WumpusRat

While it's not quite the sense of euphoria I had the very first time I picked flight and lifted off the ground into the air, I still get a little giddy when I grab flight as a travel power. Floating up into the sky and looking around, swooping through the skyscrapers in Steel Canyon, landing on top of buildings and looking around at the view in the various zones. Reminiscing about playing "punt the minion" off the top of buildings in Kings Row... I'm still having a ton of fun, 20 years later.

I hoard temp powers like they were going out of style. I'll go out of my way to collect them just to have them. Use them? Why would I use them? I might need them someday! And it's not just temp powers. Inspirations, too. I hoard everything.

I have a gravity/trick arrow troller, and dimension shift is great fun on her. What I do is drop the shift down on a group of enemies, set down all my debuffs, then step into it and light the oil slick on fire, then step back out. The enemies all tend to burn to death and can't shoot at me except for the brief moment I step inside to light the oil. Once I got used to it, it became my go-to tactic since it works really well, though it takes a bit of time to set up (like most TA stuff).

The way I tend to earn money is something like this: Starting out on a brand new character, grab all the stuff I want off the START vendor (usually Reveal, Secondary Mutation, and 2x exp just to get past the first few levels more quickly so I've got a couple powers), and start running through story arcs, TFs, etc. By around 20th or so I usually have 30-40 merits, at least. I'll turn them into boosters and sell them, and the character will then have around 6-7 million inf. At 22nd level I'll replace the SOs with 25th level IOs, as they don't need to be replaced, they're not very expensive, and they're around the same potency as an even-level SO. Once I hit 35 or so I'll start swapping out to IO sets, building slowly towards my final build. By the time I hit 50, I usually have another 400-500 merits, and I can turn those into more boosters and thus into more merits. Usually around 100 million or so. If the ones I need are too expensive (LotG, Panacea, etc), I'll spend some merits on converters and flip stuff to get what I want. It usually doesn't take more than 1-2 million inf worth of converters to flip something into a piece I want (less if it's already the same type, and even less if it's already part of the same set). My builds typically end up costing me a total of around 400 million or so all told (I don't tend to slot purples, and not a lot of PvP recipes), and I pay for by selling boosters.

I generally don't try to build for recharge resist all that much. I have a fairly "standard" build I'll go with for testing, just covering all the bases and getting resists to a certain level, etc. Then just seeing how the build holds up against various types of enemy mobs. I always run without incarnate stuff (though I do kit them out with IOs, including ATOs, but almost never with purple or full pvp sets, since I want to go with something that's more "easily available" rather than "this is my final be-all, end-all build). But it should be interesting. And yeah, for someone with status protections, Malta generally isn't a big deal outside of the sappers. Longbow and Arachnos can be a bit problematic with the sheer number of -recharge, -resist, -def, and -regen debuffs they slap you with. I remember jumping into an Arachnos mission at one point on one of my characters and being hit with so much -rech that my powers that normally recharged in 4-5 seconds were showing they had over a minute to recharge. I think I had something like -800% rech on me at one point.

So far I've tested (though not super in-depth) with psi-armor: Tanker: Fire melee, psi melee Brute: Fire melee, ice melee, psi melee Scrapper: Katana, fire melee, psi melee I've been running them through the first mission of Alexander's arc against the Warriors, since they're tough, do lots of lethal damage (one of the "weaknesses" of the set), and it's quick to jump into. I've been running at +2/8 with all of them so far. Dealing with the lethal weakness hasn't been an issue, as it's easy enough to plug with set bonuses. The sustain with psychokinetic aura and devour psyche has been incredibly strong. I want to test it out against enemy groups that normally just curbstomp some of my other characters, like high-end Carnies, Malta, or Arachnos. We'll see how that goes tonight. But overall, the set seems quite sturdy, and while a bit clicky, isn't so much that it becomes cumbersome.

Sorcery, Force of Will and Experimentation are MEANT to be origin-based powers. That's why you can only take one of them (though they're not locked to your origin, but I believe they were initially intended to be). Sorcery is the magic-origin set. Experimentation is the science-origin set. Force of Will is the mutant-origin set. Utility Belt (which hasn't been implemented yet) is the natural-origin set. And Gadgetry (also doesn't exist yet) is the tech-origin set.

Medicine is a really nice pool and has some very handy powers, especially for Masterminds that don't have a secondary with a heal in it, or to take with other ATs that might want to be able to self-heal, heal allies, or have a rez. However, the tricorder device animation doesn't always fit the concept for the character. Why does a mage have to pull out a tech device to heal, or someone who has gifted themselves a bunch of powers through scientific alteration, or a mutant who has a grab-bag of assorted powers? Can we pretty please get an alternate animation for the Medicine pool that's just pointing your hand and using a power to cause the effect, rather than the tricorder? That way it could fit into a lot more character concepts.

