Beast/Cold Domination didn't work

[Diantane]

I'm level 20 and using SO's in everything. Shields are 4 slotted with 2 res and 2 def (endurance not an issue yet). Just got Arctic Fog so only one slotted with res. Liked Cold Dom because it buffed the pets defenses on both resistance and defense.

 

The pets shine on a team (we did Flux's Frostfire last night at +3 successfully with the team), but couldn't hack other missions solo +0x1 or even -1x4. They just kept on dieing quickly. Running solo is just a test to see how they perform on their own without outside buffs or heals.

[Sovera]

Yes, MMs sort of need a way to heal their pets. Cold Domination is great and all, but even if you had softcapped defense for your pets (which can be achieved with Cold but is going to require more than level 20) hits will still happen and heals will still be needed.

 

Something perhaps easier since you don't mess with IOs would be changing to Thermal. Your shields will help your pets live longer and your heals can keep them up. It still has anti-AV tools like Cold has.

[Riverdusk]

Yeah, love my beast/cold and it works very well so far (just hit level 35 on mine), but I IO early and hard on my MM's.  I can see where it'd be tough with just SO's.  For "healing" I actually slot up fortify pack for regen rather than defense as I can soft cap their defense without it (and eventually a lot of the beasts get a heal and +regen power of their own to add to it along with the +regen pet ATO can add up to a lot of regen).  All that along with passing them green inspirations once in a while usually takes care of the few hits that get through. I actually had medicine pool for a while but respeced out of it, felt like a waste of time.

 

For an SO build, thermal as @Sovera said would probably work easier.  Dark would also be strong (did a beast/dark myself to 50 already and enjoyed it).  Also heard good things about nature and would be very thematic.

 

Cold is great on a team though as you saw. 

[Nemu]

I once ran across a poster that posted some very dense things on the internet and people posted some mean things online in response. Turns out this poster had down syndrome. You don't know who's posting on the other side, there's no need for personal attacks, and also....

 

You could just ignore these posts. What is posted here, both from the OP and from you, don't matter. They don't matter to the audience in the long run and they certainly don't matter to the world.

 

Whoever you are I'm sure you've said your piece in other posts. Time to let go and pour your energy elsewhere. The world is not going to implode because you didn't stand up to some false claims in a video game. I'm sure there are more important things in game and in life that deserve the type of dedication you invested into this effort, like giving this book a read.

 

Emotional Intelligence 2.0: Bradberry, Travis, Greaves, Jean, Lencioni, Patrick M.: 2015974320625: Amazon.com: Books

[Diantane]

Well this is my second go with beast. The first was Kinetic and that worked early on due to its heal in melee range. He's up in the mid thirties. Know about thermal (have a mid thirties demon/thermal and ninjas/thermal). Wanted to try something different to keep my interests up for the game. So it won't work with SO's. What ever happened before IO's were around? (Guess Cold Dom and Beasts weren't around either - lol).

Edited December 14, 2021 by Diantane

[DataNine]

IO's won't solve the issues with Beasts and Cold Dom, trust me. I have the same experience as you. It's just not a great combination for mastreminds. The secondary in particular is horrible for solo which is what i mainly do.The shields are nice for teams but that doesn't help you playing solo when the pets are having trouble killing even -1 level enemies. My advice is to use a different combo until they get balanced in another patch or something. It looks like Homecoming is buffing some under powered sets lately so maybe they'll get around to those 2.

[Riverdusk]

2 hours ago, Nemu said:

I once ran across a poster that posted some very dense things on the internet and people posted some mean things online in response. Turns out this poster had down syndrome. You don't know who's posting on the other side, there's no need for personal attacks, and also....

 

You could just ignore these posts. What is posted here, both from the OP and from you, don't matter. They don't matter to the audience in the long run and they certainly don't matter to the world.

 

Whoever you are I'm sure you've said your piece in other posts. Time to let go and pour your energy elsewhere. The world is not going to implode because you didn't stand up to some false claims in a video game. I'm sure there are more important things in game and in life that deserve the type of dedication you invested into this effort, like giving this book a read.

 

Emotional Intelligence 2.0: Bradberry, Travis, Greaves, Jean, Lencioni, Patrick M.: 2015974320625: Amazon.com: Books

 

Not sure who this is in response to?  I thought both Sovera and my responses were respectful and helpful?  Maybe a post got deleted?

Edited December 14, 2021 by Riverdusk

[Riverdusk]

36 minutes ago, DataNine said:

IO's won't solve the issues with Beasts and Cold Dom, trust me. I have the same experience as you. It's just not a great combination for mastreminds. The secondary in particular is horrible for solo which is what i mainly do.The shields are nice for teams but that doesn't help you playing solo when the pets are having trouble killing even -1 level enemies. My advice is to use a different combo until they get balanced in another patch or something. It looks like Homecoming is buffing some under powered sets lately so maybe they'll get around to those 2.

 

Devs have said they are still "looking at" MM's, so who knows.  That'd be for the AT in general though, this particular combo doesn't seem particularly weak to me among the various MM's I've tried.  Mercs, ninja's, and necro all seem to need more help than beasts imo, and cold is one of the strongest support sets there is.

