Fichenchips

Commanding Presence (Resist (taunt placate), Edict of the Master (+defense), Sovereign Right (+Res All), Call to Arms (defense), Expedient Reinforcement (Res), Command of the Mastermind (Def), Mark of Supremacy (Res all + Regen) The shield breaker proc definitely works in both the Soldiers and the Spec ops.

If that's truly the case, then why take Hurricane at all? It only makes Freezing rain more difficult to manage with the mandatory repel effect, and it only cost an arm and a leg to enhance to make it work with freezing rain -at all-. I think you are vastly underestimating an ability that has -35% hit chance and basically negates all damage from melee monsters against your pets. There is absolutely no reason not to go cold, even the thematic are nigh identical, unless you don't plan on leveling all the way to 35. If you really want to see how effective Hurricane truly is, then turn it off in a dungeon. You'll notice your mercs go from almost never dying to all dying immediately.

I delete my posts because I've deleted my posts for years, kind of weird to have a reddit account with over 6,000 karma that's been around for years with only 10 posts in the history at a time. What you said/say is bad advice, hence why I did not take it. I am also the same redditor that has the highest rated MM post on that entire subreddit's history that 97% of the community upvoted. Like I said, if insulting me makes you feel better, great, keep it up, and I hope your day gets better where you don't feel the need to insult anyone who disagrees with you, but like any normal person I am just going to disregard your posts as I am confident you have little knowledge of this game or a serious ego where you cannot accept a world where you are wrong. Best of luck with the whole, "Being right" thing.

Funny, I am under the same impression you have zero knowledge about MM and you've never actually played one, just power leveled them, but feel free to insult me if it makes you feel better. I just plan on ignoring your contributions from this point further.

Pvp I find trick arrow to be the king. It's good in Pve as well, but very tricky to use effectively. The EMP arrow has a -regen on it, but the cooldown is too long to maintain that. /Dark is just an amazing power for MM, but it's not the best at killing AVs. The trick to AV killing is -regen and darks -regen is on a long cooldown. Also, Dark is not the best at PvP as well since its about CC and players will have more res than a "MM CC" can bypass and the high movement of players makes it difficult to land CC. Thermal is a good all around secondary for Demons. It also has the -Regen, but Melt Armor is pretty meh on AVs. As long as there is no time limit and you can survive the initial engage/adds then Thermal wont have any issues, but winning any DPS awards probably won't happen. If you want a secondary that's just good at everything, time is the way to go. If you want a secondary good at AV killing then poison/traps. If you want a secondary good at PvP then Trick Arrow.

There are only two things I want for Masterminds. The first is an appearance alteration for pets. This could be as small as switching between categories. Like Thugs could have "Mafia" or "Thug" themed. Ninjas could have "Rogue" or "Ninja" theme. Zombies could be "Skeleton" or "Zombie" Ect. Or also, just a coloration alteration would work for me, perhaps choosing a "Primary" and "Secondary" color theme for your pets so they are all matching. The second is a Dinosaur power. They could do so much with this. The Tier 1's could be raptors! You would have a million people name them after Jurassic World, but raptors would be the perfect Tier 1. Or if you want some ranged versions, then they could be those spitting dinosaurs from Jurassic Park the original and they could be exclusively ranged Tier 1 pets. These would be debuff/support focused pets, kind of the supports of the group. Like the raptors could have auras attached to them kind of like giving the group "tactics" since they are smart or the spitters could have debuffs attached to their spit attacks, different kinds of poisons. Then the Tier 2 could fit the tank role, since there are no "tank" tier 2 pets. One could be like a Triceratops that charges into battle and the other could be that dinosaur with the mace as a tail and armor plated back. The Triceratops is a single target tank that taunts whatever it's hitting, while the other one would be an AoE pet that uses provoke with it's attacks. The Tier 3 pet would have to be a T-rex, sorry, no if's and's or but's on this one. The T-rex would be a DPS pet, because Tier 3 DPS pets are the best. He would have a unique ability to jump in the air, grab flying targets and throw them on the ground. He would have a good mix of AoE with his tail and single target. They could function on a unique mechanic where they heal themselves after they kill a target, kind of like eating the bodies. The level 18 ability would be a better version of Serum. It would be like an "enrage" ability on all of the pets. Perhaps for the duration they are forced into aggressive stance so you lose Bodyguard, but they gain a massive damage and speed boost. The damage abilities wouldn't really matter, since no one takes them anyway, but they could probably have a secondary defense down effect attached to them.

