Mastermind build goals

[Verkain]

I have never really played a Mastermind so I am not really sure what the right direction I should take my build.  I recently started a Demon/Thermal and in Mids, I keep trying to soft cap defense and then work on recharge.  Is that the way to go or is there more proper way?  This character will be mostly team based but solo capable.

 

Thanks for your help!

[plainguy]

Personally..

 

Tankermind build is the best way to go with Masterminds.

 

Basically you defense cap and take taunt and then use the The Homecoming of Sandolphan's MM Numpad binds! ™️ to make ALL your pets attack a target and just go down the line one by one killing them all off.  Usually highest to lowest. 

 

That is how I do it.

 

So you have no personal attack powers..  Your job is just to spam taunt and use your secondaries as you control your pets. 

Trust me controlling the pets is a lot of work.  The AI is lacking and they keep running off. 

I would say a mastermind is not something you want to power level your way up and then try to figure out at 50. 

 

The other problem is not all set combination will get you defense cap.

As an example Dark will not. It will get you range cap and mid way Melee and AOE then you use darkest night via hit debuff to get the rest of it.  My gripe is your relying on an Anchor Mob to do this. 

But this is true for Dark no matter what archtype you pick it up in.

Others have said that using the fear cone and ress power to stun keeps you alive. 

But mobs still get a shot off before you do it. This is why Range cap is important at least to me in dark set.

Again I am a belt and suspenders type of person.  

 

Just scroll a few pages and you will find your build.  

 

 

[SmalltalkJava]

I agree with Plainguy.   Tankermind is a true solid way to play, and i feel it is really easy also.    /Thermal is great for getting good resists on the pets, but not really for the MM.   /Time is great for a TankerMind.  It casts a group wide pbaoe defenes buff that you can make perma.    Generally speaking to go Tankermind you will need the Fighting pool for Toughness and Weave, just to give you the extra boost to defense and resists.   

 

Pet wise. The Tier 2 Demons cast a +Resist Buff that affects the MM, and Tier 2  Robots cast a +Defense buff that affects the MM.  Those are the only Primary sets that I can think of with resist or defense buffs that impact the MM.   

 

For pure teaming, Demon/Thermal should work really well.  You will have resist shields to buff your pets and the team.    I run a demon/nature as both the primary and secondary has +resist buffs.  If you scroll through some of my posts you will find my current demon/nature build.

[Verkain]

Thanks for the input!  I'll try out the Tankermind and see how I like it.

[Tigress]

That is probably the most effective way to play a mastermind, though in my book its also the most boring. I try and get the defence and resistances of the pets as high as possible, while not neglecting my own, and just fight along with them with attack powers and pools. I know its less effective, but IMHO not by a lot, and I don't feel like I am wasting my time.

[TheSpiritFox]

Personal opinion, tankerminding is sub par MM play. The simple reason is Mez. If you want to tankermind, you have to build your entire build around it. Around holding aggro, surviving damage, that's two of your pool choices gone right there with fighting and presence. And alot of extra toggles on a character not designed around running tanker level toggles. You give up more than you get. And presence is the only aggro management tool you have. Once the fight gets going or is big enough that you can't taunt all of the stuff around you, suddenly your pets defenses matter more than yours do. You can't keep aoe aggro as a mastermind on you long term. It just doesn't work. 
 

It is far easier to get your pets defense capped and some extra resistance and let them lead. Pets make better overall tanks than you do and once a fight gets going and damage starts rolling out your pets will tear aggro away from you anyway. Having to spam taunt means that you're neglecting the other half of your powerset a good bit: The support. 

 

With the right build most MMs can be set up to allow your pets to fully take the alpha and survive it and go from there. And when you get there, you're far better off playing support using heals, buffs, debuffs, and CC. Bonfire from heat mastery is with just one slot one of the best CCs in the game, and it does amazing things for pet survivability. Rather than throwing provoke left and right, everyone from you and your team are better off if your pets are taking the aggro and you're keeping them alive while they do it. 

