desarix

Make sure you give plenty of warning when the event is so I can stay away. I despise PvP being shoved down my throat.

Not interested in PvP and I don't want any of it. I don't care if anyone thinks I am a coward because we are so brave playing video games...hahahaha . Don't introduce it anywhere I may be griefed as I have no interest in it. Just keep it in the PvP zones where I can completely avoid it. The title of this thread is in very poor taste.

My experience has only been with Necromancy and with their own ability to life drain and a combination of ranged and melee it is a good combination indeed. At level 33 I am currently handling +3X1. They don't have a lot of AOE so doing more enemies may be a bad idea although I might try it.

Thanks for that perspective. I think I will push it with one mastermind. Oh dear now to decide which one it will be.....

My goodness a treasure trove to be sure.

Thank you will look at them I have not gotten a single toon at 50. I do think the game completely changes at 50. Not too sure I want to yet.

I have never ever been able to really have very good enhancements when I played on live. I had to scrounge and save to get may be 4 single origins in those early days. I knew about converters but it never occurred to me how to use them wisely. Now at the expense of some merits I managed to actually acquire complete orange sets. Yes I did waste those precious merits but hear me out. I started a new character with no money from any of my other alts. No gifts from strangers and believe me this is harder to avoid than you might think. I bought a few IO recipes that no one uses like range and sold them and when I got a low level orange recipe I converted it and sold the rare of the set to get my seed money. After I got that 2 million I went to work and bought up the common yellow recipes of a pet set and set about converting them. I used up a lot of merits but I am at 20 in possession of 3 sets. Some I cannot even equip yet because I have to be 28 to do so. I even managed to get the ones where only one of its type can be slotted the defense and resistance bonus ones. I was lucky with some drops at level 16 that gave me the base recipe to craft and then convert. I am so proud of myself to finally figure this out. I know most of you must have done this ages ago but this was truly a revelation to me.

I boasted about your feat on chat. I said 43 hours and 30 deaths. Sorry it was 44 my bad. The universal response was that they were surprised you stuck it out. They were all impressed. Anyway kudos to you for being able to take on Dr.Aeons SF alone and at those settings. The one thing I forgot to mention was that you had set it at +4X8. They would have been even more impressed.

There is a good reason for this. In theory you will kill a held or CCd mob last. Take a slept enemy. It's a bad idea to break a CC and most pets in most games are coded not to because nothing is more annoying than to find that after you have CCd an enemy so that you can handle the other enemies that are not CCd and are actively trying to kill you to find a pet has broken the CC. This is why you have to give the kill order. They will not kill them automatically because it is a bad idea to have them break CC and ask any crowd control class how bad an idea it is in any other game. The game has changed a lot from how it was on release in 2004. Of course now we are quite ridiculously overpowered in groups and can mow down stuff and not worry about the CCd mobs. I recall quite starkly how it was on launch. We had to use crowd control and make sure not to break the crowd control and control our pets from using their AOE near a slept mob. This was vital for the success because we were exponentially weaker with training origin or dual origins then. You can now get annoyed about it but believe me sir when I tell you how much of a pivotal moment in strategy clever crowd control was. I cannot tell how much I admired a good controller in those days and they were quite reliant on the groups since they could not fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

My problem is the same that the pets are lower level by a lot the first tier and they die so easily. The purple patch thing. I have a suspicion that when I get higher level and to the 50's this problem might be bad enough for me to start disliking MMs. For now though I still like them at level 40.

