Onlyasandwich

For what it's worth, the T9 here has more use on Nin than say SR. Nin's biggest downside compared to SR is the lack of significant DDR. 34ish is something, but can still pretty easily cascade. The T9 helps you get out of a cascade pretty handily, and as you note the set includes a dandy recovery tool to bounce back from the one downside. Pretty decent tool to have at hand! The T9 doubles your DDR on top of the pile of defense. Your thoughts align with mine on Blinding Powder. I don't think it's technically bad from a power budget standpoint, but it is functionally mediocre based on how engagements usually go in this game.

I keep wanting to like this power, and do have it in all my nins. Bare minimum, having a place for Coercive Persuasion is usually worth it as you mention here. I wish they'd increase the range or the arc by like 70%. It's just really awkward to use. As it stands, I usually forget to use it. If you don't have much benefit for sets here, it could be a skip for sure, but not an auto skip. I'm extra confused by the -perception component. This is pretty useless unless it covers a whole spawn. There's no way to really cover a spawn as is, so what's the point of this part? I get decent use out of the end reload. This allows me to be a little loosey goosey with my end support in sets. I don't ignore end support entirely, as I don't want to be spamming it, but it feels pretty decent using it for a top off when needed, or recovering from a -end effect.

If you want. I find it less needed on blasters, as it's likely to blast everything clean. No need to worry about cleanup if they're dead. You can extra ensure they are dead by using the drop time to chain your other aoes. If a few bosses get rocketed to the heavens with a sliver of health, I consider that a bonus. Few better displays of power in this game than a meteor amok!

I have found it good enough that Bo Ryaku alone has done the trick with no additional support on all my /Ninjitsu characters. Haven't been knocked back outside of big boss mechanics once I have the power. You should be good to go! Maybe you'd be knocked down by an AV with certain powers here and there, where those with the 5 digit resistance never will.

I'm going manic on CoH this holiday season, and my last build (bots/traps) is all polished and running well. Great fun if you haven't tried it! The stunny bunny is a beast. On my bots, I leaned into the stunny fun. Here I'm doubling down on knockback as a mitigation strategy. I haven't played FF in a while on any character, and I have a fun theme for this combo, so Mercs/FF it is! I know there are more meta/powerful combinations (Mercs/Marine looks amazing), but this has some good synergy, and FF got a nice facelift in the not to distant past. Let's get into it! I'd love to hear from you all on how I might better achieve my goals, or about any part of this you feel is truly useless or misguided. Goals: Ranged softcap for my pets. Softcap for myself when Unleash Potential is up (I love this power - softcap across the board!). Proc out my attacks to the max, with liberal use of FFback to feed my attack chain and powerful clickies like Serum and Unleash. Whatever resists I can get along the way. Max hit chance against +3s. What I really like here: Knockdown city! So much of it all over the place. I even went Energy epic on my original iteration and went ham with the aoe blasts there, but determined it was just eating too many of my slots for something that had dubious end sustain. Procced out Weaken Resolve. I haven't gone for this in the past! Seems like MMs are made for it. Very respectable damage, and a way to really push the achilles on a hard target when I absolutely need it focused. Managed to squeeze my end sustain to reasonable levels with some expensive powers running! Unleash also cycles in an extra injection on a regular basis. I always enjoy getting FFBack into both my single target and aoe rotation - hooray! What I'd like to improve: Not something to improve, but I really just wish they'd make M30 KD natively. Boo. Slow resist. Nice that I have some baseline, and I muled the Winter's gift, but didn't stack to my usual degree (80+). I'm not sure that it will be that big of a deal though. My mercs don't care about -recharge, after all. Pet slotting? I don't know. I have a tough time on combos that don't offer an alternate power to mule out the pet uniques. I'm pushed even further here by just how amazing it is to shove -def procs into the T1 especially, and I want soulbound buildup somewhere. This leaves commando ands spec ops a little short from ideal. In a perfect world, I'd be able to mule 2-3 of the uniques and bump my commando, as well as juice damage and more proc op in spec ops. It's a tricky balance with the major benefit of procs for mercs. Unless I go traps, that isn't happening though! I think the endredux here should be okay with ample serum usage. Repulsion Field. I think it's pretty good now? What is your experience? It seems like something tailor made for mercs with their 100% ranged focus. Do you feel Personal Force Field is a real miss here? I have never found myself really using it much, even as a proactive tool on my other characters. I can see where it may get more utility for a MM. My main complaint is the animation time. It's really more of a proactive tool than a "save me" button. If you are in love with it, what would you swap out? I have a couple flex slots I could pop towards whatever. Right now the 4th in deflection, and 5th in Dispersion (less so the latter) could go wherever without changing too much. Would just have to be worth the trade for the resist bonuses and bit of endredux. Note: Due to bad mids behavior, procs are toggled off in most powers right now. Toggle on one at a time to see real damage totals (mids goes wonky on proc % with multiple FFback) Build: Mastermind (Mercenaries - Force Field) unleash version.mbd Picture: Text: Chunk:

