I need suggestions for a Mercs/Marine MM.

[crimson72]

Build slot 1 is totally scuffed, but I got 2 & 3 open. 

 

I'd prefer a yellow/orange (budget) build for #2, and I'll do best in slot for build #3.  So I need recommendations for budget & meta.  

 

Also, if any of you have suggestions for a MM build that can multi-box follow in fire farms without ripping every other pull, I'd be interested in making another MM build separately for that purpose.  The other way around might work as well, control the MM, and have the brute/tank follow me.  

Edited June 12 by crimson72

[Maelwys]

17 hours ago, crimson72 said:

I'll do best in slot for build #3

"Best in slot" is a bit of a misleading idea in CoH - in most other MMORPGs there are a small number of fixed equipment slots that are always in the same spot and so folk can work out what the best thing is to put there (at least for each given goal/activity). In CoH you can choose your Power selection and Enhancement slots layout; and when you throw in the effect of various (also customisable) global buffs and set bonuses there's several orders of magnitude more complexity involved. So IMO building a min/maxed character in those other MMOs is like figuring out how to boil a pot of water as quickly as possible... whereas doing so in CoH is more like perfecting a favourite recipe - you first need to have an idea of exactly what sort of taste you're going for; then try to bring out as much of that particular flavour as possible.

All that said; here's what I'm using. It's a good balance of survivability plus obscenely high damage output:
Mastermind - Mercs - Marine.mbd


Would I recommend Mercs/Marine for AE Fire farming? Hell no.

AE Farming requires Softcapped Defenses and decent Healing and Resists (Mercs has the latter, but not the former) plus good AoE damage vs level 54 foes (Mercs has a fair amount of AoE damage... but it's spread over all of the summons. The T1 and T2 summons spawn at -2 and -1 to your level; which means that even with a T4 Alpha Slot level 54 foes will be +5 and +4 to them - taking much less damage from those AoE abilities). PLus, you can't chug insps to cap your damage - because that damage is being spread over your henchmen so they'd all need separate red insps running unless you're a /Kin.

If you want to AE Farm with a MM; then my advice is (i) "Don't." and (ii) "If you really really have to; then use Bots/ and fight foes that deal Cold or Psychic damage."
Robotics is the only MM primary that's ever been worth a damn for AoE damage vs +4s because so much of its AoE capability comes from the T3 pet and its Incendiary Missile Burn Patch Psuedopets; and this is still the case even after the stacking of those patches was nerfed to high heaven a few pages ago. It's also the only MM Primary that can softcap its own Defenses regardless of your Secondary powerset (via Protector Bot Bubbles + Barrier or Radial Clarion + the Aura IOs + Maneuvers).

If all you're looking for is a buffbot to follow your Tanker or Brute whilst that Tanker or Brute farms... then my advice is  (i) "Don't." and (ii) "If you really really have to; then get an Illusion/Cold Domination Controller."

It's a lot more efficient to Active Farm on one account whilst you use your second (and third) account to AFK farm on another separate map. Bringing another toon along on an Active Farm as a buffbot is largely pointless; because you should be capping your own damage anyway (by using a macro to combine inspirations into Reds and chug them as you go) and you shouldn't have any need for additional healing or survivability on a well-built Tanker, Brute or Scrapper (or even some Dominators/Blasters!). Illusion Controllers can leverage Phantom Army to group up more foes (bypassing the regular aggro cap) which makes them a little bit less useless than most... and Cold Dom can increase the Defenses, Fire Resistances and Maximum HP of your main toon if their survivability is lacking (e.g. the build isn't quite fleshed out yet).

Disclaimer: I have AE farmed on MMs, very extensively, as a Robotics/Kinetics/Flame vs custom Cold-damage foes on the Asteroid maps. It's possible to drag a melee toon around to assist with the herding; but it doesn't work well in practice (taunt auras work great... if you're only fighting 17 foes at a time). The only other second-account toon that I still occasionally bring on these farms "for fun" is a Crabbermind VEAT; because its AoE attacks with -Res buffs and its Defense Buffs are useful and its disposable summons each have their own aggro cap and can't take orders; so it loses less from me not being "behind the wheel". It's utterly hilarious but not exactly the most efficient.

 

Edited June 13 by Maelwys

[crimson72]

Mercs/Marine works, if you drag along 2 afk rad/fire brutes with you on follow.  Technically anything works in that scenario, but it's pretty fun to do with MM.  Marine debuffs hugely enhance the carnage as well.  The defense debuffs from the rad/fire brutes, as well as the extra tactics buffs help land hits against +4 enemies.  The newer aggro rules make it hugely more likely that the bosses are pulled by the brutes, and if the pets get aggro it's by weaker mobs, this helps them survive even in a huge & chaotic pull. 

Edited June 15 by crimson72

[crimson72]

On 6/13/2025 at 8:35 AM, Maelwys said:

It's a lot more efficient to Active Farm on one account whilst you use your second (and third) account to AFK farm on another separate map. Bringing another toon along on an Active Farm as a buffbot is largely pointless; because you should be capping your own damage anyway (by using a macro to combine inspirations into Reds and chug them as you go) 

 

I got the combine script.  I got several problems with it.  I don't know which inspiration types to disable, if you do this do you just enable large, medium or small?  Because you can't combine 3 blues into a red if they're different sizes.  So if all sizes are enabled, you end up with a full inventory of "not reds" that won't combine into reds.  Also the script doesn't seem to combine 3 break frees into a red, so I guess you disable break frees?  I tried the combine script, and I still end up gassing out on inspirations 3-5 minutes into a run, and I often run into scenarios where I got almost a full inventory of inspirations, 2 of everything, but 3 of nothing with no reds left to burn and I'm running with no reds up.  So, I must be doing something wrong here, I just don't know what.  It almost seems like I get more mileage by simply disabling all inspirations except for red ones.  But if that were the case, everyone would be doing that, and nobody would be using the combine script.  I must be missing something here.  

Edited June 15 by crimson72

[Maelwys]

4 hours ago, crimson72 said:

I got the combine script.  I got several problems with it. 

 

You can tweak the one in AA's thread to suit your purposes (often folk will not combine purple insps for example) - personally I tend to split up and tack it onto the end of my various existing movement key or power tray activation keybinds so that I don't have to keep hammering a separate key.

 

inspcombine insight enrage$$inspcombine luck$$inspcombine catch_a_breath enrage$$inspcombine respite enrage$$inspcombine sturdy enrage$$inspexecname enrage

 

inspcombine keen_insight focused_rage$$inspcombine good_luck focused_rage$$inspcombine take_a_breather focused_rage$$inspcombine dramatic_improvement focused_rage$$inspcombine rugged focused_rage$$inspexecname focused_rage

 

inspcombine uncanny_insight righteous_rage$$inspcombine phenomenal_luck righteous_rage$$inspcombine second_wind righteous_rage$$inspcombine resurgence righteous_rage$$inspcombine robust righteous_rage$$inspexecname righteous_rage

 

Those three strings combine the commonly dropped insps of each size tier into reds and activate them. If you're using them as-is then disable Breakfrees and Awakens as they're not included. Even so, allowing all three sizes of insp can occasionally result in tray clogging. So yes, you can also choose to block small insps (although I don't) if you really don't want to occasionally clear a tray or two out by hammering your Function keys. Or you can tweak the commands to make it consume Blues too (for example) instead of combining them.

 

Edited June 15 by Maelwys