Neiska

Honest question, Why increase rewards only by "number" and not "level" of enemies? I mean, lets have a thought experement. For arguements sake, lets say all enemies gave the same amount of inf/exp, regardless if it was -1, +0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, and that only increasing the how many modifer would grant additonal rewards. If that was the case, why would anyone want or even desire to run +4? Personally, I probially wouldn't care to. The difference here, is that "you" can lower your encounter level and spawn amount, and get those rewards. Lowering the rewards for higher difficulty only "punishes" others who do so. So why try to inject and "force" an artifical standard that people already have access to if they wish? Why "browbeat" them into sub-standardization? And why not lift the aggro cap? I mean, if a tanker wants to aggro an entire map playing solo and have that epic 1 man army moment, why shouldn't he? Again, I have no desire to offend or argue, I am genuinely curious as to the logic or context of your statement.

@Sarion Hello OP! I have run both Robots/EA and Demons/EA. Both are capable of max difficulty - +4/8 with solo bosses turned on. Here are what I consider the highlights - Defenses/Resistances - Demons are argueably more durable with the double resist staking, with moderate defense rating. However, I consider this a moot point with /EA due to the fact you can have infinate Endurance on demand, which frees up Barrier for your Destiny Incarnate slot. So if you take Barrier and Support and "juggle" them, I think you will find both Demons and Robots to be very close in terms of survivability, but thats Top Endgame content you are talking about, without taking things like exemplaring down into account. Pet IO muling - Demons have the clear advantage here, with Hell on Earth, allowing more freedom to slot pets as you like. Robots have no such option, and are even further restricted by having to slot KB->KD in certain areas as well, or else you will find enemies getting knocked out of your Assualt robots fire patches which is your main source of AoE. Ranged pets vs Melee pets - This is completely up to personal preferance. However I would like to point out a recent discovery I made. With the change in Pet AI a few patches ago, ranged pets will stay at ranged, they wont "run in". This means if you take Robots (an entirely ranged pet set) and take group fly, you can have your entire team flying overhead. If your enemies don't have any substanacial ranged or -fly powers, you take very little damage. The robots even get little rocket boots and fly around with you. Demons do not have this gameplay option as they will run in and claw. Damage wise - Demons have a definate edge here for single target, but robots have the AoE out of all the MM sets. So thats really a question as to what you perfer. Though Robots do have built in -regen, which is even better if you use a Longbow lore pet as well. Top end - My Demons/EA at top end, was tough enough to farm the moon map AE. Everything (even my hell on earth cinders) were resistance capped. I would more or less run in, pop cage, and get to spamming. The demons aggroed half the map at once, and it would be a long 5 minute fight. More often than not, I would survive, and so would my pets. That's something not even a tanker can boast of, being able to survive fighting 7+ spawns of enemies at a time, as each pet has its own threat table. But its high risk/high reward gameplay, and you couldnt pause even for a moment or it would all come crashing down on you. But just the fact I "could" was pretty awesome. It is possible to solo quite well with Demons/EA, as well as contribute to a team. My Robots/EA at top end, is my new favorite MM setup, namely with group fly. I can Farm on AEs with the highest difficulty, even being able to go AFK while doing so, due to the mentioned Group Fly interaction with the new Pet AI. I simply fly to a group with my robots, throw up cage for chain stacks, status protection, and resistances, and then put +absorb on autocast and the robots do all the work. Against some enemies, I don't even need to heal. I also like interactions with CC powers like Web Grenade, Electric Fences, or even better Bonfire with the Assualt robots fire patches. In the end I perfer my Robots/EA for a few reasons. 1. Varied play styles and power interactions - You can footslog it, you can Tankermind, you can lock things down with CC and outrange them, and lastly you can use group fly for an aireal combat sort of feel. 2. Robot/EA I feel has more interesting combations in combat, such as Bonfire + Assualt robots flame patch. 3. My Robot/EA can afk farm even on the hardest content. So far she is the only one I have made who is able to do so. And I think only a Robot/EA could pull it off, though /ff might be able to as well. 4. I just like Robots better, theme/flavor and all. I hope this helps. Really its up to you, either one is fully capable either solo or for a team on the hardest content. Personally I vote Robotics, but thats just my personal taste. Why not level both of them to 50, to get a good "feel" for them, and pick a "main" one from there? Surely you should lean one direction or another after that? Happy Masterminding!

