Crysis

Ah yes, this pairing was/is the standard “Rambo” build. It’s been a spell since I built mine but you may appreciate some of the builds discussed here. And @Nemu did a nice reworking (dare I say….Rambo First Blood: Part 2) after i27 changes dropped here.

You forgot BoS to target>Ki Push>Executioners Shot kill while they are still in mid-air and flying backwards. DP/MC just ooooooozes style. Maybe more than any other pairings. Whomever did the animations for MC and DP I headcanon got married and had a flock of beautiful babies together. Because these two are just…..PB&J levels of meant to be together. Seriously, any time I get bored of the game I roll out one of my various retired DP/MC builds (I’ve three now) and the poetic combat just gives me a rush for the game all over again!

Just making sure you know that Dual Pistols and Ninja Training or Ninja Tools accomplishes this? My Deadpool homage is a DP/Regen/Ninja Sentinel and one of my fave Blasters, named Sig Sauer Samurai, is a DP/Ninja Blaster.

Mek, where would you place Ninjas vs Thugs? Both are Defense oriented melee.

Marine Affinity really has opened up a lot of opportunities for MM's, almost like it's a Dev's gift to the class. Have pretty much finished off my Necro/Marine and have a Thugs/Marine and Merc/Marine sitting in the library of alts ready to be leveled up and slotted to 38 or so. Haven't built a Ninja/Marine yet but seems like being heavy melee focused with crits its a good combo on paper. Anyone take one to Incarnate levels yet? Any play/slotting notes to share?

I have a 1:45 with no Incarnates slotted at all. So I can believe that sub-50 second defeat times are very possible with necro/marine.

GW is def not that powerful. Even double GW via Burnout isn’t much DPS. Quite the spectacle though.

By “pulses ever 10s” does that mean that the henchmen need to be in the pulse’ AoE to get the buff, and it drops immediately if they are not, only restoring it once they are a) in range of the AoE and b) it’s “pulsed” again? If so, that would explain what I’m seeing.

Once upon a time there was a bug/feature where Hybrid Support would only affect henchmen if you summoned them AFTER you activated Hybrid Support. Still works this way or did they adjust it so it works ‘retroactively’ on henchmen already summoned? I’m asking because in-game I’m seeing some weird results and wanted to validate how its -supposed- to work before reporting what I’m seeing as a bug?

If you can fit it into the build, the TP pool for the fold space power is super nice for dropping spawns into your tidal pool.

I’ve now got a Thugs/Marine and a Necro/Marine. I hardly have any END issues at all with Thugs, whereas I do use up my blue bar almost fully on longer fights with my Necro. The difference is that on the Necro I have all three attacks (for the spectres) and use the blasts a bunch. And of course MM’s get an END penalty on blasting. Don’t do that near as much on the Thugs since I only have Dual Wield.

I skipped Shoal on my Necro/Marine, have the OF KB to KD slotted into zombies and other than Clockwork and some other rare critters I don't experience any knockback in the set.....just knockdown. Which as a soft control works very well I might add.

So I slotted in a two-piece of Gladiator's Net, an Acc/Hold and the Proc for extra damage in place of the Hami-O and the TofN showing in the build. Honestly, at 50 vet level 3 now, I'm still sporting those two. The extra hold strength from the Glad 2-piece bonus is nice as is the additional proc damage.

I have a full Gaussian set in Shifting Tides on my Necro/Marine MM, although more for the set bonus. That proc goes off a bunch per my buff bar, so apparently it’s trigger effect is influencing my own damage as well as other pets within the area of effect of Shifting Tides. So I can vouch for that, albeit on an MM, having extra damage for your own attacks is meh at best.

Yes it won’t accept TofN….Mids error. I’ve reported it on the discord. I’m traveling right now but when I land I’ll look and tell you what I put there instead.

I found with T4 barrier Serum is totally skippable. Even more so if you are running Hybrid Support. Mercs are nigh unkillable at that point, at least in Incarnate stuff outside of the Tyrant battle maybe. The incarnate level shifts help dramatically.

Water/cold and Ice/Cold are meta for good reason….. That said for normal PvE play Fire/Kin has been top tier for a long, long time.

When playing anything Time Manip don’t forget that Times Juncture is 12-15% -ToHit (don’t recall offhand for Corr) and that is effectively the same as +DEF. So you can effectively “softcap” melee defenses and others when staying inside melee range. And personally I think DP wants to be in melee.

I found using Tide Pool and WhiteCap in any clockwork missions to be nothing but scatter city. I think those critters have just low knockback resistance. Otherwise, I just get the normal (and desired) flopping up and down. Lots of fun with carnies...they so colorful when flopping.

