Jeagan

You may be able to get around this issue by having something akin to Hellfire, which summons temp pets over time, but change the trigger from a timer to the target dying. Then the things that are summoned are from the Mastermind, rather than the pet itself.

So I think you mean a Speedster powerset, not Archetype. I can see it as a powerset, basically an expansion on the Speed power pool. But an Archetype is like Blaster, Mastermind, Brute, Defender, etc, and I don't think Speedster would really fit into that category. As far as the power pools go, Teleportation is faster but WAY less accurate, flight is significantly slower but bypasses blockage, and super speed is kinda in the middle. It's slower and more accurate than teleportation, while being faster and harder to control than flight. I think it fits just fine as a travel power.

I don't have an answer for that. I don't know if the stuff that follows you around on maps count as henchman, despite having different classifications, and as there are no henchmen that summon other pets I don't know if it applies the same way. The closest I am aware is the Demon Summoning power Hell on Earth, which gets applied to a pet and summons additional temporary pets, but I assume those are still connected to the MM rather than the pet. I would figure you could set up the split spawning of slimes to work similarly, but I just don't know.

The temporary pets wouldn't prevent the summoning of your base henchmen, I'm not really sure how that's being interpreted in what I wrote 😕 It's a power effect of your pets, not a direct power of the Mastermind. I really wish we would get a new MM powerset, they are extremely stagnant and that makes me sad.

I think people are overthinking this a lot, if the damage of the base powers is balanced against having the temps out it shouldn't be all that big of a deal. Have the basic powers of the henchman, meaning the powers they start with, be weaker than the ones other henchmen types start with, and have the upgrade powers which the temp pets don't get access to be slightly stronger. Then the temps deal less damage, while the henchmen are still on the average damage curve. There are a bunch of ways to adjust for the additional damage, especially considering the temporary pets cannot be enhanced in any way.

The posse is about equivalent to what I'm thinking for my pawns, honestly. They have one attack, compared to the two that Punks start with, but the damage ends up being very comparable. Posse Brawl 28.80 average damage 2 second cooldown Punk Pistol 29.68 average damage 2 second cooldown Punk Brawl 32.06 average damage 16 second cooldown

I was operating under the same assumptions you were. Three knights, fully recharged power. Knights die the instant they spawn in, and the pawns are all invulnerable. Knights die, so 6 pawns. Summon, knights die again, so 6+6 pawns. Nine seconds later, summon knights, which instantly die. Now you have 12 pawns that have 6 seconds left (9 second cooldown) and 6 freshly summoned pawns, so 12+6. That's 18 pawns. Six seconds later you lose 12 pawns, so you have 6 left. Three seconds after that you summon and instantly lose your knights, bringing in another 6 pawns, for a total of 12.

I missed this the first read-through, and I'd like to directly address it. Applying -rech to your pet means they won't have the extra damage and accuracy, and would essentially be equivalent to the pawns, so your overall damage would drop. Assuming your kinghts are all summoned and you have summon ready to go, all three knights die, you have 6 temps. Activate power, nine seconds to go. All the knights die instantly, so you have 12 temps with a full 15 second lifespan. Assuming none of the temps die to damage, you can summon all three knights a third time after nine seconds, having a total of 18. 12 of those will already have been out for 9 seconds, so 3 seconds before you can summon any more knights, you're back down to 6 temps. I don't see this as an issue. If you want to focus more on having a bunch of temps out, it will weaken the henchman themselves, so instead of doing about the same amount of damage, they are doing half. I don't see how this is preferable.

It seems like the easiest solution for your concern is to just make the initial pet powers, meaning the ones they have without any upgrades, be a bit weaker than the average. Having the temp pets would balance out the henchmen being weaker early game (basically until you get Viscosity) and the numbers would keep them viable through the endgame. If Slam does 50 base damage and Pseudopod does 100, then that 50% damage bonus will affect the weight of the henchman slimes even more.