The money/experience thing I would consider a different matter entirely from game balance, and has been debated, discussed, and argued by much wiser heads than mine. Personally if it was my call, I would - 1. Equalize both money/inf/drops across all activities - farming, story arcs, radio missions, even oro things. 2. Increase rates of rewards with increased difficulty, but with dimishing returns, much like our enhancement system. Sure, you get more money from higher difficulties, but "farming" on the highest difficulty might not be the most expedient or effecient way to gain Inf. That way, its sort of a win-win for everyone. Those that like to push difficult content would see at least "some" bump in rewards, while the farmers would still have their methods that they do now. But regardless, I don't think balancing game difficulty around money/exp rewards is a right call to make either.

Here are my thoughts on it, I think "balance" really depends on where the "finish line" is, in this case, that means game difficulty, as well as what activity you are doing. Personally I consider +2/8 difficulty to be my personal standard. Anything over that I try to view as a sort of hardmode, becuase not all builds/ats/powers can play on the highest difficulty. But also keep in mind activity matters too, such as Radio missions vs story arcs vs AEs, or Single target vs AoE, DPS vs CC, and so on. Balance can change depending on all of these variables. Its this bad? No, I don't believe so. Different levels of activity for different kinds of builds and players is good for everyone. Should we balance the game around IO's? No. I don't think we should assume everyone is building the best of everything down to the decimal point, but nor do I think should we balance things for theme/story/rp builds either. I think we are sitting well for different levels of activity for different kinds of characters and players. There is also what I like to think of as "investment" to consider. This can be investment in time to become a better skilled or knowledgeable player, as well as time invested in such as time spent farming for money, or farming incarnates and buying enchancements. For context, I have several level 50s. Not all of them even have all of their incarnate slots unlocked, and only two of them have their full T4's. The funny thing is that my fully upgraded t4 characters, aren't even my strongest characters, but they are the one's that I enjoy playing the most, and spend the most time on. So for context, some examples - 1. The game is rebalanced for the lower end of builds/skill/IOs. Well, that would make for terribly boring content for anyone who makes a stronger, better, or more expensive build. 2. The game is rebalanced for the higher end of builds/skill/IOs. Well, that would prove to be an unfair obstale for people who enjoy doing things for theme, fun, roleplay, or who are still learning (like myself) or who dont have the free time to invest in becomming better, or the free time to farm 600m inf for each character they want to play at endgame. I would consider both extremes bad for the community. The answer? For me it is the varied difficulty setting, which we already have. I would personally push for even making harder content, but 100% optional content, for those that enjoy it. Just my musings on game balance.

@Hyperstrike As requested, here's my build. I built differently than most, I tend to favor defense over offense in games. But yea, she's quite tough! https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1564&c=718&a=1436&f=HEX&dc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

I cant right this moment, but I can when I get home.

On one of my Crabber alt builds, I went the exact opposite. I capped defenses, and went for as much resistances as I could. Resilient Alpha, the whole 9. I ended up with 45% defenses and 85% res to most damage types. She has pets, but they arent perma (but are close). She still has the suppression/venom grenade/toxic grenade cycle. But she also can do things that some other crabbers cant. She has frenzy. So I can park her in a 4/8 farm with that on autocast, and actually "afk" farm on a crabber, which as far as I know not many other crabbers do. Sure, others will do damage. But I still have my alt crabbermind permapet build I can swap to if I want that. Another one of my builds forgoes pets entirely, because I just wanted to see what was possible. So, I wouldnt say required. But theres nothing wrong with building for durability if you want to go that route. Its really a question of personal taste and what you like and enjoy, which is a question only you can answer. Personally, I love being a supertanky crabber.

