Neiska

...But I didn't bash anyone? And even said its fine to use things for inspiration...? Pretty harsh reply to something that was trying to be supportive of originality here.

My two cents - Honestly? One of the amazing things about COH to me is what people create, from the characters, builds, costumes, etc. Way, WAY better than most of what's coming out of Marvel/Hollywood these days if you ask me, most of which isn't an original idea or character in quite some time now. Just over the weekend I saw a character called "Pocket D Janitor" that had me laughing. Poor slob was in a hazmat suit, gas mask, and was muttering something about don't trust any of the spilled liquids. My current project - Litzy, the Inventor. A Robot/FF MM. Pretty much a Cyberpunk Goblin who loves Grape Crush soda. Even made some AI art for her! So ya, don't chase other people's characters. It's fine to use them as inspiration and the like, but you never know what you can make yourself!

@Caios Not all MM setups can perform at +4/8 solo. Some can but do require practice and knowledge. MMs are a support class but are capable of it. Here are a few tips - 1. Try to pick a Primary and Secondary with synergies - Like a pet set with DEF and a DEF secondary, or a RES secondary. Examples - Bots/FF, Bots/Time, Demons/Electric, Demons/Cold, Necro/Dark, Thugs/Time. But even some unexpected combinations can perform quite well, such as Necro/FF, or Robots/Dark. 2. You won't be able to jump right into +4 right at 50. This is because of how level shifts work. MMs benefit from that first alpha level shift more than anyone else. I cannot stress enough how much of a boost it is to you and pets, because pets are below your level to begin with, and on +4 that means your t1 pets are 7 levels below the enemy. 3. Make sure you have all of your pet auras. And pet control is a large part of your pets survivability, as well as yours. Keeping pets within supremacy range keeps them alive via your auras that boost them and keep you alive as well via bodyguard mode. Keeping pets close also prevents aggroing excess groups. Not everyone knows but MM pets have their own threat tables, which means MMs can fight more mobs than anyone else, even if on accident. If you let a pet wander off, you can quickly get in over your head if you aren't paying attention. 4. While not necessary, secondaries with aoe healing are fantastic for pets due to bodyguard interactions. 5. Various tricks - there are various tricks MMs can do. -Power Boost + Farsight from time - pretty much softcaps everyone's DEF, which is fantastic to juggle with something like Barrier. When Barrier wears off, pop Power Boost + Farsight, and when that DEF boost wears off, your Barrier will be ready yo use again. -Burnout + Gangwar/Hell on Earth - While END intensive, this is a MMs version of "burning." It lets you immediately reuse the powers but is fairly harsh on the END. -Even if some pets aren't good for damage, they may have other uses - damage or debuff procs, Knockdown Unique, and so on. -Group Fly - with Robots and Mercs only, you can use Group fly to great advantage. Your pets will stick close, and since they are all ranged, they will pew-pew the enemy. And few enemies have a full attack chain of ranged attacks, and even fewer have -fly. This is not a fix-all however, as some enemy types such as Arachnos has many ranged attacks, and some maps such as Caves have low ceilings. But Group Fly can make some maps and enemy types very easy. This also applies to things like Web Grenade, Tar Pit, or Distortion Field - slows and immobilize can greatly change how well your pets do if they are flying, because that is even "less" attacks that your pets are facing, before anything like DEF or RES even come into play. -Some pet sets such as Necro you can slot unique's into the upgrade powers, and the effects will apply to pets. (But not you if you do this.) You can stack actually good regen on them, which goes a good way to help with some sets that lack healing, such as Cold. -Some secondaries are very good at keeping Incarnate Lore pets alive, and some even benefit from Group Fly as well, such as Longbow. The giant robot is all ranged and is actually one of the better single target lore pets. This is all off the top of my head, but I am sure there are things I am missing. Not all MMs can solo +4/8, so if that is important to you then you may have to build for that specifically. Some MMs certainly can do it, but not all of them will be able to. Lastly, don't forget the Mastermind channel of the Discord. Not all of us agree on different ways of doing things, but if you are having a specific problem there are many vets that can give you some guidance. Hope this helps!

