Can I get some opinions on Beast/Nature

[Damoklese]

Im considering my first mastermind.  Right now im leaning towards Demon/Dark, and have been told that its a great combo, but I am also very interested in a Beast/Nature MM.  I have a druid character concept that would look great with the powerset.

 

Im curious though about whether or not id like the set.  Im looking to use it in a duo with a damage dealer.. most likely a stalker or scrapper.  Possibly a blaster.  We are hoping to duo most of the content in the game. Could I get some feedback on this combo from people who know a lot more about MMs than me?

 

What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the combo? 

Is it capable of soloing/duoing AVs?

Is it going to be frustrating for a new MM player?

 

Sorry for starting another thread on this but I thought if I put Beast/Nature in the title, it would be more likely to get people who play either of those sets to chime in with some info on it.

 

[Zeraphia]

Based upon what I know of building, and procs, etc. I can tell you that while this combination may not be an S-tier MM, it's definitely a great combo that will accomplish a lot and can do everything every other mm can.

 

Strengths: durable, easy, straight-forward, not that complicated, solos well.

Weaknesses: melee pets, not the highest DPS combo (still great though!), and pets don't do a ton of aoe.

 

AV soloing? With IO's absolutely!

 

For a new MM player? Hmm... Beasts are a bit complicated and honestly I don't know if I would recommend them to a new MM player unless you're willing to read about how Fortify Pact works as well as willing to investigate Nature and its heals. It's not difficult to learn by any means, but at level 1, they are melee pets that don't have the greatest defenses and prone themselves to dying (but in the 30's it blossoms and they will hardly ever die with fortify pact and decent recharge).

[Dixa]

people play beast/nature for the theme. but those people also don't normally come to the boards asking for help.

 

if you are asking for help, understand that while beasts have excellent single target damage they lose that edge the minute you pop fortify pack as it removes their ability to crit and the stacking damage buffs for a full minute. also understand that being single target focused in this game can be quite frustrating at times when you want to ramp the difficulty up. the majority of their damage coming from their tier 1 pets will also limit their potential against mobs higher level than them and you compared to sets that have most of their outgoing damage coming from their tier 2 and tier 3 pets. 

 

if you are going for a theme here, experiment and do as you will. if you want actual power, this is not the powerset combo to go with. 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Dixa

[TygerDarkstorm]

I am by no means a master MM or anything, but I thought I would offer my two cents over my experience in the early leveling process of beast/nature. I chose the powers for thematic reasons, and did great until about level 10 (soloing missions in Praetoria). After that, my pets and I started getting squished, a lot, and I found the character a bit unenjoyable to play. So I rolled a beast/time MM and boy did I find myself enjoying her!  I know /time needs levels before it really gets going, but just from this early perspective I already thought the play experience was much better. Granted, I rolled blue instead of gold and joined DFB's and Posi TF's because I wanted those experiences and to try and see if I could maintain my pets in a group situation. But the times I was/do solo, I feel more comfortable having /time than /nature. As always, YMMV, and other, far more experienced MM players may have gotten much better use out of the beast/nature combo than I did.

 

Edit: And after coming to the boards here, I think I'm going to re-roll out of beast/ entirely.  I enjoy them thematically, but have been a bit underwhelmed with them in game, and after coming here to the boards, I know why. I think I will be re-rolling my beast/time MM to thugs/time since I already have demons/thermal.

Edited June 16, 2020 by TygerDarkstorm

[Redlynne]

3 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

I think I will be re-rolling my beast/time MM to thugs/time

Pssst ... Ninja/Time ...

[TygerDarkstorm]

17 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Pssst ... Ninja/Time ...

Lol, as a fairly new to MM's player (though not new to pet classes in general), I didn't really want to mess around with what I keep seeing are one of the weakest primaries for MM. I ended up rerolling my beast/time MM to thugs/storm. 🙂

[Dakkaface]

I picked Beasts/Nature purely for thematic reasons, and that char hasn't hit 40 yet. That said, my experience this far has been largely positive.

 

Pros:

• High single target damage, pets can crit.
• Lots of heals
• Great fast recharging cone heal available from early on, easy to catch everyone in.
• Good spread of skills on Nature.
• Spore Cloud can really save your bacon.
• Beasts are slightly tougher than Ninjas.
• Damage not as dependent on the T3 Hench as Bots.
• T2 henches have heals.
• Entangling Aura is a little janky but can help keep mobs corralled for your henches.

Cons:

• Melee pets. Hard to corral, irritating when you get mobs or objectives that explode on death.
• Fortify Pack is pretty useless as a click. If you use it you lose a big chunk of damage, and don't get it back for a full minute. But you still need to take it it to give your beasts the ability to crit.
• Not much +Res, no +Def.
• Howling.
• The delay between execution and effect on Call Hawk results in a lot of wasted casts.
• Not much AoE. The T3 has a cone and there is a cone personal attack, but that's it.
• There's some kind of animation or AI issue holding Beasts back. They will sit idle more than other sets, and it impacts their DPS.

Edited June 19, 2020 by Dakkaface

[kelika2]

Consider Beast/FF or Beast/Sonic

Aura IOs are a must for both.

With bubbles, you can softcap fairly easily at low levels

With sonic, you can get really close to the 90% resist softcap.  40% from 3 shields, 30% from 3 IO auras, and all beasts come with s/l/c resist around 15%

 

Strait heals are terrible to keep pets alive.  If you are hard set on Nature you will need to be able to frankenslot pets to have all the aura resist AND def IOs and be quick with the fungi -tohit debuff and enough global haste for your pbaoe resist/absorb