Kinetics is by no means a "trap" for masterminds. It may not be an ideal set for a lot of builds, but it can absolutely work, and can plow through whatever content you want with it. I have a beast mastery/kinetics MM that has casually solo'd GMs, and even took down Eochai and Jack in Irons at the same time (caveat: this was prior to the GM update some time back). In order to maximize MM Kinetics, you should ideally use it with melee-oriented pets, since that allows the pets to clump up on the target, making the best use of transfusion. While speed boost's +rech doesn't work on the pets, the +movement speed definitely does. It allows the melee pets to close with enemies much more rapidly, and change targets more rapidly as well. Not to mention chasing down runners and attacking them before they get too far away. Transference and fulcrum shift both work extremely well on pets, and allow you to get away with less end reduction slotting on the pets, making it easier to fit in more acc/dmg, procs, or the auras on the sets that don't have a spare "pet" power. Kinetics is a set that requires some finesse to build for, and is less defensive than some of the other sets, but it is by no means a "trap". No more than a corruptor taking Kinetics and then opting to solo. At least the MM has a built-in team to benefit from the buffs. If any MM secondaries need to be addressed it's Poison and Radiation. Switch the Noxious Gas poison power to a toggle like everyone else has rather than a garbage 20-second long-recharge click power, and allow radiation's Fallout power to work on your pets.

Yeah, there are a lot of things going on in the "top end" builds for things that I'm not aware of and likely don't do. That's why I added "maybe I'm just doing it wrong" in my first post, because I tend to build more for set bonuses and theme rather than trying to maximize damage output. For instance, I don't have a single character with the +recharge proc in any of my attacks, rarely use hasten, and don't tend to have procs in my attacks in general (except on my trollers, then I'll toss a few procs into their aoe stun/sleep powers just to try and bring their clear times up above "glacial"). 🙂 Those three things alone probably skew my numbers really far below what would be considered "optimal". I just base my thoughts on what I play, and since I tend to play my tankers and brutes built in similar ways, I can definitely see my brutes clearing stuff faster once they get rolling. And the thing is, since balance is MEANT to be done around purely SO'd builds, comparing fully tricked-out and kitted builds with purple IO sets, unique procs, unique bonuses, isn't really proving that the archetype is superior/inferior, it's proving that the IO sets make a MASSIVE difference, and skew balance all over the place. So much of it likely just stems from different build strategies.

Okay, that makes more sense then. So fighting huge crowds, the tanker does more damage. Fighting single spawns at a time or low numbers of high-value targets, the brute does more damage. And when you say "fire melee on tankers far out-classes brutes", there's an unspoken "when fighting tons of trash mobs", because the brute version has far superior single-target damage. I guess it seems fairly reasonable to me.

Go to this thread: The mod manager lets you change a bunch of stuff (though it's purely on your end, other people won't hear the sounds you change, they'll hear the normal ones). I changed the Force Field powers to have kind of a deep, bassy pulsing sound, which makes the force fields sound "angry", which I dig. There are a couple for changing Sonic Blast's powers to a bass pulse, a banshee-type screech, or more of a gender-neutral scream that's less grating. There might be more, as I haven't checked the list in a year or so.

Yeah, the base sounds for sonic blast are atrocious. That's why I've grabbed a few sound mods to turn them into something less grating.

Having played both brutes and tankers throughout the years, both pre- and post-tanker changes, I've never seen my tankers vastly out-damage my brutes. It always makes me wonder if this "huge damage disparity" is purely because of the push for a lot of tanker builds to be stuffed to the gills with so many procs that the actual damage numbers barely matter, and it's all about maximizing procs with every swing. Because I rarely put procs in attacks, unless it's just there for a set bonus (like Mako's Bite, Touch of Death, Bombardment, etc). So my brutes consistently out-damage my tankers by a rather hefty margin, at least once their fury gets rolling (which usually takes a couple seconds in the first spawn of the map). Maybe I'm just "doing it wrong" as it were.

One time I did that one she spawned on top of the sphere. I spent SO FREAKING LONG scouring the islands for her, then finally peeked up top and got so mad. Yeah, she was "arrested". Body? Oh, no, trust me, I put her in jail. Which one? Oh, you've never head of it. It's in Canada. Trust me.

It was even worse back on live. Back then MM pets had collision, so 2-3 MMs in one of those purple cave maps was an absolute nightmare. Particularly if you had to escort an NPC out.

