Crysis

These are actually a nice "best of" set of macro's relative to Sandolphan's binds. Although I use those on every MM I play, the three main ones I use every gaming session are what you have above. However, one of the nice advantages of Sandolphan's binds is the ability to go partial defensive with just your T1 henchmen, and remain aggressive with the T2 and T3 henchmen. But I'll be honest...I typically only do that when solo fighting critters that cause me issues (Rularuu for example) or when taking on a GM/AV solo. Otherwise, yeah...it's all pets same posture. I just tend to view the T1 pets as cannon fodder and often keep them in defensive follow while allowing the T2/T3 pets to be on aggressive. Some MM's don't like micromanaging their pets that much though. Thanks for sharing your binds/macros!

So at 50 with most Incarnates T4'd now, there's a couple of comments I wanted to make in this thread. First, for anyone on the fence about Mercs, I -hated- the old Mercs. The new changes are really an amazing transformation for an absolutely under-performing primary of old. I wouldn't list them as top tier...that still goes to Demons and Thugs....but I'd definitely say they aren't far behind. They cluster together nicely in a little murder ball now and ARE SO SHOOTY. PEW PEW PEW PPPPPPAH-PEWWWWW. Just an amazingly fun set to play now. As for the builds posted, here's what I did. I more or less followed @Meknomancer 's build above for levels 1-50. It gives you super sturdy Mercs and the MM also has really good defenses. It works fine even after 50 but that's where I have to tip my hat, as always, to Sir Myshkin. If you LIKE Mek's build up until you get Destiny Barrier T4...you gonna LOVE @Sir Myshkin 's build. For someone who really doesn't understand the concept of synergistic powers (ahem...as we've seen by at least one clueless wonder in this thread) you'll be looking at that build and saying "Oh hey, you underslotted this or that, let me fix that." But the beauty of the build is that once you've achieved Destiny Barrier Core Epiphany, you really can go all out on DPS instead. That, plus Hybrid Control with Soul Mastery pool, is just overwhelmingly powerful against all but the foes resistant to the Mercs firepower....and even then, with enough procs, you'll still do well. I'm not sure I'd enjoy the build for leveling given my playstyle, but post Barrier....it's just all out powerful and a lot of fun. I'd still say my Thugs/Storm and Demon/Storm likely put out more damage overall...but this is a really sturdy, fun and did I mention SHOOTY-MCSHOOTSALOT build? Oh and the Enflame trick? OMGWTFBBQ why didn't I do this before? That alone adds a significantly noticeable level of damage all by itself. Coupled with lots of -RES coming from Sleet and Benumb's -Regen, soloing my way through AV's and GM's isn't even all that hard. Really amazing use of an otherwise "meh" power. PS - to reiterate what I said earlier. Don't go Powerboost kids. Literally does absolutely nothing for either Mercs or Cold. I can't even see it working with Frostworks. Thanks to both of you. What a fun ride and what a massive redemption to a formerly despised (by me at least) primary!

Blast from past. I tend to respec my toons at around 38 (Epic/Patron Pool choices) and then again somewhere after 50 once I open up my Incarnates. So sure, you can skip it if you'd like because you are going to level fairly fast to get Fulcrum Shift anyways. But it is semi-useful against EB's and AV's also in mid-levels. I find it utterly useless by your 40's or so, especially with fast-moving teams and players with higher-level control/hold powers are generally debuffing the snot out of stuff by then. But as always, season to taste. But personally...its never in my 40+ builds for any Kinetics toon, regardless of AT, unless I literally just need a free power pick (eg; absolutely nothing else available is useful to you).

Oh wow, yeah, I remember I had dozens of alts parked at level 30 or whatever -just- for Sirens. Stalkers especially. Because at that time that’s about all they were good for.

Reminds me….I recall when the TV Respec trial was finally released. Up until then, you were stuck with your build/power choices once you chose them during a level up event. So if you chose poorly, too bad. I wasn’t yet a forum regular in those days, so eagerly jumped onto a TV trial with a couple of my original toons that were borked beyond recognition. I’m talking 6-slotted Acrobatics levels of borked. I was so excited playing that trial at the prospect of a) surviving it (it was initially quite challenging) and b) getting my respec token so I could rebuild the thing with any different powerset I desired. Of course, I’d learn quickly that you could only respec your power pool choices and your slotting. Not your primary/secondary powers. Was still a godsend but not quite the respec I envisioned. I also remember when they introduced CoV and there was, at the time, a lot of misinformation and/or wishful thinking being spread around the forums. I had the mistaken expectation that CoV would introduce the concept of a “personal arch-rival” for any heroes, a player character toon that would randomly show up as a personalization feature in your mission arcs to PvP you during an otherwise PvE oriented mission. They’d get an alert in CoV you were running a mission and would be invited to insert themselves as the “boss” for that mission and then take you on. Of course, this turned out to be all sorts of conflated misinterpretations of what became the Nictus/Void Hunter special critters when a PB/WS would be on the team coupled with the marketing for PVP zones. But it was a really fun idea to consider, however impractical it would have been, not to mention the absolute meltdown people would have that didn’t want to be forced to PVP in an instanced mission. That’s where the boards I think have always played an important role in any MMO….spreading rumors, gossip and “what ifs.” Some of them actually become features over time. I also recall the good-old-days of herding entire maps or even entire zones’ worth of street trash, having a Kinetic Fulcrum Shift them all at once and destroying everything with a couple of full Fulcrum’d Nova’s or Inferno’s, the Burn Tankers picking up anything left. You had to be careful about how many you applied Fulcrum to at the time as if you hit some magical upper limit, the buff icon’s would totally fill the screen and you ran the risk of crashing everyone’s game clients as a result. Many a time I’d be in a herding mission and someone would do that and I’d log back in lying in a dumpster or on top of phone wires in the Wolfie mission lol.

