Post by supercollide on Aug 24, 2011 10:36:18 GMT -5
I've had several questions sent my way about the Mind AT recently, likely as I'm S.E.C.R.E.T.'s most vocal exponent for this class (Well Me & Lunar!). So rather than try and chatfial my way through individual PM's I'm posting them up here.
Useful Links
champions-online.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gameguides&action=display&thread=129&page=1
www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/The_Mind
www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Innate_Characteristics
www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Characteristics
Now Cradock's Mind Guide should be your first port of call as that was my bible when I started and his example build is good and solid. I'm pretty much going to take you level by level through Cradock's guide and build as I would do it now, it's similar to what I did initially but without the miss-steps & retcons and a little more awareness of just how game changing later powers are.
Initial setup.
All ATs have an innate talent which Gold Freeforms can pick but for Silver's they are an integral and hidden part of the AT. The Mind's innate talent boosts Pre, End a fair bit and Int & Rec a little.
Once you finish the tutorial/exit powerhouse at level 6 you'll have these powers:
Psi Lash is your energy builder
Ego Sprites your crowd attack power
Ego Blast is your bigger mob attack power
Pick your Travel power. I actually chose flight for theme reasons but if you aren't hampering yourself with concerns that then I thoroughly recommend Teleport as Craddock suggests.
At Level 6: Gear what you can into Pre, End then Rec first. Then try push Int and Con. After that I'd fill empty gear slots with less useful stats rather than leave them empty.
Playstyle: usually mobs come with 2/3 henchmen (1 bar health) and 1 Villain (2/3 bar health). Psi Lash the Villain, tap Ego Sprites twice (it stacks twice) and then attack the Villain with Ego Blast. Quickly tapped Ego Blasts are really effective but compare them against charging a full Blast as I can tap really quickly - see what suits you and how the damage tally’s up. The mobs should fall to the sprites damage while you concentrate on the mob. Remember what Defender told you? BLOCK! Seriously check it and see the difference in damage taken. Blast, Block, Blast until they all fall down or until you have to refresh the 2x Sprites.
Once you have enough energy management to fire Sprites first then swap to target Villain, 2x Sprites, Lash then Blast, block, blast.
You aren't built for Damage-Per-Second but your attacks layer well together.
Pulling Mobs - if there's a large congregation of mobs then try to pull smaller groups away and after you by charging an Ego Blast at the one nearest you, hopefully only a few will peel off to attack you.
Devices - Buy a stack of 6 Mars heals from the vendor and equip them. If you have any others slot them and use them when under pressure, damaging attacks and summon pets ones work well. If you can afford one then a 'Become' device from the C-store or auction house can be an excellent addition - the Vampire or Werewolf for example have decent damage and survivability, the Demon or Djinn are good for DPS.
Levels 7 & 8 get you your first talent choice and your Slotted Passive (Aura of Radiant Protection - an 'always on' boost to your Damage resistance)
For talents pick Pre/End as this boosts your superstats (despite the fact you don't have Pre superstat just yet).
Level 9 gives you 2 upgrade/rank points to play with and hopefully you'll already have an idea where this would be best spent, I applied this rule before taking out any upgrade despite having planned ahead as actually retconning right now is quite cheap and levels are gained swiftly so getting "back to the plan" is easy enough.
Which is the biggest issue right now?:
General Survivability - Boost Aura (or later your Heal r possibly your block shield)
Killing Henchmen too slowly - Boost Ego Sprites
Killing Villains too slowly (comparatively - Mind isn't DPS!) - Boost Ego Blast
Need to escape quicker - Boost Teleport (only available from lvl20)
If in doubt boost the Slotted Passive (Aura)
I actually began raising one at a time, Aura, Sprites, Blast and taking the Telekinetic Reinforcement on the shield when that opened up for the lingering shield effect.
With Talents you are better off pushing Superstats and picking Rec as the secondary upgrade early on to boost energy going into a fight.