One of the ones I'd really like to see, and would be "easy" to make (as it uses assets that are already in game) would be an Elementalist MM set. Tier-1 would be fire imps. Tier-2 would be a jack frost and a lightning gremlin. Tier-3 would be an earth elemental. The personal attacks could be air attacks (since there's no air elemental), Gust, a single-target Jet Stream, and Summon Tornado (weaker version, call it Dust Devil or something). The imps could start with flares, with the upgrade giving them firebolt, and then fireball. Jack Frost could be a damage/debuffer, while the gremlin would have lightning attacks (obviously). The earth elemental could be very similar to the Seismic Blast set, or optionally could go with Stone Melee instead if you want it to be a tanky type ala Thugs' Bruiser. For the 18th level unique, I think it might be interesting to have it summon a medium-duration temporary pet (say 30s duration, 120s base recharge) that summons a water elemental (could use the model of Marine's Barrier Reef), and have it use healing, abs shields, and throw out water blasts.

Back on live I was in a group that was all Thug/* MMs. We did the ITF and were just rampaging through everything, then got to Rommie and went "Hey, that's a nice army you have. Wanna see ours?" 8 Gang Wars, 5 had Burnout, so 5 more Gang Wars on top of it. We had an army of like 300 pets, all with 100%+ defense from 16 enforcer + 8 MM leadership stacks. We took his lunch money.

While I don't think there's any "worst" choice for Beast Mastery, there are some that aren't quite as synergistic. Bear in mind these are just my personal opinions on them. Sonic, Radiation, and Poison are the lower-tier picks for Beast Mastery IMO. While Sonic provides some massive resists and Cold provides a lot of defense, they have very little sustain in combat. You'll need to pick up Medicine to keep your pets up and running. The MM version of Poison has a huge weakness to me because they nerfed the tier-9 and turned it into a click-buff rather than a toggle, making it far less useful to MMs. FF can provide some VERY high defense, but still lacks sustain, so you'll need to pick up Medicine as well. Trick Arrow has no sustain either, and is a very "edge of your seat", "kill or be killed" set with beasts, as you can turn them into killing machines with disruption and acid arrow, and lighting the oil slick on fire can provide some CC. I enjoyed it a lot, but it can be rough against hard, high-damage targets. The ones I've had the most fun with in terms of synergy have been Nature (it lends itself really well to the beasts, and is an extremely powerful set for MMs in general), Marine (same deal), Kinetics (oddly enough, it provides almost no defense, but the beasts being all melee means they can clump on a target and the heal works well, plus a fulcrum-shifted pack is hilariously fun -- chasing everything at mach-5, and tearing stuff apart in seconds). Like TA, Kinetics is a very "kill or be killed" set. Dark is also a very strong set, though I haven't played a beast/dark MM yet. Empathy and Pain are both decent, but Empathy needs a LOT of recharge to make it truly viable -- enoough to stack Fortitude on all your pets, and to bring the big regen aura down to as close to perma as you can get. I haven't tried Storm on a beast master yet, though I do have a demon/storm MM who is quite fun. But for "best" synergy and performance, I'd probably vote for Nature, Marine, Electric or possibly Dark, since those have everything you need in their own toolkits without needing to pick up Medicine.

I have hasten on a handful of characters. Generally it's never my go-to power choice, as I always want other stuff that I find more valuable. If I'm going to pick hasten, it's because I have particular powers that I want to recharge as fast as possible, generally extremely long-recharging things, like Phantom Army, Overgrowth, or the like. And if I'm going for that, it means I have to tailor the build to cram as much global recharge into it as possible, which means forgoing powers that I might actually really want instead. Generally my builds try to align with a particular theme, rather than going for "absolute best damage" or anything similar. I'll pick up set bonuses that conform to the theme, even if they're not the "best" choices for any given power. Same thing for cramming attacks full of procs, I generally don't do it because I've never seen the necessity of it. Likely due to the fact that I don't lean on hasten, which makes all the procs less valuable, at least to me.

Closest thing I have to that is a character that's a mastermind in a mech that she can only use for a limited time (it's got power source issues). In her "base" form she's got an energy rifle and a couple of force blasts from her gauntlets. Then she can "power up" by calling in a mecha (using a prismatic costume of a cataphract) that can deploy smaller mech to fight alongside it in battle.

I play on an ultra-wide, so I've got a lot of screen real estate to watch stuff explode. I'm at work at the moment so I can't post it, and I tried drawing it in paint but...my drawing skills with a mouse are terribad. 🙂 But I'll post a screenshot when I get home!

Forming ITF, no tankers, no brutes, no scrappers, no stalkers, no dominators, no controllers, no defenders, no corruptors, no blasters, no masterminds, no sentinels. Good players only.

You could also have made the character a scrapper, and just taken the weapon mastery epic pool. It would mean not having your "batarangs" until 35th level, but you could have batarangs, exploding batarangs, caltrops, etc.

A story arc where you start off (falsely) imprisoned by Longbow and have to bust out, break some heads, and either clear your name (for vigilante types) or just prove they were dumb to try and contain you (for redsiders) would be a fun arc. 🙂