TheSpiritFox

Huge shoutout to Basebuilder Bill. I tossed him 500 mil to take my dingy box and make it into something pretty. Then I experimented. I found out how to fill it with water Bill! The lair of the Disciples of Kurama is almost complete. Now to figure out why I cant place letters on the invisible backstop.

Honestly at that point, just do like incarnate stuff, make pets the same level as the mastermind whatever it is, and do a slight damage rebalance based on pets no longer being -1 or -2. Drop supremacy to 10% damage and 10% accuracy and call it a day

Yeah its my fault too. Im impatient and given that I task force on 50s exclusively and fun my converter crafting exclusively with merits, I can afford to spend 3k on common, 22k on uncommon salvage just to bump my order to the top of the stack on weekend prime time so I dont have to wait an hour for the damn AH to troll through listings and fill my order.

Cumbersome to replace already DID get cottage ruled, though. If you keep that pets need staying power, its that simple. Masterminds as a class are more complex to balance, and need adjustments other classes do not. Saying we should be tanky is simply staying that we should have minions with the staying power to perform our essential class functions. We're not going to get auto upgraded minions, and even auto upgraded minions would not solve the problem of unbuffed pets in high level content simply melt, giving them their upgrades on resummon would not address the problem of them then needing to be rebuffed by the entire team as soon as they are summoned in order to not then immediately die again, nor address the general ability of most enemies to one shot them at high level. Survivability IS the only solution here. Because you're right. Being stuck in a loop of resummoning where the only pet you can reliably keep alive is your T3 is not at all a cohesive gameplay experience.

No, this is how things were balanced mid live, around Issue 6 long before incarnates or IOs. That should not be the baseline. The baseline should be able to perform its essential functions in ALL content. No other class has its entire damage dependent entirely upon pets, and controller pets get much higher base resistances to allow them to survive and continue to provide their functions compared to mastermind pets. Have you seen the damage the tri gun from Arsenal assault can take unenhanced and unbuffed? My T3 pets are twice as fragile. There's a real, manifest, needs to be addressed problem there. When 5/6 of your pets can be one shot by ANY enemy that lands a hit in high level content there is a problem.

Personally I would appreciate alot more moderation. People engaging in bad faith should be stopped, not allowed. So thanks for not helping.

The devs have stated from HC's perspective that they have no intention of removing the summon time and upgrade cost and that they believe its part of the class's intended design in a way that deserves to be preserved, and I fully agree. This is why I suggested a short period on summon, that begins when they become buffable, where the pets are more or less invulnerable and able to be immediately buffed. I think that 5 seconds, but extended if another pet is summoned immediately after or a buff power is used on a pet would be reasonable. That way you can get all of your minions up, get them all upgraded, and have enough time left to say cast both therma/ff/whatever shields on them is reasonable before they become vulnerable. I dont think say a grand total of 20 seconds of nigh invulnerability while being summoned would be game breaking in any aspect of the game except PvP and you could simply make the window turn off in PVP zones so that MM pets behave as they behave now when being resummoned in a PVP fight. Similarly, I think that because MMs are designed around our damage coming from our pets, our pets should specifically be designed to survive fights more than they die. MMs need to be changed with the idea that pets are *not* disposable. Not that they can't die, but just that they shouldnt be so flimsy as like to be endlessly one shot by every lucky attack that gets through from any enemy at level 50+4, in incarnate content, or in hardmode TFs. But specific to summoning pets upgraded, thats already been stated as a "never ever ever happen" by the HC devs, so solutions have to work around resummoning pets and rebuffing them and that costing time and endurance being built into the class.

Exactly. The idea that MM pets are disposable? Then the mastermind should do all of the damage, pets should do almost none, and pets should have TAUNT. Pets are not disposable when 90% or more of your damage comes directly out of them.

Thank you for this. I never knew much about how MMs were treated by the studio, but I have always been drawn to Pet Sets and besides nothing else in the game playing like them, no other pet class in any MMO, ever, plays as well and as enjoyably as a mastermind. Everything else, pets are utility, or a little additional damage. I mained a Warlock in WoW and even Demonology spec your pet did maybe 35% of your damage overall, not the vast majority of it, and you only got one to control, and the controls were much more basic than what we get to play with with MMs. I appreciate learning that we werent buffed when +4 was added. That matters quite alot, especially with the level shifts. And yeah, it would be lovely to like be able to take assault hybrid, fire it off, and have it show up on all the MM pets naturally like other classes get to use it. It would be awesome if they inherited melee hybrid for more survivability as well.

Within the current game systems these seem like the simplest fixes for the devs to actually implement to solve the problems. Obviously, this is a starting point. I dont know exactly what the ideal math would be for it, but given the rise in 4 star content and that without a very well set up team my pets absolutely disintegrate, obviously SOMETHING needs to change here.