If it helps, I have a breakdown of Zombie using this same type of math. Zombie Brawl is the only attack they have without an upgrade. It deals 50 damage and has a cooldown of 4 seconds. This means it can be used 15 times in one minute. With a 50% hit rate, this averages out to a total of 375 (60*15*0.5) damage over a full minute, and if there are three it is a total of 1125 damage. We'll use this as our "Pawn" scale. Our "Knight" zombies have +50% damage, +10% accuracy to their powers. Zombie Brawl: 50 damage (upping to 75 for the enhancement bonus), 4 second cooldown. 75 damage * 15 uses * 0.6 accuracy gives us 562.5 damage. Projectile Vomit: 40 damage (upping to 60 for the enhancement bonus), 12 second cooldown. 60 damage * 5 uses * 0.6 accuracy gives us 180 damage. Vomit: 50 damage (upping to 75), 12 second cooldown. 75 * 5 * 0.6 = 225 Siphon Life: 25 damage (37.5), 10 second cooldown. 37.5 * 6 * 0.6 = 135 Grand total damage over a full minute is 562.5+180+225+135, or 1102.5. Zombie's summon power has a 5 second cooldown, so at most you will get maybe three "pawns" per "knight" on the field at once. I don't see this as an issue, it's kind of the intent behind the power set, and it doesn't seem broken. Just have the base slime powers (as in the ones they have without any upgrades apply) not as powerful as the standard henchman powers, and that problem is entirely removed.

None of that is taking into account that those fast hits do not deal as much damage as the later attacks. You proved my point that one non-upgraded knight and two pawns are about equal. Upgraded knights have stronger hitting attacks that allow a more constant steam of attacks (1 per second vs 1 per 3 seconds) that also hit AoEs (Spikes) and other effects. Let's compare just adding in that second cycle of Slam to the mix. Same time frame assume 3 second cooldown, 50 damage base, 50% to hit base. Knight gets +10% acc and +50% dam. Pawn: Over 30 seconds, gets 10 attacks. Half of them hit, so 5. 50 damage each, so 250 damage. We'll say 3 slimes are out, so 750 damage. Knight: Over 30 seconds, gets 20 attacks (double cycle of the same attack). 60% hit, so 12. 12*75 = 900 damage. Just adding in that one additional attack still has the single knight outpacing three pawns on damage. To tie back to the Gang War MM, if you really want to sacrifice you Punk for three Posse, go for it, I guess. I doubt 18 posse are as effective as 3 punks, and I really doubt you'll be cycling that often, seeing how the summon pet powers have a cooldown that's about as long as the temp pets last.

I'm not sure why you think the temp pets would lock you out of re-summoning replacements of the main pets, that's a non-sequitur that powers activated by my pets would make my pet summon power unusable. If my pyromaniac henchman lights a dude on fire, can I not summon him until that DoT fades? As far as needing more of the temporary versions of the pets to equal a single one of the original, just look at the pawn slime vs the knight slime. Pawn Slime attacks Slimeball Slam Knight Slime attacks (fully upgraded) Slimeball 2 copies of Slam, so it literally cycles twice as often Pseudopod Slam Spikes Engulf If I just have the Knight Slime enhanced to hit 10% more often, and have 50% increased damage with the same moves, that is a heck of a lot more output than the Pawn Slime. It hits more, and deals more damage per hit. If the Pawn hits 50% of the time, and deals 50 damage on a hit, while the Knight hits 60% of the time and deals 75 damage, over the course of 10 attacks (assuming both have the same powersets and recharge rates) the pawn deals 250 damage (5 of the 10 attacks at 50 damage each) while the Knight deals 450 damage (6 of the 10 attacks at 75 damage each). That's almost double. Now toss in all of the additional attacks on top of that, it's pretty obvious that yes, you would need three of the lesser to equal one of the major. You're also assuming there is no limit to how many pets can be summoned per henchman. I would assume there will be, but I don't know how that would need to be balanced. I don't have specific numbers for damage, accuracy, or anything like that because that would require a ton of playtesting to balance out.

It only colors the pets, not the other powers. None of the other MM pet sets have customization to the pets, but you can color personal attacks. This wouldn't be any different.

Maybe I should have posted my Mastermind Slime pet suggestion here xD I've got a list of suggested animations/FX that exist in the game for the entire thing, but some of the ideas may be harder to implement, like having an elemental infusion for the pets similar to Swap Ammunition from Dual Pistols.

Elemental Infusion affects your pets, AFAIK this would be the only MM powerset that lets you customize your pets at all.

Rudra, I see what you're saying, but uncontrollable pets are pretty common in MM powersets. Gang War, the newly added secondary summons from Necromancy's primary attacks and Soul Extraction, etc. The fact these split slimes would be lacking all of the extra attacks granted by the upgrade powers would limit their attack rate and damage potential pretty drastically. Adding to that the fact enhancements don't affect them just compounds that weakness. You would need three Queens just to somewhat equal a single King due to the reduced accuracy, reduced damage, and reduced frequency of attacks. Ultimately speaking, while I get your hesitation with the potential output, I feel this would be more equivalent to a perma-Gang War build than anything completely game breaking. Sure, there would be a ton of pets, but outside of your primaries they won't really do much beyond distract and deal a small amount of damage. -edit- As far as the Elemental Infusion, it would work similarly to how the Ammunition Change works for Dual Pistols. I have no idea how difficult that would be to program in, but that in and of itself indicates it would be doable.