Great feedback! As I said it is still a work in progress. I am really loving Bonfire as an Epic pool pick, because it really is fantastic with Assualt Robots fire patches. Plus, its fire and forget which works wonderfully with /EA's active playstyle. The problem with that is, that leaves me with a power left over. Between that and Bonfire, that leaves me 6 slots to play with. (not including the free single slot, 8 in total if you count those.) I already have all the leadership toggles, I don't feel defiblerate or the T9 from /EA is worth getting. So that left me with whats left over from Robotics. I saw pulse rifle and more or less wanted to just check it out. It seem "okay", but nothing worth writing home about. I havent tried Photon Grenade yet, but thats a thought too. If it was possible, id take another buff for my pets, but I don't see anything, and I would rather stick with Blaze Mastery. It's just odd, having a power pick left over, with the 6 slots to play with. Like I said, its a work in progress. Still fiddling with things. And I didn't mean to derail the topic either, was just making mentions to the OP about other things that can be done, particularly with Robotics.

@TheSpiritFox - Well, I put KB->KD's in my pets and dont have an issue, also I dont think bonfire is really sub optimal, at least in practice. On paper it may look so, but I have used mace, mu, and now blaze on my EA, and its still a toss up between mace and blaze for me. Mace mostly for another LotG mule (not that I need one), but the main grab is Web grenade. It ties things up nicely and is pretty good at doing that, but the redraw sucks. Blaze for Bonfire, I like it because its fire and forget. You can drop it and not have to worry about it for 45 seconds, and can keep with your EA rotation without much issue. Plus taking only 1 epic power frees up another power slot, which I took pulse rifle. Mostly to help with single target DPS which is sort of the weak area of Robots/EA. Its still a work in progress, still experimenting with Blaze Mastery currently. Mu is strong, but I dont like how close you have to be, and it also seems to fail quite a lot on bosses or above, which is what I really care about locking down. While I can drop a single Bonfire and see an entire spawn of things bounce like ragdolls, and just melt, including bosses. Each to their own though! But so far I've had best results with Blaze. Not just for the help in tieing things up in the fire patches, but a bit of added DPS as well.

Some other sets, such as Robots, don't have a "mule power" to stick all the Aura IOs into. By putting them all in a power like Hell on Earth, this lets you largely slot your actual pet powers as you like. Far as the pet slotting themselves, thats largely subject to personal preferance. Another example of having a power like Hell on Earth being an advantage versus a set like Robots without one, they have several Knockback powers. So you need to spend more slots with KB -> KD IOs as well, costing even more slots. So Robots have to spend both slots on the Aura IOs as well as KB - > KD, which adds up to quite a few slots Robots are obligated to spend, where a set like Demons does not. Personally, I like slotting for Accuracy (because pets are lower level and tend to miss), as well as damage procs where I can. (It does make a noticeable difference), as well as Soulbound Build Up proc. Additionally, remember that by putting Aura IO's in Hell on Earth, that opens up other things such as putting a Resistance or Defense IO onto a pet, if you are lacking powers that can accept those. So there's a few reasons why many consider having such a "mule power" is a boon. Hope this helps!

Depending on the secondary, I tend to go for more accuracy on pets, due to them being lower level. It really makes a difference once you get into level shifts later on, and not all secondaries need many LotG mules. I think I only have 2, mabye 3 on my demons/thermal, and I definately run all 3 leadership toggles.

