PaxArcana

.... I could actually see something like this being of interest. A pool that is completely open (all powers, all levels, no prerequisite picks) ... but you can perhaps only get ONE, ever. Choose it with care! Which would also stave off some of that social pressure. Player A: "Hey, why don't you have the KB-to-KD pool power? Player B: "Because I took ________ from that pool instead." Player A: "Oh, okay." ... The real trick will be figuring out what sorts of things can be done, and THEN, figuring out whether it'd be more work than it would ultimately be worth to actually implement it.

I'd also like to point out, that the above approach - asking "why?" before saying "you're doing ____ wrong!", can also be applied to behavioral issues, like running ahead, and so forth. SBasically ... just stop accusing other people of "doing it wrong" until after you know the why of what they're doing. Sometimes they might bloody well be justified. Sometimes, they might just not know better. Always, being human beings, they will react poorly if you start off with an accusatory or derogatory tone, e.g. by saying "you're doing ____ wrong". Ask why they're doing that .... and if their reasoning is unsound, still don't attack their choice(s). Instead, sell them better choices. Pitch those better choices in a way that makes them excited, or at leats interested, in giving them a try. You'll have better results with literally every not-a-jerk player on the planet. I still have good memories of the player who I first teamed with as an utter n00b, because they didn't say "you're wrong to do ___", they instead said, "you'll be happier if you ___", even when my choices had been made erroneously, out of ignorance.

Yep. Either you missed it entirely, or you've proved yourself to be who this was aimed at. Or both, both is also possible. I said, "play an archetype wrong". Forgive me if I thought even the most brain-dead fool could understand that as referring to Build - to the player's choice of powersets and powers, and prioritization of which powers to emphasize during play. Yup. There we are: the Build Elitism on full display. I don't know why anyone would play that sort of character. But I don't have to know, or even understand, to decide not to be a dick about it. If I saw someone playing a Tank with none of their toggles, I would not say you are playing Tanks wrong. I wouldn't assume they were an idiot, nor that they were naive. I would instead ask them hey, how come you didn't take any of your toggles? If their answer indicated a lack of knowledge, I would then explain why those toggles are useful and why they might want to take them. On the other hand, if they sounded like they knew what they were doing - maybe they've done it for the challenge. Maybe they just finished a series of DFB runs, wanted more attacks during that, and are planning on getting all the toggle defenses in the next half-dozen levels. Maybe they're testing a theory about something or other. I don't know ... and until I knew their reason(s), I would have no rational basis for telling them they were wrong to do it. ... It's about the approach, Xao. And you are serving as a textbook example of the wrong approach: insisting someone is wrong, without first asking why they've chosen to do something in that way. Thank you for that, at least.

This sort of suggestion has been a constant, and popular, one since City of Villains launched. Sadly, pet appearances were "hard-coded", and making them customizable would entail a LOT of work to basically rewrite that entire part of the code, from scratch.

Any time/date stuff you see, is going to be in your own local time. The community as a whole is pretty much global, so as for what time zone it's in ... "all of them". 🙂 I suspect, U.S. and Euro timezones are most common among individual players.

