Endurance Cost: How would you handle it?

[SeraphimKensai]

Glancing over even the second build, it looks like an improvement over the first but still a bunch more work that can be done.

 

Tactics for instance, I'd recommend three slots total, 2 lvl 53 Cytoskeleton enhancements (kinda spendy) + 1 Gaussian Proc, or 6 Gaussian IOs (if you wanna build for defense), otherwise 5 adjusted targeting and 1 Gaussian Proc (if you want more recharge).

 

Pet wise I like to include the soul bound proc somewhere and then give my pets 4 slot expedient reinforcement for the 6.25% recharge bonuses (you being a rad emission toon, it's practical to get Accelerate Metabolism to be permanent up), and then slot a bunch of the pet res/def procs in there.

 

Maneuvers I would 4 slot as: LoTG 7.5, kismet: accuracy (it actually provides tohitbuff which works better than straight accuracy), and two lvl 50+5 Gladiator Armors Def and Def/End, if you have extra slots a third Gladiator Armor for the +res proc, and a reactive defense +res proc can help you out.

 

 

I saw that you don't like using mids, but it comes in pretty handy for keeping track of set bonuses or building towards specific benchmarks. As an alternative you can use COD and Microsoft Excel to keep track of set bonuses manually, or with enough time in your head. My IO recommendations would change based on whatever build goals you have.

 

Playing the toon at lvl 50, you'll get a decent amount of influence, and doing story arcs, task forces, Hami raids, etc a decent amount of reward merits that you can use to fund your toon, or you can use the market but that takes a little practice to get good at making a profit there. Overall for a Robo/Rad MM I'd expect to invest about 350-400 million influence in a finished build. You don't need to spend that much by any means but it's up to you how you want to play.

 

Additionally for your end issues, slot a musculature radial alpha power. You'll get more damage out of your bots, end mod, and defense debuff to help your rad infection. Don't forget the stat boosting accolades like Atlas, portal jockey, etc.

 

I have 4 different robot MMs at 50, and 3 different rad emission characters currently at 50 on HC, so if you want I'm willing to give you further advice. Overall there's a lot of good points in this thread.

[tidge]

2 hours ago, Black Tangent said:

I have found it to be the most frustrating piece of software.

 

I don't like MIDS myself(*1), for reasons that are not relevant to this discussion. It is important that players get a basic understanding of:

• Enhancement Diversification
• Basic Attributes of Powers (like Accuracy, Endurance Costs, etc.)

Later, it is possible to look into Enhancement Sets and Bonuses.

 

Specifically for Endurance issues, it is probably useful to understand how Recovery works, and for players who spend the green bar: Regeneration.

 

I'm not trying to provide a comprehensive set of links to explain all of the games mechanics (notice no links for how combat/damage works), just the general ones that are applicable to all builds.

 

(*1) I don't use MIDS. From experience, I have a general idea of which sets I want to use (set bonuses are my primary consideration) and how many slots to dedicate to which attributes of a power, depending on the nature of the power. I use an electronic spreadsheet to keep track of slots, and to track the set bonuses I want.

[Maelwys]

14 hours ago, Black Tangent said:

Here's what I was able to come up with:

botmaster-Respeced.txt 4.54 kB · 1 download

To give you some practical ideas... keeping the same power choices (I would grab Hasten and Group Fly in a heartbeat, but that's just me) here's an example rejigged Mids build:

zMastermind - Robots - Rad.mbd



Whilst I've played robotics to death, honestly I'm not a great fan of playing Radiation Emission on any AT (let alone a MM) so others will likely be better placed to perform further tweaks there... however the bones are at least in place.

Accelerate Metabolism has a bit of downtime without Hasten, but Lingering Radiation is still perma without it. There are some spare slots in Radiant Aura (drop one of the Doctored Wounds) and Choking Cloud (drop the NS proc) which could be moved to Stamina (a 50+5 recovery IO) or Health (Numina Proc) if you feel you still need more Recovery.

