Psylenz0511

I didn't quite understand the first sentence, but this is a good place to get help with builds. Some players don't like to play beast mastery, I am one, but I would gladly help with any issues you have with electrical affinity. What are your goals for this spec? MOAR damage? High recharge? solo build, group play, farmer?

Amp Up may be tier 9, but Faraday Cage is the defining power in Electric Affinity.

First of all, don't let anyone convince you that bots/FF is too boring to play. It's a greater 'starter' mastermind with a secondary that isn't too busy to learn how to properly learn to manipulate your pets. My first CoV character was a mastermind in the BAD OLD DAYS when pets were equipped, upgraded, and double bubbled ONE pet at a time, to get in the mission door, and the pets would despawn when you entered the mission, so you were summoning pets, praying no red-side door ambushes took you out before you got a protector bot summoned to bubble your MM. The KB/KD game is vital to a forcefield mastermind. It plays somewhat like a storm in that you position foes with kb to maximize the burn patches of an upgraded assault bot! ( Many savvy roboticists do NOT equip the assault bot, depriving him of his flame thrower ability and only upgrade for the missiles/burn patches). My rule of thumb on my robot mastermind was, if the target is knocked down even just once, the focused fire of the robots would take out the target before the target took out the mastermind, even on E.B.s and AVs. I didn't take pulse rifle abilities on my mastermind, but the photon grenades were useful to tankermind and grab some aggro for your robots to reply to. Forcebolt is a good opening ability on hard targets to stack the kb/kd and get that action going on a boss. Most AVs are immune to KB/KD. Repulsion bomb is also a good opening salvo on a tankerminding MM. You don't really need a high recharge build on a FF mastermind, but leadership is very suitable to a buffing mastermind. Assault is an ability that offers resistance to taunt and placate found more often on red-side foes. Torrent and Explosive Blast I would only recommend with the KB>KD procs to especially neutralize the undesired radial kb in explosive blast. I took repair on my mastermind, and used it sparingly (of course since the recharge is longish) on protector bots and the assault bot when they are low on health. I didn't have use for the medicine pool on my mastermind. Another feature to consider is deciding if you want an alternate build. You can have a mastermind build with separate abilities but not different power sets, one to run solo, one to run with teams. Pimp out the build you would play the most with purps, procs, and IO sets, and save influence on the other build for your less-played build by slotting the cheap IOs or what you can afford, but still be effective. See you in the city. Oh, and take group fly, it makes your robots look so cool.

Good evening fellow stormy. I like how you built your stormy. I agree with your goals for participation. There is a feature with the new proccing regime to maximize your +recharge which I see you utilized in gale. I also slotted some in Lightning storm, and Tornado, maybe I am ignorant on that point. I do know some procs work only on the pet and others work on the caster. Aside from that, Torrent is a good candidate for slotting the Force Feedback +recharge proc and the KB > KD proc to knock em down and add to your recharge - cone style (aoes, more targets more chance to proc). I would take super speed instead of fly to stack the stealth in super speed with the stealth in steamy mist, making you a candidate to stealth missions for objectives to speed up missions and taskforces. If you really need to fly I suggest the flight packs available at the pay-to-win vendors. I went scorpion on my stormy for the immobilize (for certain AVs that run, too much, I am looking at you Rommie,) and a hold for the LGTF or other content where you want a hold. I would not take more than maneuvers on a stormy since storms are end hogs. Also, your freezing rain works the other side of the +tohit aspect (-def)in tactics. I might go other than scorpion if I already had Tenebrous Tentacles, it plays well with hurricane and manipulating groups of foes. Plus, iirc, you can proc the immobilize and the targeted aoe features in TT. I would miss snowstorm far too much to skip it. It slows movement, it slows recharge, but what many folks forget or don't know is the interrupt factor that snowstorm has that minimizes the features of many foes encountered. Embalmed cadavers do not explode in a snowstorm. Energy Mages do not self-destruct in snowstorms. Sky raider engineers do NOT summon force field generators in a snowstorm. Rikti communication officers cannot summon additional rikti minions in a snowstorm. Flying foes are unable to fly in a snowstorm. I am sure I have omitted some other key interrupts. It;s also an ability you might have leveling up and respecify out of at 50 when you get incarnate abilities, but it would be hard to skip at low levels especially.

