City of Villains Coldfront (CoH, CoV)

Intro

I finally thought of something useful to do while I waited for the fix to the Dec. 15/05 patch, which stopped me from playing for a few days

. My qualifications are that I have played a few toons in City of Heroes to 50 or high 40's, a few 30's, and I did it all the honest way too (no powerleveling)

Please note that this is not an exhaustive introduction to Masterminds, and you may be better off reading a general guide first. I will do my best to elaborate for the newcomer, but may leave some basic information out.

Also note, that there are many routes to take in terms of pool powers. Some swear by Leadership, some swear by Stamina, etc. I will only explain at the end of this guide what I ended up taking, and why, so use that information at your own discretion.

I also intend to fully express my own opinions, but also will list opposing viewpoints, to be fair. If I appear to be overly biased, please feel free to let me know

My Merc/Dark MM is now level 40, by the way, and I'd say I got there about 80% teamed with my VG buddies, and the other 20% solo.

Step 1 - Roll a Merc/DM Mastermind

Out of the four main Mastermind henchmen sets (as of December '05), Mercs are the most "at a distance" set, and very seldom melee. This can be both good and bad. However with Dark Miasma as a secondary, you can prevent most mobs from getting into melee range in the first place. So there is good synergy here. As well, the dark heal, Twilight Grasp, is great for this situation, as it is a PBAoE heal (centered around yourself). So if you stand with your Mercs, it works very well.

The other nice thing about Mercs, is that since they stay close to you, at range, the Supremecy effect you have as an inherent power helps almost all of the time. Supremecy will give your Mercs a +25% dmg boost, and a +10% accuracy buff. It's not enough to consider dropping slots, but it is an added bonus. And you will need every little bonus you can get

There is a fundamental drawback to Mercs, though, due to the fact that until lvl 32, they do primarily "lethal" damage. There are many different damage types in City of Villains, such as smashing, energy, negative energy, elemental (fire/cold), and psychic damage. Unfortunately for Mercenaries, most higher level mobs have a fair amount of lethal damage resistance. However this can be partially negated by tar patch from the Dark set (see tar patch below).

There is another minor drawback to Mercs, which may also be the same for other henchmen types, in that they are wearing extremely flammable uniforms. In fact, I believe that my guys pour gasoline over themselves before every battle. They also wear tissue paper underwear, and have pockets full of flints and matches.

This is a drag at the higher levels, when quite a few mob types have fire-based attacks. Don't be surprised to occasionally see your entire first tier of Mercs wiped out in a blink. Even worse, as your guys are burning, they will try to run away, which includes running FORWARD into other spawns. You should always be prepared to use your macro/bind keys to hold them back when fighting mobs with fire, because of this. Hence my strong recommendation that you pick up the keypad bind guide before getting too far, as you will need those!

A last point to keep aware of, is that you yourself will have the least hit points out of any archetype. As well, you don't have any inherent "status" protection (protection from stuns, holds, sleeps, etc.). So you must play accordingly.

Otherwise, Mercs are both fun, and fairly sane to control for the most part!

Primary Powers

Burst

This gives you, the Mastermind, a little gun of your own. It's not a showstopper by any means, but it does enhance the DPS (damage per second) you do, as you can add to the damage your Mercs are doing. But note, it has a long recharge time, isn't that accurate, and does little damage. It is not worth putting a lot of slots into this power, as your slots will have much greater effect elsewhere. My slotting is 1 acc, 1 dmg, and 1 recharge. I use it mostly for something to do when things are going well

Note: burst gives a small (very small) defense debuff, similar to your basic soldier attack. I highly recommend NOT slotting additional debuffs. See Soldier info below.

Note 2: this, as well as the other attacks in the primary power set, consume endurance. If you chose not to take stamina, you should either skip the personal attacks completely, or slot them for endurance reduction. See the power pool discussion further below.

Soldiers

These are your privates in your up-and-coming army. They have machine guns, and until upgraded, fire small bursts of bullets at the enemy. And after level 18, you get the third Soldier, which is a medic. How cool is that? Well, see below.

After the first upgrade, the soldiers will fire longer bursts, and after the second upgrade, will occasionally have full auto. While the damage at that point will seem pitiful (seeing lots of 1's above the mobs' heads), it does add up over time.

Generally, at first their basic damage seems reasonable, until they start dropping in level relative to yourself. This means that after a while they will be -1 to you, and later on, -2. It is essential to note that not only will their damage decrease, but their accuracy. This is compounded by the fact that higher level mobs will have fairly good defense as well. Due to this, I have my final slotting as 3 x accuracy, and 3 x damage. They will not miss much this way. Some Masterminds have only used two accuracy slots, but if you really want to make sure they can hit almost anything, using 3 may be the best bet. Watch your battle closely once you come up to a Rikti Drone, and you can decide from there

As an alternative slotting, you could remove one acc enh, and put one or more heal enh in it. This will give the medic slightly more healing points. The reason I didn't bother doing this, is because the Dark Miasma heal (Twilight Grasp)is huge in comparison to the very small single target heal that the medic uses. Also, the medic will use the heal at odd times, and sometimes not when you need him to. So is it worth wasting a slot to increase it? Your choice. I don't think the difference will be observable. It seemed more prudent to make sure they are all hitting their target.

