Mind Link - PSA

[SeraphimKensai]

I've looked over a lot of builds for forts and night widows regarding how people slot Mind Link. The power takes Defense Buff and To Hit enhancements, it does not take recharge. A common goal ppl have is to perma Mind Link. Back when Widows and Forts 1st came out, a common trick was to slot in Membrane HO's as the power would then benefit from both the Defense Buff, To Hit, and Recharge of the HO.

 

Fast forward to today. In both Mids Reborn, Mind Link has a base recharge of 240 seconds. It shows Mind Link benefitting from a HO:Membrane, so slotting 3, makes the recharge 123.1 seconds, effectively making the power Perma by itself. I see numerous builds recommending Membranes, and realistically they are pretty spendy, on Everlasting right around 30 mil for both the normal and synthetic version. 

 

I did testing last night on Mind Link on Everlasting.... (Note: I have 5 LotG global recharge IO's, Mental Training, and Hasten affecting my recharge, nothing else). I have CD timers turned on for my powers.

Mind Link with no slots and with a single HO: Membrane - Mind Link's recharge is not affected by slotting the Membrane at all in game, despite Mids Reborn/Pines showing that it is. It is definitely affected by global recharge reduction, but since the power does not accept recharge reduction enhancements, locally, it does not benefit from that.

 

The power also boosts To Hit, while someone might be curious how much To Hit buff someone gets with 3 Membranes, that would be 7.8% to Hit Buff, the base amount without slotting for To Hit Buff is 5%. For perspective unslotted Tactics ot Tactical Training: Leadership, each give 10% To Hit Buff unslotted. Follow Up does 10% unslotted, and Build Up does 20% unslotted. It doesn't seem like Mind Link really gives a decent enough To Hit Buff for me to merit slotting for To Hit Buff. I use the power for capping defense, which as I assume everyone here is rather intelligent, does as well.

 

Because of all that, and based on current pricing trends, I can not in good fashion recommend anyone to use Membranes in Mind Link, unless someone really is slot starved and wants to buff both Defense and To Hit. IO Sets are significantly cheaper and you can then build towards global set bonuses as well. So at some point the power was changed to not allow benefit from the recharge of slotted enhancements that reduce recharge on a local level (which I did quit back during i16 until coming back this past spring, so there was a lot of time for the power to change).

[Pyro Technix]

Defense/Recharge Set IO's do affect the recharge, however. I have 4 of them frankenslotted to get maximum defense and recharge enhancement on Mind Link. It works on Homecoming, but not in Mid's. 

[tidge]

At the risk of thread necromancy, I can also concur that HO Membranes do nothing for the recharge of Mind Link. I thought I got a great drop for Mind Link courtesy Miss Liberty!

 

I can also note that Adjusted Targetting:Recharge (a ToHit IO) DOES work as a means of Recharge for Mind Link, with a larger bonus than can be had by a X/Recharge IO.

[Andreah]

I did some experiments of my own, and can say that the Alpha slot recharge buffs do not affect Mind Link. It took the same stopwatch time to come back up with and without a +45% recharge Alpha Boost slotted.

[Sou1catcher]

So How should one slot this while coming Up and prior to Frankenslotting?

[Gulbasaur]

28 minutes ago, Sou1catcher said:

So How should one slot this while coming Up and prior to Frankenslotting?

It's one of the few powers I'd say wants frankenslotting as early as possible as it has very good return on investment being such a good buff, but otherwise just go for three defence enhancements.

[Carnifax]

1 hour ago, Sou1catcher said:

So How should one slot this while coming Up and prior to Frankenslotting?

Why prior? Attuned Ios gain effectiveness as you level so you may as well frankenslot with 4 attuneds and be done. 

 

Since you can use converters to flip its not too arduous to craft any Defense set ios and convert til you get what you want. 

[arkieboy72472]

I know it is overkill, but slotted it with 5 red fortune and one lotg global, and i noticed a big difference in the powers recharge. I am sure there is a better and more optimal slotting.

 

[Andreah]

Red fortune can give you 74.2% recharge (at 50) and a set bonus of 5% recharge; the LoTG gives 7.5%, so that's a total of 74.2% recharge in the power, and 12.5% global bonus. That's not bad, gets a bit into diminishing returns, but you can do better, even keeping the LoTG in it. 

 

You could use just five slots, and then "frankenslot" 4 recharge double Defense+Recharge IOs from various defense sets, and get 26.5 x 4 recharge in the power, which will get into diminishing returns, and then have the LoTG global bonus on top of it, too.  This should get you about 20% more recharge in the power, and still have the 7.5% global. This will also boost the defense enhancement from ML by 63.6%, which is almost as much as the five piece Red Fortune would have done; provided the piece you skipped was the Endurance singleton.

 

You could use the extra slot to get more space in another power to get another global set recharge bonus, or whatever other build objective you have. 

[Gulbasaur]

I slapped in the reactive defences set - it has 8.75% as the 6-slot bonus and the 3-13% sliding damage resistance IO is good value for one slot, particularly as almost all widow resistances are sliding anyway. It also has a fairly meaty endurance raise in it. 

 

You've got lots of room for the LOTG IO in there and Reactive Defences is a good all-rounder. Off the top of my head, I think I've got 30 seconds of down time on Mind Link, without hasten, which is fine under pretty much every circumstance. 

[tidge]

On 1/11/2020 at 3:08 PM, Sou1catcher said:

So How should one slot this while coming Up and prior to Frankenslotting?

I run it with 3-slots only, usually taking the power at lvl 24:

Adjusted Targeting: Recharge

Luck of the Gambler: Def / 7.5% Global Recharge

Luck of the Gambler:  Def / Recharge

 

This is just over 72% recharge. I've played with adding more x/Recharge, but I find that I only get  a second or two off the power's recharge time.  (no Hasten)

 

Note: I usually have Reactive Defenses 6-slotted in Mask Presence, as the Endurance discount is more useful there.

 

As I've written elsewhere: It is very rare that for my content that I even trigger Mind Link. My build will already have extreme ToHit bonuses and positional defenses will be capped (or just under) at normal content. The times I use Mind Link:

1. I'm running pets (usually Lore)
2. I'm playing with teams (especially when playing at lower levels or at very high-end content)
3. I'm facing potential debuffs to Defense or ToHit

Because I consider it to be somewhat niche (even if it can be great) I wouldn't hold it against any build that only single-slotted it. I would question going heavy into a Fortunata trying to make it Perma, as it really shouldn't be necessary for you to have it perma. Widows can get it perma much easier because of Mental Training.

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by tidge