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I feel that players can learn about the effects of debuffs, specifically -ToHit, by playing the game(*1)... although without monitoring combat values, it can be hard to make the connection. Aside from common discussion around defense debuffs and "softcap", I'm not sure that other types of player debuffs gets that much discussion. I'm unconvinced that more than 20% of players who do the Penny Yin TF actually know what Clamor's Radiation Infection does to the player and their nearby teammates. "Ok Tank, you have Clamor's aggro... could you maybe not stand toe-to-to with her?" (*1) Circle of Thorns can show up quite early in player careers (red/blue). I used to run (pre-page 5) quite a few "Tough Mode" blueside TFs (Penny Yin and ealier) with the difficulty turned up... and it was usually the inability to hit enemies that got the attention. Apropos of nothing: I'm leveling up a Stalker right now with the Energy Mastery epic... and I've been on the fence about Focused Accuracy. I have the build at the point where I almost have the attack chain (pre-50) where I want it... and while I don't have level 50 slotting for Accuracy and Recharge I am at a pretty good point with the slotted values... but I am absolutely seeing some enemies debuff my ToHit to the point where I feel like I should probably put Focused Accuracy into the build. For my build... I'm sacrificing a LotG mule power, which often isn't a deal breaker for me.

I certainly can (and have) used the market to create a good-sized nest egg, but every character I've taken to 50+ (after my first) has only spent approximately 150M... and that has been at P2W (now START) and buying converters (and some crafting expenses). Almost every slotted Enhancement has come from recipe roulette (as that character builds up the next character's nest egg) or Merits conversion. Merit conversion is a net waste, but I am rolling in merits... probably because I just play the game. I'm so lazy I use catalysts like crazy, even though I could use the AH for most of my needs.

No character on Homecoming should take 1 Billion inf to build, unless the goal is to massively over-spend on enhancements... or something crazy is going on and the characters is mostly slotted with Hami-Os and D-Syncs, or buying gobs of boosters/catalysts from the AH. Have a cushion of Inf is nice, and makes play easier. However: It pretty much only takes one level 50 to establish a cushion, and by using a SG base to store goodies every subsequent character should be able to nicely equip themselves from game-play drops. Even if a character has done a mad rush to level 50, it should be pretty inexpensive to buy common IOs (any level, but 45 and 50 get crafted for badges so they are always on the market) and just run PUG TF/SF for massive merit hauls. Few other players are going to notice a level 50 exemplared down is only using common IOs, and no one will care.

I kinda want to have a Nemesis Pilot, wearing aviators and a scarf, having a drink in Pocket D, complaining "I'm tired of people always blaming me."

Some simple opinions on teaming as a Mastermind. Secondary: I have nothing to say except that the secondary set from MM is supporting your henchmen (solo), so it should be able to support a team. I prefer MM's that debuff rather than those that focus more exclusively on team (and henchmen) survival, YMMV. As for Primaries: Sometime the group needs the henchmen to take an alpha strike Sometimes the group needs the henchmen to "clean up" spawns (typically scattered mobiles which have run away) The final piece of advice for teaming MMs: Try to keep most of your fodder on Bodyguard mode. It can be easy to want to put them on Aggressive mode, especially if there is a teammate grabbing aggro. Keep in mind that MMs have a a very small pool of HP without using the henchmen in Bodyguard mode, so try to avoid becoming Vengeance bait.

This doesn't help for most of the year... I like to use the Lady Winter mission as a benchmark for my characters. I have two different approaches. Time to clear the map (MOAR Candy Canes!) Defeat objects only and defeat Lady Winter + her spawn (faster rewards) This is one of those missions where the spawns are all uniform in placement and composition, the map is always the same, and the final enemy isn't trivial (for most characters). This is also a mission I like to use to test different power/slotting choices. Otherwise I'm using Tip missions, but those are too variable for a "leaderboard" challenge.