I'm told though from a Merc/Traps user that with two heal enhancements, the medic heals very well, and I suppose that with Traps it is necessary due to not having a great heal in the secondary.

Please take note: in the enhancement descriptions for these soldiers, it also mentions that you can enhance them for defense debuffs. This also applies to burst. It sounds tempting, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, the numbers are so pitifully low on that base effect, that adding slots for that is a waste, in my opinion. As a general rule, in both games (CoV and CoH), anything that is listed as a "secondary" effect in a power description is going to only have a very minor effect. I have not seen numbers, but suspect the def debuff amount is less than 3%! So even with four of your men shooting at the same target, it will only be 12% total. Wasting slots to bring that to 14% is, well, silly. There are better things begging for your slots, that will give you much more bang for your slotbuck!

Slug

This fires a shot out of your own gun. It does somewhat better damage than burst, has a slight chance of knockback, and has a recharge that is on par with burst as well. So if you end up with extra slots, you should put them in slug, and not in Burst. Again, it can increase your overall damage per second, as you will be the seventh Merc, essentially.

Alternatively, I'm told that putting knockback enhancements instead of other types can even knockback bosses, which can give you a few seconds as they try to get back on their feet. However it doesn't have a 100% chance of doing that. I have not tried this myself. The base knockback seems to be 25% or less on even conned foes, from my own observation.

I only took this after I filled out the rest of my primaries and secondaries. You could take it earlier, though, as it is fun! I currently have it slotted with 1 x acc, 2 x dmg, 1 x recharge.

Note again, just as with Burst, this attack will chew through your endurance. If you are looking for a build that does not include stamina, you may want to skip your personal attacks, or make sure you've slotted for endurance reduction.

Equip Mercenary

This is your first upgrade. You use it to upgrade all your Mercs, not just the soldiers. It gives the soldiers longer bursts, as well as providing the spec ops and commando you get in later levels with fancier weapons (stun grenades, etc.). This power recharges relatively fast with just a single recharge. It doesn't use that much endurance for a single upgrade, but if your play style is getting your Mercs killed often, you could opt for an endurance reduction slot as well. This author has not, due to having taken the fitness->stamina route. It would also arguably be a waste of a slot, if it's something you only do (usually) at the very start of a mission. Again, most players report to have this single slotted with recharge reduction.

M30 Grenade

So far it appears that not many players have taken this. I do not have first hand experience with it. My view is that there are so many powers to chose from in Merc/DM, that another attack power for yourself is probably less beneficial than a power that all your Mercs and teammates could benefit from.

As well, the grenade is a great tool for getting a lot of aggro on yourself. Considering you have less hitpoints than any other character type in either CoV or CoH, I'd suggest against getting the aggro. Also the damage isn't stellar. However, one player reports that using it with knockback enhancements gives pretty good effect, either by stopping the enemy from advancing, or buying you a few moments to cast other powers. It also looks fun!

Spec Ops

Once you get your first spec op, you will begin to see what the Mercs are capable of as a group. First, they have web grenades (as well as their normal guns, ofcourse). These stop the enemies from moving, but not from shooting at you. It can keep them away from melee range, though, so it's still a plus. And after you upgrade these guys once, they will also use flash (stun) grenades. They are also capable of rifle-butting the mob in the head, which produces a brief disorient effect. This means that your men will occasionally melee, by the way. So if you want them to stay at range, always make sure when you start, your guys have line of site to the enemy (see strategy below).

As for slotting, again, the same rules apply. They will end up eventually as -1 to you, so accuracy enhancements are very important. I currently have 2 x acc, and 3 x dmg.

Note again, that I have not bothered enhancing any of their secondary effects (such as hold or disorient durations). The reason? Those durations are very short anyway, so increasing a disorient from 5 seconds to 6 seconds is harly worth wasting a slot over. Same with the accuracy debuff, it's a very small effect (just think of it as a hidden little bonus).

The flashbang grenades also have a -perception effect, but that can't be enhanced. But you may be able to use it to your advantage (i.e. wait for one to go off, before running in and healing your favourite brute, etc.).

Commando

Not exactly Rambo, but this Commando is pretty powerful, and has possibly the best entrance of any henchmen in the entire game. He parachutes in! How neat is that?

He has a lot of weapons as well (once upgraded), including a flame thrower and rocket launcher! The flame thrower is important for you, as for once, you will be doing something other than purely lethal damage. In later levels, due to lethal resistance, this may be almost the only damage you are doing! But note that this guy has to be a bit closer than normal in order to use it (see strategy below for more info).

You can think of this guy as a boss type, and in fact he will have more hitpoints than you. He can take some damage as well, much better than your soldiers. And because he will be at the same level as you, will be doing at least half of all your damage.

One thing to note, is that this guy *can* run out of endurance, unlike your other mercs. It may be worth considering putting the last slot in this guy for endurance reduction. This will affect *him*, it will not make spawning him take less endurance. I'm considering doing this.

My slots right now are 2 x acc, 3 x dmg.

Serum

This is a hotly debated power. It turns the affected mercenary (typically used on your commando) into a mini tank! So what is there to debate?

