Force Redux

Looking forward to more 🙂👍🏻

@TK3477 Well, here's my build. Goals: Keep Chill Mastery since you wanted Defense Armor without the flavor of Mace. WIth the build, you sit at 43.4% S/L Defense and 28% S/L Resistance (including Wild Growth buff). While you are not tankerminding, since you are using Entangling Aura you will catch some aggro and you will be closer to melee, so this is a good pairing with S/L Defense. Get Global Recharge higher. I added Hasten. So many of Nature's buffs rely on good recharge, this was low-hanging fruit. Also LotGs where possible. Use Procs to help the pets. Zombies have Overwhelming KD to help with mitigation. It will go off often. Grave Knights have Lady Gray and to help bring down targets faster. This and their innate Knockup will help with mitigation. Lich - not slotted for Maximizing -ToHit (as I would with a /Dark build), but will contribute to damage with the Clouded Senses proc. Squeeze in some +hit point bonuses when possible. Since your Wild Bastion is based on Max Health. Accolades will also go a long way to helping boost this power. I got rid of Fighting and achieved similar results with IOs. Since you are not tankerminding the extra S/L Resists are wasted. Even on my few tanker mind builds I never took Fighting. I removed Drain Life. You already have a number of healing sources, and if you want a damage power, Gloom is the standout for Necromancy. Unfortunately, I did not have room for it and there are more important powers to take during the leveling process. I'd grab two attack powers from the P2W vendor such as the Blackwand (thematic, and helpful debuff), Undead Slaying Axe, and/or Sands of Mu and supplement it with some temporary powers you can purchase, such as Envenomed Dagger and Gabriel's Hammer (cheaper than Dagger, without the debuff). That way you can do something attack-y-ish if you like. Remember, you have the Kismet +Acc IO and Tactics plus some accuracy bonuses to help land these powers, even if you can't slot them. Or you could forgo a little bit of S/L Defense and trade out Flash Freeze for Gloom. Don't' get Ice Blast, its terrible numbers wise, you don't have enough slows to stack to make it effective for that purpose, and it really only matters if you take it for theme. (I did for my Robots/Cold/Chill MM, and that's okay). Added Speed for Hasten (see above) and Super Speed (with celerity Stealth IO) so you can ghost your Dark Astoria missions or use Assemble the Team/Incandescence on speed TFs. Kept Leadership - of course, the backbone of good MM support for pets and teams. Replaced Sorcery with Flight. IMO one goes for the Sorcery Pool either for theme or for specific powers. You had it only for travel. You can easily change this back, but I really advocate for Group Fly for any Mastermind to help with tactical management of pet AI on Z-axis maps. This is not a movement power per se, but a positioning power for quality of life. You also get another mule for LotG in Afterburner, which has its uses on large maps, too. Fly can hold the helpful Winter's Gift slow/rcharge resist IO. Considering how much Nature relies on good recharge, this is to the build's benefit. Doctor's Wounds sets are in place for the beneficial 5% recharge boost. I put a +END Proc in Lifegiving Spores, as it will proc for anyone standing in the field. Enchant Undead and Dark Empowerment never need more than one slot, ever, for EndRedux. Slots are too precious. Bump them to 50+5 if you want to spend the funds on a small extra bit of cost, but do not double slot these. Even if you resummon in battle, stand in your Lifegiving Spores and that will be more beneficial. Additionally, carry a few extra blues in your Insp tray. But if you get your Accolades and use Lifegiving Spores, you won't worry about resummoning costs to much in battle, even the worst ones. I slotted Basilisk's Gaze into Entangling Aura** for a nice 7.5% recharge boost. I'm a fan of Entangling Aura and it really helps reliably keep minions in place. With the Lockdown Proc it can help pin down Lts and occasionally Bosses as well (but the bosses will only be intermittent). Because this build uses Chill Mastery and you can't tell when Lich will use Tenebrous Tentacles, having Engangling Aura to prevent mob movement is super important. If you do direct Lich to attack a boss, you will more reliably hold him due to Lich adding his hold. If you decide to go the Controller approach with Lich instead of damage, you can substitute the Clouded Senses proc for a Hamidon Acc/Mezz (don't do Dam/Mezz, as you're already at diminishing returns on Damage, so extra Acc at least isnt wasted). **I slotted an Acc/Hold in Basiliksk's Gaze, as Entangling Aura power description does have a base accuracy of 1.0; however, it does not take Accuracy enhancers, which has led me to believe it is auto-hit. I never removed the Acc/Hold in my live