Decaying Rose

Mercs/Traps is just solid all around. Slow, though. Great for AVs and other set-piece battles. Mercs/TA lets you and the boys stay completely at range while still applying damage and debuffs, making you into excellent back-line fire-support. Commando's Flamethrower, SpecOps' Flashbang, and Medic's grenade all have fire or energy damage, and can light your oil slicks. If you put the Bombardment or Positron's Blast damage procs (fire and energy, respectively) into your M30 grenade (set it to no-redraw at the tailor!) you can light it too. TA's various -damage and -toHit debuffs mesh nicely with Mercs' built-in defenses. Pick up Intuition Radial for the alpha slot and you get bonuses to damage and your debuffs on top of all that. Just watch out for those status effects.

I'll cast a vote for Thugs/Forcefield/Mace Mastery if you're looking to get into "Main Tank" territory, because they can do it. And if you put Soulbound's unique in Bruiser and the Gaussian Build-Up proc in Enforcers, you won't be hurting for damage, either. Granted, not as directly exciting as the other combos mentioned above, but it works, works well, and works well even on SOs. ...although Arsonist scattering things to the four winds could count as exciting, too.

Assault Rifle/Tactical Arrow is, even on SOs, a really good "stand back and hose 'em down" combo. Throw in Hover and make liberal use of Glue Arrow and you've got a shooting gallery. That said.... Build for range! Throw in a couple of pieces of the Bombardment IO set anywhere they'll fit and you'll get a few +5% +range bonuses. If you get the ATOs, split up Blaster's Wrath into a couple of three-piece chunks for more +range bonuses. Take the Intuition Radial Alpha Slot power for +damage, +range, and various debuff effects like slow and -toHit that'll help your arrows. Lastly sprinkle around various whatever/range IO pieces or some regular range IOs until all your cone powers can reach out to 70-80 feet. Then hover waaaaaaay in the back and unload. Also use this macro for Oil Slick Arrow: /macro OSA "powexec_location target oil slick arrow" Now you don't have to fiddle with a location cursor when using it, just target and shoot. You can easily use Flamethrower to ignite the slick, along with placing a strong DoT on everything nearby. If there's any dangerous piece of this combo and +range build, it's that sometimes you can accidentally hit the next spawn down the hall.

I went and tested my "CDF Assassins" (Mercs/Nature) build. Even without taking Serum, they're much improved. There's two main reasons for that. First is the "minor" change from the Page 4 patch, the one that altered their redraw. Before, Mercs would usually redraw their weapons when they switched targets, especially when commanded to. This really bit into their damage. Now they almost never redraw, instead spinning and smoothly laying into the new target without a pause. Second is the changed behavior of Page 5's upgrades--not the defensive stuff, though that's pretty damn sweet, I gotta say. Previously, Tactical Upgrade replaced attacks for the Soldiers. Now it adds. Soldiers in particular benefit, as they go from having three attacks when fully upgraded to six. They fire pretty well non-stop now, going from "eh, it's okay DoTs" to "MOAR DOTS holy crap that's a lotta dots, what'd you do, open a bag-full?" Commando got a little more single-target in the form of a couple of added ST attacks, without losing any of his AoE. Spec-Ops got damage added to Flashbang, plus another ST attack from Equip (bringing them to 4 ST ranged attacks fully upgraded). Medic's still kinda meh, but still useful in his way. If I had a complaint, it's this: Assault Rifle Auto Fire for the Soldiers should be a little wider. How about 10 degrees instead of 5? 15 to match Robot Battle Drones would be nice--it'd certainly round out their AoE a bit better. That said, they are in general much improved. *edit* Having done a respec (which I'll certainly be tweaking later), I've got to say having both Serum and Overgrowth available really improves things. I can either use one to cover the gaps in the other's downtime, or use both together to really crank their damage output. The attacks also make for a fun little game of "who gets a little more damage?" as well as giving me more to do and making it so I don't have to stand around so much. They also make using Bodyguard much more viable.

An alternative take: I don't usually use BG mode myself--that stems from learning the MM trade without it back on Live, not because I'm a masochist. I'll certainly swap to it if the situation warrants it, like when I know ambushes are inbound or there's just huge AoEs flying all over the place. Most of the time I let the pets handle their own targeting, as I tend to run debuff secondaries. That is, I'll give the pets a GOTO order while they're in Aggressive stance, and I'll make sure to move them such that the first thing they're likely to attack is also a good aim-point for their various cone attacks. This frees up a lot of attention for my secondary powers, and it lets me land debuffs/controls right as the pet attacks are going off, which usually serves to break up the alpha nicely. If there's a drawback to doing it like this, it's that I need to remember to collect the pets after a battle. I usually do this by giving them explicit attack orders on the last critter in the group, so that when it dies they automatically revert to Follow status. Or I just give them a Follow order.