Here's my recommendation for Upgrades and Talents up to level 17 and the addition of Ego Sleep.
7 Talent: Pre/End
9 R2 Aura (2)
11 R2 Ego Sprites (2) - PICKED EMPATHIC HEAL
12 Talent: Pre/Rec
13 R2 Ego Blast (2)
14 TK Shield Telekinetic Reinforcement (1)
15 Talent: End/Rec
16 R3 Aura (2)
17 Ego Blast - Rude Awakening (1)
GAME CHANGE - Ego Sleep at Level 17
Level 17 gives you Ego Sleep and a good change to re-plan, check your gearing etc.
Playstyle - Ego Sprites won't disturb a Sleeping target so now if your energy can support it it's target Villain, Charged Sleep, 2x Sprites, Charged Ego Blast (does more damage to a sleeping target) then lash, less need to BLOCK! most of them are sleeping!
Gear wise you should be gearing Pre & End till they hit the 30-33% boost to attack softcap, Boost Rec to help fuel your attacks. Con is always useful and as Sleep has a cooldown Int is much more useful as it will help reduce cooldown times. Health-On-Kill gear is worth trying out as well.
Devices - Blood Moon heroes drop for pretty powerful devices which could well be worth you trying to farm now - Nimbus of Force is a bubble shield that's very useful , Archer's Memory &, Hacked Orbital Cannon Codes are attacks that can add more damage layers when fighting Bosses, Revenant of Firefight is a powerful pet summon. Occasionally you'll meet a dungeon where a Zombie Powder or Servitors Serum (rezz devices) comes in handy too.
FYI - I prefer to hold off on upgrading the block as while it's useful I find that if you are really taking that much damage that you need the block boost and can't just heal then you should be running away to fight another day, fast! That or firing up a Nimbus of Force device.
19 R2 Heal (2)
20 Talent: Pre/Int
21 R3 Ego Sprites (2)
GAME CHANGE - Telepathic Reverberation at Level 22
You'll never need to turn Psi Lash on again! ALL your attacks and crowd controls apply effects that fuel this!
Playstyle - remains similar just drop Psi-Lash.
Gear wise - similar again but you can dial down the Rec as Telepathic Reverberation and the Sentinel role will provide LOTS of energy - that's not to say you won't run out occasionally but usually that's only so for a split second or two. I'd now try and ensure your End stat doesn't push above the 30-33% damage boost softcap and push Int & Con a bit more. I'd also look at a 2nd gearing setup pushing Pre as high as it will go. This will boost your damage, healing and threat management when teaming. Healing draws mob attention and by level 40 anything under 300 Pre you will still draw attention despite the Sentinel role using Pre to reduce threat. This is worth trying now since you need less energy management stats. Now be prepared for a long wait for anything interesting to happen to your build and after level 27 save your adv points or be prepared to retcon them at level 32.
23 Ego Blast - Mind Opener (2)
25 R3 Heal (2)
25 Talent: End/Int
27 Ego Hold - Mass Effect (2) (then hold on to your talent points)
30 Talent: Rec/Int
32 R2 Ego Storm (2) & Malevolent Manifestation (2) - PICKED EGO STORM
GAME CHANGE - Ego Storm at Level 32
Welcome to the end of the wilderness! 10 levels and the only power you got was Ego Hold which works better than Ego Sleep in teams but frankly isn't great. You get a choice and I'd recommend playing with summon nightmares in the powerhouse but Ego Storm is the way forwards!
Did you save your Adv points. Good. Test plain Ego Storm in the Powerhouse. It's a maintain that holds and damages and fuels Telepathic Reverberation, hmmm, hang on Supercollide, actually Ego Sleep works better as you can layer with that, why do you rate this power so much? Ok fair point, take out Malevolent Manifestation and try again. It's just lost its maintain. Stop using Ego Sleep, use this instead and keep sleep for when Storm's on cooldown, you now have more damage layers, a hold and so much energy! R2 right away! This just got fun again! Despite being squishy you could leap in to a group of mobs, Ego Storm, 2x Sprites, Blast & Heal and pretty much off-tank, yes Off-Tank!
