Couple random MM questions

[graeberguinn]

For reference I'm looking at my first real go at MM. Was thinking Mercs/FF.

Seeking forum wisdom. Thanks. 

 

1. For any secondary that does not have heals, ex. FF,  what is your preferred solution? Medicine pool? Build up pet def/resists? Use soft controls? Just resummon when pets die? 

 

I've read posts about combos where secondary has no heal and most times the no heal isn't mentioned. Just talked about how good of a combo it is. Or how easy it is to run solo. 

 

2. How good/useful is group fly? Seems for all indoor maps it wouldn't work well besides maybe multi level cave rooms. Is it worth the power pick investment in your opinion? Where would that power be most useful? Seems it would only be used on outside maps and traveling. 

 

Looking over lots of builds I see many don't take fly and they seem to be just fine. So curious about the power. I do use fly on most of my other toons but being just myself to control I have no issues on inside maps. 

 

3. How necessary do you find Leadership powers to be? Again in your opinion are they MUST HAVE picks. I do see most builds taking them. 

 

4. In general what is your focus for MM besides damage? Do you focus more on self survivability, pets or mix? Is it more specific goals to what your combo is or are there general MM build goals? 

 

[Maelwys]

1. It used to be that Medicine pool was essentially required... but between the revamped "Serum" from Mercs (which can resistance cap your pets) and /FF's ability to get everything comfortably past the Incarnate Defence Softcap; you're not going to need that much healing.
Realistically Mercs' medic should suffice - you could choose to grab the Sorcery Pool for "Spirit Ward" to help keep them alive if you find you need it.

2. It's very useful for certain primaries - my Bots MMs in particular feel gimped without it. Mercs have a good lot of Ranged attacks as well and so should also benefit; but it's not outright required. In my experience Robotic pets are equally likely to get caught on indoor geometry with or without Group Fly toggled on... often repeatedly toggling it off and on will "free them up" but occasionally they'll need dismissed and resummoned (or manually teleported back to you).

3. Maneuvers is probably skippable in a /FF build, but it's still a great spot for a LOTG +7.5% Recharge. Assault is very worthwhile, as is Tactics (for the ToHit debuff protection as well as directly counteracting the T1 and T2 pet Purple Patch level scaling issue!)

4. Besides Damage? Typically (assuming that your keybinds are already good!) the main goal is Pet Survivability. Getting the pets to the "regular content" Defence Softcap is important, then get their Resistance as high as possible. Both are easy with Mercs/FF as long as you have Serum on a low enough recharge - you may not even need Power Boost. Then have a source of "spike survivability" available (like Barrier Destiny, Support Hybrid, Arachnos Radial Lore pets, etc.) for whenever you encounter heavy debuffs or particularly troublesome enemies, and always keep your Inspiration tray loaded up with Team Defence + Healing + Break Frees)

Incarnates for MMs is also something worth considering carefully - Barrier Core Epiphany essentially grants another +5% constantly (spiking much higher on first activation) but Radial Clarion is souped-up power boost every 120s. Support Core Embodiment grants another 12% whilst it's up (your pets *can* technically gain the benefits of Assault Hybrid, but it takes a lot of fiddling with the order in which you activate it and summon your pets - I typically don't bother!). You can also pick something like Arachnos Lore for spike survivability (via Mind Link for 90 seconds once per summoning) or Talons Lore for sustained survivability (via Soothing Song) if needed.

- - - - - - - - - -

Last time I rejiggled my Mercs/FF builds (March '24) I came up with these, in case it's any help:

zMastermind - Mercs - FF (Hasten).mbd zMastermind - Mercs - FF (Spirit Ward).mbd

Rough Pet Defense Numbers: 
11.87% from Dispersion Bubble
+10% from the two +5% Pet Aura IOs
+17.61% from Deflection/Insulation Shield
= 39.48% Defence to all
With Power Boost (+24.99% from Deflection/Insulation Shield) = 46.86% Defence to all
With Power Boost and Radial Clarion (+33.99% from Deflection/Insulation Shield) = 55.86% Defence to all
(having Radial Clarion available can be useful for getting non-henchmen teammates to the softcap; since the Pet Aura IOs won't apply to them!) 🙂

Serum is hardcapping most Pet Resistances for its duration (better uptime with the Hasten build, obviously!)
Spirit Ward is granting a ~43 HP buffer to one pet (typically Medic) every 2 seconds which stacks up to ten times.
 