Persoanlly I go Mace Mastery, because I take it for Web Grenade. It has a longer range, as well as a wider area of coverage. Plus with 1 or 2 Range IOs, it can go suprisingly far! I am tempted to test Heat Mastery, because I just found out about Bonfire shinagins, which might be even better - Laying Bonfire with KB -> KD IO right in the Assualt Bots fire patches. So things go in, and end up being trapped. It might be more effective at locking things down in the fire patches. And it lasts longer as well, which is a better match for /Electric Affinities fast paced play.

Hello @Warclaw! You posted this in the Tanker forums hon, not the Stalkers. I don't personally have much experience with stalkers. Just so you know though, you linked the wrong thing. People cant see the total values of what you used or which IOs you have slotted. You will want to use the import/export. That's how you copy data for people to see. Here's a pic to help you out - Import from forum post is copy/paste, Export is how you bring builds here. Its more or less a copy/paste tool. And you can use either short or long post, or even a data link. Hope this helps!

Well, each to their own! Personally I always grin when the assualt bots BU procs with the fire patch and stuff just melts. But I do think @TheSpiritFox is right, even with a buffing power, the BU would apply to you, not the recipent of the buff, its an "onuse" effect, not a "ontarget" effect, I guess is the term. That would be like wanting BU on tactics to proc on pets too isn't it, and it doesn't work that way?

@KC4800 - May i ask why the BU on the battle drones, and not the assualt bot? Wouldnt you get more effectiveness from the assualt bot, it being the main source of damage with robos? Just curious, because I always put it on the assualt bot with the flame patches and whatnot.

So, when using daggers, whats the best way to go about it? Just get a stack of them and incorperate them into your attack chain? Never used them before, not a big fan of tempoary powers usually.

Well, I wasn't intending to ask for a build critique, but here is what I'm using. Maybe I'm missing something! https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1556&c=723&a=1446&f=HEX&dc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aroness Albrecht.mxd

