Maelwys

Kinetic Melee powers are notorious for having a long windup time; which is known as Animation Time Before Effect (ATBE) "under the hood". KM's Burst has a ATBE of 2.167 seconds and a Radius of 8ft. For comparison MA's Dragon's Tail is only 0.5s, Katana's The Lotus Drops is 0.833s, WM's Whirling Mace is 0.8s. Spine's Spine Burst also has a fairly long windup time (1.667s) but almost double the others' Radius (15ft). With those other powersets if you're activating their AoE power whenever you have a lot of enemies tightly packed around you, then chances are that those enemies will still be sufficiently tightly packed around you when the power effect actually triggers + so most of them will be affected by it and receive damage. But not so for Burst - by the time its effect actually kicks in many foes may well have since moved out of range (and/or be dead already) and so will end up being unaffected by it. Therefore unless you have a means to Immobilize or Taunt things, I suspect your best bet is probably to use Burst as an opener before the mobs "run away" AI routine kicks in (and potentially using Fold Space if the critters are too spread out and/or locked into ranged attack mode).

NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HAH-HAH-HAH!

"Boosts are copied to entity" = "Take a copy of whatever Boosts are currently active on the summoner and duplicate each of them onto the pet/pseudopet" (it literally takes a copy of any buff/debuff active at the time of casting and duplicates it onto the newly summoned entity; including the current remaining duration. This includes the effect of Clicky buffs and Inspirations as well as the effect of Autos/Toggles and Set Bonuses - although the remaining "current buff duration" of any Autos/Toggles/SetBonuses typically expires after a few seconds and so is usually only relevant for the first few "ticks" of a pseudopet ability). This is what lets a Fire Blaster's Rain of Fire benefit from popping Red Inspirations and Aim/Build Up. "Entity has Creator's modifiers" = "Use the summoner's modifiers instead of the default 'pet/pseudopet' modifiers" (this is your Archetype attributes and modifiers - values such as Melee Res Dmg and Damage Smashing and Elusivity Melee - which translate into things like your Damage, Resistance and Hit Point base numbers and maximum limits). This is what lets a Fiery Aura Brute's Burn Patches cap out at 700% damage instead of 400% damage. Whenever these two flags are present together it allows a buff to be applied onto a Pet/Pseudopet and for that Pet/Pseudopet to benefit from the summoner's higher caps. You can see this in action by comparing the Blaster version of Bonfire (which has both "Boosts are copied to entity" and "Entity has Creator's modifiers") with Rain of Fire (which only has "Boosts are copied to entity") - the former has the Blaster 500% damage cap; but the latter only has the 400% Pet damage cap. "Ignores enhancements and other boosts" however is an odd one. It forbids the summoned entity from inheriting any boosts from its parent summoner; so in theory it should never be paired with a "Boosts are Copied to Entity" flag in the same power effect... but CoH is full of old redundant and/or spaghetti code. (IIRC it used to be that lots of power effects had this flag and/or "Ignores External Strength Boosts" on them by default because in days gone by it was possible to slot certain Hamidon-Origin enhancements into powers which resulted in boosting them in strange/unusual ways. For example, +Damage Resistance Enhancement is coded the same as +Damage Enhancement under the hood; so slotting a Damage/Range HO into Sonic Barrier would boost it by 33% instead of 20% and for a loooong time it was far more efficient to use -ToHit/-Def/End HOs in the likes of Tactics and Fortitude than +ToHit/+Def/End HOs). I can kinda-sorta understand why it'd be useful for Mastermind Henchmen summon powers to still possess this flag; as otherwise you could pop a powerful self-only buff like Rune of Protection or Surge of Power or Hoarfrost right before resummoning them.