I don’t remember the old Eden Trial, but I do remember running around with a pack of other */Regen scrappers, all of us running perma-MOG. It was glorious. Unlimited +END, nigh-impenetrable +DEF and a teeny-tiny sliver of health. You literally just ignored all your other Regeneration powers because you didn’t need them/couldn’t use them with MOG up all the time. But yeah…that’s a grandpa story. It was OP as fxk. Thus the skull crushing beatings Regen took from the nerf bat…repeatedly.

No! That’s the funny part. It was in Numina after the final “kill XX in zone YY” and we’d all split up to take out the various trash and at that point were all already in Eden and a few hundred yards from the door mish that follows those annoying mini missions. It was petty and yes I saved them the trouble and just dropped and re-ran it with my own team. Playing an MMO offers no guarantees that you’ll be playing with people who have a personality worth teaming with in first place.

AFAIK, you can’t stack it, but the -RES debuff from Achilles does stack with Annihilation -RES debuff, and you’ll find many builds posted that slots both procs, although typically in different powers. And once upon a time, Achilles used this strange mechanic that sort of granted the target a temporary power that gave it the resistance debuff, meaning the -RES value wasn’t diminished via scaling thru the Purple Patch. But now it scales based on the targets level relative to the caster. Little bit of game change lore there, but just realize that the -RES impact from both DO stack.

See now that’s fine, especially in the Shard TF’s. Which, to this day I’m convinced were all created by a summer intern learning how to build missions via copy and paste.

Was on a TF the other day and made the mistake of arriving at the door BEFORE the leader. Now mind you, I didn’t ENTER the mission, just arrived at the door before the leader. Apparently they were fiddling trying to find the Team Transporter power and everyone was supposed to wait to use that method of transport. So they began yelling about it in team chat, and two others chimed in to “kick me” because apparently, at least a few of this group were SG mates. No mention of this was made in the advertising of the TF, nothing said at all about it. No harm done, right, because again…I DIDNT ENTER THE MISSION JUST GOT TO THE DOOR AHEAD OF LEADERS ABILITY TO TRIGGER TT FOR THE TEAM. ”My TF, my rules, obey them or I kick” I do PUGs frequently, usually without much expectation of anything other than finishing the missions/TF’s we embark upon, its not like much about this game is unbeatable with a PUG. But to be threatened for a kick JUST FOR NOT WAITING FOR TT was over the top. I couldn’t /gignore the leader and their cohorts fast enough.

The impressive thing about goals isn’t the goal itself, but the effort and dedication it took the achiever to make the goal and then achieve it. Congrats on your first page of 50’s!

Compared to a Scrapper? A Blaster? A Corruptor? I’ll admit that MM’s aren’t likely the simple “press three buttons and blow the whole spawn down.” But if you want easy mode this isn’t the right class. You want some challenge…..this is the right class.

There's a bunch of different ways to build a Thugs/Time. I got some inspiration from another poster here on the boards, don't recall whom, and skipped all my personal attacks in favor of going all punchy/kicky. I stay on BG mode, jump into the middle of spawn with TJ running. Between my S/L/M softcapped DEF and the -TOHIT of TJ, I eat the alpha and the boys come in gunning and swinging. Then whomever the Bruiser is pounding on I jump over and do Kick+Punch+CrossPunch repeatedly. It's fun and Cross Punch is decent soft control. Plus my +Recharge is bonkers high (hits over 300% at times) so Burnout is up pretty frequently for the fun double GangWar. I have another variation of this build that goes Leviathan for Knockout Blow to add more punchiness to the character. By comparison, I'm also including an equally strong build that relies on Bonfire to keep the spawn flopping while the thugs mop the floor with them. That's a more traditional Ranged +DEF softcap build. A friend of mine in-game herds with this very effectively, basically hopping from spawn to spawn with TJ running to pull aggro, ducks around corner, drops bonfire and then....ducks in a barrel. Just leave the henchmen waiting around corner using Goto and Passive commands. Very different playstyles, but I love "Stay Classy." It's basically Ron Burgandy with the News Crew gang doing beatdowns. I'm obnoxious withe petsayall dialogue during battles lol. "Rick, where'd you get that grenade?" Enjoy, by no means perfect builds for either, but just shows the versatility of the Thugs/TIme powersets. Stay_Classy_Alternate_SoulMastery.mxd timeless_beauty_-_Mastermind_Thugs.mxd

This is a stealth nerf to Flight pool I'm betting.....