An example of my slotting here for Pulse Rifle Burst. This gives me some great set bonuses (15% slow res, 6% F/C resist), along with all the acc/dam I need, and more Endredux than you get from most attacks slotted with a full set. The most meaningful end impact overall is endredux in clickies. Second to that, max end (annihilation is pretty nice as you noted) is a good bonus, and can be gotten with only a partial set, leaving plenty of room for procs. With procs, this power does 233 damage on average. Without, it does 108 on average. Most every proccy power I go for will incorporate some baseline of Acc, Dam, and end, and a set that requires minimal investment to get to good bonuses, or at least some bonuses along the way. I generally avoid Acc/Dam Hami-os for this reason, both in favor of the extra small set bonuses, and avoiding the extra cost for little return.

I recently discovered that this is not the case, unfortunately. CoD lists it as running at 2.5 PPM (in CoD we trust!). The description is misleading. Edit: I see that @Maelwys already pointed this out! That being said, it can still be quite useful! I also like to use the Ragnarok KD proc at times in my own attacks - it has a higher 3.5 PPM. That's like ~40% chance in many MM aoes! As for the attacks, others above me have more or less further expressed my thoughts on this matter. Even on the busiest sets in the world (Kinetics, EA perhaps?) there is still downtime between buffs and debuffs where you can throw out some kind of attack. It's frequent enough that what these attacks do is meaningful. If they are poop due to low MM base damage only, then that's not so hot. If I can make them pretty decent through leveraging procs, why wouldn't I? I could get a little more global recharge or a smattering of resists/defense instead with set bonuses. That's fine for some builds if you have to lean on slotting here to reach certain breakpoints like softcap, but more often it's not necessary, and the damage added by procs is very meaningful. On my recently spooled up Bots/Traps, for example, the options I have for stuff to do outside of attacking include: More Acid Mortar. (Yay, hit that right a way! Not exactly spamming it with the cooldown though). Poison trap. (Okay - I hit it in my opener. Maybe if the battle is long I get another chance). Triage beacon (Generally low priority/impact. Will be in my opener for a difficult engage, but most often not getting another deployment in a given engagement). Tossing out some caltrops (fine - I do it, it's nice and helps me shape the battlefield. Not exactly changing the world here though, and still not spammy). Seeker Drones (Some folks don't even bother. I use them in the opener, and they don't usually get hit therafter). Unless you are constantly resummoning your pets, many sets simply wouldn't have a heckuva lot to do outside of attacking! Sure, some fights go there, but that is more the exception. I do manage my pets as well, and that has a certain mental load, but it doesn't trigger any cooldowns. Meanwhile, I'll be bopping out those photon grenades and Pulse Rifle Bursts pretty steadily, and I want them to hit as hard as possible while doing so. I agree that guassian's is not so hot on a MM. Although if you put it in tactics it will have good uptime due to all the pet targets to trigger off, it's modifying your meager base damage. I'd generally rather squeeze an actual damage proc in somewhere 😉 .

Why not? A good attack is a good attack. If you can reach respectable damage numbers on these attacks with procs while still reaching other goals you have with the build, what is the loss? There is always a trade-off of course, but the same could be said about specific set choices or even power choice to begin with. Both are build decisions, and accomplish different things. I agree that it can go too far. I have tried to push procs on some builds and ended up with too little end support. Many builds sacrifice defense for them, but this is not so much the case with bots/Marine. Your basic powers cover so much here that you don't need set bonuses for an effective defense strategy. Instead, invest them in offense.

