Coyote

Of course not, it's the Zombies who you'll be setting on fire 😛 Also, if attacking with personal attacks for a Necro MM, always get the Theft of Essence +End proc into Life Drain. Running that as part of a regular attack cycle is like having a second slotted Stamina in terms of endurance recovery.

Rather than Build-Up, you could consider the damage% proc from the knockback set. All of Phantasm's attacks do knockback, and damage procs do better on users with lower base damage on their attacks, like pets.

Forget single-target damage from Ice, you get as much from slotting up the Immobilize from Plant (albeit as DoT). Ice's real strength is AoE with Frost Breath. Because of its size, shape, and recharge, if you don't slot it up for Recharge you can get about 400 damage out of it, and do it at a good range for Plant (mid-range cone like Seeds of Confusion). While Stone is great, its AoE and ST damage are melee range, while otherwise with Plant/Storm you don't really have to go into melee range. Note, if you use Thunderclap a lot, then stacking Stuns from it with Stuns from Fissure IS nice. And, getting +Recharge from a Force Feedback proc in Fissure is great for a Stormy. My slotting for Frost Breath (empty slot is for Bombardment, since Mids doesn't calculate the damage from that proc properly): Resulting stats (add another 64 damage from Bombardment): IMO, that's way better for damage than Fire, and that's without Ice Storm even added in. So if you're looking for damage, the way to go is Ice, not Fire. The real question is: more direct damage from Ice, or more +Recharge from Stone? If you're planning to be in melee range all the time anyway (which usually means NOT using Hurricane, but using Thunderclap), then Stone fits that playstyle. If you're planning to stay a bit out of melee range (which means NOT using Thunderclap but maybe using Hurricane), then Ice fits that range better, IMO.

1: The main benefit of Spectral Terror is the -ToHit (which stacks nicely with the -ToHit from Time's Juncture, so you don't have to worry too much about the defense caps)... so it's generally better to slot it with Cloud Senses (and which gives a Recharge bonus at 4 slots instead of 5). 2: Put that slot into PA with a Soulbound Damage/Recharge. 3: Sup Invis and Group Invis DO stack their defense values (they will both suppress to a lower value in combat, of course). 4: Some exemplaring/leveling suggestions: take the SAME IOs in earlier slots where you can. For example, the +Def IO in Mind over Body costs you the same slots if you take it in Tough instead, but you get the Defense a lot earlier The LotG from Indomitable Will is an extra slot since you're 2-slotting the power, so you could move it to Group Invisibility and get the bonus at a lower levels, costs you the same slots. Swap Deceive and Flash... Flash isn't that useful at low levels with low accuracy, while Deceive is great as soon as you get it. I usually take Flash later when I have more global set bonuses and the IOs are higher level so they get higher Accuracy enhancement, so I'm not going into melee range with a 65% chance to hit higher level opponents. Deceive, on the other hand, has an Accuracy bonus so it's usable immediately.

Demons are a good set in general, and will do great with: Thermal and Cold (both are thematic) Time and Pain (Time is stronger) Dark and Storm (both are more finicky to play effectively)

Thugs MMs do benefit from standing back and firing Empty Clips and Dual Wield for FF procs to try to bring Gang War up faster. But they would be a candidate for the Fighting Pool, since Cross Punch also helps there, and the End cost is a lot more reasonable. As for secondary, I strongly vote for Rad... it gets all of its powers early, it has a good amount of skippables, and it plays well by running into its toggles alongside the Bruiser.

Yes, but it's 3 slots plus one for Coercive Persuasion's proc which is great. So it's a question of whether wasting the last two slots is worth the set bonuses (and, unfortunately, lowering the Endurance Reduction). I'm planning on it, for my Ice/Dark, because Dark has good End Recovery management. With some other secondaries, I might not. But getting the set bonuses for Coercive on a character who has a great +Recovery power was worth the last 2 slots. For some other characters, it may not be worth it.

My Mids shows a change in duration UNSLOTTED: 6x CONCUSSIVE PERSUASION The Confuse duration goes from 3.7 to 7.7 seconds. Also, you DO want to enhance it, because it only has a 30% chance to confuse on each 2-second tick, so you want to push the duration to where even after level adjustment it lasts for 6+ seconds. The reason is that you want a mob to be confused through 3 ticks so that you have about a 2/3 chance that they've been confused by one of the last 3 ticks. With only 2 ticks, the chance drops to 49%, and of course it's only 30% if it only lasts through one tick.

I like how one power opens up the use of other powers... it would be interesting to have a flame armor where you turn on an offensive flame aura that gives you some burning attacks, or a defensive flame aura that gives you an absorb and a heal clickie. Basically, a version of the WS/PB shapeshifting that doesn't lock out your other powers 😞

Came close on a Demons/Time (9 and 8)... and it's down to Temporal Selection against CJ... so I may end up taking Temporal after all.