build, it works just fine, but assuming it doesn't need Acc, you could always swap this for Rech/Hold in case you want to get it up quicker after detoggling. I wouldn't bother with the % recharge slow IO, it doesn't seem to really help any time I've used it. Soul Extraction is a general mule for 5 of the aura IOs, but there is an extra Acc/Dam/Rech in there to help boost the summoned pet a bit. However, I find that unlike Hell on Earth or Gang War, the summoned pet isn't as important and thus feel okay with more muled IOs in there than perhaps in Demons (but I always mule at least 4 in any power that will take them, as I prefer steady-state improvements and IO/procs of my permanent pets over temporary buffs/pets). You could easily remove the Acc/Dam/Rech and toss that slot elsewhere, but you'd lose the 2-piece 2.5% recovery bonus, which I like. In general, I think this is a solid build. I have never run Necro/Nature together, but I do have a fully incarnated Necro/Dark MM and a fully incarnated Plant/Nature controller, so I'm familiar with the power sets. The MM personally is tough enough for dealing with casual aggro or an ambush. If you really wanted Hoarfrost or Hibernate over Afterburner/Super Speed, those would be viable alternatives. Both would be useful 'oh shoot' panic buttons. But if you ever actually go tanker-minding you'll need a very different build. NOTE: Sovereign Right and Expedient Reinforcement descriptions say +resist vs all but Psi, but in-game combat metrics show the buff does apply vs all damage. Pets with all applicable IOs and Nature / Leadership buffs are as follows: Zombie 14% Defense (All) 29% AoE Defense 78% Smashing Resists 52% Lethal Resists 52% Fire Resists 78% Cold Resists 52% Energy Resists 78% Negative Resists 78% Psionic Resists 78% Toxic Resists Grave Knight 14% Defense (All) 29% AoE Defense 52% Smashing Resists 52% Lethal Resists 52% Fire Resists 78% Cold Resists 52% Energy Resists 78% Negative Resists 78% Psionic Resists 78% Toxic Resists Lich 14% Defense (All) 29% AoE Defense 52% Smashing Resists 52% Lethal Resists 52% Fire Resists 78% Cold Resists 52% Energy Resists 78% Negative Resists 52% Psionic Resists 78% Toxic Resists With Spore Cloud up (and not factoring in EB/AV/GM debuff resists), the undead will be at an effective soft-cap vs AOE and a respectable 31% defense vs other attacks. But anything that resists the debuff or is not in range of Spore Cloud (which has a 15' radius) will hit much more often, which can punish the T1 Zombies, especially due to their lower T1 hit points. Wild Bastion can really help them manage those one-shots. Its nice to note that all of them have 100% resistance to recharge and slow movement debuffs. They also have 4.0 Fear/Sleep and 1.0 Stun protection (Lich doesn't have Stun). While you have solid, all-around resists thanks to the Pet IOs and Wild Growth, you'll note that Lethal, Fire and Energy are both common in-game and also not the strongest resists (ie,the pets don't have their own native resists to stack with this). You'll need to rely on your debuffs (Spore Cloud, Lich, GK gloom) to help counter that, as well as your Absorb in Wild Bastion, plus all the huge amounts of green numbers you can throw off with your heals. On top of that, extra mitigation exists with Entangling Aura and Lich through holds and the like will be helpful at times (plus the KD from Zombies and KU from Grave Knights). Use Flash Freeze to counter ambushes or extra groups / patrols you are not ready to fight yet. Having your Alpha get your level shift will really help this build as it does with all masterminds, to counter the purple patch. Likewise, with this build I'd go with Intuition to improve damage, hold and tohit debuff, but Musculature is also another solid option, trading out hold for EndMod and others, but personally I'd go Intuition to help improve Entangling Aura and Lich's holds on top of Damage. Because you're in melee range, I'd also be inclined to go with Void Judgement for placement and the huge -Damage debuff. Easy to lead off with that through stealth for 30 seconds of debuff. For Interface, I like Diamagnetic for the To Hit Debuff and Regen Debuff. For my first Destiny pick, I'd go Clarion. Nothing sucks more than getting mezzed and many mezzes are Energy/Psi related, which you have lower Defense. Plus it keeps the pets from being knocked/held/confused. Barrier would also be a decent choice if you don't care about mezz protection. Hybrid, I like support with double values for pets. Buffs to Defense, Damage, End Discount, and more are too good to pass up for a nice 50% uptime. Great when you hit a crunch situation or expect one. The build is below. As with anything its just my way of building it, and there are a hundred other ways to skin the same cat. Use what works for you and ditch the rest, and especially, just have fun! Comments/questions welcome.

