Some questions about Thugs/Marine (mostly /Marine)

[Lazarillo]

I've been feeling both a strong urge to give /Marine a try, and to make yet another new Mastermind, so two points put together, and figuring out which primary I want, and I'm leaning towards Thugs with it.  It feels like it could have some interesting synergies, and so if anyone's got an general comments on how they work together, consider that question 0, I guess.  But more specifically I'm wondering a few things:

 

1. Soothing Wave works the same as Nature Affinity's heal, correct?  Just sort of a general cone in the direction I'm facing?  So for situations where I wanted the power directed towards a certain target, I'm told working it into a macro/bind with /follow would work.  I seem to remember binds execute in "reverse" order but also that they carry steps out simultaneously, so I'm not sure if this would work, but if I wanted to ensure my character turned towards the target and used the power, but didn't start running towards them I'm wondering if this would work: /bind b "backward$$powexec_name Soothing Wave$$follow".  Anyone tried to do something like this and can speak to its effectiveness (or not)?
2. How big is the Shifting Tides?  I figure my own character is likely to play pretty close to enemies thanks to Whitecap, and obviously the Bruiser will be in close, so we're both getting the benefits regardless.  I'm not sure if the otherwise-ranged t1 and t2 henchmen should also be brought into it when possible, given the risk of getting hit by enemy AoEs, but it might be possible to keep them closer to the edge?  Or it might not matter at all?
3. Power of the Depths: Is it worth it?  Because it looks cool, admittedly, but also looks like kind of a dud power, with even the half of it that lasts the full duration having kind of lousy relative uptime compared with the power's Recharge, and Marine seems to be a pretty "hungry" set in terms of both "needed" powers and in terms of slotting.  So this feels like a possibility to free up some room, but maybe there's something about it I'm missing.  If there is something I'm missing, is there anything else that's skippable?
4. What's more worth focusing on when slotting Barrier Reef: absorb or defense?  Or should I try to split it 50/50 (or some other similar way)? 
5. Finally, any recommendations on an Alpha slot, when I get that far?  Vigor's one I like for MMs just because it shores up a lot of issues henchmen seem to have, and being able to heal a little harder is also nice (also, do Healing enhancements influence the -HP in Brine?  Mids shows it taking them but it's wrong on these sorts of things sometimes).  I could also see an argument being made for Cardiac, Nerve, or Agility, or maybe even Spiritual or mayyybe even Resilient (and then there's the common fave of Musculature, though in this case it seems like there are so many other, potentially even more valid options that can help build into the buffs).  What do other people like to use?

[Auroxis]

Soothing Wave - Yes, it is just like Nature's heal except it also comes with a damage debuff on enemies.

 

Shifting Tides - The buff part is a 60ft radius, and the "conditional damage aura" part is a 25ft radius. It is recommended to slot the Gaussian proc there to give yourself some damage buffs (which scale shifting tides damage).

 

Power of the Depths - It's one of the most important buffs, try to get enough recharge to make it as close to permanent as possible without sacrificing other parts of your build. Its +MaxHP And +Regen is a very strong survivability buff for yourself, your pets, and your allies. And it provides some endurance sustainability as well.

 

Barrier Reef - You should definitely slot it for Absorb as well as getting the LotG +7.5% recharge IO in. The question is whether you then pick a recharge set bonus or extra defense. I personally prefer the recharge set bonus (Panacea, you can slot it with the proc which will occasionally heal allies)

 

Alpha Slot - I recommend the Musculature Radial alpha. More damage for your pets and Shifting Tides, more endurance modification for your Toroidal and PotD.

Edited Monday at 07:14 AM by Auroxis

[Uun]

13 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

What's more worth focusing on when slotting Barrier Reef: absorb or defense?  Or should I try to split it 50/50 (or some other similar way)? 

I've got it slotted with 2x heal IOs plus 2x LOTG (def & +rech) Not optimal for set bonuses, but pretty efficient otherwise.

