tidge

Having played a Robotics MM and /Marine on ATs other than MMs, I think the primary consideration is that the Robots are (effectively) entirely ranged attackers. The robots will be well-served by the debuffs from Marine. Some of what I suspect you are observing is with the henchmen classes that engage in melee; Marine should make it very easy to focus on (pretty much) all of the henchmen and the AV/GM at the same time. My experience with the robots is that they do tend to get somewhat scattered (knockback, travel, deciding when to move, etc.) and positioning them is something that has to be done if you want it done. My Robotics favorite is a Traps secondary; for that I skipped the final three powers in Traps (and Web Grenade, and Triage Beacon), so a tricked out Marine MM will probably only skip Soothing Wave and Whitecap. Personally I love Whitecap, but I think a Robotics MM isn't likely to need to use it. Such a kit of /Marine should perform as well as my /Traps kit in the control/debuff arena.... if not better. The primary "build issue" I see with a Robotics/Marine is that a Robotics MM does want at least two of the Pulse Rifle attacks for -Regen, and /Marine doesn't allow as much skipping of powers as I did with /Traps. I can see a build getting pretty crowded pretty fast.

My final slotting on Glue Arrow: Level 1: Glue Arrow (A) D-Sync Guidance (Accuracy/Range): Level 53 (*) Javelin Volley – Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Javelin Volley – Chance of Damage (Lethal) (*) Positron’s Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy) (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance of Damage (Cold) (*) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff I wanted the Range to bring it closer to the other Arrow powers (primary and secondary), and it can tolerate some recharge, so that explains the second slot. Annihilation's %-Res is (for me) one of those force multiplier choices (for teams) and works best IMO if multiple attacks include it, so as to potentially keep extending its effect.

While we are investigating 'crafting' issues: If I craft something and use an 'Invention discount coupon' and then move to the SG base buff device, any buffs I craft will cost a coupon (if I forget to unclick the discount bubble, at the invention table). IIRC the SG base device doesn't show the bubble, so it can be easy to burn through discount coupons. This is a pretty niche issue, but it has caught me many times. EDIT: I opened the SG base buff machine without using the crafting terminal, I saw the "use discount coupon" option... so I guess this one is entirely on me!

For Thugs? I think I'd suggest Marine first, with Time close behind. I think these are the best force multipliers, especially for Thugs. As noted above, and elsewhere, Marine brings a LOT to the table... it is an extremely good fit for a MM that won't be 100% paying attention to what the henchmen (or Gang War) are actually doing. It brings some crucial AoE control and enemy debuffs. Time is similar, but I think it falls below Marine. I do want to offer a different perspective on thoughts like this: I strongly believe that for a Mastermind, to focus on the henchmen, as opposed to focusing on the enemies, is paying attention to the wrong thing. I'm not saying to ignore the henchmen's defenses, but the game's rewards are for enemy defeats. The resummon times of all three tiers of henchmen are now PDQ, so I especially think focusing on keeping the henches alive is really old school (or at least: low-level) thinking. Thugs has Gang War in which to drop a lot of the defense/resistance Aura pieces. Mileage may vary depending on what specific content a player may be focusing on (in both solo and teams), but IMO focusing on the hench defenses as the primary point of consideration is a rather narrow focus. I know that this isn't the entirety of Cold or FF MM secondaries, but I do think those don't quite act as the force multipliers that Marine or Time will, across all content.

I was somewhat surprised that the most recent round of Giant Monster upgrades didn't include ToHit improvements, except of course for the auto-hit powers. Some of the GMs became more interesting/challenging to fight, most of them just became harder to defeat. Those are not the same thing. Ultimately I'm ok with how they shook out, nevertheless I was surprised.

I ended up 6-slotting Frozen Blast in Whirpool. I remember trying %procs in it... but ultimately using it for set bonuses was a better use of slots for me. If you do try to go with %procs, be sure to have Accuracy slotted in it as well.

Me neither. The most common sorts of mezz that I feel affects my Blasters are the the Malta Taser/Stun Grenades (one of these has a rather long duration) and a few of the AV/GM longish stuns (which seem to be mostly melee attacks).

