The ultimate mastermind....?

[The Larker]

Ok with all the lovely selections available what do you think it the ultimate mastermind? Like comic book, crazy ass death rays, taking over the world, snatching up the protagonists main squeeze kind of mastermind.

 

I can't decide, I think like a Batman rogue gallery baddies it would be like thugs/Poison for Joker but poison sux. Thugs/traps for penguin sort of....

 

Ultron would be bots/ff or traps...I dunno.

 

C'mon I need someone else's logic to help me decide or at least make my thoughts coherent.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I am not much of a comic book reader, so I cannot comment to that, however, I'm not sure there is any one "ultimate" mastermind. I can list off some of the combos that I have that have been effective and fun to me, as well as combos known to be decent and may fit what you're looking for.

 

My all time favorite MM so far is my Bots/Nature MM. Entangling Aura allows you to help counteract the KB that the bots do if you don't want to waste one of their slots on the KB -> KD enhancement. They're also fun to plant inside the faerie patch (using go-to) and bringing mobs to them. It's one of the few MM's I've made where I didn't take any of the personal attacks as she spends most of her time hovering around managing the battlefield.

 

I just got my Demons/Storm MM to 50. Tons of fun, lots of damage, also a massive endurance hog, so leveling up can be a bit of a pain. It's worth it to take at least one whip attack on demons since they apply -res; plus, they look cool. As someone here has said previously, this combo is like bringing about the apocalypse. 

 

In a similar vein, Thugs/Storm with Burnout is one of the highest damage combos to be made in game (iirc). I've never played the combo, so make of it what you will.

 

Necro/ElecAff is a surprisingly fun set to play. Amp Up sadly doesn't affect pets, but EA is a secondary that almost feels made for MM's. Pairing it with necro gives the zombies a little bit of an extra boost and protection, and just gives off cool Frankenstein vibes.

 

Other sets fun to pair with Necro other than /Dark are: /Thermal and /Cold.

 

If you don't care about min/maxing, there are lots of fun and interesting combos to be had. Beast/Kin is fun and extremely fast paced and in your face, and with kin's damage buffs, you don't have to worry as much about losing the damage from Fortify Pack, and so can use that defensively. Mercs/Traps is fun; likely similar to Thugs/Traps but with a lot less damage. I do a lot of toe-bombing with mine, even on TF teams. I've just started a Ninjas/Nature, and have a Ninjas/Cold.

 

Frankly, I think that Beasts and Demons can be paired with just about any secondary and be made to be pretty good.

 

 

[The Larker]

Demon/Storm or Thugs/Storm sounds interesting 🤔. 

 

Do you use Storm to influence the survivability of the pets, although Demons have their shields and protection procs would help on both sets.

[TygerDarkstorm]

She just hit 50, and since I have altitis and the like, she is currently not kitted out with set IO's, just the standard/basic ones. I also went Heat Mastery epic pool for theme, so I know I need to get some KB -> KD IO's for Bonfire, Gale, and Tornado. Making builds and such is not my strength either, so others would have to fill in info there.

 

I more or less entrust my demons to take care of themselves; the second tier guys even have a couple of resist IO's slapped in for their shields for now. I started off with the heal for leveling, but have since respecced out of it. I have hurricane, initially thinking about using it to help with herdicaning, but frankly, I'm not talented enough to get it to work right and there seem to be few opportunities for me to really get use out of it, so I plan to respec out of it (plus, it's one more thing to eat away at my end bar and MM's already have an end tax). I imagine that if proccing the storm powers is valuable, then it's worth it to do so for even more damage (I can't remember reading if it's worth proccing anything other than gale because tornado and lightning storm are pseudopets).

 

But yeah, once I get the KB IO's in, the idea is to use those powers to keep baddies flopping so that my demons can pump out more damage without taking as much themselves. I also haven't soloed much with her yet, so I'm not super sure how it plays solo.