Look here and note the "Boosts are copied to Entity" flag on the far right. Then look here and note the 240s Duration and the lack of an "Ignores External Strength Boosts" flag on the top left (which is the thing that prevents "Secondary Effect Boost" from the likes of Power Boost and Radial Clarion from affecting particular long-duration buff abilities) You pointed out the Radial Clarion interaction yourself in the bubble rework feedback thread. Radial Clarion applies its effect on your Henchmen directly; but last I checked Power Boost works just fine too as long as you're prepared to resummon your T2s at least once every 4 minutes. For anyone else following this: before the Robotics powerset rework, the Protector Bots bubbled each ally separately via Single Target buffs and it was far too much of a hassle to leverage this. But these days they only utilise a single AoE buff every 240s and it is very simple to force them to reapply it (all you need to do is cancel the currently active buff on yourself and they'll immediately refresh it on everyone). - - - - - - - - - - EDIT: Just hopped onto Brainstorm and did a quick test. Looks like despite that "Boosts are copied to Entity" flag, active buffs on the MM are not currently actually getting copied onto the Henchmen... so at present Power Boost indeed won't work for this but Clarion Radial still does. with ED-Capped Defense with ED-Capped Defense + Radial Clarion with ED-Capped Defense + Resummoning Pets (with either Power Boost and/or Radial Clarion active on the Mastermind at the point of resummoning) Last I actually ran a copy of Power Boost on a Bots was admittedly a good few years back. And double-checking the Protector Bots summoning power I see an "Ignores Enhancements and other boosts" flag there too (which isn't present on regular pets) that may well be effectively negating the other one... 🍝 💻

I'd advise against judging Blaster survivability before getting access to their sustain toggle. That said... again: SENTINEL. Energy/ with /Rad or /EA or /SR; and pick up an ally assisting ability or two via Epic/Patron pools

IIRC the only damage proc slottable within Brine itself is Touch of the Nictus... one damage proc combined with the flat -MaxHP is enough to one-click-delete low rank enemies but it won't even tickle AVs. On teams -Res and -Regen Debuffs are always going to pull the bulk of the weight (Shifting Tide Inherent Cold Damage Proc shenanigans notwithstanding!) against tough single targets; and Marine has piddly -Regen. So personally I'd much rather just drop a Whitecap + Brine and then Blast rather than spam Brine repeatedly. That said; with sufficient teammates and Lore pets to throw at something really all you need is Shifting Tides!

FWIW an endgame AV has 30677.2 HP, and a GM 70679.18 HP. Whilst 5k isn't a negligible proportion of that, anyone trying to stack it to noteworthy levels really needs to remember @Auroxispoint about Brine's -HP getting less and less effective the lower the target's current HP is. IME spamming it for the first ~10s or so of the fight makes a difference; but after that recasting it becomes kinda pointless.

FWIW it's quite possible for a Primary like Bots/ to end up with softcapped personal and henchmen Defenses regardless of your Secondary powerset (and in Bots' case you only really need either Power Boost or Radial Clarion Destiny; with both being total overkill)

576 HP in regular endgame content (Lv48+1) +MaxHP can boost that up to 864. /Marine will not only get its current HP up to 864, but also layer Absorb, Defense and Resistance on top. And many of the Primary MM powersets now get enhanceable Resistance via their T1 upgrade. Throw in the Aura IOs, ATOs, Maneuvers and Barrier Destiny/Support Hybrid and the little buggers actually become quite Tanky.

It does indeed.

The Force Feedback +Recharge Proc isn't an offensive one. As long as a power takes Knockback set IOs you can stick a FF Proc in it and that Proc will then get a chance to trigger "on power activation" (instead of "on inflicting damage" or even "on inflicting knockback/knockdown"). Therefore if you're using Trip Mine as a PBAoE attack (and you should) then you'll be granting yourself a rather hefty regular recharge buff... and getting your Nuke (e.g. Rain of Arrows) up faster whilst inflicting decent AoE damage? More than worth it IMO. The fact that you can't Damage Proc it up stops it from being overpowered; but it's still a good power pick if you're utilizing it as a set mule + a FF Proc.