So, I've been trying out council at +4x8 and theyre absolutely shredding through pets. Like killing them as fast as I can resummon and buff them. Lets talk about how MMs work mechanically. First, if you set defensive mode or summon in defensive mode there is a bit of lag time before pets start attacking, about 5 seconds. And second, when pets are summoned they are completely unbuffed, and thus often even more vulnerable to random aoes and such, meaning that MMs in high level content often experience a cascade failure effect where once you lose pets, its impossible to resummon and rebuff because they die as soon as they are summoned. This problem, especially in higher level content like hardmode TFs, make the MM a liability compared to an AT which can be buffed by the team to the point that they're extremely hard to kill. Towards that end, the first all MM buff that I propose is that Mastermind pets, when summoned, enjoy a 5-8 second window of 90% resistance to ALL damage types along with beyond softcap defenses (at least 68% to account for incarnate content) during which they dont attack, but are extremely difficult to kill and have time to be buffed on summon. This would not be much different for MMs in play from an offensive standpoint with the lag time before attacking in defensive mode. But would be an incredible change to allow us to reliably resummon mid battle and not get stuck in an endless loop of resummoning minions that get immediately one shot before they can even get off an attack or get buffed by say the protector bot bubbles. We should also increase the priority on protector bot bubbles if its not already super immediate so that if a minion comes up that does not have a bubble, the very next thing the protector does is bubble it. The second all MM buff that I suggest, given the fact that even normal content under buffs can slaughter pets wholesale, is consider a serious across the board buff to resistance for MM pets. I dont think giving them more HP itself is the solution, but I do think that given current content a scaling buff to all MM pets that starts at say 10% to all types at level 1 and hits 50% resistance to all types by level 50 is at this point fully justified. Homecoming has talked about the "power gaming" environment lately and has been adjusting things around that. MMs are the one class which hangs behind on general survivability compared to other "tanky" classes (which we were specifically designed to be, dont forget) because it only takes one lucky hit generally to kill a T1 or T2 minion. I do not think that its unreasonable, considering the damage climb at 50, to give all MM pets a base 50% resistance at 50 in addition to things like upgrade defensive buffs and secondaries and team buffs. The resistance would only take effect on minions specifically targeted by an attack or taking an aoe, not damage done through bodyguard, so it wouldnt increase bodyguard survivability all that much except for aoe attacks, which MMs are already more vulnerable to than any other class in the game by farrrrr. I think that these two changes are not only called for, but necessary for the health of the MM class in the "power gaming" environment of homecoming. In order for MMs to be competitive and indeed not a liability at the highest level content you are creating, they need baseline buffs to enable them to survive it, when its difficult to even get some combinations to a softcap OR hardcap with defense or resistance, there are some pet sets which can simply get nuked out of the game entirely now in the hardest content if they take an unlucky hit. Why would you take a /cold MM on a 4 star when you can take a cold corruptor which isnt going to lose its ability to do damage and have to choose between secondary powers or an endless rotunda of resummons.

Its not as bad as you make it, but the one point I will grant you is that MM pets, especially as homecoming pushes out buffs to enemies and content, are too fragile. They are in fact a bit of a liability in 4 star content, to the point that I think an across the board buff of 33-50% damage resistance to all types for all mm pets on top of all resistances that currently exist would not be amiss. Given their health scaling, even at 90% resistance there are things that will one to three shot them, so yeah we need a serious buff to mm pet survivability now.

Hide and go seek is fun but its ruined by the ability to run around spamming a location macro for someones name. We need a power kinda like "only affect self" but one that makes you unable to be targeted by other players and unable to target other players while its on. Imagine the possibilities when hide and go seek requires actual seeking.

Jesus fuck and I thought my Thugs/Traps was insane at 55 seconds.

My thugs traps can kill a rikti pylon in 55 seconds with a purpled out build. The fastest single target DPS scrappers can't do that. Play whatever you want, but if you want to be able to murder everything the game throws at you including soloing giant monsters, pick traps.

My favorites are Demons/Nature, Demons/Elec, and Demons/Thermal. All incredibly strong defensively.

This in spades. Test single target DPS against a level 54 AV, defensive buffer/healer permitted (like a /ff or a /nature only using absorb shield, resist shield, and heals) for survivability. Show me those results. Because I've got a mastermind that can take a pylon down in 55 seconds. Real world performance of the same set against +4x8 is slower under ideal conditions which are almost impossible to maintain due to a lack of taunt or aoe immob on a thugs/traps. And also, like, I get that you get ideal dps out of adding other attacks, but I feel like that's a terrible way to actually measure the primary itself. I totally appreciate the work that went in to the testing here, but it doesnt reflect anything like 99% of players experiences. I think that primaries should be tested using ONLY attacks from the primary and nothing else, to measure the actual primary's full performance under ideal conditions rather than "Lets base our entire rotation around gloom and cross punch and see what the primary can add to that" Same way, I feel like in set comparison DPS testing there should be no procs. The last time I saw one of these test threads it was showcasing builds done with generic IOs ONLY. That's an actual test of the primary. At the point you're min maxing procs and half your rotation doesnt come from your primary, you're not testing the primary, youre testing your individual build. So again while I appreciate the effort done, I think the methodology is so beyond flawed as to make the data absolutely useless to the vast majority of the player base. Remove procs entirely, build around pure enhancement and only using attacks from the actual primary, and test the set against a level 54 AV, and I bet you EM suddenly leaps forward to 10% or better DPS above any other single target scrapper set in the game. If someone actually has the time and inclination to test this under my methodology and I'm wrong, I'll throw you a billion influence for your trouble. Not kidding.

