What are the most team-friendly Mastermind builds?

[ScarlettStorm]

I've always been a pet-focused player in MMOs when I can but I also enjoy the support role of helping others a lot. Now, coming back in here, I'm kind of looking for a mastermind build that has good powerset synergy but is especially good for helping in teams. I see some of the powersets have even been changed since the game was live officially so I could really use some current info.

[twozerofoxtrot]

You're in luck if you want to support teams, that's what all Masterminds do.

 

I'd recommend looking at Force Redux's Demon/Dark MM guide on these forums. It's a very active setup but very, very strong by dint of Dark's debuffs (though almost every power in the set is good; skip Black Hole).

[Crysis]

Demons/Anything.  Teams just LOVE the purring sounds they make!  Like….really big, hungry kittens.  It’s great!

 

Note: I’m not satan.  Just haven’t had enough coffee yet this morning.

[ScarlettStorm]

That's kind of disappointing, as I used to play Controller as my main when the game was still live officially, and wanted to try something different, and I had both Illu/Storm and Fire/Kin on max level back then. Maybe some other combo might work.

 

 

[TygerDarkstorm]

49 minutes ago, ScarlettStorm said:

That's kind of disappointing, as I used to play Controller as my main when the game was still live officially, and wanted to try something different, and I had both Illu/Storm and Fire/Kin on max level back then. Maybe some other combo might work.

 

 

Imo, they exaggerate a tad, but I'm an MM enthusiast. There's plenty of times where you're not playing at max level 50 + 4 to play and enjoy MM's.

 

That said, play whatever MM combo you feel most drawn to. Sure, some play better than others, but this game is so flexible, you can literally play what you enjoy most and make it work.

 

Like, for example, /Cold is great, but it's only a dominant requirement when pushing harder end game content, in which case, MM's aren't super viable anyway. /Cold for MM's is good, but it's late blooming and more oriented towards soloing/harder content.

 

If this is your first foray into MM's, you may just need to play around with things. I don't typically recommend /Storm, however, you've played Ill/Storm before which is a similar level of chaos. I wouldn't recommend /Rad, /Poison, or /Kin, at least not initially. /Rad & /Poison just aren't great on MM's because our debuff values and such are so much lower than other support toons and these don't give great mileage for helping keep your henchmen up as well (and Rad's issue is that some of it's more major powers don't affect pets, however, you'll still bring them to teammates). /Kin can be fun on an MM, it just takes some work as MM's are so squishy; but teams do love having /Kins and /Kin is useful at all levels (if you do try /Kin, I personally recommend it with the more melee oriented pets rather than the ranged ones just because of kin's playstyle).

 

Which secondary you pick also depends on how involved you want to be as an MM player. /FF is nearly completely hands off. Too boring for me, but some people like that. /ElecAff is one of my personal favorites for MM's as it feels like it was built for MM's. /Dark & /Time are always safe and popular choices that bring things teams like. /Traps is fun, but more solo oriented due to its outdated playstyle.

 

My two favorite MM's are probably my Bots/Nature and my Demons/Storm, but I also have a Beast/Kin, Thugs/TA, Beast/Dark, Thugs/ElecAff, Necro/ElecAff, Mercs/Traps, Beast/Rad, Necro/Sonic, Ninja/Cold, Necro/Time, Necro/Kin, Bots/Cold, Ninja/Nature, Thugs/Sonic, Demons/Traps, Demons/Sonic, and Bots/TA.

 

I also can't recommend these binds (or something similar to them) enough for henchmen management:

 

[GM Tock]

Hid some posts.  Own your opinions. Be nice. The usual ballyhoo.

[GM Crumpet]

I play masterminds a lot, and they are my favourite AT. They are just as good as other AT's. I don't actually like cold. I'd go as far as to say I hate it. I like thermal, time and kinetics. The other secondaries are decent too, despite me not liking cold. 

 

Slotting your pets as early as possible is the trick. I put all my slots into the pets first, then get the ATO's and a pet set, plus the pet upgrade powers. They are versatile for solo, and great in teams. I love beasts, mercs, undead and bots. Demons is OK and I've never had a lot of luck with ninja or thugs.

 

Play what you want because it's fun for you. Teams aren't going to go "Demons/empathy MM? N00B" and kick you out unless the team leader is a bit odd.

[smnolimits43]

i suggest Ninjas/Empathy

[Lunar Ronin]

Dark Miasma, Electrical Affinity, Nature Affinity, Thermal Radiation, and Time Manipulation are all excellent Mastermind secondaries.  Whichever secondary you go with, I do recommend taking one with a heal, so you can keep your henchmen healed.  Otherwise, pick up Aid Other from the Medicine power pool.  It can be a bit slow otherwise, slowly waiting for your henchmen to heal back up.

 

As for primaries, they're all good.  Pick whichever floats your boat.

[Wavicle]

Every Mastermind primary is decent now, in my opinion.

Most of the secondaries are good too, but I'm not a big fan of Poison or Empathy for Masterminds.

