TygerDarkstorm

First things: This is the wrong thread to be asking about this sort of thing and probably needs its own discussion in the proper forum. Secondly: Not to be cruel, but if you're playing a controller as a healer, you're playing the AT semi-wrong (and would be even if you were a defender or corruptor). If you come from other MMO's, CoH requires a bit of a different mindset in that we don't abide by the holy trinity (tank/dps/healer). If you are trying to focus solely on healing, that could be some of your struggles, especially as a controller. If you're new to the game and want to play a support role, I'd suggest a corruptor or defender over a controller as their role in the game is a bit more straightforward. A controller is a tad bit more complex because you need to understand how control powers work, and how/why/when to use them. And before others jump on me: Yes, healing is useful in this game, especially leveling up, however, you really shouldn't be trying to be a "pure" healer unless you enjoy being bored and not contributing a whole lot to your team (if you team); and if you're soloing... well, good luck actually defeating anything. You are at your most useful to a team (or even yourself), if you are using your attacks interspersed with your buffs/debuffs. Also, many times, the best form of support comes from buffing your fellow teammates, and especially debuffing your enemies making them easier to kill.

Adraxia my Mercs/Traps MM. Just because she's a mercenary, doesn't mean that she can't look good. 😛

I agree with this, though I saw in the OP you mentioned grav/energy. It's a super fun combo, but if you're still kinda new to dominators, I have a hard time recommending it. It is a super busy combo that is a little bit at odds with itself because of the special mechanics tied to each. You're probably not gonna get that real dominator *feel* from it. Plant is definitely a good place to start, and with the many doms I've rolled, this is the one I've gotten the highest level. Her secondary is Martial which is... ok. I'm sticking with her for now, but plan to try either plant/psi or plant/fire next. But my plant/martial is the first dom attempt I've had where I'm like "omg I feel like a dom this is what people are talking about when they say doms are awesome omg omg omg"

Maskurade Plant/Martial Dom Interdimensional mercenary who is never seen without her/a mask on; no one is quite sure what has brought her to Paragon City.

I agree with pretty much everything that's been said in this thread, however, I am quoting this because I don't know that I would like to have the story of the TF linked to the loading screens. Even with my 5 year old laptop and running 2 monitors, I load zones/maps too quickly to even read most of the tips that show up there as is, let alone trying to read and comprehend a couple of sentences about why I'm doing this portion of a TF. Though it is pretty clear that there does need to be a better way to tell the story of a TF than the contact text that everyone can read. As many times as I've done Synapse, I had no idea the Clockwork King was a psychic brain in a jar thing! I'm usually on a ranged toon with the zoom out to max or near max, so I guess I've never had the opportunity to see him. I am also in agreement with those who have said to make the AV's and such in these more noticable/a threat. Half the time it seems you just breeze right through them and might be lucky if I even noticed they were there. While I don't want to see this game be like WoW in terms of fight mechanics (because CoH's playstyle is one that happens to perfectly suit the way I game as I am an average gamer at best and have semi-crappy coordination), I also don't mind seeing them present a bit of a challenge and really feel like I'm fighting an AV or something.

Welcome to the game! As a new player, Masterminds can take a bit of getting used to. MM's are hit with certain penalties compared to other AT's because our primaries *are* our pets. Thus, we take a bigger hit to our endurance and our personal attacks don't always add a lot to our arsenal until you learn how to proc them out and manage your endurance use. Now, I am by no means an expert. I do lots of reading and research and MM's are probably my most played AT because I love them so much. If you are looking to be a MM that is more involved with their pets, then I can't really recommend /force field as a secondary--it's typically considered the lazy MM secondary for a reason; you bubble your pets and sit back and watch the battle unfold. Great for people looking for that more slow paced playstyle, but since you're wanting to actively participate in fights with your pets, I'm not sure it's the right path. For something to try, this is Redlynne's Ninja/Time MM that takes and uses the personal MM attacks: Your combo of Beast/Kin mentioned in the OP is actually a pretty solid pairing. Mine is now... level 40 I think. I haven't soloed with her in a while, but I just recently ran her on an MSR, which was fun once I got the feel of her again. Point being, /kin is a very active set, and if you're grouped with anyone who can give you +recharge buffs (or bring your own via Hasten), then you really shouldn't feel like you're missing out being in the battle with your pets (and /kin is still pretty busy even without extra recharge added). And for beast, you want to use at least one of the personal attacks to help your pets build up stacks of the buff that cause your pets to crit and deal more damage. Your pets ARE your weapons--where a blaster has Fire Blast or something, we have our pets. Wield them; that's how you contribute to the damage part of a fight. Do not constantly resummon if just one or two goes down; it's a huge waste of end and time, especially if it's the tier 1 pets. Make use of the numpad binds here: Idk what I would do if I didn't have and use these suckers. I'm semi-lazy, so I tend to command all my pets to do stuff at once, but this will also allow for more precise control when and where it's needed. Don't be afraid to come out of defensive stance if you're on a team. Bodyguard mode isn't always real effective if you're teaming (if you're not taking any damage, then your pets won't move in on their own to engage). If you're careful about placement, many pets can be placed to aggressive, though with the speedy ninjas and beasts, you need to keep a tight leash on that and the passive button. When there's troublesome mobs in a group, I often target that mob and send my pets to attack my target (i.e. Malta Sappers, Ruin Mages, etc.). Also keep in mind, MM's are technically a support AT. Our damage, even with the pets, will never rival a blaster, scrapper, etc. Plus, we're at a distinct disadvantage once you get to a post level 50 world; once you start playing at level shifted modes, your tier 1 pets are now fighting enemies +5/6 to themselves, turning their damage and defenses a bit anemic. Not that an MM can't be built to handle that content or whatever, it's just a good thing to keep in mind. I'm not a huge fan of idle play either, so I tend to pick MM secondaries that are what people call "busy"--Electric Affinity, Kinetics, Trick Arrow, and to a lesser extent, Time, Nature, and Dark. Not that other secondaries aren't good. /Thermal has some pretty great debuffs (as does /Cold), but it can feel a bit boring at times compared to something like /Kin that wants to have its in-combat abilities pretty used on CD.