From level 33-39 the adv upgrades I've picked are mostly gravy, they are decent and useful but not game changingly so. I've held off on upgrading the block as mentioned before but there's points going spare now. (Personal choice here - my currently build doesn't have any ranks on the block). The Ego Sleep adv is only useful if the mobs wake up alive so worth taking but not essential. As I'm not going for PvP then there's points spare to upgrade travel powers should you wish.
33 Ego Sleep - Plagued By Nightmares(2)
35 R2 TK Shield (2)
37 R3 TK Shield (2)
38 Travel Power (1)
39 Travel Power (1)
40 R2 Mindful Reinforcement (2) & Revitalizing Boost (2)
GAME CHANGE - Mindful Reinforcement at Level 40
DING! Congratulations on hitting level cap! You win Mindful Reinforcement and your last 4 adv points; spend them all on Mindful Reinforcement! It's a spammable bubble shield that heals if any shield is left when it runs out, take it to R2 and with Revitalizing Boost it also returns energy to you. If you don't need the energy then go for R3.
Now your playstyle should be like this: bubble, storm, 2x sprites, blasts, bubble/heal/block as appropriate. You can bubble and heal 'under the bubble' so they are protected while you are heal - this applies to you also.
Gearing - Farm Serpent Lantern on Elite if you can for blue drops, go for 2 setups again,
Balanced: 250 Pre, 230 End, 100 Int, 80 Rec, all the rest into Con - probably 120ish.
Stacked: 300+Pre, 200-230 End, CON.
Or you could even experiment gearing in Dex for Crits, crit heals can be very powerful.
Devices: farm Blood Moon to get lvl 40 version of Nimbus, Firefight, Orbital Cannon & Archers Memory. Cowards Lament, Supernatural Possession and Radions Revenge have their uses too. Omega Destroid Stomp from Resistance is powerful with a massive cooldown. Don't forget your self rezz devices.
Useful Links
champions-online.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gameguides&action=display&thread=129&page=1
www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/The_Mind
www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Innate_Characteristics
www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Characteristics
Now Cradock's Mind Guide should be your first port of call as that was my bible when I started and his example build is good and solid. I'm pretty much going to take you level by level through Cradock's guide and build as I would do it now, it's similar to what I did initially but without the miss-steps & retcons and a little more awareness of just how game changing later powers are.
Initial setup.
All ATs have an innate talent which Gold Freeforms can pick but for Silver's they are an integral and hidden part of the AT. The Mind's innate talent boosts Pre, End a fair bit and Int & Rec a little.
Once you finish the tutorial/exit powerhouse at level 6 you'll have these powers:
Psi Lash is your energy builder
Ego Sprites your crowd attack power
Ego Blast is your bigger mob attack power
Pick your Travel power. I actually chose flight for theme reasons but if you aren't hampering yourself with concerns that then I thoroughly recommend Teleport as Craddock suggests.
At Level 6: Gear what you can into Pre, End then Rec first. Then try push Int and Con. After that I'd fill empty gear slots with less useful stats rather than leave them empty.
Playstyle: usually mobs come with 2/3 henchmen (1 bar health) and 1 Villain (2/3 bar health). Psi Lash the Villain, tap Ego Sprites twice (it stacks twice) and then attack the Villain with Ego Blast. Quickly tapped Ego Blasts are really effective but compare them against charging a full Blast as I can tap really quickly - see what suits you and how the damage tally’s up. The mobs should fall to the sprites damage while you concentrate on the mob. Remember what Defender told you? BLOCK! Seriously check it and see the difference in damage taken. Blast, Block, Blast until they all fall down or until you have to refresh the 2x Sprites.