If your pets and/or your secondary do a lot of debuff and control, Intuition Radial is a good Alpha slot pick, as the higher tiers enhance debuffs as well as damage. Namely, hold, -tohit, -defense, slow, +range, and +damage. I've found it really useful for my Dark Miasma, Time Manipulation, and Trick Arrow MMs, and it works well for Necromancy and Demons (particularly the Prince). Musculature Core Alpha is, of course, the "go-to" Alpha for MMs, as it'll crank the pet damage up. If you aren't sure of an alpha to take, can't go wrong with Musculature Core. Interface is kind of weird. Mastermind Henchmen, since there are six of them and they all have multiple attacks, tend to apply the various Interface procs like crazy. I usually try to pick an Interface that meshes well with the primary and secondary. Some examples: Ninja/Storm: I went for Diamagnetic Core, as the T3 and T4 Core versions can be made so that every attack has as a 100% chance of applying a -toHit debuff, which can stack up to four times. Sure, I don't get extra damage, but dead ninja do no damage. Mercs/Nature: Degenerative Radial. I wanted to round out their damage type (Mercs do Lethal, so the Toxic was a nice switch-up) and the -MaxHP debuff amps up their DPS. Plus, this one isn't as commonly chosen by most, so it tends to stack well with whatever else Interfaces are getting applied by the team. Necromancy/Dark Miasma: Reactive Radial. The added Fire damage gives these guys something a little more conventional to apply (as Necro/Dark is heavily weighted for 'exotic' damage) and the -res proc stacks nicely with Tar Patch. These guys aren't damage kings, but this really helps their output. Thugs/Force Field: Spectral Core. This gives both an Immobilize proc and a Negative Energy damage proc. While my Thugs/FF has Mace Mastery to apply Web Envelope to keep things in place, having the Immobilize proc means I have to worry about it less, and I can stack Envelope with it on bosses. Negative Energy rounds out their damage type. I went with Core as it has a higher chance of applying the Immobilize proc, which is the main reason I picked this one. Thugs does enough damage (especially if you add in the various Build Up procs right) that the Negative Energy damage proc is really just gravy, even on Force Field. Destiny's a mixed bag. Clarion's a go-to choice because of its status protection, and Barrier's always grand. For my Ninja/Storm, I went Barrier Core--dead Ninja do no damage, and this one provides defense for the full 120s recharge time. Merc/Nature, I went Clarion Radial to give us all status protection and to amp up the +absorb shields in Nature. Thugs/Force Field, I went Rebirth Radial (for the +regen) to have both a panic-button heal and a pre-emptive buff for tough things. Necro/Dark I went Barrier Radial--this was a 'panic button' buy, as Barrier Radial also rezzes teammates, and I mainly use it for those rare times when there's too many things for the pets and I to debuff safely. --- Basically, call up the Incarnate window and right-click on the various powers to see what you get. Mixing and matching the various buffs, debuffs, and other effects so they mesh well with your powers and those of your pets (or fill holes that need filling) is usually the way to go.

Bots/Traps is super thematic, and gets you some toys to mess around with. Note that Bots don't get any AoE damage until L26, when you get Assault Bot and apply the first upgrade to him so he can use Flamethrower and Dual Plasma Blast. This is more than made up for with the L32 upgrade, which gives every bot AoE damage of some kind. With Bots, it's not a bad idea to pick up Pulse Rifle Burst (the second personal attack in the primary) and Photon Grenade (the third personal attack, and AoE) for use while you're leveling up. You might choose to respec out of them later, though once you have influence to throw around the market, you can load both of them up with damage procs to make them quite a bit more powerful. Mercs/Traps is also pretty thematic, but Mercs is the very lowest-end of the MM primaries. There are just a bunch of mechanical oddities that make them sub-par. Mind, they work, but they'll pale in comparison to other MM primaries. Thugs/Traps is, depending on how you build it and how much money you throw at it, either a perfectly great combo on Single Origin enhancements or a god-tier AV-killin' machine when you unload the entire market on it. Hard to go wrong with Thugs, really. Traps, no matter what primary you pair it with, is a real force-multiplier. Its only drawback is that since you have to drop your traps, fast-moving speed-run teams can be hard to work with, as your traps can get left behind. Settle in for a set-piece fight, however...

I took my Grav/Dark troller to Test to try out the new singularity. I like that Grav now has access to a "pull things closer" mechanic. It works well. I don't like that it's attached to an non-command-able pet. It should really be a location drop power of some kind, or attached to some other power, as others have suggested here. Not sure Crushing Field would be a good fit, as that it would make it quite an overpowered AoE immob. I'm 50/50 on attaching the effect to Dimension Shift. It would make DimShift quite a bit more powerful in that it could do an even better job of halting nasty things, but I think it would also make the power even more reviled than it is. Attaching it to Wormhole would be interesting--have it land on the selected exit point. Things spit out by the Wormhole would then be pulled in to the exit point. This could potentially free up a slot often used for a KB converter. Attaching it to Lift could fulfill Gravity's "gotta be weird" design--Lift a guy, do damage, the effect lingers and pulls things in. Would probably have to move Lift higher in the power selection, though. Maybe cut the duration of the attraction down a bunch, dunno.