Since crafting (many) level 45 and level 50 enhancements are tied to badges (and a semi-useful storage expansion), for those players not already slotting enhancement set pieces I recommend putting in some low bids (on the auction house) for IO pieces. A character can start slotting 45s at level 42.

My preference has been to use the (Superior) Defiant Barrage in the T1/T2 I took, because I'm pretty much going to 6-slot that set anyway, and since almost every other Offensive enhancement set is probably going to be 5-slotted (with one of those 5-pieces being a %proc) or occasionally franken-slotted(*1) depending on the Blaster's primary/secondary, I feel like the best place for that set is in (a) a power that could be used while mezzed, (b) isn't going to need a particularly good %proc chance anyway (because of the set's recharge boost). (*1) In my mind, it is a balance between the investment of all the other pieces in the Defiant Barrage set and how they contribute to Acc/Dam/End/Recharge and push the ED limits with all six of the slotted versus what else I could slot in a later power. YMMV.

I think all the major items were covered, additionally there are craftable (in SG bases) resistance boosts. I don't think of Blasters as needing Mezz protection nearly as much as other ATs (ehem, Controllers) do. Blasters can always 'keep Blasting' but a mezzed Controller is pretty much out of the fight. Since launch, Blasters have possibly gotten more direct improvements than any other AT The ability to use Fire (several, albeit low-level) attacks when 'controlled' via Defiance Sustains Fast-recharging, 'crashless' T9s Indirectly: I find that Blasters typically have many more options for leveraging enhancement sets... mostly because both the primary and secondary have (useful!) powers that can slot ATOs, Winter/Holiday, and the many different types of Offensive sets.

I realize that all things related to the UI pop-windows can be risky to tamper with. I realize that not all players perceive colors the same as others. I'd find it helpful, when using the Tunnel connection, or an Ouroboros portal as a character that can travel to different 'sides' (Blue, Red, Gold... such as with an 'alignment', etc.), if the different zone names were color-coded, similar to how the Long Range Teleporter pop menu has color coding. This is purely a minor quality of life issue (for me): I often use those (especially Tunnel portals) to move to different zones, and my eyes see a jumble of word salad... I leverage different mental tricks to find the zones I want, but that's 'one more thing', and I still occasionally go too fast to the wrong zone.

Here is one I've been adding to my Mystic Flight characters: /macro_image "Archery_Aim" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Translocation$$powexecname Mystic_Flight" I don't usually have Mystic Flight toggled on in combat, so a couple of clicks of the macro and I'm teleported to the target location, and Mystic Flight is off again.

I can provide more details, but my Bots/Traps/Mace: Skips these primary powers: Pulse Rifle Blast Skips these secondary powers: Web Grenade Triage Beacon Seeker Drones Trip Mine Detonator Takes these from Mace: Scorpion Shield Mace Beam Volley Fills out the build with powers from: Flight, Fighting, Leadership, Concealment Typically, the MM and all the henchmen are beyond the (non-incarnate) defense 'soft-cap' (positionals) and more-or-less at/beyond the incarnate soft-cap. It depends a little on positioning, debuffs, etc. The powers I skipped can be made to do things, but for my styles of play they don't do enough. The Maintenance Drone is a miraculous addition to the primary, as since it was added the henchmen generally stay functioning modulo some unfriendly RNG/Streakbreaker rolls. I usually don't have Weave or Hover toggled on. I have some, but ultimately very little franken-slotting in my build. The henchmen slotting is a special case naturally because of the limited options for pet pieces: The biggest issue I face with Masterminds is the heavy endurance tax they pay. My Bots/Traps/Mace is cycling through three attacks (two from primary, plus Mace Beam Volley to grab aggro and apply AoE %-Resistance and/or apply the soft control of knockdown. This is a contributing reason to NOT franken-slot the MM attacks. This is also why I would not take Hasten on a Mastermind. Generally there isn't very much in an MM build that really benefits from Hasten. The henchmen resummons timers are all quite short.

Not necessarily OP, but fun (for an archer)

There are some game animations/emotes that look weird with skirts (savage) because of the positions of upper/lower legs and arms. I don't have a legacy costume to check to see how a 'long skirt' would look with that emotes. Lotus isn't quite as bad, as arms don't go below the waist.