New MM looking for primary advice

[Trebmasi]

Looking for some advice on what pet type to go. The theme I’m thinking of has me pretty much locked into Traps as secondary.

My first thoughts would be mercs or bots, but I’m not really sure.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Coyote]

Bots are far stronger than Mercs right now. I get the idea that Mercs will get a balance check, but... who knows how soon that'll happen.'

Thugs may also fit well enough, and they're one of the two strongest primaries (the other is Demons, which doesn't seem to fit well). Bots are pretty good, but not nearly as good as Thugs. Yes, that does mean Mercs are really bad 😉

 

[Trebmasi]

Thanks for the quick reply 🙂

do any primary sets work better with traps then others?

[TygerDarkstorm]

1 hour ago, Trebmasi said:

Thanks for the quick reply 🙂

do any primary sets work better with traps then others?

Every primary Coyote listed works well with traps. I wouldn't really say any work better than others, and it ultimately depends on what you want to do with the character. Are you trying to solo AV's/GM's? In that case, I've seen that Bots/Traps is pretty good. Otherwise, Thugs/Traps is probably an overall stronger pairing, but you won't go wrong with either Bots or Thugs with traps. Hell, technically you won't go wrong with Mercs either if they best fit your concept, but you won't be able to do any of the crazy things that Bots and Thugs can get up to when paired with traps.

[Decaying Rose]

Bots/Traps is super thematic, and gets you some toys to mess around with.  Note that Bots don't get any AoE damage until L26, when you get Assault Bot and apply the first upgrade to him so he can use Flamethrower and Dual Plasma Blast.  This is more than made up for with the L32 upgrade, which gives every bot AoE damage of some kind.  With Bots, it's not a bad idea to pick up Pulse Rifle Burst (the second personal attack in the primary) and Photon Grenade (the third personal attack, and AoE) for use while you're leveling up.  You might choose to respec out of them later, though once you have influence to throw around the market, you can load both of them up with damage procs to make them quite a bit more powerful.

 

Mercs/Traps is also pretty thematic, but Mercs is the very lowest-end of the MM primaries.  There are just a bunch of mechanical oddities that make them sub-par.  Mind, they work, but they'll pale in comparison to other MM primaries.  

 

Thugs/Traps is, depending on how you build it and how much money you throw at it, either a perfectly great combo on Single Origin enhancements or a god-tier AV-killin' machine when you unload the entire market on it.  Hard to go wrong with Thugs, really.

 

Traps, no matter what primary you pair it with, is a real force-multiplier.  Its only drawback is that since you have to drop your traps, fast-moving speed-run teams can be hard to work with, as your traps can get left behind.  Settle in for a set-piece fight, however...

 

 

[SaintD]

Mercs and bots are, unfortunately, the worst possible choices. Mercs are just....bad. They do nothing as good as the other primaries, let alone better.

 

Bots do something else unforgivable until the final L32 upgrade adds a bit of wow-factor.... they're so....damn....BORING. You can make them really tough pretty quick with the stacking +DEF and healing from Protector Bots with your traps shield, but then you'll just be watching them slowly, ever so slowly, grind through enemies one by one.

 

Ninjas may be a hard to keep alive pack of suicidal psychopaths, but at least it's a hilarious ride of glass cannon carnage at all times. They'll all be dead, but so will everything else!

 

If your theme supports it....go Thugs. They hit fairly hard, they have nice attack variety, and they help you out in defending themselves (Arsonist excluded). They're interesting and will get stuff done without needing you to be particularly good at being a Mastermind.

Edited April 1, 2021 by SaintD

[tidge]

I have a Bots/Traps, and it the only character that I bother to solo Giant Monsters in PI with. It also has reasonably fast clear times in farms, if that matters,

 

The key, IMO is debuffing enemies and keeping them grouped so that the Henchmen AoE work on as many as possible. Traps is good at this, as are the Knockback to Knockdown pieces.

 

I have take the Photon Grenade (at level 30), Pulse Rifle Burst (level 38)  and Mace Beam Volley (Epic) to also apply -Res and Knockdown to support the henchmen.

[Trebmasi]

Thanks for the reply’s 🙂

[Tacheyon]

Thug/Traps is godlike just saying.  It was my first 50 on Live because it is so much fun.