Well, first and foremost, it has a terribly long recharge time. I believe it's 14 minutes, reduceable to 7 with 3 recharge enhacements. It also does not last very long (one single minute), which typically isn't long enough to fight a big foe. As well, once the serum wears off, the merc loses ALL endurance, and becomes weak again. So if he still has the aggro, he will get wiped pretty quickly. However, this is an excellet "oh fudge!!!" power. I was saved a couple/few times with this.

While serum is active, it gives your merc incredible boosts to health and endurance, as well as other effects. You can also give your merc blues (Catch a Breath) to counteract the 0 endurance he will have when it wears off.

I currently have this power default slotted with a single recharge reducer. I use it infrequently enough that it is there when I need it most. Note that some players are opting to skip this power entirely.

Tactical Upgrade

Now, this is your big level 32 power. And it really puts a shine on things. It has a very slow recharge, but once your men are all upgraded with both upgrades, they will finally be the personal army you've always wanted. It gives your soldiers full auto. And, the spec ops and commando get more weapons as well, and all of your guys will have a more rounded attack chain.

Another important tip: once you tactically upgrade your medic, he will cast "stimulant" on your guys. This is a minor "break free" type of power, similar to the old CoH "clear mind" power. It is fairly short in duration, but don't be surprised to see at least two or three of your men with it applied to them at any time. This helps them from getting held, stunned, or otherwise messed with. Extremely useful. At times, your medic may even cast it on you!

Now, there are many complaints in the forums about the long recharge time with tactical upgrade. So, here is what I do (note, I have the speed -> hasten power):

First, spawn your men. I always start with the commando first, as he takes the longest to get his wits together. Also, in case of an ambush at the mission entrance, I would rather have him fighting than my soldiers.

Once the last of my mercs are spawned, I hit hasten, and then use the tactical upgrade on the commando first. I then proceed to use the normal "equip mercenary" upgrade on the lot of them (which will go very fast with hasten running). By the time they are upgraded, the tactical upgrade becomes available again, so I upgrade my medic. I now have two of the men fully upgraded.

At this point, hasten is still running, so if I'm soloing (and don't have teammates waiting for me), I'll wait a bit and use tactical upgrade on at least one of the spec ops.

I then start the mish, but as soon as tactical upgrade comes up again, use it to upgrade the rest of the guys. I find that before I've even finished my second mob, I've pretty much upgraded them all. Now, they are rocking!

I currently have 2x recharge reduction in it. If you don't have haste, and are impatient, you may want to consider using 3, escpecially if you find you are respawning your Mercs often.

Dark Miasma Secondary

Twilight Grasp

This is the best (or second best) heal in the entire game, in terms of healing hit points. However, it does have a very small radius of effect, and also requires you to hit a mob successfully. For this very reason, you must slot a lot of accuracy enhancements in it, or else you will find it won't be hitting. And it will be missing typically when you are fighting +2 or higher enemies, just when you'll need it the most. It's a negative-negative effect.

Twilight grasp also provides small but measureable -acc and -dmg debuffs on the enemy as well, but probably not a large enough component to use slots for, especially considering all the other slots you want to use in this power. The debuffs are estimated to be in the 10-15% range, and last quite a few seconds. So not a huge amount, but a nice bonus. If you are running Darkest Night and Tarpatch, spamming this heal will just add more -acc, so at times I use it even when no healing is required.

Another note, is that this heal can actually generate aggro, so you must be wise when using it. As well, Dark Miasma does not have any inherent status protection (mezzes, stuns, etc.), so you can't stand right next to a brute on your team and just heal him, without danger. Since the higher level mobs have AoE powers, you may be examining floor tiles a lot. You're best bet will be a heal-and-run tactic.

Slotting this power is partly preference, however if you want to work by the numbers, after a point it is better to slot with recharge reducers than heal enhancers. Healing much more often is sometimes better then having it heal just a bit more, but much less frequently. This is especially true in large groups, if you are trying to maintain the upfront Brutes and stalkers, as well as other support toons *and* your mercs. Note that your friends and teammates may annoyingly keep running out of range while you are trying to heal them, so again, having it available quickly can be a huge bonus. The overall total amount you can heal over time goes up *dramatically* with recharge reducers.

My current slotting is 2 x acc, 2 x heal, and 2 x recharge reducers. With this, I very seldom miss, and have it available very often. With 2 x heal, I can fix my mercs quite well, as well as other support archetypes.

Note, if you are going with a build without stamina, drop one recharge reducer for an endurance reducer. It normally takes 15 endurance points per heal. A single endurance reducer will drop that to 11, so that's quite a saving. Alternatively, if you are in a small group, you can drop a recharge for another heal slot, as it's all good

Tar Patch

This is, along with Twilight Grasp, are the gems in the DM set. Tar patch not only slows down any mob trying to run through it, but also lowers their resistance to damage somewhat (estimated at 20%). Sadly, you cannot enhance the resistance lowering effect.

First thing to note, is that it has a slow recharge, so if you want it available often, you will have to 3-slot it with recharge reducers. Also, putting one or two slow enhancements will make it even more effective, though note that there is a "cap" on how much slow you can hit a mob with. I don't know the cap, but currently have it with 2 slow enhancers, and that's pretty darned slow. I suspect even 1 slow would be just as good.

