Looking for some advice on my MM

[Amyante]

Okay, so i'm playing a Mastermind i tried back during the original, and recreated here. Didn't get very far (free accounts were capped at level 10 or 15 or so iirc) so bear in mind i have no actual mid- to lategame experience. With that in mind, this is what i'm running:

 

Level 12 natural Mastermind

Primary Power Set: Ninjas

Secondary Power Set: Empathy

Power Pool: Concealment

Power Pool: Leadership

 

Power choices thus far:

Ninjas:

- Call Genin

- Snap Shot

- Train Ninjas

- Call Jounin

 

Empathy:

- Healing Aura (forced pick as Secondary)

- Resurrect (pretty much the power you wish you'd have when you need it)

 

Concealment:

- Stealth (basically allows me to get completely ignored by the enemy so they hit my pets instead of me)

 

Leadership:

- Assault (attack bonuses for all my pets, following it up with Maneuver at some point too though Call Jounin and Resurrect got priority last time).

 

Now, Snap Shot is pretty much my only offense and, while i deal pitiful damage, my pets don't yet seem to be running into problems they can't handle unless the three of them (2x Genin at my current level) are fighting two purples (i can take on one at no losses). A good hit still chunks their health bar, but Empathy's got some good buffs coming up, and with Maneuvers i can get my pets' defenses up a little bit further since they have Resistance, along with the inherent Supremacy buff all Masterminds get. Currently my Genin have 2x damage and 1x accuracy slotted, though given my low level it's mostly slotting whatever drops during missions for me.

 

I'm... probably overlooking something that will bite me in the ass later on, but what i have in mind should be pretty clear at this point. Advice what to look out for is always welcome, especially given that this is essentially my first main and redoing her would be a lot easier at her current level than it would be some ten levels later when my mistakes will have become habit :)

[biostem]

Honestly, if you're going with ninjas, I'd suggest taking a secondary that can provide other benefits besides just heals.  Thermal, for instance, offers some shields and buffs.  Dark has a heal, plenty of enemy debuffs, and some soft/hard control abilities.  As for taking the MM attacks - I'm guilty of doing this sometimes, too, so don't sweat it.  :-)

 

Note:  Yes, I am aware that empathy does do more than *just* heal, but you don't get fortitude until later, and recovery buffs won't really do much for your pets...

[Amyante]

Well... To be entirely honest, Empathy is supposed to double as me not being completely useless in a team if an enemy happens to have a strong AoE. My pets have fought Hellions while standing in a fire before, so...

 

'Tis also good that my buffs (aside from Supremacy) would all apply to my Team as well, since i won't be doing them any favors damage-wise until i unlock Ancillaries :P

[biostem]

Well... To be entirely honest, Empathy is supposed to double as me not being completely useless in a team if an enemy happens to have a strong AoE. My pets have fought Hellions while standing in a fire before, so...

 

'Tis also good that my buffs (aside from Supremacy) would all apply to my Team as well, since i won't be doing them any favors damage-wise until i unlock Ancillaries :P

 

Well, I get what you're saying, but at the same time, a MM is more than just their secondary, while teamed.  Not only are your pets completely expendable, but they're another source of damage and can even permit you to tank damage while in bodyguard mode.  If you're worried about being useless on a team, then perhaps look into kinetics or dark, then.  Even radiation has a lot more tools to bring to bear...

[PaxArcana]

Concealment:

- Stealth (basically allows me to get completely ignored by the enemy so they hit my pets instead of me)

Completely unnecessary.  :)

 

My MMs don't take Stealth, pretty much ever.  They also rarely, if ever, take direct attacks of their own ... because the Minions do all the fighting.  Maybe I might have some debuffs (/Time, /Dark, that sort of thing), but I always wait until after the pets have started attacking, and have the enemy's full attention, before using them.

 

Now, with that said ... stealth is VERY thematic for a Ninja/ MM.  So you might still want to use it (for example, it would let you try and stealth past the trash mobs, to the mission objective - then summon your Ninja to clear a safe zone).  But it's not necessary for the purpose you've listed, so you could get something else instead.

 

[

Leadership:

- Assault (attack bonuses for all my pets, following it up with Maneuver at some point too though Call Jounin and Resurrect got priority last time).[

Tactics is also very, very useful - as you level, your Minions will be -1 and even -2 to you.  That's already happened now, at level 12: your Tier 1 Minons now spawn at -1 to your level.

 

That means, anything that "conns" White to you, is Yellow to them; where you see Yellow, they see Orange.

 

At 18th level, they will all be -2 to you - your Yellow will be their Red.

 

I can't speak on how to run Ninjas, as I've never done them past 6 or 8 levels.  But the above should still be useful, I hope.

[khy]

Alright, first of all I gotta warn you - enemies at low levels will not one-shot your pets, but enemies higher level easily will. Part of this is because your pets de-level when you have more of them (Genin start out even-level with you, become -1 level when you summon two, and become -2 levels when you summon 3), part is simply because later enemies have more AoE powers and stronger attacks. When you start going up against groups with strong AoE abilities you'll be fighting to catch up with healing, and between your pets small health pools and the recharge on your healing powers you'll lose them a LOT if you don't have a defensive buff you can give them. It's not something you're going to notice for a while, but from personal experience you WILL notice it after you've gone up past mid levels. Ninjas especially are hard to keep up because they only have 5% innate defense and zero resist, and have a lot of melee abilities which puts them in danger more than ranged pets. Thugs are the only pets with lower defense, but only early on - later on thugs get enforcers which will have auras that give them all several times the innate defense as your ninjas.