You know what? ......Fair! A Very fair observation! Does dying a little inside or loosing a bit of faith in humanity count?

Hi forums, So, I finally have my own @Snarky pug story to share. I finally decided to do my very first mothership raid. The leader did a good job at organizing and explaining things. Mentioned in League chat there were a few first timers, explained the pylons and bombs, the bowl, to stay with the murderball, etc. And everything went great. I only died once due to the bombs, but that's because I wasn't sure where I was going and was lagging behind the group to follow them. So, I think that's not bad for my first time. Once we got to the bowl, things went smoothly. The War Priests went down fast, and we chipped away at the GM. Things went well until the GM went down. Then suddenly the League chat went from normal Raid chatter and took a wild left and suddenly out of nowhere three people began to rant about Incels, and essentially how they are to blame for all of society's woes. I won't repeat what was said here, but it's no exaggeration to say it read like the worst of Reddit. And their diatribe rant continued during the rest of the mothership raid, for the full 20-25ish minutes of "farming" the spawns, almost constantly. Post after post after post, sounding very much like the worst of a certain stereotype, essentially treating the league chat like their very own personal soapbox to rant to the masses from. For the record, I don't personally care about the opinions of random strangers on the internet. I just don't care to see it in a hobby or entertainment. I always question if they are trolling or seeking a platform simply for attention. If people wish to discuss things, then fine. Discuss it with people who share your views or opinions. But throwing out into a public forum, and then ranting when some disagree, just reeks of baiting or a complex. Anyway, that's my pug story. My first Mothership Raid included some loudly toxic self-proclaimed dictators of morality. I just hope this isn't normal for Raids. If it is my Ignore list will grow larger. Speaking of which - is the ignore tool character or account specific? Not sure on that one. I think to date I have only ignored 2 people a few years ago? Now, by the accumulated power of Greyskull, Friendship, and 1000 crazy cat ladies combined, I summon Snarky! Nosferatu! I choose You! Lets hear what you think! Included is a live pic of Snarky's last PUG.

@Linea Agree with most of your points, respect the ones that are personal like disliking crab legs. About my accuracy comment, if you click the misc buffs tab it will show your total bonuses, such as Tohit, Accuracy, Damage, etc. You have a bit of ToHit but zero accuracy, so yes Global Accuracy. Not a build-breaker, just something I wanted to point out in case you overlooked it. Much as I like the pets, they don't survive well on +4/8 solo. They do okay on teams to lessen the pressure on them, but alone they just aren't durable enough. Personally, I tend to have 2 builds on my crabbers - one for solo and one for teams. Like I said, good build! I just have other things I like too.

