Maelwys

(i) It's not against the rules, no. (ii) There are (many) people who treat the market as a form of PVP. Getting accused of being an "Evil Marketeer" can often be treated as a badge of honour. (iii) I'd advise reading some of the threads in the Marketting subforum. Because none of what you're worried about is actually a problem. The short version is that the state of the market is very healthy, and the prices are good for both buyers and sellers as long as you have a tiny bit of patience. Because of how supply works here there is very little chance for anyone to actually corner a market. All the "good" IOs and salvage have a chance to drop practically everywhere, and you have a chance to get them via converters too. Hamidon-Origin enhancements are gated behind certain bits of content, but it's popular content and the drops are random, so there's a constant supply of new HOs entering the market. And due to the percentage-based commission taken by the AH; prices tend to trend downwards. Therefore really the most that folk with absolutely massive wallets can accomplish is to buy up all of the currently available copies of a specific item; and place "bid" orders waiting for more to arrive. This can temporarily drive up the price of individual items... but all a non-marketeer has to do is bid one inf higher then them ("I wanna buy it now!") and their bid will take priority... or they can choose to wait ("Patience is a virtue!") for supply to outstrip the number of bids and drive the price back down again... or they can choose to farm/redeem/craft/convert the item by themselves. So the prices of specific items can be "manipulated" but not outright "controlled". And the marketeers know this... which means you end up with "Marketeers" skimming a decent bit of profit; but prices and supply are kept fairly steady + the market remains healthy. Likewise, "Farmers" keep the supply up. And some of us take great delight in annoying certain marketeers by listing everything we get for 1 inf (because it's fun and it's not real money and we're all rolling in it) It's also worth pointing out that it's typically these same people who go out of their way to earn inf via farming/marketeering/whutever who are the most generous at giving new players handouts. Because again... it's a game and it's not real money. And (rather surprisingly!) it turns out there's more than enough for everyone to get a decent share.

It's true that in 4* content enemies gain an additional +30% base defense, and vs +3 mobs that'll reduce an unbuffed ED-accuracy-capped attack's Hit Rate to ~35%... ...but Phantom Army can take the Soulbound Proc (for 3PPM +40% ToHit and +80% Damage). With ED-capped accuracy aspect; whilst that Proc's buff is active it raises their pre-clamped Hit Rate from ~35% to ~113% (vs +3s) and from ~18% to ~96% (vs +4s). And it's active a LOT; since it lasts for 6.25 seconds, each PA spams attacks and at 3PPM their proc activation chance per attack is anything from 25%-72.5%. Over the course of PA's duration for me it averages about ~55% uptime (it can take a few attacks per PA to kick in; but once activated it hovers around ~66%) This is also why on MMs I tend to put the Soulbound Proc in my T1 henchmen rather than in my T3... the +Damage is a wash; but the +ToHit is far more valuable on the T1s!

It really depends on the power if each proc works well in it or not. In general I tend to slot the equivalent of 1x EndMod in each of the sustains; and I'll usually ED-cap them for Health if they're giving me +Absorb. The pure +Regeneration ones can sometimes (but not always) benefit more from a Power Transfer +Heal proc.

Might need to wait a little bit; but you might crack a smile at some point 😉 (also I'm not all sunshine and rainbows - there are both nerfs and buffs in the pipeline; but at least the former seem to be aimed at specific powers rather than at entire ATs...)

Let me start off by saying that I've already stated; loudly; that I'd have preferred the devs put the "break even" point for MM damage output at +0 instead of at +2. I completely get that it feels frustrating to be nerfed. However the reality of the purple patch is that there is a drastic damage decrease fighting anything over +2 - the damage dealt drops from 100% (+0s) -> 90% (+1s) -> 80% (+2s) -> 65% (+3s) -> 48% (+4s) -> 30% (+5s) -> 15% (+6s) -> 08% (+7s). And ON LIVE Mastermind T1 Henchmen spawn at -2 to you; which means if you're fighting +4s (let alone +5s!) those T1s will only inflict 15% of their raw damage; but your T3s would be inflicting 48% of their raw damage - making the T3s more than 3 times better off. This is part of why masterminds suck vs higher-conning foes (the other parts being that the T1 pets also have a severely handicapped Hit Rate and tend to get one-shot). Therefore if the Devs want to increase mob difficulty options across the playerbase (and they do!) then mastermind pets need to stop spawning lower-level. That's the scenario we find ourselves in here, in a nutshell. - - - - - - - - - - However the devs want to tread exceptionally carefully. The last time the devs made major adjustments to an AT was Tankers; and that did not go down very well. In i26p4 Tankers were buffed a lot; then in i28p2 those buffs were toned down a little bit. Currently Tankers are still far stronger than they were before i26p4 (see here); but because people had time to get used to the "too high" performance they screamed absolute bloody murder whenever the inevitable nerfs landed. So the devs are VERY, VERY hesitant here - they really do not want to set the initial performance of Even-Level Henchmen (particularly damage output!) too high and then have to nerf it again later. Apparently the current plan is to first simply make pets even-level (this patch!) and give that a chance to get tested and "bed in"... then afterwards they can make further adjustments to tweak MM performance gradually (upwards!) until it hits a level that they're happy with. We're not allowed to reveal the specifics of what's happening on Closed Beta. But CPH has already stated openly that there is a VERY BIG set of changes due next patch (after the holidays!). The MM changes currently in Open Beta were intentionally separated from that big patch in order to give everyone a decent opportunity to test them. - - - - - - - - - - OK. So the goal is to "make mastermind pets even-level" whilst altering current performance as little as possible. ...How? Well... it turns out that hit rate is rather easy; as it's the same difference regardless of what you're fighting. So all you need is flat tohit debuffs to the T1 and T2 pets. Done. But keeping Survivability and Damage Output the same as before is much harder. The differences in damage taken are at least linear - T1s going from a +6 foe hitting them to a +4 hitting them (13.25% less damage) is only a little different than going from a +2 foe hitting them to a +0 hitting them (18.03% less damage). So the Devs tried a few things here - and the one that made it to Open Beta was -MaxHP (which didn't overly negatively impact specific powersets; and was actually pretty balanced, until you remember that henchmen also take damage via bodyguard mode!). Ultimately, they reverted it; presumably because the Devs became comfortable that giving T1/T2 henchmen ~18%/10% higher survivability than before wasn't going to make the sky fall in. The differences in damage output however are definitely not linear: because of the purple patch. If they just left things as-is... the T1s would be dealing +33.93% damage vs +0s, +35.42% vs +1s, +43.59% vs +2s, +60% vs +3s, +160% vs +4s and +275% vs +5s. So they need to "rebalance" the damage dealt; so that the pets break-even somewhere. And they decided to set the break-even point at vs +2s. (Shamelessly stealing CPH's table here...) Test Delta [Base Damage] T1 T2 T3 +0 -25% -10% 0% +1 -17% -9% 0% +2 0% 0% 0% +3 +30% +10% 0% +4 +92% +30% 0% +5 +125% +62% 0% And yes, that looks a bit rough for Masterminds who fight even-level foes. However it's a slight increase in damage vs +3 mobs, and a HUGE comparative increase vs +4 mobs, let alone +5s. And where, traditionally, do MMs tend to actually struggle? Yup... whenever you're fighting +4 mobs or higher. There are also two reasons that I'm not particularly butthurt over this nerf to damage output vs +0 foes. (i) Firstly; the T1 henchmen tend to contribute proportionally less of the MM's overall damage, so a -25% damage decrease for them in practice isn't nearly as bad as you might think (we've actually people in the Focussed Feedback thread who are posting practically identical cleartimes!). (ii) Secondly; the differences in damage taken mean that T1/T2 henchmen are getting more of a survivability boost against +0 foes (18.03% less damage taken) than against +5 foes. (12.43% less damage taken). Which means that anyone who is choosing to fight +0 foes because they struggle at higher difficulty levels (e.g. non-optimized characters!) will at least be getting a hefty survivability boost to offset the lower damage dealt. I do however appreciate that it's a particular PITA vs "levelless" foes like GMs; since you're effectively taking an extra DPS loss of -20% (T1s) and -10% (T2s). I view the Set Bonus inheritance as an extra; rather than as something the Devs are implementing in order to offset the even-level changes. Set Bonuses having some kind of effect on henchmen has been a Quality-Of-Life request for MMs for some time. KB Protection is definitely the main draw for me now; although +MaxHP is noticeably further beefing up the survivability of my T1s (as it's based on the Master's HP pool). Also... the fact that Recharge Set Bonuses (and Recharge enhancement aspect and allied Recharge buffs!) aren't currently doing anything for pets is annoying; although at least the Devs are aware of that... and they've also acknowledged a disparity between "Global" bonuses and "Set" bonuses which might be addressed SOONTM (the former does not currently inherit - and whilst it's possible to make them do so it's a fair bit of work and might have knock-on impacts to how those IOs work in other places). I can assure you that the issues you're referring to here - pets being tricky to buff (or even to target!) after resummoning; and pet mobility being insufficient to keep pace with teammates are also well known to the devs. The T3 missile burn patches were reduced in targets substantially, from 12 to 3 IIRC. The damage wasn't the initial hit, it was the fire puddle after that. The Drone is nice for secondaries that didn't have a heal, and the KB removal was nice. But the loss of the AOE was a bit impact, especially since Robots was the one primary that had good AoE This is one area where @Neiska and I are definitely on the same page. I've posted about the nerf (and it WAS a nerf!) to Robotic's AoE damage potential before here... but I'll restate the most relevant bit: "Previously Incendiary Swarm Missiles were a 20ft radius AoE with a target cap of 16; then a separate 'Burn' patch Pseudopet spawned underneath each target affected which continually applied tick damage in an 8ft radius with a target cap of 5. After the change the Missiles were reduced to a 10ft radius AoE with a target cap of 10, and the Burn Patches were reduced to a target cap of 3. Whilst the Battle Drones and Protector Bot damage did increase to compensate for this change... unfortunately these pets spawn at -2 and -1 to you in most content. So in practice the earlier setup of having the Assault Bot do more damage as an even-level pet was better. And it also meant you only needed to maximise damage slotting (ED-capped plus Soulbound and Explosive Strike procs) on a single pet - the T1 and T2 pets could be loaded up with Global IOs and +Def." There were certainly some benefits from the changes - greatly reduced setup time; more reliable -Regen debuffing; and the ability to buff the inherent pet resistances via slotting the T1 upgrade for +DmgRes aspect... but it really did a number on Robotics' AoE damage potential. (They were the only MM primary that was actually fun to farm with!) That said; Robotics is still comparatively very good at AoE damage compared to the other MM primary powersets. As well as being good vs foes with non-negligible HP regeneration (like AVs/GMs). So it's in a pretty decent place; even if there is definitely room for improvement (e.g. vs Bosses!). In any case; I'm hopeful that there are more upwards-trending changes coming both for MMs in general and for specific powersets. ((but seriously... anyone who thinks the devs are shying away from retuning anything are going to be really floored by the next patch...)) 👀

AFAIK the only place it's been ventured MMs dominate is levelless Pylon fights (particularly Demons/Marine MMs) - although Illusion/ Controllers aren't far behind. Nukes are a whole 'nother issue. IIRC they were originally supposed to be balanced out by endurance cost and squishiness... hence why Blasters getting both Crashless Nukes and Sustains was a tad contentious. But changing them now would be asking for trouble - could you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if they got "adaptive recharge"?

This. To be fair though, the changes have been moving pretty fast (in fact the last few updates haven't even had proper patch notes yet!) so it's very understandable to miss stuff. FWIW I've posted a quick color coded summary of how (AFAIK) the currently proposed changes for MMs on Open Beta actually compare to Live here: ("levelless" foes like GMs notwithstanding!)

Sure. And I certainly appreciate that the T1 and T2's damage output has plummeted against levelless foes like GMs. However realistically unless the GM in question has +defence buffs; worst-case you'll be having to slot +39.71% acc in your T1 henchmen (with Supremacy but no Tactics) instead of +11.76% to cap your Hit Rate against them. And you can always email yourself Team Insights. Or run Tactics. Let alone using the usual anti-GM stuff like multiple Acid Mortars. ...but I still don't understand how any of that translates to a "ToHit nerf kicking in at level 22"...?? 😕 (although it IS past midnight here and I'm at least two coffees under par!) 😪 Because on Live there's a base ToHit decrease (due to the henchmen beginning to spawn lower-level) and the devs wanted to replicate that same decrease on Test; in order to keep things as similar as possible. Although that decrease kicks in at levels 6 (T1s) 18 (T1s) and 24 (T2s) rather than at level 22. And FWIW, I'm (still!) annoyed that they made the pets even-level and then tweaked the ToHits back down again... but I at least understand the rationale behind it - due to the backlash over the Tanker buffs/nerfs the devs are now being incredibly cautious about tweaking AT performance; so they're intentionally taking these MM changes very slowly one step at a time. "Buffing Mastermind Henchmen Hit Rate" is 100% on their radar, but it simply isn't on the cards this patch.

BaseHitRates for T3/T2/T1: +0 0.75 0.67 0.58 +1 0.65 0.57 0.48 +2 0.56 0.48 0.39 +3 0.48 0.4 0.31 +4 0.39 0.31 0.22 +5 0.3 0.22 0.13 That means from Lv1-Lv5 (when you've got one of them) the T1s are on 0.58+0.17=0.75 ("even level") And from Lv6-Lv17 (whenever you've got two of them) the T1s are on 0.58+0.9=0.67 ("-1 level") And from Lv1-Lv23 (whenever you've just one of them) the T2s are on 0.67+0.8=0.75 ("even level") In other words, everything is essentially getting adjusted to be exactly the same as it is right now on live. ?? 😕

FWIW, the current state of play of MMs on Open Beta; compared to Live is: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Accuracy/ToHit: Additional +Acc needed in each pet tier to achieve capped (95%) Hit Rates vs +0 Mob: (LIVE) (TEST) vs +0 Mob: (LIVE) (TEST) (no Supremacy) 26.67% 26.67% (T3) (Supremacy) 11.76% 11.76% 46.15% 41.79% (T2) 26.67% 23.38% 69.64% 63.79% (T1) 43.94% 39.71% vs +1 Mob: vs +1 Mob: (no Supremacy) 46.15% 46.15% (T3) (Supremacy) 26.67% 26.67% 69.64% 66.67% (T2) 43.94% 41.79% 97.92% 97.92% (T1) 63.79% 63.79% vs +2 Mob: vs +2 Mob: (no Supremacy) 69.64% 69.64% (T3) (Supremacy) 43.94% 43.94% 97.92% 97.92% (T2) 63.79% 63.79% 143.59% 143.59% (T1) 93.88% 93.88% vs +3 Mob: vs +3 Mob: (no Supremacy) 97.92% 97.92% (T3) (Supremacy) 63.79% 63.79% 143.59% 137.50% (T2) 93.88% 90.00% 216.67% 206.45% (T1) 137.50% 131.71% vs +4 Mob: vs +4 Mob: (no Supremacy) 143.59% 143.59% (T3) (Supremacy) 93.88% 93.88% 216.67% 206.45% (T2) 137.50% 131.71% 375.00% 331.82% (T1) 216.67% 196.88% vs +5 Mob: vs +5 Mob: (no Supremacy) 216.67% 216.67% (T3) (Supremacy) 137.50% 137.50% 375.00% 331.82% (T2) 216.67% 196.88% 1087.50% 630.77% (T1) 427.78% 313.04% - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Damage Output: T1 (Live) T2 (Live) T3 (Live) T1 (Test) T2 (Test) T3 (Test) Diff (T1) Diff (T2) Diff (T3) Adjusted Diff +0 0.8 0.9 1 0.6 0.81 1 -25% -10% 0% -17.65% +1 0.65 0.8 0.9 0.5395 0.728 0.9 -17% -9% 0% -11.96% +2 0.48 0.65 0.8 0.48 0.65 0.8 0% 0% 0% 0.00% +3 0.3 0.48 0.65 0.39 0.528 0.65 30% 10% 0% 12.73% +4 0.15 0.3 0.48 0.288 0.39 0.48 92% 30% 0% 27.97% +5 0.08 0.15 0.3 0.18 0.243 0.3 125% 62% 0% 36.65% (Note: "Adjusted difference" assumes each henchmen dealt identical damage before purple patch. Think: "Realistically what's my worst case scenario here?") - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Damage Taken: Diff (T1) Diff (T2) Diff (T3) Adjusted Diff +0 -18.03% -9.91% 0.00% -14.67% +1 -16.54% -9.02% 0.00% -13.21% +2 -15.28% -8.27% 0.00% -12.02% +3 -14.19% -7.64% 0.00% -11.03% +4 -13.25% -7.10% 0.00% -10.19% +5 -12.43% -6.63% 0.00% -9.46% (Note: "Adjusted difference" here ignores the fact that even-level T1/T2 henchmen will get hit less often. So once again, it'll be better than this in practice!) Therefore Accuracy has improved across the board (although the required enhancement in the T1 henchmen is still well beyond what is feasible at +3 and above!) However Damage Output is more complicated: +2 is the "break-even" spot; with slightly less damage vs +1 mobs; and slightly more damage vs +3 mobs. Damage Taken has however improved across the board (taking much less damage than before vs +0s, and still a decent chunk less than before vs +5s) The picture might be bleakest if you're fighting +0 mobs; but even there pets are (at worst!) dealing ~18% less damage whilst being (at worst!) ~15% more survivable. Given that set bonuses (especially KB protection!) are inheriting to pets too, IMO it's actually a net positive... at least until you consider "levelless" foes like GMs. The devs have stated that this patch is about establishing a new "even-level-pets baseline" for Masterminds via minimal nerfs/buffs rather than about addressing/resolving Mastermind performance and/or Quality-of-Life issues (such as T1/T2 Hit Rate issues and pet mobility). And the above numbers seem to back that up. It might help to think of this round of changes as effectively just "setting the scene"... and to expect bigger performance and QOL tweaks in other follow-up patches. (Hokes around for some publicly-accessible quotes...) "major buffs beyond these are likely to come in a follow-up Panel release." "Just you wait till you see the panel 2 content... you going to lose it. Not sure if out of hate or happiness, maybe both, but the change count alone is likely to be intimidating, and you might understand why we didn't toss everything out at once." "Panel 2 is after the holidays." 🙊 🤐 ⏲️

The main thing I'm changing is ensuring that there is at least one copy of the 3x Gladiator's Armor KB Protection set bonus in each of my builds. Because Henchmen gaining passive KB protection is a big thing. Many of my MMs had multiple copies of the Blessing of the Zephyr KB Protection IO, but as that's not a true Set Bonus it's not inheriting to henchmen and whilst the Devs have mentioned potentially reworking global IO effects, that has wider repercussions and there's currently no indication that it'll happen any time soon. On a few of my builds I'm also tweaking accuracy upwards, in order to try to get the T3 and T2 henchmen at the point where they're capping their hit rate vs +4 foes with minimal tradeoffs. But getting the T1 henchmen to that point is currently a losing battle (you need Supremacy, Tactics, ED capped accuracy in the pet PLUS at least +50 Global Accuracy from set bonuses) so I'm holding out for a buff (which currently there's no firm confirmation on, but I know that multiple Devs are very aware of the issue!) I'm definitely going to have to revisit ATO slotting in the future whenever they decide exactly what's happening there. And I wouldn't be surprised if the set bonus inheritance figure gets tweaked again (e.g. from 40% to 50%) post-Christmas once the Devs can face adjusting the figure on endless powers again. Again though, these are suspicions rather than anything confirmed. There are lots of changes in the short-term pipeline (and not just for MMs!) including plenty of stuff which the Devs have only hinted at and are keeping firmly under wraps, even from those on Closed Beta. So the biggest advice I can give is to keep a few respecs available.

As others have mentioned, the additional incoming damage is comparatively small. The survivability threshold for AFK-Farming survivability is rising from ~35HP/Sec to (35/1.33*1.44) = ~38HP/Sec and my AFK-Farming Brutes are well over that already. The trick is gaining enough Accuracy/ToHit to cap your hit rate against +4s instead of +3s (assuming you're Level 50+1 fighting level 55s) whilst maintaining optimal DPS. In short; yes it's doable. Although I'd advise on not finalizing your Farming Build tweaks until after the next patch hits. As CPH put it: "Just you wait till you see the panel 2 content... you going to lose it."

As the kids say, "skill issue". Possibly a knowledge thing too. Some new players just plain don't realise that slotting Single Origin Enhancements (especially Accuracy, Damage and EndRed) is a very good idea - at least before common IOs start drawing level with + outpacing them circa levels 25-30. Or insist on setting their difficulty sliders to maximum when it's blatantly obvious that they can't yet handle it.