 

13 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

do Healing enhancements influence the -HP in Brine? 

Yes, and the -HP stacks. Plus, if your target is affected by Shifting Tides, Brine's recharge is reduced by 15s per stack. I reserve stacking Brine for AVs and other hard targets.

 

13 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

any recommendations on an Alpha slot

I've got Intuition Radial on mine, but it's a controller. Keep in mind that the alphas that boost healing don't boost absorb and vice versa. 

[Lazarillo]

I appreciate the responses.  Just a couple other bits for clarification.

 

On 7/21/2025 at 2:09 AM, Auroxis said:

Soothing Wave - Yes, it is just like Nature's heal except it also comes with a damage debuff on enemies.

Do you happen to know if there's a way to make the bind I mentioned turn me towards the target but not make my character move?  I tried the one I posted and it didn't work, changed it to "Backward 1" and that makes my character auto-run backwards until I hit another direction, which is still kinda not quite what I wanna do.

 

On 7/21/2025 at 2:09 AM, Auroxis said:

Power of the Depths - It's one of the most important buffs, try to get enough recharge to make it as close to permanent as possible without sacrificing other parts of your build. Its +MaxHP And +Regen is a very strong survivability buff for yourself, your pets, and your allies. And it provides some endurance sustainability as well.

I managed to work it into the build, with about a 75% uptime.  We'll see how it goes, thanks.

 

On 7/21/2025 at 2:09 AM, Auroxis said:

Barrier Reef - You should definitely slot it for Absorb as well as getting the LotG +7.5% recharge IO in. The question is whether you then pick a recharge set bonus or extra defense. I personally prefer the recharge set bonus (Panacea, you can slot it with the proc which will occasionally heal allies)

 

On 7/21/2025 at 9:42 AM, Uun said:

I've got it slotted with 2x heal IOs plus 2x LOTG (def & +rech) Not optimal for set bonuses, but pretty efficient otherwise.

These are about what I was thinking.  I ended up going with the LotG and Reactive Defenses bonuses, some pieces of the Numina's set to get it close to the ED cap on the absorb.

 

Alpha-wise, I'm currently leaning now towards Agility, for the EndMod bonuses Auroxis mentoined plus more recharge for better PotD uptime and stacking Brine.

[Auroxis]

Binds aren't really my forte, but maybe you can combine the follow with something that'll stop you from moving.

 

As for Alpha, Agility will enhance your recharge which often hurts the proc rates of powers. Increasing your henchmen damage with Musculature is a far better choice IMO.

Edited Wednesday at 08:14 PM by Auroxis

[tidge]

On 7/20/2025 at 9:14 PM, Lazarillo said:

1. Soothing Wave works the same as Nature Affinity's heal, correct?  Just sort of a general cone in the direction I'm facing?  So for situations where I wanted the power directed towards a certain target, I'm told working it into a macro/bind with /follow would work.  I seem to remember binds execute in "reverse" order but also that they carry steps out simultaneously, so I'm not sure if this would work, but if I wanted to ensure my character turned towards the target and used the power, but didn't start running towards them I'm wondering if this would work: /bind b "backward$$powexec_name Soothing Wave$$follow".  Anyone tried to do something like this and can speak to its effectiveness (or not)?

 

It should be relatively easy to set up a bind, I think the primary complicating factor (for me) with Soothing Wave is the cone is forward facing. Assuming that you already have something targeted, you could try this:

 

/bind b "+$$powexec_name Soothing_Wave$$follow"

 

Holding the "b" key should start you following (doing the turn-to-face) the pre-selected target, releasing the 'b' key should cast Soothing Wave. If for some reason the command parser does it in reverse, try:

 

/bind b "+$$follow$$powexec_name Soothing_Wave"

 

It may help to set up a quickly click like 

 

/bind ctrl+lbutton "target_friend_near" 

or

/bind ctrl+rbutton "target_enemy_near" 

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:41 PM by tidge
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