... you are exactly the poster child of "MY WAY OR YOU'RE WRONG" that this thread was aimed at. Also, you completely missed the point. This is exactly correct. Behaviors, like running ahead, aggroing adds, etc - those are, and can be explicitly labelled, as "wrong". Builds are, at worst, "unusual" - like the "Petless MM" mentioned above. Personally, I'd look at that and think "Why the heck not just play a Corruptor or Defender" ... but I would never tell the person, "you're playing Mastermind wrong". I would ask them why they chose a Petless MM, instead of a Corruptor or a Defender. If their reason suggests they just made a poor choice (for example, they just wanted to do buffs/debuffs and didn't understand that Defenders and Corruptors do them at least as well, plus have better HP and attacks), I'll offer advice that might improve their enjoyment of the game. But if they say something like "I wanted to see if it could be done and still be fun" ...? Rock on, you brave player, you. Rock on. If someone is having trouble with accuracy, or being mezzed all the time, then sure ... talk to them, make suggestions. But still, don't say "you're doing it wrong". That only puts them on the defensive, and your advice is less likely to be taken well. Instead, offer advice. Suggest slotting more Accuracy, picking up the mez protection power they skipped, and so forth. Explain why those things will help. Just, don't start off with "you're doing _____ wrong". ... This thread arose, because I was told by someone on these forums that "I was doing Mastermind wrong", when I blithely asserted that my Mastermind wouldn't be using up his Endurance bar during a mission, once his pets were all out and Equip'd/Upgraded. Keep in mind, on Live I played that exact build to the level cap, and .... yeah, aside from re-summoning bit at the door, I used little or no Endurance throughout entire missions. He was Robotics / Force Field, with plenty of toggles but little use for clicky powers. Even Deflection and Insulation shields, I didn't even always need, not once I hit level 32, not against most enemies. (And now that those are AoE, that will be even more true than it was back on Live.) But, noooooo ... "playing Mastermind wrong". (They later backpedaled into "other than /FF or /Sonic", but they still held to if you're not mostly using your secondary you are playing MM wrong.)

I think you have a shallow understanding of Masterminds. You seem to think, on a team, the MM should be putting most of their attention into their secondary powerset. And I strongly disagree with that.

"Team Leader" and "Dictator" should not be treated as synonyms.

Mastermind absolutely is not a support AT. NONE of the Villains ATs were ever designated as "support". You sound an awful lot like you're one of those that thinks, for example, an Empathy/ Defender or /Empathy Controller should just heal and nevermind all that other stuff they're supposed to be able to do.

... not if (for example) I'm trying to pitch the guy into my Assault Bot's burn patch (so that the Assault will take aggro off of me), it doesn't. Or punt him into the general melee/pig-pile around the Brute or Tanker (for the same reason), for that matter.

It absolutely is valid to (politely) leave a team, or if you're the team leader, ask someone else to, when playstyles clash. I, for example, dislike "zerg rush" styles of play. So, I won't stay on a team that plays that way - or, in the vanishingly rare event I'm the team leader, if someone seems to be hellbent on playing that way, I'll explain that they just aren't a good fit, wish them the best of luck, and ask them to leave the team. But that's the thing: the better approach to use is, "we don't fit well on the same team", rather than "you're not playing right". 🙂

My /FF Mastermind would quit the team the instant you toggled that on. He only has one power with KB - Force Bolt - but that power only DOES knockback (and, like, 1 damage). Knockback is all it's good for ... and the reason MMs use it, is to keep themselves alive. Stray mob aggro's on the /Forcefield MM? S/he has three choices: Panic and activate Bodyguard mode - pulling pets away from burning down the Boss, EB, or even AV the team might be facing; Use ForceBolt to throw the enemy back, until the team's Brute or Tank can grab aggro back; Faceplant. #1 will get me yelled at, #3 gets me debt, and you just took #2 away from me? Exit, stage left.

"Quantity is a quality all it's own" - Stalin With enough tries, those procs will go off fairly often. Enough pets, attacking often enough, even with low chances to hit can still fire off those procs plenty of times.

