Meknomancer

Mercs will always be my number 1. But they were my number 1 before they got buffed and actually became joint number 1 with necro. Its always easier on ranged pets than melee pets so mercs and bots are always easier to play, die less and need resummoning less. Damage wise i think demons are pushing for top spot when combined with /marine. Both primary and secondary are stacking -resistance although it does mean taking some personal attacks. But it is hard to tell when shifting tides and tide pool are basically giving you a full on fulcrum shift on the pets the damage jumps to the point where all mm primaries become top notch dps and the differences are barely noticeable. I've never taken spiritual as an alpha on an mm so i have 0 experience there. I always take musculature or intuition. Recharge is rarely an issue once the AT sets are split up and the luck of the gambler 7.5% slotted. And you can always take an FF+Rech in whitecap which will fire off regularly.

You'll have more luck if you look for ice/cold builds

I'm gonna say yes. Heals. Soothing is a half heal half debuff cone, the heal is puny and do you really want to be having to line up the cone or looking for a bot which may or may not be where you thought it was, or got kb'd behind you forcing you to spin the camera. I gave up brine on the bots/marine because i wanted group flight and 2 personal attacks for the -regen but i kept maintenance drone. And i'm glad i did. I don't miss brine but i would miss the pet heals.

The SG base buffs! I have never used them and always forget. Bad habit to be in.

2 wolves use hurl with mag 6.67 kb. It stacks. 2 Archons use cones. Mag 9.97 kb. I haven't checked the new grenade numbers but they are high. Nowadays a Moonfire on +2/8 or higher will kb a lot of my older toons and keep them immob'd. They all use combat jump or hover+evasive and the Archons can still pin them. Its kind of strange only having this issue low levels and only since the council upgrades but then i assume most of those older builds are running enough defence to super reflex their way out of most situations.

The more i play /marine the more i find brine essential....on corrs and trollers. On the mm's you can get away with skipping it but if does make a noticeable difference, especially on a demons mm where you get stacked sources of -res you from corruption/lash/crack whip/whitecap/brine. The build looks great, only things i'd change are the alpha- damage on t1+t2 pets looks low and the unbreakable guard in tough, that may as well go in toroidal/enchant undead for an extra bonus. And the performance shifter in toroidal, a single boosted end mod seems to be more effective for some reason, i can only assume because its a clicky and not a passive or toggle. I like procs in it but i can see why you'd want full AT set in soul extract. And i'd swap the end red in tide pool for a slow or slow/end piece, the slow really helps out in preventing mobs from escaping. Mostly insignificant changes. I've been running mine with roughly the same amount of kb protection 10+ points. Not enough on resist builds where a couple of mag 6 knocks stack up and hit you. Maybe too much/not needed on a defensive build where your getting hit much less. But i do notice the lack of slow resistance, it gets really easy to start spamming whitecap as an opener into a mob before dropping tide pool on it while the enemies are getting to their feet only to have them drop tar patch or some other nasty slow effect and find myself glued before i have time to hop back out. Finished rolling every mm primary with marine and running a t4 barrier on all of them. Necro/Mercs/Demons/Bots are top tier with it, Ninjas and Thugs just below but dying way more often. Beasts aren't completely awful. The set really does feel like its tailor made specifically for masterminds over the other AT's that got it.

I don't know if this is a bug or intentional or just a 1 off. Morti Kal, the fight vs Montague/Mercedes/Exorcist. I was solo so i pulled the 3 of them back to a corner or so i thought so i could keep them tight when they stumble through their own stun. I faceplanted instantly and was a bit shocked as i was running a broot with decent hp and that had never happened before. Ever. On any rep or any content. I take a closer look.....and check the combat log. I had pulled 3 av's but it turns out Monty decided not to bother coming because Exorcist had duplicated himself and hit me with Midnight Grasp for over 2900 points while his twin just stood and laughed and Mercedes strolled back to Monty. I've run too many Morty Kal to count solo and at speed and i've never seen this duplication before. Was it a bug or does Exorcist have some ability that i didn't know about because in the last 753 runs i've just jumped into the centre of the mob and clicked buttons and never noticed in the chaos?

Well ice/marine isn't awful it turns out but it is still rough going. Slotted for 10 points kb protection and it can't even make it through a moonfire without faceplanting at least once....due to knockbacks. Does fit a lot of procs in but if your planning to run a 0 defence build and rely on resists and absorbs all i can say is good luck. Non stop mez without sorcerys rune/a tray of break free's, a couple of wolves hurls and your kb'd, a few archons in a mob and your immob'd even with combat jump and slowed if you haven't slotted for slow resist. The council got a serious bump and no lowbie can fit all that in by the mid 20's. And if you slot for that by 50 you'll be sacrificing all your damage procs for set bonuses. Think i'll stick with the ice/kin.

