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If I were to go Ninjas, my first choice of secondary would absolutely be Trick Arrow. The set's inherent debuffs look to be very powerful, and many of the ranged attacks could slot the Annihilation %-Res piece as well. I like having multiples of that %proc in MM AoEs, because increasing the duration of that debuff helps increase damage output from the henchmen.

Disclaimer: I don't use MIDS so my comments are more general than specific. I recommend Mules for LotG +Global recharge long before recommending Hasten... unless there is a specific, very long recharge power in the build that is intended to be always used. My thinking: MMs have a deep Endurance tax on their powers. Hasten will result in more casts of all powers for more -Endurance... even without considering the -Endurance hit at the end of Hasten. Chasing perma-Hasten is a little bit of a mental trap for some builds... I mean to say that slots and enhancement picks are directed more towards perma-Hasten instead of towards more survivability, offense, or simply Quality-of-Life. The henchmen resummons are now (on Homecoming) super-speedy with no concern for Recharge. Another side effect of Homecoming that really benefits MMs is the ability to pick higher tier powers sooner in a build. There are fewer obvious 'empty' power picks at low levels, so there are fewer opportunities to fill up a build with pool powers(*1)... unless of course the player delays her primary/secondary power picks. Hasten is nearly worthless (IMO, YMMV) as a low-level (pre-20) power pick since almost all powers available before this point have reasonably fast recharge times anyway. Even in final (50+) builds I find the relative ease of affording Very Rare sets to deeply affect the utility of Hasten on most builds. (*1) This is another reason why Provoke isn't so valuable in this era; all ATs can get have AoE attack by level 20, either from their primary, secondary, or pool.

I can't speak to either the primary or the secondary. My blunt recommendations would be: slot Hell on Earth with the global henchmen/pet defense pieces, to free up slots in the henchmen Don't put %damage piece in the henchmen, try to leverage set bonuses and Acc/End/Damage instead The %BuildUp Very Rare and Overwhelming Force Knockdown should probably go in the T1, since each hench can use them and the level shift hurts them I was disappointed with Sorcery on a Thugs MM. I want to say that I tried everything I could think of to leverage that pool and I found it to be a poor choice, except for mule powers. If the intent is to be active-ish with a pool... Experimentation offers a good (IMO, YMMV) travel power, an ally buff, a self buff, and the awesome Corrosive Vial (which should help henchmen). Pain is probably tricky... I generally regard MM secondaries to be the best when they are debuffing enemies. Keeping Henchmen "alive" is far less important to me than whittling down enemies faster. At low and mid-levels, it is important to keep the henchmen alive (so no judgement from me on that score), but in a more-complete build this is not what I focus on. EDIT: I also don't think Provoke is a good choice for MMs. I like the Presence pool... but Provoke requires a ToHit check and the max targets is only 5. Better IMO is to use an AoE attack to get aggro. from the same pool, Invoke Panic has a target cap two times larger!

"Can I interest you in the exciting world of Day jobs?"

I was an initial backer of the City of Titans... for most of the sentimental reasons that have been written. Also like others have written: I long ago gave up on the project. I've never installed a single piece of software that was offered as part of my initial Kickstarter pledge. In my case it was less about the slow pace of progress, it was that the early focus seemed to be entirely on the graphics... especially the costume options... and trying to make a highly detail (graphics-wise) world. I specifically remember reading in one of the updates how the dev team was trying to adapt true (Planet Earth) surface scans into terrain features for the game world. This struck me(*1) as a blatant time-sink... especially (IIRC) as this was after a decision in the choice of the underlying graphics engine. (*1) Full disclosure: I spent many years as a project manager on multiple software projects... yes, for those of you in the business, that guy. Every project has its own unique ways of going off the rails, but letting programmers spend more than 5% of their time on "experimenting" has always been an incredible time-waster. I'm not anti-creativity, my approach was to tolerate creativity in the pursuit of satisfying actual requirements. AFAIK the Phoenix Project was almost entirely passion-based as opposed to being target-based. The initial updates struck me as completely reasonable. EDIT: I didn't find out about Ship of Heroes until much later. What struck me as most interesting about that project was that they explicitly wanted to have a reason why players couldn't leave a zone.... aka "War Walls". I thought that was a fine solution to a grumpy complaint about wanting to get past the zone walls in CoX.

Nothing to do with JE or Statesman... One side observation of my own: CoX was so immune to the South Korean style of factory play that "Inf Sellers" could barely make their presence known in-game during Live. There was no practical need to buy Inf... especially with Veteran Rewards, which made the repeated play incredibly bearable. The subscriber model as implemented, for all purposes negated the need for micro-transactions. I'm sure this rubbed NCSoft the wrong way, in multiple dimensions.

I always try to slot it in the T1 henchmen. My thinking is that (when triggered) it can help with the level shift that has them fighting uphill. I want to say that I have at least one non-MM character where I included it (probably a Crabbermind) for similar reasons. The T2 Disruptors are probably the best place for this piece as they have more attacks than the T1 Spiderlings. I want to say that I have also slotted it in Fire Imps, just because.