 

Now Traps isn't a set for Speed runs.  It's a "This is MY Area!  Anything thing in this 20ft zone is going to die!" type of playstyle.  It's great for AV's and rooms with a lot of stuff you can bring into your kill zone.  Pair it with Mace Mastery and you can max out your defense as well as more options to keep things in your kill zone.

 

Also I did have fun with Ninja/Traps.  It's even more of a Single Target assassin then Thugs.  But they do go together quite well.

[PsychoThruster]

I'm running mercs/traps and it's fine. Traps helps a lot with the poor performance of mercenaries. I'm still leveling, but have been running +2/2 since level 22(32 now) with just the common IOs. Triage beacon is skippable in my opinion, but I did take the medicine pool. If you go mercs don't be afraid to pick up your assault rifle powers, I'm using all three to help mitigate the poor damage output of mercenaries. I generally keep the pets all in body guard mode, using the attack my target command to burst down what needs killing while using poison trap, caltrops, and seeker drones to keep everything else in a semi-mezzed state. I also keep medic on passive so he doesn't draw aggro and focuses on handing out heals. Elite bosses are really challenging, it took me forever to kill a longbow ballista because it's ai favored skirmish tactics and he was resisting all my cc, but it is doable. Thematically I love the pairing as it's just a group of soldiers with some gadgets punching above their weight. It makes the game an actual challenge at times. You will have fun if you like things being a bit harder than you're accustomed to, but it's a power set that doesn't feel "super" in any way. 

 

The only times I ever really hated playing this combo was during missions that spawn enemy waves that always know your location and seemingly ignore stealth. It keeps you from being able to set up your kill zone and really undermines the two advantages of the combo: range and preparation. It also means when you die in these missions, a rez inspiration is useless because the mobs just immediately rush you. That's why I'm taking a break to level my sentinel right now lol. 

 

 

[Majinbewbs]

What is everyone's thoughts on Necro/Traps? 

[Neiska]

@Majinbewbs - ive heard good things about it, despie necro being a middle teir pet set, it naturally favors being in melee, which is good for /traps.

 

@Trebmasi - hi hi and welcome to masterminding!

 

Your question is largely personal taste, as well as what you want to be able to do. Some pets pair well with some secondary's more than others. But bots/traps is the iconic AV/GM killer, but other options I have heard being good are Demons, Necro, and oddly, Beasts. As I understand it, the general idea is to play a pets/trapper either as a tankermind setup like the bots, or with a pet set that naturally favors being in close range/melee combat, which is Demons, Necro, and Beasts. 

 

Demons comes with their own res buffs, so there is that. And have a varied range of damage types which can be nice.

Necro has a bit of CC built in, but is largely ST focused as a pet set. But it could be quite good.

Beasts I have no personal experience with yet, but my impressions are it favors close range, and comes with its own built in leadership and damage boosts.

 

Hope this helps!

[Arbegla]

I would disagree that /traps is not good on speed runs. Poison trap is insane control, and FFG follows you around.

 

With enough recharge you can get acid mortar up every 18 seconds, and the first mortar debuffs in a group. It doesn't matter if you run away, the debuffs lasts a long time.

 

Seeker drones can be used to soak an alpha when you don't have a tank, so /Traps can be very very fast, it just takes a lot of recharge.

 

I'll agree entirely that bots have no AoE at all until level 26, and the flamethrower hurts cuz the animation is really long. The AoE on the dual plasma blast is tiny, so it might as well be single target.

 

However, bots are very durable, with the double forcefields, and the heals. They also get seeker drones as well, which they use is a very bad way, but the debuffs of them stack really well.

 

Bots are energy/fire/smashing damage and they have a decent amount of additional -regen built in. They do have a lot of knockback, so the kb->kd IO is very useful.

 

Thugs have good AoE once you get arsonist, you just got to keep the Arsonist alive, and he tends to pull a lot of aggro. But I think the other thugs even get some cones before 32, so it's nice. It's also mostly lethal/smashing damage outside of the arsonist, so it's a bit on the resisted side.

 

The enforcers provide a lot of +def/+damage/+to hit, but just for the pets. The BU proc (gaussins) is very nice in the enforcers, and the soulbound BU proc is good in the T1 thugs. So you can get a lot of damage if you can keep them alive. Also Gang War is just amazing.

 

The other primaries don't quite have the complimentary nature with /traps.