Ok so how important is matching defensive types REALLY

[pawstruck]

Will I be gimp late game if I combine a defensive primary (ninjas, thugs) with a secondary that provides resists? It's blocking out a lot of my thematic pairings.

 

Also, do Electric and Sonic suck? Thx. 😄

[Lunar Ronin]

No, the build just won't be as easy and you'll have to build around it, that's all.

 

Electrical Affinity is one of the best Mastermind secondaries, if not the top.  It gives great heals, absorb, and buffs, while providing AoE mez protection for you and your henchmen.  Sonic Resonance is good as well.  The only issue with Sonic Resonance on a Mastermind is the lack of a heal.  It can be a drag to wait around for your henchmen to heal back up.  Of course, you can dismiss and resummon them, but then you have to re-equip and re-upgrade them as well.  However, taking the Aid Other pool power rectifies this issue.

[357trall]

Only secondaries to watch out for are Poison, Trick Arrow, Radiation, and Kinetics. They have a hard time keeping pets alive. Getting the 6 def/resist IO's/ATO's will give you like 30% damage resist, 10% def, and 10/15% aoe def, added to whatever secondary you choose, gives a good amount of durability. I don't think you will gimp yourself, unless you have some really high goals for your character.

That said, high defense is the easiest way to keep pets alive.

[pawstruck]

27 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:

Electrical Affinity is one of the best Mastermind secondaries, if not the top.  It gives great heals, absorb, and buffs, while providing AoE mez protection for you and your henchmen.  

 

Huh. I was seeing the no -res debuff combined with the fact that MM minions can't benefit from +Rech, so I was thinking it sucked.

[Lunar Ronin]

34 minutes ago, pawstruck said:

 

Huh. I was seeing the no -res debuff combined with the fact that MM minions can't benefit from +Rech, so I was thinking it sucked.

 

Yeah, the henchmen aren't impacted by the +rech, but Electrical Affinity has so many other tools in its toolkit between heals, +absorb, +dmg, +to-hit, -dmg, +resistance, AoE mez protection, among other things.  It's one of the top two secondaries for Masterminds, IMO.

[tjknight]

Dark is a really good support secondary with Thugs or Ninjas. 

[kelika2]

I have a thug/thermal and thug/sonic.  they are below my defense and -tohit masterminds for one huge thing:

 

Knockback

 

so many things in this game have some sort of small mag knockback.  sure you can get 50-70% resist most but thats not going to mean shit when a freak tank knocks them all down and away from you.  not getting hit is way more important for pets than players

[evetsleep]

On 7/31/2024 at 9:04 PM, 357trall said:

Only secondaries to watch out for are Poison, Trick Arrow, Radiation, and Kinetics. They have a hard time keeping pets alive. Getting the 6 def/resist IO's/ATO's will give you like 30% damage resist, 10% def, and 10/15% aoe def, added to whatever secondary you choose, gives a good amount of durability. I don't think you will gimp yourself, unless you have some really high goals for your character.

That said, high defense is the easiest way to keep pets alive.

 

I mostly agree with you except for Trick Arrow.   Fully slotted Flash Arrow combined with pets that have native defense and the defense IO's meshes extremely well.  I rarely need to resummon my thugs and ninjas, while flimsy, have a  self heal on their own.  The -DMG in trick arrow goes a long way, also, to preventing minions from being one shot in most normal content.

[boss]

On 7/31/2024 at 9:04 PM, 357trall said:

Only secondaries to watch out for are Poison, Trick Arrow, Radiation, and Kinetics. They have a hard time keeping pets alive. Getting the 6 def/resist IO's/ATO's will give you like 30% damage resist, 10% def, and 10/15% aoe def, added to whatever secondary you choose, gives a good amount of durability. I don't think you will gimp yourself, unless you have some really high goals for your character.

That said, high defense is the easiest way to keep pets alive.

You must've never used Trick Arrow, it's actually real good.

[TheSpiritFox]

It depends. Do you want to take a mastermind to the point you can solo +4x8 and giant monsters?

If yes, matching is critical, you will not survive without synergy.

If no, do whatever and team alot. 

My mercs/elec and my bots/traps can both solo GMs, and do so pretty safely and easily. Theyre not the only sets that can but they are some of the easiest to do it with, I even took provoke on my mercs/elec to help with keeping shit from running around. 

By comparison a ninja/trick arrow will be nice on a team but somewhat weak solo especially vs hard targets, while anything /rad will be harder in large groups but solid on single hard targets like avs. 

There's tradeoffs to almost all of them with some uber set combinations at the top end.

[Maelwys]

6 hours ago, TheSpiritFox said:

It depends.

 

This.

 

Certain powersets pairings are much safer and/or require much less investment than others; but if my Bot/Kin/Flame can solo AE Farms, regular missions and AVs/GMs at high difficulty settings then almost any combo can. It just takes careful building and planning.

 

Having your henchmen hit as frequently as possible (via +Accuracy and +ToHitbuffs) and to GET hit as INfrequently as possible (via +Defence and/or -ToHit) are the most important IMO. Damage output, Damage Resistance, Healing, Mez protection (including KB protection) etc are all important but a secondary concern.

Robotics and Thugs and Ninjas can softcap henchmen defence regardless of your Secondary. Beasts come pretty close too. Realistically the rest are gonna need specific secondary and/or Incarnate picks.
 

Edited September 1 by Maelwys