StrikerFox

Clicking 'View Active Sets' in the Mids' window opens a pop up that lists IO set bonuses in the build. Anything highlighted in red isn't doing anything for the build. The Dire Wolf has 6 different attacks. Two of 6 attacks apply a -def debuff with each having a chance to trigger the Lady Grey proc. Five of 6 attacks apply slow with each having a chance to proc Impeded Swiftness. The T1 and T2 pet attacks are all melee. They seem to take longer to take down a moving target as they chase, stop to bite and by the time that animation ends, the target is 15' away and then they chase again. Most other MM primary pets have some ranged attacks to take down running enemies. Imo, Overwhelming Force and Soulbound Allegiance are more important than the 4 Superior Command of the Mastermind set. The +4% damage is small as it only applies to the MM, not the pets. +4% is probably equivalent to +2 points of damage for Hawk and Ravens. The +10% recharge can probably be picked up elsewhere.

-The build is over the 'rule of 5' for LotG +7.5% recharge. -Mids' has Call Hawk toggled on, so it's adding Force Feedback's +100% recharge to the totals. Alot of the powers will be recharging slower than what's indicated. -Impeded Swiftness proc would activate more often than Lady Grey in Dire Wolf. -I think Cloud Sense set bonuses are better than Dark Watcher's in Darkest Night. -Web Envelope would probably work out well with Beast/Dark. Immobilized targets wouldn't be able to run out of Tar Patch, keep them tight for AoE attacks/debuffs. Also Beasts perform better vs stationary targets, imo. -Build will probably have endurance issues especially if Call Hawk/Ravens are spammed. Theft of Essence proc in Twilight grasp might help with that. Also adding some slots into Stamina. Or maybe Victory Rush from the Leadership pool. Though I'm not sure how much endurance it provides. -I recommend slotting Soulbound Allegiance and Overwhelming Force to your pets. They add a considerable amount of damage and mitigation. It's a solid build. Even if you ignore all of the above advice, it will probably still perform very well. I like the totals you reached in S/L/E def and resists. I think they're really good for an MM. Awesome job!

I noticed it before but when checking, it was just a visual bug. Their costumes changed but when checking their buffs, they still had both upgrades listed.

My Merc/Storm pylon runs aren't great. Built for damage but survivability is pretty minimal. Only +33.5% def to S/L/E. Dps is high but I was popping skittles to survive. Someone once commented on a post to, "Slot Gale up and put it on auto." That's what I did and it's amazing. Overpowered vs anything with little to no KB resistance, which feels like 90% of the game. Get recharge down to around 3s and you can knock targets down repeatedly as soon as they attempt to get up.

Don't expect Leadership Assault to perform miracles, +10.5% isn't a lot. Couple additional misses from one run to the next could negate that bonus. I recommend just hitting a pylon a few times, with each one of your attacks, with Assault on and off. Then do a damage comparison from the logs. It would eliminate rng from your assessment. There's also things like BU, crits, Achilles' or other debuffs you can try to test/factor in.

Definitely Mercs/Storm. I have quite of few characters, five are MMs. Mercs/Storm is my most frequently played among all ATs.

The +10% ATO is only for AoE def. Not sure if it's better than Edict or Call to Arms which both provide +5% def to everything. While leveling, slot it anywhere. But when close to 50, and you're finalizing your build, slot it in Oni. He should have the most free IO space. This is probably how I would slot the pets at 50, it would only change if paired with Storm. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;779;359;718;HEX;| |78DAF3AD70E159E7DE68CFC028E09C93585C1CEF9B585C925A949B9997C2EA9B989| |E99CCCC0004EC402C8190890F2ECDCDCDCFD3F3CBCCCB4A2C964792702A4D4BD373| |CECF498977C9070A249664E6E7310806E4E7E7E879E6956516672665E66496548A8| |0455C2B0A528B327353F34AC0EA78C1826E99E919259979E9DC105E0E882BEC5A90| |99ACE79C9158949E0A7560A504D0499A40BC9195010AFEB3327C0652869C0C4C5F4| |1340B0353180B986679C80CA19D99C0345B24443C4713AE178880004C60055B81D6| |7043ADE1865AC3130A3186E711D058591606BE2F10E3F92220E20207817C6116DC8| |682C176A0C99250932543203AA58E421C2CF50C28ACCEC220130E11977909E1CB9D| |84C8FF2705C8B0A0FB560B43C40043C41043C41843C40443C40743C41721F23F00C| |86684CA3282653905181898A1B26FB980B28CC8B2EF3144DE61887CC01071D442D8| |E8A4058FBEFFCE5AF000FFEF230C0C4788AEFF007DE70FD1| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Agile, Dodge and Lucky provides scaling damage resistance to S/L/F/C/E/N. The more hp you drop, the better the resistance. They stack with one another but is unenhanceable. I think the resistance bonus only kicks in when below 70% hp. Max resistance is +20% per power, so +60% total. If you're using Mids', there's a slider to see how much resist they're providing. Need to slide each power separately.