I've left the Rifle Attacks with the default slot (Accuracy and Endurance Reduction) but everything still has enough accuracy to cap the ToHit rate vs +3s without Radiation Infection running. Night Fall and Soul Tentacles are slotted as usable + useful AoE attacks; and Soul Storm + Choking Cloud should allow you to you keep tougher targets locked down (and can stack if required).

Defensewise - 
+19.01% def to Everyone (15.07% from Protector Bots; 3.94% from Maneuvers) plus +8.5% to you (Set Bonuses from Tactics and the two +3% Def IOs) and +10% to your pets (the two +5% Aura IOs)
-19.795% ToHit debuff minimum on everything short of an AV (-32.15 Rad Infection and -9.09% Night Fall = -41.24% Total. Versus +4s that's 41.24*0.48= -19.795).
Therefore you'll be well over softcap in regular content and most Incarnate stuff.
The Henchmen will also be getting +35% resistance to everything from the Aura IOs; plus extra on demand from Barrier and/or Lore.

A few points of KB Protection is important on any toon, and in this case it's coming from the 3-piece Gladiator's Armor set bonus in Equip Robot (+3). You could gain another +4 if needed by sticking a Blessing of the Zephyr in Teleport Target and moving the Winter's Gift unique to Fly; but the difference in performance between +3 and +7 KB Protection is minimal - it's mainly just AVs and Longbow plus a few Pets/Pseudopets)

Sprint can also take a +Stealth IO (Celerity or Unbounded Leap) in the event you ever fancy trying to ninja your way through a mission or two without your henchies.
 

Edited September 10 by Maelwys

[Black Tangent]

1 hour ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Glancing over even the second build, it looks like an improvement over the first but still a bunch more work that can be done.

 

Tactics for instance, I'd recommend three slots total, 2 lvl 53 Cytoskeleton enhancements (kinda spendy) + 1 Gaussian Proc, or 6 Gaussian IOs (if you wanna build for defense), otherwise 5 adjusted targeting and 1 Gaussian Proc (if you want more recharge).

 

Pet wise I like to include the soul bound proc somewhere and then give my pets 4 slot expedient reinforcement for the 6.25% recharge bonuses (you being a rad emission toon, it's practical to get Accelerate Metabolism to be permanent up), and then slot a bunch of the pet res/def procs in there.

 

Maneuvers I would 4 slot as: LoTG 7.5, kismet: accuracy (it actually provides tohitbuff which works better than straight accuracy), and two lvl 50+5 Gladiator Armors Def and Def/End, if you have extra slots a third Gladiator Armor for the +res proc, and a reactive defense +res proc can help you out.

 

 

I saw that you don't like using mids, but it comes in pretty handy for keeping track of set bonuses or building towards specific benchmarks. As an alternative you can use COD and Microsoft Excel to keep track of set bonuses manually, or with enough time in your head. My IO recommendations would change based on whatever build goals you have.

 

Playing the toon at lvl 50, you'll get a decent amount of influence, and doing story arcs, task forces, Hami raids, etc a decent amount of reward merits that you can use to fund your toon, or you can use the market but that takes a little practice to get good at making a profit there. Overall for a Robo/Rad MM I'd expect to invest about 350-400 million influence in a finished build. You don't need to spend that much by any means but it's up to you how you want to play.

 

Additionally for your end issues, slot a musculature radial alpha power. You'll get more damage out of your bots, end mod, and defense debuff to help your rad infection. Don't forget the stat boosting accolades like Atlas, portal jockey, etc.

 

I have 4 different robot MMs at 50, and 3 different rad emission characters currently at 50 on HC, so if you want I'm willing to give you further advice. Overall there's a lot of good points in this thread.

