Force Redux

This right here. I can wait a long time waiting for a team or asking to join a team... But the moment I take the lead and form one in LFG chat, I'm beating back a tide of requests to join, about 90% of the time. Even when I form a great xp team and we have fun for an hour or two, the moment I step down to leave, no one wants the star and they willingly let the team disband for lack of a leader to step up. The players are out there. The leaders are few. FWIW I play on Everlasting on weird off hours, almost never on prime time.

Very welcome 😃 Honestly I prolly won't chase the extra recharge set bonuses with the MM ATOs in the three demon pet summons powers. Things come up often enough without the extra 20% recharge and I don't want recharge bonuses directly in the pet enhancements they water down the Acc, Dam, End! Demon Prince really chugs blue, so especially EndRed on him. I went Cardiac alpha because with dark miasma the pets aren't defense capped, and in particularly tough battles they might go down if something not debuffed hits them hard. This can sometimes require resummoning in battle and it's helpful to have a lot of endurance reduction for that. With Cardiac and other boosts, blue bar is never a concern, even during the most hectic battles. Plus Cardiac also improves other useful things, like Fear, Resistance, and Range. The nice thing about Dark miasma, is that even without pets you can contribute a lot, even to your own survival, so long as you are proactive.

+1 Beasts/Time as awesome.

Here's my current build. I'm working on replacing the IOs it the three demon pet powers to the MM set IOs, but otherwise its all in place. With all the debuffs, resists and decent (if not stellar) Ranged Defense, its tough enough to stand in crowds of +4 purple mobs. As long as you keep the debuffs up, your demons are also pretty touch, having excellent resistances. Doesn't hurt that the Prince has some Defense as well. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1556;733;1466;HEX;| |78DA6593D94F534114C667BA886D410AA52DD0B294DD520A55DC9E4804353134212| |12C6A4C73532E7063CB252D447DF45FF04140C2A289C427135FD4F8A4897179D768| |A2C168DC1394447D24F578BF436F93DEB4F9CD9C65CE376766E297064AEF9CBAD22| |7A4BB3FA564B389B8929D5333696D66C21E57A6B4A45508E11C50D3FA8C9ED692D9| |129A86CC98C4F07C9A5C51238027DACC54A020E2F8FCE4647440C95C48C435259B5| |6846B48D753D193296D6A7AAEDC180FAACA849AC94E6BB34E633E3CABAA139508D3| |334935A14F26C6B4542A7862564B460BABEBF329567CB99A9445E8BFE416FCE5ECE| |207216613B62D70CFA645883AE27BD0F71BF6960F568323B67CAE4D7860DB5BC5F4| |824E1FD30F8E528E448E55DE95866DFF2D69ACDFB5C1EC449D318AB572ACF59EC5B| |0953E643E00F7DD0797691F76C40A7B08F90E6A7F89447E8917B5F6ED80EE77C8EB| |DE1146CD71AAE540BE74ECEA621D2BB4B68B7BE47A8E7DB89F809517C1AAA7CC67A| |02F825C176928635D6501F8CE50AD72E8B297B3AECA03F055C7987EF4A2D6C7AC42| |DC2A69A9602D157F5123F89DD86E13F51F714EF57FB0B7FAFF85888D2FB0E6599A7| |A38D7F315B18D5F989FC0D067E626EA85DE8215B40F2FF7C7CB9A9BDDA0877C7EF6| |F96FA37670035C23BD355CB3661C7A5A46987CDFDAF8BEB5F523A78DEFC1390A0BF| |0F907DE4057F36BE62BB0FD25D8441AEA58431D9FDBEEF9AD9386063E8306BE1B8B| |646B625D4D2BB0B5AF32D7C0F03AF306F326789E74B5B2AE56EE5784FB17E1BE46B| |E818FA8F51DACABA3431AE7D4D5023E265F276BE8BC865E762F3017C1D812F33A73| |19DC2E1522CA7B8AD64297F009D1C3B61E3EA3A0F946E9479F0817597A8A2CB122C| |BC1224B6F9165B0C812372DB921F3E50B69781DEEFCFBCE6D39C92BD9DB8CFDFC32| |6D528E623FB6D3E8DDCFC27863B56DD362918D58C1721537CAB200F6864D3D870AC| |6870BC647C2F9D79E3B5A303E16CEDFE45C1F3DA3186AE5FE01C214065A| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Ugh yes. I meant ninjas play best melee too

Ninjas/Time is what you are looking for. Redlynne has a guide around this forum. Time with IOs will get your ninjas Defense capped and your heal will keep them topped off from the bleedthrough. Plus the debuffs, slows and other Timey Wimey goodness Time plays best in melee range. Ninjas are mostly melee. It's a great pairing. 🙂

I can put one up for you tomorrow after I'm off work. I just leveled mine to Incarnate, very fun and effective solo or teamed. I've done several TFs and an MSR. No sweat.

