Neiska

I loved the 3 stooges. 🥰Charlie Chaplin too!

....You ever see the title of a post and go... "Let the memes begin" Yea. This is one of those.

And people wonder why I prefer to solo or team with friends or people that I know. I'll do open world stuff, but it certainly isn't my first choice. And often game mechanics has nothing to do with why.

@Vinceq98 - I'm glad to hear that beasts aren't squishy! But the scuttlebutt I heard was that they suffer from gaps in their attack chains? (Meaning they oddly stand there awkwardly at times?) @tidge - I wasn't trying to suggest that people need to change their playstyles and so on. Mostly it was a "here's what worked for me if I'm soloing +4 stuff." I do agree that it would be better if certain playstyles/tricks were not needed for various difficulties. Some say MMs are underpowered, I consider them strong if you plan accordingly. Here's an example - Elite Bosses have mag resist, taking several applications of immobilize to affect them. While some people consider that a bad thing, I turned it into a strength. When soloing, my usual opener isn't to send the pets in, I hit the pack with the immobilize. (Web Envelope, Electric Fences, or Soul Tentacles work with any primary/secondary) That locks almost all of them down, except for the EB and maybe a Lt might come running from the pack. That's when I order the pets to get the EB first. It's pretty easy to keep the rest of the pack locked down pretty much indefinitely, and to keep all my pets out of range of what ranged attacks they might have. (The simplest answer is to just back up if there's room.) The swarm isn't really much of a threat at that point, it's the EB. And in 30-60 seconds with all the pets on him, he goes down, and the rest of them are easy to deal with. A lot of the time I don't even take any damage. IMO the best way to play MM isn't to brute force things or just dive into the pack. You have to play strategically. It's the thinking players AT! And you can build them so many different ways, which is why I love MMs so much. Well, that and because I love pet classes in games. But yes, I am all for more options for both builds and playstyles for MMs across all difficulties.

I quite regularly solo at +4 on some of my MMs. So "neigh unplayable" is a bit of a stretch. But I do agree with the idea that it takes a certain build/style to do, not all pets and secondaries are capable of it. But I also think that would be fair to say about any AT. So tough? Sure. Have to plan ahead. Mainly the EA, Time, and Marine secondaries, but my Robot/Dark can also perform at that difficulty solo. But unplayable? Not quite. Here are some of my builds that I do +4/8 with frequently - Robots/EA Robots/Time Robots/Marine Robots/Dark Demons/EA Demons/Marine Necromancer/Time My next MM I was going to try was a Necro/Marine, but that was before the changes were announced and I put a pause on all my MM stuff. I suspect Mercs could also do well, but I have not done any testing with them yet. But I am pretty sure that Ninjas and Beasts are too squishy. I don't have a ton of experience with those two primaries, so that's just a guess on my part. But yes, the majority of secondaries and a few primaries I don't think can solo at that difficulty. Or if they can, it would be such a slog that it wouldn't be worth the effort. Better to turn it down to +3 and be more efficient. And personally with my playstyle damage was never the main issue. The main obstacle was pets surviving. If your pets can survive without relying on inspirations/temp buffs and so on, that's the first big step. Once your pets are durable enough, its really only a matter of time before you win. More damage only makes the fights faster.

Most of my characters are Masterminds, followed by Tankers, then Brutes, and then SoA's (specifically crabbers, I have 4.) I have played a couple controllers, corruptors, and scrappers, 1-2 stalkers and widows, and one Warshade. The ATs I have never played - Sentinel Defender Peacebringer As far as what kind of classes/ATs I like in games, generally Pet classes (Necromancers, Summoners, etc) are my favorite. If a game doesn't have a pet class, then I generally go Tank. If I had to choose one for my favorite, it would likely be Crabber because they are kind of a mix of both, pet class and can be very Tanky. And they don't get complete overhauls/changes/nerfs every few pages which is a big plus for me.

Some of us have been waiting 4+ years for them to nerf the glass cannons/hyper DPS setups. At this point I expect them to add a new AT like the Primalist than so much as touch them.

