Power Pools for MMs

[rlux]

I'm running a Demon/Rad MM, currently at lvl 45, and am overall happy with her. I'm a little uncertain about power pools though.

I took Speed, Sorcery, Leadership, and went heavy into the Dark MM Epic set, but I'm seriously wondering if maybe I should respec and either dump Leadership entirely, or dial back the number of Dark powers so I can work in Fighting. 

 

Maneuvers is such a small buff it doesn't seem worthwhile. Tactics is a good tohit buff, but as /Rad I have Radiation Infection, so it might also be redundant?

Thoughts?

[tidge]

MMV, but I'd dump the Speed pool before Leadership. Tactics also provides +Perception... I feel like it helps my MMs, but others may not notice. The Leadership pool has offers places to put Defense IOs.

[DocMidknight]

 I would keep leadership pool, the benefits to your team which includes your pets can be very helpful with maneuvers and tactics. I would drop speed, never felt it was really needed on any of my MM's and would swap dark epic for either soul(dark embrace, oppressive gloom and soul storm) or mace mastery (scorpion shield and power boost)

[Crysis]

Leadership is pretty useful for MM’s because it applies to your henchmen.  With level shifts going against +4’s, your henchmen are whiffing without the boost in accuracy you can give them. 

 

Personally, I tend to build my MM’s for high +Recharge because I tend to take most of my personal attacks, thus Hasten is helpful from the Speed Pool.  I proc out those attacks more for debuffs than actual damage where possible, especially on a Demon MM.  And c’mon….Whip it Good!

 

Mace Mastery is super popular amongst many MM builds you’ll see posted here because Web Envelope can give you the Immobilize you’ve been missing for your debuffs and to otherwise keep the mobs at distance while you play, er….mastermind…and your Demons gang up on the immobilized prey and land their AOE’s and stuff.  Scorpion Shield is likely one of the best single power +DEF powers you can get out of any of the pools.  Whether or not you need more +DEF depends mainly on your playstyle of course, but it’s really too good to ignore.  And if you’ve got the slots, Power Boost -may- give you some extra oomph for the secondary effect of all your powers.  I skip Mace Volley unless I’ve got slots enough to proc it out, however.

 

Dark Mastery is fine, especially if you are going for thematic reasons, but with Bodyguard mode and a high personal defense (from Scorpion Shield/Mace Mastery pool instead of Dark Mastery) you effectively have great +RES given how BG mode distributes all that damage across you and your henchmen.  True, Demons are more +RES than +DEF but they are pretty sturdy if slotted out properly and of course you keep Maneuvers up from Leadership.  

 

Just my opinions.  I’ve several Demon MM’s….Demon/Dark, Demon/Marine, Demon/Time, Demon//Cold and Demon/Storm.  I quit playing Radiation a long time ago, have never played it on a MM since so many of those powers are pale imitators of their more powerful cousins in the Controller or Defender AT.  Since you are already at 45, I’d say finish it off and try another pairing to see for yourself.  Demons are just plain fun to play regardless of secondary.

[rlux]

Thanks all! Sounds like I'll be keeping Leadership. 
I'm already starting to think about what my next MM will be -- probably either necro or bots.

@Crysis This is my first toon on Homecoming so I went with /rad because my old main on Live was an ill/rad controller and it was a bit of a comfort zone decision.  This also factored into why I went with Dark -- Confuse is hella fun even if it's objectively not all that useful.
 

[Crysis]

Ill/Rad is still a great combo, but on MM’s Rad just isn’t nearly as effective.  But I love MM’s as a class, Demons are among the sturdiest out of the box, really cannot go wrong regardless of the pairing there.

[Riverdusk]

Another reason to not drop tactics.  It provides confusion protection to you and your pets.  It might be rare, but last thing you want is to have all your pets suddenly turn on you (I've seen it happen).

[Psyonico]

21 hours ago, DocMidknight said:

or mace mastery (scorpion shield and power boost)

I feel like Power Boost is kind of wasted on a /Rad.  Yeah it will increase the strength of your debuffs, but only for its duration since they’re toggles.  I guess it helps with the heal.