I like ALL of the dark skills. Only Merc skills to avoid is Serum (huge timer and not effective) and MP3 Grenade (causes a tremendous amount of aggro onto you instead of pets).
I have two MM's a 50 nec/pois and a 31 thug/arrow.
I would have to the say the thing to watch for in secondary is some type of heal other ability. Force Field you don't have to worry about heals too much as pets won't get hit often. Otherwise you'll have to invest in the Medicine power pool and well Aid Other sucks compared to other single target heal powers.
I do really like the debuffs in Poison secondary. Between Envenom, Weaken and Neurotoxic Breath that mob is really debuffed! I was even able to take down Minx as a red Elite Boss rather easily as an example. Plus the single target heal is handy to keep your pets upright once you get it slotted. Currently I have it slotted with the Doctored Wounds (4) enhancement set.
I do enjoy Trick Arrow too, the Entangling Arrow stops runners nicely but the lack of any heal is my only major complaint. Flash Arrow is a good opener as it works essentially the same as Smoke Bomb.
Its all about the THUGS homie....... and the Bots come is a close second and I I have a Ninja on justices but there begining stages suck until your level 30+ then they kick some serious A$$....
I'm a freak for necromancers so the shamblers are my pick. My main character has Nec/DM and hes pretty good. When I choose powers I usually choose them in a roleplaying aspect. I see what would best fit the personality of my character.
EDIT: you can also make all your zombies ranged with enchant undead. My little zombies barf some kind of acid or something. I kinda prefer melee since its easier to heal.
I have a Ninja MM robotics MM and a Thug MM all of them have Dark as the 2nd the reason for this is i see myself as a buffer/debuffer for my pets...i am 100% support for my pets.i have no attack powers cept for brawl.the reason i do this is an attack helps me damage where a power i can replace that with will either buff my 1-7 pets to hit harder get hit less or debuff the enemy which in turns helps all of my pets.
p.s. and that seems to work really well when at 33 i took a 36 hero solo with my robotic/dark MM.
Some of the personal attacks can be useful. They help a LOT in the beginning stages when you don't have many pets. Otherwise, it can be horribly tedious. If the attack has a secondary effect, it's nice as well. Personal attacks in the thug line have a decent chance of knockdown. Later in your career, drop the attacks in a respec if you find they are no longer useful.
No Way i rule with my Mercenary/Poison MM all the way Envenom rules and the Commando Is a total Tank!!!
I agree with the Poison part. My Thugs/Poison character is just crazy. Poison has some absolutely unbelievable debuffs. The reason people usually don't mention Poison is because the tier 9 ability (Noxious Gas) really only works with melee pets; more specifically, it pretty much requires a top-level melee pet that can tank. That really only leaves Thugs as a primary. If you put Noxious Gas on your Bruiser and send him into a heap of mobs, though, it's all over for them. Poison is still a good power set even if you don't take thugs, but the tier 9 won't be anywhere as useful with other primaries.
Another big advantage with Poison is that it's a really, really active set. Unlike Force Field, where you can pretty much just buff your pets then go read the forums while they fight, Poison really requires involvement. That's a definite plus for me. The downisde of Thugs/Poison, though, is that the thug pets look just...boring, especially the Punks. I'd say they come in dead last in that area.
Really, I don't think there are any secondaries, or really any primaries that are "broken." They're all pretty darned good. Thugs and Robots are essentially the best primaries statistically, but the difference between them and the other sets is pretty negligible. The secondaries are even more competitive, and really are more about playstyle. You don't really hear a lot of people complaining about any of their MM sets (with the possible exception of Mercs) for the simple reason that they all work pretty darned well. Even mercenaries, who could use a tiny bit of improvement, are completely, totally, and utterly playable. Really, mercs just need a reduction on their crowd control ability timers and, perhaps, make it so their "equip" abilities change the type of damage the equipped pet does. Their long timers and lethal damage are all that really separate them from the top primaries.
(All of that said, it can definitely be a pain in the butt controlling pets that switch between ranged and melee on their own, at least until you've digested the keybind information out there, but all MM's are going to have to learn that stuff eventually anyway. If there's anywhere MMs could use some tweaking, though, it'd be another command to permanently toggle between ranged and melee.)
Comments
I'm loving my thugs/poison so far at 19. At this level they seem like the most powerful ranged pet.