I took focused acc for the def debuff protection, i'm running 45% s/l, not sure its worth it on /marine with all its absorbs and i gave up a lot of procs to get there with a ton of recharge bonuses. And i'm still a couple seconds short on perma PA. I miss my corralax and water spout so it maybe getting an overhaul soon.

I went for the spider on mine over the disruptor blast. I don't even like running mace but the single target takes so much of the good procs compared to the other epics and patrons i felt a bit stuck for choice. Original choice was levi for theme but i just wasn't getting anywhere near the recharge i wanted and stacked fear from spout and spectral isn't as good as it sounds (or looks in mids) for controlling mobs 😛

I have fire/time and fire/dark, i may even have an ice/time. I've kind of lost track of the number of toons i rolled its probably over 6-700. I slot them get some incarnates and if they don't grab my attention right away they get shuffled into the pack or onto another server and i forget about them. The /time controller toons end up being so end heavy and i much prefer it on corrs and fenders and mm's. Ice/dark/ice and ice/storm/levi i do remember playing quite a lot, so slow to defeat mobs but steady and relatively unkillable. Maybe ice/marine....i haven't tried that yet.

Yup i can only play it smack bang in the centre of the mob with venemous to do the heavy lifting. Getting into the centre of the mob without dying thats the easy part. Its staying there without dying thats hard.

3 builds or you respec for each tf? Pretty sure i saw one running flash, 1 running confuse that you posted, and this with tarantula.

Whitecap does make a difference vs mobs although i'm finding it strange watching the damage fire off before the animation starts and never knowing if it'll hit 1 target or half the mob or nothing if the target dies as i click it. Watched the Renault vid. I forgot to check if its hitting the eye or if whitecap treats it like the itf computer and refuses. If so how are you getting PA up without it assuming you rely on the ff+rech. The only way i could get PA was to slot in ways i didn't find fun like a full armageddon set in whitecap/ full hold set in the st hold. Are you really running with such a huge downtime gap on it and covering the hole with force feedbacks?

Have you attempted any gm's yet? I have 0 incarnates on mine and just tried scrapyard and his hp didn't budge. As much as ill/marine is more relaxing to play than the /cold and just dawdles through mobs without taking any significant damage i'm not sure i consider it more balanced, it feels like both are quite far apart, one in terms of the buffs it provides and the other in terms of debuffs. It's odd that my mm's running /marine stomp all over anything and everything so possibly its just the lack of incarnates, but even they feel slower dps'wise than the /cold mm's. If /marine had any sort of -regen in the set i'd 100% agree with you. Although i suspect that would make it the most op set in the game.

Thats fascinating, i love to see other players builds and playstyles especially when they are counter to my own. The stop and check to see whats around the corner before deciding what tactics to use where i dont even look- just speed straight into the mob and then decide what i will do. While i love the build after putting it (roughly) into mids for the amount of procs @Dark Currentgets in and achieving some real damage out of this combo, theres just no way i could play it. No combat jump/no travel power/0 defence/almost 0 resistance/ 1 mistake and faceplant/1 team mate making a mistake and...faceplant. Different playstyles, different builds. I do a lot of speed running and harder content as well as solo tf's. You cannot keep up on a speed run let alone survive with no travel and no def/res as there's just too much inc damage from uncontrolled enemy mobs. Its tough to keep it fun and survivable and get enough damage to make it playable. I'm a luck insp from ranged softcap with 75% s/l with 50% slow res and sacrificed almost all my damage to get there. And i'm running intuition and ageless. I wonder if i could swap in vigor and barrier, drop sorcery for some extra st dps and rely on indom will for my mez protection but that brings the problem of low recharge into the build even if i could get the ff+rech in psi nado to fire off at will. Certainly gave me some ideas though, i will be going back into mids and having a look at what i can change (right after i decide if i like this ill/marine) as its a great concept and 2 fun powersets. Thanks for posting the vids. I rarely if ever watch people playing games, i'd much rather play myself, but these had my attention.