... don't. Seriously, please just don't. There is no One True Way, for good or ill, to play any particular archetype. Defenders can focus on their attack powers. Controllers can focus on their buffs and debuffs. Masterminds can go petless. This is all allowed ... and it absolutely dismays me that there are any people left in our community that don't understand that. (I've just been having a back-and-forth about supposedly "playing Masterminds wrong" over in the Suggestions thread, which is what prompted this post.) As long as you're not griefing other players .... do what you like. Have fun. People going against type, excuse me, against the assumptions of their archetype, has even inspired the creation of new archetypes. Defenders who went for Attacks first, and buffs/debuffs last - known back in the day as Offenders - are why we have Corrupters. Seriously, that's where the inspiration for Corruptors came from. They aren't "blasters who can (de)buff", they are officially-canonized Offenders. So when you find yourself thinking "s/he is doing it wrong" ... stop. Ask yourself, not "isn't that wrong", but instead, "why are they playing that way?" Heck, maybe ask them why they've chosen to play like that. Who knows, maybe you'll decide the idea is worth checking out for yourself .... and maybe you'll even decide "HOLY CARP, THIS IS HELLA FUN!" But whatever you do, don't tell anyone they're playing wrong, just because they aren't playing the way you think they're supposed to. Because if you do ... then the only one who will be wrong, is you. ... Thank you for listening to my TED talk. 😄 >>> EDIT FOR CLARITY <<< It seems I have been - as usual, perhaps - less than brilliantly clear in getting across my point. I am NOT saying that you should never criticize anyone for any reason. I am NOT saying that there is no such thing as playing badly. I am NOT saying that you should just put up with whatever obnoxious behavior another player chooses to inflict on you, because oh the poor snowflake. I AM saying, that you should not immediately leap to the conclusion that someone is playing their archetype wrong, just because they aren't playing it the way "everyone else" does, and especially not because they've chosen an unusual mix or powers, powersets, or enhancement slotting. You should first ask why they have chosen to go in that direction, why they have chosen to try and buck the trend for their Archetype. They may have a perfectly valid reason for being .... call it experimental, call it avant-garde, call it just plain wierd ... but, the important thing is, they may have a very good reason for how they've chosen to build their character. Even if it's a completely silly reason - for example, "I lost a bet, this is my forfeit, I have to get it to 50. Ugh." That's still a reason! Or maybe they don't. Maybe they really are just completely clueless. But, newsflash for everyone: if you start out saying "you are wrong", you stand a good chance of putting that person on the defensive. They may then not only not listen to any advice you offer, but they may outright reject it completely. A more collaborative tone is likely to produce much better results. If they're a newbie to CoX ... reminisce about your own first weeks or months of play, and how much you learned. Then, share those things with the newbie. They're much more likely to listen to, and follow, advice given in a friendly tone, than in a derogatory or accusatory one.

Mastermind is not a Support Archetype. It is a PET Archetype. If the Mastermind has pets out, they are Masterminding correctly. (And if they don't have pets out, they still aren't doing it wrong. Wierdly, but still not wrong.)

It doesn't matter what your secondary is. It still would not be "doing it wrong".

OTOH, if the content is way lower than you, it should be a breeze to finish them the old-fashioned way ... 🙂

