Active Mastermind

[ajm603]

Hello,

 

I'm looking for recommendations for active Mastermind build combinations. I've been playing mostly controllers and want a similar experience if possible. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[JediDave]

I would suggest necro/marine for "active" play, as the blasts are good to spam at low levels for the extra pets, and marine has whitecap and shoal rush that can be pretty good proc bombs for aoe damage. The bubble can help your endurance early game to handle the constant blasts too. Definitely the strongest all around combo for what I think you're looking for. While YOU aren't doing as much controlling here, the lich is like a mini controller, and needs a %dam proc for -to hit to do noticeable damage. Whitecap is an aoe knockdown though, so some soft control there. 

 

/poison is also pretty active since you will want to recast your two main debuffs pretty regularly, and the poison trap and st hold can give a bit of a controllery feel, both of which aslo proc very well. I think /storm is likely going to give the most controller feel with all the layered soft control, mostly via knockdown, and a sprinkling of slow. /storm also lets you put pet sets into tornado if you're tight on unique pet slots for +def and +resist, though necro already gets an extra pet power for that if you go with them. On that note, while I think necro gives you more reason to take blasts/play more actively, thugs and demons also get a fourth power that allows for pet sets to get those uniques slotted. 

 

Some outliers would be /rad and /nature with the hold auras, but I don't know if that will really give you a controller feel. /traps could work too with their poison trap, web grenade, and caltrops, and toe bombing can be pretty active, but I feel like it's also lacking just a bit in both categories for what you seem to want, similar to the /rad and /nature sets. 

 

So most active, necro/marine, most controller feeling, necro/storm. I think storm would give a bit more damage and marine a LOT more survivability as well. At work so no mids to prop up a build. If you aren't a fan of zombies, mercs and bots both have aoe grenade powers that can proc out pretty well and have a little stun/kb built in as well for some soft control. 

 

 

[TygerDarkstorm]

I play pretty much all of my masterminds actively--I'm not a fan of the stand back and basically do nothing playstyle that some MM players like to do. With the MM updates the Homecoming team made a while back, most primaries should have you being fairly active on their end--you often want at least one, if not all, of your personal attacks.

 

For secondaries, I disagree about taking poison--MM debuff modifiers are terrible and poison is really not a great set to take for MMs.

 

For active secondaries, you're going to want to look at Nature, Marine, Storm, and Electrical Affinity. All of these provide an active MM playstyle as well as being strong secondaries for MMs.

[BZRKR]

/Time is good too, and Time Stop is a hold, so there's a little control there.

[tidge]

/Traps will keep you crazy busy.

 

Robotics/ is a dark horse candidate for active... the bots are 99% ranged, so repositioning them (when you feel like it) can take up some mental bandwidth.

 

My hot take... /Marine can be somewhat "active" (it is probably the strongest of the MM secondaries, with plenty of good powers) but for melee-based henchmen all you have to do is keep the henches where the marine action is.

[Hedgefund]

All of mine are active but I do think that TA gives a MM the most to do.  Something is ALWAYS available.  Most powers have effects that replace the prior version so spamming isn't needed but things recharge quickly enough you can deal with ambushes or whatever surprise.  Storm is also hella active and if you're into controllers you may well dig it.  Dark is also troller-y.

[JediDave]

34 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

Robotics/ is a dark horse candidate for active... the bots are 99% ranged, so repositioning them (when you feel like it) can take up some mental bandwidth.

 

 

I guess that's something for the OP to clarify. On "active" do you mean tossing out powers as often as possible like a standard attack chain, or do you mean active as in always needing/benefitting from micromanaging henchmen? Because most primaries will benefit to some degree from you repositioning or focus firing or splitting focus fire and bodyguard mode between henchmen. Just because your character is standing still, doesn't mean YOU aren't doing things. 

[tidge]

That was something of the point I was trying to make. All Masterminds used to be "active" (because... "keep henchmen alive"), some (in the era of easy defenses) can get away with being relatively "passive"... that is, stay in bodyguard mode and go stand toe-to-toe with an enemy. I think Marine excels at this, because it's debuffing/buffing/healing along with Shifting Tides... but the MM has to pick targets. It's not like Dark where (in the old days) simply standing near henchmen and spamming heals was a top-ish tier strategy.

 

For a real eye-opening perspective on how MMs and Controllers are different, I suggest a Crabbermind. You don't get pets until late, but it really exposes the different mechanics in play that IMO gives players a good feel for the balance decisions between pets and henchmen... and how those different things feed into how the ATs play.

[Maelwys]

My most active MM is definitely my Bots/Kin/Flame.

Kinetics is active by default; doubly so if you're trying to use it to keep 6 metal maniacs fully buffed with SB+ID+Fulcrum+Siphons and prevent them from dying. Then there's the personal attacks to inflict -Regen, the Bonfire patches and Fireball; and trying to juggle the Protector Bot's Bubble recasts with Radial Clarion every few minutes.

And yes, constant henchmen repositioning too; even if I'm using Group Fly.

Hellava fun when it all comes together though.

/Marine is fairly active and definitely the top-performing set these days; but almost any MM secondary (other than possibly /FF and /Sonic) is probably quite "active" if you're using all of its tools. I know I play my /Dark and /Traps and /Time etc. etc. etc. MMs that way...
 

Edited Friday at 08:55 PM by Maelwys

[Psyonico]

TA is a very active set.  I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best combo, but I really enjoy my Mercs/TA.  I’m *always* firing off a power.

 

TA is also an excellent “control” set as you get an ST immobilize, AoE slow, ST hold, AoE chance to sleep, AoE knockdown patch, and AoE hold

[ajm603]

I've decided to try necro/marine.  I have no experience with the marine secondary and the combo sounds interesting. Thanks for all the suggestions.