I feel what is being written, but that doesn't line up with my own feelings as a Day 1 Invulnerability Tanker. If anything it was the aggro change that hit "herding maps". I will sympathize that pre-ED it was possible to over-exaggerate the core attributes of any AT. My own feelings regarding pre-ED for my Tanker was pretty much: "It looks like those Scrappers are shaming me!" That Day 1 Tanker of mine was Invulnerability/Energy Melee, so the changes to the secondary certainly (and to some extent ED) hurt me in all sorts of places. With that character, I took a peculiar and limited joy in applying long-lasting stuns to all sorts of enemies... even if they would zip away at Mach 5.

I have long advocated for a %Contageous Fear; the existence of such a piece would greatly improve the viability of single-target Fears in the layer game.

I have a vague memory that Stateman (the PC) also had ranged attacks, which were not really a thing for Tankers at Launch. Between that an Unyielding, as an Invuln Tanker from Day 1, it felt like Dev "cheating" for their PCs in ways that were not as immediately obvious with the rest of the big names. It's sort of like in the more modern era, Penny Yin has access to an obvious pet that players can't access... although that bothers me not-at-all.

I had a very narrow gripe about Statesman from launch: IIRC Statesman was an Invulnerability Tanker, per the game materials. My gripe is that those of who played Invulnerability Tanks couldn't do the things that Statesman could do... Like move when powers were toggled on.

I think I've seen it double-stack on my T1 henchmen.

The real reason to slot Maintenance Drone is IMO for Recharge (and enhancement set bonuses). I would absolutely take Repulsion bolt for the -Resistance. I think you also ought to be taking the Primary attacks for the same reason. I would probably only slot Repulsion Bolt with a KB->KD and 50+5 or Superior Acc/Dam/End piece (I don't think there is an option for just Acc/End). Dampening Bubble can hold some Defense globals, so don't skip it out of spite.

My hot take: Spending on Enhancements (for a Blaster) is to do these things for a Blaster who wants to be seen as a "team leader" High global recharge, to AoE and aggro lots of enemies High defenses to survive the above Mileage may vary, but if Very Rares are off the table, here is what I would go for: The Teleportation pool, to quickly get teammates around zones... ...especially Combat Teleport, to get to where your melee buddies are (use macros for self-positioning) I would pack debuffs, particularly AoE -resistance. A stronger single-target debuf for GMs/AVs is appreciated... you can do this through relatively inexpensive slotting and power pools choices. Ultimately it is going to be about Quality-of-Life for your teammates.

What kind of Priest are we talking about? A Ninja/Trick arrow MM could fit an occidental Priest. A Dark/Water Blast Defender could be a more western take, with the ritualistic powers of healing and holy water.

The thread title isn't about players not contributing to teams it is about ToT leeching. These are not the same, as described in this thread.

If a player is following a team into missions, then they literally are not being AFK. It is a mental stretch to equate a team member not contributing in every mission (and somehow getting into all of them) with the behavior attributed to MMs parking henchmen in the PI parking lot.

An AFK MM won't be able to get into a mission and get rewards if I don't invite them. How is this situation analogous to a player that doesn't join a ToT league?

If in invite a player on a mission arc, which is giving me pretty much all the agency... which is not nearly as applicable to what the title of this thread implies. But hey, if the MM wants to join an Aaron Thiery arc and knock out cell doors to help me get doorbuster they are welcome!

"Shadowing" me in open world zones is going to have a negligible effect on "occasional purple recipe drops". I can't think of a single time when I've gotten a Purple (or PVP) from open-world defeats. I fight a large number of even-con critters when cleaning up Kings Row and Croatoa too. Most of those spawns are minions, so if you want to go ahead and clean them up for me (and reset the events) don't wait... just go and defeat them yourself please! Set yourself up as a multi-box in those spawn areas (pick Grim Vale in Croatoa) to get that "AFK feeling". Nearly all my Purple/PVP drops come from running solo missions at x8, with occasional (PVP) drops from low-level teamups. My crude estimates are that it takes about one hour of "defeating all" (solo) fully-stocked (x8) 'regular' missions to have a 50-50 chance of getting a Purple (or a PVP) recipe. I mention this because while (actively!) playing in a PI league I get very few recipe drops relative to what I get solo even when there are no 'leechers'. I saw someone say they got a Purple Drop, so it isn't out of the realm of possibility... but such a drop is already highly improbable. The demand for actions seem to come from a place of entitlement, I'm not skipping over any rationalization; I am recognizing that this level of upset from "X is more entitled to fight enemies at spot N than anybody else." If the ToT leagues would move to different places these "issues" wouldn't exist.

