contemplate uninstalling, and I am pretty certain I wouldn't be the only one.