 

 

Thank you for this.   Let me explain further:

I've been playing for ~20 years now, and as an old dog, new tricks sometimes come hard.  I really find the whole Enhancement system beyond TOs, DO/SOs, and IOs to be overwhelmingly complex; frustratingly so.   I really, really, really don't have the patience to go through all of the minutiae of each power, eat enhancement, each set.  Give me a goal and I will grind away for the inf or salvage to get it; fine - but beyond slotting IOs or the AT sets that are spelled out (Command of the Mastermind, for example), it's all way too much for my taste. 

 

For this build, I am looking for:

 

1. Survivability.  I want to be able to engage a large mob at +3/+4 and have faceplanting be the exception rather than a probability.   This build has gotten me close - the combination of Oppressive Gloom and Choking Cloud makes a melee surprisingly survivable, especially if the bots are well controlled.   Having all of the debuffs helps as well, of course.  

2. Damage.  Can't have one without the other!   Obviously the MM is a little low on the offense, so the bots need to be picking up the slack.  I debuff, they shoot is the thought process, though obviously each spills over into the other's AOR at times. 

 

3. Support.  Both for myself/bots and my team.   

Regarding Mids:  Yeah, I probably haven't played with it enough, but I find the user interface non-intuitive.   Is there a user guide somewhere?  I did not see one in a casual look through the Github or in the app's menu system. 

 

Incarnate: Yeah, it's annoying that the build save file does not include this.   For the record, as of this moment:

Alpha: Musculature Radial Paragon

Judgement: Pyronic Core Final Judgement (love this one!)

Interface: Diamagnetic Core Flawless Interface (last one to max out)

Lore: Robotic Drones Core Superior Ally (one-shots a lot of minions)

Destiny: Barrier Radial Epiphany

Hybrid: Support Core Embodiment

 

I'll try to make the suggested changes without doing yet another respec.   

[Without_Pause]

2 hours ago, Black Tangent said:

 

I have found it to be the most frustrating piece of software. 

 

I will readily admit that I am not really into studying percentages and values and squeezing every last drop out of enhancements; it's just not my thing.  Do I want the build to be awesome?  Sure!  Am I willing to spend hours to get in there? Not so much.    And yes, I was trying to make a build based on the advice given in toto above; do Frankenslotting for pets, 2 IOs maxed out is fine, etc.   If these are specific sets I *must* have then I will be glad to slot them, but that's contrary to what I was gleaning from the above.   

I skip so much of what it does. I pop in powers, slots, and look at totals. Depending on the build, I might take 30 minutes to get one done. I can't recall how fast I did my last one, but I knew enough going in it was rather straight forward. It honestly might have taken me 15 minutes. MMs can be trickier in their slotting, and Bots are very Frankenslotting, but their slotting is well covered in the MM forum. Rad has four different AT forums to find slotting from. It shouldn't take much effort to put together both sets and then post it in the MM forum to get feedback. Also, there is the search feature. The game is old. The info you seek is likely out there. 
 

 

[Maelwys]

13 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

 It shouldn't take much effort to put together both sets and then post it in the MM forum to get feedback. Also, there is the search feature. The game is old. The info you seek is likely out there. 
 

 

To be fair; Robotics got a lot of changes in i27p5 (Oct 2022) so any older builds will no longer apply.

The most recent Robots/Rad build I found with a quick hunt yesterday was posted on Discord in May of last year and even that one wasn't updated for the Equip Robot changes (and the slotting of the rest of it was... well, let's be charitable and call it "suboptimal").

/Rad is a powerset that tends to be avoided on MMs for some reason. I suppose +Recharge doesn't apply to pets and busy debuffs generally aren't as loved as fire-and-forget buffs whenever you have a gaggle of henchmen to micromanage; but my Bot/Kin is much busier than a Bot/Rad and handles themselves just fine...