Let's take BS, Slice for example. 10'/19 °. Including hit box, it would be 13'/21.5°?

Thanks! Updated the screenshot with Rad and EM. Not sure if I understand what you mean by hit box. How does a target's hit box affect a player's AoE range?

Tossed together an AoE chart for Stalker primaries. Power list, what type of AoE it is, range, area they effect in square ft. Also their recharge with about +235% in each power. Just so we can see how quickly the AoE's can string together. Looks like ElM, SM and Spines are the best. I like DB too because it's so fast and the Sweep Combo is part of it's best attack chain. Made this pretty quick so there's probably a few mistakes. EM has a cone now but I don't have the data on that. Not sure how RadM works, Mids' shows almost all it's powers are an 8' PBAoEs. I remember Chain Induction chaining all the time during live and is why I tossed it in. Good luck hitting max targets with Head Splitter and Golden Dragonfly. Hope this helps. Used this area calculator to figure out the square footage: https://www.calculator.net/area-calculator.html

This was posted in the latest Beta patch notes: Can read about it here:

Latest Beta Patch has this: Can read about it, and other future updates, here:

I just created an MM on Beta to see if the camera rotation could be made stationary. Just to stop the spinning/vertigo. I thought setting the camera to player/player to camera options might help, but it didn't really do much. Pet fly speed seems a lot faster than what I remember. The pets were at cap (58 mph) with a single IO in Group Fly. There's a lot less camera swiveling when clicking the next goto location before the pets reach the previous. This keeps the pets in constant flight movement so there's less chance of rear ending them (Which seems to cause the most spinning).

I think the Mercs themselves could use some tweaking. Wider cones, AoE with larger radius, shortened cooldowns for some powers. Maybe a +15% damage buff across most of their attacks. Players in the past suggested Serum to be an AoE so all Merc pets can get the buff. Some wanted Serum to be changed to a pet, maybe into Gun Drones (Mainly to help cram in all the pet unique IOs) I had an idea to turn Serum into a "Formation" power. Once picking Formation at level 18, it unlocks a set of military tactics with each providing a different benefit (Sort of like Staff Mastery or Swap Ammo). Fire Support (AoE +def to all positions), Guerilla Tactics (+stun/immob to pet attacks), Flanking Maneuver (+tohit/dam to pets), High Ground (-res debuff to pet attacks). I think it would be kind of unique setting different formations to different pets but I haven't put a lot of thought into it. There's probably a hundred different problems with it.

When using Group Fly, I used to set myself to follow a pet and direct the pets where to fly to (Goto command). It prevented pets from falling behind and dropping. Still slow though.

Obitus did a detailed comparison of MA vs StJ during live (For Scrappers). StJ was ahead a little. I'm not sure how much of it is still valid with changes implemented between 2012 to present. Addition of ATO2 and CAK being able to slot Achilles' Heel now. http://web.archive.org/web/20120905235041/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=276359

Mercs/Storm is my favorite MM on Homecoming so far. Not the strongest but definitely the most fun. That's comparing it to Thugs/Time, Necro/Dark, Beast/TA, Bots/Traps and Demons/Thermal. That's not necessarily saying Mercs is great, more of a testament to how good Storm is. Storm is godly vs enemies with little to no KB protection, which seems like 90% of the game. Gale with Sudden Acceleration/Force Feedback procs is the backbone of the build. Knockdown targets as quick as they can get up. Freezing Rain, Tornado and Lightning Storm to pile on the damage. Constant debuffs from Achilles' and Annihilation helps the Merc's proc damage.