@Cripple X Hello OP! Welcome to Masterminding. Robots are my favorite pet set too, so here are a few things I can offer as advice. 1. Don't forget to pick up the Pet Damage and Recharge pet defensive IOs, these give you auras that make your pets tougher. You only need one of each for the defensive auras. 2. An IO of special mention later on after you get the big robot, is Soulbound Allegiance :chance to power up. What this will do is give your assualt bot a chance to do more damage with its attacks. 3. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere yet, but you can use Inspirations on your pets. Its as easy as drag and dropping it on their hitbox. You have to be semi close to the pet, but it will work just fine. So you can use reds, yellows, and whatnot on your pets, even green ones to heal. 4. (much) later on, there are a few key incarnate powers to keep in mind. For Alpha, I believe nearly every MM picks muscleature, becuase its one of the few ways to boost pet damage. For Hyrbrid, you cant go wrong with Support, there is even a path that gives double +hit/damage bonuses for pets. Only MM pets benifit from this, making it more or less a MM only feature. Specific to Robot pets - 1. You will want some sudden acceleration Knockback to Knockdown IOs, as your pets will push things around quite often. Which is bad, because of #2 - 2. As a robot Mastermind, the majority of your damage will come from your Assualt Bot, so stick to him like glue. His main damage is his missles leaving a big patch of fire. If you can force the fights where your robot leaves them, you will do much better. You can stand in it and /provoke, or immobilize. The easiest way for me was using group fly, and shooting straight down, because enemies naturally want to run right under you, which is the perfect place for the fire patches. 3. Your robots are all "ranged", which is one of two sets that are. They will never run into melee, only your assualt bot may move closer to spray the flamethrower attack. This means you can use abilities like Web Grenade or Electric Fences to immobilize them, or you can also take group fly from flight pool, and have a whole team of ranged combatants. (the robots even get little rocketboots.) 4. Robots are a "Defensive" set as well, as your protector bots will "bubble" everything, even you. But don't think this forces you to play a defensive based secondary, I have had quite a bit of results with others. As far as specific paring, well, there are several options. I would ask what you want your "strengths" to be, because thats what you are more or less asking - Forcefield - Ease of play, but can be boring. Time - Overall balanced, but doesn't have anything it does exceptionally well either. Traps - King of solo, but is slow to get there, as well as move your traps in combat And Electric Affinity - Top teir survieability set, for you, your pets, and your team. Downside, not much offense to offer aside from -damage and -regen debuffs. 1. Forcefield - Forcefield is very defensive, but is also very hands off. Some people enjoy that gameplay, others hate it. If you are fine just turning on a few toggles and buffs, and watching your pets do everything, you may enjoy it. So if you like simple, this might suit you. Others find it so simple they are bored by it. 2. Time - Time is a top teir set, with just about everything. Its mobile, offers buffs, healing, a few debuffs. Its just an all around good balanced set. But this also means it doesn't really stand out at doing anything either. The only thing I would say with a robo/time is, its fairly easy to defense cap you and the pets with it. As a set, it is consistant and relialable, but no real "oh wow" features. 3. Traps - Robots/Traps MM is one of the most potient solo builds possible. It can kill GMs/AVs solo, and is very strong. However, it is also not the quickest or moble. Think of it as a "plant the flag" style of play. You drop all your traps in your "kill zone" and make enemies come to you, getting hit by multiple persistant effects, where you stand there and use caltrops or provoke, trying to keep things within your zone of death. Robots/Traps can be an issue on some fast moving teams though, as everyone keeps moving out of your "kill box", and the powers are on long cooldowns. But for solo, it can be quite fun and powerful. 4. Electric Affinity - Personally, I rate this one as the king of MM defensive sets, and despite it being resistance, it pairs very well with robots. You can put down a zone of status immunity which affects your pets, this stops them from being knocked out of range of your buffs. You also have limitless END later, with a very nice heal and +absorb power. It also has -10% and -20% damage debuff which stacks, which makes your already durable setup even more durable. EA has a few downsides though, a few buggy powers such as the T9 power not really affecting pets, and is almost dead last for damage, offering only a group +damage buff. I have also heard of people having good results with Storm, Radiation, and oddly, Nature. I have done many MMs, and my personal favorite is Robot/EA, just because of a few reasons - Different ways to play on one character - Footslog it as normal, Fly and enjoy some aireal combat, or immobilize things and just pewpew it out. My Robot/EA is also my best MM for farming, even on the highest content. But this is all just personal taste. Hope this helps a bit. I am a pet class lover in video games too. Robots are a fantastic choice and go with quite a number of secondaries. Happy Masterminding!