 

[Generic 1234]

41 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

 

Not sure who this is in response to?  I thought both Sovera and my responses were respectful and helpful?  Maybe a post got deleted?

 

He was responding to me. I named an account FactCheck.org Diantane and posted screenshots of my experience soloing a mission with a beast/cold to show that it could be done on SO's because that's a ridiculous claim. I'm not aware that he's revealed he has any physical or mental impairments so I have to assume he's trolling. There was sarcasm involved but no name calling or personal attacks... It's all good. I don't have anything personal against the guy. His threads are the most entertaining thing on the forums and I wanted to participate! 😚

[The_Warpact]

I seriously don't know why anyone responds to his posts, he never answers, never participates other than to drop his innane post and moves on.

As far as the "let's be friends" kumbaya responses, save it the person is a troll.

People who try to help, and people who get ticked are just falling into a troll trap.

/Ignore and /move on

[Nyghtmaire]

Level 18-23 is the mastermind minefield, a dead zone of littered zombies, bots, wolves, and thugs. T1 pets are two levels below the summoner, only one T2 pet. At 24, the second T2 appears; T3 at 26. By 32, cooling with gas. 

However, pack mentality can give a defense boost to your pets (along with regen as mentioned above). Between pack mentality and the ice shields (~12-13 with minimal slotting in the level 20s) defenses are starting to look pretty soli but not spectacular. Add maneuvers (~2% in the 20s) and the pet defense IOs (two for 5 each, 10 total), the pets can be effectively soft capped between even level minions. Before pack mentality, each pet is sitting at ~35 defense BEFORE pack mentality stacks are expended and before factoring in Arctic Fog. This builds off the pets’ innate defense (they also have a decent amount of resistance upon which those pet IOs can build). Really, this combo can be tanky in the extreme by the early level 20s. Just takes a little attention, like most mastermind combos. But it certainly builds towards the strength of the primary. 
 

Lastly and with the reduction in summoning endurance and recharge, who cares? Just send a stream of minions against your opponents, especially on lower difficulties.

[Nyghtmaire]

16 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

All that along with passing them green inspirations once in a while usually takes care of the few hits that get through. I actually had medicine pool for a while but respeced out of it, felt like a waste of time.

Giving pets inspirations is a baller move (and a good use for reds since they’re mostly worthless for the mastermind). Here’s a post from the past in setting up macros to feed those pets here:

 

 

And here: 

 

[JnEricsonx]

My first Beast MM was with  Nature.  I toss heals at my murder furballs like I would my dog Bella bits of chips after I open a bag.

[DataNine]

12 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

 

Devs have said they are still "looking at" MM's, so who knows.  That'd be for the AT in general though, this particular combo doesn't seem particularly weak to me among the various MM's I've tried.  Mercs, ninja's, and necro all seem to need more help than beasts imo, and cold is one of the strongest support sets there is.

 

 

I don't know, maybe this combination gets get better at 50 or when you get IO sets? If people are having bad experiences levling with beasts perhaps the the homecoming devs should take a look at them. I used to play a long time ago before shutdown and i think I remember the original devs stating they wanted everyone to be able to solo normal +0 missions. If beasts and cold are having troubles with that maybe it's time for a rebalance? It doesn';t seem like I'm the only one having issues playing them.

[The_Warpact]

Nothing is wrong with Beasts, I've done dark, nature, AND cold. No problem lvling on my end, hell my wife who predominantly plays melee rolled a beasts/cold and lvld it to 50.

 

Jeez learn the archetype or try the build before talking about rebalancing.

 

MM are my AT, I have damn near every combination and as a final test I take my final build up against GMs and solo them on damn near all of them especially /cold its a strong buff/debuff set.

[Diantane]

Had just liked Cold Dom. Tried it with a Defender, but that was too boring. The with an Ice Controller and Ice was broken (no tohit debuff). So I figured an MM might work, Its just too bad that it didn't. Sorry Cold Dom. 

[Diantane]

22 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

Nothing is wrong with Beasts, I've done dark, nature, AND cold. No problem lvling on my end, hell my wife who predominantly plays melee rolled a beasts/cold and lvld it to 50.

 

Jeez learn the archetype or try the build before talking about rebalancing.

 

MM are my AT, I have damn near every combination and as a final test I take my final build up against GMs and solo them on damn near all of them especially /cold its a strong buff/debuff set.

She must have done it with teams. It sure doesn't work solo.. The pets keep getting wiped even at -1.

 

[The_Warpact]

12 minutes ago, Diantane said:

She must have done it with teams. It sure doesn't work solo.. The pets keep getting wiped even at -1.

 

Read what I typed "I" solo GMs on my builds, if you can't kill anything on -1 that shows your ability NOT the powerset or AT.

But like most of your troll posts everything is broken the common denomitor is YOU.

 

Hell before it was deleted @Generic 1234 had a great post with pics and stats testing your accusations. Which proved you wrong.

 

 

Which off topic why exactly was it deleted? It was informative, educational, and proved a point that the troll is a troll.

