Little Big Demon

Please explain in detail how pets ALREADY AT 90% resist and 100% defence are made any more durable by sonic or FF? You can not raise resists past 90% for henchmen and 100% defence has long since left the softcap behind. I do not understand how you think those sets even begin to make a difference at that point. So if we just made enemies automatically disable any and all toggles with absolutely no way to stop it would that just be 'more difficult' for all tankers and brutes or would that completely break the game for them? Or every single enemy from minions to AVs having mag 100 protection to all controls, all the time as an auto inherent power, I'm sure controllers and dominators would see that as just a funny challenge for their primary sets. Thats whats happening to masterminds their pets are just removed from gameplay. It isn't more difficult, its removing your gameplay entirely. I don't see that as a challenge I see that as bullshit that makes playing the archtype a punishment. I want it to be a challenge I have to focus on to keep them up and my dps present, but once again, 90% resist. 100% defence. There isn't any more survivability I can give them aside from +max HP or Absorb and last I checked FF and Sonic does not give that maybe I missed a very recent rework of both sets, I'll check the patch notes. And its equally shitty to say "Well then you exclusively have to play Marine or Nature if you play MM in this content". I also don't see how an extra 200-350 hp for the minion tier henchmen and 50-100 for lieutenants would invalidate sonic or forcefields. Level shifting would have to be exclusive to the task forces because it would just make the pets too powerful in 50+0 but a max hp boost would just mean a couple extra hits in normal gameplay, the chance of surviving more than 1 hit in hard mode. I don't want their resists or defences touched at all.

Yes they should be difficult, but where a tanker might need a bit more support to stay alive and a blaster might need to be finer tuned to deal their dps, Mastermind pets are just wiped out of existence. At 90% resists/100% defences maintained by barrier spammed from a whole team the pets can still die from single hits, often aoe attacks so tankers taunting don't matter, entirely from their low hp pool and being shifted down levels. I don't want the pets to be invulnerable and the real big hits should take them out, but when every single mob can glance their way and they crumple instantly then it isn't 'more difficult' the game is outright denying your entire primary pool. Masterminds do not need buffs outside of this harder content. My quality of life ideas like recall would be nice in general gameplay but actual buffs are only needed in Relentless because again it isn't just more difficult, its erasing the primary part of your kit and forcing you to be a defender with worse base numbers on your powers because at max tank stats the pets die instantly. That's why when it comes to actual numbers I just want to see their max hp go up and less so a level shift up, even if they are still two shotted giving a chance to keep them alive would make the world of difference and survivability sets are just as effective.

But that means you have to wait a 2 minute cooldown, along with teleporting your entire league, every time you want to teleport your henchmen. I don't think that is remotely comparable to teleport team being usable every 5 seconds to reposition just yourself and the pets. My idea is if group teleport worked like incan does exclusively for personal pets/henchmen it would be a much more interesting tool and might get more use. As is I can not conceive of the last time I saw anyone with the power in their kit. Yeah I goofed and forgot it was -2 for them, but that also just leans into my point more that while other archtypes just have a bit more challenge MMs are straight up losing core parts of their powerset.