@Rinwen Hi OP, I hope this finds you well. I am no means an expert, as there are people with wiser heads and far more experience and knowledge of all the hidden factors in the game than anything I could claim. I can however, offer my own insight and advice. 1. The biggest advice I can give is - Don't focus on the stats or numbers. Focus on the fun, that's most important. "Any" build/powerset combo can perform well on 2/8 etc. Personally I consider that the end difficulty, with anything beyond that as similar to a new game plus or "hardmode" for those whose favored experience is "redlining" what a build is capable of. (Nothing against those people! I am one of them myself!) Not every build/at/powersets are going to be able to solo 4/8, or solo gms/avs, or be equal on all difficulties on all activites. Which brings me to my next point - 2. This game is largely subjective. What one person consideres "op" another person will not. It largely depends on personal tastes and playstyles, as well as activities invovled. So I would advise taking some of what people say with a grain of salt. Because similar to point #1 even if a at/build has a numerical advantage, like myself you might loathe the gameplay of said character, and if I am not having fun then I dont care how big the numbers are, because there is little point. A personal example of this - One of my characters is a "crabbermind". However, I did not build her in the typical manner. Most people don't realize that a Crabber soldiers resistances can go all the way to 85% all res. I have been on a few teams where I was actually tougher than the brute or tanker, just no aggro tools like taunt. But the flipside of being a "toughy crabbie" is she can actually farm AEs as well, easially in fact. Similar to tankers I can put her on "afk" and just have her autocast Frenzy. She is tough enough not to die, so I can actually farm with her easially. Which is something not many other crabbers can claim. So don't be afraid to experiment with ATs, Powersets, Builds, Incarnates, and Enchancement slotting. You might be pleasently suprised! 3. As per your specific question, are Tankers useless? That really depends on the activity you are referring to. Are you talking about Farming AE's? Radio Missions? Incranate Trials? Soloing? Team Play? Badge Hunting? Completing Accolates? Hunting Giant Monsters/Archvillians? Here are where I personally think tanks shine at 50 - 1. Ease of playing - you can play most tanks and do quite well, even if on a limited budget. They are mostly easy to build, they can perform wonderfully even with plain basic IOs slotted, and are a great "training wheels" character to start for someone new to the game. You really cant go wrong with Tanker, or Brute for that matter. Both are also very forgiving if you make mistakes in builds, slotting, or attack rotations. 2. Farming - Brutes and Tanks are fantastic farmers. Either to help pay for your other characters, or to farm emp merits, or to help level others. Brutes I would say are "faster" farmers, but Tankers are much more chill/relaxed. Plus there are quite a few tankers that are capable of going entirely afk with an aoe power on autocast, and they will still clear maps on the highest difficulty. This means you can farm while doing other activites like homework, taking your fluffy outside, doing dishes, talking to your parents, and so on. For me personally I like having a tanker farmer more than a brute, simply because I don't always have hours to sink into playing, as I am an adult with responsibilities now. But this "afk" mode is a wonderful way to multitask. 3. Leading/leveling - If you are the sort of person who enjoys making friends/helping strangers, a tanker or brute both are fantastic at hosting Radio Mission runs. They can solo it on the hardest difficulty entirely by themselves if need be, which is great if you are trying to help other people or just be social. They are good at other activites, much the same as any AT. But these are where I feel they stand out among the others. So to directly answer your question, are Tankers useless endgame? I would say certainly not, no more than any other AT being "useless". As I said, its entirely subjective. This game has no "trinity" of group dynamic - Tanker, Healer, DPS. You can make literally any group makeup work. You could run a content with nothing but tankers, (such as tanker tuesdays.) But you could also do the same with any other AT. (personally I had a blast with an all stalker team where we would all assinate our targets all at once, and move onto the next. It felt like being on a team of ninjas!) Hope this helps! Best wishes and please stay safe!

No, I dont run out of End. It just seems my damage cant keep up and it just slowly heals. I keep using my same rotation and debuffs, but once the lore pets wear off I can only watch its hitpoints slowly creep back up. It's not an End issue, I am running EM/Bio. I use the -regen powers I have and try to hit as hard as I can, but apparently without longbow lore pet I just dont have enough -regen. I meant to try those daggers out but haven't had a chance to yet, was a busy weekend.

Thank you everyone. Still having problems, I can get the GM I've selected down to about 20% consistently, but then I always run out of steam and it just heals back. But a friend who knows more than I about such things said the GMs in AE are tougher than the garden variety that people speak about, so that might be it. (shrug) Mostly I have been testing about the one you can spawn in AE, the skynet at the end after you hit the glowie. But thank you for the input everyone, it is appreciated.

Hello Tankers, First, Happy Friday! I wanted to make a tanker that is good for AVs and GMs, able to solo them (if thats possible.) I have tried several of the Av/Gm builds and powersets such as a Traps MM or Illusion/Rad controler, but I didn't like them as they felt odd/unwieldly, and not fun to play at all. So I am wondering if its possible to make a tanker capable of soloing AVs and GMs, if it is possible. I have a Radation Melee/Bio tanker, but she couldnt get past its regen/do enough damage. But it couldnt kill me either, so we just sort of had a staredown. Working on an EM/Bio tanker now, but a friend is insisting that Super Strength would be better. Or what other options would be there that might be better? Thanks bunches in advance!

