Elite mobs and difficulty settings ?

[wmtyrance]

My MM just hit lvl 35 and I have a mission to rescue a guy but a lvl 35 elite mob called Mantis I think is just killing me and my pets in less than a minute and I can do no damage to her. Will lowering the difficulty setting help with elites or do I just have lvl up more?

[Pixie_Knight]

To start with, Elite Bosses are no joke. They're weaker then their Archvillain/hero versions, but still hit damn hard. That said, depending on your secondary they can be easier or harder. Here are some tips to help dealing with them as a mastermind.

 

1. You probably can't keep up with the healing. Even if you have macros or binds to make targeting each pet easier, an Elite Boss deals so much damage that they can 1 to 2 shot your tier 1 henchmen, and take out the tier 3 henchman in 3 to 4 hits (at most). As such, you'll be focusing on debuffing the enemy, resummoning henchmen (ideally as fast as they go down), and rebuffing the henchmen. Yes, that includes the pet upgrades too.

 

2. Leave your henchmen in Bodyguard mode for the fight. This means Defensive stance with the Follow order. This will help you tank any attacks that the EB sends your way, because you will be drawing aggro away from your pets on occasion. Actually, that can give you a chance to heal up your pets and/or rebuff them.

 

3. Inspirations are your friend. Specifically you'll want to go into the fight with at least one row (so 3 to 4) of Respites to heal up (if you don't have Aid Self), a couple rows (6-8) blue inspirations to quickly recover endurance due to the high cost of pet summoning and buffing, and the rest as Lucks. Use 2 Lucks, and try to keep 2 of them active as much as possible during the fight. This will help mitigate damage to you personally to manageable levels.

 

[Solvernia]

Not every AT can solo every boss at every level. There are plenty of times I've seen people asking for help with EBs on LFG -- and I usually go help them and make some friends in the process.

 

If you're all out of options, you can always recruit a buddy to help you beat up Silver Mantis (who is, admittedly, a pretty tough EB.)

[Sanguinesun]

My MM just hit lvl 35 and I have a mission to rescue a guy but a lvl 35 elite mob called Mantis I think is just killing me and my pets in less than a minute and I can do no damage to her. Will lowering the difficulty setting help with elites or do I just have lvl up more?

 

Without knowing your primary and secondary, its hard to give you strategic advice here but yes, of course lowering difficult will help to some extent.  EB's and AV's regen pretty fast so having tools to prevent regen also helps a lot. Debuffing their defense and resistances helps and of course tohit debuffs and -damage so that they do not harm as much your pets.

[Pixie_Knight]

Not every AT can solo every boss at every level. There are plenty of times I've seen people asking for help with EBs on LFG -- and I usually go help them and make some friends in the process.

 

If you're all out of options, you can always recruit a buddy to help you beat up Silver Mantis (who is, admittedly, a pretty tough EB.)

 

Note that I've defeated her with a thug/trick arrow mastermind (with the First Aid and Leadership pools), but it was difficult. It was a lot easier with a Ninja/Poison mastermind, although even then I was resummoning a lot. I had more difficulty with a Ninja/Force Field mastermind due to having few ways to mitigate damage directed at my character. Masterminds are amazing at soloing, and can typically handle Elite Bosses. But it does take a different mindset and tactics then most enemies.

[wmtyrance]

Thank you so much guys for the replies. My secondary is poison my pets are wolves, lions, and a huge dire wolf. I just got poison trap so I hope that will help.

[Pixie_Knight]

Thank you so much guys for the replies. My secondary is poison my pets are wolves, lions, and a huge dire wolf. I just got poison trap so I hope that will help.

 

It wont. Not against an Elite Boss anyway. So, yeah. You're goals against an EB are "try to keep my distance", "keep my debuffs on the EB", and "do my best to keep six upgraded henchmen in the fight". Your debuffs are possibly some of the best for dealing with a single tough enemy due to things like a strong -regen and being able to stack the most critical debuffs with only 2 to 3 powers. But Poison Trap isn't very effective against an elite boss.

 

EDIT: Actually, truth be told I ended up dropping Poison Trap from my build back in the day. I found it wasn't usually worth it.

[Chance Jackson]

Thank you so much guys for the replies. My secondary is poison my pets are wolves, lions, and a huge dire wolf. I just got poison trap so I hope that will help.

Are you a /Poison MM or /Traps MM? if the latter anchoring EBs(& AVs) with immobilization is key then use your debuffs & tankermind so that the aggro is on you & bodyguard is helping you.

[MunkiLord]

I don't recall fighting Silver Mantis as an EB, but as an AV only Ghost Widow and Lord Recluse game me more trouble when I tried to solo them. So I'm assuming she's on the tougher side as far as EBs go.

[Pixie_Knight]

I don't recall fighting Silver Mantis as an EB, but as an AV only Ghost Widow and Lord Recluse game me more trouble when I tried to solo them. So I'm assuming she's on the tougher side as far as EBs go.

 

Only in that she hits very hard, and will probably one shot minions when she connects. Which is... problematic. Lord Recluse is more dangerous due to him hitting hard and summoning bane spiders.

 

Oh yeah, Poison Trap can be effective against an EB, but you need to stack 3 or 4 of them in one spot for it to even have a chance of helping. If it does however, that makes the fight a bit easier since you'll get some free damage in. But to be honest it's so situational that as I mentioned, I generally don't take it. When the situation crops up, it's handy. But 9 times out of 10 you're better off using something else.