Once you have enough energy management to fire Sprites first then swap to target Villain, 2x Sprites, Lash then Blast, block, blast.
You aren't built for Damage-Per-Second but your attacks layer well together.
Pulling Mobs - if there's a large congregation of mobs then try to pull smaller groups away and after you by charging an Ego Blast at the one nearest you, hopefully only a few will peel off to attack you.
Devices - Buy a stack of 6 Mars heals from the vendor and equip them. If you have any others slot them and use them when under pressure, damaging attacks and summon pets ones work well. If you can afford one then a 'Become' device from the C-store or auction house can be an excellent addition - the Vampire or Werewolf for example have decent damage and survivability, the Demon or Djinn are good for DPS.
Levels 7 & 8 get you your first talent choice and your Slotted Passive (Aura of Radiant Protection - an 'always on' boost to your Damage resistance)
For talents pick Pre/End as this boosts your superstats (despite the fact you don't have Pre superstat just yet).
Level 9 gives you 2 upgrade/rank points to play with and hopefully you'll already have an idea where this would be best spent, I applied this rule before taking out any upgrade despite having planned ahead as actually retconning right now is quite cheap and levels are gained swiftly so getting "back to the plan" is easy enough.
Which is the biggest issue right now?:
General Survivability - Boost Aura (or later your Heal r possibly your block shield)
Killing Henchmen too slowly - Boost Ego Sprites
Killing Villains too slowly (comparatively - Mind isn't DPS!) - Boost Ego Blast
Need to escape quicker - Boost Teleport (only available from lvl20)
If in doubt boost the Slotted Passive (Aura)
I actually began raising one at a time, Aura, Sprites, Blast and taking the Telekinetic Reinforcement on the shield when that opened up for the lingering shield effect.
With Talents you are better off pushing Superstats and picking Rec as the secondary upgrade early on to boost energy going into a fight.
Here's my recommendation for Upgrades and Talents up to level 17 and the addition of Ego Sleep.
7 Talent: Pre/End
9 R2 Aura (2)
11 R2 Ego Sprites (2) - PICKED EMPATHIC HEAL
12 Talent: Pre/Rec
13 R2 Ego Blast (2)
14 TK Shield Telekinetic Reinforcement (1)
15 Talent: End/Rec
16 R3 Aura (2)
17 Ego Blast - Rude Awakening (1)
GAME CHANGE - Ego Sleep at Level 17
Level 17 gives you Ego Sleep and a good change to re-plan, check your gearing etc.
Playstyle - Ego Sprites won't disturb a Sleeping target so now if your energy can support it it's target Villain, Charged Sleep, 2x Sprites, Charged Ego Blast (does more damage to a sleeping target) then lash, less need to BLOCK! most of them are sleeping!
Gear wise you should be gearing Pre & End till they hit the 30-33% boost to attack softcap, Boost Rec to help fuel your attacks. Con is always useful and as Sleep has a cooldown Int is much more useful as it will help reduce cooldown times. Health-On-Kill gear is worth trying out as well.
Devices - Blood Moon heroes drop for pretty powerful devices which could well be worth you trying to farm now - Nimbus of Force is a bubble shield that's very useful , Archer's Memory &, Hacked Orbital Cannon Codes are attacks that can add more damage layers when fighting Bosses, Revenant of Firefight is a powerful pet summon. Occasionally you'll meet a dungeon where a Zombie Powder or Servitors Serum (rezz devices) comes in handy too.
FYI - I prefer to hold off on upgrading the block as while it's useful I find that if you are really taking that much damage that you need the block boost and can't just heal then you should be running away to fight another day, fast! That or firing up a Nimbus of Force device.
19 R2 Heal (2)
20 Talent: Pre/Int
21 R3 Ego Sprites (2)
GAME CHANGE - Telepathic Reverberation at Level 22
You'll never need to turn Psi Lash on again! ALL your attacks and crowd controls apply effects that fuel this!
Playstyle - remains similar just drop Psi-Lash.