 

[Generic 1234]

4 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

Hell before it was deleted @Generic 1234 had a great post with pics and stats testing your accusations. Which proved you wrong.

 

 

Which off topic why exactly was it deleted? It was informative, educational, and proved a point that the troll is a troll.

 

 

Thanks. My scary warning message said the name I used to post with was a copyright violation and that my post was harassment. I guess the lawyers over at Factcheck are really going to bring the hammer down on Homecoming if I use their site in a forum handle.

 

I also tried a few groups of outcast at +0x1 with that build. Buffed up, the pets really won't die to a single mob even if you just stand next to them and do nothing. And I mean, literally, hands off the keyboard. He's trolling.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Generic 1234

[Aurora_Girl]

5 hours ago, Diantane said:

Had just liked Cold Dom. Tried it with a Defender, but that was too boring. The with an Ice Controller and Ice was broken (no tohit debuff). So I figured an MM might work, Its just too bad that it didn't. Sorry Cold Dom. 

 

Why would ice control have a to-hit debuff?

[The_Warpact]

21 minutes ago, Generic 1234 said:

 

Thanks. My scary warning message said the name I used to post with was a copyright violation and that my post was harassment. I guess the lawyers over at Factcheck are really going to bring the hammer down on Homecoming if I use their site in a forum handle.

 

I also tried a few groups of outcast at +0x1 with that build. Buffed up, the pets really won't die to a single mob even if you just stand next to them and do nothing. And I mean, literally, hands off the keyboard. He's trolling.

I saw my wife, a MM noob level one. She ran on 2x8, LB, Council, Arachnos, no issues like he's talking about.

I'm calling bullshit on anything they type. 

 

[Riverdusk]

 

8 hours ago, Diantane said:

Had just liked Cold Dom. Tried it with a Defender, but that was too boring. The with an Ice Controller and Ice was broken (no tohit debuff). So I figured an MM might work, Its just too bad that it didn't. Sorry Cold Dom. 

 

You want a controller with tohit debuffs and /cold, your choices would be dark/cold or illusion/cold.  Both should be nice.

[kelika2]

masterminds shine at 50.  make a firefarming account, power to 50 and plan your build for exemplaring.

 

the two 5% def aura IOs are huge

the three resist aura IOs are also big

frankenslotting fog for 3 ribos and 3 def enhancements of your choice

frankenslotting pets with hamis to jam in the mentioned aura IOs

making room for maneuvers

aid other gets used often

Having all slots available is gigantic for everyone, but i notice it a lot more for masterminds

Oh and Power Boost does not work on Cold Shields due to them having a resist component.

Edited December 16, 2021 by kelika2
Oh

[SableShrike]

Not looking to throw gas on the fire, but Beast/Cold is crazy strong if you hang in there.

 

You want to be scrounging merits and get the special pet +Defense IOs fast as you can.  Edict of the Master and Call to Arms are the most important.  Those two, Arctic, Maneuvers, and your Cold shields should softcap pet Defense.

 

You turn your pets into mini /SR Brutes.  Pack Stacks are basically Fury.

 

Infrigidate is best with no recharge and a lot of damage procs.  It hits really hard then.

 

Snow Storm is good for dropping flyers and stopping runners.  The Slow on it is effectively +Resist, as fewer attacks mean less damage your pets take.

 

Benumb and Heat Loss will help hose AVs, but Sleet is your best power.

 

It will massively cut enemy attack rate as they fall down, and your pets only get hit for 5% of those attacks the enemy gets off.

 

Plus Sleet is a massive -Defense debuff on a big radius.  Plus it does -Resist.  Plus it does Slow.  And a tiny bit of damage.

 

I do remember Beast/Cold being a long slog in the 20s, but it’s easily one of the strongest Masterminds I ever played.

 

Very easy to solo stuff once you have the key IOs and your toggle buffs/shields.

 

You can solo that DA arc with the huge Talon spawns and Romulus monsters; I did so on mine.  May take a bit for the Monster groups, but it’s not super hard to abuse Hover and debuffs for them.

 

Early pain for late-level insanity!

 

I’ll see if I got my old Mids build around to throw up here.

Edited December 17, 2021 by SableShrike

[Without_Pause]

On 12/15/2021 at 5:55 PM, Generic 1234 said:

I also tried a few groups of outcast at +0x1 with that build. Buffed up, the pets really won't die to a single mob even if you just stand next to them and do nothing. And I mean, literally, hands off the keyboard. He's trolling.

I have yet to see a claim by the OP which can't be refuted through personal experience by myself or other players. I am absolutely convinced the OPs struggles are due to bad builds. 

 

FYI, I'm not sure why this wasn't pointed out before, but 2 slotting res in the shields is bad slotting. 1. Because the numbers for the Res is low. 2. The Res only covers Cold and Fire. You want three slots for Def. If you slot for Res, it is a one off IO, ie Gladiator's Armor: TP Protect/+3% Def. If you don't want to deal with IOs, then 3 Def and any Recharge/End you feel you need. See also Arctic Fog.

 

If you can't solo a MM at +0/x1, then yes, the issue is you and not the sets.