Edited August 27 by Maelwys

[DocMidknight]

  While I have no real experience with mercs or forcefield, I do play MM's primarily......so here we go

 

 

1. Heals.......meh, if my secondary has it great and if it doesn't....still great.  I tend to build up the pets and mix in some good controls and then resummon as needed, usually they survive pretty well unless I running against much stronger mobs due to grouping or settings. Using the pet uniques with a good mix of defense/resists and some controls will work wonders in keeping your pets moving right along with little deaths.

 

2. Group fly, I truly only like this on my bots and that's just because they get those little jets from their feet.....and then again, I think I only really have it on my bots/storm because it's bot/storm and it's raining hell down on everything. As far as travel powers go in general for my MM's, I tend to grab hover and fly, keeping them active and moving around in that state entirely.

 

3. Leadership and maneuvers.........Leadership is really good for the MM, especially with regards of your tier 1 and tier 2 against harder bosses. Assault, yes please....more damage and as far as maneuvers, I take it because I'm usually building for my own survivability and getting as much defense as I can, I kinda embrace scrapperlock on my MM's.

 

4. My focus.......having as much fun as possible. If I'm on my bots or demon storm then it's raining down hell as my pets wreck everything, if I'm on my demon/dark.....well that's a whole different story, think of a scrapper in the middle of a mob shredding things. I build my MM's kinda like I build my scrappers, self sufficient killing machines and while they can't do the same damage alone......their pets can make up for what the MM can't. In general I tend to see what I crazy stuff I can get away with and laughing about it......both the goods and those what was I thinking moments.

 

 

  Yes, I rambled and I may or may not have answered anything......been up for way too long and drank way too many redbulls today but as a friend in the game once told me......if it sounds like fun build it and if it ends up being fun....keep it, if it doesn't just remember that you have a 1000 slots to make stuff with

[Neiska]

On 8/27/2024 at 4:33 AM, graeberguinn said:

For reference I'm looking at my first real go at MM. Was thinking Mercs/FF.

Seeking forum wisdom. Thanks. 

 

1. For any secondary that does not have heals, ex. FF,  what is your preferred solution? Medicine pool? Build up pet def/resists? Use soft controls? Just resummon when pets die? 

 

I've read posts about combos where secondary has no heal and most times the no heal isn't mentioned. Just talked about how good of a combo it is. Or how easy it is to run solo. 

 

2. How good/useful is group fly? Seems for all indoor maps it wouldn't work well besides maybe multi level cave rooms. Is it worth the power pick investment in your opinion? Where would that power be most useful? Seems it would only be used on outside maps and traveling. 

 

Looking over lots of builds I see many don't take fly and they seem to be just fine. So curious about the power. I do use fly on most of my other toons but being just myself to control I have no issues on inside maps. 

 

3. How necessary do you find Leadership powers to be? Again in your opinion are they MUST HAVE picks. I do see most builds taking them. 

 

4. In general what is your focus for MM besides damage? Do you focus more on self survivability, pets or mix? Is it more specific goals to what your combo is or are there general MM build goals? 

 

 

Hellos!

 

1. Well, this is where primary and secondary pairing are considered. You may not feel the pinch not having a heal so badly, if your pets can heal themselves, like Robots, Undead etc. Some pets like mercs are very sturdy by themselves. Not having a heal is not a make or break, but there are other things that come into play to be considered. Medicine pool is "alright." Not great, but not horrible either. Your pet def/resists should be as high as you can make them by default. Soft controls certainly help, but so does other tricks like Spirit Ward, and not everyone knows but you can also use inspirations on your pet. You just drag and drop onto their bar, and if they are close enough they will "use" said inspiration. 