This seems like a cool idea, but you're making me feel like I put too much effort into my suggestion xD I definitely agree with the general "upgrades are necessary to have the pets actually be combat-viable" but maybe having support pets would be a nifty idea. You could have a "cherubim" type, that has melee attacks and small AoE heals, an "ophanim" type that buffs/debuffs and has weaker ranged attacks, and your "seraphim" that's a straight up nuke blaster.

I've updated an old suggestion to fit into the new leveling scheme for MMs, made a few tweaks to make it flow a bit better, as well as added suggestions for existing assets that can be used to make an all new set of pets! I present to you: The Slime Lord This powerset is built around slimes (think Dragon Quest/Warrior). When you use specific powers, or when a slime dies, it splits off a weaker, temporary version of the slime, drowning your foes in a deluge of sludge! Slimes start with some resistance to all damage types, which can be increased moderately with Viscosity and Metalize. Several of your powers involve using your pets in special ways, such as Elemental Fusion changing their secondary effects, or Slime Hurl which attracts your slimes to an enemy while allowing them to split even more! Slime pets can use the Hamidon or Blarf models in various scales. Any powers marked with a * have their secondary effect modified by Elemental Infusion. (1) Sludge Ball (minor damage(acid), moderate DoT (acid), -dam res, fast cooldown) Alkaloid animation from Poison You hurl a small bundle of slime at the foe. (1 ) Summon Slime Knight You call forth 1 Knight Slime henchman at your level. When a Knight Slime dies, two Pawn Slimes are spawned for 15 seconds. These slimes cannot be upgraded or controlled. Pawn Slimes are the equivalent of Knight Slimes without any empowerment from skills or enhancements. At level 6 this power instead summons 2 Knight Slime henchman at your level -1. At level 18 this power instead summons 3 Knight Slime henchman at your level -2. Knight Slimes start with: *Slimeball - (ranged, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) *Slam - (melee, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) High Pain Tolerance - (5% resistance to all damage, passive) (2) Sludge Hurl (moderate damage(smashing), -Resist, moderate cooldown) Hydro Blast animation from Water Blast You throw a glob of special sludge at the targeted foe, marking them as a primary target. They take 10% increased damage from all sources for 5 seconds, and any slime that strikes them within that time period automatically spawns a short-lived version of their subordinate slime type. Knight Slimes spawn a Pawn Slime that lasts for 5 seconds. Rook Slimes spawn a Bishop Slime that lasts for 5 seconds. King Slimes spawn a Queen Slime for 5 seconds. (6) Viscosity - grants abilities to slimes. Affected pets increase their opacity. All slimes gain: Temporary Invulnerability (15% resistance to Smashing and Lethal damage) Pseudopod Slam (short range, single target, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) Rook Slimes also gain: *Spikes (melee PBAoE, moderate damage(lethal), pet elemental secondary*, moderate cooldown) King Slimes also gain: *Hurl Essence: (ranged, low damage(smashing),pet elemental secondary*, spawn Pawn Slime for 10 seconds) (8) Spatter (targeted AoE, high DoT, -dam res, moderate cooldown) Water Jet animation from Water Blast You hurl a glob of slime at a target, which explodes on impact, showering the surrounding foes with a clinging, acidic mucus. (12) Summon Slime Rook You call forth 1 Rook Slime henchman at your level. When a Rook Slime dies, two Bishop Slimes are spawned for 15 seconds. These slimes cannot be upgraded or controlled. Bishop Slimes are the equivalent of Rook Slimes without any empowerment from skills or enhancements. At level 24 this power instead summons 2 Rook Slimes henchmen at your level -1. Rook Slimes start with: *Slimeball - (ranged, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) *Slam - (melee, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) *Pseudopod Slam - (short range, single target, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) High Pain Tolerance - (10% resistance to all damage, passive) (18) Elemental Infusion* - Change the base Element of the targeted slime. Affected pets change color based on their current elemental affinity. Starting element is Acid (-resistance secondary for pet powers) Yellow-green Fire (DoT secondary for pet powers) Orange-red Ice (slow secondary for pet powers) White-blue Lightning (endurance drain secondary for pet powers) Purple-pink (22) Summon King Slime You call forth 1 King Slime henchman at your level. When a King Slime dies, two Queen Slimes are spawned for 15 seconds. These slimes cannot be upgraded or controlled. Queen Slimes are the equivalent of King Slimes without any empowerment from skills or enhancements. King Slime starts with: High Pain Tolerance - (15% resistance to all damage, passive) *Smash - (melee cone, low damage (smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) Pop - (short range PBAoE, moderate damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, moderate cooldown) This power summons two Pawn Slimes for 7 seconds. Engulf - (melee, moderate DoT(pet elemental damage type*, -speed, -recharge, pet elemental secondary, moderate recharge) (26) Metalize - Grants further abilities to slimes All slimes gain: Elemental resistance: (10% resistance to Fire, Ice, Electric, and Acid damage) *Slam - (melee, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) Rook Slimes gain: *Engulf - (melee, moderate DoT(pet elemental damage type), -speed, -recharge, pet elemental secondary, moderate recharge) King Slimes gain: *Spatter Ball - (ranged, target based AoE, primary target moderate damage (smashing), all targets moderate damage DoT(pet elemental type), pet elemental secondary, long cooldown) The pet powers can use the following animations Slimeball - Alkaloid effect from Poison Slam - Radioactive Smash effect from Radiation Melee Pseudopod Slam - Contaminated Strike effect from Radiation Melee Spikes - Spine Burst from Spines Smash - Radiation Siphon effect from Radiation Melee Pop - Bubble pop effect from Death From Below Hydra room Engulf – Doubles size, moves into enemy space, and shrinks before stepping back Hurl Essence - Hydroblast Effect from Water Blast Spatter Ball - Water Jet effect from Water Blast