[Zhym]

1 hour ago, Black Tangent said:

I've been playing for ~20 years now, and as an old dog, new tricks sometimes come hard.  I really find the whole Enhancement system beyond TOs, DO/SOs, and IOs to be overwhelmingly complex; frustratingly so.   I really, really, really don't have the patience to go through all of the minutiae of each power, eat enhancement, each set.  Give me a goal and I will grind away for the inf or salvage to get it; fine - but beyond slotting IOs or the AT sets that are spelled out (Command of the Mastermind, for example), it's all way too much for my taste. 

 

I have good news: you really don't need to go into that level of minutia to have a fun character that feels powerful.  Here are some general guidelines I'd suggest:

 

1. Use enhancement sets—(almost) any enhancement sets.

 

The great thing about enhancement sets is that you don't actually need to do all that analysis of complex interactions.  Because of the way enhancement sets work, just picking one (say, a cheap Uncommon set) and slotting it is going to be better than slotting with IOs.  Enhancement sets have two big benefits: (1) they give bonuses to multiple aspects of a power in a way that avoids diminishing returns (see below), and (2) slotting sets gives further global bonuses.   Which benefits you get under (2) is what all the optimizing is about, but any enhancement set will give you bonuses that are useful.

 

I say "(almost)" above because there's one thing you'll want to watch out for: attuned enhancement sets (which are the ones you should buy) have a certain effective level range.  Some cap out at levels 20 or 30.  For the most part, you'll usually want the ones that keep scaling up until level 50.  There are exceptions if you're looking for specific bonuses or procs, but as a general rule, choose the higher-level sets.

 

BTW, if you're on a budget, I'd skip the AT sets and buy a bunch of uncommons instead.  The AT sets are expensive—you can buy an entire six-piece Thunderstrike or Artillery set for the cost of one Blaster's Wrath enhancement.  So save the AT sets for when you can afford them on top of the other sets.

 

2. If you need to use IOs, keep Enhancement Diversification in mind.

 

Enhancement Diversification (aka Diminishing Returns) has been mentioned in the thread, but I don't know if anyone has explained what it is.  Basically, after you've slotted three of any SO or IO into a power, any further slotting of that same SO/IO will give you only an extremely small benefit.  So as a rule of thumb, never slot more than three of any SO/IO into a power.  Use those extra slots for other powers that also have benefits, like Accuracy, Recharge, and Endurance.

 

3. If you're having endurance issues, use procs in Stamina and Health and slot endurance everywhere (that uses endurance).

 

Others have already talked about slotting procs in Health and Stamina; these will help a lot.  But it's also important to add endurance reduction enhancements to individual powers, especially those that burn a lot of endurance.  You'll get that for "free" if you slot with enhancement sets, since endurance reduction is part of most sets.  But if you aren't using enhancement sets, make sure to set aside at least one slot in each power (that uses endurance) for an EndRed enhancement—maybe two for very expensive powers.

 

4. If you want to further tune a character, search the forums for a build.

 

For most ATs, someone has probably already made one and tuned the heck out of it with Mids.  So shamelessly copy their work leverage their experience, and use that as a starting point for your build.  Or post your build in the AT forum and ask for advice.

Edited September 10 by Zhym

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, Maelwys said:

To be fair; Robotics got a lot of changes in i27p5 (Oct 2022) so any older builds will no longer apply.

The most recent Robots/Rad build I found with a quick hunt yesterday was posted on Discord in May of last year and even that one wasn't updated for the Equip Robot changes (and the slotting of the rest of it was... well, let's be charitable and call it "suboptimal").

/Rad is a powerset that tends to be avoided on MMs for some reason. I suppose +Recharge doesn't apply to pets and busy debuffs generally aren't as loved as fire-and-forget buffs whenever you have a gaggle of henchmen to micromanage; but my Bot/Kin is much busier than a Bot/Rad and handles themselves just fine...