Aww, thanks Speed! A few more "pure" telekinesis combos you might consider: Grav/FF - as @Psiphon mentioned Gravity has a lot of toss things around powers. You might have to stretch your concept to include singularity - it would be a big shame to skip. Kinetic Melee/whatever melee AT. Kin Melee has a few ranged blasts, and it's all about knockdown/Knockback. That's if the dancy animations suit your fancy. Stalker has the best version of Kin Melee, with Tankers taking second place. Energy/Martial Blaster. Energy Blasts could easily be telekinetic energy, and Martial has a mix of kicks that you might find suitable for the concept, alongside a power that is super fitting (Ki Push does decent damage, and pushes a single target back very much like TK, and is much more frequently usable). Burst of Speed is also super fun. I'd personally go with the Energy/Martial. It's a great combo of already great sets, and none of the powers really require you to stretch the concept too much. You can use your own imagination beyond this, of course. 🙂

I respect concept characters, but this is a tough one. You can be survivable enough here, but it's a rough build to run no matter how you slot it. You have basically skipped your entire control Primary. What you're doing here is basically a challenge run, working against the design of the Controller AT. I would consider instead going FF Defender with Psi epic. The Telekinesis from Psi epic has a lower target cap, but you'll be much more effective, and can choose from a variety of blasts to suit your concept. A corruptor would also do the trick. Both damage and Force Fields will be stronger on either choice. All respect if you are truly 100% committed to this thematic combination of specific powers! It will not be a great character in practice, but you can make it sort of work. At the very least you will provide shields to your team. However, your face breaking will be minimal as you have no way to set up containment other than TK every now and then, and aren't taking advantage of additional damage tools like all the confuses or proccable controls that Mind provides. Here is a brief approach to how I might consider this combo if I absolutely, truly had to pick these powers on a Controller. Strange TK build.mbd A few notes: Personal defenses are so-so. It can be a sort of workable soloer if you chain your knockdowns, but this isn't a breezy softcap run. I would not want to solo on this build to begin with though, as even procced out the damage is anemic. If you're open to a more traditional Mind control build, soloing can be actually quite effective, but that will basically be a ground-up rework with substantially different power selection. When power boost is active you actually do hit ranged softcap! That's sort of nice. It relies heavily on procs to make up for the lack of damage otherwise, and Force Feedback in almost everything you do allows you to maximize the best attacks. You'll still easily softcap your team with Dispersion +Power boosted shields. This much is steady contribution on most teams. Totals are inflated by the fact that I have procs turned on in all powers, so Force Feedback, the Decimation build up proc, and the Gaussian build up proc are all active. FFback will actually be up a lot of the time in practice - the others not so much. End recovery is actually sort of a problem here, but the cheap filler attacks mean a lot of your attack cycle isn't exactly sucking the blue, so it might be okay. If you keep Repulsion Field off outside of when it might truly be helpful, you should be solid enough.

Other than what @StrikerFox mentioned about resists from the Demons, a pretty good build overall! Not too far off from how I handled my own of the same combo. The biggest issue will likely be end sustainability. It's pretty major here. You only have 1 end/sec positive, even accounting for accolades. Ageless can certainly solve this if you're comfortable relying on it, though this won't help you at lower levels or exemping. Twilight Grasp with the Theft proc as you have helps a heckuva lot, but as is you'll just be spamming it constantly to stay afloat and sometimes get unlucky. I went more proc-tastic on my own build. As a result, yours is a bit sturdier, and will be more capable on hard targets like AV's and GM's, which you've said is a priority. Proc bombing Howling Twilight gets you a decent little nuke, but the up-time is so low that I don't find it to be worthwhile. I prefer to get some recharge and lean on it for its basic functionality. I wouldn't sleep on the whip attacks! They are a good force multiplier for your demons with their -res, and can be procced out to do really good damage. Also have some good FFback opportunities that will feed the other parts of your build. Here's my build for comparison. I have a decent chunk more recovery, and this build still struggles with blue: Demon Dark.mbd I can plow through +4X8 if I'm on my toes, but have to be really aggressive about ensuring my debuffs and controls are down. Once you account for the resist buff from the Ember demon, my resists are also pretty comparable to what you have here. I don't know that this combo will ever be "swim in the chaos without worry" on this setting, but you can definitely wrestle hard content into submission. Going into bodyguard and spamming Twilight Grasp will get you through quite a bit if you keep things tight. For a defensive layer, I've focused mostly low hanging fruit for ranged defense, allowing Fearsome, Fluffy, and Darkest Night to pick up the slack when it really counts.

