No Necro / Traps?

[Rerun]

I got this idea the other day, and have been thinking of leveling this toon, I went ahead and made her, and she's up to lvl 17 or so. I'm just wondering... why no builds for this? I been searching for necro/traps stuff, and you never hear about this combo. Now, technically I guess, it seems interesting to me because, some of the pet's attacks will have -ToHit, (dark based attacks), now on TOP of that, you can have your Force Field Generator out (FFG). Now, what it seems like is that this would work together really well, or be "synergy" between the power sets. But... maybe I'm not thinking of some stuff lol. Maybe there are reasons why nobody is seemingly playing this combo? But I mean , people do talk up Necro from time to time, especially talking about taking down high hitpoint stuff like pylons. And also, traps is always being talked up... because it IS freaking awesome. I have an Elec / Traps controller... she's slow, but pretty much can't die unless she just... shows up to a mission high? And forgets some toggles lol? I dunno but, don't forget to debuff their accuracy, that's one of the things I like to TRY to do on this game. I mean, some toons can't, like Tankers... unless he's dark melee I guess.

 

Anyway, I'm just kickin' ideas around, what do you Mastermind Maniacs think?

[kelika2]

no synergy

traps has mild defense meanwhile the pets have none, sure you can get some -tohit from the drones but there will still be a huge gap

 

solo i can see you resummoning a medium amount, not much worries there

but in large groups your pets will get eaten alive constantly to the point where its not even fun.  unless you are grouping with a cold dom or ff character

[Octogoat]

46 minutes ago, kelika2 said:

no synergy

traps has mild defense meanwhile the pets have none, sure you can get some -tohit from the drones but there will still be a huge gap

 

solo i can see you resummoning a medium amount, not much worries there

but in large groups your pets will get eaten alive constantly to the point where its not even fun.  unless you are grouping with a cold dom or ff character

This but that's not to say you can't have fun with it. My namesake is a petless crab and it does just fine.

[Maelwys]

3 hours ago, Rerun said:

some of the pet's attacks will have -ToHit, (dark based attacks), now on TOP of that, you can have your Force Field Generator out (FFG). Now, what it seems like is that this would work together really well, or be "synergy" between the power sets. 

 

There's a bit of synergy there.

 

Slotted FFG will give about 16% def to all; throw in the Aura uniques and Maneuvers and that'll be pushed to ~30%... so you'll only need 15% more from the -ToHit and Barrier Destiny/Support Hybrid to Softcap. No DDR, but that's less of an issue for pet builds as the attacks are more distributed and you'll have some CC (Poison Trap + Caltrops) plus reasonable levels of healing (with a Panacea Proc slotted into Dark Empowerment plus the Siphon Lifes).

 

Getting your own Defence up so you can reliability ToeBomb Trip Mines will also enable you to shore up Necro's somewhat lackluster AoE capability.

And the huge -Regen debuff from Poison Trap and stackable -Res from multiple Acid Mortars will help vs GMs.

 

However at the end of the day... it's just not on the same level as a Necro/Time let alone a Necro/Marine.

 

And getting FFG and Maneuvers to remain active on mostly melee pets is tricky. Expect to be micromanaging henchmen positioning a lot.

 

Edited May 3 by Maelwys

[Rerun]

Thanks for the replies everybody. Yeah, I thought it must be kind of weak if no one is playing it. But... a Necro / Time or Necro / Marine you say? If I'm just messing around PvE, which one of those would be the best choice? Marine has a teleport attack I think.. White Cap isn't it? Does it TP your pets with you, or do they still have to run over to the fight?

[Octogoat]

16 minutes ago, Rerun said:

Thanks for the replies everybody. Yeah, I thought it must be kind of weak if no one is playing it. But... a Necro / Time or Necro / Marine you say? If I'm just messing around PvE, which one of those would be the best choice? Marine has a teleport attack I think.. White Cap isn't it? Does it TP your pets with you, or do they still have to run over to the fight?

Necro/marine with marine colored blood red

[evetsleep]

I have all of these.  Necro/traps is fun and does reasonably well...solo at least.  But time just is a cake walk (power boosted +defense and all the other bells/whistles makes it stupid strong).  Marine is more offensive and is more DPS focused (and busy).  

 

Honestly Necro goes with absolutely everything...even Sonic.  Have a concept that works (because it's king) and have fun and don't worry about the meta performance combinations.

Edited May 3 by evetsleep

[Xandyr]

Whitecap does NOT teleport your pets. You "teleport" and land on an enemy,usually knock them down, and your pets will follow you. Typically they will attack once in range of the enemy you just landed on. 