Note that some mobs are resistant to the patch, and will run right through it as though it wasn't there. But it is incredibly useful for the most part, and due to the resistance debuff, can help your mercs a great deal. You will see that defeating mobs while they are on the patch is faster than without it! In other words, more taste, and less filling

Tar patch is an excellent tool for "pulling". If you get one of your mercs to shoot a foe, and then tell your merc to go hide around the corner (thus breaking "line of site" with the mob), you can lay a patch down just before the corner, and this will cause the enemy to get held up while you mow them down.

Darkest Night

This is an auto-hit "anchor" power, that debuffs enemy accuracy and damage. It is called an anchor power because once you cast it on an enemy, that enemy will negatively affect all enemies around, in a fairly big radius, as long as the enemy is not killed and you leave it running.

This power is a must have for large teams, as far as I'm concerned. Even with a modest -acc, it affects a large number of foes at once, and can dramatically affect the outcome of a battle. Any brutes on your team will appreciate this power as well, as it effectively adds to their moderately high defense. It has a very visible impact on their health, and hence the rest of the team!

Picking a good target for this power is tricky, as you obviously want the affected baddy to stay alive! Many people pick bosses for this debuff. Once he/she/it is defeated, the debuff disappears, and you will have to wait for this power to recharge before casting it again. You may want to instruct your teammates on how to recognize which mob is carrying the debuff, so they can avoid killing it if possible. But it's not a very obvious effect - if you already have tarpatch laid down, it's tough to tell which baddy has the debuff on it!

Now, a couple of things to note. First, while it is running, it will consume endurance. So if you chose not to take stamina (or even if you do), at least one slot should be used for endurance reduction. With no stamina, you may want two.

Secondly, the debuff effect isn't huge. It's moderate. I haven't seen numbers, but I recall something to the order of 20%. Someone else mentioned it was only 15%. However, this is still large enough to consider triple slotting with accuracy debuff enhancements. If the base is 15%, you can get this up to near 30%, which isn't stellar, but can make a really big difference in a large protracted battle. And if you are teaming with another Dark Miasma player, it stacks, watch out bad guys!

One caution here, is it can actually get your team wiped if you aren't careful. If you are fighting a mob like Sky Raiders, and cast this power on a porter who promptly teleports away into another spawn, the debuff will aggro this other group as well. So make sure you don't cast it on a teleporting foe, or keep an eye on him, and make sure you turn off Darkest Night if you see him run away.

My slotting on this is currently 1 x endreduc, and 3 x accdebuff. You can't enhance the -dmg debuff though.

Shadow Fall

This is stealth+buff for you and your team. It gives *partial* stealth. It cannot be run with some other stealth powers, however it will stack with anyone else running group stealth of a kind. Some mobs can see through this level of stealth, but it is often pretty handy. It will allow you in most cases to avoid running into a mob "just around the corner", and getting wiped.

Shadowfall does stack with the stealth you get from Super Speed, so until you attack (or get "supressed") you will be nearly invisible if you run both at the same time.

As an added bonus, Shadowfall has both damage resistance and defense. And, the resistance is for fear, energy, negative energy, and psychic damage! It's probably the only group buff in the whole game with some Psi protection. This will likely be very important once the level cap in CoV is raised to 50, as in CoH, the route to 50 is full of mobs with Psi attacks.

As for slotting, please take NOTE! The defense buff is extremely low, and not worth slotting. It is less than 3%! The resistance buff on the other hand, is a fair bit better, at 15% (last I heard). So this is *may* be worth slotting. However, you can only buff this with three dmg resistance enhancements max., before "ED" kicks in, so the best you can get is around 24%. This will help over time, and be extremely helpful to brutes and stalkers, as it will stack with their resistances (at least we hope). Even better, if you have another /DM person running it.

It does use a lot of endurance as well, so you will have to slot for that. If you don't have stamina, you may want at least two slots with endurance reducers.

My current slotting is 1 x endreduc, 3 x dmg resist.

Howling Twilight

This is likely the best resurection power in the game. It can actually rez more than one teammate if they are close together, and gives them full health and endurance as well. However, you cannot raise your mercs from the dead, and, it requires a foe to hit for it to work. If there are no badguys left, and you have a defeated teammate, you are out of luck. As well, you must be very close to your teammate(s), so having TP friend could be a plus.

It does also have a secondary effect, in that it will stun the mob(s) you hit in a cone-direction with this power. Not for a long time, and not bosses, but enough to perhaps get away, or to get your teammates back on their feet.

And to add a "by the way" here, this power can be used at any time, as a short duration stun. You don't have to be rezzing teammates to use it.

(Edit: I finally picked up this power on another build, and noticed it does not allow for accuracy enhancements. From this I assume it is an auto-hit. Anyone know?)

Fearsome Stare

Now this power is wonderful. It has an abysmal -20% acc penalty, but it's worth it's weight in gold, regardless. It is a cone fear power! In other words, it shoots invisible fear rays out in a cone expanding in front of you. And with a single range enhancement, covers a fair bit of area. It has a small added bonus of debuffing enemy accuracy (estimated at 10%).

Some notes for this power: first, while a mob is feared, they will tremble and not be able to take action for a fairly long time, UNLESS they are attacked. When this happens though, they are still somewhat immobilized. They will still shoot every now and then, but won't run into melee range.

