Request for general playstyle advice (robots/sonic)

[Gulbasaur]

I've got my bots/sonic mastermind up to 32 (just picked up the assault bot but not taken it for a test drive yet). Between the +DEF and +RES, we're pretty indestructible, and I'm aware that bots rely on assault bot for the bulk of the DPS, but I'm having trouble with it in terms of actual play... it feels like I'm just running around debuffing and doing a bit of melee and waiting for battles to end. I don't feel particularly involved.

 

For pool powers, I picked up the Fighting melee attacks because I like the idea of a tiny old woman running round punching things with her robot army, so it's not like I'm not active in combat. I'm aware that sonic is quite a hands-off powerset, but even with the debuffs I feel like I'm just waiting out a timer on the fight. When I hit 35, I'm planning on diving pretty hard into the fire epic pool for some AoE attacks. 

 

So... any tips for a new-ish mastermind? How can I feel more like I'm contributing to a fight? I picked a mastermind because it was about as far in concept as I could get away from what I usually play (fortunata main, peacebringer and stalker next most experienced). I didn't take any of the ranged attacks because I didn't like the zap gun aspect of it. 

I think part of it is I'm not used to playing with pets so I feel like I'm not in control of a lot of the fight... it's just sort of going on around me. 

Edited December 9, 2019 by Gulbasaur

[ScarySai]

Order your assault bot to attack a target near the center of a dense pack, its incendiary missiles are insane.

 

You'll get an immobilize from your epic pools later on, this will help leverage the burn patches better.

[plainguy]

It really depends on what your doing or want to do.

 

For me personally I have to have defense cap. I will NOT play any combo that I cannot defense cap based on the play style. EG Blaster would be hover blaster to stay out of melee range.

There has been some talk about Sonic further down and I honestly didn't agree with some of the comments. I don't feel being high in resistance equals defense cap.

 

EG.. defense cap equals 1 in 13 hits..  So if we deal with absolutes. 100 dps per hit. you get 100 points of damage with defense cap and no resistance.  Resistance cap is 75%. So 13 hits with max resist no defense is 13 x 25 =325.

 

But if your doing a 1/0 setting then its all good, anything is good then.

 

Are you using Sandolphans keypad binds ? 

They are very helpful but again I use all the pets as one weapon.. All pets attack biggest boss. Boss goes down, All pets attack next boss. ETC. 

 

 

Again if your just slotting for what you think is cool then its all good. Once you get into the epic pools you will be mixing it up a bit. 

 

But masterminds is pretty much about using the pets as a weapon.

 

 

[Sovera]

On 12/9/2019 at 10:28 AM, Gulbasaur said:

I've got my bots/sonic mastermind up to 32 (just picked up the assault bot but not taken it for a test drive yet). Between the +DEF and +RES, we're pretty indestructible, and I'm aware that bots rely on assault bot for the bulk of the DPS, but I'm having trouble with it in terms of actual play... it feels like I'm just running around debuffing and doing a bit of melee and waiting for battles to end. I don't feel particularly involved.

 

For pool powers, I picked up the Fighting melee attacks because I like the idea of a tiny old woman running round punching things with her robot army, so it's not like I'm not active in combat. I'm aware that sonic is quite a hands-off powerset, but even with the debuffs I feel like I'm just waiting out a timer on the fight. When I hit 35, I'm planning on diving pretty hard into the fire epic pool for some AoE attacks. 

 

So... any tips for a new-ish mastermind? How can I feel more like I'm contributing to a fight? I picked a mastermind because it was about as far in concept as I could get away from what I usually play (fortunata main, peacebringer and stalker next most experienced). I didn't take any of the ranged attacks because I didn't like the zap gun aspect of it. 

I think part of it is I'm not used to playing with pets so I feel like I'm not in control of a lot of the fight... it's just sort of going on around me. 

 

 

A mastermind is never very involved playing. You spend your time directing your minions and waiting for things to die. Some will tell otherwise but choosing attacks is a bit of a waste. Extra damage is never bad but endurance is at a premium for Masterminds since they have an endurance tax on their secondary.

 

Bots does not pair extremely well with /Sonic either. You have a beautiful -res skill you can attach to a friendly, but it requires the friendly to go into melee range for it to have an effect. None of your bots are something you want to go into melee. For the same reason /Poison works well with thugs (they too have a skill that can be attached to a friendly) using thugs would mean you can attach that -res to your level 32 summon.

 

Now this is just solo talk. In groups there is always some brute or tank or scrapper who dives first into the packs of enemies and you can attach that skill to them and reap the benefits.

 

As you are still only 32 I would say that you might like more a Demons/Thermal (little old lady finds her grandson's cultist book 😄 ) since Demons are resistance based and Thermal offers resist shields.

 

Thermal is pretty sweet at all levels. You're just starting? Everyone is low level and doesn't have defenses yet, so Thermal's healings are sweet ambrosia from the heavens and at all levels your pets will like them. Still low level? You have resistance shields that diminish the damage taken. Medium to high level? The shields are *still* going to be useful, but now you can boost someone(s) in your team to increase their damage as well. Higher level still? You can debuff strong enemies and make AV or EB fights much faster. Personally I found this pairing pretty good since we can put our pets in aggressive mode and let them go nuts while we focus in keeping everyone alive, and if things go sour we can go into bodyguard mode (if you don't know about the bodyguard mode please google macros for it, it's a game changer) to be half immortal.

 

Bots/Cold is a good pairing as well. The tier two bots do +defense shields on everyone of the team, your other minions as well. Cold does +defense shields (different from Thermal that does resistance shields). That means your bots and your Cold shields stack up for even moar defense. There Cold falters is the lack of a heal which your minions will NOT appreciate, but it has more debuffs and knockdowns and strong anti-AV skills.

 

Bots or thugs marry very well with /Time (which is an excellent secondary and quite busy to keep someone entertained) since both thugs and bots have +defense and /Time has buffs that increase defense, plus accuracy, plus recharge, plus it has a decent little AoE heal.

 

 

One thing you will notice is how fragile your pets are. This is why I am advising stacking themes. Demons + Thermal manages to get the minions to cap of 90% resistances. Combined with the healing of Thermal and it will be hard to lose minions. Sonic does resistance shields but does not have the heals.

 

Cold, Forcefield (not the best choice to pick), Time pair very well with thugs and bots since they stack defenses. There are a few builds around this sub-forum that allows pets to reach the soft-cap defense meaning they take a lot less damage. I even posted one where as early as level 28 a Thugs/Time had the pets softcapped.

[tidge]

One thing I did with my 'bots MM (upon Respec) was to slot the two (?) highest rifle attacks as well as Epic attacks with Knockdown. The T1 and T3 bots also are slotted with Knockdown. At higher levels this has my toon firing off shots to keep baddies in place.

 

Prior to the Respec, I was using the Medicine pool to keep bots healthy. After the Respec I solo enough x8 content that the Triage Beacon is generally enough to keep the bots working, especially with Incarnate powers.

 

You can also take Grant Invisibility if you feel like doing a lot of individual casting on pets.