Congrats on 50. Some pet advice, specifically for high-level play: The Dark/Dark pets are squishy. They also don't tend to stay close. The Haunts don't get summoned if you "corpse blast". Use the Haunts power slots to hold the global pet Defense/Resistance auras, to try to keep the other pets alive longer. This is losing some offense, but the advantages for team play (as a Dark/Dark controller) are the PBAoE heals and debuffs from the Umbra Beast and Dark Servant. You can still summon the Haunts of course. Focusing on personal Recharge is a good idea, as many of the Dark/Dark powers are force multipliers as well as improving survival chances.

FWIW: Accuracy / ToHit is slightly less of an issue for Henchmen because of Supremacy. I've posted this before, but my slotting for Robotic Henchmen is: Level 1: Battle Drones (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up: Level 50 (*) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets (*) Sovereign Right – Accuracy/Damage (*) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus Level 12: Protector Bots (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Hami-O: Defense/Endurance (53 or could use a 50+5) (*) Edict of the Master: Defense Bonus (*) Call to Arms: Defense Aura for Pets (*) Call to Arms: Accuracy/Damage Level 22: Assault Bot (A) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Recharge/Pet +AoE Defense Aura: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy: Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy: Endurance, +Resist (All) +Regen(Pets): Level 50 I split up the Global pieces, and try to leverage set bonuses while boosting Accuracy, Damage, Endurance. I pretty much always put the Superior %Buildup proc in whatever tier henchmen (or pet) power that summons the most of that critter. I'm also figuring that the multiple lower tier guys benefit more than the highest tier guy. For MMs this thinking is mostly due to level shift. I understand those who want the %BuildUp in the T3, my choice is to better balance the offensive performance of the henchmen across levels. w.r.t. Protector Bots' offense... adding Maintenance Drone to the crew turned up the offense of those guys far more than anything else. Prior to the page 5(?) changes my Protector Bots almost always had a full blue bar during fights, now they make attacks more regularly and behave offensively more like the other henchmen.

Here is my level 50 Dark/Dark/Soul slotting (solo emphasis, not at +4). The build is pre-page 7, I haven't seen the need to respec, but I might change the Epic armor toggle.... but Toxic! The primary changes I might recommend for elevated level content: Consider Hasten, to avoid downtime on Fade. Investigate which, if any pet Global Aura pieces (Resistance, Defense) could be slotted. I am very satisfied with the pet slotting in my build, and most of the pets don't stay close to the controller... but for VERY hard content I can see resummoning them close by (and wanting them to stay close). I apologize if this doesn't make sense, but those globals are auras around the player, and so pets that don't stay close enough for the benefits of Shadow Fall are probably not benefiting from the aura pieces, which is why I eschewed them here. This build leverages Arcane Bolt in a way that may not appeal to everyone, but a pick is needed to get Rune of Protection... and set bonuses. This progression is meant to play at all levels, which factors into the build.

Hmmm.... how to explain.... Here is how I opted to slot Thunderstrike on my Tanker: Level 16: Thunder Strike (A) Multi-Strike - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Superior Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb (*) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance for Damage (Lethal) (*) Eradication - Chance for Damage (Energy) (*) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Damage (Psi) (*) Explosive Strike - Chance for Damage (Smashing) I opened the post with my slotting, so you can see I am NOT trying to use it for it's inherent extra damage. My first introduction to Thunderstrike was on a Dominator, and for a couple of reasons I found it to be an inferior attack. What I saw on my Dominator, where I had the power slotted without %damage, going for set bonuses with slotting: Dominator controls make it hard to have enemies bunched up (less of a problem for Tankers) I was rarely seeing any secondary effects... such that I actually dropped the power at the level 50 respec. TL;DR: For Tankers, I found Thunderstrike to be an excellent source of %damage... so much that I stopped thinking about the other part of the power (that never seemed to work for me).

Seeker Drones do not proc %damage. They can be slotted with those pieces, but unless something has radically changed about Seeker Drones, those pieces even thought they can be slotted won't contribute to damage. The Protector Bot's bubbles are IIRC 13% +Defense. I think it is worth slotting them with either a boosted 50+5 Defense IO, or a Defense/Endurance Reduction (50+5, or 53) piece. I saw significant performance improvement by slotting them with a level 53 Cytoskeleton.