[monkeygodbob]

On 6/1/2022 at 7:31 PM, TygerDarkstorm said:

"If you don't care about min/maxing, there are lots of fun and interesting combos to be had. Beast/Kin is fun and extremely fast paced and in your face, and with kin's damage buffs, you don't have to worry as much about losing the damage from Fortify Pack, and so can use that defensively.

 

Frankly, I think that Beasts and Demons can be paired with just about any secondary and be made to be pretty good."

Honestly, my beast/kin mastermind is one of my funnest characters.  Soft caps defenses with a 3 stack on fortify pack, plus their damage is nigh capped 100% of the time do due kin awesomesauce.  Only issue I've found is that enhancements don't work properly with the beast pets.  I built the pets to have 100% capped damage and accuracy with enhancements.  however, Because some of them offer a defense buff, it interacts weird and only works out to +66% accuracy and damage.  I spose it doesn't matter as much due to the ability of kin to cap their damage, but its an annoying bug none the less.

 

Also... METH DOGGOS. 
 

Edited June 3, 2022 by monkeygodbob

[Nexros]

As far as comic book epicness, I would say necro and demons paired with dark. Ninjas paired with storm--I've done this build and its very strong, just unfotunately too much end use for my taste. Ninjas/cold is also extremely strong at end game and can be surprisingly thematic. Robots/ff is a classic power build, just lacks a lot of excitement during leveling.

 

IMO, thugs is by far the easiest to pair with whatever you want and make it thematic.

[Magi 1]

I've done a couple MMs, but the one that feels most 'Evil Genius' to me is Thugs. It reminds me of a lot of Batman villains that lead groups of nonpowered punks, and Gang War really reinforces the 'Get him!' feeling.

 

I do wish Mercenaries were better, they'd be perfect for GI Joe or Warhammer shenanigans.

[Crysis]

Extremely hard to compete with a Thugs/Storm or Demon/Storm or pretty much anything/Storm on a MM.  Slot for +Rech and throw in Burnout and you are dropping triple Tornado and Lightning Storm on top of your henchmen attacks.  Slot in some -RES into your weather powers and stuff just melts.  It's really eye opening when you realize these kinds of builds are likely the very reason we got the shaft on primary attacks for damage output and endurance penalties.  If we didn't have those, those two builds could be game breaking.

[biostem]

On 6/1/2022 at 7:19 PM, The Larker said:

Ok with all the lovely selections available what do you think it the ultimate mastermind? Like comic book, crazy ass death rays, taking over the world, snatching up the protagonists main squeeze kind of mastermind.

 

I can't decide, I think like a Batman rogue gallery baddies it would be like thugs/Poison for Joker but poison sux. Thugs/traps for penguin sort of....

 

Ultron would be bots/ff or traps...I dunno.

 

C'mon I need someone else's logic to help me decide or at least make my thoughts coherent.

If we're talking about characters which sort of embrace the concept of a "mastermind" in the comic book sense, and not necessarily how the sets perform in game, then I think something like ninja/dark or ninja/traps would best fit the bill.

Edited June 25, 2022 by biostem

[TygerDarkstorm]

2 hours ago, Crysis said:

Extremely hard to compete with a Thugs/Storm or Demon/Storm or pretty much anything/Storm on a MM.  Slot for +Rech and throw in Burnout and you are dropping triple Tornado and Lightning Storm on top of your henchmen attacks.  Slot in some -RES into your weather powers and stuff just melts.  It's really eye opening when you realize these kinds of builds are likely the very reason we got the shaft on primary attacks for damage output and endurance penalties.  If we didn't have those, those two builds could be game breaking.

Ugh, yes, my Demons/Storm has recently hit 50 and has been unlocking her incarnates but does not have a proper IO build yet, just running off generics for now, and omg is she just becoming devastating when I bring her out to +4/x8 PI parties and such. I knew it was going to be a good combo, but geeze do you not truly see it until you get to 50 and start getting Cardiac going so your end troubles get reduced (at least for me since like I said, she doesn't have a proper build yet). I also took fire mastery on her for theme, but also to get bonfire, and have it and all the storm powers slotted for KB -> KD, so basically you can just keep things endlessly flopping around, and when I'm not dropping storm powers, I throw out fireballs and whip attacks. I didn't think I was going to enjoy level 50 gameplay until I finally got this character to 50 and working on unlocking her incarnates.