Y'all got some awesome screenshots! 😄 Put me down as TBD for now for next week's run. I'll have to see if I can level something up and make sure I have nothing going on that day so I have the time. Edit: @TrixieKixx I will be there on Maskurade - Plant/Martial Dominator

As usual, lots of fun to be had with this group today! I didn't get any screenshots during since I was trying to get the hang of my tank, but here's our before and after shots. 🙂

Ended up making another toon for the alcohol theme team this week. Meet Absintha, Rad Armor/Energy Melee Tanker; based on absinthe.

I will happily roll out a tank for this. ^_^ I'll edit this post and tag you once I get it all figured out. @TrixieKixx I will be going on Absintha, a Rad/Energy Tanker ((based on absinthe)).

You posted your corr before I did mine, so if you want to stay with yours, I can happily create another alt to bring since it's not hard to get in range for the Posi TF 🙂

I didn't even know SWG still had servers that were still going out there... My late husband used to talk about that game all the time, lol. I threw my vote in for CoH. 🙂

So, I'm gonna go outside the box here and throw out a couple of secondaries that weren't really mentioned here: Storm and TA. Yes, I see you went with time already, which is a solid choice, but in case anyone else reads this thread, I wanted to chime in a bit. However, my experiences with these powersets both lie in leveling and not at the level 50 area of gameplay. I took a demons/cold to 50, I'm still not a huge fan of the combo; potential to be strong, but feels like it needs to be IO'd out to do so I also have a demons/storm MM and a demons/TA MM. Demons/Storm is just oodles of fun and that character solo'd her way through most of Praetoria. This character has languished a bit lately, but, as someone else on these forums has said, this combo is like bringing forth the apocalypse. /TA (trick arrow) just got a rather massive buff thanks to the HC devs, so this character is more experimental than anything, but my thinking here was that demons are one of the tankiest MM pets, and the ember demon has heals for his buddies, so leveraging the debuffs that /TA brings should, in theory, help the demons do more damage. Also, I wouldn't be too afraid of being near melee range on your MM, especially if you're controlling where your pets are going, who they're attacking, etc. I have a beast/kin MM who practically lives in melee, and will most certainly do so once I get her defenses up properly. MM's are not solely a ranged class, though it's your choice to play one that way (even empathy and pain dom have some of their heals attached to PBAoE abilities). If you're looking to just do the ranged thing, then you'll probably enjoy thugs, mercs, or bots more.

Running the New Regulators arc in King's Row, I was inspired by the costume of Morana, one of the Skulls bosses, so I redesigned the look of my psy/fire sentinel in a similar vein, while also borrowing on ideas I've seen in this thread of people using the chest detail pieces to look like the clasps of their cloaks. I'm rather pleased with the end result.

Aye. The group I'm with runs every Saturday on Indomitable. Here's the thread for our group: I think there's some other theme related stuff that happens with other groups/servers, but I haven't seen any that are quite like ours.

I love this! What a creative and excellent use of costume pieces. 🙂

For next week's theme team: Angry Balls - Fire/Pain Dom Corr. Based on this alcoholic drink: https://www.fireballwhisky.com/recipes/AngryBalls.html

@TrixieKixx Updating with my character: I'll be there on Angry Balls (https://www.fireballwhisky.com/recipes/AngryBalls.html), a Fire/Pain Dom Corruptor. 🙂

Not gonna lie, after being around family and everything Thursday and Friday, I totally forgot about the TF this morning. I was up til like 1am last night; slept right through the thing. Sorry folks! Look forward to seeing next week's theme. Edit: @TrixieKixx please save me a spot; have to figure out a toon and concept. 🙂

I thought about doing an energy/martial blaster as that sounded like it could be fun, but a bit at odds with itself since martial wants to be in melee and energy (without kb to kd io's) shoots everything away from you.

Meet Hallowed Sam, an elf necromancer who is fascinated by human holidays, especially Halloween. In the vein of Frankenstein's Monster, she summons zaps of electricity to keep her undead horde up and shambling.

Aw, I rather liked the Argus face he had originally, but I get why you evolved him to the more modern look.

@TraumaTrain I will be bringing Hallowed Sam, a necro/elec aff MM, to represent Halloween 🙂

@TraumaTrain please also list me as TBD. I'll let you know when I figure out which toon I want to bring. 🙂

Today was a lot of fun! We melted mobs like crazy! Looking forward to next week's theme! Love the pics Trixie and Midnyte!