Onlyasandwich

That's excellent news for spring attack lovers if so 😄

Kismet is only a 2 minute buff if used in a clicky. Do you just reapply the upgrade? I guess it would probably refresh on reapplication.

I've run this build up to 31, and very happy so far! I like the build, but honestly so much of it is just the combo. Mercs and FF are very satisfying together. The mercenaries are just so very well behaved. I find myself using goto a lot more (aggressive stance) and microing their battlefield presence much more than my other MMs. They don't waste any time between targets, and just setup a strong and safe firing base wherever needed. Unlike Traps, I don't have to worry about FFgen lagging behind, and can keep them safe with very flexible positioning. In all, it has a very clean, zen feel to it! Rattatatatatatatata go the guns, boosh boosh go the Forcefield powers. As for the all in KD here, it's very effective so far. At 31 I'm not softcapping my minions quite yet, though close. However, I can still run +2X8 with relative ease depending on the enemy group. Chain knockdown is a beautiful thing, and the side dish of -res is the cherry on top!

That makes sense! I wonder if the duration allows it to copy over effectively. Since it's a power that hits right away rather than doing damage over time, I would guess this is not an issue.

With the redirect @aethereal mentioned, I believe it takes on the proc profile of the power it redirects to - link here in CoD. This power is shown as 20 sec recharge, 15 ft radius, 1.167 animation time. This means it would proc a little worse than your average epic aoe attack. Decent, but not maxed 90% like you might expect for such a long recharge power. Foot Stomp is a fairly close comparison. It has 15 ft radius, 20 second recharge, 2 second animation. This means that it has a slight edge in proc % due to the longer animation. With all this, it has 48% chance to fire a standard 3.5 ppm damage proc. Spring attack would be a smidge less than this. Mids doesn't reflect this accurately, and instead goes off the assumption that it would proc as a 120s recharge power. You can expect roughly 30 damage added to its power per standard 3.5 ppm damage proc. Not useless, but honestly pretty mediocre return for something you are using so rarely. Damage enhancements will bring you a similar return until ED cap. A damage maxed Spring attack fully procced would do about 242 damage. A little more if you reserve the purple proc for it, but the purple would be better used in your primary. One thing I'm not sure of is if it benefits at all from Fury, since it's a power referring to a power. It may not inherit damage buffs.

I would not recommend. Indeed only Phantasm would benefit. You might consider them if you have some significant baseline buffs to help Phanty, which will make the further pet aura buffs a bit more meaningful. Even then, there almost definitely better places for those slots in your build. The only Control set I've used them on is Ice, where they were pretty handy to top off Jack's defense to softcap and I had some flex slots anyhow.

I feel almost like the character I actually level after optimizing a build is just an exercise in justifying the effort I took in reaching this balance. It's all about the build, baby! I mean - it's not all about the build. There are lots of things in this game that are fun. A significant portion of that for me is indeed finding the perfect balance of puzzle pieces towards whatever goals I set.

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: