Maelwys

Raising it to 50% would also help with Knockdown protection. Currently one instance of 3x Gladiators Armor translates to henchmen getting 0.4*3 = Mag 1.2 protection vs KB. so vs +4s your pets would be protected against 1.2/1.44 = Mag 0.83333 KB and below. so vs +3s your pets would be protected against 1.2/1.33 = Mag 0.90226 KB and below. so vs +2s your pets would be protected against 1.2/1.22 = Mag 0.98361 KB and below. so vs +1s your pets would be protected against 1.2/1.11 = Mag 1.08108 KB and below. If the set bonus inheritance rate was raised to 50%, that'd mean henchmen would instead be getting 0.5*3= Mag 1.5 protection vs KB per set of Gladiator's Armor. so vs +4s your pets would be protected against 1.5/1.44 = Mag 1.04167 KB and below. so vs +3s your pets would be protected against 1.5/1.33 = Mag 1.12782 KB and below. so vs +2s your pets would be protected against 1.5/1.22 = Mag 1.22951 KB and below. so vs +1s your pets would be protected against 1.5/1.11 = Mag 1.35135 KB and below. There are rather a lot lot of additional powers that clock in at mag 0.9 and Mag 1; such as Frag Grenade and Foot Stomp and Force Blast and Hand Clap etc. etc. Also the next major KB protection performance breakpoint is at Mag2; so 2x sets of Gladiator's Armor would cover that nicely. (the more KB protection the better, obviously... but the big breakpoints are Mag 0.67, Mag 0.75, Mag1, Mag 2; Mag 3 and 4... with considerably smaller ones at Mag 5, 6 and 8!) ((and of course if the devs can tweak things so that henchmen gain the benefit of Blessing of the Zephyr, Steadfast Protection and Karma KB protection IOs that'd help too!)) 🥺

Honestly the Set bonuses my MMs normally tend to push are +Recharge and +MaxHP, and as the former has no benefit to pets it's a write off. MaxHP benefits the T1 henchmen pretty drastically though. And having at least a few points of Knockback Protection is a major QOL change for all henchmen. Accuracy Set bonuses might be situationally useful too, but the 40% return rate combined with the tendency for MMs to frankenslot or procbomb their attacks means it's unlikely to end up as a core pillar of your build. Same for defense and damage resistance (other than *perhaps* Fire Resistance set bonuses given how easy they are to gain from purple/winter sets). Other properties that henchmen might want to boost (such as damage? regeneration? recovery? maximum endurance? endurance discount? movement speed?) all have very small raw numbers in their set bonus effects even before the -60% inheritance tax.

I mean, they get that NOW if you have at least one set of 3x Gladiators Armor; and since they're PVP IOs the set bonus functions when exemplared even if they're not attuned. And many MMs can slot Resistance Set IOs into their T1 upgrade; so they're available from very low level. Even a single instance of this grants the pets "Mag 1.2" KB protection; which is enough to stop most Knockdown powers dead until you're fighting higher than +3s. Same goes for 3x Fury of the Gladiator (meh). ((I'd really like to see Blessing of the Zephyr, Steadfast Protection and Karma -KB IOs be made to function with them SOONTM...))

I'm pretty sure they could theoretically give MMs a toggle with an only-affecting-henchmen Mag 100+ "reverse repel" effect; so that we can choose to vacuum all the little unruly smeggers up and then deposit them somewhere else after moving... (Perhaps even with a few animation tweaks? Robotics = Voltron Combine!)

Looks like the "Fixed a bug where Recovery Set Bonuses were not included in the henchmen set bonus sharing." point didn't make it into the build. My pets are still showing no inherited Recovery bonuses on Brainstorm.

It's supposedly meant to be working as of this morning's patch... but the in-game info still says nope. [MM] [PET]

Looks promising, especially for any Beasts/ who have been struggling with their survivability. Thanks! 👍 [EDIT] - Here's an illustration of my Henchmen HP now on Live/Test: (was previously 480.99, so that's +27.0%) (was previously 678.34, so that's +18.5%) FWIW +MaxHP Set Bonuses seem particularly nice for supplementing the T1 pets survivability (Since Set Bonus inheritance use the master's base values; the same value ends up getting added to each of the pets... so the T1s with the lowest HP gain the most proportional benefit!)

🥳 Thanks! I know a lot of people will be very happy with the T1/T2 "HP nerfs" gone!

So I managed to get my Bot/Kin into RWZ this evening for a bunch of Pylon tests on both Live and Brainstorm. The results may seem a little unusual, however I am PURPOSELY trying to benchmark the effects of Incarnate Ability procs on an endgame Lv50+1 MM build here (since I know that the devs were particularly concerned about the potential effects of the stacking of those procs on even-level MM pets) Anyway, here's the setup and the various pylon times: Build: Mastermind - Robotics - Kinetics (Bonfire).mbd Setup: Level 50+1 Robotics/Kinetics Mastermind with ED-capped damage in all pets, and an Explosive Strike proc in Drones and Assault Bot. They are intentionally *NOT* using a Damage-buffing Alpha Slot ability (T4 Agility Core Paragon instead) or a Soulbound proc. Noteworthy Passive/Toggle Buffs: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface, Supremacy, Tactics (to cap Hit Rate vs +3s) +1.01% Damage Set Bonus (TEST only) PYLON TIMES: (Note: each time is the average of 3 runs; except for the >33minute one on Test #6 when I got very very bored ran out of testing time) Test #1: vs a Levelless Pylon (Vanguard Training Pylon "Blank level Dummy") + [LIVE=04:35] [TEST=08:54] - Pets (Baseline run - no active buffs other than +Recovery/+Endurance) + [LIVE=04:03] [TEST=05:25] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment repeatedly activated on cooldown. + [LIVE=02:41] [TEST=03:24] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment plus Pulse Rifle Burst set to Autofire for -200% Regen Debuff. Test #2: vs a -1 Pylon (Vanguard IDC "Level 50 Dummy") + [LIVE=03:36] [TEST=03:28] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment repeatedly activated on cooldown. + [LIVE=02:13] [TEST=02:05] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment plus Pulse Rifle Burst set to Autofire for -200% Regen Debuff. Test #3: vs a +0 Pylon (Vanguard IDC "Level 51 Dummy") + [LIVE=05:00] [TEST=07:36] - Pets (Baseline run - no active buffs other than +Recovery/+Endurance) + [LIVE=04:34] [TEST=04:29] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment repeatedly activated on cooldown. + [LIVE=02:44] [TEST=02:41] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment plus Pulse Rifle Burst set to Autofire for -200% Regen Debuff. Test #4: vs a +1 Pylon (Vanguard IDC "Level 52 Dummy") + [LIVE=06:24] [TEST=06:29] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment repeatedly activated on cooldown. + [LIVE=03:42] [TEST=03:29] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment plus Pulse Rifle Burst set to Autofire for -200% Regen Debuff. Test #5: vs a +2 Pylon (Vanguard IDC "Level 53 Dummy") + [LIVE=15:25] [TEST=09:42] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment repeatedly activated on cooldown. + [LIVE=05:58] [TEST=05:23] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment plus Pulse Rifle Burst set to Autofire for -200% Regen Debuff. Test #6: vs a +3 Pylon (Vanguard IDC "Level 54 Dummy") + [LIVE=N/A] [TEST=33:24] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment repeatedly activated on cooldown. + [LIVE=14:43] [TEST=08:55] - Pets with Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment plus Pulse Rifle Burst set to Autofire for -200% Regen Debuff. (NOTE: Pet damage output was insufficient to overcome pylon regeneration on Live without any active -Regen debuffs) Observations: (i) The Live version of the toon wins comfortably on all of the "levelless" pylon runs (as expected since the T1 and T2 pets are "even-level" vs it and aren't suffering any nerfs!) (ii) The Live version of the toon is winning very comfortably on both the levelless and the even-level pylon "baseline" runs (whenever Hybrid isn't toggled on) (iii) Whenever the Hybrid is being used on cooldown; the Test and Live versions of the toon are extremely close in terms of performance (I had a few runs where their positions flipped!) until they start fighting Lv53+ pylons and the Live version of the toon apparently starts having trouble overcoming the Pylon's passive regeneration rate. This definitely suggests that if MMs are using a "75% chance of DOT" T4 interface ability there is a substantial drop in overall henchmen damage output on Test when fighting "levelless" foes like GMs; and a less-substantial-but-still-noticable drop in overall henchmen damage output when fighting even-level foes. However throwing Hybrid Ability procs into the mix seems to be able to make up some of the performance deficit vs levelless foes and effectively all of the performance deficit vs regular even-level foes... and versus higher-conning targets (somewhere between +2s and +3s) the Test version of the character will start pulling ahead of the Live version. (And since the devs are apparently intending the break-even point to be +2s for regular damage and +3s for proc damage... to my mind that all tracks rather nicely!)