Bots are still rather popular, so finding a build to work with post updates is rather easy. Even if Rad isn't popular for MMs, there's still four different AT forums to look at. It took me under 10 minutes, more like 5, to find a build for Bots/rad without going to Discord. Even if outdated, it is miles better than what the OP originally posted. The OP should take a look at the build, start a new thread in the MM forum, post the old build, ask what changes need to be made to the old build, and how to incorporate the powers they picked. 

[Maelwys]

13 minutes ago, Zhym said:

Enhancement sets have two big benefits: (1) they give bonuses to multiple aspects of a power in a way that avoids diminishing returns (see below), and (2) slotting sets gives further bonuses.   Which benefits you get under (2) is what all the optimizing is about, but any enhancement set will give you bonuses that are useful.

Caveat here - Procs.

Currently the chance for activating a proc decreases with the amount of recharge enhancement in the power that the proc is slotted in; which means for maximum damage output often you will want to slot your attacks with lots of damage procs but NOT with any recharge enhancement (the power's Radius and Base Recharge time and Animation Time etc. all factor in and there are maximum-minimum limits that always apply; but in general "the less recharge slotting the better"). This is why most high-end builds rely on GLOBAL recharge (from Hasten and Set Bonuses etc) to get their attack chain lined up properly.

This "no recharge enhancement" consideration is thankfully not relevant for the OP slotting their Mastermind Henchmen; but it is for their Rifle and Epic Power Pool attacks.

- - - - - - - -

[Warning - Ramble follows, ignore unless you're overly interested in Proc mechanics...]

Nearly all builds benefit from Procs. Masterminds are no exception - in the example build I posted further up, the Drones and Assault Bot each have a Damage Proc (from the Explosive Strike Knockback set) and the Drones also have a "Chance for Build Up" proc (from the SoulBound Allegiance Pet Damage set) and there are more damage procs in Choking Cloud, Night Fall, Soul Tentacles and Soul Storm; plus another "Chance for Build Up" proc (from the Gaussian's  +ToHit Buff set) in Tactics.

The way Procs work is possibly best described as "an additional benefit which completely ignores ED and often even the regular mechanics of the power".

Damage Procs are straightforward (ish) in that they have a chance to inflict additional damage over and above whatever the power normally does. A power that deals low raw damage but can slot a lot of damage procs (such as "Night Fall" in the OP's build) will often benefit from fully slotting that power with damage procs instead of enhancing its raw damage at all. 
However damage procs only get an opportunity to kick in whenever the power they are slotted in triggers an effect which matches the "set" that the proc belongs to. This means that in a power that only has a chance to apply a hold (for example) a damage proc belonging to a "hold" set will not get an opportunity to kick in all of the time.
This is especially true for pets like Mastermind Henchmen - if you slot a damage proc from a Knockback set in a pet then that proc will only get a chance to kick in whenever that pet activates a power that inflicts Knockback; and if you slot a damage proc from a -ToHit Debuff set in a pet then that proc will only get a chance to kick in whenever that pet activates a power that inflicts ToHit Debuffs; etc. The upshot of this is that you need to carefully investigate what powers each pet (including pseudopets) actually possesses in order to see how well each type of damage proc will perform.
For Robotics, fully-upgraded Battle Drones get a lot of powers that inflict Knockback. The Assault Bot gets a decent number too (particularly the Swarm Missiles). But the Protector Drones do NOT.

Lots of other sorts of procs exist and some of them have very interesting interactions with specific powers. For example: Procs slotted into toggles only get an opportunity to activate once every ten seconds, however slotting a Gaussian "Chance for Build Up" Proc in Tactics means that each creature affected by Tactics (including all your teammates and pets) triggers a separate chance for the proc to activate. This makes it especially good for Masterminds since they will nearly always have six henchmen within range of Tactics; and on a full team the buff from this proc can often approach maximum uptime.