@Maelwys I have to say, the Panacea in Triage is indeed well worth it. Those Protectors suck down end like no tomorrow, and I see it making a very noticeable impact.

I keep fiddling with this build and finding little optimizations. Found some more slow resist and F/C resist without sacrificing anything. Decided the 40% chance to stun is good enough in Fences - the 2 PPM from energy manip just isn't worth it vs a damage proc. I know Detonator doesn't benefit from actual damage/acc slotting, but here I was able to mule out some good bonuses from Ragnarok for only 1 more slot invested and keep recharged maxed. One step closer to perfection! Build: Mastermind (Robotics - Traps) mu version.mbd Picture: (add 15 defense for the buff from bots). Text:

Power Crash is best on tankers mostly for the increased target cap. It's still pretty decent on brutes though. Dark would be a pretty interesting choice here I think. A few advantages: EM is on the light side of end consumption, so doesn't put a lot of extra pressure on your blue bar, giving you more room to feed /Dark. Stun stacking. Oppressive gloom is always on, and most of your EM attacks also do stun. This will be impressive mitigation overall. Energy would be good as well, but I like it better on scrappers. This is true of most defensive sets, as it's harder to take advantage of the Brute's higher resist cap, and Stalkers can achieve the same defenses anyhow. Electric is perfectly fine. A very solid resist set, though a notch below Rad armor. I don't think there's anything that combines poorly with it, but there's no specific synergy I can think of. A good choice if you like the theme.

It's a pretty decent trick! The other powers within are very worthwhile as well, and require minimal slot investment. Even Melt armor is workable after the buff pass. Previously it was the trashiest res debuff out there in epics.

I think I ran across the thread where @Uun explored this when I was making the build. Someone tested this and found that the Detonator didn't inherit any damage buffs fed to the exploding minion. To Uun - you mentioned Knockback sets do nothing. Does this mean KB to KD is also pointless? Still very respectable damage for a MM attack, though inconvenient conditions with a long cooldown. I took @Maelwys's suggestion of Panacea in Triage. We'll see how it works out in practice. It saves a slot as well! The downside is that I have to throw down triage if I want to benefit form Panacea, and historically throwing down triage doesn't feel awesome. Perhaps the proc will make it feel better! I also rejiggered things with Mu Mastery, and not really sure what I like best. Advantages: S/L resist is capped, and Energy is a bit better. Better end sustain. Re-prioritizing my S/L bonuses and pursuing other resists hit some incidental end gains. Electric fences is thematic, and it's really useful to immobilize groups. Just having it to rotate in as an actual attack adds some decent damage over time. Also tossed in the -res proc from annihilation, which is nice. Disadvantages: Overall resist spread took a big hit. F/C isn't as big a deal ultimately, though I feel the loss of NE. Probably an even trade in practice given the value of S/L. Less reliable, and shorter stun in Fences. Still - comes out to roughly 55% chance of stun with both procs accounted for, and I can cycle it more quickly. If I weren't feeling extra stunny, damage procs are probably the better choice overall here. Not really sure what I like best! I think I'm leaning towards the Mu build, if only for theme. Edit Including my final version now, accounting for @Uun's confirmation about KD proc not working in Detonator. Build: Mastermind (Robotics - Traps) mu version.mbd Picture: Text: Mastermind (Robotics - Traps) mu version.mbd

Funsies is the answer. The option to apply the stun quickly at range without repositioning is also nice. Additionally, I like the resist spread on murky cloud for this build. It would probably be more optimal to go dark embrace/ogloom and rework my set bonuses to back off on s/l. I may spin that up in mids and see how I like it for comparison.