Often folks are referring to the Def/+Global Recharge. I see people recommending slotting of the LotG for set bonuses, but it usually isn't the way I go. I won't pooh-pooh a global accuracy bonus, but often I'm getting those from Very Rare sets. About the only time I multi-slot LotG is when I have a power that is holding a +Global piece and I have only a single slot for more defense in that power.... then I will use a LotG piece. If I have more than one extra slot, I am probably using Shield Wall (boosted). I'm not the most creative when it comes to defense slotting. ED hits faster on Defense than Offense, and for harder content I can usually count on another player's choices (e.g. Maneuvers) to improve my defenses more than I could do so for myself.

I think there is an argument to be made that the henchmen (not pets) primaries that include a summonable pet attack (e.g. Hell on Earth, Gang War) which can slot the Global +Defense pieces have an easier time of achieving higher defense numbers (than primaries that do not). IIRC Beast includes an actual +Def power. Protector Bots will Bubble other henchmen (and the MM) for a hefty amount. As I wrote above: as for Defense, it is pretty much the secondary where Defense numbers will come from.

The "defense softcap" means different things for different tiers of Henchmen, and for different levels of content a MM will be facing.... how easy depends almost entirely on the secondary, not the primary.

The AoE sleeps fall into the category of "plays one way solo, plays a different way on teams." I know nothing about the new Arsenal sets, but on my other characters with an AoE sleep... I occasionally take it early to help with solo survability, and on PUGs it isn't often used in heavy rotation. I used to always skip the AoE sleep powers, but I have come to find them to be very useful to help avoid situations going pear-shaped.

I'd recommend AoE, because just two slots of Annihilation set gets you a little more Endurance, plus more %-Resistance. What else is in your build? I like having the attacks for -Regen, but also to grab aggro from spawns.

A few random comments: While leveling, I rarely slot the Tanker primaries. Enhancements values don't do very much until you are at the point where set bonuses come into play (special except for Kismet +ToHit and the Defense/Resist PVP global pieces). The primary becomes more important as you turn up spawn sizes. In order to NOT be frustrated by turning up spawn size, you will need endurance under control and attacks. Tankers do well with AoE attacks, I am certain you can get specific advice depending on the the build later.

I roughly use this priority: Travel speed buffs Invention discounts (IIRC I think the max is ten?) for Purple crafting Ally heal/rez self buffs (recharge or defense) I will also try to keep the base-teleporter charges at max, but that particular power is a "last resort" teleport for me.

LotG is shorthand for the "Luck of the Gambler" enhancement piece *it is a defense set) that when slotted gives characters a 7.5% boost to Global Recharge... even if the power is not toggled, provided the character is playing at a level where the "set bonus" would work (relative to the level of the enhancement).

I haven't done anything like repeat farming of a single GM, but I have done a significant number of solo GM defeats since the update (probably ~300 regular merits, including a couple of solo Lusca runs) and I've only gotten two recipe drops. I've joined up for many more GM fights(*1). I've accumulated enough Monstrous Aethers for over 20 random mini-pet recipes. I kinda lost track after Saturday.... I am beginning to wonder if my henchmen are getting the drops and not telling me! (*1) If I conservatively estimate 40 solo monster takedowns, and a recipe drop rate of 10%, only 2 recipes is on the "bad luck" side of the distribution but not inconceivable. If I had done 70 or 1000 kills (yeah, lets get that Scrapyarder exploit closed) and only gotten two... that seems wrong. Straying away from evidence-based math: There has long been as sort of feeling among some players that "random table" reward drops don't quite skew evenly for teams and leagues. Writing only for myself... I often do enough x8 content solo that within an hour or two (of enemy smashing) I get a Very Rare or PVP recipe drop. When I am on a PUG for the same amount of time, it is far less likely (but not impossible!) that I get that kind of drop... and often I feel (sorry no evidence!) like I've gotten significantly fewer common recipe drops as well. LVL 50 Common recipes are pretty easy to pay attention to, as the retail for ~100K each and none of my characters need them. The RNG and I have our issues! I do believe that it is implemented in almost as fair a way as possible (flat filling of the probability space in a pseudorandom way) but that doesn't mean I like it when it skews deeply unevenly. I have to believe it takes a lot of work for Streakbreaker RNGesus when a 95% chance ToHit AoE on a tightly clustered spawn of 8 enemies ends up with 3 MISSES.

