JediDave

I think when CoV launched, hide had like a 2s ish recharge, and the ability to slot for it just never got taken out

What are you trying to do with it? Mine is set to solo AVs and GMs but that build will look different than one set to mow down large mobs. Do you have a preference for epic/patron pool? Do you care about the budget or is the sky the limit? The build I use for mine is admittedly a bit outdated and I am by no means a mids expert, but with my main on live and my first 50 on HC being a fire/rad, I think I can offer insight on what does or doesn't work

I think marine, nature, and time work the best with beasts. Marine can get you teleporting into the middle of the pack to grab aggro (if you like bodyguard mode) and everyone being melee means they're also clumped up for the cone heal for easy repositioning on yourself. With them all being melee, it also makes it easy to fire off your aoe buffs without worrying if one or two henchmen are outside the radius. Shifting tides being anchored on a henchman is also nice since you know they will be in melee range. Then the fact that marine gives a bit of defense, resist, absorb, and heal means you can keep them alive very easy while also giving them a nice amount of added damage. And brine is great on big targets, which your single target beasts will already be good at dealing with. The only issue is you'll want pretty much every power, so you'll have to be picky on pool powers. I think this is the most fun (obviously opinions will vary) set of these three. Nature keeps you alive. Not a ton of added offense until your T9, but the aoe hold is great for single target henchmen, since it will make the minions and some LTs a non issue. Heals, absorb, resists, more heals. Your beasts should be set here. Like Marine, it's got a cone heal which takes some getting used to, but all melee makes it easier to position for. There's a bit of -regen for big targets, but nothing insane (I think it has less -regen than standard long recharge ones, but I don't have access to mids right now to confirm). And the toggle debuff is always nice for a corner pull when solo or in small 2-3 person groups. Definitely the most thematic of the three sets here. Time will easily cap your beasts' defense, but it sorta locks you in to mace mastery for the power boost. A toggle debuff anchored on yourself means you'll be in the fray with the beasts, and the aoe heal is very powerful, and the heal over time effect makes it so you don't "waste" the heal on allies near full health already. Both of those being PBAoE synergizes well with beasts being melee again. You can also use distortion field and your single target hold to stack holds on bosses for a few seconds, and the +chance for hold proc in each can make it much more consistent. Unfortunately, time's +recharge buffs don't do anything for the beasts, but they do benefit from the recovery, regen, and damage buffs from the +rech powers you have. But the recharge helps you, and you can get pack mentality and pack fortification going more smoothly with that recharge. I think of these three sets, time is the most straightforward to play and slot, but maybe the most boring, which also means you have time to throw in a personal attack or two without much sacrifice. I'll throw an honorable mention to traps, as it's very solid, but on big teams you'll have to cycle through your powers on a group to group basis, since competent, fast moving teams will clear a group before you're able to set another mortar or launch seeker drones. OH! Seeker drones. Beasts don't get a 4th pet power for unique invention slots, (no gang war/hell on earth style summon) but seeker drones can take them, which may ease some slotting issues, as pet slotting on mm is always a bit of sacrificing one thing for another. If you want to solo, traps is great, and on teams it's just going to feel like you're contributing a little bit less, unless the team is barely staying alive.

So does the guassians have a chance to trigger every 10 seconds, or does it have a chance every time an entity triggers shifting tides? If it's got a chance whenever tides procs, that would seem to be a damn near perma up time, similar to thug T2 pets. Which is cool, but a little bit of a shame since 90% of my personal damage is proc based and not affected.

I recently got a demon/marine to 50, got all his incarnates to T3, with Alpha at T4. My only issue in his build is I have no idea how slotting on shifting tides works. I've seen people toss an end red in there and call it a day, I've seen damage procs galore, and I've seen Chance for BU in there. I tested out a few and I can't tell what does or doesn't work. Does anyone have any insight on how to best slot this thing? Without taking away other significant parts of the build, I can commit 5 total enhancement slots on it, so on the off chance someone says to 6 slot it, I would prefer not to go that route.

They stack. As you put it, they double up on bonuses.

I guess that's something for the OP to clarify. On "active" do you mean tossing out powers as often as possible like a standard attack chain, or do you mean active as in always needing/benefitting from micromanaging henchmen? Because most primaries will benefit to some degree from you repositioning or focus firing or splitting focus fire and bodyguard mode between henchmen. Just because your character is standing still, doesn't mean YOU aren't doing things.

I would suggest necro/marine for "active" play, as the blasts are good to spam at low levels for the extra pets, and marine has whitecap and shoal rush that can be pretty good proc bombs for aoe damage. The bubble can help your endurance early game to handle the constant blasts too. Definitely the strongest all around combo for what I think you're looking for. While YOU aren't doing as much controlling here, the lich is like a mini controller, and needs a %dam proc for -to hit to do noticeable damage. Whitecap is an aoe knockdown though, so some soft control there. /poison is also pretty active since you will want to recast your two main debuffs pretty regularly, and the poison trap and st hold can give a bit of a controllery feel, both of which aslo proc very well. I think /storm is likely going to give the most controller feel with all the layered soft control, mostly via knockdown, and a sprinkling of slow. /storm also lets you put pet sets into tornado if you're tight on unique pet slots for +def and +resist, though necro already gets an extra pet power for that if you go with them. On that note, while I think necro gives you more reason to take blasts/play more actively, thugs and demons also get a fourth power that allows for pet sets to get those uniques slotted. Some outliers would be /rad and /nature with the hold auras, but I don't know if that will really give you a controller feel. /traps could work too with their poison trap, web grenade, and caltrops, and toe bombing can be pretty active, but I feel like it's also lacking just a bit in both categories for what you seem to want, similar to the /rad and /nature sets. So most active, necro/marine, most controller feeling, necro/storm. I think storm would give a bit more damage and marine a LOT more survivability as well. At work so no mids to prop up a build. If you aren't a fan of zombies, mercs and bots both have aoe grenade powers that can proc out pretty well and have a little stun/kb built in as well for some soft control.

I had a necro/traps I made specifically to team with some friends doing an all MM team. The idea was that I could use the detonator on my lich, then use Soul Extraction to revive a stronger spirit from the dead lich, and capitalize on two unique powers on each set. Then they changed how Soul Extraction worked and the character theme felt off. Then I realized the new SE is just straight up better in every way (outside of my niche wombo combo) and now I like the character. It's not going to be one of the MMs that solos 4/8 easily or anything, but it does just fine. SE and Seeker Drones give you ample room for fitting in all the pet uniques, and getting your own defense up to 45 is pretty easy with FFG. That being said, I just got a demon/marine mm to 50 and I think my next project will be a necro/marine, and I would probably suggest that over traps if you don't have a character concept you're excited to try.

you probably used lingering radiation too ? I mean, it's within my powerset and I use it on AVs as well, so yeah

Fire/rad troller, 198 seconds (3:18) for ~320dps That was with no lore pets, and kept getting knocked back every so often With lore pets and break frees- 70 seconds (1:10) for ~675dps So yeah, lore pets do a LOT of dps, that was with longbow