My favorite hold is Spirit Shark Jaws. It can slot ranged/hold IOs so it's mag can stack to 7 with Devastation/Lockdown procs equipped. Able to slot damage procs from 2 purp sets, Apocalypse and Unbreakable Constraint. Definitely don't drop IO set bonuses (for procs) if it will mess up your build. But if your survival, end rec, recharge, stats etc, are at a level where the set bonus isn't really needed, proc it up. Below is Moonbeam's damage through one pylon run with a Stalker. Mb activated 9 times, 31 procs out of a maximum of 36. Around 85% proc rate.

I tested the three Epic/Ancillary snipes awhile ago on Stalkers. Bareboned, only slotted for accuracy. They did the exact same damage vs a pylon. Mace Beam would probably fall behind since smashing is resisted more often. Mace and Moon can slot one more damage proc over Zapp (Explosive Strike and Cloud Senses).

It's glitched by Thunder Kick and Crippling Axe Kick. Remove them entirely from the build, pick them again and reslot the IOs. That should fix it.

Crippling Axe Kick is one of MA's better attacks. Maybe take it over Cobra Strike or Crane Kick. Imo, Crane Kick is still one of the best looking attacks in the game, but that KB can become a nuisance. A Sudden Acceleration or Overwhelming Force IO can fix that. Hide and Combat Jump has several slots devoted to Luck of the Gambler IOs, but the +def they provide is really low. For example, with Agility Core Alpha active, Hide and CJ combined provide +4.5% def with no IOs slotted. With the 6 LotG IOs you have slotted, combined Hide and CJ provides +6.23% def. It's only a +1.73% def gain. Mule them for LotG +7.5% recharge. The spare slots saved could be used for...: -Add Steadfast Protection res/def IO will provide +3% def to all positional/type attacks. -Add another slot in Focus Chi, for the 6th Gaussian's IO, will provide +2.5% def to all positional def, M/R/A. -Add another slot in Blinding Power for the 6th Coercive Persuasion will provide +5% ranged def. -Add an IO to Hasten to get it close to perma. -Add Panacea in Health to help with endurance. -Add Preventive Medicine +absorb to help with a bit of survival. -Add to Stamina to help with Recovery. Maybe try to make the build work with one less toggle by eliminating Maneuvers. If you plan to use Cross Punch for a bit of AoE, toss in Boxing. Fighting PP's damage bonuses are supposed to stack. Only one Power Transfer, chance to heal IO, can activate at a time. Having two will give a better chance to get one heal, but two heals will not occur simultaneously. It makes multiples PT IOs less useful. Adding a second Numina's IO into Health will provide more +regen than Regenerative Tissue. Or adding Impervious Skin unique in Tough/Kuji-In Sha will provide the same +regen as Regenerative Tissue, and also add a bit of +status resistance. Overall it's a good build, just a few tweaks here and there.

I'm kind of surprised nobody takes Detonator. Back during live, slotting for acc and dam on Detonator didn't matter as it used the acc/dam slotting from the pet being destroyed. It was pretty decent with a single end redux IO slotted. More of an "oh crap" power, if a pet is being pummelled. An Assault Bot with Sudden Acceleration equipped, the targets will likely just be knocked up (Not back). A few months ago we discovered Hell on Earth could be activated on any target under the MM's pet list. Including Dark Servant, Vanguard Heavy, Lore pets etc. I wonder if powers like Detonator, Serum, Soul Extraction, Smoke Flash, Repair etc could do the same. I would detonate Lore pets every time near the 5 min mark and then Soul Extract them. Can Recall Friend be used on Acid Mortar and Triage Beacon? Can't remember if it worked on them or if it was Gun Drone on devices (When it was stationary).

I think FF would have a chance to proc for the MM, everytime the Bruiser is summoned. Each other time FF procs, it would go onto the Bruiser. Since +recharge does not affect pets, it would be useless.

No, pretty sure it doesn't. No pet can equip a +range SO/IOs so incarnate +range abilities shouldn't affect them.