[Riverdusk]

As others said, anything can work.  Honestly though for MOST team friendly I'd say mercs for primary.  All ranged so less likely to get in the way or run forward as much and potentially getting unwanted aggro, "normal" sized so don't really block things visually, and low on the obnoxious sound quotient.  Thugs can also be good and hit a lot of those marks although the arsonist likes to throw burn patches that tend to scatter things a bit sometimes, so I like to have a way to deal with that (a good slow or immobilize in secondary or epic pool).

 

For secondaries, probably only storm has a somewhat bad reputation among some people and you need to be careful on how you use it.  Anything else I can't imagine isn't appreciated.

 

My current main MM is a mercs/dark and absolutely love it.

[biostem]

16 hours ago, ScarlettStorm said:

especially good for helping in teams

All I ask of my MM teammates is that they don't block doorways or other such chokepoints.  Beyond that, play whatever brings you the most happiness!

[Riverdusk]

12 minutes ago, biostem said:

All I ask of my MM teammates is that they don't block doorways or other such chokepoints.  Beyond that, play whatever brings you the most happiness!

 

MM pets were are all made 'pushable', so that be a rare situation now a days.  

 

Something I wish they'd do for all pets in game.  Controller/dom pets still aren't movable last I checked and even more likely to get in the way since you can't command them.   

[biostem]

1 minute ago, Riverdusk said:

MM pets were are all made 'pushable', so that be a rare situation now a days.  

If there's enough of them crammed into one of those narrow sewer sections with the 2 doorways that are offset from one another, they can still get caught...

[Wavicle]

3 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

 

MM pets were are all made 'pushable', so that be a rare situation now a days.  

 

Something I wish they'd do for all pets in game.  Controller/dom pets still aren't movable last I checked and even more likely to get in the way since you can't command them.   

And traps and any other set with things like that, yea. You should NEVER be able to trap another player in a room in PvE intentionally or by accident

[BunnyHop]

I've played COH on and off for a long time, I've never really played MM until recently

 

I found time, as it is with a corruptor is very good, the extra recharge you can afford yourself opens up many builds like perma serum for mercs, the recharge also helps your team a lot.

 

Currently I am playing a Merc/Elec affinity and I'm throughly enjoying it, it feels like I can keep the team up well and I'm giving lots of absorbs, recharge times, damage, to hit bonuses. I am close to getting perma serum which is big but not there yet.

 

I've yet to play Dark, everyone says it's amazing and I've seen it in teams - it is good! Necro/Dark should let you handle most things.

 

Wish that Minions were the same level as the hero themselves, only the final one is the same level as you, the other 2 summons are 1-2 levels below meaning if you do hit +4 content it will be a little tough to 'feel useful', perhaps in the future the HC team might look at MM's and buff pet levels 🙂

[Infeareal]

19 hours ago, BunnyHop said:

Wish that Minions were the same level as the hero themselves, only the final one is the same level as you, the other 2 summons are 1-2 levels below meaning if you do hit +4 content it will be a little tough to 'feel useful', perhaps in the future the HC team might look at MM's and buff pet levels 🙂

 

That is legit the one non OP thing holding MM's back. Having come back recently and started on HC again with a my partner that has always been on of the such a simple issue that holds them back from being equal with other AT's. Just make the summons stay at the same level. They do not have enough going on their own to be OP, but under leveled they are very questionable and have to be played around. The higher the level content the worse and more noticeable it becomes. 

New powers not needed, changes to damage, nope, just hit the pets with equal leveling the the player character. It is a very trivial change that increases the viability just enough to keep up with the other AT's.

[Wavicle]

1 hour ago, Infeareal said:

 

That is legit the one non OP thing holding MM's back. Having come back recently and started on HC again with a my partner that has always been on of the such a simple issue that holds them back from being equal with other AT's. Just make the summons stay at the same level. They do not have enough going on their own to be OP, but under leveled they are very questionable and have to be played around. The higher the level content the worse and more noticeable it becomes. 

New powers not needed, changes to damage, nope, just hit the pets with equal leveling the the player character. It is a very trivial change that increases the viability just enough to keep up with the other AT's.

I agree it should be done, but I caution against seeing it as a "trivial" change. The pets would have to be rebalanced to account for the change.

[BunnyHop]

2 hours ago, Wavicle said:

I agree it should be done, but I caution against seeing it as a "trivial" change. The pets would have to be rebalanced to account for the change.

I'm not sure they would be that unbalanced to be honest, compared to some other powers out there they would still be behind

[Infeareal]

19 hours ago, BunnyHop said:

I'm not sure they would be that unbalanced to be honest, compared to some other powers out there they would still be behind

Yeah there is no way they are coming close to touching that many sets. That was the point is that just the scaling would need to be updated for it to make them just a tad bit more viable. No where near OP unless you are talking about content where it really does not matter anyhow like +0/0

[tjknight]

I ❤️ Masterminds! They are a great all-arounder AT and can help a team fill in missing roles. 

 

In my opinion these are great easy to play MM's that provide great support

 

Necro/Dark - You get to hit debuffs in both the primary and secondary. 