I didn't mean to cause sticker shock! There are different strategies for ATO/Very Rare/Winter ownership. I used to simply market to get them but I have a glut of merits so they are often used. My SG base has accumulated plenty of catalysts as well as attuned PVP and other commonly used pieces that came as drops or converter roulette. I typically use the attuned PVP pieces until I can swap in level 50s (which get boosted). If you play enough content you will accumulate PVP recipes and merits long before level 50. If you keep playing at level 50, you will accumulate Catalysts. I usually force the new character to pay for its own boosters and common IOs. I'm all over the place when it comes to "where do HamiO/DSyncs come from?" in any given build... could be I earned and kept them, could be I bought them. My market habits have become "wasteful" in terms of Inf and Merits, but that's me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Generally: before level 50 I am using leftover Overwhelming Force or attuned PVP sets until I lean into the Very Rare pieces. I see the main advantages of the Very Rare sets as being the (commonly occurring 4- and 5-piece) global bonuses to Accuracy and Recharge... plus they way they exemplar down. Almost all AT play better with these Global bonuses, but I can only think of one character in my stable (a War Mace Scrapper) that felt like it has painfully slow until the Very Rare Global Recharge helped the attack chain.... most ATs can play just fine without them. Just repeating myself: PVP recipes will drop at all levels, so I typically craft and attune these at whatever level. The attuned ones can be slotted very early in a career and will level up with the character, as @Frozen Burn wrote. It is easy to pull those out of a build during a respec or simply with unslotters. As was written above, the Auction House can be used to 'convert' to/from attuned, for a price.

Here is my Water/Nature Corruptor. I wouldn't say it is the greatest possible build, but I found myself trying to thread many different needles with respect to enhancement set choices and power picks.

I'm extremely far down the list of believing that there is a single play style for any AT (or player). I personally play a very engaged MM, I witness other MM players who are clearly not AFK but play very differently. For some content, my "most active" MM will become rather passive (zone invasions, mothership raids) because the henchmen AI is better at targeting enemies than I am! Those characters (multi-boxing?) would have gotten better XP and drops by simply going into the AE and running a farm. Even with a single MM's 6 henchmen getting kill credits from Murder Motel spawns, they aren't getting most (or even very much) of the XP... assuming that the players clicking on doors are actually doing damage to the TRICK spawns. The Bosses/Elite Bosses may or may not affect the XP math (compared to a straight AE farm) but I doubt that henchmen from an "AFK MM" are specifically shifting attention to focus fire on elite bosses. This past season I anchored a few teams at the PI motel, and occasionally the XP-per-unit-time was carp... even with everyone on my team clicking doors. I don't think it is possible to demonstrate regular "XP harm", even if it is possible to imagine "hypothetical XP harm." When I regularly see multiple characters in the league gaining 20+ levels in a sitting, I am having a hard time seeing how much any non-league player is actually hurting league players. I understand the feeling that someone else appears to be taking advantage of a situation that some "in-group" of people are already taking advantage of... and so this feels to me like a "get away from my always-restocked fishing hole" situation.

If a players is truly AFK, they will get logged out from the open world zone. Otherwise it can be very hard to tell if the player really is AFK or just playing their MM in a very disengaged way. The MM subforum has no shortage of players recommending against MM powers that require active play. That is: very few attacks, spamming things like Twilight Grasp, etc. My point stands: A disengaged Mastermind is, at best, insta-killing the minions. They won't be directly engaging with the 'highest reward' enemies, certainly not at the level of more active players. XP and Inf is proportional to the amount of damage done. The only thing I see a disengaged (again, can't really call them AFK in an open zone) MM's squad of henchmen impacting might be is the reward drop rate, but AFAIK who gets drops is affected by teams... again AFAIK, drop rates for defeating spawns are spread among team members not by rando damage by a solo player. This hypothetical 'AFK MM' is missing out on GM Merits and TREAT rewards. I don't see this as something to get that upset about. If anything, multiple henchmen have a bigger effect on FPS than on XP. EDIT: Let's not kid ourselves that Murder Motel in Peregrine was chosen because it adds some arbitrary level of difficulty or 'extra engagement' that makes it more deserving of a certain style of play. It's literally the easiest place for teams (with a level 50) to ToT: many doors, with easy lines-of-sight hospital is right across the street it's in a zone that allows 50s (with or without Incarnate powers) to click doors It's close to zone travel options (helipad, base portal, to some extent travel from TUNNEL, Ferry, Ouroboros can all be risk free) At some level this feels to me like a complaint that 'someone else is taking advantage of the thing I want to take advantage of'. If the MM really wants to defeat mobs (for better rewards, XP and INF) and be truly AFK the AE is literally just behind the PI motel. Obviously the answer is to move ToTing to a PVP zone, and allow player kills of those who are judged to be playing in a completely inactive way.

This is the (level 50) slotting I like for Howling Twilight (which should be spammed). The %Energy could be %Fire, depending on taste. Howling Twilight (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (*) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5 A note about %damage: You will need Accuracy and ToHit to get the most out of %procs. I try to get a mix of Global Accuracy as well as slotting Accuracy in the %proc the powers as well. I use Shadow Fall to get the Kismet +ToHit piece slotted too, because it is almost always toggled on. Here is my typical slotting: Shadow Fall (A) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (*) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Kismet - Accuracy +6% (*) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection (*) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (*) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50 I slot Fearsome Stare as follows, to get more %damage in it. Dark Servant just gets the four pieces of Cloud Senses. Fearsome Stare (A) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage (*) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (*) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/ToHitDebuff (*) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Recharge (*) Glimpse of the Abyss - Chance of Damage(Psionic)