I'm going to recommend Beasts/Kinetics Mastermind. Why? Kinetics offers little in the way of protection for the caster. Beasts grabs aggro for you and does your tanking. You are safer. Kinetics is very good for melee positioning. Beasts are all-melee pets. Kinetics has very little way of protecting MM pets. But Beasts can self-cap pet Defense with Fortify the Pack and IOs. While Beasts do not gain from -recharge, they do gain from +damage. Kinetics can turn Beasts into a chainsaw of doom. Beast/Kin offers solid Kin buffs to a group (and their pets). They have heals. Their pets offer solid damage and tanking when solo. They will be very sturdy all on their own. Its a very complimentary pairing.

I can't count the number of times I've zoned into a hot doorway only to have Shadowfall keep my pets (and teammates) from being attacked before I was ready.

From the layout with Arachnos having reps and an LZ, it sure looks like it 😃🙂

On test server right now

Co-op is superior to red or blue only. More options. Less pissing anyone off. Same result.

Black Hole is the only skipped power. The rest are all too good. I guess Petrifying Gaze, the hold, is optional, but I like it for annoying Lts.

To come back to the OP, demons/dark is a powerhouse. It was, has been, and always will be a solid choice. Dark ranks up there with Time as the best (IMO) secondaries for MMs, each for entirely different reasons.

I remember long ago when the only option for spines was the "death bananas". 😛

It would be interesting and perhaps easier to balance if the last 4 incarnate abilities only worked during specific new trials or incarnate content.

Reworking it into a co-op zone would be much better. Little impact to existing heroes. Opens another zone to villains, and Striga is definitely a great candidate by way of flavor to have Arachnos sink it's claws into.

QFT +1 I'd hoped this would be fixed by now.

That's a fun idea! Three imps (pure ranged dps). Two slightly larger jacks (ice shield buffers, dps) Ones oversized Stoney (bruiser)

Phantasms and Duplicates would certainly be the low hanging fruit here 🙂

Robots/FF - indestructible tank. Classic. */Time - anything works terrific with time. Thugs, Demons, Robots are your top tier**. Necro/Dark. The sheer control and debuffs are incredible. And so much room for procs. **Beast/Time is not the community top pick, but IMO it's tied with my Thugs/Time for overall disgustingly effective damage monster. Time loves melee. Beasts love melee. You don't need to use Fortify Pack, so your damage stays buffed. The pets are always where you expect them to be, right next to you. And they are so quick and responsive, its easy to joust with them, even in TinPex with Battle Maiden and her blue flames of death. Highly recommend this combo. I went Leviathan for the shark immobility and armor, though I admit it was partly for flavor. I find I do not need Power Boost at all.

I'll be at work at the hospital, so good hunting on Friday!

FF is excellent at what it does. But Time is way more versatile. FF has AoE status protection from early on (freeing up an eventual Destiny pick). This is the big draw. It's why you want FF mechanically. FF offers End drain resistance. FF offers non buffable but significant Toxic resist. Everything else can be situational at best. I personally like PFF as a replacement for stealth and a panic button. Albeit not one needed much. It can also help shed Defense debuffs. Time is busier. FF is more relaxed. I personally prefer FF on my 50+3 Robot MM, and prefer Time on my 50+3 Beasts MM. I have extensive play time on my FF/Sonic 50+3 Defender as well. FF could use since love (some absorption in Dispersion, extra damage in its two attack powers, some DDR in the shields, the phase power acting like Gravity's would do it). But it's still as serviceable set. Many people spend hundreds of millions of influence to get their defenses capped but have no way to prevent them from being debuffed. Extra defense is always useful, particularly on some trials.

I'm Pacific Coast, Oedipus Tex. Would love to give it a try. Might need to level a cold first tho. Server?

This is awesome! I've wanted this for.. years...! This really helps me come up with better concepts for Illusion. The masked crusader phantoms always limited me.