There are so many ins and outs and caveats that it's not feasible to list them all here; and different people will have different preferences and biases (see "Night Fall" above where I opted for a mixture of -ToHit and Damage output rather than simply raw damage output!) so if you want a properly twinked build, you really need to know what your aim for the toon is before you go looking for targeted advice within the relevant AT subforum and/or discord.
 

[Zhym]

1 minute ago, Maelwys said:

Currently the chance for activating a proc decreases with the amount of recharge enhancement in the power that the proc is slotted in; which means for maximum damage output often you will want to slot your attacks with lots of damage procs but NOT with any recharge enhancement (the power's Radius and Base Recharge time and Animation Time etc. all factor in and there are maximum-minimum limits that always apply; but in general "the less recharge slotting the better"). This is why most high-end builds rely on GLOBAL recharge (from Hasten and Set Bonuses etc) to get their attack chain lined up properly.

This "no recharge enhancement" consideration is thankfully not relevant for the OP slotting their Mastermind Henchmen; but it is for their Rifle and Epic Power Pool attacks.

 

Fair points.  But for OP, who finds the whole enhancement system overly complex, this is definitely way beyond what they're wanting to do.  Thus my general advice of slotting enhancement sets and not worrying about the nuances needed to get maximum damage.

[Jacke]

4 hours ago, tidge said:

(*1) I don't use MIDS. From experience, I have a general idea of which sets I want to use (set bonuses are my primary consideration) and how many slots to dedicate to which attributes of a power, depending on the nature of the power. I use an electronic spreadsheet to keep track of slots, and to track the set bonuses I want.

 

I really depend on using MRB to make a good build.  I've used various Hero Builders over the years and the complexity of even an SO-only build had me make good of them early.  I find it easier to remember the few serious unfixable bugs (e.g. most Pets/Pseudopets do not get benefit from the Caster's Global Buffs) and what is right helps me a lot.

 

I've known others who don't use a Hero Builder.  I could do that meself if I had to.  But I prefer not to go without.

[Ukase]

5 hours ago, Zhym said:

If you want to further tune a character, search the forums for a build.

I'm sorry, I know this was well-intentioned. But the builds I see on the forums are more often than not are just not worth looking at. Travel powers are often over-looked until level 49, if chosen at all. I load these up in mids, and see they use 2x as much endurance as they generate, some of them. 

Not all builds are created equal, that's for sure. 

There are a handful of names I would trust with a solid build, like Nemu. 
I very often make my own builds. They're never perfect. And I'm not saying any of us need the perfect build, but many of the builds I see just lack end recovery and suggest things like the recovery serum until you get to 50 for Cardiac and Ageless incarnate powers. To me - that is the talk of madness without method. Granted - that's just my opinion, worthless as it is. 

By all means LOOK at any build with powersets and AT that have your interest. Sometimes, they're fantastic! They're not always hot garbage. Every so often, someone has made music with their build. And often times (for me, at least), a build might look great from the numbers but be kind of clumsy to play. Thankfully, we have 1000 slots. 

[Maelwys]

 

I'll generally at least LOOK at forum builds; just in case there's anything in them that I've not considered before which is potentially useful and worth remembering.

Occasionally you'll come across someone who really knows their stuff; or someone who has done a lot of VERY SPECIFIC testing on lesser-used powers. And IMO any unusual interactions between certain powers (like the infamous Oil Slick + Howling Twilight trick which when used during a Hamidon raid back in the day caused Back Alley Brawler to mutter expletives) or unexpected enhancement behavior (such as slotting a Panacea Proc into Spirit Tree, Triage Beacon or Spirit Ward) is always worth keeping in the back of my mind.

The thing I most appreciate is whenever someone takes the time to actually explain their build choices properly and backs it up with in-game proofs/testing; even if it's not a choice I would choose to make in their place. 


