Nyghtmaire

The pairings are fine. Likely the leveling — all the good stuff is coming up. The characters are in the Mastermind deadzone right now (assuming you’re not slotting sets). 🔥Level 22 - slotting 25IOs 🔥🔥Level 24 - 2d Tier 2 pet 🔥🔥🔥Level 26 - Tier 3 Pet 🔥🔥🔥🔥Level 32 - Abyssal Empowerment/Tame Beasts

@SwitchFade don’t leave sad

For Assault, there is a comprehensive breakdown here, discussing Core vs. Radial trees (the TLDR very-oversimplified answer for you would Assault Radial. Usually): Control hybrid? Never tried it on a melee character. Also wasn’t impressed with it in Live on my controller, but maybe things are different now with distance, etc. You may also wish to consider Melee if you want increased survivability, either boosting resistance or defense. I doubt you have much need for added defense between /EA and Agility, but additional resistance (with the accompanying regen) is certainly an option.

Seconding @Lazarillo for the demon/storm mastermind (will add Mu patron set for -KB immobilize). Absolutely a joy to play (at least it was on Live). Generic mystic themes = low hanging fruit, which is not a bad thing by any stretch.

I'm not a "brute" builder. Could use another set of eyes and bit of recommendation for this build. Initially a fire farmer, this character quickly became one of my favorites. Had a quick build that I threw together to do regular content and, with the changes to my real-life schedule, I'm finding I'm farming A LOT less than I used to do (if ever, now). Old build had no trouble with "easy" content (ahem .. council), but increased difficulty with more difficult mobs really challenged me. So, I'd appreciate a review of this update. I pretty much only solo (or join 1 other person). Will be focusing on soloing TFs, Ouro arcs, goofing around, etc... Build goals: 45% Melee def (with barrier) ~90% s/l resistance (again with barrier) As much e/n resistance as practicable (this feels a little low still) Maximize endurance usage Increase HP Acceptable amount of recharge for attack chain. Darkest Night was taken for corner pulling and when -dam would be helpful to further reduce overwhelming defeat. Same as Void radial. Soul Tentacles was taken to get Darkest Night (worth switching to Gloom?). Hover was taken for ITF and to mule another LotG. Happy to change powers, slotting. Have a stupid number of incarnate powers already (Reactive: diamagnetic for more -tohit, Degenerative; Alpha: Musculature and Spiritual; Destiny: Ageless). Thank you very much!

I prefer focusing on the Mark of Supremacy 2-piece set bonus overall. For the Grave Knights, they benefit greatly from the Soulbound Allegiance proc, more so than the Tier 1 zombies. But the Overwhelming Force KD proc is excellent in the Zombies. While the Lich should have some damage, maxxing it out does very little overall. But his controls and mezzes are more useful ever sine the AI positioning fix. For the most part, Tactics/Supremacy + moderate levels of accuracy take care of the Lich and Grave Knights. Only the Zombies really benefit from extra help. For your pets, I'd recommend Musculature or Intuition (Radial trees) instead, boosting damage, -tohit and some other goodies. Once past level 32, your pets' own healing + your AoE heal will be plenty for most encounters. Boosting your own healing won't do very much overall to the effectiveness of your build. But your pets are your primary source of damage. Give 'em more! The spoiler has my slotting for a necro/dark. Still using Soul Extraction when possible as it really increases damage output. I use a similar slotting approach with my necro/sonic, with additional -tohit in the Lich. Also for /sonic, I took the diamagnetic interface proc for much the same reason you describe. Addendum: @Monos King and @Galaxy Brain (Braaaaaiiiiiinsss!) have done excellent work in documenting damage information for all the mastermind primaries. Here is the main page: And here is the Necromany specific section: -- suggested changes:

That sounds like a good way to clean up the mess after the fact. Environmentally conscious soldiers.

Radical reimagining!

Re Stealth, is the consensus that this pool taken for LotG recharge mules? I think I’ve taken phase shift once leveling up. Never tried misdirection (or met anyone that did). A caltrops type power (slow sets only with a fear component, no damage, “slowtrops” ?) would be a useful, creative addition to the pool. Replacing stealth with invisibility, and replacing “old” invisibility with Slowtrops would be a possibility, and could give some more functional use and temptation to the pool. Edit/addition: going back through the thread, I’m seeing more interest and uses in accessing this pool. Some changes to reduce the power choice tax would increase opportunity without offering unbalance.

Mu Mastery AOE immobilize allows this, but with the drawback that you will be waiting until your 40s for it all to come together. @Damoklese, wholly agree with the above posts, especially with @Force Redux’s /dark recommendation. On these boards, another recommendation that often comes up is demons/thermal with reports of its ability to solo +4/8 against a wide variety of enemies and a toolkit to neuter AVs. Search for posts by @Dixa. What will you be teaming with? My son and I team with controllers (Earth/thermal and illusion/TA) at a *very* speedy pace.