[LelricofMog]

I recently returned to the game so relatively new. I have only created 2 toons but both have been MM with a temporal build. I thought it was working pretty well. As I read through these though it seems no one is mentioning that. Have I chosen a weak set to put on the MM?

 

Oh and demons to summon. 

Edited July 15, 2022 by LelricofMog

[Tacheyon]

On 6/1/2022 at 6:31 PM, TygerDarkstorm said:

 

 

Necro/ElecAff is a surprisingly fun set to play. Amp Up sadly doesn't affect pets, but EA is a secondary that almost feels made for MM's. Pairing it with necro gives the zombies a little bit of an extra boost and protection, and just gives off cool Frankenstein vibes.

 

 

/EA is really good (outside of the T9 not affecting pets...lets go Devs!).  I made almost every combo of pets/ea and found Demons, Necros and Bots paired very well with it.  This is in part to stacking their resistances with Faraday Cage.  Plus you can almost have UNLIMITED POWE...err heals, absorb shields and Endurance.

 

For pure laughs you can always try Ninja/Kin.  With Speed Boost your ninjas break the sound barrier and the AI just can't handle them.  But due to the fragile nature of Ninjas it isn't a top tier pairing.  Ninja/Storm is both fun AND competitive.  With all the potential KB and KD in both sets you can keep your Ninjas alive by having everything else on their backs.

 

Thugs/Traps was my first lv 50 on Live.  It just has all the tools to take down everything including AV's.  Thugs/Poison is also really strong.

[TygerDarkstorm]

On 7/15/2022 at 6:04 AM, LelricofMog said:

I recently returned to the game so relatively new. I have only created 2 toons but both have been MM with a temporal build. I thought it was working pretty well. As I read through these though it seems no one is mentioning that. Have I chosen a weak set to put on the MM?

 

Oh and demons to summon. 

Not at all! /Time is indeed very strong with pretty much any of the primaries (I think it can even be made to work with Ninjas). It used to be that I saw people pretty much only mention /Time that I started looking at other MM options. Everybody has their own idea of "ultimate" and I'm sure there are folks out there who find /Time fits that bill. 🙂

[Ironscarlet]

I hadThug/poison on live and it was real fun but now I have a a Thug/EA with perma Ganga War double every 3rd. That being said it’s been one of the few MM I have really got into the theme.

 

A homeless  girl that was taken in by a Tsoo sorcerer and she grew up in the tsoo gang to later run away and start a small gang on rogue isle. She has elec powers because of the tattoos the Tsoo gave her. She also carries a club best part everything fits in the build.

[Neiska]

My two favorites are Robots/Electric, and Demons/Time. I have yet to try a fully leveled and incarnated /Storm, but I hear many good things. 

 

My Robots/Electric is just a powerhouse, both for solo and teams. Solo, its durable, and flexible, with things like bonfire and group fly, EA shines with healing/absorb/status protection. Making a durable pet set, even more so. Electric also goes quite well with Demons. But my Robot/EA I can go on TFs, Solo, Farm, go GM hunting, and so on. It really is a "can do anything" build which is something I love. On teams she isn't the most damage, but I focus on defense/support when teaming. Keeping everyone's blue bars nice and full, putting down Cages on the tank for status immunity, layering absorbs and heals, and using my damage debuffs if they are even needed at that point. Mostly for teaming I keep my T3 out for mobility, the other pets aren't really needed if you are on a good team. On some teams though, my robos and I were the anchor of the group.

 

But my favorite Demons is my /Time. You get both good resists and defense, and the slow aoe is quite nice to give your demons all the time in the world to chew things down. Softcapping defenses is easy with Power Boost, and they come with their own resist buffs. Plus there is Chrono Shift and the Recharge bonus that lets you perma Hell on Earth. (Or close to it. I haven't played my Demons/Time in awhile, but I believe you could Perma-it.)