evetsleep

I think many people miss the incredible value you can get out of the Overwhelming Force KD proc in T1 pets. I think I drop that in all my MM T1 pets as soon as possible and it makes a huge difference. Whenever I run SBB's I actually keep a couple in storage for when I build yet another MM. Goes such a long way to keeping pets alive.

I think the thing you'll find here is mercs really does go with literally everything. I liked mercs before (I just like the daka), but after their update they are in a really nice spot. I know it's cliche to say, but if I was you I'd go with concept. I have just about every secondary with mercs (except sonic). They all perform really well. I like sets that aren't too busy though. One of my first Merc MM's was electric and dang if that secondary isn't one of the busiest out there. My Merc/FF (The Bubble King) is an absolute blast and drives super easy, as does trick arrow and time. If you like the new FF, I'd say go for it. If you wanted something a little different, the -ToHit in trick arrow (along with the other laundry list of yummy debuffs) pair extremely well with mercs. Time is... Time. Just like Mercs, it goes with everything. Put the two together and it has great synergy. So.. concept and run a secondary that is fun for you. I started a Merc/thermal recently (The Thermal King, naturally) and when serum is running if the combo isn't surprisingly though! Oh.. and flaming soldiers works for me :).

I've put it off long enough and I've started two defenders to see which I like better: Traps/Fire Poison/Fire They're both pretty sturdy in the mid 20s. I suspect poison will be better with teams due to most moving pretty fast these days and the traps being more solo. That said I still play both like a melee ranged AT and get right in there. I know fire is the bees knees on Corruptors, but I prefer the higher debuff/buff values on defenders.

With regards to the travel power you can pick up the jet pack from the p2w vendor in Atlas for 5k/hr...super cheap. I've been doing this for some time which allows me to delay travel powers to later for tight builds that are lower level TF friendly.

This all makes sense, but why would you ignore Slowed Response? It does AoE -DEF (which makes it mildly proc-able, at least for the additional -RES proc) and -RES.

I think part of it is that their attacks are on a pretty quick timer (and activation time) and with 3 of them plucking away at things the amount of KD is noticable and provides a LOT of mitigation that the cardboard dragons desperately need. I love my ninja MM's, but man when the RNG fails them (or high -def debuffs happen) they crumple fast. Overwhelming force pays off huge for these little guys.

Well one thing is status protection and -debuff resistance (Damping bubble). Don't get me wrong, Time is fantastic, but those are the things you miss out on. What FF offers (from my perspective) is a less busy set that I need to really use. Meaning with FF as a secondary you can, more or less, focus on using your primary to be effective since most of the secondary effects are either toggles or clicks that last a long time. I often pick up FF when I want to play at a slow pace.

Ninja\FF Is a solid pairing and will give them time to heal up when they get hit (if they survive it). Personally I no longer take medicine on my MM's. I'm happy to just re-summon since they're on such a short recharge and don't cost an arm & leg anymore to cast. That said, you mentioned not taking the attacks and in many cases I can understand why, but at some point you might want to consider the up to 9% crit chance you can get with having all 3 bow attacks across all your ninja pets. They don't even need to hit! Early on I just slot them with a single endurance reduction IO and fire them off when I can to get that 9% crit chance increase and it does wonders. I generally don't pick smoke flash though since it's duration is only 3s which creates a super small window for crits. Ninja's can pretty much go with anything these days, but if you're enjoying FF (I have one and enjoy it) you are not alone. It's a great combination and does have some synergy.

One thing to consider that wasn't mentioned when talking about layered protection with ninjas (or any defense primary) is /electric. I know it's not amazing since the the pets would have to stay in Faraday cage, but while in it they'd get status protection, ~43% RES to all except toxic (plus 12% -DMG to a group (Discharge) and -35% to a single target (Shock + Discharge)), but electric also does bring a chain +Absorb and heal that is on a really short timer, which means it can be up all the time (which the cardboard dragons need). It's an incredibly busy set as is and ninja's would keep it busy, but I've found it a pretty fun pairing that keeps them reasonably safe\alive. Not as smooth sailing as something like Time or Cold but helps them stay alive when hit with big shots long enough for me to heal them up (or re-apply the absorb). I have a LOT of fun with my thugs\electric and the heal & absorb goes a long way to keep that idiot arsonist alive.

That's fair and TA and Illusion is indeed fun. I think the thing that makes it different with MM's is that the debuffs from TA are more meaningful to MM pets compared to Illusion's pet(s) beyond the -RES. It's probably not the first secondary I'd recommend if you're trying out MM's for the first time or had a bad experience. But boy does TA make for a fun experience that's different. Hope you find a combo that scratches that itch you have. For me it's mercs/TA 🙂

I learned awhile ago to not delete anything. I may rename them to something unique, but I rarely delete a toon. We have 1000 slots per server..might as well use'm (could be why I now have almost 600 toons on Excelsior).

oh...I didn't realize! Oh boy...time to crack open some of my bots again.

