Infeareal

Since coming back and pretty much only leading teams I would say that I have had 0 actual "bad" teams. Sometimes slower, sometimes faster, occasionally a wanderer or two, more often than not some super elite I have ran this 3 million times I am going to run ahead because I have the build and I can. None of those are bad experiences though. I have not had a group fail. I am not doing hard mode content though but plan on leading higher tier content and hardmode soon. In particular for non optimized builds, no gatekeeping allowed. People are way too sensitive, these are the people that tend to ruin games for new players (which is bad), they ruin social content for the average player. Most up to 80% of player bases in video games are not "skilled" not like what the top end groups show, or what the fastest kill speeds are, that is such a small percentage of the player base in any game. If you run in pugs you should expect that 6 of 8 people at most are average and if you understand the original coh devs designed content around each player being able to handle +0/1x. So if in a group before hardmode you can handle + level content with equal or higher team numbers then you are way ahead of what was expected of the average skilled player. Given that especially the last few weeks we have a ton of new players, I have had so many people apologize cause they have never joined a group or coh is new to them (I brought a few new players myself). Lot's of returners that have not done anything in a long time. We have an aging population that enjoys creating characters and running solo content at really low levels then occasionally want a badge or achievements. We have many social players than are turned off by the speed run mentality but occasionally try. I have gotten numerous thanks from people in all those groups for taking time, or teaching, or checking in on them. I send messages to people I see lost, if someone communicates they are new or not familiar I engage them in chat. These are some very easy ways to avoid "bad" pugs. I also lead with "team builder/glue" characters that can cover mistakes or boost team potential so that helps. I have recently taught a couple of 50's what IO's were as they had no idea as the game in its current state really does not introduce you to that. Now given that one of the reasons I lead teams and play glue type classes (healers or tanks in other games generally) is because the one thing that is a big blocker is bad leaders. A good leader can generally overcome even some of the worst aspects of a team (skill, class, and even social). Coming back to coh I tried to join teams and it was hit or miss which is okay but normally the leader had no idea how to "lead" and in some cases they were totally new to it, again which is more than okay its great. I quickly realized I was giving more tips, helping, and actually being lead then I was just a group player so back to it I went. Again none of these were bad, I just knew I could do it better and more efficiently, my friends list been blowing up in the 5-6 weeks I have been back. I have been in some bad groups in my day in games and nothing has even come close to touching them, coh is such a casual game that even if a mission, tf, or trial went to absolute crud it was the waste of an hour or two of time at the most.

You are talking about one very specific and targeted part of the game. Pylons are used as a way to judge single target DPS. 99% of the game is not destroying a pylon. Most builds are not designed in that method because that's not how the actual gameplay works. Thugs/Traps is a very specific instance of this. Traps is well known for being awful outside of anything but AV's and in this case Pylons. If you are playing solo, sure it works but it is not fun. In any upper tiered group content by the time you set your trap the group would be moving on to the next pack. Don't get me wrong I love MM's but the higher the content (actual group content) the worse henchman get. Re-summoning tier 1 henchman every pack over and over is not fun gameplay. If you are at 50+4 or incarnate level content 35% defense on those Tier 1 Henchman is a one shot every few swings. Again we are talking average group content, not a solo AV that is only swinging at one thing that you can specifically setup and work around.

All I do is pug. I suspect that is 95% of players here. It's cool an all you had some negative experiences but these posts tend to not be highly productive. I mean on a posi 1 if you have a knockback power it can easily be just as valid of a form of mitigation as anything else (given team comp or skill). I have had some smooth runs, and had some others, a run with someone that had never done a group one once and were new to the game and that was in their mid 20's. A lot of new and returners. People that are not familiar with the maps, people trying to lead that have never before because they want to help out and there are always people looking but sometimes its harder to find someone leading. Since I came back I lead 95% of the group runs I do. Seen some stuff not go smooth. 99% of the time you explain something and everyone is good. You try again, knock it out, move on. There has been enough new people that they have no idea how much knockback can frustrate someone, it is just a new cool power to them, and they do feel powerful if that is your first character to have one. I tanked an ITF right at 30 on the first tank I was bringing up since returning, had no clue where things were and the last time I ran it was sometime during live. Middle of the night, people talked, I said I can tank but remember nothing of the place, went smooth. How about we talk about all the smooth runs we go on, that would be cool to see, most people love seeing the positivity. How nice it was to have that grav/dark controller the other day or the fact you never had to blink at your health when that defender was on your team, or how cohesive that 50+4 was. I can tell you that is far more valuable to the community.