I just went and checked and you're right. My bad. The animation just feels way too long to me, but actually isn't.

Would it be possible to also cut down on the animation times for the summon powers in Mercenaries? That radio really takes a long time.

Oh, I like this one.

I ran a Ninja/Storm for years on Live, and recreated them here on HC. Cram in all the uniques, layer on the +defense toggles, and keep spewing a steady stream of tornadoes and storms and they work very well.

Edits made to the original post to add in the above. While I've been applying the lessons learned here to a Thugs/Nature (doing a full Growth/Bastion/Overgrowth cycle on Gang War really turns those dudes into a raving pack of terrors, I must say), I keep coming back to Mercs/Nature for my "fun time Mastermind" these days. Part of it is the sheer loudness--you cannot possibly ignore the mercs when they start firing from the back line due to their volume, so teams always know I'm there and doing something. Stuff just steadily melts, even in +4x8 content. Part of it is the mix of damage and controls and buffs--these guys are great for destroying or delaying ambushes, and I've had more than a few times where I'm soloing one or more ambushes while the team moves on, then they come back when they realize things got quiet up front, only to find mountains of brass and a battle raging on they didn't even know about. Part of it is indeed those glorious WTF LOL moments--there's a huge burst of intense rifle fire and mace beams and grenades and then everything goes quiet. And part of it is just the smoothness this combo enables for a team--Overgrowth is some seriously good buffage, as are the rest, and things just work out.

I divide into groups by name. Like so: Group One are named: Kaff, Kevyn, Karl Group Two are named: Charles, Darcy, Maurice Then I have attack and goto macros: One Attack is: /petcomname K attack Two Attack is: /petcomname C attack One GOTO is: /petcomname K goto Two GOTO is: /petcomname C goto Usually I put the attack macros in the 1 and 2 slots of the first tray, then the GOTO macros right above them, in the Alt-1 an Alt-2 slots. Quick and easy to move 'em around or issue attack orders. Since MM commands take no animation time, I can issue these orders while other powers are animating. I'll often start my buff cycle (Growth, Bastion, Overgrowth) and give the GOTO commands in the middle of the last buff, so they're starting to move right as the effect lands on them. I use Sandolphan's to set stances, and I've got a dedicated "all pets stay/aggressive" button for when I want to set up a killbox after having moved them into position with GOTO. --- ADDENDUM: Now that we have an +absorb monitor on the Test server, I went and checked the effects of the +absorb shields on the pets. Sadly, you can only apply as much +absorb as the pet has base maximum HP. Tier 1 @ 50: 574 HP, can get 574 HP +absorb shield. Tier 2 @ 50: 768 HP, can get 768 HP +absorb shield. Tier 3 @ 50: 963 HP, can get 963 HP +absorb shield. Power Boost will easily let you hit the 574 HP cap for Tier 1s, and if you've got enough +HP boosts and use other +special buffs, you can also cap out the Tier 2s at 768. I haven't yet been able to hit 963 for the Tier 3, but I can land 800+ with Power Boost, Clarion, and the various HP accolades. So Power Boost isn't strictly necessary for the build, as 450-ish +absorb shields is still a whole lot of survival boost for your pets, but stronger +absorb shields work just fine on your teammates. I'm still gonna keep it as it's nice to throw out some really big +absorb numbers with PB/Clarion, and they really help out the teammates. I also tried using Rebirth Core Epiphany (T4) to up the pets' +MaxHP, after which I immediately applied Power Boosted Wild Bastion. They got about one second's worth of the increased maximum shields, after which the combat monitor said it went back down to their base MaxHP value.

arkieboy72472 speaks the truth when it comes to making Assault Rifle work. Slot for range and range bonuses. Hami-Os, Bombardment sets, Intuition Radial, Blaster ATOs, even the kitchen sink. If you get enough of it, Buckshot and Flamethrower will handily reach out to 75-80', at which point they are huuuuuuuge cones. Suddenly, you don't have to dash back and forth to apply damage to the whole spawn. You can just park and nail everything, and while Assault Rifle's AoEs are not as individually strong as the AoEs in other sets, Assault Rifle gets four of them. If your secondary gives you Build-Up, it's entirely possible to fit all four into the window, and four AoEs in quick succession will really do the job. I like finishing up with Full Auto just for the "camspin" fun. I've also got to second the Rambo-build idea linked above. AR/TacArrow is a lot of fun to play. There's always some useful power ready to go, and most of them are AoE. It's a wonderful "mow down everything from the back lines" kind of set-combo, with plenty of utility and a nice mix of hard and soft controls that let you be useful no matter what's going on.