When Homecoming brought this game back one of the first things I promised myself to do was play masterminds. On live I never got around to them, always kicked myself for it when the game was gone. Those that know me in game see I've taken quite a liking to them but a lot of players (myself included) can agree that the archtype needs a bit of tuning up, especially for late game content. Of course masterminds are still perfectly viable and if built right very powerful, but the newer four-star content and now the labyrinth show one glaring issue being that pets EVAPORATE and you either become a weaker defender or spend 80% of the time trying to resummon your dps and there are a few quirks of the pets themselves that can be felt by anyone who regularly plays masterminds. All that is to say, I've come up with a few ideas of varying difficulty to implement in game from possible solutions for the lategame dropoff to quality of life changes that would just make the archtype flow better. First I want to identify the biggest issues I believe Masterminds face: Late game, most specifically fourstar relentless content, the pets die too quickly. To be specific, in exactly one hit by AoE from bosses and above. Incarnate Trials help by level shifting the pets but as enemies hit harder pets quickly become irrelevant, which as the core identity of the archtype it does not feel fun to play that content. The pets are dumb. I totally get that the in game AI and pathfinding is most likely not going to receive a total overhaul any time soon, if ever. The changes awhile ago to make ranged pets prefer their range attacks was a beautiful change, but they are still idiots. The pace of gameplay moves faster than your pets do on teams. Unless you are a kin or rocking group fly while everyone who forgot null can turn off group travel powers yells at you for it and demands it be turned off, the pets are always lagging behind or worse grabbing aggro from all the groups the rest of your team decided weren't worth the effort. This means you either have to constantly dismiss and resummon (Which by the time all six are up and you use the two buffs everything is defeated), once again relegate yourself to be a weaker defender, or convince the rest of your team to slow down how they play because you're playing a mastermind. The possible changes I think can help address issues for masterminds or provide quality of life: Buff both base and max HP values at higher levels/50+, possible for all pets but especially for the 3 minions. 💗 On relentless content as long as they survive a hit and can be healed like other players can then they can be kept alive. Pets already get a 90% resistance cap and with barrier spamming can consistently stay tanky as far as that goes, but on relentless even at 90% resist many, if not most attacks do forwards of 700 damage. On players this is fine you can reposition quickly and have personal tools to keep yourself alive but even with the best reaction time possible telling pets to back away from aoe attacks is a gamble whether they will turn around and shuffle off fast enough. Giving them the hp pool to survive the more common attacks is simple, straightforward, and effective enough without busting their gameplay. Fast summoning, fast enhancement, improved buffing. 🕘 The summon animation takes forever when you are in combat. You can't even target your pets while they milk their entrance more than the queens on rupaul's dragrace, but they sure as heck can die before they are up. Then, after they are up and ready you still gotta give them their school lunch and backpacks just so they are useful. Speed everything up. Make them able to take action/interrupt the summon animation sooner, make them targetable by friendlies sooner, make the empowerments quicker. It would be great if the empowerments were just a permanent passive you didn't have to reapply every time (Mayhaps make them an autopower on the mastermind that then applies to their pets, much like the alpha slot incarnate does) but presuming the code of the game doesn't make that easy just speeding up this whole process means masterminds are not punished for their own gameplay. It also softens issues where the pets die too quickly, resummoning doesn't take you out of the battle nearly as much and can become a part of the gameplay loop. Summon All feature would be neat, one click and all available sets of pets come in at the same time (Overlapping summon animation to reduce how long it takes) Currently applied buffs (Limited Selection) to the mastermind transfer to freshly summoned pets, retaining the remaining time from the mastermind. Kind of a radical change but often people will buff before the mastermind has summoned their pets or while the pets are out of range and then theres nothing you can do. Most single target buffs