So as long as your teammates do not use an area-of-effect (AoE) damage power, they are effectively out of the picture, until you have time to clean them up. If someone uses an AoE damage power that damages them, as noted, they will occasionally fire back. Overall, for large teams, this is an incredibly useful power. Even if they are firing back, and you have darkest night running as well, the extra 10% -acc helps, so it isn't wasted.

Other notes are, that this will get you aggro. How is this possible you ask? Basically, the accuracy on this power has a large penatly, so even with THREE accuracy enhancements, it will still miss a some of the mobs, even if they are the same level as you. So I would not recommend opening with this, unless you have no choice or are soloing small spawns. Also, it takes a long time to recharge.

Although this power is actually quite useful right out of the box, my current slotting is 2 x acc, 1 x recharge reduction, 1 x range, and 2 x fear duration. At least the mobs that are affected will be affected for quite some time. I tried 3 x acc, but it didn't make that much of a difference. This was cut and pasted from a post from Kong_Fuu:

So there you have it. It's still a great power though.

Petrifying Gaze

This is a single target hold, which in a single application will hold a minion. It will not stack with fearsome stare, as that is a fear, and this is a hold power. Which also implies that you cannot hold a boss with a single application of it. Apparently can hold a boss with it if you 6 slot this power and apply it twice successfully, but it won't last very long. Or happen to use it at the same time that your Dark Servant uses his. The suggested slotting was 2x acc, 2x recharge, and 2x hold duration.

I have not taken this power simply because there were so many other choices, and Fearsome Stare does such a good job, I typically don't have to hold one last mob. Also, your spec ops and commando have a fair amount of crowd control as well, so it is arguably not that necessary. It also takes quite a few slots, it seems, before it's very useful. I apologize for not having more first-hand knowlege of this power.

Black Hole

This power will make a small group of foes intangible for a time. This has good and bad points. The good, obviously, is that they will be unable to shoot/buff/debuff you. The bad? You can't shoot at them, either, and you have no control over when this hold finally lets go. So if you are with a fast moving team, you may get complaints, because there will be a few foes standing there that you can't finish off. It does have uses though.

Unfortunately I do not have experience with this power, first hand. My guess is that, just like any other hold, you would typically want at least 2x acc for slotting.

Dark Servant

This is a must-have (or very wanted), for most people. It is another pet! And although it suffers from the poorer artificial intelligence that all of the older City of Heroes pets have (such as lack of control over it), it is still very useful (with a few caveats, see further).

This pet has the following whizbangs: it holds, heals, debuffs, and best of all, you can walk through it (or stand inside it!). This is quite useful if you are getting overwhelmed at melee range. Just stand inside it, and let it hold the closest mobs. It may even heal you and whoever is standing around it at the time.

The main problem is that this pet is NOT permanent. It has a short lifespan, and a long recharge. However, I'm told that with 3 x recharge reducers, you can almost respawn it after the previous one dies. However, this is also an advantage at times! He has a lot of hitpoints, so you can cast it near a mob as well as an opening move. Even if it dies (which isn't that often), it is still useful, because when you respawn it you don't have to upgrade it like your mercs

There is one other problem with it, in that it has a very short trigger range. In fact, much shorter than the Mercs' range. So if you are fighting at range, and the mobs aren't coming at you to melee, you may find your Dark Servant just standing around, picking his nose. I know you can't see him picking, but I just know that's what he's doing. So you must either get close first, or spawn him right near a mob. Or, like me, just keep him there with you incase things get rough. In many cases you will have foes overrun your position, in which case he's great!

Slotting this guy is limited, due to it's short duration (as mentioned). Plus, he needs accuracy. So I currently have mine slotted with 3 x recharge, 2 x acc, and 1 x heal. With that slotting, if I don't hit hasten it's only down for about 15 seconds or so, and it seldom misses it's target!

Power Pools (Ancillary Powers)

There is currently a lot of debate over the merits of the leadership pool (assault, tactics, maneuvers, and vengeance), as well as fitness (swift, health, hurdle, stamina). I will present my thoughts on both of these sets.

Leadership

My personal choice was to skip the leadership pool for the following reasons: the buffs are very small, and it takes a fair bit of endurance to run (these are toggle powers). However, it cannot be stressed enough that if you are playing with other Masterminds or other teammates that also have Leadership, they will all add together. As well, you should have at least one person on your team with tactics, as some higher level foes will try to blind you! Tactics will negate this effect, with it's +perception.

These powers can also provide with some much missing status resistance, too, like confuse, taunt, and placate, which would be beneficial for Player v Player, and even a bit during the regular game (although the times you will need this doing regular missions is only occasional). The status resistance here is low magnitude though, so don't expect to become a tank!

I currently am the only Mastermind in my regular evening group, so I didn't bother going this route. These just have too small an effect to make them worth while on their own. I also don't do Player v Player (PvP), so could skip the leadership -> tactics power (this apparently lets you see *some* stealthied players once they get close). So I didn't really need it.

Note that the buffs are very, very small, as mentioned:

Maneuvers gives barely 2.5% defense. This is a joke, actually, as a single luck inspiration gives you ten times that much, and even that doesn't help at times. This power should be dropped from the game, in my opinion.