Just voicing my own thoughts on the matter here, but... Honestly, the "gogogogo" mentality, as well as the "lets schneek to the end!" playstyle is not one I particularly enjoy, and is a big turnoff to some group/lfg play. Not everyone has ran the TF before, or the mission we are on. Personally I would rather go 1-2 spawns at a time, than just assume that - 1. Everyone has stealth. 2. Everyone "wants" to gogogo/speedrun it. 3. Everyone has done the TF before and is just on their weekly merit grind. I have had people, zoom past me, run off by themselves, go splat, then rant at me as if it was somehow my fault. When I figure "they are playing how they want, if they pull all those then they must be able to handle it." The live and let live, or play and let play style is more my jam. I don't begruge anyone who is in a rush, I get in a rush too. But usually I at least ask first, or say "hey, can we speedy this one?" before doing so. If they are fine with it, then lets go for it. But if a few people go "I'd rather not", then I dont. Honestly, I think its a breakdown in communication and a difference in playstyles than what is "right vs wrong". To me, there is no "wrong" way to play. If its in the game, then its fair game. That said however, I think its a bit silly to expect everyone to enjoy the precise same way as you do in playing the game. I would like to add that I get it. People are busy these days. I got things to do too, places to be. But I at least speak up first, before rushing ahead. And I certainly dont get on anyone else if the team goes a different direction. And last but not least, if the team is perferring the "gogogogo" play, and I am not, I just say thanks for the group and dip out. I can always find another, or start my own. I would rather look for a group that I enjoyed being with than be in one that I wasn't, and I think that would be fair to say for anyone. Again, I am not saying that anyone is a bad player/playing incorrectly or any such nonsense if they do play that way. If its in the game, its fair to use. Heck I put stealth IOs on my slide power on every AT just in case I do want to sneak time to time. But I suppose it comes down to every players philisophy - do they do their own thing, regardless of the groups dynamic and makeup, or do they leave to find a group more to their liking, do they communicate, or do they just do as they like, other players be darned? Matter of politeness/courtesy I guess, or whatever one wishes to call it. I don't think this is solely a tanker matter either. Just my thoughts on the matter, and best wishes to everyone out there, both non-stealthys/speedsters, or plod-alongs! TLDR - If I want to do something "different", I speak up. If the group is fine with it, then great. If not, I follow the pace of the group if I am enjoying myself, or I find another one if I am not.

Welcome to the Mastermind support group! A few things I would like to add that for me are a class bonus. 1. Variety of playstyles - I would argue that moreso than any other AT, you can do quite a bit with a single Mastermind. You can make one melee focused, ranged, a heavy buffer/supporter, or a heavy debuffer, or even a "tankermind". Some pets are ranged only, and in which case you can do a lot of neat tricks. For example, I have a robot/EA MM who can afk solo AE farming maps on max difficulty. How? Its fairly simple. I took group fly, and all my robots are ranged fighters. The map I select is one with enemies with no -fly or ranged attacks to speak of. So I just hover in the air and let my robots do all the work, while i have my one absorb power on autocast. You can also use things like web grenade or electric fences to trap things and simply "outshoot" them, or you can make a melee heavy build who runs in with the rest of them. You can even make an MM that can do all of these in a single build if you plan ahead. Just bare in mind that your main/secondary power pairing can greatly affect how you play, possibly moreso than other AT's. 2. Durability - For me personally what the class lacks in offence more than makes up defensively. I would rate some MM setps far more durable than Tanker builds. You can have softcap defenses, resistances, absorbs, heals, bodyguard mode, -damage/hit debuffs and more, all in one package. You can even squeze in things like status immunity and -regen for some setups, which makes for an absurdly durable character. I have a few tanks, and I think overall, my MMs are tougher. Not in terms of raw MIDs numbers, but in terms of overall ingame effectiveness. Sure, a tanker may have more resists, but do they have infinate end, self heals, damage sharing with bodyguard mode, and so on? 3. Soloing - I would also rate MMs as the king of solo play. Some builds can solo GMs/AVs, missions, ITFs and more. Many other ATs can do any of these, but few can do "all" of them in a single package. 4. Fun factor - this is really up for personal preferance. Some people love the Mastermind feel/style, some dont. Personally the only downside about MMs for me is low raw damage. But I can live with that, as all their other things more than make up for it. Happy Masterminding!