If someone has an Earth/Storm, it would be possible to stack EQ, LS, Tornado for three rolls at 90%, and check the combat logs to see if they all fire. Then the difference between 15 and 10 seconds of buffing should be obvious (and they all should be able to be cast within the first proc's duration if you start with EQ).

If going Earth against AVs, I think I would suggest Cold as a secondary more than Storm. Storm in general, for going through other missions, since it helps kill faster... but Cold really makes Stoney a tough tank against AVs. Between Benumb's -Damage and the +Defense shields, he can tank a lot more than with Storm, and you get enough -Resist and -Regen to solo AVs even if it's not as fast. You trade off some killing speed against the easy AVs for the ability to handle more of the tough ones. Storm's better overall, IMO, with a strong defensive set like Earth... but for tanking AVs, Cold really makes Stoney shine. Same argument, BTW, with regards to Thermal... getting over 80% resist to Smashing damage as the weakest armor for Stoney, and everything else capped, is nuts and turns Stoney into an excellent single-target Tanker.

That's true for DPS characters. Debuffers also are hurt, but in practice even a weaker Freezing Rain is still good for a team. However, buffing powersets do fine when exemplared up as their main contributing is to improve the effectiveness of the other characters. For example, Transfusion may not be very reliable against +5s, but Fulcrum Shift is still likely to cap the team's damage. Fortitude and Adrenaline Boost still work just as well. I can really see buffing powersets with low damage piggybacking effectively on higher level teams... it's the damage-oriented characters who really don't contribute much.

Well, what kind of acc does one have to have to be "in the dirt"? I'm sure a LOT of teams can do +4/x8 even with half the team having "only" 70% chance to hit as a base. I mean, everyone generally slots up to hit +1 with about 100% accuracy or more, at least, so fighting +4s should still be hitting 2/3 of the time. Add in some Tactics or an AoE -Defense debuff, and even lower levels should hit consistently. I get it that if you're not at 95% you're feeling gimped, but it's not really true. You can still contribute damage, debuffing, and mezzing, not to mention that buffs for the team won't be affected. It's quite possible to be lower level, with worse-than-capped Accuracy and still be a contributing member of the team. Nobody is really going to expect the sidekicked Level 22 without many slots and set bonuses to be putting out the effectiveness of a Level 50 on the team, so if they're both running that difficulty level and inviting lower levels, they're okay with the lower levels contributing some but not being one of the major supers on the team. And that's fine, and if it's not... then why is the Level 22 accepting an invite to a Level 50 team? You should expect that you're not going to contribute as much when you're sidekicking up 20+ levels. In short: lower level characters on high-difficulty higher-level teams aren't really a problem. They're Robins tagging along on Batman's missions, but that's fine if you're prepared for it. And if you're not, then team near the level of your character and you'll contribute more.

Like @greycat and @MTeague, I think that a melee-oriented MM will get the most use out of it. I'm using it on a NinKin, I can see Beasts and Necros also having good use for it (though both Beasts and Necros do have decent attacks while Ninja primary attacks are horribad). And a secondary that pushes you into melee range like Poison or Kinetics or Time would work. Time would probably be best for it while also helping keep the fragile henchmen alive.

Energy is generally great, and the +Recharge that you get from being able to slot FF procs into its attacks help you cycle Total Domination / Mass Confuse faster. It does have a few issues with Mind: 1) Mind is all ranged and uses a cone, so... it wants to stay all at range. Energy's only AoE is melee range. 2) Energy's AoE puts out a weak Stun, which would do better if paired with a primary that also has a Stun effect. Overall, I like the pairing, but I'm not sure that it fits better than Mind/Fire or Mind/Dark, both of which are more suited to an all-ranged style, which would play to Mind's ranged strength. Fire is higher damage, while Dark is higher durability.

Yes, that was a good idea you had in the thread where I asked for secondary suggestions, and I'm going to try it. I posted my planned build there, I think it takes Group Fly around 16. I do recall how Mercs really didn't seem at all underperforming for me on Live, and I'm pretty sure that it was due to one power that's normally considered nice but not a game-changer: Caltrops. Keeping mobs away so that Mercs stay safe and can get more targets in their narrow cones is a huge offensive advantage... live Mercs at longer ranges do more damage than dead Mercs at shorter ranges. Come to think of it, though, that may be true at all ranges 😄

Seems so, check the timestamps on my post above. The FF proc from Tornado starts a full 5 seconds after the FF proc from LS even though Tornado is only fired about a second after LS, so it's queued... but the buff icon and recharge boost in power statistics only drop about 5 full seconds after the Tornado FF proc started. If it didn't last a full 5 seconds after its delayed start, the total duration would only have been about 6 seconds.

