I'm looking for a Budget Ninja/ Empathy build ??

[smnolimits43]

I think i've asked for this before, and didn't get a response ??  

[Maelwys]

Define "Budget".

Ninjas can be made to work without much in the way of Set IOs, other than the pet +Res and +Def Auras and ideally some -Def damage procs in the Jounin.

However Empathy wants +Recharge; mainly to get as many simultaneous Fortitudes up as possible and decent uptime on Healing Aura.
If you get Fortitude's cycle time down to <20s then you can keep it up on all your Henchmen simultaneously.

Aside from lots of Global Recharge, the most important thing will be to decide if you want to simply softcap your henchmen; or go all-in on +Defence buffs. The Henchmen can hit the regular softcap without much effort (~21.09% from Train Ninjas + ~17.72% from Fortitude + 10.00% from 2x Aura IOs = ~48.81% Def) but you'll need to push higher on teams and Incarnate/4star content. Taking Manuevers plus Power Boost and/or Clarion Radial (to magnify Fortitude's +Def) can hit some decent buff values; but locks you out of +Resistance Epic Armors and Bonfire etc.

Here is a very tossed-together example build that focuses on +Def and +Recharge without taking any HOs or Winters or Purples (and only two ATOs; including the important SMoS proc). The pet damage output should be pretty decent; but but be warned that the MM's personal Defences are pathetic so it'll be relying on Healing spam and Bodyguard mode Mastermind (Ninjas - Empathy).mbd
 

Edited 14 hours ago by Maelwys