Rather than spend my real-world human attention on running an attack chain, I'm spending it micromanaging my pets. I don't take any attacks from my Primary (well, okay, I take them for the first fifteen levels, 'cause there just aren't enough pets to occupy my time fully, until around level 18), and with some secondaries there aren't any debuffs to speak of (/Force Field, for example). My main, back on Live, was Robotics / Force Field. I didn't take Repulsion Bomb, and Force Bubble was end-intensive enough I saved it for panic situations. So the only two powers I had that would affect the enemy directly in any way, were Force Bolt (which hardly counts, and after I have five pets I hardly need it), and Detention Field, which is just situational enough that it's not really needed in every fight. On Live, I would only Deflection/Insulation bubble the Brute (or Tanker, in co-op zones), because ideally, they would be the only one getting attacked. Mind, I was running full Leadership, plus Dispersion Field. That was slotted so I was giving around 15% defense just for standing nearby. Deflection/Insulation were giving almost 17% more, to whoever needed it (again, typically Brute or Tank - nowadays, "the whole team"). Note, especially, my robots were not "quite vulnerable" without the Protector bubbles, because my toggles were about as good as the bubbles from both bots. Once the Protectors were done double-bubbling the robots, they were up >30% defense. And I could softcap them, if I wanted to Deflection/Insulate them. Rarely needed to, though. ... So, what was my attention, time, and energy spent doing? Directing the robots to new targets, sometimes individually to spread their aggro around; Moving the robots, again sometimes individually, to new positions as needed; Maintaining situational awareness - if an ambush came in, or someone accidentally attracted a few adds, I was typically the first to see it - and use #1 and #2 to grab the adds' aggro until the Brute/Tanker could reassert control; Positioning myself, to keep my toggles' effects on as much of the team as possible. That's not "Masterminding Wrong". That's just, masterminding differently than you do. And it doesn't generally involve my little avatar "animating" anything, nor does it cost any of it's little blue bar. ... Back on live, sometime in the mid-30's for level, I had a team (PUG, on some SF or other) complain that I was "just leeching" because they didn't see me actually attacking the enemy; I was just "standing there", or maybe "running around doing nothing" (except the list above, which generally isn't visible to other people the way brightly-colored energy beams etc are). So I challenged them: for one enemy spawn, I really would do nothing - no toggles, no bubbles, pets in Passive. They would do the fight alone, without a lick of help from me. Then it was my turn - THEY stood by and watched, while I took on TWO spawn groups, at once, all by myself. I finished up my side of the "test" faster than they did, and with my pets in far better health (even though I was only Def/Ins bubbling the Assault bot). Then quipped, IC, "so, remind me exactly who is carrying who, here?" before, OOC, explaining (in nutshell brevity) all the stuff above. ... They didn't complain one whit after that. And, for the rest of the SF, they also were more patient waiting at the door while I (frantically) re-summoned and re-upgrade/equip'd my robots. (This was back when pets NEVER zoned in or out with a MM, you had to do the summon-and-buff-dance at EVERY door.) Being an MM who doesn't use much, or even any, END post-summoning pets, IS NOT MASTERMINDING "WRONG". It's just a "pure pet" build, with a secondary that doesn't need much direct, mid-fight use.

Hang out in AP, inevitably someone will drop one, and if you're quick you can click it before they do ...

Yes, I figured it was a joke, and just wanted to play along. Sadly, I screwed it up. Somehow, the "size" check I did was on my ENTIRE Steam Library, not just those two individual games. I don't just lose ... I (inadvertently) tried to cheat. I think that means my e-peen gets cut off with a rusty butter knife. 😭 I could recover, and just install Shadow of Mordor (that one IS over 100GB), but that'd mean spending 8 to 12 hours downloading it first, and ... um ... no, thank you. 😄

Yes. Which is why, if I were to do it, I'd first toss a disc in my R/W Blu-Ray drive and back those files up. All, like, 1.2 terabytes of them. Which would (a) take multiple disks, and (b) take many, many hours. ONLY THEN could I actually begin planning out new partitions, including a temporary "dummy" partition to facilitate moving files around. Right now, I've got: C - 222GB (128GB free); OS, and things that refuse to install anywhere but the C drive D - 499GB (290GB free); Games E - 749GB (639GB free); Documents & Misc F - 588GB (255GB free); Music, Photos, videos D, E, and F are all the same physical HDD; Cis a separate drive, an SSD. What I should have done with that HDD, is: D - 1TB; Games (~590 would be free) E - 250GB; Documents & Misc (~140 would still be free) F - 586GB; Music, Photos, videos (~253 would still be free) ... ah well, next PC. (When D will be it's own, separate SSD. Just for games. With an .m2 form factor, for ridiculously-high R/W speeds. Hehehe.)

Well, maybe she's here, and I'll bump into her someday (and actually know I have). 🙂

... I'd actually be more envious of this, than if it had been someone like Reynolds or Cumberbatch. I'm a huuuuge fan of her Valdemar novels. 🙂

It would also utterly break some powers. Force Bolt, for example. My Robo/FF Mastermind absolutely relies on it as "soft control" for occasions when my pets can't quite grab and hold aggro from an entire spawn, and something insists on getting personal with my MM. I just keep knocking them off their feet, and fifteen-plus feet away from me, in order to limit their threat to my personal health and safety, until the minions can get involved.

::sad panda face:: That'd be a damned shame, 'cause it'd be a great thing to add to the toolbox. 🙂