I went ahead and levelled this to 30. I must say even at 15 the pets are very well protected. They almost never die. I do have first aid up to field medic. The heal is very strong. I can always respec out of it later. At 15 can easily handle +2 missions and that Veles mission from Eagle Eye The EB was so easy I am beginning to think Sonic is definitely worth taking. I see psionic hole and I hope to plug it later. For now she is useful in groups with huge ring that provides res to everyone and the 2 res shields. Just make sure the pet you have the debuff res ring on does not die. I think it is not as boring as FF because you have the single target minus res and since I have heals I'm quite busy in missions. While I agree it may not be as powerful as time, dark or traps it is worth a look if you want something different. This is the build and still a work in progress. I am quite terrible at builds so please don't follow it. I just put it here for reference of what I am doing. This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.2.17 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Mastermind Primary Power Set: Beast Mastery Secondary Power Set: Sonic Resonance Power Pool: Medicine Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Summon Wolves -- BldMnd-Acc/Dmg(A), BldMnd-Dmg(3), BldMnd-Acc(3), BldMnd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), AchHee-ResDeb%(5), MarofSpr-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen(7) Level 1: Sonic Siphon -- Acc-I(A) Level 2: Sonic Barrier -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(11), UnbGrd-Max HP%(11), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(13) Level 4: Sonic Haven -- TtnCtn-ResDam(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(13), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(15), Ags-Psi/Status(15) Level 6: Train Beasts -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 8: Aid Other -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(17), Prv-Heal/Rchg(17), Prv-Heal(50) Level 10: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def(19), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(27), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(39), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39) Level 12: Summon Lions -- BldMnd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), BldMnd-Acc(19), BldMnd-Dmg(21), BldMnd-Acc/Dmg(21), DefBuff(23), SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef(23) Level 14: Aid Self -- DctWnd-Heal(A), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(25), DctWnd-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(25) Level 16: Disruption Field -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 18: Fortify Pack -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(29), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Rct-Def/Rchg(40), Rct-ResDam%(42) Level 20: Sonic Dispersion -- RctArm-ResDam/Rchg(A), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(31), RctArm-EndRdx(31), RctArm-ResDam(33), RctArm-EndRdx/Rchg(33), StdPrt-ResKB(37) Level 22: Tactics -- AdjTrg-ToHit(A), AdjTrg-ToHit/EndRdx(27), AdjTrg-EndRdx/Rchg(29), AdjTrg-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(33) Level 24: Field Medic -- RechRdx(A) Level 26: Summon Dire Wolf -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(34), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(34), GlmoftheA-Dam%(36), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(36) Level 28: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 30: Tough -- ImpArm-ResPsi(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(37), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(37), ImpArm-ResDam(42) Level 32: Tame Beasts -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 35: Weave -- Ksm-Def/EndRdx(A), Ksm-ToHit+(39), Ksm-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Ksm-Def/Rchg(40) Level 38: Liquefy -- SphIns-ToHitDeb(A), SphIns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(42), SphIns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SphIns-Acc/Rchg(43), SphIns-Acc/ToHitDeb(43), SphIns-%ToHit(45) Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(45), Rct-Def/Rchg(45), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(46), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(46) Level 44: Web Envelope -- EnfOpr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), EnfOpr-Acc/Rchg(48), EnfOpr-EndRdx/Immob(48), EnfOpr-Immob/Rng(48), EnfOpr-Acc/Immob(50), EnfOpr-Acc/EndRdx(50) Level 47: Clarity -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 49: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 1: Supremacy Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 1: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 1: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 1: Health -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(7) Level 1: Stamina -- EffAdp-EndMod(A), EffAdp-EndMod/Rchg(9), EffAdp-EndMod/EndRdx(9) Level 1: Alpha Howler Wolf Level 1: Howler Wolf Level 26: Dire Wolf Level 12: Lioness Level 1: Pack Mentality ------------

Thank you my ears thank you. Being a demon master is hard.

It is always such a painful feeling to lose a whole slot to the kb to kd enhancement on each pet. Yeah that is a sore point indeed. It also affects all the global set bonuses. I enjoy my Bots/Trap MM though and wouldn't give up those noisy adorable tin cans for anything. I think every pet is unique and they have their shortcomings.

I do love bots but have to get them the kb to kd or else you're a bane in groups. I do everyone a favour and don't group with my bot MM until I have converted some enhancements to them.

I was tempted again and then I looked at this thread. Some of it was quite creative. Thanks for this I laughed and reconsidered and then discarded.

I'm still low level but I am building towards it. Right now this Mastermind is only around level 20 so haven't even remotely got there yet. Also I must admit playing so many alts I cannot really make any bleeding edge builds. I am also always levelling using story arcs and some grouping so I want to be effective from low levels and up to when I get to 50. I am not interested in just being effective when I'm tricked out. Hence my criticism of this secondary as a levelling secondary is what I am trying to get across. I am sure once I have spent some time getting it all slotted out it will perform better but that isn't the point I'm making. When I was taking about the Merc/Cold build I was taking on +2 on that very modestly slotted generic IOs and some single origins and it was around level 15. So I was trying to see how kinetic performed and that was why I was disappointed. If a build can only be good once you have slotted it well than new players will struggle with it. Yesterday I took a Demon/Thermal through that arc in Steel Canyon after the Dr.Vahzilok was detained. I was facing freaks in +3 at level 20+. Yeah it was a little hard and I ran away a lot but I completed those missions with those 'zoombies' and self rezzing freaks well enough. In fact I had no personal attacks but those shields are really good. I must say demon/thermal is solid out of the box. Most of it was done at +2. I had only single origins and a few generic ios. Some were double origins. I don't fund my new masterminds with influence from my other toons. I buy and sell some recipes I get cheap and I try to get about a million and that is what I use. Mine is as close to a pauper build that I can make. A lot of the fun I have is making a new toon with no help and seeing what I can do with it. Of course this won't work with every archetype but Masterminds are in my opinion in a unique position because when I tried this with a Dominator and I could not even manage +1. I had to drop most missions to -1. Otherwise it took an age so I just only levelled in groups. Scrapper and Sentinel were in a slightly better position than the dominator but very painful solo levelling. I solo level because I love doing story arcs. That is what I mainly enjoy doing in this game. I have not even one toon at 50. For me in every MMORPG the journey is the most important source of entertainment. Of course different players have different goals so please try to understand the perspective this critique is coming from.