Whilst I'd like this too... you can at least workaround the headache a bit by selecting a currently-alive pet which is close to the one that's locked in a "spawning" animation; and (RE)TRIGGER THE UPGRADES ON IT INSTEAD. The upgrades are AoEs; and as soon as the new henchmen appear in your pet list they are *buffable*; just not *targetable*.

In the main patch notes, there's a "General Adjustments" section right above the "Masterminds" section which has a clarification in the third bullet point Set Bonuses Standard Set Bonuses should now last for the full duration of most summoned pseudopets. 40% of your Standard Set Bonuses now applies to henchmen that are within range of Supremacy. Standard Set Bonuses are those granted by multiple enhancements of a set.

This is getting pretty deep into "Dev-team terminology" versus "player terminology"... however if we're getting technical-technical: Things like the LotG +7.5% Recharge IO are listed as a "Global" in lots of places; like https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Set_Enhancements_with_Special_Effects 'Global' Bonuses are (somewhat confusingly) displayed under the "set bonus" heading on your character info's "Powers" tab (and stored within "set_bonus.set_bonus.X") But they're not visible here --> Which is what matters for this patch. It's only these numbered "Set Bonuses" that are (currently) inheriting to henchmen. Global bonuses may well follow after the Devs are happy with the inheritance and have sufficient time to devote to poking at half a Smithsonian's worth of additional records.

"All the incarnates in the build are required." Are you running Ageless Destiny? If so, then you shouldn't be having any endurance issues since that gives you sky-high recovery and refills your blue bar every 120s. That said... Tankers were hit rather harshly in i28p2 (see here for details) and as AA noted the builds linked at the start of this thread may not be the best any longer. There're some decent alternative Active Farming melee options here and here and here.

Same TBH. I've never bothered with a travel power on my Crabbermind, their build is just too tight power-selection-wise. I do currently take a non-START travel power (Mighty Leap) on their alternate Bane Soldier build... but I'm planning to do away with even that shortly (the changes on Open Beta will soon see them fighting +4 'Level 55' mobs so I'll need to raise their ToHit a bit by swapping something for TT: Leadership... and the travel power is by far the least vital!)

Note Powerhouse's clarification in the OP: "A note about Incarnate content: while on Incarnate Trials or Dark Astoria, henchmen incarnate procs like Hybrid or Interface ones should behave the same as they do now live. If you do not see this, please report it as it's a bug."

I must be in the minority... rather than keep dozens of racks of old IOs in my SG base, I just keep 5 1/2 racks permanently full of boosters (one's half full of Catalysts) so that each new alt can go wild. IME it's easy enough to restock either via merits or the AH (as long as you're not using "buy it now" prices!)

Column A tend to find KB disruptive of their playstyle. Column B tend to find it immersive and fun, apparently. Personally I'm firmly in Column A... partly because there are too many "bad" KB users around... and partly because most of the large AoE effects that inflict knockback are a less-than-100% chance; so it inevitably causes some mob scatter and I find the inconsistencies annoying. Saying to melee toons "just tap the follow key" inevitably degrades into arguments about "lost DPS" and ultimately still involves another player having to make adjustments to their playstyle to accommodate the KB'er; so it's not a panacea unfortunately. I think its fair to say that whenever one person's playstyle or power choices starts causing issues for someone else on the same team- ultimately one of them will have to make a behavioural compromise or be kicked. And some people (on both sides of this very thorny issue) really hate compromising. Meh. The real headache for me is the "enhancement tax" that I personally have to make if I wish to convert more than one of my powers from KB>KD. Overwhelming Force at least also buffs damage aspect a little, but it's unique. So subsequent abilities effectively lose an entire slot per power to a Sudden Acceleration KB>KD IO.

IIRC that's pretty much how it works currently for regular +Knockback enhancements. They're incredibly unpopular; but they're one of the few ways to increase the magnitude of an effect rather than its duration. (if you enhance a Knockdown power enough that its Magnitude rises above 1.0-ish it'll turn into Knockback...)

This was the last one I think? Or at least the last one that reached critical mass. (I had to buy a new cape after all the flames ruined it...) 🧯