Bots/X Mastermind, what would you consider the strongest secondary?

[TygerDarkstorm]

My Bots/Nature is pretty beastly and a joy to play. Easily my favorite MM atm. Bots/Traps, Bots/Storm, Bots/TA, and Bots/Dark are all solid pairings as well.

[desarix]

I do love bots but have to get them the kb to kd or else you're a bane in groups. I do everyone a favour and don't group with my bot MM until I have converted some enhancements to them.

[kelika2]

First time leveling and taking your time?  /dark or /time

Got a firefarming account ready to power you to 50 so you can get all slots and enhancements?  /traps, /cold

 

/dark and /time are just powerful to keep your pets alive and they all have something greatly overlooked, and that is a snarepit.  At level 32 your assault bot has a bigass burn patch that spawns per enemy hit.  fear effect takes hold and they scatter.  dark pit, distortion, caltrops and sleet/snowstorm comes into play.

 

Now, traps and cold are great but you need hamis and as many slots available to really cram in enhancements to get as much DEF as you can.  cytos in prot bots, ribos+3 defs in fog, maneauvers slotted up, etc

[tidge]

15 hours ago, ChromeFamily said:

So has anyone's opinion changed on this since all the updates? I'm thinking of rolling a robot mastermind but can't decide on a secondary.

 

My (previously unwritten in this thread) opinions haven't changed.

 

Robotics is a strong primary albeit with two things working against it:

• It does NOT offer a "Recharge Intensive Pet" that can take the global pieces to buff the henchmen
• The Knockback (especially from the henchmen) makes it difficult to apply debuffs/AoE to enemies (and costs an additional slot to turn into Knockdown)

Any secondary that can work around (or support) these aspects of the Bots, specifically keeping enemies somewhat tightly grouped, should be very good.

 

I have experience with /Traps, which can keep enemies together, debuff them, and offers an easy Defense buff for the henchman (FFG). I'm don't like to advocate a Mastermind spamming their own attacks, but Robotics/Traps offers lots of opportunity to have attacks/pseudopets with %-Resistance and Knockdown.

 

I haven't played Robotics/Dark on Homecoming, but on Live it was also a very good combination for reasons similar to Traps. The one aspect of /Dark that I suspect held a lot of appeal on Live is that the mandatory first pick of the secondary (Twilight Grasp) is one of the better "utility" powers to be stuck with on a build. It's no Infrigidate (in terms of %procs) but with the active heal and the single-target debuffs it is a great T1 power. Keep in mind that MMs pay a heavy Endurance tax on just about everything they do, so spamming anything has to take the Endurance costs into account.

 

The one Mastermind opinion of mine that I'll finish with: The henchmen are critical to MM performance, but only to a certain point... I don't sweat trying to keep the robotic Henchmen alive as much as I try to make sure they are doing as much damage as possible. They will pool their Health with the MM (important!), but their damage output is quite a slow grind...  try running a mission with only 1 tier of robotic henchmen to see how much of a slog it is... the point I am trying to make is that I don't feel that any secondary for Robotics should be focused only on reinforcing, healing, or buffing the henchmen... and that in order to get the most offense out of them the MM has to be doing something to debuff enemies as well.

Edited May 14, 2022 by tidge

[desarix]

It is always such a painful feeling to lose a whole slot to the kb to kd enhancement on each pet. Yeah that is a sore point indeed. It also affects all the global set bonuses.

 

I enjoy my Bots/Trap MM though and wouldn't give up those noisy adorable tin cans for anything. I think every pet is unique and they have their shortcomings.

[TygerDarkstorm]

With Bots/Nature, you can use entangling aura to help mitigate the bots' tendencies to knock mobs about as well.

[Neiska]

My favorite top 3 -

 

Robots/EA, Demons/Time, Thugs/Traps.

 

Playing with a Robots/Dark now which seems promising, and tinkering with a Demons/Thermal in MIDS.

[Arbegla]

On 5/15/2022 at 3:53 PM, desarix said:

It is always such a painful feeling to lose a whole slot to the kb to kd enhancement on each pet. Yeah that is a sore point indeed. It also affects all the global set bonuses.

 

I enjoy my Bots/Trap MM though and wouldn't give up those noisy adorable tin cans for anything. I think every pet is unique and they have their shortcomings.

 

the /mu Electrifying Fences AoE immobilize applies a -KB effect on mobs, even if the immobilize doesn't stick. Granted, its a Patron Power Pool, so you have to run the Villain arc to unlock it, and the earliest its available is level 44, BUT but you do it it, its a game changer. Turns the Assault bots rockets into MASSIVE damage, and the fire patches into something a Fire Armor Brute can only dream of.