should probably be exempt from this, would be a little broken to put stuff like Amp Up on a Mastermind and have it apply to 6 pets at once. I say most because the single target grant stealth I think would be fair to apply to the pets. Most AoE buffs like speedboost, barriers, or aoe absorb shields (Matching the % remaining from the Mastermind) would make a lot of sense and save some headache. A small aside, I would also consider a brief period of invulnerability for the pets while being summoned but before they can take action. At the moment they can't be targeted directly by players but enemy aoe and in some cases targeted attacks can certainly hit them and often I could keep the pets alive if only they lived long enough to be buffed in the first place. There is power in death, let us use it.💀 Revive powers with buffs. Fallout. A much weaker vengeance. Let us use the defeated bodies. Even if its only the Mastermind who can use these powers on their own defeated pets, something like Fallout alone would be so much fun, very useful, and give a moment of agency with defeated pets. Maybe adjust the numbers when used on pets but for the most part powers used on defeated allies are already so rare and often come with long cooldowns I don't think they need to be nerfed (Aside from vengeance that would be broken). For powers like fallout a kind of workaround if they just can't be coded to work on pet bodies would be making it a buff that triggers effect on death when applied to pets. Kind of like the remote bomb from traps. Revives working on pets I would guess just doesn't work because of how revives and pets are coded so I don't put too much stock in the idea. But if they could, reviving pets with their mastermind enchantments still applied would be another avenue to making masterminds more viable in situations where the pets die quickly without just making the pets absolute tanks. Howling Twilight comes to mind. A recall command. 🔙 If you tell your pets to stay in place they will... Until they don't. Pets will always teleport back to masterminds after a certain distance. There is a funny way to abuse this currently, if you absolutely SPAM the stay command pets will stay regardless of distance until you stop spamming, then they will attempt to teleport to you as normal. I think this should be a feature. Stay should mean stay, as long as you are in the same zone they stay put. In fact they shouldn't even move to attack, exclusively using ranged powers from their location. Masterminds should also get a new command where it immediately teleports all pets back to their location regardless of distance just like the current tether port. In long range this means masterminds can join a team in 'stealthing' through missions to important mobs. Command pets to stay, run through, and recall them when you are ready. In short range this means if pets are getting squirrely and running off a bit too much you can immediately reset control on them or reposition to avoid an aoe that pets don't take reduced damage from. Aggro is the funny detail making this odd. Masterminds could abuse the recall to use the pets for unique pulling mechanics... But to me that sounds more like a new form of skill expression than exploiting. Also means a mastermind can snap back the pets for bodyguard mode and use it more actively instead of set and forgetting. Group Travel Powers and Stealth. 🚕 Alright a few ideas here. First, make group teleport work on pets regardless of distance just like group fly does now. Porting pets into or out of a fight would be a great tactic and tons of fun. Group fly and teleport are already a huge power investment to take (and should maybe be automatically granted once you have enough powers from the set, different conversation) and giving them any bit of unique utility would be appreciated by the very small playerbase that uses them. Second, have a way to transfer some of the masterminds movement buffs into pets, or just make pets faster. They are so slow and the previous recall suggestion would completely eliminate that issue but presuming that doesn't make it in at least give pets something to help them move around. A radical change would be applying travel powers to them, superspeed applying a weaker version to all pets, fly making all pets fly with the user, pets jump with the mastermind if they are using superjump. But even just giving a generic speed buff while a mastermind has a movement power active would be a big change. Stealth on pets is kind of meh. Their pathing means unless they have perfect stealth they are still probably going to walk in aggro range while running around. Stealth effects transferring from the mastermind to them (Just stealth, not the defence component most have) or making grant invisibility work as an aoe for pets would be a small change and help masterminds use stealth mechanics a little bit more. This one is very specific, but the K'ong fight is just a stupid nightmare for ONE reason alone. 