tjknight

Force Field + any darkness set (Control, Blast, Necro) the -tohit plus the shields is nuts.

The answer you're looking for is Marine Affinity, and possibly Nature Affinity. Marine Affinity offers several buffs that address pet squishiness, including an Absorb mechanic that functions like extra hit points for your pets. It also provides a Max HP buff through Power of the Depths. One key advantage of Marine Affinity’s Barrier Reef over Nature Affinity’s Wild Bastion is that Barrier Reef refreshes its absorb effect continuously, making it effectively permanent right out of the box. Overall, Marine Affinity combines defense, resistance, and HP buffs to make pets quite sturdy. Nature Affinity can achieve similar results, but it typically requires much more expensive slotting to get there. Another option to consider is pairing a Defense set like Time, Force Field or Cold , with pets who have strong inherent defense (Robots, Ninjas, and perhaps Beats). This can help the pets avoid damage altogether.

No you can't rez pets.. but honestly they hardly die unless I'm doing something insanely hard. I always take full team support powers on my MM.. because I find myself regretting it the times I have not done so. Thermal is good enough to keep an entire team + your pets going. Forge is great on the Knights!!! btw . The thermal shields, Franken Slotting, plus Necro pets natural resistances is a powerful combo. I took Cardiac I for extra resistance. I'm not the best builder by far, but I just build what's fun for me. YMMV.

Doesn't look bad really. This is my current Necro/Thermal that I've had for a while. You can take a look and see if you find any of it useful. I will say that with BG-mode and the high resistance numbers Necro can get from Thermal, it's a very tanky combo. Mastermind (Necromancy - Thermal Radiation).mbd

Thanks for replying Laucianna - I'm "Sawgrass" on live btw!!!! It was great playing your Unity event, it got me to dust off my Warshade. I'm probably in a weird minority of people who like the inherent, but I do primarily team!!! So I know that playstyle choice makes a difference. I'd be fine if set bonuses and pool powers (Fighting, Leadership, etc...) were allowed to function in all forms. That would be a nice simple change that would make Khelds better overall.

Screenshot, but showing Eclipse w/Dark Sustenance... still crazy amounts of resistance for a not a high amount of investment. The issue mostly has been with mez, but I have a "break free" macro that helps with that.

I’d been looking for a new build to respec my old tri-form Warshade. The original build was never all that effective, and I figured I could do better. That’s when I remembered seeing a post here about a very good Human-Form Warshade build that had been shared on the old City of Heroes forums during the live days. Doomrider posted an updated version of it last year on the Homecoming forums, so I thought, “Why not give it a shot?” Fortunately, I already had most of the necessary IO sets slotted, so finishing the build only required a respec and about 100 million Inf. in additional IOs. Once I started running with some teams, I noticed something surprising: I was hitting the damage resistance cap (85%) most of the time—*without* even using Eclipse. The secret? **Dark Sustenance.** So far, I’ve *always* been teamed with at least two ATs that boost Damage Resistance. As a result, I’m consistently sitting at the damage resistance cap of 85% (or close to it, based on what I understand the cap to be)—and that’s without ever using Eclipse! Why isn’t anyone talking about this? All I ever hear is how underwhelming Kheldians are, but no one seems to mention how powerful **Dark Sustenance** can be. It’s especially effective for Warshade IO builds that focus on damage resistance, and also grants mez resistance and damage boosts on top of that varying on team makeup. I think this is incredible… or am I missing something here?

For a truly spooky "Warlock" feel why not Dark Control paired with Psionic Assault? Drain Psyche allows you to not only heal yourself, but applies -regen to foes. While Psychic Shockwave gives you an incredibly reliable nuke. Basically you'll have the power to control the battlefield while tossing out some respectable de-buffs from both your primary and secondary.

Has anyone ever tried the fighting pool on a build like this?

Demons/Rad

@sawgrass here ... Just a side comment .... I ❤️ the concept for this guy. Re-imagining traps as mystical artifacts totally works. The character concepts for this game are like 50% of the fun for me!!!

Purely subjective opinion here.. so no math facts to back it up. However, I've been leveling a Mercs/Marine MM through the Rogue isles, and she's having no trouble soloing even level elite bosses. I just finished the "Hammers of Justice" arc which has an EB in each mission, they all melted in seconds. I'm not on any crazy settings (just +0/2). I will note that while I don't have any sets slotted yet. I do have the -res ins the Special Ops and the Commando. And a "Touch of Lady Grey" proc in the soldiers. Mercs/Marine has been one the easiest to lvl MM's I've played so far. So this combo gets my vote for best all around MM for just playing and enjoying the game.

Does anyone have an example of a tanky Necro/EA build?

Time has nice magical feel to it...

Agreed... and Rain Powers + Tar Patch = Joy!

Just necroing this.. because DA repeatable mish's are amazing for xp and incarnate loot.

I second trying Marine as a secondary, something new and it's a very good on MM's.

Fantastic.. makes me wish we had Faction options for Masterminds!

Another vote for marine.... it buffs pets very well.

Dark Blast / Super Reflexes blooms rather early and stupid levels of survivable on just generic IO's or SO's. Especially, when solo.

An AI rendering of my Plant/Thorn Dominator from live "Fly Agaric", that I've decided to re-create on Homecoming:

I've been leveling up a Necro/Marine mastermind, and it's been a fantastic experience! Marine seems to be the top choice for mastermind primaries right now. At first, it might not look as flashy, but once you factor in the extra hitpoints, the absorb mechanic, solid damage buffs, plus a bit of defense and resistance, it all adds up to a significant boost in pet sturdiness and performance. Marine also makes easier to skip Leadership, which previously felt like a must have. I’m really curious, though—what do people think is the best complementary pet set to pair with Marine? Necro has been working well for me, and I'm currently sitting at level 34.

Thanks a lot guys. this is how I'm slotting now. I'll snatch up some Soulbound Allegiance pieces after I earn the $$$ for them. A noticeable improvement in solo performance by just making these few changes.

Thanks!!!