Assault, for Masterminds, gives 12% damage boost, however it is only on the BASE damage, not the total enhanced damage. It's basically not much better than a single training or DO dmg enhancement. In other words, once you have 3 SO slots added to your Mercs for damage, this only buffs them 6% in total. So do you really want to suck all that endurance for a 6% increase? And consume power choices? Up to you. Assault also gives very minor resistance to placate.

Tactics can help, but due to ED, can only be buffed a small amount. It affects overall accuracy differently than acc enhancements though, so it can still worthwhile. If you slot your Soldiers with 3 acc enhancements, and your Spec Ops with 2, I don't think you need tactics at all, but your findings may vary. If you want to try dropping some acc enhancements, consider the following, but note the estimated buff from 3 slotted tactics is 7.5%.

The accuracy equation for CoH/CoV is as follows:

Modified Hit Chance = (Base Hit Chance + To Hit Buffs – To Hit Debuffs – Targets Defence) * (Base Acc for the attack + Acc Enh Value)

Based on level of foe your henchmen are fighting, use the following numbers for Base to Hit:

0s=75
+1s=68
+2s=61
+3s=55
+4s=48
+5s=41
+6s=34

They key here is that the first term in the equation, base hit chance, goes down badly with levels. So a mob that is +3 to you (or worse, +5 to your minions) has a very low base hit chance. The +7% or so from tactics is added to that *before* any accuracy bonus is multiplied. So it can really help. Don't forget supremacy is added to this, so your total to hit buffs can be upwards of +17%. So for foes that are +5 levels to your soldiers, you have: (41% + 17% - (tohitdebuffs) - foe defense) * (1 + acc). The 17% really helps.

However, according to a forum poster named BlackestNight, who has a Bot/FF guide, it is still worth 3 slotting your first tier henchmen with acc enhancements, if you are fighting foes +2 to yourself or higher. Regardless of tactics. Also note that any defense the foes have will subtract directly from the entire calculation ofcourse (tohitbuffs as well as acc). So even with 3 slotted acc, supremacy, and tactics, +2 Sky Raiders with bubbles will present quite a challenge.

Last note, again, on tactics. It can be exceptionally useful for fighting high level arachnos mobs. They will blind you multiple times per battle, and the only way to see (and target!!) them is by running tactics, or by chewing yellow inspirations like there's no tomorrow. It really helps here. It also helps a bit in PvP, in that you can see a hidden stalker. You can't however see a hidden stalker that also has stealth

Now, Vengeance can be very useful, but you cannot use it on a fallen merc. Only another actual defeated teammate. You must be close for it to work, but it does provide an excellent buff for you and your team, if you do decide to get it. You become extremely hard to hit!

Fitness Pool -> Stamina
/PERSONAL OPINION MODE ON
This is an ongoing (and neverending) debate in the forums, and you can choose either way. I personally can't imagine not having it, but I'm now trying a build that won't have it, so we'll see.

The *most* important element of the discussions appears to be that if you take any of the personal attacks from the primary set (burst, slug, M30 grenade), you will run out of stamina quickly. If you skip these entirely, and only play as a support player, you can likely get away without stamina. As long as you slot your powers for endurance reduction, that is! This is the crux of all the debates.

As for myself, I could probably have done without it while soloing, even using the odd attack or two. However, I play at least 90% of the time in a moderate to large group, and since most people like playing on the higher game settings, it can be pretty ferocious. Even with stamina one-slotted, I still run out of endurance at times. It is especially noticeable if you lose your mercs during battle (which can happen frequently with some enemy groups), and have to respawn them.

You can chose to play your MM fairly inactively. If don't cast heals very often, don't run debuffs all the time, keep your pets out of the way, and avoid the ambushes from the rear that so often happens in the +30 game, you can avoid taking the fitness pool. After all, it takes three whole powers to get to stamina.

For rough numbers on base endurance useage, not including casting heals, fearsome stare, etc., I quote KingHippo from the forums:

As for myself, I have still managed to get virtually all the primary and secondary powers I wanted anyway, so for me, the cost of getting stamina was not huge. Further, I only left the default slot with stamina, so didn't waste any additional slots in it, and further, didn't waste many slots in the rest of my powers for endurance reduction, either. So, here it is: you lose power choices, but make up some of that in spare slots!

Note that the other prerequisite powers aren't terrible. Swift is quite nice, and health gives you very little downtime between battles. Health also provides you with weak status protection (sleep, and a couple of others?). Some others swear by hurdle, which I've never taken. It's not a superjump, but gives you more air control when jumping.
/PERSONAL OPINION MODE OFF

Hasten

This dramatically increases the recharge rate of ALL of your powers. All of them! Did I mention it affects all your powers?

It is the same as adding a full two SO recharge reducers in everyting. Although since the release of I6 and "ED" (enhancement diversification <cough>), you cannot have "perma hasten", I still find it inredibly useful. I don't have it on autofire, though.

I use it for two reasons. First, after I spawn all my mercs at the start of a mish, and before starting to upgrade them, I hit hasten. This lets me set them up in record time, and typically by the time all my teammates have arrived, I've already got all my mercs upgrade to the first level, and my commando, medic, and potentially one spec op upgraded to the second level. Then while we start the mish, I can upgrade the rest to the second level on the fly. Typically before we even hit the second or third group of foes, I've got my entire army upgraded. Hasten does last a good 90 seconds!