The LR/tower encounter is also one of the very few places that sonic or forcefield detention can really shine detaining one or two towers while the team eliminates the undetained targets.

I have an EA/fire. He isn't level 50 yet, but I can tell you EA is a powerhouse on a defender. There are signature powers in every defender primary. I would point out one salient power in Electric Affinity that will define your build, imho. Faraday Cage is the game changer. I run in with the tank, or scrapper, or brute for that matter, drop the Faraday Cage first, proceed to buff, recharge, health, absorb, and tohit. The one feature, heal, is the one that comes up the fastest, but if you do it right, you don't need it as much as the energizing circuit which is +recharge, +end, Faraday Cage is a bundle of buffs, +resistance, mezz protection, endurance drain protection, knockback protection, and recharge debuffs (slows). You cast FC, you stay in FC, you invite squishies to FC. "Keep all arms and legs inside the Faraday Cage until the fighting comes to a complete stop." With that in mind, I suggest boosting your damage resistance attributes, slotting for recharge, and modest +defense as defenders go. I personally take all the EA abilities. Amp Up is lackluster to some. I get it. It's not Fulcrum shift, it's not Tactics, it's certainly not Fortitude, But, it does well with damage dealers, and the status effects and debuffs of your controller type characters are buffed as well.. Fire does synergize well with EA. The only one I find awkward to use is fire breath, and I might add, well worth using, but the other attacks are really good with staying in the FC. Proc it up, you have targetted AOE abilities and there are procs for those. Fire doesn't have -resistance or -defense to tack procs on, but fire itself seems to do more damage innately than other defender blasts. Plus, inferno, inferno, inferno to your hearts content in the FC. Do I sound over the top high on Faraday Cage? Perhaps, I am. But I have experienced on an ITF where Faraday Cage has resisted the 'rez stun' when Romulus is defeated and absorbs one of his nicti, and that resistance is higher than the resistance in Dispersion Bubble for Forcefield and Sonic Resonance. Plus it stacks with other mezz resistance powers especially of the incarnate variety. You won't have to hide when Romulus dies on your squishy defender. I have also experienced that the mezz resistance for the Romulus stun is not as potent on a corruptor or mastermind -- Rommie will stun you!

Hello again meltage members, I am looking for tactical advice for an all-defender Ms Liberty Task force. I haven't done one of these since Live. I remember the successful runs I did featured a tank with full taunt and taunt aura pulling Lord recluse up a pole whereupon LR would fall back to the ground because the top of the pole was occupied by said tank. Also, the tank had a dedicated healer on the tank or else as palpatine once said "and now young skywalker, you will die" Which defender on an 8 defender team would do the pole dance and do incarnate abilities make this method a moot point?

On my demon prince, I slotted a couple(?) pacing of the turtles in with some slow enhancement. It shaves a little damage off but I noticed the greatness of the slow effects more, especially when the prince gets around to wielding greater ice sword circle. Bonfire to me is nearly a no-brainer for my melee pet masterminds. On my demons, I would split my stance, I would put the two lieutenants on attack/aggressive with the demon prince and the little demonlings on follow defensive. I would poke and prod my hellfire demon to be on point taking out the high priority targets like super stunners and sappers. This way I only micromanage one pet, the others will follow the aggro drawn on my mastermind. If I need to get more aggro on my mastermind, that is what "Crack the Whip" is for. Your living hellfire is kind of controllerish in the way it absorbs aggro, and hence damage to you and your pets, like seeker drones do for robots and trappers.

You are doing it right.

On my radar for another Defender: Storm/energy blast, since you can slot the KD>KB in the attacks to make them knockdown. The other facet is the Force Feedback +recharge proc to really crank out more tornadoes and lightning storms. I was able to use some on my Storm/water, which is a blast to play. I got to try out that max speed Storm/energy blast build.