@Snarky

Looked at your latest build you posted, and some thoughts. First, you have a PSI hole, but that isn't uncommon for ATs. Not a make or break by any means, just pointing it out. Second, you picked Soldier attacks over Crabber, which is fine. But your damage output is, well, lacking, even for a Crabber. You have - Single Shot, Burst, Heavy Burst, Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade, and Web grenade. None of them hit particularly hard. I know this is a theme build, but I think you may struggle solo with higher difficulties. But it should perform just fine on +2/8. But if that's your goal, you hardly need 55% Melee/Ranged/AoE DEF. I just think you might be putting too much into just DEF, especially with your resists being so-so. While your DEF is impressive, you are giving up quite a bit to get it. If you pushed DEF so hard because you lack DDR, there's always Ageless. Your END looks good, which is always nice to have on a Crabber. I expect you will be popping a blue now and then, but again, not a build-breaker. Oh, and just noticed - you actually don't have the shield wall Unique, so that's an easy 5% all resist. The last thing I noticed, is that you have 27% ToHit, but 0% Accuracy, which might cause some issues vs some enemies. One thing you might try is adding in Bile Spray and Artic Breath from Levithan Pool. They interact wonderfully with Venom Grenade, due to all the -toxic res debuff stacking, which does more damage than indicated in MIDs. I only just started pushing with them and its been fantastic. Overall it looks pretty good! Just a bit too many "eggs in one basket" for my taste. I like to build my crabbys to be tough and durable too, but I also like to include other things like damage, buffs/debuffs, resists, so on. Here's a snip of my latest build if you want to compare - So side by side, You have more DEF than I, but I have DDR to compensate. I am running double assault toggles and have both spiderlings and reinforcements. But my Resists are much higher than yours, and not just during a RoP but constantly. And I should do much better damage, with the Venom Grenade - Arctic Breath - Bile Spray combo. I will likely take out Spirit Shark (at least the slots) and move them elsewhere, as I am not personally impressed by it. It feels clunky, and it takes quite a bit to get the full 5 stacks of Hunger, where one stack of Arcane Power for Arcane Bolt does almost the same damage, and you might get 3 or 4 empowered Arcane Bolts off in the time it takes to get 1 fully charged Spirit Shark off. So, still making fine-tuning adjustments there. But yea! Great Build Linea! You may not kill stuff fast but you are one tough cookie!

Wish Granted. Here is a 100% Authentic picture of @Snarky's Exalibonk.

One thing to keep in mind @Snarky is that like any other activity, different people will have different approaches to hardmodes. Some people will want to complete with the character they enjoy, even if it isn't minmaxed to the umpteenth degree. Others will want the easiest, smoothest ride possible. I was in one pug where one person threw a tantrum when it wasn't a "flawless" run. Different people have different priorities. Personally, I would rather run things with people whom I enjoy playing with, even if its more difficult to complete the activity. We have yet to come across something we haven't completed or finished. Sure, people may die a lot, and we may have to step back and regroup. But honestly, how often does a team fail and everyone quit and leave? I am hard pressed to think of when that has happened to me. I can likely count on one hand how many times that has happened to me in 4 years of HC gameplay. If you aren't a minmaxer, then don't team with minmaxers. I am sure you will find people who don't mind you being a dark/dark tank or something else. Though to be fair here, I have yet to finish a 4 star with my crabber. I've done 2 star stuff, but most pugs who do 4 star want "only the best" ATs and powersets. So perhaps find a group of friends or SG mates who share the same approach to activities?

Average male height in the US is 5 feet 9 inches. The whole "short" topic makes me more concerned that people who are typical or average, are suddenly considered sub-bar or below, despite being average by definition. The sort of thinking that if something isn't exceptional, than it's trivial.

Every Hardmode I have been on included at least 2 cold corruptors to stack debuffs, and half had Ageless for the debuff protection, the other half had Barrier. Both would be juggled. -Tanks varied, but they were either absorb tanks like Rad or Bio, or tanks with inherent -def debuff protection like Shield. - Ice/Ice corruptors were popular. -Someone with Nature affinity for +dam and absorb. The rest varies, but those were the trends. I run with a SG where there's a signup for them. And once the must-haves are filled, there is wiggle room for other things. But it also sort of depends on the difficulty. The harder the content the less wiggle-room there was. My biggest gripe about Hardmode is it kind of screws over a few ATs, like VEATS and HEATS. I don't see many Controllers, Dominators either, or Masterminds. I see a lot of Tankers, Defenders, and Corruptors. Honestly my favorite playstyle is crabber, but I have yet to bring one to any hardmode, 2 star or no. Simply because anything I could do, someone else could do better, and also bring more, be it Debuffs or whatever. And most groups I have been a part of that tried to be "meta" seem to favor high DPS with strong Debuffs as a focus. I am not against there being a "meta", there will always be a "meta." I just wish the "meta" changed from TF to TF, so the same setups aren't the top-dogs for all of them. They all seem to revolve around DPS and -Def protection. I hope the Dev's make TFs that have like, -Resistance as a thing, or -tohit, or other mechanics that aren't similar to the TF hardmodes we already have. Just to mix it up a bit. Maybe have a TF where hard CC is required. Or where its not a question of surviving bursts of damage, but a long duration fight where the waves don't stop and you have to constantly fight on the move, or something. Or maybe HUGE burst damage, where maybe even a team of 2 or 3 healers are needed to heal through it. And so on. This is just my personal experience mind you, I am sure others will vary.