During beta testing everyone was wanting Marine Affinity to get some form of Mezz protection. Using the build I just posted above, I’ve just finished running all kinds of +3/x6 (x8 is doable at this level, but the extra bosses hurt solo) missions against Carnies, CoT, Malta and Arachnos. The mechanics of Tide Pool and all the +DEF I’m rocking are just incredible against mezz-oriented spawns. My biggest issue has been targeting an Illusionist for Whitecap because if they go phased it won’t activate on them. But my standard approach of drop Tide Pool in the spawn, Whitecap in myself with henchmen on Defensive Follow, leap backwards (Torodial Bubble jump height really is nice when combined with CJ), throw in a Soothing, Tide Pool again, blast blast blast…..i just don’t get mezzed because they don’t land and/or because of Tidal Pool and Whitecap they are disrupted. Really glad I went with the +DEF route. Oh and Gloom and Dark Blast against the mezzers because the -ToHit from those does help in addition to everything the undead are throwing out to boot.

I have a Mercs/Marine at 28, and maybe it gets better, but at same level my Necro/Marine was far more effective than Mercs were. I think it’s the ranged behaivor. Tide Pool wants your pets to be in Melee. I think Thugs/, Demons/, Ninja/ and Necro/ (and maybe Beasts) will all outshine Mercs. But do let us know how it plays. I parked mine in favor of Necro/ and Thugs/Marine.

Saw it tonight……best MCU Ive seen since Avengers Endgame. Nice tie in to Loki series. TONS of easter eggs. I counted at least two dozen!

Just hit 43 with the build I posted up above. Opener is Tide Pool, then Whitecap into middle of spawn, zombies enter the fray, Torodial bubble, etc etc and blast as desired. Very effective, reminds me of playing /Time MM a bunch. Man the Frenzy you build up when the whole gang is in the TIde Pool is insane....I've seen as many 30 buffs on the bar. I'm playing +2/x8 mostly, but have done +3/x5. I'm sure +4/x8 is gonna be possible in a few more levels, although that level shift is always problematic outside of Incarnate content. Nonetheless....very safe, very sturdy (I hardly ever get hit, even by mezzers) and zombies just keep on trucking. Far better than my Necro/Storm did. Good set, almost custom-made for MM's.

Simply put, the two biggest differences between those who play MM’s well and those who cannot are: 1) Learning how to maneuver/position your henchman and otherwise keep them under control and 2) Learning “posture” for same. The vast majority of MM players I see in game use just ONE playstyle. They place the henchman on follow and put them on Defensive posture. Then everything is either a Zerg for them (rush headlong into the spawn) or they stay at range and throw out buffs and debuffs and maybe an attack now and then while their collective firepower (henchmen) do….almost nothing. Unless the MM gets attacked or they do, which isn’t happening way back from the fray. And it’s clear to me that they are on Defensive Follow because they think Bodyguard must be kept going at all times. Sometimes this can work well for some spawns and some power sets. My Robot/Time can play this way and be mostly effective as she jumps into the spawn and takes the alpha because of high +DEF and running Times Juncture and the bots then engage via ranged attacks to start. But even she must on occasion put the bot boys around the corner using Go Here/Stay/Passive commands, duck around corner to grab a bunch of aggro from spawn closest to door, then rejoin the bot army and wait until we see the whites of their eyes and trigger Defensive Follow or Aggressive mode quickly to complete the ambush. Running into a crowded room on Zerg mode using Defensive Follow is a sure way to overdraw aggro and fight multiple spawns at once and get overwhelmed. Likewise unleashing your full DPS capabilities by invoking a single Attack my Target command against a Sapper, a Mezzer or some other troublesome foe first and then quickly shifting back into bodyguard Defensive posture to better take the retaliatory alpha from the rest of the spawn is so intuitive to me now that I can easily remember the keybinds I use to do this in game as I type this. I’m a @Sandolphan fan by the way….best keybinds I’ve ever found and I use them constantly. You master positioning and posture commands via a good set of binds and the rest is up to the power set choices and slotting strategies, but even those don’t matter as much as positioning and posture. Zerging and allowing your henchmen to hang back and do nothing….you will be one of the weakest members of the team. You may as well just be a sitter in a fire farm at that point or master henchmen emoting. Neither your attacks nor your buffs/debuffs are ever going to do as much for your effectiveness as a MM as will positions and postures of your pets. The devs who created all those special commands for the class did so for a very good reason…..they knew they were critical to the AT. That’s why you get all these free extra button commands when you roll a MasterMind.

You don't really need Hasten, but it does help. You could easily fit back in SJ in there if you'd like, swapping it for Hasten, and then throw the extra slot somewhere else. I do think Tactics is a must though.