Welcome to the Heresy 😄 Redlynne said it great as a summary. I'll add two things to it: 1) The only reason I'm liking a NinKin MM is because I pull aggro to me with Provoke and attacks, and then the damage is distributed via Bodyguard so I'm not getting Genin constantly one-shot. And then I throw an AoE Heal to heal all the chunks of damage that got Bodyguarded out in one cast. If I had to try to wrangle crazy Ninjas while keeping them alive with very little buffing, well, I'd quit the character cold. Sometimes you have to know how to be active rather than reactive, with MMs. 2) I am planning a Mercs/FF MM. Sounds boring and weak, but the DPS of Burst-Slug-Burst-paus is almost 70 DPS... that's more than any tier of henchmen for Mercs. Heck, it's probably a 50% improvement in single-target damage compared to just letting the henchmen shoot the Boss... and it's more interesting and active. Instead of standing there telling them "shoot that guy for me and then get me a beer", I'm showing them how to do it. Probably only the Commando gets it, the others subscribe to the "spray and pray" theory of accuracy. But, being active with personal attacks will increase my DPS tremendously, and it will keep me interested in a fight instead of "shield everyone, give orders, take a bite from a sandwich, yawn".

Uh, does that mean you're asking for Rage to be nerfed, or does that mean that your Rage is fueled by nerfs? 😛

Scrappers, for me. It feels like scrapperlocking is shutting off my brain, and if I'm going to do that I'm going to go all the way and just run a /FF MM and just point "kill that guy, over there. Then fetch me a beer." BTW, that works better with Mercs and other human henchmen (and Robots)... Demons deliberately shake the beer, and you don't want to know what the undead do.

Okay, this is what I have from my Combat logs, with some extraneous stuff removed: [21:10:47] You activated the Lightning Storm power. [21:10:48] Readying Tornado. [21:10:48] You call forth a Lightning Storm! [21:10:48] Your attack rate has been increased. [21:10:49] HIT Kitsu Miyuki! Your Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge power is autohit. [21:10:50] You activated the Tornado power. [21:10:50] You call forth a Tornado! [21:10:54] Your attack rate has been increased. [21:10:54] HIT Kitsu Miyuki! Your Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge power is autohit. [21:11:01] Your Combat Jumping has made you harder to hit. I activated Combat Jumping when the buff icon disappeared. From what I can tell, assuming that lag and personal delay didn't play a factor (and I doubt that lag or the icon display lag is even a second), this is what happened... 1) at 0:47, LS was activated and Tornado queued 2) at 0:48, FF from LS triggered and increased the attack rate 3) at 0:50, Tornado was activated... but, strangely... 4) at 0:54 (significantly AFTER Tornado was activated), the FF from Tornado triggered 5) at 1:01, the FF from Tornado ended So, to my eyes, it seems like the 2nd FF proc is kind of "queued" to start only after the duration of the existing one expires. I wonder what would happen if you trigger a 3rd one during the 1st one's duration (Say, an Earth/Storm who also had one in Earthquake)... would it be queued where the 1st one ends, which would have #2 and #3 trigger at the same time, or would it queue after #2 and end up with 15 seconds of Recharge bonus?

Earth Control is good control with low damage, which fits well for Dominators. Earth Assault is excellent melee-oriented damage, and with nice AoE damage at point blank range, which also suits Dominators. So separately they are good sets. They also work well together because Earth Control has a good AoE Stun and Earth Assault also has an AoE attack with a Chance to Stun (and you can slot the ATO that creates a stunning ball of fire), so you can put out a lot of Stun effects. And you add in Knockdown from both Earth and Earth, so they combine to have a lot of Stunning and knocking down around you. I would actually worry more about Ranged defense on Earth/Earth... the mobs near you are going to be facing a lot of Stuns and Knockdowns, plus a Seismic Smash to the face, and usually a Hold (since it's more convenient to just tab to nearby mobs and Hold them). They're going to be less of a problem than the Council Valkyrie launching missiles at you every few seconds from long range and never coming close enough to get smashed. That's where Ranged Defense is useful, in that it allows you to focus on controlling and smashing at short range while leaving the annoying ranged foes for later because you can survive the little damage that they put out. But if you don't have it, then you have to split your focus, but the melee damage is still high enough that you can't ignore melee opponents, so now you have to try to control both the melee and the ranged opponents.

Get off Luminara's lawn and get onto mine. It needs mowing. 🤣

I don't know... it has 3 AoE with 66-75% chance to knockdown. That's a LOT of mob dribbling, plus Force Feedback in 3 attacks. Then the 4th attack is also an AoE with +Defense... BESIDES the damage, I took TW with a /Regen Brute so that the knockdown and +Defense help give Regen a chance to activate heals and just to regenerate damage while mobs are getting up. And against Bosses, sets with a 100% Hold or Stun may bounce off the Mag 4 required (though Holds can slot a Chance to Hold proc), while TW has a 100% Knockdown which helps with damage reduction against a single target. TW seems to me to be not only an outlier in terms of damage, but also to be one of the better defensive/utility sets... not necessarily the best, but clearly good enough on that account to consider it a strength. It specializes in AoE KD, so if that's what you want, it definitely delivers.