There's an "Add-Infinitum" joke to be made here, but my wit fails me. My ancestors look on in shame. Forgive me.

Thank you for the feedback and input. Was unaware how much they changed soul extraction, may have to see if i can slot it for damage. The rest of it looks great, i just wasnt sure what was worth slotting for damage, and where the strange interaction of both nature and necros healing-proc or effects should go, or even what all applies to pets and so on.

I foresee absolutely no way this could possibly backfire. 🍿

Just so you know, Power Boost from Mace epic pool boosts Farsight significantly. Its actually fairly easy to softcap DEF with a time MM, but especially a Robots/Time MM. FYI and such. So if you have Power Boost you might have even more slots to spare.

Hello Forums, I made a Necro/Nature to play with a friend. I have never had a fully kitted out Necro or Nature before, so both are new to me. And I know slotting for both can be different than usual. This is my first pass, please feel free to correct any incorrect unique/proc slotting. I remember seeing discussions about slotting Necro and Nature here on the forums, but I couldn't find them, so I'm not sure what all Necro pets will/will not benefit from unique-wise from Dark Empowerment and Enchant Undead. Included screenie for convivence. As far as overall slotting goes, I tried to focus on +recharge bonuses to get Overgrowth up as much as possible. It's not perma, but its down to 77s recast. Sorcery pool is mostly for Enflame and RoP. Gloom and Arcane bolt are both obligatory power picks. And all this is without any incarnates, as I have no idea which Alpha and such I should go for as a Necro/Nature MM. I could take Agility for recharge, Muscled for damage, even Spiritual Core with 45% recharge and 33% healing looks good. Input and feedback from someone with experience in these two powersets would be appreciated! Thanks bunches in advance. NecroFlora - Mastermind (Necromancy - Nature Affinity).mbd

MM pets can have the same DEF and Resists as Tankers do, but have far fewer hitpoints and no aggro tools. You "can" tank or swarm with them, but its a lot of work for dubious returns doing something that other ATs can do better and do it far easier. If you try to tank on a MM you have only provoke as an aggro tool, where even a Bio Scrapper will peel enemies off you, much less a brute or tanker, or even a blaster going full burn. And that's not talking about pets and AoE's either, which is the MMs big weakness. But some MMs can be made fantastically durable, equal to many brutes or tankers in terms of what they can endure damage wise. But I wouldn't recommend trying to hold aggro with a MM in a standard group setup no. Your pets simply won't keep the mobs attention. But I wouldn't call MM pets paper thin either. Honestly it really depends on what you are fighting and the difficulty, but I have MMs that can skip through +4/8 with ease, far easier than my Widow or Scrapper.

I started with robots, but I dislike the changes done to them. These days I tend to favor Demons. I am leveling up a Necro/Nature MM now, but its not to farm with, its to play with a friend as well as check out the new Necromancy. But I don't play robots much anymore, because my robot farms actually take measurably longer than they did before. They were 4 or so minutes before, now they are around 7 or 8. I tend to favor Meteor maps for MM farming. But if I want a more relaxed MM farm I do city map too. I did write a guide on MM farming. I am not sure if I "invented" the idea, as I imagine it may have been done on live, well before my time. But when I invite others I'm often told people never seen MMs farm before.

