Weylin

What about those set enhancements that are used on their own in the build? Some examples: Panacea: +hitpoints/endurance in Health Numina's Convalescence: +Regeneration/+Recovery in Health Miracle: +Recovery in Health Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3 Def (All) slotted last in Tough Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased global recharge speed in Personal Force Field and Afterburner without being paired up for the 10% regeneration bonus

I've been looking at that build you posted for a while and I'm wondering if the ones like Blood Mandate and Luck of the Gambler should be boosted or attuned?

The damage and such should be reduced accordingly, but the downleveling really hits hard when you're in groups that prefer fighting enemies at +3 levels. Essentially, your T1 henchmen only hit for 1 damage because they're attacking something +5 levels to them. They're rendered useless except for their bodyguard effect.

I've been looking that build over up top and I'm wondering how much do the pets benefit from the set bonuses? Do they receive those Def, Res, and Misc effects? Only from the assigned set? Or from all of them? So many questions 🤣

Does this mean I'll have to become a villain and do that patron arc? 😛

All the builds for Robo/FF seem to include it, and I'm wondering if there's a viable build that uses one of the Epic power pools instead. This is my first time leveling a character to 50, so I don't have the years of experience that many players have to guide their decisions. I've encountered numerous paradigm shifts on my path from 0 to my current level of 42, and it's starting to become painfully clear that pets are annihilated by AoE, basic minions are useless in upleveled missions, that the mastermind itself is always a full health bar away from instant death, and pets are a nuisance or disaster waiting to happen to your entire team.

I wouldn't say the discussion is heated nor two-sided, it's almost entirely agreeing that pet blocking is a problem and that it would be beneficial to all parties if that were addressed. The remaining replies are suggestions on how to mitigate the problem until such time as the problem can be properly addressed. 😛

Since removing collisions is difficult to do, could dismissing henchmen be made to reduce the cooldown time for summoning more?

It's a huge problem in confined spaces, especially caves. Allies need to be able to walk through henchmen completely unimpeded the way the mastermind can.

Target an ally and give the attack command, damage will be distributed between them the same way as the MM inherent, perhaps less effectively. Only the first 6 pets to bodyguard are counted, extras from other MMs are only counted if current assigned bodyguards are killed off or given other orders. I honestly feel like a burden to groups as MM, with all the body blocking, comparatively meh damage, henchmen being easily annihilated by AoE, and 1-shot by some attacks

I'm definitely on board with the idea of giving MM's a separate power pool for personal weapons As for the gaps that would leave... What about abilities to give your pets thematic buffs? Like soldiers putting up sandbags and becoming immobilized with a +res all

Would it be possible to get TWO powers by picking Group Fly? My allies reallllly do not want that ability being active during a fight, but I want to use it exclusively for the pets to fly above the fight and stay out of the way.

tbh, between having very few slots, and weak enhancements, I didn't even bother using any until dual orgins started showing up

I'm not entirely sure how the AI works, would henchmen still approach targets and get in their face if they had no melee attack and all ranged abilities are recharging?

This is just overwhelming evidence that it needs to be buffed so that these things don't happen 😛

This is what I keep begging for. It would help immensely. Even if the pets fall behind, which they always do, they will eventually catch up to you.

Hmmm, I didn't realize that. What if Group Fly were tweaked to apply to your pets regardless of range? Maybe allies and pets get a higher flight speed than the Group Fly caster?

Title just about covers it. The pet AI can't keep up and remain within range of the AoE unless you stop every few seconds. Any ideas how to address this problem?

There is a workaround that's kinda disgusting. You can set a macro to constantly spam Go To twice a second to keep the henchmen in front of you as you're flying, so they always stay comfortably within range of the effect. I don't like resorting to such things at all, though.

Henchmen fall behind and drop out of the sky after flying roughly 200 yards non-stop. Any kind of buff to make it more reliable would be great, maybe a massively increased AoE range that applies only to henchmen & pets? Players are much better at keeping up, or have their own flight anyways, while henchmen rubberband and fall out during transit. Not only that, but the henchmen will just stand there forever where they fell until you come back to them within 25 yards.

That sounds a lot more doable. If it's a toggle ability, you can just switch it off and the henchmen are free to move again.

It would be incredibly helpful if henchmen, especially ranged types, could hold position on attack orders or auto engagement. Go To and Follow would override this behavior. The "Stay" command should be changed into a Stance; while in this stance, they behave defensively, attacking mobs that you either order them to shoot, and failing that, mobs that are aggroed. The primary difference between Defensive and Aggressive is that they will not move if their target is out of range or obstructed, nor will they move to use a melee attack. This allows you to order them to locations, and for them to STAY at that location no matter what, regardless of their target being too far away or obstructed. If a henchman in this stance is struck by knockback, they should return to their assigned post once they recover. There's certain situations where ranged henchmen need to avoid drawing additional aggro and to stay in advantageous spots to minimize AoE to the group and stay out of reach of melee heavy hitters. It's also helpful to keep them in positions where they will not bodyblock your allies in a chaotic fight. Is this possible to add to the game? I hear the henchmen code is rather messy...

I was really hoping for something like this to go thematically with robotics MM, but could be good in its own right

So does that settle it? There's no mechanics in place that this would hurt? That just leaves technical limitations, I'm not sure how accessible the code for this game is, and I know there's higher priority things to worry about. It seems like it would be a simple change, but I don't have the source so I can't say.

What about an enhancement that can be slotted to reduce knockback range on a given power?