Thermal - Synergises very nicely with Demons both mechanically and themeatically. It has heals and some very nice debuffs. Nature - Kind of a wonky theme, but it does perform well with Demons. Never played that combo myself, but it looks solid. Dark - Does offer some debuffs and CC that is a big help to Demons, but it is more aggressive in playstyles. Some people like that though! However, if you want to min/max, I would vote Electric, despite its buggyness (such as the T9 not affecting pets.) Here are some of the EA perks - 1. Near infinate END on demand, this frees up your incarnate slot later down the road, without having to slot ageless. On teams you can refill everyones END almost without having to focus on doing so. 2. Top teir defensive/survivability. Not in just terms of + defense, but it also has things like Farday's Cage that makes all your pets immune to status effects, including things like knockback. Which is a big help of keeping things within range of heals and such. It just stacks so many things for overall effect. Even your little Cinders from Hell on Earth get all the absorb shields and things. To put things into perspective, My demons/EA was so tough that I could pull half the moon map in AE at once, and not only would I survive, all my pets would as well (on +4/8 with bosses enabled). The funny thing is, is it could clear the map faster than my brute could. Not because of damage, but because I could engage more enemies at a time, and survive it. Usually a player can only engage 16(?) enemies at a time, and can't hold threat beyond that. However, pets have their own aggro tables, so in theory each pet can "also" have 16 enemies fighting. Normally, this would be a cascading pet death situation. However, my Demons/Ea was tough enough to survive it. So while my brute was clearing 1-2 spawns (16 enemies at a time) faster, my MM was fighting 6-7 spawns (possibly 100+ enemies at a time. 16 x 7 - me, T2 pets, T6 pets, T8 pet) all at once, resulting in an overall faster map clear time. But I'll warn you, its "very" hectic doing that! Like, 10+ minutes of nonstop spamming/clicking/buffing/healing once you start. But it did feel pretty amazing standing atop of the pile once the carnage was done, particularly as an MM. The downside to EA 1. Very busy set. If you are used to FF playstyle where you turn on toggles and just chill, this is the complete opposite. You are always healing, re-applying absorb shield, re-applying the -dam debuff, topping off END, etc. It's fast paced, so be aware of that. 2. Not much CC to speak of. It has that sleep ability, but its nothing to write home about. You are better off using something like web grenade or electric fences from Epic Pools. 3. While I personally rate it among the best defensively, its among the worst offensively. All you have to boost pets is your little +dam ability. Your t9 doesnt affect pets (but its fantastic on players.) The set has nothing to add more "oomph" to your pets, and it focuses entirely on defensive measures - Stacking a 10% + 20% -dam debuff, damage resistance boost, absorb shield, healing, and status effect immunity. Neato ability - 1. One thing I am working on is a flying Mastermind to focus on group fly + fardays cage. (should work best with robos.) In theory, this will let all your ranged pets just fly and outgun enemies, all the while being out of reach for melee abilities, and immune to being knocked out of the sky due to Fardays Cage. Any ranged attacks they do have, should be simple to absorb and outheal. I don't think this would work for demons however, as you need ranged pets to make it work. I only mention it out of a sake of completeness. Overall Demons is a solid pet set that you could "make it work" with any secondary really. But I think Thermal, Dark, Nature, or Time would all be excellent, with EA being overall best! But thats just my personal preferance! You may not like being all out defense minded. Hope this helps!