honoroitisfantastic POLL: Mastermind - best of AT 2023

[honoroit]

POLL: Mastermind - best of AT

 

- best primary

 

- best secondary

 

- best epic power pool

 

¡you can choose however you like!

• Most Effective Tactic Available
• My favorite
• My desert island power picks
• If there could be only 1

[honoroit]

while necro / ff has been a darling, the damage of necro / kin is insane - because the soul extracted minion doubles and extras that spawn on your blast hits are speed boostable / fulcrum shiftable and healable.

 

necro / kin / heat. 

- necro as described

- you are a kin

- heat, for bonfire (with kb->kd then dmg)

[JStacy337]

My main/badge-whore is a Necro/Kin/Soul, but most fun has been a Merc/FF/Mace. Merc/FF just cannot die and can take on content well outside her weight-class

[StrikerFox]

14 peeps so far and Thugs have 0 votes. Oh how the tables have turned.

[Thraxen]

Demon just cause it’s only place you can get the cool whip attacks. 

[Uun]

17 hours ago, StrikerFox said:

14 peeps so far and Thugs have 0 votes. Oh how the tables have turned.

I got my Thugs/Elec to 50 recently and was very underwhelmed.

[Vinceq98]

My mercenaries and necro are my fastest clearers now. Time Manipulation >> Cold Domination >>>>>>> The rest

[Force Redux]

Mercs and Necro are amazing. Mercs overtook demons for me.

[C U R S E]

Necro/Dark is the powerhouse.

[biostem]

I very much like the revamp to necromancy.  I had a harder time selecting a secondary and APP/PPP, so went with a combo I already had & enjoyed, namely cold domination and mace mastery.

[Psiphon]

Hi all. I've played the odd Mastermind in the past, at which point Bots and Thugs were the go to sets. Read this and was just wondering what had caused such a dramatic change.

Thanks in advance.

[tidge]

I think a lot of the classic appeal of Thugs was Gang War. I took a Thugs MM to 50+ and I was really unimpressed.

 

I went with a combo that is strong on offense and debuffs, with just a little bit of support for the Henchmen: Robotics/Traps/Mace. I understand the appeal of Necromancy as a primary, and I don't think it is at all weak... my opinion is that it offers a lot of different cool things that MMs don't really need and that those things can be a distraction. Please don't think I hate on Necromancy!

 

My only complaint about the Time secondary is this: Time doesn't have that many skipable powers! I voted Traps because with just four powers from the secondary (Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Force Field Generator, Posion Trap) it is possible to get almost all the debuffs and buffs needed to make the MM and the Henchmen capable of facing almost every challenge in the game.

[Force Redux]

10 hours ago, Psiphon said:

Hi all. I've played the odd Mastermind in the past, at which point Bots and Thugs were the go to sets. Read this and was just wondering what had caused such a dramatic change.

Thanks in advance.

A revamp I think about late last year of ninjas, mercenaries, and necromancy was responsible for addressing many of the weaknesses with those sets. 

 

Necromancy was always a serviceable set, but really shines with the attention to soul extraction, and the individualized pet powers, such as damage aura for grave knights.

 

Mercenaries and ninjas benefited greatly from the attention to pet Powers, the upgrades, and some passives. Serum in particular from mercenaries went from one of the worst powers in the game to a very potent must have pick.

 

Hence the reordering of primaries in the tier list.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Force Redux

[Magnificus]

On 10/4/2023 at 8:53 AM, tidge said:

My only complaint about the Time secondary is this: Time doesn't have that many skipable powers! I

 

I tend to skip things that do not benefit the minions ability to hit things or do damage. I tend not to take things like heals cause minions don't need that imo. I am fine with summoning again. I am working on a robots/time build that does not take the heal or the single target buff.. ahh but I am taking farsight and chronoshift. Timestop is probably skippable as well but I like having those if only to stack with other holds. My problem is I am only taking one of the beam attacks because they are uninspiring.

[tidge]

I have found that Robotics really benefits from the primary attacks, at least after the recent revamp... for the high HP targets, because of -Regen. I'm sure much of the content can be done without those attacks. I might not take them early while leveling up, but they would probably be early choices in a level 50 build.

 

My own post-revamp experience has been that the only GMs the upgraded henchmen can handle without my MM using the rifle attacks are the very low-level zone instances. They were more self-sufficient against GMs before; now they perform better across all content.

[Shadewe]

On 9/18/2023 at 8:19 AM, Uun said:

I got my Thugs/Elec to 50 recently and was very underwhelmed.

Not even whelmed?

[SaxyGuitar]

Honestly the hardest pick is best secondary. I'll always vote thug because I'm biased to it.

 

On a side note last night we on the discord realized thug is the only one that doesn't have a heal.

 

[TheSpiritFox]

Traps is the best secondary far and away. FFgen is the best defensive power in the game by a mile. Tons of defense and a bunch of mez resist? Yes please. 

 

Then caltrops for soft control, acid mortar which can stack with more than one out for an absolutely insane amount of -def and -res, poison trap for neutering the regen of everything anywhere nearby, and boom if you wanna be youre done. Take those 4 powers and its 90% of the power of the secondary in your hands. But then you know, web grenade is solid for stacking on AVs that wont stay in place. Trip mine is solid for removing minions from the group and lowering incoming damage, fast. Even detonator is getting a look so it wont be the single worst power masterminds have anymore! We might have to start taking it!

 

Sure, time is sturdy. But itll take 3x longer for x/time to kill things compared to a traps, and frankly, if youre playing smart, youre safter with traps and the mez protection it offers. 

 

Primary theyre all good now so its on favorites, but bots and thugs go best with traps. 

 

Single best mastermind? If you wanna be more sturdy, Bots/traps. With repair drone and medicine pool you're insanely tanky. If you want to be more deady, especially to hard targets, Thugs/Traps. I dont know why people are underwhelmed by thugs tbh. My bots/traps can kill a pylon in just under 2 minutes no lore pet. My thugs/traps can do it in 1. The only MM that surpasses Thugs/traps for raw single target DPS is Demon/Storm and Demons/storm is not a tenth as survivable. 

 

If youre underwhelmed by thugs youre not dropping a pair of damage procs into enforcers along with a LOTG and 3 acc/dam hamis. 

 

Seriously. Enforcers have 4 attacks that can proc the -def damage procs, each. Two of those attacks are aoe cones. Throw an explosive strike in the bruiser and alot of his attacks will proc that. Throw a soulbound allegiance in the bruiser as well and suddenly he's sometimes hitting knockout blow for 600 damage plus an extra hundred from the explosive strike proc. Thugs is fucking nuts yall idk how youre underwhelmed. 

Edited February 3 by TheSpiritFox