Bots/Traps vs Bots/Time New Player question

[StormGail]

Hi there,

 

I'm going to keep this brief. As someone whose friends were really into CoH but I never was, homecomign seemed a good chance to check things out with all the free time we have lately, playing a MM seemed fun and looking up things robotics were shown to be the bees knees. However finding info about what secondary to go seems to basically have 2 Era's, old stuff says bots/traps is god, and newer stuff says Bots/time.

 

What's the difference for me as a player?

Am I gonna significantly hurt group play if I go traps vs time?

Whats the deal with airline food?

[BGSacho]

Bots are not really the best MM primary. I don't think they're a great choice for a new player, because you will struggle to really output any damage until you get the assault bot kitted out(i.e. 32). Even then the bots rely almost entirely on the assault bot's damage, and struggle with single target DPS. Demons and Thugs are both more versatile and more powerful overall - bots require very specific circumstances to shine.

 

That being said, the four main strengths of Traps are: Def(FFG), Mez Protection(FFG, but missing critical KB protection), -Regen(Poison Trap), Stackable debuffs(Acid Mortar). Time has +def(Farsight), no mez protection, little -regen, and you can't stack Slowed Response(the alternative to Acid Mortar). However, bots already provide decent -regen. Time also has the benefit of +recharge(not extremely valuable for MM), and an AoE heal(nice addition but not critical for a the high-def, mostly ranged bots).

Looking at it from a powergaming perspective, both sets are relatively equal. This leaves the decision to the supporting powers(e.g. Caltrops, Seeker Drones, Mines vs Distortion Field, Time's Juncture) and playstyle - much you want to micromanage all the Traps pets vs the fire-and-forget effects in Time. 

 

I personally prefer /Time because it is very hands-off, leaving more time for personal attacks to supplement the poor ST dps of bots. It also lends itself nicely to "Tankerminding"(where you try to hold aggro on the highest damage targets) thanks to the combination of Bodyguard spreading out damage and Time's AoE heal. Bots/Time/Mu gives you with a very tanky MM(75% SL, high E, softcap Def) and a slow, grind-out playstyle.

Edited July 14, 2020 by BGSacho

[Six-Six]

I just got into MMs myself. I decided on bots/traps. the play tends to be slower (or maybe it's just me being a newb) since you need to set up the traps and they're stationary. so if you're teaming with a group that moves at a decent speed through the map, your traps will get left behind.

And I like airline food, well depending on the airline and the flight. some just give peanuts.

[gameboy1234]

Played a Bots/FF to 50 back on live.  Bots are good but damage issues are real until they get their full attack chain.  Consider taking the Pulse Rifle powers that MMs get in their primary.  It adds a little damage but at the lowest levels a little added damage helps a lot.  You can respec out of the Pulse Rifle somewhere around 22 to 32, it won't be helping much by then.  A player on the old MM boards (Sandolphin) on Live did some of the math and showed that the increase in damage wasn't just a perception, it really does add a significant percent damage to the slower Bots damage.

 

I'm also playing a Thugs/Traps now on HC for mostly solo mish play.  Traps are a huge End hog.  Traps also are slow.  They don't move once you place them, and the recharge is horrendous.  You can place a Triage Beacon at the start of a fight, and it'll last through that fight, and the next two, which means it'll be sitting there useless while you've moved on.  The powers are strong, no question, but they have a hard time keeping up with a fast moving team (in fact they can't keep up, at all) and they'll have trouble keeping up even in solo play.

 

Time might be superior because it goes wherever you are and never gets left behind like your traps do.  In slow static fights like whittling down an AV Traps will do well because you can actually get full use out of your powers.  Most other times I think Traps might feel kind of bad and extraneous.

 

[TheSpiritFox]

Time is just a solid basic set. It does a number of things related to keeping you alive and keeping enemies in aoes pretty well, but you'll need knockback mitigation with bots. 

 

Traps, well you'll need the same knockback mitigation. Both sets can softcap bots, but times heal and tohit debuffs make it more survivable than traps by a hair, but traps debuffs will mean your bots do significantly more damage. 

 

Time can get by on basic enhancements and still be pretty solidly effective. Traps absolutely needs a high end IO build to really shine, but once it gets there it feels alot less stationary when your poison trap comes back in under 30 seconds, acid mortar around 25, seekers around 25. Traps needs a ridiculous amount of global recharge to reach it's potential, but once it gets there your bots will basically never miss anything they aim at and will do significantly higher damage with the -resistance traps can do between powers and procs. And traps also laughs at AVs. 

 

Time on the other and is just going to be safer and smoother, but a good bit slower in a solo situation. 

 

I like traps more overall long term. I enjoy playing my traps masterminds, at least trap placement is something to think about. Time is about as mindless as it gets. Cast your like 3 buffs two of which are on long timers, run PBAOE, hit heal, hit debuffs once in a while, one of which sucks and the other is hard to get under 20 seconds recharge. Time is active in a boring way to me. Traps you still have to think about. And take aid pool. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by TheSpiritFox