Perma PA should be your first aim on any Ill troller, if you got that your already halfway there. I'd want musculature in and a high defence and resistance build for harder content. Your alpha will apply to your pets and cardiac does 0 for them. Problem with a stormy is your endurance which kind of forces you into ageless destiny which isn't wanted on hard content when everyone expects t4 barriers/rebirth, usually barriers. Kb isn't helpful when your trying to steam through stuff and team mates are fold spacing mobs, specifically looking at lightning storm and phanty- dump phanty for hardmode, he'll be dead 3 seconds after summoning and during those 3 seconds he'll splatter mobs all over annoying the team. If you plan at any time to hit gale swap the ff+rech out for a sudden acc kb/kd. I'd dump thundercap, mag 2 stun will be useless unless your keeping it to mule a 10% rech bonus. Spectral Terror will need more acc in it for the tough stuff and even after dropping freezing rain before popping it i'm not sure it'll be that helpful. Hurricane will annoy team full stop unless your out on the edges of mobs shoving them into team-if your out on the edge your not getting the team buffs and most likely the first player to die. Hug the team.

It was mainly to max out the hp debuff but also to get that tiny heal bonus for soothing wave. Just wish i had the slots to do that on all mm's. I've noticed a lot of good slotting on other builds (wish i could remember everyones names for credit) - the new hammi pieces that give acc/heal/absorb. 2-3 of those bumped to 53.

Lately i prefer ninjas. I just like the crits and they feel like they are taking stuff out much faster than thugs. I ran a few solo morti kal since they were the weekly and only the demons were faster than the ninjas, i think if i'd taken smoke flash they may have won. Demons really surprised me, 23 min 11 seconds they were way ahead of even the mercs and necro pets.

Marine is made for mm's. Ninjas and Demons working out well so far after rolling mercs, necro, thugs and bots. Looks something like this, not sure skipping smoke flash was a good idea. Fold Space has been essential, the ninjas kb stuff and timing it so the mob is pulled back onto tide pool after the kb works really well. Like all melee pets they will die a ton on harder content. Still have to give mercs no. 1 spot with bots at no. 2. For hard content. Range wins. Melee pets have been getting hammered fast even buffed up on * content or solo tougher tf's like lrsf and the phalanx fight there just isn't time to resummon and buff before they die again. Demons slightly ahead of ninjas. Necro slightly ahead of demons. But not really noticeable on the majority of content. NINJAS MARINE - Mastermind (Ninjas - Marine Affinity).mbd

Low level i'd be tossing in lots of end red with minimal acc/dmg. Hotfeet will pull a lot of aggro on you from anything not controlled. All my domi's have end issues til i get perma dom and i don't usually hit that til i can slot my purples and catalyse AT bits. You could try a couple end red pieces with a few chance for damage enhances, domi's don't need much acc slotted if any, not sure how well procs do in hotfeet but i run it with them anyway unless i need to throw in something like avalanche for some defence bonuses.

I find it fun, i love ice control and fun is the only thing i really care about when playing. I've stopped trying to mini max def/res and just toss in anything now with minimal aim at survival.

100% agreed on the ill/traps, its far superior to my arse/trapper and the only things that come close are /traps mm's. I don't have a ton of traps toons especially with controllers, its never even crossed my mind to run with elec/ or dark/ , i can imagine an elec as i love to melee and have a ton of elec control toons, with dark i always feel like i have to take the aoe immob and its a cone so that puts me off, same reason i skipped cold snap on the ice/poison. It'll take 3 damage procs, 4 if you toss in the will of the controller but flash freeze has far greater proc options and requires zero co-ordination. I would of taken earth, seismic smash and fissure are fantastic but rock armour forces a hideous graphical effect destroying any costume you may have worked on. The day HC devs give us minimal fx for that i'll be respeccing it into a lot of toons.

Agreed on the OF i think i just tossed it in out of habit. Current build has 3 pieces in for the damage bonus, which makes no difference whatsoever but i had 2 slots for slick. When the damage is this low i have no clue if slotting slick for any damage at all makes any difference. I haven't seen another and was surprised to see ice/traps sitting bottom. Now i know what my next toon will be. How bad can it be really.

On that troller? 33% ranged def with 75% s/l resists. VG makes up the rest once it tags enemies. That or a luck insp. Which i always forget to use, i tend to carry alot of break free's. On the fenders and corrs i'll go much higher, 40% ranged or s/l defence minimum, usually scorp but i do like ice epic now it gets build up, with a t4 barrier to cover whats missing. Its a lot safer on a troller. Whatever primary you run the control will make you more survivable taking alphas. Even if that control is just arctic air. I run with fighting pool and have rune of protection as back up. Looks like this now i think ( i keep messing about in mids and writing over builds ) ICE POISO - Controller (Ice Control - Poison).mbd