The Dickies - Eve of Destruction

Quoting the summary as not to flood the thread. But this, THIS, is the new way. Label me a born-again mastermind. It really works.

With a significant IO investment, incarnates, and clever abuses of game mechanics?

Just came across this guide and I think I’m in love. This sentence sealed the deal.

My understanding (albeit from Live) was that damage shared to pets via bodyguard was unresistable to the pets but reduced first by the player’s resistance. Meaning the player’s resistance reduced damage, which is then divided to the number of pets on bodyguard mode, bypassing the pets’ inate or increased resistance (by unique, shield, etc.). The link isn’t clear about that. However, a pet’s resistance would still reduce damage directly received. It’s why AOE attacks can be so devastating while in BG mode: the pet takes direct damage AND its BG share. Edit: tested on my Necro/Sonic. One tier 1 Zombie with shields, one without. Both take same damage shared from BG.

Following on @Dr Causality’s post, it’s worth mentioning that proc chances are clamped at 90%. So in the Mace Beam Volley table, you will reach (and exceed) maximum chance to trigger the Force Feedback proc at 5 targets.

I always forget this part about the added resistance. I pretty much exclusively play Necro/ now and my hazy memory was that it wasn’t enough. I can imagine how this would be beneficial to other primaries.

Fun list! Some thoughts of of the top of my head. 1) Electric Affinity has “Faraday Cage” which adds resistance to you and all in the zone. Debuffs are widely present, including -regen which helps with harder targets. Also, I believe (but don’t immediately recall) that “Amp Up” gives a healthy dose of defense to a pet for 90 seconds. I’d rank this higher in tier than Empathy. 2) Radiation is a light version of Dark, like an annoying younger brother stealing it’s makeup and goth records to lock himself in his room and watch anime on subtitles. The debuffs are potent, the -ToHit serves as de facto defense (until it doesn’t by being resisted), and accelerate metabolism can free up endurance slotting in pets (I’m looking at you Demons) while adding +damage. Like /traps, it shines as a soloing set with a similar “plant a flag” style of play (lacking force field generator, instead using Radiation Infection for a similar effect). Also, the toggles are excellent for pulling groups around a corner into your ‘arrest’ zone (similar to Darkest Night in /dark). 3) Kinetics is overvalued for masterminds except for limited circumstances and pet groups (e.g. beasts with the ability to self-softcap defense). 4) Time - Time’s Juncture is an amazing power! It provides a backdrop protection against cascading defense failure. Overall, resistance + AOE heals edges out defense sets for long-term longevity in a vacuum. This is dependent on the pet set in question though. The value of any secondary (and its ranking) increases or decreases based on the interaction with the pets and their native resistance/defense, the slot flexibility to place the resistance/defense uniques, and the various secondary effects the pets can maintain (such as -ToHit in Necro).

Here are a couple discussion threads and sample builds. The nice benefit to two Thugs/ masterminds will be that each Enforcers‘ leadership powers will affect all pets for both players. This frees up some slotting in both builds for pet defensive concerns. An alternative thought, have you considered Thermal in place of Dark? This will allow for the resistance shields further increasing survivability. Protection wise, Dark provides massive amounts of -ToHit, but with Time, pet maneuvers, the pet defense procs, and Time’s own -ToHit, that area is well covered. 1) Thugs/Time Or 2) Thugs/Dark Here is a discussion of running dual Thugs: That said, all sounds fun. Good luck!

You probably need to upgrade MIDs to the “bleeding edge” version.

@Akki I’m a big fan of Vigor for a /WP brute. The benefit to Regen is astounding, the added endurance reduction to all powers allows for patron/epic pool flexibility and AOE madness, and the added accuracy frees up slotting for more proc inclusion. Since recharge is less valuable (no long clicks), it’s almost like the alpha was made for willpower.

@Carnifax Here is one of the posts in the ProcMonster thread that discusses that question:

The shape shifting can be mimicked with costume slots, setting divergent shapes, genders, and appearances. Full agreement that either Illusion or Mind Control would be the best primary (and going Controller AT). Maybe pair with /storm to push out damage/power - representing tapping in to more mysterious world of magic and the forbidden. It’s also a secondary that is less focused on aiding others while increasing the potential for chaos.

Sounds like a PITA/cheese routine for killing your Lich for Soul Extraction. I can’t really imagine any other use other than for fun/RP.

Milly Raccoon - Offering to the Fae ...this video... wow