Agreed. And the more data we can produce that proves "pet survivability has decreased compared to Live" to the devs, the more likely they are to lessen the currently-proposed HP reductions (or buff henchmen survivability later!).

And yet as @Bionic_Flea and @tidge have shown... whilst the damage dealt by your T1 and T2 henchmen to those GMs has dropped, it's not actually having a noticeable difference in cleartimes (at least without mixing in extreme levels of optimization and specific Incarnate Abilities). And it's a net gain vs anything that cons +3 or above. The changes ARE having a noteworthy difference on pet survivability against GMs; and on your "effective HP" in bodyguard mode (which is something I hope will be addressed sooner rather than later) but both of those are irrelevant against a Training Pylon that doesn't shoot back.

Personally when levelling up pre-IOs I always preferred Masterminds. And even nowadays they're still my goto ATs for GM soloing. And there are definitely Edge Cases.

Because players hate nerfs. Giving two apples + then taking away one of them later on gets people far more riled up than if you'd simply given them one apple to begin with. Just look here --> (and I'm going to stop looking any further back in the search results for "unfair tanker nerf" before I start facepalming so hard I knock myself unconscious. Again.)

Agreed. Given that there's a lengthy period between the start of the summoning animation and the newly-summoned pet being able to actually start shoot at anything; let alone them being fully upgraded; I think a short duration of immunity to damage (rather than untouchability) and possibly a +stealth effect is a very fair request.

I think that's the point. The devs are actively trying to make the performance differences from T1/T2-henchmen-becoming-even-level "moot" on this patch. Taking your "Council Rocket" example... typical worst-case will be weathering a missile attack from a Boss. As per https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=council.warcry.missile_launch&at=boss_grunt that's: 245.6772 points of Fire damage (all affected targets) 235.8501 points of Lethal damage (all affected targets) = 481.5273 damage total at Lv54. At +4; even-level pets would take 481.5273*1.44=693.4 damage; -2 pets would take 481.5273*1.66=799.3 damage; and -1 pets would take 481.5273*1.55=746.4 damage. At +5; even-level pets would take 481.5273*1.55=746.4 damage; -2 pets would take 481.5273*1.77=852.3 damage; and -1 pets would take 481.5273*1.66=799.3 damage. On Test... T1 pets currently have 448 HP (Base) and T2 pets currently have 645 HP (Base) So neither of them are going to survive a hit even from the +4 without buffs. However, most MMs will try and get the Aura IOs into the builds, which add +35% resistance to everything; and many pets have inherent resistances on top of that. With just the basic 35% resistance and zero HP buffs (from set bonuses etc); the T1s need >689 damage to kill them and the T2s need >992 damage to kill them. Meaning with very minor +HP or +Res buffs from set bonuses etc. even the T1s could survive 1 hit from a +4. And at Lv50 you won't be fighting +5s if you have a T3+ Alpha. On Live... T1 pets currently have 574 HP (Base) and T2 pets currently have 768 HP (Base) So the T2 could *just about* survive a hit from the +4 without buffs. Factoring in the basic 35% resistance from Aura IOs; the T1 henchmen would need >883 damage to kill them and the T2 henchmen >1181 damage to kill them. So greater raw survivability; however the pets would also be facing additional LevelDifferenceAcc and ToHit increases (see here) so they'll be getting hit more often. @Dispari had a nice post on the Closed Beta feedback thread that showed the breakdown of the differences in Damage Taken compared to the new HP figures... but effectively the reduction in damage taken ranges from ~18% (vs +0s) to ~12% (vs +5s) for T1 henchmen; and ~9% to 7% for T2 henchmen. However T1 Henchmen HP has been reduced by 22% and T2 by 16%. So currently it doesn't fully balance out unless you also include the +HP from Set Bonuses and the reduced likelihood of getting hit. Yeah, I'm definitely getting the vibe that Devs are currently comparatively open to future MM survivability buffs but very cautious about damage buffs. We really don't want a repeat of the whole "Tankers Need Buffed, WHOA THAT'S TOO MUCH!" thing... 🙈