@StrikerFox that's what I thought. So on Cold, all the powers that have any kind of +/- RES basically are unaffected. Both ice shields, Sleet, Arctic Fog and Heat Loss. Basically, for /Cold, you are..... ....are ya ready kids? Wait for it...... OUT IN THE COLD hahahahaha

Cold's Shields used to not be affected by PowerBoost at all. When did this change? Something about them being both +DEF and +RES and Powerboost being coded to ignore anything that's got +/- Res in the power? That was my original intent but have read on here that most of Cold's powerset doesn't work with PowerBoost.

Mmmmmmhmmmmm….especially if it’s just reassigning existing powers that otherwise exist in game already.

I was soloing an AV earlier today and as I cleared out the trash around him it occurred to me how much nastier an AV could be if they could direct all attacks from all minions within the room onto a single player. Sort of how a MasterMind can use “Attack my Target” and/or Bodyguard mode. It’s a very effective tactic in PvP team battles and I can only imagine if the AV had the ability to call in all minions within the area to focus their attacks on a player. The rules of aggro generally allow you to do what I did….clean the trash out of the area first, so it’s truly 1v1 against an AV. But if aggro rules didn’t apply to an AV, and they had the ability to call in all available support -and- direct their attacks onto a single target (maybe via a highest threat indicator flag or similar), it could really up the challenge factor. Or is this being done somewhere in the game already?

Wondering if Power Boost does anything useful for Sleet? Or Mercs? I have a single power selection available in build, and it has to be a one-slot wonder. Vengeance is usually the one that comes to mind with a 7.5% LOTG dropped into it as a mule. But since I went with Scorpion Shield I have PowerBoost looking at me there for a lvl 49 pick. I had Snow Storm but threw it out on a respec as with the single slot it was pretty useless. EDIT: I may have answered my own question. Since PB doesn't work with any power that applies +/-RES in any way, it won't work with Sleet or either of the ice shields. Presumably, it doesn't work on Benumb either. Then again, I can't trust MIDS. Per MIDS (newest build) Powerboost will boost Arctic Fog's +DEF, Scorpion Shields +DEF, Maneuvers, CJ, Hover, etc. But I have several /Time MM's and looking at Combat Attributes, Powerboost does NOT improve Scorpion Shield's +DEF at all, presumably because it also has +RES to Toxic, thus negating any ability to boost any part of that power. So presumably, Arctic Fog, Serum, Scorp Shield, etc etc in a Mercs/Cold won't have -any- impact from Powerboost across the powerset, other than +DEF only powers like Hover, Maneuvers, CJ, etc. Looks like even as a one-slot wonder, it's lacking. Maybe as an alpha booster but that's not much of a bonus. Looks like Vengeance it is then.

I stood at elevators in Portal Corps and after dismissing and (re) slotting the enhancement, I took vators to lower level. Then I re summoned and applied Train Ninjas. Finally….both the LOTG +Recharge (to me) and the +Def in Danger Sense changed. Looks like one of those fleeting zoning bugs that pop up here and there. I mapzoned a few missions and it appears the bonus from the enhancement sticks now.

It’s a few months later since you posted this but I’m seeing the same bug with the “Train Ninjas” power when slotting a +Def IO. I’ve tried generic +Def enhancements, crafted +Def IO’s, Hami-O’s…..nothing I’ve used has ANY effect on the Ninjas base Defense. Definitely broken.

I'm starting to wonder if the "Train Ninja's" power is bugged. I've tried slotting a LOTG +5 defense/recharge IO in there. The +Recharge isn't applying to me...I can slot/unlsot/re-slot it and my +Recharge value never changes. I know that +Recharge has no impact on the henchmen. But per the patch notes, any +Def IO slotted in this power should enhance the +Defense passives for the Ninja. But when I summon them, then apply Train Ninja's while monitoring their Defense values in Combat Attributes....their Defense never changes. In fact, nothing appears to change. I realize they aren't Protector Bots and thus I'm not waiting for them to cast a defensive bubble or anything. But it just seems to make no difference what +DEF IO I stick in there...their Defensive values never change.

I'll personally never understand a MM who takes zero personal attacks. But you do you man. Enjoy the ride.

@bellona100 here, I’ll make it easy for you:

Go search “It’s a BOW time” thread. All you ever need to know about Ninjas/Time builds.