 

2. Group fly can be quite useful, but I consider it a solo tool. Most people do not get the Null ability to make them immune to it, and many random people you may team with can be annoyed by it. There are a few team activities where it is handy, like Hami and so on. But generally speaking many don't like it. Again, personal preference here. Using group fly on random teams is something of a tossup topic. All ranged pets certainly get the most mileage out of it, which means Robos and Mercs. As an example, I have a Merc/FF MM based entirely on flying. So in relation to your question #1, my pets take so little damage that not having a heal is not really an issue, on "most" activities. I wouldn't expect to hover and pewpew an AV down by myself. But most other activities? No problem! 

 

The thing is when it comes to enemies, not all enemies have a full cycle of ranged attacks. A handful dont have any to speak of whatsoever, some have a few, others like Arachnos have a LOT of ranged attacks. But in many fights, just hovering just out of melee range drastically cuts down on the number of incoming attacks, which effectively adds another layer of survivability before attack rolls, damage, and resists are even considered. So group fly "helps" in the right situation. In some it can help a LOT, others, not much at all. Personally, I try to fit it in with any Robot or Merc setup I have.

 

3. Leadership is generally one of those impulse things that nearly every MM takes. Its simply too useful not to have. But if your secondary is a DEF set, then its not as critical. And not using it does save on END cost. But as others mentioned it is a spot to put your global recharge which in some builds is tricky to get. So I would say how needed leadership is depends on your secondary.

 

4. I tend to focus on pets living first and foremost. A dead pet is zero DPS. Even if you can resummon it quickly, it costs END to do so, and you cannot resummon them indefinitely. And they don't come resummoned with upgrades either, so you have that to do as well. And while you are frantically summoning speed bumps, your enemies are still attacking you. So really its a delaying tactic. Sometimes it pays off and you can turn the tide, but if you find yourself resummoning pets often, then you really need to look at your pet stats and see what you are missing.

 

Another special mention is that some pet sets have special "features." One example is necromancy pets - you can slot the heal uniques like regenerate into the pets and they benefit from it, which is something only necromancy can do. Thugs benefits greatly from Burnout, as it lets you double cast gang war, as does Demons with Hell on Earth. Ninjas I am uncertain about, but I hear they are good damage, but a bit fragile. Beasts well... I feel kind of bad for beasts.

 

Some combinations work GREAT together, even though they aren't immediately apparent. One powerhouse is Necromancy and FF, because FF is pretty hands free, so you can focus on your personal attacks, which make even more temporary pets. Another good one I don't see often is Robots/Dark, because the /Dark has loads of -tohit which is fantastic to have with Robots +DEF, you have healing to spare, even some CC thrown in. And since its all ranged, you can still use group fly. Demons/Electric is probably the most durable and toughest MM you can have, I have survived things on my Demons/EA that has killed my tankers before. Built right, they can be "that" tough. 

 

Anyway, hope this and what others have said help! Happy Masterminding!

[biostem]

On 8/27/2024 at 4:33 AM, graeberguinn said:

1. For any secondary that does not have heals, ex. FF,  what is your preferred solution? Medicine pool? Build up pet def/resists? Use soft controls? Just resummon when pets die? 

I'll usually try to stack defense/resistances, but barring that, generally just resummon.

 

On 8/27/2024 at 4:33 AM, graeberguinn said:

2. How good/useful is group fly? Seems for all indoor maps it wouldn't work well besides maybe multi level cave rooms. Is it worth the power pick investment in your opinion? Where would that power be most useful? Seems it would only be used on outside maps and traveling. 

I've never bothered taking it.  I'll just resummon & re-upgrade them if I need them at a very specific location "now"...

 

On 8/27/2024 at 4:33 AM, graeberguinn said:

3. How necessary do you find Leadership powers to be? Again in your opinion are they MUST HAVE picks. I do see most builds taking them. 

So the issue with the leadership powers are they they simultaneously provide a good and kind of multiplicative buff to your henchmen, but at the same time, they are rather costly to run and MMs get a lesser bonus from them.

 

On 8/27/2024 at 4:33 AM, graeberguinn said:

4. In general what is your focus for MM besides damage? Do you focus more on self survivability, pets or mix? Is it more specific goals to what your combo is or are there general MM build goals? 

I kind of look at MMs as having a "free" primary, in that you can direct your pets to attack, without costing you end besides the initial summoning & upgrading of them, so you can focus on your secondary/support whilst throwing in a few of your own attacks as needed or desired...