 Marine is STRONG. Busy, but strong. It was practically made for MMs (at least it feels like it). I have Marine paired with Mercs,Necro,and Ninjas. The Mercs are my favorite of the 3, but they all do well.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

I've had a lot of fun with the build below. It's a toe-bombing build, meant to take names, alphas, and the lives of AVs and GMs. Played aggressively it can keep up with teams and even lead them into battle with each new spawn. This playstyle flips the script on the usual narrative of traps being a slow secondary. Pylon times hover at 60 seconds and below, which speaks to having solid single target DPS (not top tier, but still respectable). 

There's a kind of rhythm you can get into, in which you enter a new spawn with all minions on bodyguard, drop something into the new spawn, extract souls if they're ready for that, convert all but the lich into aggressive mode and give them something to target, use the single target attacks to summon critters and/or heal, and then keep the pressure on the new spawn, mixing in single target attacks and traps when available and appropriate. When the team has that spawn in clean-up mode, put the minions on bodyguard and go drop something in the middle of the next spawn.

Necro provides a self-heal, which with decent defense and resistance totals helps for toe-bombing. Controls from the primary are also reasonably good, as are debuffs, which further helps toe-bombing with trip mine. The sheer number of minions, plus the taunt inherent in those summoned via the single target attacks, also help to keep your character quite safe in most situations. 

As one tip, when using this build stagger when to activate barrier and support core so the average "floor" for minion defense totals is kept as high as possible. If you remember to activate one about every minute, then that's a good pattern to keep. That also helps to keep a higher average "floor" for your necro's defense totals.

Finally, FFG can arrive late at new spawns and sometimes it gets blown up or it expires (and blows up). It's still very helpful to have a source of mez protection for pets and your necro without taking clarion as the destiny incarnate. 
 

Trapped in Twilight - Mastermind (Necromancy - Traps - Soul Mastery),v2.mbd

Edited May 4 by EnjoyTheJourney

[tidge]

I'll add this about /Traps builds: It is possible to slot two of the Pet IOs in Seeker Drones, which can either add them (if the build doesn't have them) or free up a couple of slots from the actual henchmen (if that is where those pieces are slotted)

 

As for the build above, my instincts tell me that Tough isn't slotted that well: the set bonuses from 3x Gladiator's Armor aren't that useful for a MM IMO (my MM doesn't even toggle Tough on), and the +ToHit Kismet piece in Combat Jumping is probably not necessary (because of other slotting in the MM attacks).

[JediDave]

I had a necro/traps I made specifically to team with some friends doing an all MM team. The idea was that I could use the detonator on my lich, then use Soul Extraction to revive a stronger spirit from the dead lich, and capitalize on two unique powers on each set. Then they changed how Soul Extraction worked and the character theme felt off. Then I realized the new SE is just straight up better in every way (outside of my niche wombo combo) and now I like the character. It's not going to be one of the MMs that solos 4/8 easily or anything, but it does just fine. SE and Seeker Drones give you ample room for fitting in all the pet uniques, and getting your own defense up to 45 is pretty easy with FFG.

 

That being said, I just got a demon/marine mm to 50 and I think my next project will be a necro/marine, and I would probably suggest that over traps if you don't have a character concept you're excited to try.

[Rerun]

I ended up making a Bots / Storm and literally steam rolled to 27 in one night lol.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

On 5/5/2025 at 5:29 AM, tidge said:

I'll add this about /Traps builds: It is possible to slot two of the Pet IOs in Seeker Drones, which can either add them (if the build doesn't have them) or free up a couple of slots from the actual henchmen (if that is where those pieces are slotted)

 

As for the build above, my instincts tell me that Tough isn't slotted that well: the set bonuses from 3x Gladiator's Armor aren't that useful for a MM IMO (my MM doesn't even toggle Tough on), and the +ToHit Kismet piece in Combat Jumping is probably not necessary (because of other slotting in the MM attacks).

Thank you for noticing that the +ToHit Kismet piece wasn't needed. I'll replace it with the Winter's set +20% slow resist unique to better resist incoming -recharge and -movement debuffs. 

Three pieces of the gladiator's set were put into tough both to enhance resistances and for 3 points of knockback protection, which when added to the 4 points from the steadfast protection knockback protection IO makes for a total of -7 to knockback. It's not a commonly seen way to enhance tough. But, I'm satisfied with what it does for this particular build. 

[tidge]

4 < KB protection <=7 is a somewhat narrow range... and with two extra slots it is possible to net +5 (2x +4, minus 3) for a total of 12 points. If you add +10 from the SG base buff you surpass the 20 points from FREEM!.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Knockback/Enemies_with_Knockback_Powers

 

(sort by magnitude to see who does what)

Edited May 7 by tidge