Mastermind Archetype: Overview Of The Mastermind Archetype in City of Villains

I’ve always wanted minions.

The Mastermind plays like no other archetype in just about any game. You get your own group to play around with. Nothing beats the feeling you get when you run around the streets with your own posse of loyal minions with villainy in your heart. No matter what type of Mastermind you choose to play, you eventually get access to a total of six goons at once - and you only count as one person when you group up. Masterminds do excellent damage while being able to defend themselves quite well. They get a choice of moderate attack powers that fit in well with the minions they choose in their primary power pool while getting access to a good selection of buffs and debuffs in their secondary. They’re pretty much three classes in one.

Playing a Mastermind requires that you focus on keeping your minions alive while also doing damage to your targets. Masterminds are the strongest soloing class in the game, but that power also makes it so that they’re very useful in groups. The first two summoning powers that you get advances as your level increases, eventually until you get three weak henchmen, two stronger ones and one very powerful one. The summoning powers take a while to complete and cost a lot of power, making it difficult to replace fallen henchmen in the middle of battle without blowing an inspiration. You also have to power up your minions after you summon them, adding to the amount of time and power that you need to take to get them ready for a fight.

One example of a Mastermind primary pool is Mercenaries, which allows you to summon a small team of soldiers to support you. In addition to that, you get a few powers for an assault rifle - burst, slug and M30 grenade, which allow you to put in some significant additional damage to support your troops. Necromancy allows you to summon a group of undead - three zombies, two skeleton knights and a lich.

Their secondary powerset allows them to buff and support their minions primarily. Dark Miasma has some group heals, buffs and strong area debuffs along with some crowd control abilities. No matter what powersets you choose, you’ll have a lot on your plate as a Mastermind, as you’ll be constantly concerned with directing your minions while you try to destroy your targets. The only thing that tends to trip up a Mastermind are powerful boss enemies, as it can be difficult to keep your minions alive through intense spikes of damage.