Gear wise - similar again but you can dial down the Rec as Telepathic Reverberation and the Sentinel role will provide LOTS of energy - that's not to say you won't run out occasionally but usually that's only so for a split second or two. I'd now try and ensure your End stat doesn't push above the 30-33% damage boost softcap and push Int & Con a bit more. I'd also look at a 2nd gearing setup pushing Pre as high as it will go. This will boost your damage, healing and threat management when teaming. Healing draws mob attention and by level 40 anything under 300 Pre you will still draw attention despite the Sentinel role using Pre to reduce threat. This is worth trying now since you need less energy management stats. Now be prepared for a long wait for anything interesting to happen to your build and after level 27 save your adv points or be prepared to retcon them at level 32.
23 Ego Blast - Mind Opener (2)
25 R3 Heal (2)
25 Talent: End/Int
27 Ego Hold - Mass Effect (2) (then hold on to your talent points)
30 Talent: Rec/Int
32 R2 Ego Storm (2) & Malevolent Manifestation (2) - PICKED EGO STORM
GAME CHANGE - Ego Storm at Level 32
Welcome to the end of the wilderness! 10 levels and the only power you got was Ego Hold which works better than Ego Sleep in teams but frankly isn't great. You get a choice and I'd recommend playing with summon nightmares in the powerhouse but Ego Storm is the way forwards!
Did you save your Adv points. Good. Test plain Ego Storm in the Powerhouse. It's a maintain that holds and damages and fuels Telepathic Reverberation, hmmm, hang on Supercollide, actually Ego Sleep works better as you can layer with that, why do you rate this power so much? Ok fair point, take out Malevolent Manifestation and try again. It's just lost its maintain. Stop using Ego Sleep, use this instead and keep sleep for when Storm's on cooldown, you now have more damage layers, a hold and so much energy! R2 right away! This just got fun again! Despite being squishy you could leap in to a group of mobs, Ego Storm, 2x Sprites, Blast & Heal and pretty much off-tank, yes Off-Tank!
From level 33-39 the adv upgrades I've picked are mostly gravy, they are decent and useful but not game changingly so. I've held off on upgrading the block as mentioned before but there's points going spare now. (Personal choice here - my currently build doesn't have any ranks on the block). The Ego Sleep adv is only useful if the mobs wake up alive so worth taking but not essential. As I'm not going for PvP then there's points spare to upgrade travel powers should you wish.
33 Ego Sleep - Plagued By Nightmares(2)
35 R2 TK Shield (2)
37 R3 TK Shield (2)
38 Travel Power (1)
39 Travel Power (1)
40 R2 Mindful Reinforcement (2) & Revitalizing Boost (2)
GAME CHANGE - Mindful Reinforcement at Level 40
DING! Congratulations on hitting level cap! You win Mindful Reinforcement and your last 4 adv points; spend them all on Mindful Reinforcement! It's a spammable bubble shield that heals if any shield is left when it runs out, take it to R2 and with Revitalizing Boost it also returns energy to you. If you don't need the energy then go for R3.
Now your playstyle should be like this: bubble, storm, 2x sprites, blasts, bubble/heal/block as appropriate. You can bubble and heal 'under the bubble' so they are protected while you are heal - this applies to you also.
Gearing - Farm Serpent Lantern on Elite if you can for blue drops, go for 2 setups again,
Balanced: 250 Pre, 230 End, 100 Int, 80 Rec, all the rest into Con - probably 120ish.
Stacked: 300+Pre, 200-230 End, CON.
Or you could even experiment gearing in Dex for Crits, crit heals can be very powerful.
Devices: farm Blood Moon to get lvl 40 version of Nimbus, Firefight, Orbital Cannon & Archers Memory. Cowards Lament, Supernatural Possession and Radions Revenge have their uses too. Omega Destroid Stomp from Resistance is powerful with a massive cooldown. Don't forget your self rezz devices.
*