@TK3477 since you are not tankerminding, are you committed to the Fighting pool? I don't like it on MMs otherwise, and you could easily drop it in my opinion and use those powers and slots elsewhere. I know you want soft capped S/L but IMO it's not vital if not tankerminding...but I could probably find a way to make up the S/L gap with IOs.

Thanks for the reminder. Life's been a little hectic. I'll put something out I had been putting together after breakfast this morning.

Nice build Meknomancer. Bots/Dark is definitely a classic. Like you, I've moved away from Bots because of single target damage and the long pauses at times between attacks. That said, they are solid as a pet set, just no longer top tier IMO. I do like the -regen in Big Bot, however, and it does make their single target damage vs. EB, AV and GMs pretty good as they neuter regen. Bots is definitely a 'bursty' damage for its AOE. When the fire patches spread and things die quickly, its glorious, but it is not a steady state. Kind of like Thugs' arsonist, but a whole set.

Okay, with my Beasts/Time the pets are about 40% Defense vs. Ranged/Melee and 55% with AOE. This is with Farsight (6-slotted with Red Fortune), Maneuvers and all three Defense IOs. When the Lionesses have their buff up, it goes up another 6%. So just over soft-cap. I used to have Mace Master for the power boost, which had the pets at softcap without the Lionesses, but I found it wasn't needed at all with all the -ToHit debuff, Regen and Heals. On top of that, I had Hybrid Suport for when I wanted a bit of extra defense in case Time's Juncture debuffs wasn't enough. I ended up with Leviathan for theme over Mace. Of course, if I ever want to lose the stacking damage/crit buffs I could use Fortify Pack for an extra 5 to 12 % Defense for 60 seconds duration every 90 seconds. But I never do. Honestly, my opinions of Beasts has really improved from 'pretty good' to "amazing' over the last year. Beasts have good resists, and very solid base Defense, paired with very solid ST damage. They are always where you want them to be, right in melee, close to you (if you are Time), and easily in range for heals, Farsight, Clarion, etc. Anyway, that's my Beasts/Time that is soft-capped almost all of the time (with Lioness, Hybrid and -ToHit) with stacking Pack Mentality.

You are a scholar and a person of breeding! I never knew this. Thanks! 😀😀

That would be my Beast/Time. Fortify is merely a mule for LotG. I lost all my Mid's data so I'd have to rebuild it to paste here, but I can if you'd like. It's an effective build. Fun too.

Beast/Kin is a solid pairing 🙂. But beasts are great with many secondaries.

Support for all around bonuses and ease of use

I like Call Hawk best for one single attack.

I will add a section that discusses Incarnate choices, certainly

🙂 I'll be free on Friday after my work week. I'll see what I could suggest then, if you don't mind the wait.

As an MM enthusiast, I appreciate the work to get these valuations ty 👍🏻🙂

Quick note: Knights already do frequent knock up. Keep the Overwhelming in the zombies, even if you lose a full set bonus. Nothing in the bonus is worth the mitigation of the knockdown proc x 3 zombies! More later when I'm off shift.

It's been one of the chief attractors for the game for me since the Beta. Literally, the no. 1 MMORPG community in 21 years of MMOing on my part. Glad it survived the sunset 🙂

Nice, like the name! I find that MM is the only AT I can tolerate Electric Affinity, since its so busy I feel I never have a chance to really use my primary (blast as Defender, control as Controller). But MM the Primary generally takes care of itself: GoTo ---> Aggressive pets, then ElecAff away to my heart's content.

I like your build. Totally different than I would have built it, but with those solid S/L defense numbers and a decent END recovery over consumption, seems like you're right where you need to be. Pets are slotted okay, but zombies need more accuracy. For Wild Growth, don't worry too much about the regen, you already have LOTS of healing Focus on Resists and use a couple of slots elsewhere. Maybe in Soul Extraction so you can then free up slots for Zombies. Lich would benefit from a Clouded Senses damage proc and more -ToHit. Maybe only 4 of the SCotM and then the proc and a 50+3 ToHitDebuff crafted.? If you don't mind losing a couple points of recharge, a 5-slot Clouded Senses would do better. Lich isn't for damage, he's for control/Debuffs. Anyway, as long as you are having fun and doing well, its all quibbles, there are a thousand ways to build a great character, just my ruminations 🙂

This is awesome! I'm glad you are finding success with your MM! Life is good. Well, not for Leo. He got his face bitten off by your pets, lol. Nothing is sweeter than revenge! That debuffing makes the difference. You'll love Fearsome Stare as an opener. Focus on -ToHit with it, not the Fear. With enough recharge you can even have it up eventually for more than once per fight (if they are longer or larger battles). Also with enough recharge, your Darkest Night will be back up in a couple of seconds. I do like Recharge in there, and global recharge/hasten will help. Holler if there is anything more we can do to help. Master Mind is the Best Mind! 🙂

