Masterminds and the Incarnate System. Please advise.

[khy]

I've been playing various MMs and I don't USUALLY get to 50 without getting the urge to try a different set, so quite honestly I don't usually look too closely at the Incarnate system.

 

I'd like to change that.

 

I'm curious if anyone has a good guide specifically to Masterminds and incarnates. Do people prefer to boost pets (Damage or accuracy with your alpha), or boost secondaries (Defense, resists, etc)? How do people prefer to approach the Incarnate stuff? I heard that getting level shifts ASAP is important (Especially the 3rd level of the Alpha Slot) for giving your pets extra levels to boost survivability?

 

It's a complex system I'd like to learn more about, it's just that I always prefer Masterminds over other classes so when learning it I want to understand it as a MM first and foremost, and I know we tend to have different focuses than other archetypes.

[Force Redux]

You can read the Incarnate section of my Dark Miasma guide (link in my signature) for a decent overview. Most of it should carry over regardless of secondary support set.

[Crysis]

On almost all my MM’s regardless of primary/secondary, I’ve gone Alpha/Musculature Radial, Destiny/Ageless (usually right side) and Hybrid is a toss up between Support or Melee depending on if its a Tankermind build or not.

[Elthenar]

On 10/21/2020 at 6:56 AM, Force Redux said:

You can read the Incarnate section of my Dark Miasma guide (link in my signature) for a decent overview. Most of it should carry over regardless of secondary support set.

 

 

Agree with almost all of it with a few caveats.

 

One, lore pet. The Banished Pantheon Ravager is the best by a fair margin. It has huge AOE's and it offers a beefy -res debuff.  It's the only one with a -res debuff so it boosts the DPS of your pets and your whole league. Additionally,  If you have a secondary that will help keep things alive like MM's tend to, I go with the core pet. For those that can't, like a TA MM or an AT like my Blaster, I go with Radial and a pet choice that can do so for me.

 

Two. I agree about the Destiny slot. Clarion is the clear top choice. The one exception is if I have a secondary that gives strong AOE CC protection, like FF, Sonic or traps. Those sets also lack healing, making Rebirth attractive and Clarion less necessary

 

Three. You take on Hybrid is dead on accurate.....for now. When the next patch drops and MM's can resummon and rebuff their pets often and cheaply, Assault will become more attractive. It will be little trouble to click Assault and drop a whole new set of pets without it seriously impacting your blue bar.

[Decaying Rose]

If your pets and/or your secondary do a lot of debuff and control, Intuition Radial is a good Alpha slot pick, as the higher tiers enhance debuffs as well as damage.  Namely, hold, -tohit, -defense, slow, +range, and +damage.  I've found it really useful for my Dark Miasma, Time Manipulation, and Trick Arrow MMs, and it works well for Necromancy and Demons (particularly the Prince). 

 

Musculature Core Alpha is, of course, the "go-to" Alpha for MMs, as it'll crank the pet damage up.  If you aren't sure of an alpha to take, can't go wrong with Musculature Core.

 

 

Interface is kind of weird.  Mastermind Henchmen, since there are six of them and they all have multiple attacks, tend to apply the various Interface procs like crazy.  I usually try to pick an Interface that meshes well with the primary and secondary.  Some examples:

 

Ninja/Storm: I went for Diamagnetic Core, as the T3 and T4 Core versions can be made so that every attack has as a 100% chance of applying a -toHit debuff, which can stack up to four times.  Sure, I don't get extra damage, but dead ninja do no damage.

 

Mercs/Nature: Degenerative Radial.  I wanted to round out their damage type (Mercs do Lethal, so the Toxic was a nice switch-up) and the -MaxHP debuff amps up their DPS.  Plus, this one isn't as commonly chosen by most, so it tends to stack well with whatever else Interfaces are getting applied by the team.

 

Necromancy/Dark Miasma:  Reactive Radial.  The added Fire damage gives these guys something a little more conventional to apply (as Necro/Dark is heavily weighted for 'exotic' damage) and the -res proc stacks nicely with Tar Patch.  These guys aren't damage kings, but this really helps their output.