Played: EQ, EQ2, Vanguard, WAR, WoW, LoTRO, CoX, CO, GW2, FFXIV: ARR, AoC, Rift, TSW, SWTOR, TERA, BnS, ESO
I use Mercs/Dark and love the combination.
I like ALL of the dark skills. Only Merc skills to avoid is Serum (huge timer and not effective) and MP3 Grenade (causes a tremendous amount of aggro onto you instead of pets).
I have two MM's a 50 nec/pois and a 31 thug/arrow.
I would have to the say the thing to watch for in secondary is some type of heal other ability. Force Field you don't have to worry about heals too much as pets won't get hit often. Otherwise you'll have to invest in the Medicine power pool and well Aid Other sucks compared to other single target heal powers.
I do really like the debuffs in Poison secondary. Between Envenom, Weaken and Neurotoxic Breath that mob is really debuffed! I was even able to take down Minx as a red Elite Boss rather easily as an example. Plus the single target heal is handy to keep your pets upright once you get it slotted. Currently I have it slotted with the Doctored Wounds (4) enhancement set.
I do enjoy Trick Arrow too, the Entangling Arrow stops runners nicely but the lack of any heal is my only major complaint. Flash Arrow is a good opener as it works essentially the same as Smoke Bomb.
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I'm a freak for necromancers so the shamblers are my pick. My main character has Nec/DM and hes pretty good. When I choose powers I usually choose them in a roleplaying aspect. I see what would best fit the personality of my character.
EDIT: you can also make all your zombies ranged with enchant undead. My little zombies barf some kind of acid or something. I kinda prefer melee since its easier to heal.
I have a Ninja MM robotics MM and a Thug MM all of them have Dark as the 2nd the reason for this is i see myself as a buffer/debuffer for my pets...i am 100% support for my pets.i have no attack powers cept for brawl.the reason i do this is an attack helps me damage where a power i can replace that with will either buff my 1-7 pets to hit harder get hit less or debuff the enemy which in turns helps all of my pets.
p.s. and that seems to work really well when at 33 i took a 36 hero solo with my robotic/dark MM
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Robots are just too gd loud. All you can hear is your damn loud ass robots running around.
Some of the personal attacks can be useful. They help a LOT in the beginning stages when you don't have many pets. Otherwise, it can be horribly tedious. If the attack has a secondary effect, it's nice as well. Personal attacks in the thug line have a decent chance of knockdown. Later in your career, drop the attacks in a respec if you find they are no longer useful.
I agree with the Poison part. My Thugs/Poison character is just crazy. Poison has some absolutely unbelievable debuffs. The reason people usually don't mention Poison is because the tier 9 ability (Noxious Gas) really only works with melee pets; more specifically, it pretty much requires a top-level melee pet that can tank. That really only leaves Thugs as a primary. If you put Noxious Gas on your Bruiser and send him into a heap of mobs, though, it's all over for them. Poison is still a good power set even if you don't take thugs, but the tier 9 won't be anywhere as useful with other primaries.
Another big advantage with Poison is that it's a really, really active set. Unlike Force Field, where you can pretty much just buff your pets then go read the forums while they fight, Poison really requires involvement. That's a definite plus for me. The downisde of Thugs/Poison, though, is that the thug pets look just...boring, especially the Punks. I'd say they come in dead last in that area.
Really, I don't think there are any secondaries, or really any primaries that are "broken." They're all pretty darned good. Thugs and Robots are essentially the best primaries statistically, but the difference between them and the other sets is pretty negligible. The secondaries are even more competitive, and really are more about playstyle. You don't really hear a lot of people complaining about any of their MM sets (with the possible exception of Mercs) for the simple reason that they all work pretty darned well. Even mercenaries, who could use a tiny bit of improvement, are completely, totally, and utterly playable. Really, mercs just need a reduction on their crowd control ability timers and, perhaps, make it so their "equip" abilities change the type of damage the equipped pet does. Their long timers and lethal damage are all that really separate them from the top primaries.
(All of that said, it can definitely be a pain in the butt controlling pets that switch between ranged and melee on their own, at least until you've digested the keybind information out there, but all MM's are going to have to learn that stuff eventually anyway. If there's anywhere MMs could use some tweaking, though, it'd be another command to permanently toggle between ranged and melee.)