So back in the beginning, as well as on live, when you disabled XP gain you would double your INF gain. homecoming chose to remove that. I doubt they will reverse that decision, and this would essentially be reversing that decision.

A couple thought to add a bit of staying power to the slimes: The temporary slimes (queen, bishop, and pawn) drop a PBAoE on death/expiry that adds Absorb to the owner MM's other slimes, similar to how the Ghouls in Praetoria heal on death. When a normal slime pet (king, rook, knight) defeat an enemy, they spawn one matching temporary slime (queen, bishop, and pawn respectively) for 15 seconds.

So I thought about it, and I think I can get all of the powers from assets already in the game. The slimes would be different sized versions of the Hydra AV in DFB. MM Powers Sludge Ball - Alkaloid animation from Poison Slime hurl - Random pet disappears, Hydro Blast animation from Water Blast, pet appears at target Spatter - Water Jet animation from Water Blast Viscosity - Affected pets would gain the Boils aura effect Elemental Fusion - Affected pets would colorize to match the element (Acid - Green, Fire - Orange, Water - Blue, Lightning - White) Metallize - Affected pets would gain a Starburst Glow aura effect Pet Powers Slimeball - Alkaloid effect from Poison Slam - Radioactive Smash effect from Radiation Melee Pseudopod Slam - Contaminated Strike effect from Radiation Melee Spikes - Spine Burst from Spines Smash - Radiation Siphon effect from Radiation Melee Pop - Bubble pop effect from DFB Hydra room Engulf - Grows in size, moves into enemy space, and shrinks before stepping back Hurl Essense - Hydroblast Effect from Water Blast Spatter Ball - Water Jet effect from Water Blast

