Bots/ff or time?

[clancysmojo]

I've recently been thinking about making a bots mm and I know back in the day, ff was the go to for bots and I'm wondering if it still is. I've seen a bots/time build on here for perma farsight but it looks like an expensive build. I want a cheap soft cap def so was thinking ff but is it viable or av or incarnate stuff? Or due to the lack of de buffs it's not possible and would they penetrate the def anyway

[Fedifensor]

Force Field is a bit simpler to play and cheaper to build, but I think Time simply has more tools.  Having a PBAoE heal is great, and Farsight can easily be perma with lots of defense to give to your bots.  That’s without mentioning the location AoE slow, targeted debuffs, and a reliable hold (that can affect bosses if you use Time Crawl first).  It may take more effort to cap defense when soloing (only needed for higher-difficulty content), but in a group you should be fine, especially if slotting the IOs that increase pet defense and/or resistance.

[clancysmojo]

But how much more expensive is it going to be to soft cap def? And would the lack of debuffs hinder me solo or would ff be so strong I wouldn't worry. It would take longer to kill Ava's but I could sit back and literally do nothing while they whistle down their hp

[Force Redux]

My incarnated Bots/FF was my main back in the day before shutdown. It was also my favorite character.

 

Time will give you more tools. You'll need to be in melee range more to debuff. Its also a 'busier' set, in that you have more to click and do.

FF will let you focus more on pet positioning any any personal powers for pew pew (I had Mace mastery), and its less involving.

 

I was able to solo virtually anything, thanks to Big Bot's -regen plasma cannons. Some call Bots/FF boring. I called it relaxing.  Just depends on your mindset. You can't go wrong either way.

 

For me, it was so much fun, I am leveling it all over again. One thing I like a lot is Personal Force Field and status resistance. With PFF, sometimes when I'm separated on a team or want to explore, I can do so with impunity.

[chigiabelo]

I soloed a Bots/FF back in the day for over 30 levels before I suffered a single defeat.

[Doctor Brainbottle]

The first thing I did the very first time I logged into Homecoming was recreate my Bots/FF mastermind. It was slow going at first, because it's a late bloomer. I got to level 15 before I stopped and asked myself: wait, should I start over with time?

 

So I put my Bots/FF toon on a back burner, and tried out Bots/Time. And so far I'm having a blast. I'm now level 28, which means I have all my bots (but not the final upgrade), and Farsight from the time pool. I have most of my slots filled with level 25 or 30 IOs. I respecced the minute I got Farsight so I could 6 slot it, and I've maxxed out recharge and defense. Maxxed out recharge gets it almost to perma status. I got hasten from the speed pool to seal the deal.

 

Honestly I was already pretty tough before I got Farsight, wit the tohit debuff from time's juncture, but now it's just silly. I'm definitely not missing Bots/FF now. I'm about as invulnerable, PLUS I have debuffs on top of that. At 32 I'll get my final robot upgrade, and then at level 44 I intend to get Power Boost from the Mace Mastery patron pool, which apparently boosts Farsight.

 

As for affording a bunch of IOs, just sell all your orange salvage on the market. There are cleverer ways to make money on the market, but selling orange salvage as it drops is dead simple and sufficient to make a few million by level 20 or so. The hardest part is really making enough money to afford the LISTING fee to sell your first orange salvage. Scrape that together however you can, and then list the orange salvage at the current market price, and it should sell pretty quick. Once you have a proper bank-roll, never let it dip below 100k or so, so you won't get stuck in a "can't afford listing fee" hole again.

 

Then craft IOs at any university. use the /ah command to open an auction house window right there at the invention workbench, so you can buy any recipes and salvage you need without having to move an inch. Don't forget you can buy basic non-set IO recipes from the workbench, if they aren't cheaply available on the market. If you're short on cash, level 25 IOs are basically "good enough". You can also buy respec recipes from the AH.

[kelly Rocket]

Time is simply top tier for MMs, doesn't matter what your primary is, Time and Dark are great with anything.

 

As far as making inf, try running the Summer Blockbuster event. Reward is a piece of the Overwhelming Force set, and any piece from that set will sell for at least 4 million on the auction house if you aren't impatient. Even if you list it for 1 inf to avoid listing fees, you probably make 1-2 million.

 

And SBB takes 30-45 minutes to do.

[Doctor Brainbottle]

Hmm, Summer Blockbuster event, you say? Intriguing. I hadn't noticed a new event popping up in my LFG window, but maybe I fell out of the habit of checking. I will definitely check that out.

[clancysmojo]

Thanks everyone for all the advice! It's been really helpful!

[Sovera]

The problem with bots is that we are going to be be going in expecting to toss a KB>KD IO on each pet, which can be a bummer for set bonus.

[Ninjaboy]

Time is simply top tier for MMs, doesn't matter what your primary is, Time and Dark are great with anything.

 

 

The big issue with /Time is that +recharge is a big component of the set and none of your pets can benefit from it.

 

/Dark is one of the best PvE sets in the game. Only thing big it is missing is a -DEF

 

 

Also Bots / FF is PvE cruise control. It can be a lot of fun. I think we all made one of these back in the day.

[blinkyfish]

Way back when on Live I had a friend who got a bots/ff up pretty high (he had the assault bot) and he said it was boring, and wished he'd gone with a different secondary. So with that in mind I tried one for myself and got bored in no time. Took a bots/dark to 50 instead. Fun and effective. Now I've made a bots/time and a thugs/dark.  ymmv

[Force Redux]

I tried a Bots/Time this time around...I had a Time/DP Defender on live, and loved it, but for some reason, I really like FF with my Bots. It is cruise control, as someone mentioned above, which is good, because sometimes I don't want to be too busy. I will, however, enjoy picking up Scorpion's Mace powers again for some extra activity.

[khy]

As a level 50 Bots/FF, one thing I like about the secondary is that there's a few powers in there I just don't give a shit for so it gives me more pool options. I run leadership, Medicine (Thanks to FF's lack of heals and the bots being unable to benefit from recharge having an extra heal of my own is great) and my travel power, plus the Patron Power Pool stuff.

 

Also I love the fact that with IOs, I can easily get my bots defense up above 50%. It becomes ridiculously easy to solo harder content with that much def.

 

Yes, it's cruise control - you won't be spamming attacks and abilities like other sets. But on the flip side, it also means you're able to micromanage your pets more because you're letting them do the work while you sort of oversee everything.

 

But YMMV. What works well for me may not work well for others, after all.

[kelly Rocket]

Time is simply top tier for MMs, doesn't matter what your primary is, Time and Dark are great with anything.

 

 

The big issue with /Time is that +recharge is a big component of the set and none of your pets can benefit from it.

 

/Dark is one of the best PvE sets in the game. Only thing big it is missing is a -DEF

 

 

Also Bots / FF is PvE cruise control. It can be a lot of fun. I think we all made one of these back in the day.

 

The fact that /Time can't buff pet recharge is frankly a non-issue. I mean, yeah, it'd be nice if it could, but it's still top tier, neck and neck with /Dark for Masterminds, because it's just that damn good.