I just started messing around with the free trial. How many pets can a mastermind have out at once? I know I can get three zombies, for instance, but can I get the two grave knights and the lich on top of that, or do I have to pick between zombies, knights, or lich?
What is the difference between the different mastermind pets? I've messed only with Necromancy briefly, the zombie seems tough but swings slowly. Does each tree have its own little quirks? The two most interesting ones to me are necromancy and mercenaries, are there secondary powers that compliment them better, or should I just pick whatever looks cool to me?
Also, is there a server that's better than the others for roleplaying?
I'd have actually leveled a character a little higher but I've spent the last hour and a half playing with costumes :P
Comments
I've never played a Mastermind, but I duo'd with an excellent robot MM often I'll help as much as I can.
Yes, you can have all six pets out at once. Lots of lag, lots of managing, but lots of power!
There is a difference between the pets, but I'm not completely sure. Check out the official forums; they have great guide material there. You can find great secondary powerset suggestions there, too!
Servers- I've noticed that the best way to get people to roleplay - in any MMO, really - is to roleplay at them. Even if they're speakin' leet, even if they laugh at you at first, as long as you stay friendly and consistant they usually turn over to RP by the end.
Laura "Taera" Genender
Community Manager
MMORPG.com
At level 6 you spawn a 2nd minion with your first summon power for a total of 2.
At level 12 you can choose the Lt. summoning power and will have one of him along with the first summons for a total of 3.
At level 18 the 3rd minion will spawn when you use the first summons power, for a total of 4.
At level 24 the second Lt. comes and you can now have 5 minions at the same time.
At level 26 you can select the 3rd and final summons power for your boss level minion at will have access to a total of 6.
There are ways to further modify this ammount, like the ghost from undead, gang war from thugs, and dark servant from the dark secondary, but those are all uncontrollable like your primary 6.
Let me start with second question: yes
In general
zombies are great melee poor ranged,
robots are great ranged,
mercs are better at ranged with some melee,
ninjas (the one I've played the least) I've never seen ranged -- at the levels I played them it was all melee [odds are, that's just limited by the time I spent playing them, seems to me they should have ranged units/attacks at higher levels].
So you can either choose your pets class based on playstyle, or base your play on which pets you like better.
1st lvl: 1 tier 1 (equal level)
6th lvl: 2 teir 1 (-1 lvl) and first upgrade
12th lvl: 2 tier 1 (-1)/ 1 tier 2(-0)
18th lvl: 3 tier 1 (-2) / 1 tier 2 (-0)
24th lvl: 3 tier 1 (-2) / 2 tier 2 (-1)
26th lvl: 3 tier 1 (-2) / 2 tier 2 (-1) / 1 tier 3 (-0)
lvl 32 : second upgrade
Each upgrade adds more powers onto each kind of pet. These powers depend on the pet and the set and very important. Tier 1's equate to mininions, Teir 2 eqaute to Leutentnents, tier 3 equate to bosses. This means the higher tiers are harder mez amon
g other things. The Teir 1's eventually become rather brittle and you need significant accuracy bonuses to get them to hit. Remember somethjing that is red to you is purple to them.
MM set:
Ninja: A melee set. Controlling melee is considerably harder than tanged sets. They tend to get stuck using crappy ranged attacks, take a lot of damage and run all over the place. You must micromananger them. Ninja do a lot of damage and are essentially stalkers. The Teir 2 Jounin do a ton of damage using Katana attacks and hide (ie. they can crit). third tier Oni is a mini-fire dominator. Quite a alot of control with Oni holds and immobs. Genin have Matial arts and can stun, Jounin throw caltrops. Possibly the best single target damage. Set also gets smoke flash that allows you give a henchmen a out-of-hide crit, even works on Oni AoE.
necromancer: Also a melee set see Ninja above. They do Lethal, toxic and dark damage and so tend to be resisted less than ninja. They have more resistance but are slower. Basically setup the same as Ninja in that 2nd tier is the main damage but they aren't stalkers and lower level have less stuns but instead have a self heal. Lich is similar to Oni but has Dark powers. You also get an extra ghost you can summon from dead henchmen.
Bots: Purely ranged. Decent defense/resistance. Tends to knockback which annoys some. First Teir is initially the main damage and therefore they tend to suffer in the 20's (but all MM's kick ass). 2nd tier is a protector and minor healer, the heal is on a long recharge, with some damage. The major damage comes when Assault bot get the level 32 upgrade, then you start doing really nice AoE damage. Attack are large number but slow recharge
Mercs: The other pure range set. This set is good solid DPS over time tons of smaller number that add up. Less upfront alpha than bots but overall similar damage. The tier 1's 3rd guys turn into a medic who can heal decently. Tier 2's have a lot of control with webnades and other things. Tier 3 does tons of damage. Refer to MM forums on CoH site, as some upgrade should not be taken to max DPS.
Thugs: A mixed set first two teirs are ranged with good aoe, Teir 3 is a mini-SS Brute. The Teir 1's use pistols with some cone attacks as do the tier 2's, one tier one will turn into an arsonist and throw fire AoE molotov cocktails. Teir 3 does a lot of damage and tanks decently, but he also must be micromanaged as he loves to stand there like a moron and throw chunks of dirt. This set has very little control but good damage. It also has Gang Warfare that summons 10 other thugs to make a sort of meat shield. The tier two also apply Maneuvers (+def) and Tactics(+acc) auras to your other henchies, but not players.
This is a pretty interesting class. Reminds me of that DAOC class that could summon a small army to fight for him.