 

Thugs/Force Field:  Spectral Core.  This gives both an Immobilize proc and a Negative Energy damage proc.  While my Thugs/FF has Mace Mastery to apply Web Envelope to keep things in place, having the Immobilize proc means I have to worry about it less, and I can stack Envelope with it on bosses.  Negative Energy rounds out their damage type.  I went with Core as it has a higher chance of applying the Immobilize proc, which is the main reason I picked this one.  Thugs does enough damage (especially if you add in the various Build Up procs right) that the Negative Energy damage proc is really just gravy, even on Force Field.

 

 

Destiny's a mixed bag.  Clarion's a go-to choice because of its status protection, and Barrier's always grand.

 

For my Ninja/Storm, I went Barrier Core--dead Ninja do no damage, and this one provides defense for the full 120s recharge time.

Merc/Nature, I went Clarion Radial  to give us all status protection and to amp up the +absorb shields in Nature.

Thugs/Force Field, I went Rebirth Radial (for the +regen) to have both a panic-button heal and a pre-emptive buff for tough things.

Necro/Dark I went Barrier Radial--this was a 'panic button' buy, as Barrier Radial also rezzes teammates, and I mainly use it for those rare times when there's too many things for the pets and I to debuff safely.

 

---

 

Basically, call up the Incarnate window and right-click on the various powers to see what you get.  Mixing and matching the various buffs, debuffs, and other effects so they mesh well with your powers and those of your pets (or fill holes that need filling) is usually the way to go.

[kelika2]

Interface DoT procs are the biggest thing you can do as a mastermind.

There is no limit on how many DoTs can go out as far as I know, and each pet can proc a dot

But there is a limit on the debuffs from any source, exact instances I just dont know

[Riverdusk]

On 4/1/2021 at 10:01 PM, Elthenar said:

 

 

Agree with almost all of it with a few caveats.

 

One, lore pet. The Banished Pantheon Ravager is the best by a fair margin. It has huge AOE's and it offers a beefy -res debuff.  It's the only one with a -res debuff so it boosts the DPS of your pets and your whole league. Additionally,  If you have a secondary that will help keep things alive like MM's tend to, I go with the core pet. For those that can't, like a TA MM or an AT like my Blaster, I go with Radial and a pet choice that can do so for me.

 

Two. I agree about the Destiny slot. Clarion is the clear top choice. The one exception is if I have a secondary that gives strong AOE CC protection, like FF, Sonic or traps. Those sets also lack healing, making Rebirth attractive and Clarion less necessary

 

Three. You take on Hybrid is dead on accurate.....for now. When the next patch drops and MM's can resummon and rebuff their pets often and cheaply, Assault will become more attractive. It will be little trouble to click Assault and drop a whole new set of pets without it seriously impacting your blue bar.

 

Same, @Force Redux has a great guide.  Only nitpick is I'd swap the grades for cognitive and preemptive interface as both have damage procs so the only real difference is a slight chance for a confuse proc vs endurance drain.  I'd take the chance for confuse as at least slightly useful vs endurance drain which is going to absolutely worthless (unless maybe you are electric secondary).  As to damage type, MM's don't have any psi damage primaries (still waiting for that carnie MM set 😄 ), so mixing in a bit of psi damage can be a positive.  

 

I also kind of like hybrid melee core sometimes on certain sets even though I never tankermind.  You can use hybrid melee as an emergency break free and/or regen/resistance buff as you can click it while already mezzed (it is basically like getting rune of protection, but as a "free" incarnate power).  Go core and you aren't dependent on actually being in melee for it.   I find it is enough typically to not need clarion, which  opens destiny up for other choices beyond clarion.  Especially if you have a pet set combo where they are already defensive softcapped to where they aren't being hit very often by mezzes anyway (often for beast, thugs, bots), so you really only have to worry about yourself.