I am in melee range all the time as a Mastermind in BG mode, so I do play a tankermind, I have a macro that sends my mid tier to attack when I need it. Pets that are ranged get protection from being in range if you keep dragging them to melee range to heal them they lose that protection. Ranged pets are meant to play effectively at range. In the past when the AI was worst all the ranged pets used to occasionally and randomly just go to a mob and decide to slap them and stay there and get walloped because they are in melee. The time it takes the mob to get close to them with a bat is the time they are not getting hurt. If you place them next to the mob with the bat you're removing that mitigation. This secondary is best played with melee pets and it was a miscalculation on my part when I failed to account for transfusion. Beasts are probably the best pairing. Ninjas the paper tigers won't survive without either strong shields or debuffing sets. I have ninja/dark, ninja/time and ninja/storm all of which do well paired with them as their damage and speed in combat is really great they just need to survive long enough to deliver the beating. Zombies might work too because their third tier pet which is in range hardly needs a heal. Probably my next experiment is either beasts or zombies with kinetic.

I amended the title to reflect that. I know kinetic is excellent just not with a mastermind and ranged pets. Yes I do believe this might be the best pairing for kinetics.

Agreed it is in groups but with ranged pets when you're soloing they are often not within range. So as a heal for my thugs they are not good.

I play a lot of the Mastermind Archetype in fact one can argue I play too many masterminds. So with the exception of Empathy, Pain and to some extent Sonic, Forcefields and Thermal I have a good idea by level 20 what works. I am as early as level 15 already pushing +2X1 with generic IOs and single origins. Even my Merc/Cold has performed at +2 and +3 well because they hardly die even if it takes time for them to kill but I can complete missions at those settings. I am now at level 20 on the Kinetic/Thugs and they are getting wiped out at +2. The biggest problem is that there is hardly any mitigation to incoming damage. At this level your main debuffs are Transfusion which takes away end and regen from the enemy and heals your minions. With Thugs this can often miss them since they are ranged pets. Which is a big pain to manage but the other choices are zombies, beasts and ninjas(hah) if you want melee pets and I believe they may do even worse. Well the beasts might actually lasts since my Beasts/Time are really good but Time is superior so there is that. Then you have siphon power which reduces the mobs damage ability and lets your pet do more damage. Finally at 20 you have siphon speed that takes away the mobs recharge and speed and makes you so trippy you're randomly running into other groups. What is lacking here is the ability to debuff the mob's defense and in any significant way really reduce the incoming damage or buff them in such a way as to protect the pets. . Most of the other secondaries have very solid ways to do this like time, radiation, storm, dark, traps, poison, trick arrow, which can all significantly reduce the enemies ability to inflict damage and to also debuff them too. Others like Electrical Affinity have the faraday cage with resistance that reduces incoming damage and sonic, forcefields, thermal, cold do the same with their shields. That is also achieved by a debuffing set like traps that can also protect and natural affinity which can debuff and protect and heal. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit facing Council can be be one of the harder enemy groups because of the AOEs they do. My gangwar was wiped out and so were my pets multiple times. I really think this secondary is really weak in comparison to all the others. Also there is nothing really to look forward too that can alleviate the secondary like Cold has benumb and sleet and heat loss all of which are very effective late debuffing. Kinetics just doubles down on minus damage on mob and plus damage to your pets and minus end and recovery which does nada for pets since recharge have no effect on them and they hardly run out of end. Of course if I dropped the difficulty to +1 I could have done it but that is not my point. I set out to prove how it performed and was disappointed. In groups I rock though. People love kinetics and even if they are not as great as a kinetic defender having one transfusing like a loon is so good for melee group members. I can play in groups well but talking purely as whether this is a good secondary I will have to put it at the bottom of the list.

Thought I would share this I was doing that Mercy quest the one about that seer and her brother and I went in to get Wretch thinking it was set at +2X1 at level 20 but it was at +3X1 and with those Arachnos huge drones and Mu and stuff (all purple con) I was really having a hard time. I did try to pull them one by one but that very big drone had flown up and was demolishing my ninjas. I just could not manage it and had to keep running back through the sewer tunnels and the drone didn't follow when all my pets were dead. At that point I checked and I realised it was +3 but since I was halfway I decided to push through. I resummoned and when I came back through the tunnels and I could not find where that drone had gone. I had not died but my pets had died at least 7 times already. My secondary was dark. I had mostly generic and single origins but I completed and was leading Wretch out and he spotted the drone up top. It had flown all the way up to one of the platforms but with Wretch's help I killed it. I am sure what I did is nothing to crow about but I felt pretty happy that I actually completed something that looked quite hard. It gave me a nice feeling to have done that at level 20.