Eesh, I never take primary attacks. Ever. I tried the life drain on the necromancy tree because I wanted a secondary that doesn't have heal. It felt like such a mistake. Fairly weak heal on such a huge endurance cost that also requires a hit check. There are several reasons I don't take attack powers. 1. Thematics. I am a mastermind. To me a mastermind is someone who sits back and has her minions to the work for her. The one who doesn't get caught because she has fall boys. My power is my brain, not my ability to fight. If I'm joining the fight, it feels more way less like a mastermind and more like a hunter from world of warcraft. Perhaps its also because I only play Villains and that's more of a villain mentality to sacrifice those less gifted than you. 2. Power economy. I need SO many powers, I wouldn't even know where I could fit in the time or what I want to sacrifice to get an attack power. Masterminds just benefit so much from so many difference Ancillary powers. Leadership auras, Medicine Heals, Presence Provokes/CC, Fighting Tough/Weave, Travel Powers. Speed's Quicken/Burn Out. There is seldom an Ancillary tree that doesn't have powers I want and that help so so much. Even when I played Nin/Pain, which has the least amount of powers I need from Primary/Secondary I still had NO issues finding something useful to take during those levels. I often have to convince myself to take a travel power early instead of something more useful or else Ill never get it. 3. High Endurance Cost. The damage isn't great, but whatever its more damage added to the damage pool. Unfortunately a lot of the secondary powers, basically any of them that have any kind of heal in it are very heavy endurance cost to maintain the things I need to. There are only a few secondaries that are both passive enough and endurance friendly enough to -allow- the endurance usage. Cold and Force Fields. Some of the other more endurance friendly secondaries, like Trick Arrow are so filled with activities there isn't a window to deal damage. If damage is my goal, then Trick Arrow's Oil Slick or Storms Tornado/Lightning Storm are my go to powers.

I am a huge fan of cold actually. Sleet in my opinion is the best power in the game for a Mastermind. The massive slow which reduces damage taken by a huge amount, the nonparallel defense decrease that helps your T1's hit with less Accuracy boosts and the outstanding resistance debuff that can be compounded with Achilles Heel. You can also get some damage out of it with Lady of the Grey or Shield Breaker procs. There is only one other power like it and that's Freezing Rain from Storm, but Storm forces you to use Hurricane which is a headache and a half to deal with despite being amazing. Oil Slick is very comparable to Sleet, but Trick Arrow is a very difficult set to use effectively. The shields, stealth and IO aura's make capping Defense as easy as can be for any pet types. I don't really understand the hype for Benumb, but Heat loss is very nice for even more resistance debuff. I personally skip Snow Storm and Frostwork. Snow Storm because I feel it's just not worth using and once you get Sleet I've literally never used it, unless I'm like, "Oh I have nothing to do, guess Ill cast this." and it really makes no difference in the fights in my opinion. I skip Frostwork, because it may have its uses but I don't like maintaining buffs on 3 Tier 1 pets. That's more of a lazy thing. It's just not fun maintaining buffs in my opinion. This allows me to get more powers from the Ancillary tree, and there are ALOT of good ones for MM. So fun to have THREE sleets running at the same time when you take burn out. That's -90% resistances not counting Achilles Heel procs and then you throw two heat exhaustions out and you've got one fragile bad guy. Cold is also a light endurance costing power, so you have a lot of room for all of the leadership things, tough, weave, combat jumping, acrobatics, whatever you want. The obvious weakness being no heal, but really post 30 you rarely use heals.