Whilst lots of "bad" builds definitely exist on the forums (seeing every power six-slotted with one full enhancement set is my personal bugbear and always provokes an immediate mental facepalm!) I'd be unlikely to ever simply recommend any specific pre-existing build to someone without stating caveats... because almost everyone is looking for slightly different things.
The same powerset combination can have multiple GOOD but VERY DIFFERENT builds depending on your preferred playstyle (a classic example here is a Blaster player who prefers to stay at range versus another who prefers to stay in melee) or your desired goal or performance level (e.g. players who spend most of their time teaming in +4 Hard Mode content tend to pursue maximum damage output at the expense of everything else). Even what might seem to be a minor admission such as "I spend a lot of time exemplaring to join low-level TFs" can drastically change both power selection order and slotting.
So ultimately providing an example build with "I want to do X. How can I make this better?" is probably not a bad way to approach things; even on the forums.
 

And I'm definitely not a fan of the whole "builds from the Discord are better" idea.  Most builds have a lot of room for improvement regardless of where you find them; however a lot of  Discordians in my experience tend to be very vocal about hyping their builds as "awesome" or at least "better than that cack on the forums" regardless of whatever its actual level of performance is. And woe betide you if you dare to point its failings out to them... 🙉

[Maelwys]

On 9/10/2024 at 2:00 PM, Black Tangent said:

Regarding Mids:  Yeah, I probably haven't played with it enough, but I find the user interface non-intuitive.   Is there a user guide somewhere? 

Apologies, I missed this bit for some reason... 😕

I'm not aware of any exhaustive official HowTos; but a few helpful user-created guides exist like this one.
There are also a smattering of youtube videos.
 

Quote

Incarnate: Yeah, it's annoying that the build save file does not include this.   For the record, as of this moment:

Alpha: Musculature Radial Paragon

Judgement: Pyronic Core Final Judgement (love this one!)

Interface: Diamagnetic Core Flawless Interface (last one to max out)

Lore: Robotic Drones Core Superior Ally (one-shots a lot of minions)

Destiny: Barrier Radial Epiphany

Hybrid: Support Core Embodiment

Most of those look great; although the Interface slot may be better swapped to Reactive (-Res) or Degenerative (-MaxHP) rather than Diamagnetic unless you're purposely fighting a single very tough target upon which you really need the additional -Regen. And I'd always lean Radial over Core on a MM because all of the stackable debuffs cap out quickly enough (with six Henchmen constantly shooting!) that you generally want them at 25% and the Damage DoT at 75% rather than the other way around.

The Robotic Drones Lore pets aren't wonderful performancewise, but they're certainly thematic. Technically the best performing Lores tend to be the Intangible Support ones (the rest tend to die too quickly to be useful) and in order to affect MM Henchmen they'd need to have decent AoE buffs. So that's Arachnos Radial (which you can treat as an on-demand 90s +Defence buff plus a little additional healing) or Talons Radial (their buffs are much better over time than Arachnos) or Banished Pantheon Radial (the only Lore with an immortal support pet that DEALS DAMAGE and can pull aggro!).
And if Heavy Mechs with -Regen is what you're after, take a good look at Longbow.
There's a Developer-built guide to all Lore pets available here (it's a Google Sheet with pictures) and exact power stats here.

The differences between the different Judgement abilities essentially come down to personal preference; however there is a major -damage debuff that comes with Void Radial Judgement (-50% damage for 30 seconds to 32 targets is a LOT for a power that deals substantial AoE damage and is up every 90s) that is worth picking up on almost every character as an additional utility option.

Alpha and Hybrid are both 100%. Technically you can leverage Assault Hybrid on a MM, but getting the buff to reliably affect your Henchmen requires a lot of juggling of power activations and resummoning of pets and IMO is generally not worth the hassle.

For Destiny; Barrier Core (not Radial) is the usual goto; but having Clarion Core available for permanent Mez Protection for both you and your pets can be very useful.
Note that Core lasts for 120s and Radial only 90s; and the power recharges in 120s so with Core your downtime is next to nothing.

