MMs in RV. Rules to live by.

[bellona100]

I cry a little inside when I see a Mastermind flopping around in RV, making a fool of my beloved AT.   It frustrates me.   Not a lot, but enough to copy and paste from a guide I made while the game was live.   I'm going to update some of the rules best I can, but some of the rules simply don't apply to today's PvP.

 

11-10-2011, 12:29 PM	#196
LIinfinity Apprentice     Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Freedom PvP zone Posts: 156	Re: Mastermind Guides and FAQs

 

Below are the 6 Preparation rules for taking a Mastermind into RV

1) Have your MM at level 50 with tier 4  Alpha Slot.
2) Have your MM enhanced with IOs that provide goal oriented set-bonuses.  For example, if your build is going for a lot of Range, have set-bonuses that provide +Range.
3) Purchase the PvP accolade powers in either RV or Sirens Call.   The main one is the 'Veteran' power.  This gives you an auto power that "Increases to your Max Hit Points by 20% and Max Endurance by 10%".
4) Have the power Teleport.    Have a Patron Shield.
5) 
6) Have several large Green inspirations.  I recommend going to Ouroboros and using your Incarnate Threads to puchase Superior Protection Imbuement inspirations.  I'm not going to give a 'why' here, but trust me on this one.
Also keep a couple large/super Blues in your tray for the End sappers.

The following 6 Golden rules enable a MM to be 'well played'

7) Get a Heavy and keep it with you.   These RV Heavies not only represent another controllable henchmen, but they are a very powerful one - level 54 Elite Boss with 5,416 hit points.  And to top it off, all of your Leadership, Secondary, and Pet IO buffs are shared by the Heavy.
😎 Stay in Bodyguard(BG) mode.   This is where your henchmen are set to either Follow/Stay/Goto & Defensive stance, and are within 60' of your MM. While in these stances, your henchmen share any damage that the actual MM may incur. The more henchmen within 60' of the MM, the more damage is mitigated away from the actual MM. See the quote further down in this guide for explanation.
Another benefit of having your henchmen close to you is the Supremacy mechanic. It grants a 25% bonus to Damage and a 10% ToHit bonus to henchmen within 60' of the actual MM. This mechanic requires line of sight between the henchmen and the MM to work.
9) Get a Team.    Most preferably - another MM. As a single MM in RV, your no big deal. But add one or more of your kind and your team incrementally gets closer to God Mode. This is not to say that other ATs are nice to be teamed with, but other MMs on your team is what you should be striving for. When MMs are on the same team, they share several important buffs as well as create confusion for any enemy looking to target them. Couple this with the fact that the MMs' sustained damage turns into burst damage, and... I think you get the idea.
10) Know your environment.   When you fist enter the zone, go ahead and take a TP around. Is there a gank squad roaming around? Are there a lot of enemy Controllers/Doms/Blasters? How about other MMs? Who is out there to team with? For the duration of your time in RV, your going to be in one small area of the map. Know what is happening in the other parts.
11) Stay out of Broadcast.   Nothing positive can come of you engaging in zone Broadcast. Your there to get kills and have some fun. You already have too many things to keep track of playing a MM, no need to add one more.
12) Be patient in your game play.   Stay in BG Mode.   Keep your Heavy close.   Make sure your buffs are applied.  Move around, but in small bursts.   Remember that the fight will come to you.
If you feel compelled to be aggressive in an active zone, switch to another one of your characters.

 

Quote:

Heavies — your new best friends Overview: Each side has at its command 3 Heavy Class robots that can be utilized as pets. The locations can be found on the OPS map in your starting base. Think of these as the tanks of this particular battlefield. As far as firepower and the amount of damage taken, a Heavy can go head-to-head with 4 elite bosses and emerge victorious most of the time. A Heavy can take out most players in three shots, and are not to be ignored. These Robots can be used by any class, and work exactly like a mastermind pet; remember that these are slow movers, so if super speed is your thing, you will have to wait a while for it to catch up with you. To acquire a Heavy, locate a platform and click on the control panel. If there is no Robot on the platform, someone has already taken it. A Heavy will re-spawn on its platform only after it or its controller has been defeated, or it has been dismissed. Be careful not to camp the spot too much waiting for one to appear, as these areas will no doubt be camped by the enemy after they discover them. Tactics: Heavies are very good at helping. One of the best uses for Heavies is to capture pillboxes. A single player with a Heavy can defeat the turrets of an undefended pillbox fairly quickly, without too much risk. If attacking a defended pillbox, set the Heavy to take down the turrets or send it straight at the pill box controller to help draw fire away from you as you attack. When attacking players, each heavy has special attacks particular to it. The Freedom Corps Cataphract has excellent medium and long range AoE capabilities, where the Arachnos Blaster has great medium range hold attacks and is extremely dangerous in hand to hand combat; and is no slouch at long range. The best thing to take out a Heavy is another Heavy. If you are I.D.’d as the controller of the Heavy (and your name does show up on its target bar) the enemy will be looking to take you out as quickly as they can, so make sure that you are in a position such that you cannot be easily spotted, or if in the open, that you are properly defended by your team. If you have a team set up, make sure the person with the best chance of survivability has control of robot.

-Taken from Tips and Stratagems, Recluse's Victory By Thomas Foss (aka Archon Voss) — Senior Staff Designer & Zone Director
 

Quote:

Core Powers: Bodyguard This is accessed by setting any henchman to Follow/Stay/Goto and Defensive. When set to Bodyguard mode, the Mastermind and his Henchmen share damage from any attack that the Mastermind takes damage from, after the MM's personal resistances are applied. Each Henchman takes one “Share” of the damage, and the Mastermind himself takes 2 “Shares”. This is in addition to any damage that the Henchmen themselves might incur from Area attacks. The resistance/defense of the henchmen is not applied to this damage and instead goes straight against their hitpoint total. Example 1: If a Mastermind has 3 Henchmen set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with (after resistance is factored) a 100 point attack, each Henchman will take 20 points of damage, and he himself will take 40 points. (total of 100 points of damage). Example 2: If a Mastermind has 3 Henchmen set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with (after resistance is factored) an Area Effect attack for 10 points of damage, then each Henchman will take 2 points of damage, and he himself will take 4 points. Henchmen that were also in the Area of Effect will take an additional 10 points each. Bodyguard will work as long as a Henchman is in Defensive Follow or Defensive Stay/Goto. This means that they will attack back when you or they are attacked. Issuing an order of “Attack my target” will take them out of bodyguard mode, as will issuing any other stance. You can set as many of your Henchmen to bodyguard that you want. As long as the Henchman is in Defensive Follow/Stay/Goto and within Supremacy range, he is in Bodyguard mode. Status effects will not turn off bodyguard mode. Bodyguard does not function with Lore Incarnate henchmen.

-Taken from MZ's Guide to the Modern Mastermind v4.5(@Master Zaprobo)

[Glacier Peak]

How to mitigate an entire Archetype in PvP - move away from them lol

 

No, but on a serious note Mastermind's could use better lockdown powers. Otherwise going in an out of Bodyguard becomes a liability and doesn't provide the rest of the team with much damage output.

 

Thanks for the repost!