As a poster said above, I think many of these could be rolled up under pet appearance customization. That also said, some mechanically cannot, and it would be nice to have a new set or two that has a wide range of appeal. I've said 'duplicates' but for a totally new set, I'd like to see Elementals / Enchanted Items, such as you see in Night Ward. The assets are already there. Low hanging fruit and all that 🙂

I liked your pointing out the importance of keeping pets selectively in Aggressive mode. It is huge for dps. I only drop them to Defensive if I'm concerned about either aggroing other mobs that may be close by and I don't think I can manage them myself. I make frequent use of the improved GOTO command to make sure my pets stay where I want them to. That said, I will command them to attack a single hard target as needed, too.

Good comments @SableShrike. I would like to opine, take one attack from your Primary. The contribution they can make to overall dps has been tested to be significant, and on some sets they have side effects such as KD or -Resists that will help. For Beasts, you need at least one to build up Pack Mentality faster. I would go single target attack over AOE, however, for the reasons Sable mentions r/t aggro, as well as the fact the AOEs are usually end-heavy. Let the pets AOE.

@Aeroprism awesome, I'll have to review the build and make suggestions later, as I'm off for a bit. But part of the ability to flourish will be the build, the other will be your playstyle/tactics. Catch you tomorrow!

I personally almost never use BG mode. Like, Ever.

That's an unfortunate experience @Aeroprism. Do you have a build to post? I'd like to help you. Beasts start off with respectable S/L resists as well as respectable 11% Defense vs All. They are the opposite of paper fragile, that would be Ninjas. Beasts are actually one of the tougher sets. Dark is also solid, but perhaps the slotting or your use of it might need a tweak? Again, you don't have access to Fearsome Stare, but you have Darkest Night. Unless you are getting an ambush spawned right on top of you, you should be starting off with Darkest Night to debuff mobs before they have a chance to alpha you. That will reduce their ToHit (combined with pet defense) and their damage. Twilight Grasp isn't that slow at all (2.37 cast time vs. Thermal's Warmth, which is 2.03 seconds cast time), and the heal that comes actually can raise you and pets from the dead if it goes off at the right time. It's actually a terrific heal. Base accuracy was improved from 1.0 to 1.2 with the last patch, and so it is now inherently fairly accurate, but still does require some slotting. At least 1 Single Origin accuracy at -1 to +1 mobs. I find tIOhat a Kismat +Acc unique IO in Hover is very helpful for low level Dark users. Realize, at level 18 your pets are a bit underleveled. You don't have the Dire Wolf yet, but you do have the wolves. I'd like to make some suggestions. You will come into your own at 26 when you get Dire Wolf, but with a few slots and the final upgrade at 32, you'll really notice the difference. 12 to 26 is generally the rough spot for MMs. I encourage you to push through. Unfortunately, MMs and Stalkers are the two ATs that really benefit from their unique IOs. Stalkers perform well without it, but their Stalker IO uniques change their gameplay by 100%. Masterminds tend to have weaker pets in tougher content until they 1) gain slotting/levels and 2) slot the six unique pet Defense/Resist IOs. Fortunately, they are not that expensive, but I consider them MANDATORY. At least the 3 Defense IOs and the +15% Resist IO, if you can only afford 4 slots (for sets that are not Demons/Thugs/Necro). Wolves can take a number of unique IOs and procs. There is another thread here that goes over it recently. Shield Breaker, Lady Gray are good candidates to help kill faster. Remember, Dark must use their debuffs to help their pets. Try putting a Tar Patch down at a corner. Then peak out, place Darkest Night on a Lt or Boss mob in the pack, then duck behind the corner and allow the mobs to come to you, get stuck in Tar Patch, then send in the pets to chow down. Don't forget to build up Pack Mentality with the Beast Mastery power of your choice (I like Call Hawk for the -ToHit, -Fly and KD). If you took Fortify Pack, you can convert stacks of Pack Mentality (built up by your attacks and the pets') to Defense stacks, if you need it. If you don't convert, they will build up extra crit % and damage, which kills things faster. If you want to join me on Everlasting, I can assist you with some IO uniques to help out, or do some missions to help you get the hang of Dark. I've taken both Beast and Dark to incarnate levels, so I'm familiar with them both. They are a solid combo. Lastly, if you have time, see my guide on Dark as a secondary power set. I love dark. Perhaps it will help you. It is linked in my signature, below: Gather the Shadows.