🐒 The fear gas the rikti monkeys leave behind just means mastermind pets run around like chickens with their heads cut off, get out of the MM's passive aura ranges losing a lot of their buffs and definitely too far for AoE heals or bodyguard mode, throw half an attack, and die. Its entirely from the 50 mag fear effect. I've kept pets alive and spammed repositions enough to get some pitiful dps out of them during Omega but like it would be cool if the little monkey gas could be reworked to not do that just in that fight alone. The whole point of a mastermind is that you control these pets and one of the most interesting fights in the game tells you "Screw that, your pets are useless even if you keep them alive, you're a defender now shut up and like it." At least give us a tool to use like a temporary power that can stop the fear spam. Consider an additional level shift for the minions. 🔼 Because the 3 minions are technically a level down from the player at relentless 54+ enemies start becoming arbitrarily tougher not because of stats or unique powers, but because there is a level gap becoming too wide. Incarnate Trials hotfixes this by granting more level shifts to them bringing them more even but we only get the single level shift in relentless, and damn do you feel it sometimes. In perfect scenarios where I keep the pets alive I still have respectable dps, I don't think Masterminds need a world of changes to keep up in that regard, but where a blaster or tanker is comparably as effective from standard content the mastermind pets are clearly falling behind as more difficult challenges are being thrown at us. I don't know how to balance this for the harder content without it busting open regular level 50 content where Masterminds can already shine with a good player. An internal flag that triggers minion shift just on hardmode taskforces or manually tuning individual stats I have no idea what is possible and knowing nothing about coding a videogame this already sounds like a bug riddled mess waiting to happen. But the core issue is the level gap matters and relentless enemies have buffs that really amplify that. The addition of level shifts is a change I am the most unsure about but its also one of the most direct fixes for hardmode issues. More than just Bodyguard Mode. Bodyguard mode is pretty cool. It could be expanded on with other similar modes. Passive+Stay=Turtle mode, pets receive reduced damage, damage reduction modifier separate from resistance stats. Aggressive+Attack this=Swarm Mode. pets gain bonus movement speed and increased threat level enough to pull aggro away from a solo mastermind. Honestly spitballing ideas for different kinds of modes because I have no idea what is possible but the idea is more nebulous buffs that aren't straight numbers like bodyguard mode could give really interesting and new avenues for balance changing Masterminds. I love masterminds, the concept was ahead of its time when CoV released and they are still a lot of fun to play from level 1 to 50+. It does feel like as we powercreep into more intense content they are slipping through the cracks and I already see (very rarely) some of the snobbier teams explicitly saying not to bring masterminds because its almost seen like a handicap. We have the overhauls of specific MM sets and I really hope we see that TLC brought to every MM primary eventually, but I also believe that the archtype as a whole deserves a soft overhaul or adjustment to keep pace.

Slings and spears work very well thematically, but I really wanted to give an identity to the set away from beasts so I wouldn't want to just copy throwing birds at people. For a ranged I decided on the vents to give a fire spin because there are already so many lethal MM personal attack sets. Demon summoning has fire too but its fire/toxic, this one would focus more on the straight fire idea and sort of make the battlefield feel a little more jurassik volcano with tar and lava.