Wrong thread ... sorry

I do not know what my problem was but I just reread what I wrote and my word I just repeated myself several times in those paragraphs. Sorry for the messy delivery but Fira was very clear and concise.

I just use macros. Those are enough to control each tier. If I need an individual pet to move back I just use the command next to their name in the pet panel. I hardly get defeated because the minute I am under threat I order them back to BG mode or run like a bat out of hell. Otherwise I make them all attack one target and it is the one doing the AOE or the healer. If you have one pet that keeps going to melee range (looking at you arsonist and medic) have a macro for that pet with the name to order them back to range. You just need to know which pets are troublesome and control those. They all seem to have individual characters since I name each one ordering them with macros when they cause problems isn't that bad. I don't micromanage because I use tier commands only when all defensive attack and all defensive follow are not enough. This AT is not one you can stay and take a beating if your pets are not in BG mode. You're fragile once you order them to attack. They are only in BG when they're in defensive follow or defensive stay or defensive goto. Once you order them to attack you have to click the defensive follow for them to return to defensive mode faster then just waiting for it to kick in after they return to defensive follow. That action does not work immediately so if you get hit for a huge hit in between you will die before the BG kicks in. So be mindful of the commands and the time it takes. The only delay is after you order them to attack and follow with a defensive follow. If for any reason you fumble or are slow then run or gauge the situation and don't order attack just stay in defensive follow and they will attack but unfortunately not prioritizing the target you want. So in that case keep some of the pets on defensive and order one tier to attack the target you want using the tier macros. I use a multi button mouse so everything is at my fingertips or rather my thumb. So macros in the first bar after I turned on the naga panel is enough. If you own a multi button mouse they work for the first action bar. They are wonky for the control and alt bars though so I place other stuff there which I click. I have only two pet macros on the first bar all follow defensive and all defensive attack. If I need an individual pet tier to attack or stay in defensive to give me some protection from incoming attacks I use the other macros I made for each set. Like /macro Drone petcom_pow Batt attack. The game recognizes the batt as battledrone. https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Petcom_(Slash_Command) Look at this too. I also recognize that attack defensive returns them to BG mode after they have finished their attack but there is a window between them giving no protection to you from incoming attacks and then returning to BG mode so you need to click defensive follow to make sure you get the benefit as quickly as possible if there is a chance you are going to be attacked. Their stance is defensive and the pets return to that stance once the attack is over and only then do you get BG mode again. So you're vulnerable during that space of time so to make it immediate click the macro for defensive follow as soon as you can. I am currently level 32 doing +3 X 1 or 2 content and I find this works for me, of course I am no expert just saying what I myself have experienced. There is no such thing as defensive attack as far as BG mode is concerned. You have to follow it with a follow defensive to stay in BG mode while fighting if the encounter is risky for you. When you order them to defensive attack you lose the BG mode. One of the main reasons you die is because you're not following the defensive attack command with a command to return them to BG mode when under sustained attack by mobs. One uses defensive attack is so that they don't go full kamikaze mode and pull other groups but the command does not give you BG protection until they return to defensive stance. https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mastermind_Strategy#Bodyguard Mastermind Bodyguards: You can set any Mastermind pet to Bodyguard by selecting the Defensive Stance and the Follow(*) Orders. Your pets must be within Supremacy range for this function to work. Bodyguard Damage Mitigation: When set to Bodyguard mode, the Mastermind and his pets share damage from any attack that the Mastermind takes damage from. Each pet takes one 'share' of the damage, and the Mastermind himself takes two 'shares'. This is in addition to any damage that the pets themselves might incur from Area attacks. Example: If a Mastermind has 3 pets set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with a 100 point attack, each pet will take 20 points of the damage, and he himself will take 40 points. Example 2: If a Mastermind has 3 pets set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with an Area Effect attack for 10 points of damage, then each pet will take 2 points of damage, and he himself will take 4 points. Pets that were also in the Area of Effect will take an additional 10 points each, as normal. (*) Defensive/Goto and Defensive/Stay also work.

The base values of all enhancements regardless of whether they exist at the level you exemplar down to will adjust accordingly. It is the global bonus that follows the -3 rule. I had forgotten that and got into a tizzy thinking if I had an attuned level 25-40 set all the damage, accuracy and other values the enhancement itself boosts will disappear if I went below level 22. That was scary.