Pets, Personal Attacks, How do you like to build your character?

[Sanguinesun]

We have all heard the jokes about Petless MMs, and I've seen a ton of people make Attackless MMs (Relying on pets for 100% of their damage), myself included.

 

I've chatted with people about builds that forego T1 pets entirely, focusing solely on the stronger pets.

 

I'm curious what you guys think about these various build ideas. Do you prefer having one or two (Or all 3) personal attacks? What do you think of not using T1 minions?

 

Foregoing your first 1 pets is akin to a tank foregoing a third of their defenses. Or a brute foregoing their fast fury build up powers etc. 

 

Conversely taking your personal attacks instead of pets(ie the rather impractical petless mm) is pretty much pointless and one should roll a ranged AT with healing/defenses instead.

 

All your pets are a must if you're wanting to make your mm stronger.  Body guard innate ability for mm's depends on it(ie pets soak some of your damage) and your damage is also mostly though your pets(along with cc and other abilities). You want to have them all.

 

As for personal attacks, it depends. Many mm's opt for 1 of the single attacks or the aoe/cone one only instead preferring to use slots for other powers from the pools or ancilliaries etc.  Your combination of primary and secondary power choices can affect your choices in these regards.

 

[Jon]

On live I had a Beasts/Sonic who used both Call Hawk and Call Ravens. I wouldn't use the attacks on EVERY Mastermind, but there are certainly some (like Beasts/Sonic) where it can be appropriate. I'd say it probably depends heavily on what secondary you choose.

 

I definitely would never play a Mastermind without taking all of the pet abilities available to me in the set. Those powers are the bread and butter of the entire archetype.

[BlackenBlue71]

I have never made a MM without at least one attack, and would never make a MM without T1 minions. A MM without T1 minions is a MM who is going to either be slow in levelling (no way you survive against yellow con or higher mobs for long if soloing), or grouping a lot.

 

 

[Force Redux]

I came here for talk about personal attacks (like forum drama). I was disappointed.

 

So...no popcorn?

 

0_0

 

FWIW I usually take a pool attack in any non-Demon MM.

[Bossk_Hogg]

I'd really like if the personal attacks got a 15% base damage boost and endurance reduction per other personal attack you took, similar to how the fighting pool works. Also would be nice if they added more synergy to the attacks, similar to the pack mechanic in Beasts. The demon whip is already in a good spot, as -resistance is always valuable, and -tohit in the necromancy blasts is solid, but the attacks in bots, thugs and ninjas could use some love, as their secondary effects are essentially nonexistent.

[Ringo]

My Ninja/Cold mm just hit 50 using Kick/Boxing/Crosspunch

 

I leave my tier 1 ninjas on Bodyguard and send the others after priority targets while I wade in with Crosspunch.  It's fun and a workable way to pull some aggro and get my bodyguards to fight.  Doesn't really happen on steamroll teams though, as I just set all my ninjas to aggressive and then pick their targets for them to concentrate fire on

 

Of course my MM is also built for S/L defense and moderate resists, which may be preventing some better slotting of my ninjas.  But who cares, the build works and I have fun punching things!

 

As an aside, Ninjas are a pretty terrible pet set.  The suck is real.  But they can still be fun!

[ParaBruce]

I came here for talk about personal attacks (like forum drama). I was disappointed.

 

Out of long-standing appreciation for your contributions to CoH community and play, I'm happy to help, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings.

 

[_NOPE_]

I came here for talk about personal attacks (like forum drama). I was disappointed.

 

Out of long-standing appreciation for your contributions to CoH community and play, I'm happy to help, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings.

 

[Force Redux]

I came here for talk about personal attacks (like forum drama). I was disappointed.

 

Out of long-standing appreciation for your contributions to CoH community and play, I'm happy to help, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings.

 

This is the community I love

[Karthunk]

At: lvl 50 +4 level team size 6, I don't have time to use personal attacks with demons/time. Micro managing, debuffing and healing have me trying to catch my breath with endurance when there are a few enemies left.

[Dakkaface]

I took all three attacks on my Bots/FF toon back on live, by that's because he was an ork and it made no RP sense for him NOT to be firing as much as he could.

 

On Homecoming, my Bots/FF has Force Bolt (because he's forced to, and it's not bad.) and Pulse Rifle Burst which is purely for the knockback +Damage. I wouldn't bother with PR Blast.  Photon Grenade at least has CC, but it's success rate is abysmal unslotted, and I don't want to waste the slots on it.  I admit, most of my attack choice on this toon comes from enjoying the ragdoll animations, but It'd probably be strictly more efficient to avoid PR Burst.

 

My Beasts/Nature on the other hand, has both Call Hawk and Call Ravens. The Beast attacks are nice in that they can add stacks of Pack Mentality which are a flat damage boost, and a crit boost, and a potential oh-shit defensive boost. Swarm is kinda naff with it's slow, but Hawk does high damage on a fast recharge, and causes knockdown and -Fly.  Default range is pretty damn good too.  Ravens also does -Fly, is my only AOE, and since I'm often trying to engage from within my own Healing Spore patch, I'm usually in range for it.  -Fly is pretty valuable for melee minions. 

 

If more MM attacks had CC or pet interactivity, they might be more worthwhile, but flat damage is usually only useful for finishing off an enemy while the pet attacks are on cooldown. Demons, Beasts, and Necro seem to be the ones with worthwhile personal attacks for this reason.