Hello Spock, Here's a breakdown - Necro - is regarded as one of the strongest, if not the strongest. It boasts a lot of -tohit from the pets, who can also heal themselves a bit, they can be loaded with damage procs, and also have a unique advantage over pet sets in that you can equip them with health proc effects. Also your grave knights eventually have a damage aura. And as a neat bonus, your personal attacks can summon bonus specters. The specters don't do much damage by themselves, but are great to tie things up. I am currently leveling a new Necro/Nature MM myself. Demons - Demons advantage is its sort of a "shotgun" style of attacks - lots of different elements, a few different attack types. They have res buffs, one pet has a damage aura, and the other t2 can heal. Its perk is it has a power that can act as a mule for the pet auras. Thugs - thugs can hit hard for a MM. Arsonist and your pocket Bruser in particular. It also has Gangwar, which if you take burnout from speed, you can use "twice." It also has a mule power. The downside to thugs is that the enforcers buff the thug pets... but not you. So you are more or less left to your own defenses. Ninjas - I have heard ninjas are quite offensive, but a bit fragile. I have never leveled one myself but have heard good things. Your personal attacks give your pets a chance to crit. Mercs - Mercs are well balanced. They are an all-ranged pet set, that can get very good resists from serum. And since they are ranged you can abuse group fly to have an all-flying strike team. Flying makes quite a bit of difference in pets surviving, as not many enemies have full ranged attack chains, and even fewer have -fly abilities. Which means fewer attacks are even attempted against your pets to begin with, before all other considerations come into play. This isn't foolproof or a fix-all, it varies from map to map and enemy to enemy. Some enemies like Arachnos have a lot of ranged attacks, and maps with ceilings means you cant hover out of melee range. But it makes a difference in most situations. Secondaries - For raw DPS, storm is the go-to. But it takes a bit of getting used to, and is a bit chaotic. You effectively make AOEs and more quasi pets that do their own attacks. Not many buffs or defenses to speak of specifically. It has a heal, and steamy mist for defense, but thats essentially it. Kinetics is also a good option to boost damage. The issue with Kinetics is that's essentially all it is - speed, recharge, damage, recovery, etc. No defenses, no resists. It does have a heal but that is all. So your pets may hit hard, but won't have much defenses. Pain, Heat, and Nature all have +damage buffs. Though damage is not their specialty. So any of those pet sets mentioned, with any of these, will have damage boosts. An important note though, is even an MM made to focus on Damage, is only sort of middle-ground compared to other ATs. They can put up decent enough numbers, but the problem arises later down the road on higher difficulties, particularly with pets being susceptible to AoE's. But if raw damage output is all you are concerned with, then any of these pets with /Storm or /Kinetics will have good damage, at least for a MM. Hope this helps narrow it down a bit for you. Mastermind well and prosper!

Chip can refer to electrical or stone, so electrical or stone armor can fit. But it can also be manipulation as well, Electrical or Earth manipulation. Shot can be any of the ranged powers - beam rifle, archery, dual pistols, etc. Alternately, you could combine both and make a Seismic Blast based character, as in "shooting stones."

I respectfully disagree. They listened, "to some." And often, those "some" are the same people listened to, on other various changes. I respect your opinion. I just disagree with it.

I agree with the point that critiques and feedback should be clear, and should not only criticize, but also offer possible solutions. I am not against change, I am simply against change for the sake of change, or "favoritism change" - IE the changes that certain (or the same) groups of people want. And I did not insinuate that a change was rushed, or even malicious. I only remarked on my single experience and found it so unprofessional and distasteful that I have yet to partake in another more than 2 years later. If it was up to me, there would be a signup process involved, or some control measure. So the developers would not keep hearing the same opinions from the same people each time there is a beta, but that's just me musing. I don't feel that the dev team is malicious at all, or even the change in question in my example was malicious at all. Only the tone and how the discussion/disagreement about that change itself went, was. Hope that clears things a little.