Here's a list of all the secondaries that are not even a little bit endurance heavy... Cold Force Field Kinetics Nature (Restores its own Endurance to prevent being heavy) Poison Time Traps Trick Arrow I am aware that multiple Freezing Rains stack, but considering how much you have to sacrifice to get multiple freezing rains its just not worth it. Hurricane is the set defining power with its massive -35% hit and repel effect keeping the pets safe, not freezing rain. If your goal is to drop multiple freezing rain effects I'd recommend going with Cold as that set is extremely endurance friendly and benefits far more from recharge than Storm. The alternative would be just to not take Lightning Storm as that power is a huge endurance dump for no benefits to the pets and the whole point of the set is to get the most out of the pets. Otherwise you may as well be playing a Defender. I'd personally start from the ground up and set a priority list as you're trying to do so much at once. 1. Keep pets alive. 2. Maximize Pet damage. 3. Minimize Endurance Drain. These three should be your top concerns. Hurricane and Steamy Mist are your go-to powers for keeping your pets alive. Tornado is a supplement to this, but not required. With just Hurricane and Steamy Mist, you'll have minimum issues. So you need to make sure you can maintain hurricane 100% of the time, avoiding as much CC that toggles it off, because even a brief knockdown or hold will detoggle it and get your pets killed. Freezing rain is an asset to maximizing pet damage, but its second on the priority list, because dead pets do no damage. So if you have to make any sacrifices to their safety to enhance damage, it's not worth it in my opinion. By placing 4 of 6 Auras in the Tornado and 6 slotting the Tornado it really opens up possibilities for the pets and lets you still get some use out of the Tornado. The mercenaries in my opinion are easy to slot. You'll want the Overwhelming Force KB to KD, Lady Grey and Shield Breaker Procs, Achilles Heel and then you have two slots to increase their damage as you see fit. Accuracy isn't as important because Freezing Rain lowers defense an absurd amount and tactics, but you do want to get as much as you can. Spec Ops are the worst pets of the bunch. I usually put 1-2 of the remaining Auras in them, assuming I go with all 6. as well as at least 1 Lady Grey or Shield Breaker. They don't attack near as fast as the Soldiers and use CC. They have the worst AI of the bunch. Use them for set bonuses you want and try to get their damage as high as you can. Lots of room to work with on these guys. The Commando needs a KB to KD. 4 of his powers are AoE knockbacks that don't synergize with Freezing rain at all. He also needs lots of endurance reduction and you'll want to cap his damage. He doesn't attack fast enough to justify damage procs in my opinion since his hits are "big and slow" so you can also use him for set bonuses as long as you have a Sudden Acceleration KB to KD and endurance reduction. Snow Storm is an iffy power. Some swear by it but I find myself never using it ever. It's too endurance heavy and doesn't contribute enough. To me, it doesn't accomplish any of the goals I need and in practice I never know when to use it other than an obvious AV fight. I personally still don't see the need to Provoke after your explanation. Generally I'm standing ontop of my pets when I play, and Ill engage with a Freezing Rain, allowing the pets to do there thing as I micro manage them to stay in the hurricane. If the map allows, I'll Gust them into a corner and then drop a freezing rain. The pets have far higher defense and resistance than I do and the medic can out heal the damage they take, which is very minimal. Aside from the Alpha, I don't want to take a hit. The only pets I would consider provoke for are Ninjas, but definitely not with Storm. I'd probably go with Mace as a mastery power, for Web envelop to keep them in the freezing rain and Scorpion Shield for my own survival. I'm also a huge fan of power boost. I'd make a build for you, but I'm not really interested in the Storm playstyle. Hurricane's repel is just really really annoying. When it works, its amazing, but more times than not it spreads things out and then you have monsters everywhere, at least until you can Web Envelop but even immobilized targets can be repelled. I find Cold far more fun since its more about the Sleet than the Hurricane and I pair that with my mercs, Nature also works really really well due to the AoE Hold that's absolutely amazing and the 50% damage boost to everyone. I also never take into consideration Incarnates when making a build. Its more difficult to make a bad build than a good build when you're at the Incarnate level. The game is so easy for a MM at that point, I like to consider the whole leveling experience and once you get to the Incarnate power the games basically over in terms of difficulty.

I tried out your build Tamorand, and I had a few questions/concerns/comments. First, I feel you're missing out on a lot of damage by not adding in Lady Grey and Shield Breaker Procs to the Soldiers. Second, I feel you're wasting enhancement slots by adding in the Auras to the Soldiers. You can place the auras on the Tornado and make the pets stronger with Lady Grey/Shield Breakers. Third, why do you have provoke? The range on provoke is smaller than the Hurricane, which constantly repels. It seems the only chance you'll get to provoke is when the enemy is locked in a corner, which is when you won't need it. Fourth, The KB to KD on the Gust feels like a bad idea, it's a very expensive enhancement and Gust is great for the knockback to push monsters into the corner or back on the Freezing Rain. Fifth, The build seems way too focused on recharge, when there isn't really much that needs recharge. Freezing Rain is on a low enough cooldown with just 3 recharge IOs. Leaving Tornado/Lightning Storm really the only two powers that benefit from lower cooldown, but because of how endurance heavy the build is you can't afford to use them off cooldown, especially Lightning Storm. Personally, I wouldn't even use Hasten in this build because the Endurance crash is devastating if it causes you to lose a Hurricane. Sixth, Do you ever even use Snow Storm or use it enough to justify taking it? Seventh, Is Super Speed just your travel power of choice or is there a reason for it? Eighth, I'd recommend going for Acrobatics if you can fit it as really the major weakness of this build are things that can stop Hurricane. Overall, while I feel the build works I think that's more because of the strong synergy between Mercs ranged attacks and Hurricane/Tornado/Freezing Rain and not so much because of the enhancement selection.