 

I have a bots/traps and if there is any build made for tankerminding it's that one. Both bots and traps boost my personal defenses and /traps includes mez protection in that. With incarnates my pets and I are all past softcap on defenses without scorpion shield and I could reasonably spam provoke in between traps to hold aggro. It's beyond unncessary. I took aid pool instead and let my bots tank and keep them healed up. Who even needs a tank when you can throw out enough defense to softcap your entire team and CC+aoe entire mob groups into oblivion? I have a 50 bots/traps, a 50 thugs/time and a 50 demons/nature and in the end each of them is most effective if the pets take aggro over you. 

 

Build your pets defenses up as high as you can get them. When that's done, stack recharge on yourself and shore up your defenses to ranged and AOE where you can. But plan around the pets tanking for you. That's literally what they're there for. You're not limited to summoning out of combat or anything like that for a reason. 

[plainguy]

11 hours ago, TheSpiritFox said:

Personal opinion, tankerminding is sub par MM play. The simple reason is Mez. If you want to tankermind, you have to build your entire build around it. Around holding aggro, surviving damage, that's two of your pool choices gone right there with fighting and presence. And alot of extra toggles on a character not designed around running tanker level toggles. You give up more than you get. And presence is the only aggro management tool you have. Once the fight gets going or is big enough that you can't taunt all of the stuff around you, suddenly your pets defenses matter more than yours do. You can't keep aoe aggro as a mastermind on you long term. It just doesn't work. 
 

It is far easier to get your pets defense capped and some extra resistance and let them lead. Pets make better overall tanks than you do and once a fight gets going and damage starts rolling out your pets will tear aggro away from you anyway. Having to spam taunt means that you're neglecting the other half of your powerset a good bit: The support. 

 

With the right build most MMs can be set up to allow your pets to fully take the alpha and survive it and go from there. And when you get there, you're far better off playing support using heals, buffs, debuffs, and CC. Bonfire from heat mastery is with just one slot one of the best CCs in the game, and it does amazing things for pet survivability. Rather than throwing provoke left and right, everyone from you and your team are better off if your pets are taking the aggro and you're keeping them alive while they do it. 

 

I have a bots/traps and if there is any build made for tankerminding it's that one. Both bots and traps boost my personal defenses and /traps includes mez protection in that. With incarnates my pets and I are all past softcap on defenses without scorpion shield and I could reasonably spam provoke in between traps to hold aggro. It's beyond unncessary. I took aid pool instead and let my bots tank and keep them healed up. Who even needs a tank when you can throw out enough defense to softcap your entire team and CC+aoe entire mob groups into oblivion? I have a 50 bots/traps, a 50 thugs/time and a 50 demons/nature and in the end each of them is most effective if the pets take aggro over you. 

 

Build your pets defenses up as high as you can get them. When that's done, stack recharge on yourself and shore up your defenses to ranged and AOE where you can. But plan around the pets tanking for you. That's literally what they're there for. You're not limited to summoning out of combat or anything like that for a reason. 

My Tankermind is Bots Trap as well. I love Traps overall because its real easy. 

 

I never really looked at the defense numbers for pets, maybe I should. 

But as I probably don't need to tell you I can run 8/4 setting on Robot Traps and solo AVs because they work so well together. 

 

Time is also another defense cap set but lacking the mez protection.  

I like what Nature gives you but I just hate the look of the powers.  It bothers me even more when the nature player is hovering and the tress grow midway up blocking sight and add in tight Cave environment. How I wish you could tame nature animations or just have smaller ones. 

 

With Robot Traps I am taunting, dropping Trip Mines and redirecting my pets behind me..  That is pretty much my work. Just controlling the pets is a pain sometimes.  Though I will say getting interrupted sometimes with trip mine is a pain. If they move over the changes From Device to Traps it would be GREAT.. 

With Traps I have an initial setup or a method I follow when fighting. IF it gets bad for example I pull a double group I turtle up and just keep pets near triage beacon and just have the bots target each highest level mob can clear them out as I taunt.  I use Poison Trap with the Lockdown IO and that helps immensely. I also run with Dark on my Robot Traps for Oppressive Gloom  which is a great power to have if you are defense capped. 

 

I think these are tricks for mastermind builds which are key.. EG Poison Traps with lockdown mag 2 hold proc, Oppressive Gloom, ETC..