Rita Repulsa. She fits the mastermind type. Summons minions, has various tiers and strengths of them, buffs them, heals them, rez's them, etc. Comes with an army of basic ones that are re-summonable normally led by a lieutenant or pack of lieutenants and a boss. As far as I can think across many different comic universes she fits the bill of CoH mastermind.

Okay so it looks like it was just the newest character that was played yesterday and was active last night on the AH. But there is a shortage of 8 Mill Inf on him that was up for an active bid plus whatever stuff he was selling (I think a few recipes). All of it would have been put up or bid on late last night before bed. A roll back sounds like it could be the case or some lost transactions between backups for that table and/or DB.

Yeah I have at least 8 million in inf that is missing on one character that was on one bid disappeared and my items that were for sale are all gone. I know exactly what the bid was for but the items up for sale, idk. I am scared to log in to my other characters to check because there were a lot of pending bids and sales on a couple of them.

Even just a lower area before they get teleported would go a long way. Although I would rather see something like an inherent mastermind ability that just lets you summon your minions to you. You could then just have them either "stay" or just summon them when you get to the next pack. With the old long cooldown on MM pets it might have been a bit OP on live but with 5 second minion abilities it is not a game changer. In some cases when I am moving through lots of stuff or stealthing to an objective I will just dismiss all and re-summon when I get there. Which to be fair for its usage takes longer than needed and the teleport all minions would go a long way for that also. Again not a game changer in that scenario just a convenience boost.

Yeah there is no way they are coming close to touching that many sets. That was the point is that just the scaling would need to be updated for it to make them just a tad bit more viable. No where near OP unless you are talking about content where it really does not matter anyhow like +0/0

That is legit the one non OP thing holding MM's back. Having come back recently and started on HC again with a my partner that has always been on of the such a simple issue that holds them back from being equal with other AT's. Just make the summons stay at the same level. They do not have enough going on their own to be OP, but under leveled they are very questionable and have to be played around. The higher the level content the worse and more noticeable it becomes. New powers not needed, changes to damage, nope, just hit the pets with equal leveling the the player character. It is a very trivial change that increases the viability just enough to keep up with the other AT's.

So been away for a bit. Played retail/live for a long time, had the collectors edition and the first year of the physical comic. Played on and off after CoV launch. Played Homecoming for a bit after it went public. I have always enjoyed the micro with minions and was really big with CC, healing, and pet classes in MMO's. Anyhow I am bringing along my partner who never played and as we do we duo everything together. She will be playing a Brute and I decided to go with a MM. I have been reading as much as I can but looks like a lot of changes in the realm of MM. I played quite a number of Bots/ back in the day but my first was a necro/dark which was fun but MM always had lots of issues especially at launch of CoV. So while I tried and dug through patch notes and searched the forums it is still kind of hard to get a grasp. Sounds like Necro is probably the way to go (I will create thematic characters many over after our first run through, I want it to be relatively strong so she can have an enjoyable time). Argument for or against each would be awesome. Secondary's I am even a bit more blank on right now /time /dark /elec all sound good. I know there was some changes to /dark. I know for sure I want a heal (just what I love doing). But maybe some good suggestions with the idea that its not just pets but will be a duo with a Brute (she has not chosen specifics yet as CoH can be overwhelming but brute is deff her playstyle in other games). I am down for other secondary's would just like to hear argument for why. Hopefully I will get some views before tonight. We are starting on my Birthday (Today) as something new to do together.