FWIW, I always find the quickest way of capping out my T4s solo is to repeatedly run Burdens of the Past (Dark Astoria Incarnate Arc Part 1) via Ouroboros and choose the Incarnate Salvage option at the end.
 

Edited September 11 by Maelwys

[Ironblade]

On 9/9/2024 at 1:32 AM, Black Tangent said:

I have a character whose toggles - mostly defense - are taking up too much endurance,   Assume that all reasonable slots on selected powers have as many Level 50 End Reduction IOs as reasonable, and Stamina is slotted with 6 level 50 End Mod IOs as well.    What would you do differently or in conjunction with this to use less End or recover it faster?

 

It's probably not your toggles.  Make sure your attacks have END reduction also.  In my experience, getting around 40% end reduction on everything is enough.

 

You're wasting slots in Stamina due to 'enhancement diversification' (i.e. diminishing returns).  Stamina needs 3 slots: two level 50 endmod and the Performance Shifter +END proc.  For a bit extra, you can boost the endmods up to level 53 or so.  Beyond that is a waste and adding another slot is a huge waste.  Take some slots over to Health.  It needs 3 slots for the Numina, Miracle and Panacea uniques.

 

If you have resistance powers, consider the Unbreakable Guard set as two pieces of it give a 2.5% END discount on all powers.  After that, go for IO sets that give extra recovery.

 

My character Toggle Man (see link to his story in my signature) runs 17 toggles in combat.  He has all of the things I described above with 52% recovery from IO's and his endurance is not a problem *AT ALL*.  FYI, he's a spines/dark armor scrapper.

 

P.S.  Oh, and as a scrapper, he's able to take Physical Perfection from an ancillary pool at put one endmod and a Performance Shifter +END proc in it.

Edited September 11 by Ironblade

[Black Tangent]

21 hours ago, Maelwys said:

[Warning - Ramble follows, ignore unless you're overly interested in Proc mechanics...]
 

 

This was an excellent explanation; thank you!   COH is the only game of its kind that I have ever played, so "proc" is a term that I was heretofore unfamiliar with.   I am starting to investigate the different enhancements now and am looking for the appropriate procs.   Question: What does "Chance for build up" actually MEAN?

[Maelwys]

32 minutes ago, Black Tangent said:

 

This was an excellent explanation; thank you!   COH is the only game of its kind that I have ever played, so "proc" is a term that I was heretofore unfamiliar with.   I am starting to investigate the different enhancements now and am looking for the appropriate procs.   Question: What does "Chance for build up" actually MEAN?

The Gaussian and Soulbound "Chance for Build Up" procs both have a chance to grant a short-lived buff to Damage and ToHit chance on their target (e.g. you or your pets).
It's essentially a bit like if they'd just activated the "Build Up" power from one of the game's melee damage powersets, which is where it gets its name.

The exact values granted by the buff differ a bit depending on the target's modifiers; so your T1 henchmen get +60% Damage and +30% ToHit and your T2 Henchmen get +80% Damage and +40% ToHit and your T3 gets +100% Damage and +50% ToHit. The buff itself is also very short lived - only 5.25 seconds long (which is delayed after triggering by an extra 0.5 seconds due to another value named "Animation Time Before Effect") so it'll typically only affect your next 1-2 attacks at most. But whenever it kicks in you'll hit noticeably harder; and placing the Soulbound Proc IO into a power which spawns multiple pets (like Battle Drones) makes all of them get affected by it.


[EDIT] - Here's an example screenshot showing the Soulbound Proc's buff in action on a set of three Battle Drones.
In the icon list next to the pet names it's shown as a little purple circle with a clenched fist in the middle.
Note also that the buff can stack with itself + in the listed attributes of my targeted Battle Drone you can see that the buff values are getting doubled (shown as separate +30% lines in the To Hit Bonus section and a single combined +120% line in the Damage Bonus Section).

 

Edited September 11 by Maelwys