I just wanted to add that this isn't really accurate. The assault bot lost -Regen, but the Protector Bots still have Repair. I have a number of Bot MM's and I LOVE the maintenance drone on the ones which don't have a heal in the secondary. Yes it doesn't allow healing sets, but in terms of healing it does a pretty good job and since it's on a relatively short timer it's easy to recast when it blows up from exhausting all of this heals..

Kind of makes me sad no one is recommending Trick Arrow yet. Both Ninja and Demon benefit from the AoE -ToHit (half is unresistable and with acid arrow you can lower what is resisted), -DMG, -RES, and slow. I have just about every pet combo with trick arrow and there really isn't one that does pair up nicely with it although pets with heals are a little more nice. I like Trick Arrow because it's like giving your pets shields without having to actually give them shields. This means if they get squished I can resummon and not worry about shielding them since the ability to hit them and do damagenia through debuffs with large AoEs.

I've been running poison/storm and with some basic slotting in the 30s it's a pretty sold defender. Storm Cell actually has a -ToHit baked in which goes nicely with poisons various -ToHit debuffs. I've been playing this defender aggressively in melee and didn't take Jet Stream (the cone) and so far it works out quite well.

I'm not at my computer, but I am pretty sure Storm Cell from storm blast includes a -ToHit debuff (unenhanceable -9% I think) which would stack nicely with FF. My FF/Storm defender is a lot of fun and spends very little time buffing thanks to the AOE nature of FF buffs and their long duration. I spend the vast majority of my time dropping Storm Cell and AoEing everything. It's a lot of fun. Another unusual pairing that I run is FF/sonic. With the recent pass on Sonic and FF together they can apply a LOT of -RES on both single targets and groups. It's a lot of fun if you can get passed Sonics sounds.

If you haven't tried it the Theft of Essence +END proc works wonders in Twilight Grasp when you heal multiple targets.

I've created a few like everyone else, but so far I'm really digging my 2 defenders: Dr. Weather - Force Field/Storm blast Poisonous Cloud - Poison/Storm Blast I really like to play really aggressive with poison and that works out really well with storm since I didn't take Jet Stream (blasphemy maybe.. I've been repsecing out of it on most of my builds). It's taken a bit to find a grove with storm blast, but now that I've found a playstyle that works for me I'm loving it. The animations are awesome..I just wish Storm Cell was a little faster. With the poison defender I treat it like an aura where I drop it and get right in the middle with noxious gas running and unload with debuffs and storm procing attacks. It's a lot of fun!

I have both a fire/inv brute and an inv/fire tank. You can make brute invul super tough, but the tank is just easier, so then I looked at fire melee and the bigger AoE's and additional AoE really do make a big difference. I'm playing both and I find the tank version easier and more effective.

While Trick Arrow may not have +DEF, it does indirectly via really awesome -ToHit from Flash Arrow. It does top shelf debuffing (of just about every kind) and also does AoE via Oil Slick. Beast/trick arrow is a fantastic combination.

Ninjas are good, but they don't have any resistance to back them up when they do eventually get slapped. That said now that they all get a heal after the second upgrade, if they do survive getting hit they can heal it back. They're not paper dragons anymore, more like cardboard. My baby ninja/ff MM (lvl 34) with basic slotting has the pets at 60+% to ranged\melee\aoe (the value depends on the tier, but they're all over 60). I haven't decided yet if I'll go for power boost or stick with fire for Bonfire yet. I'll probably do power boost though because -DEF is super annoying and having high enough shields that it doesn't matter will probably be better. So they're pretty darn tough, but anything that has serious -DEF (CoT) or drops burn patchs\caltrop just ruins everything.. Some creative macro'ing to make the Jounin target annoying mobs helps a lot though.

Can confirm that necro/FF is pretty darn tanky. The pet heals and -ToHit goes a really long way. I also have a necro/time that is honestly just as tanky, but it feels a tad bit stronger. Could be the debuffs and the heal. The slows and -damage from Time go a long way to keeping the undead .... alive. Now here's an unusual thought... necro/traps (or trick arrow). I have both in the mid-30's with just the pet uniques and endurance QoL procs and they're both pretty darn solid. So if you are looking for something different give them a try. I am really loving my necro/traps though. As is always the case, traps isn't great for teams (that's where Trick Arrow shines), but solo I drop my traps, fold space, and then soul extraction..not much lives after a few moments which isn't bad for zombies w/o a heal from the secondary (don't have Triage beacon at the moment and don't really feel I need it).

I have one I am growing. Drop freezing rain first (to help with pit and claps accuracy issues) and toss pit, then run in and clap. It's fun on big teams with big spawns. Animation times leave something to be desired though.

I put this in all my zombie MM builds and it does work quite well. Especially when they are puking everywhere and things start falling down all over. It's a nice add-on to give them some damag mitigation.

In this case my build is not really well designed (i.e. I haven't really put it down to paper\MIDs). But that said, given how unstructured it is I imagine a properly thought out build would be even more effective. It doesn't really solve the end-game mastermind problems with level differences and such, but other than that it is a pretty solid combination that offers a lot of opportunities to just blast away with debuffs.