The second reason I use it, is for battle. Some powers such as fearsome stare and tarpatch have long recharge times. There are many battles that are so ferocious that I need to use them again, or typically I can see that the next mob is so close, that I'm *going* to need them again really soon. So I hit hasten after using them the first time. Additionally, Twilight Grasp, the main heal, will also come up very quickly, as will all the spawning and upgrade powers, should you lose any mercs along the way.

The nice thing about hasten is that it is a first tier power in it's set, meaning that you can pick it up right away, with no prerequisites! I currently have hasten slotted 3 x reduced recharge.

Travel Powers

Now, as a Mastermind, even your choice of travel power may affect how you play. The main reason, ofcourse, is that your henchmen do not gain benefit from your first travel power. Just because you get "fly", doesn't mean your mercs will be able to fly, too. For that you would have to pick the last tier power, group fly. Similarly with the teleport travel power, you would have to get group teleport as well.

All of the travel powers have prerequisite and final powers that may be of extra use (for example Superspeed gives you some added stealth when not suppressed), but I'll just discuss the ones that have group travel options here.

There many advantages and disadvantages to the "group" travel powers that you should be aware of. And since the debates are still ongoing, I will try only to summarize them here. Note that I did not take either of the group travel powers. If you can avoid those horrible CoT dungeon/temples with a lot of Portals, it should not be too bad if you skip these entirely. They can be very handy though, especially with Player v Player (so I'm told).

Group Fly

I have not tried it, but have read all the debates. It is a much slower version than fly, and has some other drawbacks. For one, it will affect all allies near you, not just your mercs, and some people will chew you out for that. Also, whoever it affects (including your mercs) must remain close to you, or they will fall out of the sky like a roadrunner/cayote cartoon

.

There are some tricks to using it, though. One technique is to first set yourself in follow mode, to follow one of your mercs. Then hit your "goto" macro, instructing the mercs to move to a spot in the sky. As they start flying, you will be following them, and thus will stay in range for the power to stay in effect.

Another technique reported in the forums, is to use a similar macro to one that people use for using teleport as a main travel power. And that is to set something like your control key + the left mouse key to set your mercs to "goto" a spot, meanwhile, you set yourself with auto-fly (by hitting the autorun key). As you fly, just keep hitting ctrl+lmouse button, and you will effectively keep telling your mercs to move in the exact same direction you are currently flying in. Apparently you only have to click the mouse once every few seconds or so, for this to work. Sounds reasonable.

Group Teleport

I have never used teleport as a travel power. I tried it many times, but never got the hang of it. It is tricky, but I have seen people use it. If you have it, the next power in that pool is group teleport. Note that group teleport will not teleport mercrs or teammates TO you, but will move your whole group to a spot of your choosing.

Like group fly, group teleport suffers from the fact that your teammates have no way to avoid it. They cannot refuse it, as they can with "TP Friend", so it can be viewed as annoying. It also takes a few moments to activate, so I'm not sure how useful this is as an "ohoh" power. However, as with group fly, it could be useful for those large CoT caves. You can move all of your mercs this way.

Note that one of the prerequisites of Group Teleport is TP Foe. That can be very useful, both in Player v Player, as well as regular missions. You can TP an enemy to the exact point you want them to be. Once there, you can hold them with a hold power, or just let your Mercs go to town. This power does need an accuracy check in order to work, so you might want one or two acc enhancers in it. Otherwise, you don't need any further slots. Note that I don't think you can TP a boss, or at least not regularly.

One last note about Teleport, is that even with TP self, if you put range enhancements in it and can teleport far away, your mercs will decide they are also too far from you, and automatically TP to your location. This can be handy for Player v Player too.

Medicine

Medicine pool powers would be of secondary value only, for a /Dark mastermind. The heal from Twilight Grasp not only is more powerful, but also is an area heal. However, if you are focusing entirely on support, this pool can help a bit. Don't expect much though. If you are hoping to stay back from the main action, and have a brute you need to heal, you may find the heal doesn't do much. Brutes not only have a lot more hitpoints than you, but also have extra points they can add when needed. It can be useful though, and the heal may just be enough to help you keep your men alive if you missed them with Twilight Grasp.

Stimulant is probably more useful than the heal, to provide some status protection, but it is fairly short in duration (one minute perhaps, at best). If you have teammates getting held a lot, this can help.

Leaping

I have never taken Super Jump as a travel power, however one of the prerequisite powers, combat jump, as well as the final power, acrobatics, gives you some status protection against the more common effects in the game (holds, stuns, knockback as well perhaps). These are toggle powers though, and take endurance to run.

The reason most people take acrobatics is for knockback resistance, however other powers also give this, like Hover, from the flight pool. The other effects are low magnitude protection only.

PvE (Player v Environment) Strategies

There are a lot of ways to play, as a Merc/DM Mastermind. I would highly recommend to anyone to get the mastermind guides that explain how to set your numpad up for keybinds. They allow much more flexibility in tactics than your basic three clickikes that came pre-installed in your powertray. At the very least, if you don't want to do this, you can also use the advanced pet controls, and drag various settings buttons into your tray from that window. Either way, the more control you have, the better off you will be. Guaranteed.