The Arachnos flier is present, but unfightable in Mercy Island. It would be nice if it was visible in Grandville (via the map), because of its mechanics: (1 of 4 possible routes, untargetable while flying, etc.) There are other red-side Giant Monsters that can be spawned, but there are specific zone-related peculiarities (Deathsurge) or other times (Caleb's day/night cycle) that prevent them from being rapidly summoned like Scrapyarder. Caleb has other elements (flying, stealth) that make it less-than-optimal to try to "farm". I should disclose: I honestly don't know if Caleb has a 4-hour timer or not, because it is such a PITA to (a) spawn (b) find (c) guarantee all of its cohorts have been destroyed. I'm assuming it doesn't have a respawn timer based on the few times I've gone an spawned it. I want to say on at least a couple of occasions I've spawned it "right after" a server reboot.

This is how it should be: the other Giant Monsters are not "exploitable" in the same way as Scrapyard. Four hours between spawns, combined with the general improvements to toughness is enough to motivate teaming. Adamastor having a daily limit was targeted at a very specific set of players who (per discussions on the forums) parked themselves at the Adamastor summoning spot and would either resummon the GM or just be present when others resummoned the GM to score 6 merits an hour. They also got the shame of admitting that this is what they were doing! If other Giant Monsters get reward timers, I hope that we'd get the option to buy (via Aether) specific pet recipes as opposed to the random roll. The drop rates for the pet recipes are pretty poor... I have several hundred Merits from Giant Monster drops, but only two pet recipes have dropped. If ALL the GM rewards are put on timers, it will make it that much harder to get a specific recipe. Since the pet recipes are also planned to become non-fungible on the market, this next set of updates could be really miserable for those of us who have characters that want a specific pet.

The Goliath Warwalker in Boomtown has a one hour waiting period before it can be summoned. Deathsurge can be summoned, but the mobiles necessary to summon it are few in number and spread all over the map. Caleb can be summoned, but it is on the day/night clock. The Grim Vale event is on a two hour cycle, but only from the time when the last mobile from the previous event has been cleared. Pretty much all the other open world zone-specific giant monsters are on a four hour cycle, from the time when there spawn conditions have been met.

My "grounded" characters usually keep their travel power, athletic sprint, and sprint toggled on inside missions. If I think I am burning Endurance I will detoggle. I like to keep the travel powers toggled on for the secondary effects like teleportation (targeting a mobile or a location) or PBAoE knockdown.

I play a lot of Robots/Traps, and it is the preferred MM in my stable to other builds. Other pairings are fine, but what I like about the Robots/Traps combo is that through playstyle and power picks/slotting choices it is possible to have a very layered approach to debuffing enemies and buffing the henchmen. This combo's debuffs are more than just applying a toggle or using an aura, so it can be a surprisingly rewarding combination to master. I understand why Robots/Traps sometimes is referred to a "training wheels" combination, yet once those wheels come off, it can be a very high-performing set. The Page 5(?) robotics changes improved the damage output of the henchmen, but moved most of the debuffing elements into the MM primary attacks. The debuffs are less necessary for typical minion/lt/boss spawns, so for almost all content this was a big improvement. The only cases I've experience where this change hurt was that the robotic henchmen by themselves could no longer take down Giant Monsters (or other enemies with bags of HP). I think this was a perfectly acceptable trade off, but at the time I think it caught some players with the Robotics primary off guard. As for "most versatile" on a team... My attitude is that when playing solo your henchmen are your "team", so whatever works for the henches should work for a PUG. As enemy debuffing is the force multiplier for teams, this is the primary reason I lean hard into enemy debuffing for MMs. On the flip side, most teams usually have defenses and resistances (and to a varying degree "health management") covered I tend to not focus on those aspects of MM secondaries. Mileage varies of course, especially across content and playstyle. Whatever you pick, you won't be doing it wrong.