Relying on my robot friends
3rd June 2008 – 7.49 amI again mentioned recently that, in City of Villains, the relative power of the Mastermind archetype comes from strength in numbers, but what I failed to point out was that this also translates in to being a weakness, because without my robots I am quite puny. Because of my lack of survivability by myself I tend to summon or recall my robots whenever I zone or enter an instance, getting them to my side ready for whatever danger lies ahead. When I went on my latest bank heist I realised that this can cause problems.
I was happy to find out that my robot henchman are happy to follow me even when flying, so I had no problem summoning them to my side when I turned up in Atlas Park before flying off to the bank. I realised that maybe this was a mistake when I got some bonus time awarded for 'resisting arrest'. Rather, realisation dawned when I touched down in front of the bank and my 'bot buddies raced towards me, followed by a swarm of mobs that they had led right to my position. It seems that mobs don't lose focus in instances in City of Villains either, and I was facing rather too many. The good news was that I gained a bit more bonus time by blowing up the prison door, although it took rather longer than the time gained to get through it in the first place, what with having to summon my robots and equip them again.
The bank heist was successful in the end though, and I got a new temporary ability that allowed me to resuscitate myself once, avoiding XP debt too. But, again, the weakness of the Mastermind is a possible problem. Were I to be defeated, unless I was running away at the time, I would be close to my enemies and thus reviving myself would put me right back in to combat. Being defeated causes my robots to collapse in to a heap of nuts and bolts, and maybe some electronics too, so I would have to resummon them before I could be effective, but would I have time to do this whilst being attacked? I had a chance to find out, when I unexpectedly found myself attracting a second group of mobs at the wrong time. I used my resuscitate ability, quickly used my knockback attack on the first mob to attack me, then started my summoning process.
First comes Buttercup, who can shield me and the other bots as well as attack, then Fluffy and Snowflake. Buttercup gets upgraded, to enhance the shields it creates, then I shield Buttercup with my two bubbles. Then Fluffy and Snowflake take it in turns to get upgraded and shielded, with any able robot ordered to defend aggresively during any spare moments they have. In-between getting my 'bots up and running I fired off the occasional knockback either to stop myself from getting hit or to help out the 'bots. It worked well enough, with the single group being defeated without any problems, although we took a little more damage than usual. It's good to know that I can survive for long enough to get my defensive and aggressive capabilities up and running. I can fly around the Rogue Isles without a robot ground force in the confidence that when I need them I will have time to defend myself.
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