That's part of it. The other part being some ATs/Powersets are overperforming, have been overperforming quite some time now, and not so much as a glance at them. Which tells me that apparently it's okay for some things to overperform, while others are swept under the carpet. (Looking at you Corruptors, Blasters, etc.) Awfully funny how some ATs that are good get fixed, multiple passes in fact, namely Tankers and MMs. But at this point I doubt they will ever nerf the actual top end performers. And I think it says a lot when the meta for hardmodes are like, 1 tanker and 7 corruptors. For years now. And not so much as a peep about that. They rather hyper focus on things that are popular (even if they aren't top performers, the popular stuff is what gets attention/nerfed).

Want to know what my biggest takeaway from not just this change, but all the other changes over the years? Don't share things. Don't share builds. Don't share strategies. Keep any super cheesy things to yourself. The moment you discover something that's Good, or you figure out a way to do something that isn't intended, and share it, they will "correct" it, but over-correct and you will find yourself weaker than you were before. Almost like you are being punished for thinking outside the box, not following a blind meta, or being innovative or creative. Some builds I have right now performed better, did better, did more, faster, when I first joined HC 5 years ago, vs now. And with each wave of changes/overhauls, it gets just a wee bit worse. Not by a lot, but it's there. The thing is, I keep my own data going all the way back then. And for me personally, it is definitely a slope in the wrong direction. They call them updates, improvements, etc. But how is it an improvement when it performs worse than before when doing the same activities? Sure, a handful of changes might be an improvement when doing certain activities, like hard modes, or raids etc. But for those of us who do our own thing, 90% of my activities are measurably worse. Some things I used to be able to solo before, now either I can't, or I can but its much more of a struggle. With absolutely no benefit or upside to it at all. Think any super cheesy/loop holes/sneaky strategies/etc that I know of will stay that way. Each time I've shared some of them with people, about 2-3 months later they are suddenly nerfed. Like magic.

Do have a random thought - Since Supremacy is so much more important now than before, how difficult would it be to get some kind of visual representation? Nothing too drastic, just something like a dull white aura or something? A way to tell at a glance if pets are in range or not?

But that's my point. Where was it written that MMs of all ATs, were doing of all things, "too much damage?" This feels like they nerfed their damage because they boosted their level, making the entire thing kind of moot? MMs are far from the top DPS, they are a support and are kind of middle of the pack for damage. But now I think they might be in the bottom 50%. As I am reading this, overall MMs traded in a bit of damage for pet durability. IMO Pet durability was fine, IF you built for it. You had to plan it that way. And it's easier to boost pet durability than pet damage. Theres lots of ways to heal or buff your pet's toughness, but only a couple to boost their damage. I can't shake the feeling that these changes were aimed at certain builds or secondaries. Just the entire changes in MMs, not just this one but all of the AT changes over the years kind of leave me confused as to what the thought process is. "Lets make them decent at some stuff, terrible at others, and reduce the number of viable build options?"

Demons - "Hey it seems like people like certain primaries more?" "We can fix that. We will just make what's popular worse. Problem solved!" Not a fan how in order to make the pets all the same level as the MM, they are overall about the same or in some cases weaker. That's like pointing forward and walking backward. The 40% set bonus? What about people who frankenslot or what about primaries that don't have a mule power? So now one of the most slot-hungry ATS has even less wiggle room? For what, 40% of 6% of a resistance value? 2.4%? Personally, I would rather have the slots back. Not lighting my pitchfork yet, but if I had to choose between this and how MMs were on live, I would pick the live. This feels like a boost but only in certain scenarios or situations, and a nerf to anything that isn't that. "We want to make them better for incarnate content, but in order to do that we have to make them worse at everything else. It's balance."

Mastermind Convolution value increased by 100%, up from 50%.

Given your forum history, I am 100% convinced you are reaction farming.

People have listed lots of other things, but here's what I would add - Costume Contests Mentorship/Assisting others Making your own story with friends Just hanging out and chatting A big part of this game is it's social aspect. It is an MMO after all.