I typically still use the basic "attack all/aggressive" button often, but still make use of the finer binds to do other things.

Two general notes, here. It can be more efficient to keep your mercs focused on one target at a time, especially on higher level foes. It is better to reduce three foes to two, quickly, than have all three foes firing at you for longer

Also, if you can see a foe that your mercs cannot (for example around a corner), and tell your mercs to attack, they will NOT run to where you are standing first, and then fire. They will run around the corner closest to the foe. Their "AI" tells them to take the shortest possible route. That means they can run right into the thick of a mob (very bad). It is better to tell them to goto a spot where they will have line of site first, and then tell them to fire. That way they won't have to move. Very important.

As for specific fighting tactics, one of the most obvious one, since you have the benefit of tar patch, is to pull the baddies to where you want them. As well, mercs work well at range, so this is very useful.

The first and foremost rule of "pulling", is that to be effective, you must break line of site with the enemy. This cannot be stressed enough. Most mobs have ranged attacks, so if you simply hit them and run back a ways, many will just stand there and fire at you or your mercs! This is clearly of no advantage, and is often a failing of many players.

The key here is to simply get out of the way. Whether you use one of your mercs to pull, or do it yourself, after the first shot, get around a corner or a large crate or something. That forces the baddies to give up trying to fire from a distance, and they will come running. So if you lay a tar patch down just before they can round the corner, they will get stuck there, and won't be able to hit the puller who is hiding around the corner.

Now, since you yourself have fewer hitpoints than any other toon in the game, I would recommend using your mercs to pull, as they are more easily replaced than yourself. However, beware of using your commando, as at times he likes to get a little bit too close to the enemy before doing anything. He will sometimes surprise you with a long distance LRM rocket attack, but you cannot predict which attack he will use for a pull. In any case, you will need the "goto" command, and luckily you can queue the goto while the merc is setting up to fire. It's fairly rapid, which frees you up as soon as he starts moving to lay your patch.

Another tactic involves getting close, and just letting them have it. Since you probably have shadowfall, you can get fairly close to most mobs before they spot you. The advantages to getting somewhat closer, are that the full auto from your soldiers will affect more mobs, and as a bonus, your commando may use his flame thrower.

The problem is starting the fight. If you do it yourself, you will get all the aggro, and it may be too much. It takes time to lay a tar patch and hit fearsome stare. What I do is spread the aggro out. I pick a target in the middle of the mob, and tell my mercs to attack all. Since it takes them a couple of seconds to pull their guns out, it allows me to start the tarpatch animation. Once the fight starts, I hit fearsome stare, which takes many minions out of the batte entirely. This is effective for many battles.

As for darkest night, I have not had much luck with using this to start a fight with. The amount of accuracy debuff it gives is not enough to prevent you from getting hit. You don't get hit as often, for sure, but it doesn't take much to get you to a point where you are tasting floor tiles, either. I typically use this only after tar patch and fearsome stare. Note that you can put darkest night on a feared enemy, and ignore him while he trembles. He can't fight you, and will be debuffing all his buddies at the same time.

A last note concerns your medic. For some reason, his gun has a shorter range than the other mercs, so if instructed to attack, he will typically run closer to the enemies than you may like. As well, while he's attacking, he won't be healing. You may want to set up a keybind to instruct your medic to follow you in defensive mode, due to this. He will be able to heal a bit more that way, and perhaps not die quite so much.

Player v Player (PvP) Strategies

As a mastermind, I found there are too many disadvantages when playing against other players to make it worth my time and effort. As a result, I do not have first hand experience. I suggest searching the mastermind forum for more information, as some players are claiming to have some success in this area. I am compiling some notes from other posters, however:

Twilight Grasp, is too slow to rely on. In that time, you can be two-shotted by most blasters. You must carry health inspirations as a result.

Tar patch is great, against grounded foes. It does have a -fly, but they have to be very close to the ground for it to take effect. There are tricks to using this as well, since things like water will hide the tar patch (loud hints here

).

As for the Darkest Night anchor, it has been suggested that you pick wisely, and perhaps pick a hero that is creating large buffs or debuffs, like hurricane or dispersion bubble. As a second choice, a tank is good too, as they will probably live longer and hence debuff his entire team.

Shadowfall is a must. Stealth is an absolute necessity in PvP I'm told. Howling twilight is great against flying opponents, as it drops toggles (such as fly).

The holds/fears (Fearsome Stare, Petrifying Gaze) may be of little use. A single break free will break a player out of these, and give them immunity for a time. It was noted by one player in the forums that fearsome stare can actually be quite useful as an opening move.

Leadership -> Tactics may also be a must, as everyone in the PvP zones will have stealth. Tactics can help you see some of them, depending on what level of stealths they have applied.

One last note, is that Teleport, the travel power, can be useful. Apparently you can TP while immobilized. As well, if you put range enhancements in it, as mentioned earlier, and TP far enough away, your Mercs will auto-tp to you as well.

Personal Note

If you find anything here to be in error, or would like to add something, please let me know!

Also, thanks to all the players that replied to the draft version I posted, as they all listed excellent points. I have incoporated them all!