Before I begin a little disclaimer: I am well aware of just how absurd the amount of work that would have to go into creating any new mastermind sets. I am also aware that I am not a balance expert. This is just an idea for fun! A scientist toiled away in their lab for years, yearning to recreate lives long lost. An adventurer exploring vast untouched jungles finds new beasts that slowly become companions. A timetraveller journeyed to the distant past and came back with more than they should have. Frozen in ice a much less.. Or perhaps differently evolved human is thawed out along with their 'pack'. A sorcerer expelling the circle of thorns from yet another ruined temple finds a curious set of eggs. Dinosaur Masterminds. A cousin to beast mastery with a bit more scales and maybe as many feathers. The Powerset: Option 1 Bash: (Melee Single Target, Moderate Smashing) So I literally just want to give this set the option to run around with a caveman club, but that would make two of the mastermind abilities melee by pulling them from the War Mace powerset and I have no idea how well that would play out in game. So I've come up with the caveman-club powers and alternative normally ranged MM powers. Given how melee focused the pets are though, I feel like the club would be fun to use. Option 2 Volcanic Vent: (Ranged Single Target, Minor Fire, minor fire DoT) You tap into the geothermal power of the earth and release a stream of hot gasses on a single target. Deals minor fire damage and minor fire DoT. Raptor Pack: You command up to three Utahraptors at once. The raptors are intelligent, fast, and lethal operating as a malicious unit of teeth and claws. Although there is no hierarchy among the raptors they do flourish with numbers and gain a stacking buff to their movement speed and tohit based on how many raptors are nearby. Raptor abilities: Resistance (Resist Lethal, fire, toxic. Def Psionic. Sleep, endurance drain protection) Raptors hard scales and cooldblooded nature grant a resistance to lethal, fire, and toxic. Their primitive minds also mean psionic attacks are less likely to affect them. Raptor Claws (Melee, Moderate Lethal, High Lethal DoT, Slow) Raptors strike with their powerful claws, causing bleeding and hindering their prey. Gnash (Melee, High Lethal) Raptors bite at their prey. Option 1 Jawbreaker: (Melee single target, high Smashing, knockup) Potentially at reduced damage, but the Jawbreaker ability for its knockup. Option 2 Lava Plume: (Ranged Single target, High fire, low fire DoT, knockup) You release a plume of lava on a single target, dealing high fire damage, low fire DoT, and knocking up the target. Evolution: Your dinosaurs adapt to the city's environments. Raptors gain: Feast (Defeated foe, aoe heal over time, +speed, slow resist) Raptors will devour any meal they can. Defeated foes can be feasted on by the pack to recover health over time and grant a burst of speed and slow resist. This ability only affects Raptors and can only stack twice while additional applications refresh the duration. Raptors will naturally seek out meals if set to aggressive and not already on a target, but can also be directed to feast on defeated foes by using attack target command. Pounce (Ranged single target, shortrange teleport to target, high lethal damage, moderate lethal DoT) Raptors can pounce onto their prey, attempting to rip it apart. Triceratops gains: Thrash (PBAoE, Moderate Smashing, knockdown, stun) Triceratops thrashes its heavy body about, smashing and knocking down any enemies close enough to be hit and stunning them. Bellow (PBAoE taunt +damage to allies per nearby enemy) Triceratops bellows loudly drawing the attention of all nearby enemies. The show of defiance encourages his allies buffing their damage more the worse the odds seem. Caps at 10 enemies. Pteranodon gains: Shout (Ranged single target, heavy smashing/energy, -resistance) Pteranodon blasts their foe with a tremendous shout, damaging and reducing their resistance. Aero Burst (Targeted AoE, foe -tohit, -damage) Pteranodon dives towards its enemies, breaking the sonic barrier at the lowpoint of its swoop. Aero Burst impairs the hearing and sight of all enemies in the area and creates strange airflows temporarily reducing the impact of all their abilities. T-Rex gains: Tailswipe (PBAoE High Smashing, knockback) The T-Rex spins around, swiping with its tail, knocking back all nearby enemies and dealing massive smashing damage. Devouring Maw (Single target Melee, extreme lethal/toxic, Special) The T-Rex attempts to devour a target. Regardless of success, it deals extreme lethal and toxic damage. If this ability defeats the foe the enemy ragdoll is immediately vanished. If you tell your T-Rex to attack a defeated target they will devour them if this ability is not on cooldown, granting a sizable heal for your T-rex based on target rank and AoE endurance discount for your pets. Option 1 & 2 Tar Pit: (Either PBAoE or Location Based AoE, Moderate Fire DoT, Slow, -Jump) You strike the ground and create a tarpit at your location. Enemies within the pit will suffer moderate fire damage over time, a large slow, and be unable to jump. Wide PBAoE Alternative would be the same ability but location-target AoE much like Whirlpool. Jurassic Beasts: You command a protective triceratops (level 12) and aggressive pteranodon. Your Triceratops is a bulky machine of war acting to protect its kind, while your ptera keeps watch over the battlefield able to strike swiftly and identify weaknesses. Trike: Resistances (+Max HP, Resist smashing, lethal, fire, cold, toxic. Defence melee, ranged, aoe, Psionic. Hold, stun, knockback, immobilize protection) Triceratops is a tough and naturally amoured creature. Headbutt (Melee, High Smashing, knockback, chance to stun) Triceratops bashes an enemy with great force, knocking them back and potentially stunning them. Grant Cover (Toggle AoE Defence ranged, melee, AoE) Triceratops will protect those close to it, using its shield-like body to keep other dinosaurs and its master safe. Pteranodon: Resistances (Self fly +Ranged and AoE defence while flying, Resist Lethal, Fire, cold, toxic. Defence, Psionic. Sleep protection. Stun, immobilize resistance) Pteranodon can naturally fly and will only land if told to or brought down by enemy abilities. They are also agile in the air, able to dodge ranged attacks easily. Divebomb (Melee with high base range, Extreme Lethal, Knockdown, -Fly, -Defence -Resist) Pteranodon quickly divebombs a target catching it offguard and lowering its defences. If the target is in the air the Ptera will attempt to knock it out of the skies. Shriek (Ranged single target, minor smashing/energy damage -resist) Pteranodon lets forth a quick shriek, lowering the target's damage resistance. Bird's Eye (Targeted AoE, -Resist, -Defence) Pteranodon is an experienced hunter able to identify weakness in its prey. They can call out these weaknesses to their pact, This ability will have a reduced effect on enemies surrounding the primary target. Fossilization: You select one of your dinosaurs to be covered in hot melting tar, granting them a damaging aura (Fire) that also reduced enemy speed, recharge, and range. The range debuff lasts significantly longer. Tyrant Rex: The ground shakes at the footsteps of the king of all dinosaurs. A terrifying T-Rex is under your command looking for any excuse to rampage across the city. Rex: Resistance (Resist Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Toxic. Defence Psionic. Protection for Fear, Immobilize, knockback. Resistance to slow and holds) Through sheer size, strength, and refusal to die the T-Rex is a durable monster. Roar (Cone Fear, moderate Toxic DoT) T-rex roars in a display of dominance. Most foes will experience terror and the spit from the t-rex is like caustic acid. Chomp (Melee cone, high lethal, high lethal DoT, Chance for toxic DoT) T-rex chomps down on as many foes it can fit into its jaws causing extreme lethal damage and bleeding over time. The caustic saliva may also cause additional toxic damage. Extinction: Rapid evolution has dramatically changed your dinosaurs into brutal crime fighting/doing machines. Raptors gain: Clever Pack (Toggle, Self+ Stealth, +Defence, Self +Special) Raptors are hunters not by size but by skill and intelligence for their time. Your raptors have evolved to understand modern times and are adapt in their new environments. Out of combat raptors will have a reduced threat level, will be stealthed and difficult to detect but not impossible, and granted an out of combat defence bonus. In combat they will lose most of these bonuses. Raptors striking from out of combat will deal additional lethal damage and grant themselves and all other raptors a stack of "Surprise". Each stack of surprise will reduce the recharge of their abilities by 20% for its duration as well as reduced casttimes. (Not sure if pets are capable of being coded for this, if not then each stack increases their damage and accuracy by X%) Triceratops gains: Stampede (Targeted AoE teleport, high smashing damage, knockdown) Triceratops stampedes to a target location, dealing high smashing damage and knocking down all foes. Determined to Survive (Self +Absorb) Triceratops's bone and carapace have adapted to quickly regenerate extra mass in times of stress, acting as an extra shield. Pteranodon gains: Aero Rush (Targeted AoE, High Smashing/Energy DoT, -Resist) Pteranodon's wings have developed allow it to swoop down and create a vortex of wind shredding apart foes and tearing down their resistances. Ancient Song (Single target ranged, -Damage -Secondary effect -Special, Chance to confuse) Pteranodon's vocal cords have specialized to create unique songs capable of reducing the effectiveness of many attacks. This song can also be disorienting and confuse a target. T-Rex gains: Tyrannical Flames (Short ranged AoE high fire/toxic, minor fire DoT) The caustic saliva of the T-Rex has become highly flammable, and something in the beast has begun to ignite it. The T-Rex is capable of lobbing a short ranged ball of acid and fire at a target causing high fire/toxic damage and minor fire over time damage. Meteor Bite (Single target Melee Extreme Lethal/Fire, Hold) The T-Rex fills its mouth with flame and viciously bites its foe. The fumes of the burning saliva can leave survivors choking.