My first /Dark MM

[Neiska]

Hello Forums,

 

I wanted to make a new mastermind, namely to solo harder content and difficulties. And I decided to try /Dark out. So this is my first attempt, on initial pass I think it looks pretty good, but do worry a bit about END use. I did make her on the tougher side, with tough/weave/RoP and so on. Feedback appreciated!

 

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Neiska (Demon Summoning - Dark Miasma) Mk 1.mbd

Edited August 23, 2023 by Neiska

[Onlyasandwich]

What a truly classic and satisfying combo you have chosen! End consumption is indeed a bit rough if you are leveraging its full potential.

 

I have my own build, shown here for reference.

 

Demon Dark.mbd

 

Note that Demon/ MM attacks are actually quite powerful once properly slotted, and also enhance your pet attacks through -res. My build above shows how you can proc them out productively. Unless you just don't like the whip theme, it's a shame to skip them.

 

Overall your current build will be survivable, and you will support your pets quite well with current slotting. However, even in tough solo content, you should survive quite well on the strength of pet tankiness, heals, -to-hit, and some strong baseline defense. Rune is indeed a nice fallback, but a bit of a heavy power investment, and proper pet management and aggressive use of controls should make mezzes mostly a non issue. I would consider a ground up rework of these priorities, dropping the heavy slot investment towards defense set bonuses that don't contribute much to local power enhancement.

 

You sacrifice very little defensively for a more proc focused build with the right IO focus. My build has lower baseline defense, but very similar resist profile, even without tough/weave. Between Fearsome stare, Darkest Night, and Fluffy, you'll be quite safe.

 

Regardless of how you might otherwise re-adapt the larger decisions of your build, here are a few things that stand out:

• Summon Demons is underslotted for +res. It is worth maxing out. 
• Rune of Protection is way over slotted. This power doesn't benefit from recharge at all. Even if you keep it, One or two +5 resist IOs are sufficient. I typically just mule the steadfast res/def IO here and call it a day, as the big benefit is the mez protection, and a lot of your most important resists will be capped anyhow.
• Consider swapping your ATO usage around as in my build to better benefit from all the easy +10% recharge bonuses while maintaining the same or better enhancement values.
• Twilight Grasp is overslotted with no super useful set bonuses, even for your current build. 3 slot with Acc/heal, acc/end/heal, and heal gives enough accuracy and maxes out the heal. I like the theft proc here to make the power free or an end benefit quite often.
• Howling Twilight is a great power. If you use any of the above advice to free slots, consider further enhancing end redux and recharge here.
• Your extra slots in tactics lead to very marginal local power benefits and IO bonuses. These slots are better used elsewhere.
• If keeping Weave, swap 2 of the lotg's for the equivalent shield walls and +5 them. Higher enhancement value that still exemps (pvp set), and a stronger +HP bonus.

 

This is my favorite MM combo so far! I'm sure you'll have a blast no matter what you do.

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[Neiska]

22 minutes ago, Onlyasandwich said:

What a truly classic and satisfying combo you have chosen! End consumption is indeed a bit rough if you are leveraging its full potential.

 

I have my own build, shown here for reference.

 

Demon Dark.mbd 44.23 kB · 0 downloads

 

Note that Demon/ MM attacks are actually quite powerful once properly slotted, and also enhance your pet attacks through -res. My build above shows how you can proc them out productively. Unless you just don't like the whip theme, it's a shame to skip them.

 

Overall your current build will be survivable, and you will support your pets quite well with current slotting. However, even in tough solo content, you should survive quite well on the strength of pet tankiness, heals, -to-hit, and some strong baseline defense. Rune is indeed a nice fallback, but a bit of a heavy power investment, and proper pet management and aggressive use of controls should make mezzes mostly a non issue. I would consider a ground up rework of these priorities, dropping the heavy slot investment towards defense set bonuses that don't contribute much to local power enhancement.

 

You sacrifice very little defensively for a more proc focused build with the right IO focus. My build has lower baseline defense, but very similar resist profile, even without tough/weave. Between Fearsome stare, Darkest Night, and Fluffy, you'll be quite safe.

 

Regardless of how you might otherwise re-adapt the larger decisions of your build, here are a few things that stand out:

• Summon Demons is underslotted for +res. It is worth maxing out. 
• Rune of Protection is way over slotted. This power doesn't benefit from recharge at all. Even if you keep it, One or two +5 resist IOs are sufficient. I typically just mule the steadfast res/def IO here and call it a day, as the big benefit is the mez protection, and a lot of your most important resists will be capped anyhow.
• Consider swapping your ATO usage around as in my build to better benefit from all the easy +10% recharge bonuses while maintaining the same or better enhancement values.
• Twilight Grasp is overslotted with no super useful set bonuses, even for your current build. 3 slot with Acc/heal, acc/end/heal, and heal gives enough accuracy and maxes out the heal. I like the theft proc here to make the power free or an end benefit quite often.
• Howling Twilight is a great power. If you use any of the above advice to free slots, consider further enhancing end redux and recharge here.
• Your extra slots in tactics lead to very marginal local power benefits and IO bonuses. These slots are better used elsewhere.
• If keeping Weave, swap 2 of the lotg's for the equivalent shield walls and +5 them. Higher enhancement value that still exemps (pvp set), and a stronger +HP bonus.

 

This is my favorite MM combo so far! I'm sure you'll have a blast no matter what you do.

 

 

 

 

Thank you. I will make a few adjustments. I really like RoP, and it is heavy slotted but that was mostly for the 6pc bonus, but i can certainly move that elsewhere, I do like the set for the melee defense bonus. I can move some slotting around.

[C U R S E]

Hey Neiska throw a theft of the Essence(chance for end) in Twilight Grasp and your end issues will be solved. You are going to gain a beneficial amount of end procs from it because it will hit a lot of your pets in a wide area.

[Raikao]

Some really inefficient socketing in a few places. Command of the Mastermind belongs in Hell on Earth for starters. If you only 3 slot Tactics, then use 2 Cytos and a Gauss BuildUp. Tar Patch and Darkest Night are 2 slot wonders with the right HamiOs.

 

Most importantly you don't need Tough/Weave on Demons/Dark imho. You would on Thugs/Dark and others, but Demons give you resist with their shield, so you can build it differently. I'm still trying to get the last 2% s/l resistance to get to cap but I like where it is so far.

 

BabayagaV1 Mastermind (Demons - Dark).mbd

[Raikao]

Have a version with Soul Mastery as well. I might go with this one myself.

 

BabayagaV1.5 with SoulMastery Mastermind (Demons - Dark).mbd