Robots/Traps is a proven epic combo, you will do fine. Your friends would do well to fight with you from within the forcefield generator shield. Don't be shy, share the coverage with the melee folks you should not mind especially setting up the various traps melee range

Can you put the Force feedback +recharge in Bruiser? I think the proc affects the MM not the pet. Or does that gimp the Bruiser's slotting? Force Feedback proc in Bonfire? Just looking for more +recharge

If it were me, I would stack a scorpion shield defense with the protector bot's bubble on you + any added defense from powers or enhancement sets. If the foe's attack doesn't hit you in bodyguard mode, then the pets get zero damage.

Howl Shockwave and the Nuke are the first 3 I thought of for AoE

I rate Demons/Thermal highly too. It's thematic and effective. I also usually take bonfire on my Masterminds, so hard to resist an AoE knockdown that recharges at a decent rate.

As a short reminder, Howling Twilight is a great tool even when soloing. Auto hit Stun, auto hit slow, auto hit -regen - aoe even. I alternate HT with fearsome stare to take the bite out of the first strike from foes. Screech used with Howling Twilight is an amazing combo. Reminder #2. Dark Servant has one of the strongest -tohit debuffs in the game that goes with all his other abilities that have -tohit debuff. Smart dark defenders hide in the Dark Servant's Chill of the Night when the going gets rough. Plus, it's a great place to be when Dark Servant uses his Twilight Grasp.

@Doomguide2005 It was certainly an inadvertent omission: cosmic burst your defenders want the stun potentially more than the damage. Take that pesky sapper, sky raider engineer, or other minion out of the fight.

"Since I won't be worrying about doing any damage. Thanks.." I hope you discover you can play empathy at 100% and still have time, endurance, and opportunity to use your blasts to support your teams. Neutrino bolt can be a proc monster. You won't deal the damage of a blaster but it will make a difference. This ability also takes the Achille's Heel Chance for -resistance. This makes your target squishy to the whole team. Irradiate - Point blank range area of effect. Ths ability also can utilize the Achille's Heel Proc. This is no nuke but the defense debuff and chance for resistance debuff make a difference. Proton Volley - This beauty of an ability is a snipe and a bit of a Damage over Time. It's great for pulling or for getting a pesky minion off a teammate. It's also useful to dogpile on a target at the start of a fight. Aim - I would slot only Gaussian's Build Up proc and I would use it in conjunction with: Atomic Blast - This is a Point Blank Range damage yes, but more importantly for a defender an area of effect HOLD and - def... they can't move and they are easier to hit So of these previous attacks, Proton Volley and Aim you may want to skip. You dont really want to waste time and opportunity waiting for someone to heal or for fortitude, the buff auras, and adrenaline boost to recharge?

Time manipulation has a lot of defense powers. I would definitely recommend taking scorpion shield. Slotting Time Juncture with your other defense abilities will not max you out on Defense. Having high defense on your mastermind means you can put your demons in bodyguard mode, eat the alpha, tackle the tough targets and then focus fire your demons on bringing down the various/scattered survivors. Having said that, you DO have some nice resistance features in your demon pets especially and there is nothing wrong with enhancing those attributes. TL;DR version: Far Sight + Scorpion Shield is TOO GOOD to pass up

Be a rogue, you can solo red side and team on both sides

Didn't flash arrow used to have a -perception factor along with the tohit debuff?

as well as electric affinity

Dark Miasma/Fire Blast is a great combo; Traps/Dark blast or Beam Rifle; Storm/energy for the force feedback procs); Storm/water blast is formidable; Rad/rad is a classic good solo build as is Radiation/Dark Blast. I would also point out you can have up to 3 alternate builds to switch between and using SOs or generic IOs on your alternate build isn't too expensive. In short you can have one build for solo you tweak out and another build for teams when you want to knock around in groups or friends.

Lifegiving spores is very useful in the lower levels. I usually drop it right in the middle of the melee fray. In the incarnate levels its not as useful with all the shields, heals, buffs flowing in league play. Regrowth is another ability that is more crucial to lower level teams. One use that never gets old is the heal breaks teammates sleep status.