Trip Mine on a /Devices Blaster is actually decentish because it's uninterruptible. Trip Mine on a /Traps (anything except a MM) is total whittle. Unfortunately neither are worthwhile for offensive procs because they self destruct and vanish before damage procs get a chance to activate. But they're a decent spot for gaining set bonuses (5 piece Armageddon minus the proc?) and can make good use of a Force Feedback +Rech.

Then check AA's "Active" Spines/FA Brute build here (I linked the thread above already but this is likely the specific post you'll want)

It's that time again... "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-(inhale)-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!"

I'm without access to a PC until Friday, but you really need to decide if you want to AFK Farm or Active Farm (the two have very different build goals) and also if you're completely wedded to the idea of a Brute or not (since Tankers are considerably more effective for farming in all but a few specific powerset combos and Spines/FA isn't one of them) Further Reading:

There are different base stats based on rank but you can can always boost your henchmens' HP a fair bit before it caps out (by +50% in fact... but remember that your lower tier pets spawn at -1 and -2 to you). That's part of what makes /Marine so effective on MMs. They also get to cap their damage resistances out at 90%. So you can get some really tough bricks by capping out their MaxHP plus layering up their Defense and Resistance.

There's a bit of synergy there. Slotted FFG will give about 16% def to all; throw in the Aura uniques and Maneuvers and that'll be pushed to ~30%... so you'll only need 15% more from the -ToHit and Barrier Destiny/Support Hybrid to Softcap. No DDR, but that's less of an issue for pet builds as the attacks are more distributed and you'll have some CC (Poison Trap + Caltrops) plus reasonable levels of healing (with a Panacea Proc slotted into Dark Empowerment plus the Siphon Lifes). Getting your own Defence up so you can reliability ToeBomb Trip Mines will also enable you to shore up Necro's somewhat lackluster AoE capability. And the huge -Regen debuff from Poison Trap and stackable -Res from multiple Acid Mortars will help vs GMs. However at the end of the day... it's just not on the same level as a Necro/Time let alone a Necro/Marine. And getting FFG and Maneuvers to remain active on mostly melee pets is tricky. Expect to be micromanaging henchmen positioning a lot.

Some of the other ATs/powersets have similar stuff - an example that pops into my head is the Sentinel Super Reflexes powers "Master Brawler" and "Practised Brawler" (which are each coded to exclude you from taking the other one). Usually this is specified in the Power Description in-game; and usually Mids will stop you from being able to take impossible power combinations when you're planning your build out. But if in doubt, the Test Server is your friend.

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=controller_control.mind_control.telekinesis&at=controller

There's a little synergy in Elec Mastery: I've got a few Sents that use the AoE Immob (Chain Fences) to keep stuff in place. (and in at least one of those builds it's not even procbombed...) 100% agree that there are much better "utility" pools out there though if maximum damage output isn't your schtick.

Plus the fact that the biggest hitter abilities like Havoc Punch actually come online at level 35 (and so remain available at level 30). It wasn't so long ago that your Primary and Secondary powerset capstones only became available at levels 32 and 38 respectively, and there's only a comparatively small number of taskforces and Ouroboros arcs that cap out below 30.

Fair point, even if a lot of swill ends up with more than one iteration through the pig. (Warning: do NOT google "coprophagia" from your work computer.... although if a coworker is dumb enough to leave theirs unlocked, have at it!) 💩 🐽 ((and yes, it was actually dumb enough to give the pig two sets of ears and no visible eyes by default))

Look further down, there's another 35.5ft (which unlike the first 15ft cancels when you attack or click a glowie)

Seismic/Elec with procced out Thunderstrike and recoloured Void Judgement? (Epic could be Arsenal for LRM, Elec for EM Pulse or Force for Forcebomb...) Or just a Seismic/RadArmor Sentinel with procbombed Ground Zero.