 

That said, I'd recommend FF/Cold/Thermal/Time. FF and Cold have good +defense buffs which will stack with your Ninja's innate defense, though you will want to pick up Medicine for a heal since neither of those sets have healing abilities. Time has farsight which can be a very useful defense buff, plus an AoE heal (Weak but also has a regen component) and lots of -tohit stuff which helps keep your pets alive as well. And Thermal lacks defense but has resist buffs, VERY good heals, a rez (Doesn't work on pets but makes you that much more useful in a group), a good damage/tohit buff (Forge) which can be used on your pets and on teammates, and some very nice debuffs.

 

All 3 leadership auras are often good to take as an MM, while the bonus from Maneuvers is low it adds up with all the other defenses. Tactics is quite important since your pets will be lower level than you and thus will need more accuracy. Accuracy enhancements will help, as will Tactics. And assault is always just great.

 

Instead of Stealth you might want to pick up a faster travel power. Super Speed or Combat Jumping are my recommendations. Stealth is nice but most of the time the enemies will be attacking your pets instead, and when there's ambushes where enemies target you and ignore pets stealth won't do you a lick of good except as a super minor defense boost, which you can get the same utility from Combat Jumping.

 

Personally I made a Ninja/Time MM the other day I'm going to play and try out. It seems like it could be a fun combo.

 

If you are reluctant to remake your character because you don't want to spend the time to level him back up to 12-15ish, I recommend doing DFB runs with the 100% bonus XP enabled from the P2W vendor. They can be done from level 1, they are fast to run, and they give AMAZING XP early on. I usually run DFB 2-3 times to get all 4 rewards, takes maybe 2 hours at most (depends on how long it takes your group to find a full 8 members), the enemies aren't really a big threat to a team so I just put my pet on aggressive and rake in the experience. After four runs I'm at level 16+ depending on if I did the tutorial or not.

[PaxArcana]

Instead of Stealth you might want to pick up a faster travel power. Super Speed [...]

Keep in mind, Sprint + Ninja Run is pretty close to Superspeed.  If you don't mind the Ninja Run animation, you can skip picking up a "real" travel power, no problem ...

[Amyante]

Yeah, i usually have Sprint + Ninja Run on. It's close to Super Speed, and i get more than enough altitude on my jumps with it too.

 

That said, i did run past a couple of options mentioned here to take as a Secondary:

 

FF: While it does have some good +DEF, i feel it's a bit too defensive for my tastes. Though the idea of playing Katamari with Force Bubble sounds amusing.

Cold / Thermal: There are some interesting abilities here, Thermal having some good heals too, but i'm not entirely convinced.

 

Which leaves Time. Though... Dark looks appealing. There's a res, Darkest Night and Fearsome Stare look like an absolutely brutal combo to ensure my pets won't be getting hit, and at the end of the line there's another pet for my growing collection, whom ALSO has Darkest Night and Petrifying Gaze. In addition, Shadow fall does what Stealth does, but as an AoE, so i'll end up opening up an extra slot. I could go down Sorcery and grab Arcane Bolt, been hearing good things about it.

 

I've got a respec on her, would that allow me to pick new powers altogether or would i actually need to delete and recreate her?

[Nyghtmaire]

Recreate unfortunately. But with a 1000 slots, you don’t have to delete! If you like the costume, you can save it at a tailor first (on your empath) and reload for the new character (time or dark or FF) at the creation screen.

[khy]

Respec does NOT allow you to choose a different primary or secondary for your character, you would need to delete and re-create the character.

 

Dark foregoes active defenses in favor of doing -tohit on enemies, which is roughly equivalent, but not entirely. Unfortunately -tohit is less effective against stronger enemies than +def is.

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,6539.0.html  details that part.

 

Also some of the powers require tohit checks and thus can miss, unlike buffing allies which never requires a check. On the plus side most of those powers also have multiple effects, such as debuffing dmg and regen and whatnot. There's plenty of pros and cons to each.

 

Time has a lot of really nice effects, and I'm looking forward to getting my Ninja/Time up to a higher level so I can see how effective it is.

 

IMO : You should make several different characters, run some DFB to get them levels and let you play them at the teens and then see how they feel to you. You might find that dark fits your ideal playstyle better, or you might find that Time's a more entertaining set. Or you might hate 'em and want to go back to Emp; only way to be sure is to try them out yourself!

[Amyante]

Thanks. Already saved the costume and custom power colors back when i created her since i have a tendency to reroll characters a thousand times and it saves me three hours of chargen :P

 

Haven't come across a bank though. There was the Vaults, but those were only for Invention Salvage. Wouldn't be the first time i've missed the obvious though.

 

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Huh, interesting link khy, thanks for sharing. I'll definitely be keeping that in mind, maybe run it on a test char before rerolling my main on it :)

[kelly Rocket]

There's no bank, per se, but you can email inf to your @GlobalName and then retrieve it with any other character.

 

To find your @GlobalName, go to menu on the menu above/below the player health/endurance bars, and pick "chat handle" from the list. It should tell you your global chat handle in the chat window somewhere  :)