1) Gloom and life drain are enough, cut dark blast entirely 2) Darkest night and tar patch should be taken at the ***EARLIEST POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY***. Besides your heal these are what keep your pets alive. 3) Howling twilight needs to have one slot and fearsome stare needs more. Fearsome stare is an excellent aoe crowd control which makes for a great opener. Send in the pets, fearsome stare, darkest night, tar patch, and watch the horde rip everything to shreds. 4) IMO you went way too heavy on procs sacrificing some good set slotting in your pets. You could get 3 10% recharge bonuses out of slotting the two pet sets the right way. Put pet defense uniques in soul extraction, not in the lich or the grave knights. And make sure the grave knights, especially, are at 99% damage and 99% attack. Must have. 5) Shadow fall can shed 2-3 slots for something else 6) So, concept. You built alot for personal defenses. On a character with no mez protection. Bad idea. I totally get it. On almost any other character like tough and weave, sure. On this? If youre playing it right its a waste of slots, power choice, and endurance. Your pets are what tanks for you, your goal is to not get hit because mezzes are what can cause your entire setup to cascade fail. Get held, can't heal, cant CC enemies, pets die, you die. 7) Celerity stealth in sprint is a good idea. Keep it. 8-Tar patch needs 2 slots and both of them 50+5 recharge generic IOs. You want it up as often as possible. Stacked, if possible. Thats how you get more slow. With two tar patches. 9) Replace fly with mystic flight, 3 slot it, put the universal travel set there which comes with a -kb IO to keep you from being knocked down, and replace hover with vengeance for the LOTG slot. Mystic flight is better than fly unless you want to take group flight or you are specifically building a ranged damage hover character, which you are not here. You dont want to be over the mobs. You want to be behind the pets where fearsome stare can hit max targets with its cone, and you move in to fire your heal on the pets and back out after. Just a few feet, but enough to move you out of aoe range and keep you from getting mezzed. Meanwhile, Mystic flight gives you a teleport that lets you speed across zones way faster than fly and hover are ever going to move you. Especially with only one slot in fly. 10) If youre going to go with soul for your epic you really dont need dark embrace, but oppressive gloom is a great survival tool for harder sets. Dark has one of the strongest aoe heals in the game, more than enough to keep you topped off while you use oppressive gloom to make sure things that aren't bosses struggle to hit anyone at all. Its a solid power on like brutes with dark armor, its way, way, way better on masterminds which seriously benefit from mezzing minions and LTs that dark armor wont even notice are there but which your -2 level T1 pets will love you for. Also soul tentacles and a high recharge build would help too. No runners means everyones stuck in darkest knight with their tohit dropped through the floor =D :Edit: STOP TURNING MY NUMBER 8 INTO A SMILEY STUPID FORUMS

I have a Beast/Kin named Ricky Bobby who's got Cal Naughton Jr, Karen, Death Machine, Walker, Texas Ranger, and because I couldnt resist, Odin's Raven.

Thats not a terrible idea. "The Rock's Biggest Fan" and name your T3 Dwayne Johnson

I would go /dark over /rad. Only one toggle on /dark and otherwise a great set, plus fluffy from Dark can mule pet IOs. /elec is really good. Less offensively powerful than dark or traps, but insanely powerful defensively especially if you invest in an expensive recharge build. /time is actually kinda the new /ff. It goes well with everything and is more fun and does more stuff than Forcefield. Staggering amounts of -recharge to enemies.

Thugs/Traps has one of the highest potential DPS ceilings in the game on hard targets and its one of the tankiest masterminds particularly with some aid pool help.

Have you never colored water blast yellow in the costume creator, just to see?

The chosen roles are just...bad. There are too many ways to break the mold with too many classes, too many ways to step out of your role into another. Make it a bonus that starts at 5 different archetypes within the group, and scales up to 8 different archetypes in the entire group. Good bonus at 5 great bonus at 8. Boom done, and instead of "Hey we need this role" itll be "hey we dont have x y and z classes any of those on wanna join?" which is perfect for creating inclusion within the structure of LFG interactions. The classes you need will always be the classes you dont have yet.

I like the macros and shit, honestly. Just boost the damage a little bit on form attacks and then double Khledian max damage bonus, AT fixed.