Silly me, and thank you! I should have known this, given that this is how it works for Demons as well with their resist shield. That makes a huge difference, and puts me over softcap for personal defense already as well, with some room to move things as you noted. Perfect! I've sorted out my Pet slotting deficiencies. I did decide to drop the lotg in favor of a +5 defense IO in Protector bots. With the lotg I'm 2% shy of softcap for them - a fairly important 2% to preserve. Traps has enough tricks to pull out at a given moment that juicing recharge at all costs isn't the biggest deal anyhow. Now that brings me to Triage Beacon vs Soul Consumption (if it's worth a damn - doesn't look like it is) or something else (maybe a travel power?). Does anyone actually get mileage out of Triage on their robots? I always want to like it more than I do, but it never really ends up feeling worth the cast on my Defenders and Controllers. Maybe more impactful if soloing on a MM.\ Also occurred to me that my Acc was a little suboptimal on Battle Drones, and I really don't need the Sup Command Ato Pet Unique for the extra 15% aoe defense. Swappy do, problem solved. Maybe worth swapping back for incarnate stuff though - we'll see. Current reworked build: Mastermind (Robotics - Traps).mbd Picture: Text:

Happy almost New Year, Masterminds! I just polished off my latest Dom (Mind/Martial is good times) and am ready to return to MM land. I think it's high time I try on Robotics for size, and Traps is a good candidate for secondary to try on some of the MM specific reworks it got earlier this year. I've run Traps on Defenders and Controllers, but haven't used it on this side of the fence. I noticed that quite a few powers in this combo incidentally throw some stun and KD into the mix. Nice! I doubled down on that just a little bit in this build. I figure with the frequency of this popping out from Photon Grenade, the various stuns my bots spew, and Seekers, Dark Pit might actually get some useful play! I know it's not the most amazing epic power compared to highly optimized choices, but it at least has a place in the plan. As always, I'd love your experienced review and perspective! My goals: Grab stunny things and make sure they are slotted well enough to hit +3's. Do lots of knockdown while I'm at it. Softcap my bots (pretty easy to do with pad room here). Stack defense where I can get easy bonuses for my own protection, but not specifically pursuing softcap. Secondary to this, stacking any old resists across the board. Pretty vague goals I know - most of this is just "choose good things and good bonuses." I'd love to hear your power choice and slotting input, but want to highlight a few elements I'd like to keep regardless: Dark Pit is here to stay. KD proc in Photon Grenade is fun! Stuns and KD are the name of the game here, and I get to participate in the fun directly. I want to keep Detonator to at least give it a go. Same for Seeker Drones. I know not everyone likes them, but I enjoy them, they are thematic, and they serve a good purpose in this build. If anything the mule for Pet uniques is helpful. Concerns: End consumption is not great! This is inevitable when going leadership alongside fighting pool with a secondary that doesn't offer end support. That being said, I'm not spamming expensive epic attacks, and have endredux in most of my expensive clickies. If you see an easy path to improve this, excellent to share! Slow resist. I usually like to pursue this more heavily. Perhaps less of an issue with all the defense going around. Still, would be great to free up a slot for the winter travel IO. Pet Slotting. Especially Assault bot - I know he's low on acc here. My logic is that perhaps Acid Mortar, tactics, and of course supremacy will be enough to bridge the gap where it counts. Do you think this is silly? I had him with more acc, but wanted to squeeze in the KB to KD proc. Is Missile Swarm that much of a bother without it? Perhaps I could drop the Overwhelming force if my fears are misplaced about how much the KB might disrupt. Other tricks to optimize Bot pet slotting. It looks like the Smashing proc is good value in Assault bot and Battle drones. Do you bother with additional Defense slotting in Protector Bots? A travel power would be nice. I don't really care that much these days unless theme demands it though. If I found Dark Pit truly and absolutely useless, I could definitely drop it, pick up a travel power, and use those slots to feed the issues above, though I'd lose the nice set purple bonuses. Triage beacon is another possible drop. It's decent, but in other Traps characters I almost always have something better to do. Upgrade Robot - do you bother to max out healing Enhancement? Looks like the heal is on a pretty long cooldown, so not worth big investment. If you see an easy path to softcap for an important vector (S/L, maybe ranged) without sacrificing the build's goals, that would be strong as well. Detonator. I understand it inherits the enhancement of the Pet you use it on. I don't see any updates that indicate this is no longer the case, but am I wrong? What is your experience with it post revamp? Soul Consumption. I'm already invested in the epic, and have a few potential swaps to grab it. It looks pretty useless given the gigantic recharge. Am I missing something? This seems like a real dud. Build: Mastermind (Robotics - Traps).mbd Pic: Text:

This was my strategy! Your thoughts regarding AVs are correct though. A dom needs a thicker layer of beef if they plan to solo AVs. On a team, the damage optimized strategy that relies more on controls will be more effective. My build hasn't been updated in a little while, but I don't see much I would change! I love my Plant/fire dom - one of my favorite fellows. Squeezing in Experimentation would be a little bit tricky, but here is my build for comparison: Dominator - Plant Control - Fiery Assault mk2.mbd I like that everything can contribute good damage here, including the controls. No matter what you do, consider the Carrion Creepers slotting in this build. This power is an absolute monster when procced out with targeted aoe.

It can be a decently workable combo on a brute. I like my psi/regen Brute quite a lot - here he is for comparison. Brute - Psionic Melee - Regeneration mk2.mbd The big strategy on melee regen is to pump recharge and rotate strong clicky steroids. In-set you have Instant healing and MoG. Out of set Rune of protection and Unleash Potential are good targets. My brute chose Unleash. Especially inspired folks may go for the accolade and rotate Demonic as well. Unfortunately Stalkers get the worst version of an already problematic set. It's not a terrible downgrade, but swapping Quick Recovery for Hide is not ideal. I wish they had rolled in at least some portion of the extra recovery into Fast Healing. Stalkers also have the lowest HP of all the options, so benefit the least from regeneration.

They're both super excellent, top tier sets. Fire edges out in damage both ST and aoe - especially in aoe due to the excellence of fireball. Ice has nothing equivalent. Ice can get pretty close in single target if you are comfortable leaning in to procs. The big differentiators on Ice are Blizzard as @Uncle Shags mentioned, and Freeze Ray. Blizzard is great in super overpull situations where chaos reigns. In this scenario, the damage from extra duration isn't wasted, and the control and heavy debuff elements are appreciated. The ability to place it out of line of site can also be useful for certain engagements. Freeze Ray is broken! It is one of the powers that least adheres to the power budget standards the team has set. It's not just about the amazing proccability - it is mega fast to animate and does solid base damage. Even if you don't proc much, I encourage you to at least put the purple hold proc in it. It's begging for frankenslotting with proc optimization though.

Although you can proc bomb it with hold procs, I don't find this very worthwhile. The recharge is so long that you won't be adding much to your total damage, even if the burst is decent. I prefer to mule a set that benefits my build goals, hits enough accuracy, and gives at least modest recharge. Typically that's either 5 slot unbreakable or 4 slot basilisk.

I definitely understand the basic effect in game of the power itself. I just don't understand the entities and specific behind the scenes mechanics that get it there. Knowing the way these effects are actually executed can help us anticipate how procs work (or not) in it beyond combat parses. It's also interesting to see the creative ways the devs bend these tools to their will. 🙂

I'm glad to hear some folks have had success with %damage procs here! I was just inferring what I could from the CoD info, which is a bit hard to parse on this one. I don't see any reference to a pseudopet in CoD, which is weird if it actually shows under pet damage when %damage procs trigger. It does show some direct damage (18 damage after .5s) so I guess this is what is triggering the procs? It's a bit odd though - I'm not sure that it's actually doing damage like a damage aura. The effect as I understand it is a chance of bonus damage triggered when an affected mob is attacked. In short, I have no idea how it is actually working behind the scenes. The "shifting tides" power that it points to for the enemy effect has them "set mode (shifting tides)" which triggers the proc event for the shifting tides damage upon the next click attack. However, I don't know where to get CoD info on this "mode" and what it actually does in detail. I wonder if @Bopper or others might have some insight into how it functions.