Necro/FF - A rarer combo, the  -to hit in the primary and +defense in the secondary helps protect the team. 

Mercs/Nature - Defense debuffs in the primary and a range of buffs and debuffs in the secondary. 

Demons/Thermal or Demons/Cold - minor buffs from pets, heals, and shields. 

 

And in general Time and Dark are fantastic on all the primaries.  

[Xandyr]

On 1/20/2024 at 7:29 AM, ScarlettStorm said:

 good powerset synergy but is especially good for helping in teams. 

There's a LOT of choices/ways you can go. Obviously, every Secondary will help your pets and your team (some more so than others). I always say, go with what fits the "theme/background" for your toon. 

 

Mercs

  Have been revamped, and are a LOT more effective/fun now. Just about every single attack your Soldiers do will do -Defense to the enemy. I always slot an Achilles' Heel: Chance for -Resistance in my soldiers. By doing so, you're almost guaranteed to always have -Defense Debuff and -Resistance debuff on your target, which will help your team.

 

Ninjas

 Again, have been revamped and are more effective/fun. They pretty much, more or less, just bring damage to the table.

 

Necro

 Ah...yes. The undead. Revamped, and are AWESOME. Almost all their attacks do -To Hit Debuff, and a few attacks can do -Defense Debuff. The Grave Knights now have a damage aura which helps pump out more damage. The Lich is kinda like a mini Dark Defender. He throws out -To Hit Debuffs, and has a little crowd control as well. All of this will help your team by debuffing the enemies' To Hit.

 

Demons

 They're big. Been forever since I've played them. The 2nd tier pets have a resistance shield ( that I believe everyone would benefit from, and a PBAoE Heal . The Demons' attacks lower enemy resistance, which helps your team. Also, the Prince has some slows and a little control to help.

 

Beasts

 Can debuff enemies' Damage, To Hit, Defense, and have a little crowd control.

 

Thugs

 Enforcers will have Maneuvers, Tactics, and Assault which your team will benefit from. Pets can also do Defense Debuff. The Bruiser gets Knockout Blow, which can hold an enemy.

 

Bots

 Protector Bots summon Seeker Drones, which can do -To Hit and -Damage. I *think* the shield that they give only affects your pets and you, but I may be wrong. Please correct me if I am. Your attacks will do -Regeneration.

 

 

Secondaries...again, all the secondaries will benefit you/your pets/team. Here's a list of the ones I have played that I enjoyed and worked well.

 

Mercs/Nature  (more Resists, Heals, more Damage, absorb shield). Nature pretty much goes with everything!

Mercs/Pain  (more resists, more damage, heals, debuffs.  A Regeneration aura. + To hit, and +Damage.  Whichever teammate you keep Painbringer on will love you.)

 

Necro/Dark...all the -to hit! And a heal! And some Crowd Control! Classic pairing.

Necro/FF...unbelievable. You alone can softcap your pets' Defense. And give your teammates a HUGE boost to theirs as well (between 30-35ish % Defense depending on your slotting). Couple that with the -To Hit Debuffs your pets throw out, and you've made your team extremely hard to hit.

 

Necro/Pain. I personally love Pain. Again, more heals, resistance, debuffs, regen Aura, + To Hit, +Damage.

 

Beasts/Time. Was fun. Teams love Time. You bring Heals, lots of -Damage/-To Hit/-Defense/-Resist, + Defense/+ To Hit/ Slows/ some -Regen/ Hold/ and +Regen Recharge and End Recovery.

 

Demon/Electric. Been FOREVER since I've played this. Electric Affinity is a busy set, but teams LOVE it. You heal. You increase Resistances. You give Absorb, and pretty much unlimited End to everyone. You give Status Protection, and +Damage, +To Hit, and + Recharge. You also make your pets EXTREMELY sturdy if you solo.

 

Ninja/Sonic. Was kinda an "oddball" toon I made, but it worked out pretty good. The ninjas have inherently high Defenses, and have a decent heal now. So, I rolled one with Sonic to bump their Resistances up, and it worked. You also do lots of -Resistance, which teams will appreciate. 

 

Hopefully that will give you a few ideas.

 

[evetsleep]

12 minutes ago, Xandyr said:

 

Thugs

 Enforcers will have Maneuvers, Tactics, and Assault which your team will benefit from.

 

Slight comment on this.  The Enforcers leadership powers don't affect players or other pets except, interestingly enough, other Mastermind's Thugs.

 

So if you have multiple Thug MM's on a team the pets will buff each other (but no one else) with maneuvers, assault, and tactics.

[MaHaBone23]

Electrical Affinity is a great all-around set for teams and MMs. It is very busy, but only because it offers so many great tools for buffing.

Thermal is also pretty solid. It's got shields, heals, buffs and debuffs. 

[Force Redux]

I'll recommend two of my favorites, suggested above:

 

Mercs/Nature: you get to play a 'healer' with teeth. Great team and solo utility, a few tricks up your sleeves.

 

Necro/Dark: debuff kings, with controller powers, and great single target damage.

 

Teams will love either.