I first suggested this back in 2019, but never saw much reaction to it. Thought I'd toss it out again to see if there's any more interest. Primary Powerset for Masterminds. Slime Mastermind Powerset. The Slime Lord This powerset is built around slimes which split into smaller, temporary slimes when they perish, drowning the foe in a flood of pets! Slimes start with some resistance to all damage types, which can be increased moderately with Viscocity and Metalize. Several of your powers involve using your pets in special ways, such as Elemental Fusion changing their secondary effects, or Slime Hurl which literally throws one of your slime pets at your enemy! (1) weak ranged : Sludge Ball (minor damage(acid), dot, -dam res, fast cooldown) You hurl a small bundle of slime at the foe. (1 )summon : Summon Slime Knight You call forth 1 Knight Slime, who is equivalent to a Lieutenant at your level. When a Knight Slime dies, two Pawn Slimes are spawned for 15 seconds. These slimes cannot be upgraded or controlled. Pawn Slimes are the equivalent of Knight Slimes but one level lower, without any empowerment from skills. At level 6 this power instead summons 2 Knight Slimes who are equivalent to a Lieutenant one level below you. At level 18 this power instead summons 3 Knight Slimes whoare equivalent to a Lieutenant two levels below you. Knight Slimes start with: Slimeball - (ranged, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) Slam - (melee, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) High Pain Tolerance - (5% damage resistance all, passive) (2) moderate range : Slime Hurl (moderate damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, knockdown, move slime to enemy, moderate cooldown) You throw one of your pet slimes at the targeted enemy. If you have no pets summoned, it simply deals base damage and uses Acid as the elemental secondary. If you throw a Knight Slime, a Pawn Slime is spawned for 10 seconds. If you throw a Rook Slime, a Bishop Slime is spawned for 10 seconds. If you throw a King Slime, a Queen Slime is spawned for 10 seconds. (6)pet boost: Viscosity - grants abilities to slimes All slimes gain: Temporary Invulnerability (15% dam res SM/LT) Pseudopod Slam (short range, single target, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) Rook Slimes gain: Spikes (melee PBAoE, moderate damage(lethal), pet elemental secondary*, moderate cooldown) King Slimes gain: Hurl Essence: (ranged, low damage(smashing),pet elemental secondary*, spawn Pawn Slime for 10 seconds) (8) ranged AoE : Spatter (target-base AoE, high DoT, -dam res, moderate cooldown) (12 ) second summon: Summon Slime Rook You call forth 1 Rook Slime who is equivalent to a Lieutenant at your level. When a Rook Slime dies, two Bishop Slimes are spawned for 15 seconds. These slimes cannot be upgraded or controlled. Bishop Slimes are the equivalent of Rook Slimes but one level lower, without any empowerment from skills. At level 24 this power instead summons 2 Rook Slimes who are equivalent to a Lieutenant one level below you. Rook Slimes start with: Slimeball - (ranged, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) Slam - (melee, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) Pseudopod Slam - (short range, single target, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) High Pain Tolerance - (10% damage resistance all, passive) (18) Special : Elemental Fusion* - Change the base Element of the targeted slime. Starting element is Acid (-resistance secondary for pet powers) Options are Fire (DoT secondary for pet powers) Ice (slow secondary for pet powers) and Lightning (endurance drain secondary for pet powers) (26) Third summon : Summon King Slime You call forth 1 King Slime who is equivalent to a Lieutenant at your level. When a King Slime dies, two Queen Slimes are spawned for 15 seconds. These slimes cannot be upgraded or controlled. Queen Slimes are the equivalent of King Slimes but one level lower, without any empowerment from skills. King Slime starts with: High Pain Tolerance - (15% damage resistance all, passive) Smash - (melee cone, low damage (smashing), pet elemental secondary*, fast cooldown) Pop - (short range PBAoE, moderate damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, moderate cooldown) This power summons two Pawn Slimes for 7 seconds. Engulf - (melee, moderate DoT(pet elemental damage type*, -speed, -recharge, pet elemental secondary, moderate recharge) (32) pet boost: Metalize - Grants further abilities to slimes All slimes gain: Elemental resistance: (10% dam res Fire/Ice/Elec/Acid) Slam - (melee, low damage(smashing), pet elemental secondary, fast cooldown) Rook Slimes gain: Engulf - (melee, moderate DoT(pet elemental damage type*, -speed, -recharge, pet elemental secondary, moderate recharge) King Slimes gain: Spatter Ball - (ranged, target based AoE, primary target moderate damage (smashing), all targets moderate damage DoT(pet elemental type), pet elemental secondary, long cooldown)

I know this is probably not a big deal, mechanically, and would probably be a pain to code in, but is there a way to choose your origin for individual powersets, rather than altogether? So your primary powerset would be Origin X, while your secondary would be Origin Y. It would be more of an RP thing, but it seems like it would be really cool to do. You could play someone like Doctor Doom, who is a combination of magic and technology or science.

Given that the most recent patch made re-summoning MM pets significantly faster, I feel I can assume is that the pets are dying too quickly (I've run into this issue on occasion, depending on my secondary). My suggestion would be to alter the enhancing powers (like Enchant Undead or Ninja Training) to give passive defense buffs to the pets as well. The main issue I've always had is the pets just die way too fast, and the easiest way to prevent that is to up their defenses. The enhancing powers are already decently spread, so having them grant extra defense, resistance, and maybe a boost to max HP would be a good solution.

I mean a room where you can summon individual enemies, and then "activate" them all at once for battle. So you can compare/contrast how they support or hinder each other. Does that make sense? Fine tune the individuals so the whole becomes well balanced.