Traps or Time for Bots Tankermind?

[pretty_jesus]

Looking for suggestions and why.. is the mez protection from FFG that relevant?  Traps is potent, but feels (and is) kind of slow/static.  Had a /Traps on live, curious what people feel about Time as I haven't played it yet.  I team exclusively and love TF/SFs

[plainguy]

You get mezzed and toggles drop. That doesn't happen with Traps. 

 

Plus Trip mine does decent DPS with about a 7 second recharge.

 

Personally I am defense capped without my pets giving me buff. So I can solo without my pets. Its slow but can be done because of Trip Mine. Time doesn't have that ability.

 

But Time is good because you are always on the go. 

I have both and I just like Traps more, just a personal feel for me.

[Kommon]

If you team more than solo, go with /Time.  The team buffs and damage mitigation the set provides is top tier.  Do carry break frees though, as you would with any other set.  Other than the Mez protection hole, Bots/Time is a solid combo both solo and in teams.

 

Once you get high enough and start on Incarnate content, invest in Clarion Radial line.  That will boost your buffs and debuffs and provide Mez protection if needed.

[Riverdusk]

I'm not noticing being mezed a huge issue on a time mastermind.  You have high defense to avoid being hit by most mezzes in the first place and then you also have your pets cutting down on things aimed your way as well.  Then even when you do get mezzed your pets are still protecting/attacking for you.  I plan on getting Clarion for the knockback protection for all my pets probably more than any other "mez"  and you still need to do that with /traps anyway.  As mentioned /traps has its benefits (more damage, better debuff, much better -regen), but I wouldn't go traps over time if FFG is your only reason.  

 

Since you said you team exclusively I'd definitely recommend /time as Kommon said. 

[pretty_jesus]

On 11/13/2019 at 5:51 PM, plainguy said:

You get mezzed and toggles drop. That doesn't happen with Traps. 

 

Plus Trip mine does decent DPS with about a 7 second recharge.

 

Personally I am defense capped without my pets giving me buff. So I can solo without my pets. Its slow but can be done because of Trip Mine. Time doesn't have that ability.

 

But Time is good because you are always on the go. 

I have both and I just like Traps more, just a personal feel for me.

How does traps perform in a team late game?

[plainguy]

3 hours ago, pretty_jesus said:

How does traps perform in a team late game?

Its good if your fighting big bosses and stationary.. EG BAF its good.. 

 

But it doesn't matter because it doesn't take 8 people to do an ITF for example 3 or 4 players capped out with good builds can handle it. Everyone is just DPS and  debuffs. 

 

End game wise you can pick up the status incarnate to protect you from mez while it is up.  

EG Carny Master illusionist would be trouble for a Time player. 

 

Again depends on the player.. I want to be the best me.  If I can solo 4/8 setting then everyone else is extra. I am already performing at MAX. So if I can do 4/8 and blaster comes along I am getting more DPS. A Tank that can hold aggro means I can drop Trip mines as soon as they pop. 

 

I have petless masterminds doing 4/8. Lowest hit points, Highest endurance attacks and less dps overall due to no pets, and I have seen players who couldn't handle 2/4 setting at level 50. 

You get it...

 

Time is good I have a semi petless Time Thugs Mastermind.  

 

For me its just a personal choice. Its a very safe build. Some people hate it.. I like it. I have two Triage beacons up for 30 seconds.  Can have up 2 acid mortars. Caltrops is a great stupid little thing that keeps mobs moving..  Oppressive Gloom added in stuns the lower mobs and some bosses when combined with the defense cap of Traps.  

 

There have been times when bodyguard mode has wiped out my pets and I just turtled up  with several groups on me and I would just slowly drop trip mines and clear them out until I could resummon bots safely.  You can't do that with time, as it does have a DPS. 

 

Plus Robot Traps its so Thematic. 

I use Traps on everything..

• Robot Traps full set..
• Semi petless ( last pet only ) Robot Traps. 
• Whip Traps Petless mastermind
• AR Traps Defender.

Will probably make a DP Traps Corruptor in a bit.    

All are defense capped doing 3/8 easily. I can do 4/8 but its a bit slower.. 3/8 seems to be the magic stetting.

[TheSpiritFox]

7 hours ago, pretty_jesus said:

How does traps perform in a team late game?

Traps is a late bloomer. It's at its best by far late game when you can stack recharage and get most of your traps down to like 30 second or lower recharges. The debuffs on /traps are heavy enough that with propper slotting you can solo incarnate groups with bots or thugs. And the mez help on your minions from /traps is a godsend. 

[You]

Traps are very good except the last two powers: really not sure what to do with them...

[TheSpiritFox]

2 hours ago, You said:

Traps are very good except the last two powers: really not sure what to do with them...

You skip them. 

Detonator is genuine shit. My thing about it is that you figure out it's damage per activation, then divide it by 4 because you have to resummon and rebuff something after. Factoring in the cast time and endurance cost of resummoning and rebuffing a minion into the cost of using detonator, it's like possibly the worst T9 masterminds have access to. True hot garbage, and more labor and resource intensive a nuke to use than any single other power in the entire game. 

 

Trip mine is a better power, but it is far from spammable, the interrupt time will fuck you over alot (and waste endurance) in heavy crowds with aoes flying, and it does factually throw dudes everywhere some of the time which can just be inconvenient in an otherwise neat double caltrops, mortar, and P.Trap killzone. 

[You]

Most advises to take Mace for /Time to get the benefit of Power Boost.

 

I don't think the effect of Power Boost applies to those pseudo pets of /Traps.  So what Ancillary or Patron to get for a /Traps?

 

Thanks!

[TheSpiritFox]

For /traps mu and pyre I think are the two best. Electric fences is just a stellar aoe immob and Bonfire is quite possibly the single best overall CC in the game. 

[pretty_jesus]

@plainguycan you link your current build?

[mcdoogss]

On 11/16/2019 at 12:43 AM, You said:

Most advises to take Mace for /Time to get the benefit of Power Boost.

 

I don't think the effect of Power Boost applies to those pseudo pets of /Traps.  So what Ancillary or Patron to get for a /Traps?

 

Thanks!

Pyre is good because of bonfire with a KB-KD IO.  Between that and poison trap you have more than enough control.  fireball and the ST blast are much much better than the primary rifle attacks obv.  I also slot KB->KD in the little bots and assault bot so the mu immob isn't as useful to me as for others.

[plainguy]

15 hours ago, pretty_jesus said:

@plainguycan you link your current build?

Look down at the thugs trap post  down below it’s there 

 

I go dark because of oppressive gloom. At defense cap and only defense cap it’s great to generate aggro and maintain aggro with provoke.

 

I tried it without defense cap and got crushed. 

 

There is is a system I run with traps.

 

i drop triage beacon and then caltrops in front of the beacon at the tip of the green glow. Then between that is poison traps. 

 

Once poison traps And gloom kick off I drop a trip mine follow by another poison trap and then another mine.  Between the poison trap gloom and the lockdown proc it works very well.  

 

Sometimes I get a lot of aggro as ffg and mortar get aggro. So I could have 3 groups on me sometimes.  My first summon if it goes bad is assault bot with 2nd upgrade which gives it burn patch.

 

if you went with another epic I would not take trip mine because it just is difficult to place it without oppressive gloom.  The smallest hits break it.

 

hopefully they bring the change from device over to traps and it will be great and then it would allow any epic with a bit more freedom