Freefall357

This is why group fly is OP on Bots/ MMs 🤣

As someone that dislikes comic books and superheroes, blueside is sterile and dull. I do chuckle at the literal city of heroes that run past as people are mugged on every sidewalk in AP! The huge statues and empty roads (ffs, skyway...all that for 2 cars?!) to the cheese ball hero in spandex standing around who's backstory is probably "I got bitten by radioactive lightning bolts and now I have lightningbolt powers and call myself LIGHTNING MAN!!"....barf. Reside had character and SOME of the villains have really rational reasons for doing evil and were not evil because "MUA HAHA, EEEVVIIIILL!". Also, mayhem missions...M I RITE‽ I don't like "evil", So I usually went rogue (the morality missions have some of the best writing for sure!) Also, as a longtime shadowrunner, the gritty and morally grey has always appealed to me. For anyone wondering "you hate comics...but play CoH?" Yeah...so, I was onboarded from some EvE Online friends that wanted to troll in CoH PvP and with most people being Hero we started Reside. I am also a tabletopper and OMG CHARACTER CREATION THE GAME! So it drew me in. ALSO ALSO, I am a sucker for collections...not badges or achievements, but a temp power that fits my character concept?!? I only have to do 290 various things to get it?!? ...I'm in... E: oh, and macros and binds and slash command stuff blew my mind...WHY IS THIS NOT IN EVERYTHING‽

As an MM main, this is an odd read. It is an opinion piece and I think you are fairly upfront about that. As far as a guide, I would say it is a guide for folks with the OP's exact tastes and quirks. I think it does point out some frustrations people can have while new, but I don't think it then puts those people on a good path to layer game (not just endgame). One quick example is the "pshhh, why even bother with def/res or healing when you die fast anyway and just can resummon dead pets fast." Let's say I have a little focus on def/res, not huge, but not ignored. 1/3 of enemy attacks miss from defense and the ones that land do 1/2 damage. Now I am taking 1/3 of their total damage. If I heal, me or my pet, for 100, the enemy has to do 300 to undo that. For an MM you can go farther and, while in bodyguard mode, your pets take some of that reduced damage for you. If you have 3 T1 and a T2, you split that damage into 6 and they take 1/6 of it each and you take 2/6 of it. I take a 100damage hit, it drops to 30ish, then that is split and I take 12 while the minions each take 6. If I can heal 120 then it would take 1000 damage to just undo the healing. If it is an AoE heal, then my 120, in this example, just became 600 of "my HP" healed. On to the second part, resummoning. While a pet is dead it is not tanking for you, and it is not attacking or using utility powers. It is like another AT just losing access to 2-5 powers for a bit...so you resummon. During resummon they come in as base pets with no/fan buffs up. Assuming they don't die, or you summon them in a safe spot behind you, then you do a quick upgrade or two, then get any clicky buffs up on them. If the unsupported other minions survived then you are back up to snuff and can get back to work. That whole time, my team and me(MM attacks have utility and do damage) has been getting heals and applying constant full damage to a debuffed enemy. The inspirations I fed them and the huge Victory Rush (leadership pool buff) are still active for our next group because they didn't die and lose the buffs. ...For ONE example, heh. Now, that said, you CAN Summon, Upgrade, Buff, Rush into combat, Probably win the attrition fight against the group you aggro'd, fall back, repeat. CoH is NOT a hard game and that playstyle will carry you through the whole game. Teams won't like you in high level content, but that is another matter for later and outside the "guide for newbie" scope. As a "guide to get you through some early pitfalls" I think this works and is easier for a new player to understand and relate to, but for later and advanced stuff (if that is their intention) they will need to unlearn a bunch of this. Lastly, as you seem to be more story interested, you can disable XP gain in the options, so you can fully run entire areas without out leveling them.

Full remake You get your three basic attacks (themed by origin choice). They would be OP within the bounds of MM damage multiplier (no blasterminds, sry) but mostly unadorned outside burst/KD(stun)/AOE. If/when you take a pet, you make a permanent selection from a large pool. They get a decent bonus from matching your origin(tech, magic, etc). Each tier of pet alters the same tier MM attack to be weaker, but synergetic (like now). MAYBE even only when summoned, so you can fight when your pets fall, but have to summon for special attack effects. Each pet gives a large, tier appropriate, bonus to others of it's same type (CoL t1 to CoL t2/3). They give a medium bonus to similar types (Bots t1 to Clockwork t2/3). They give a small bonus to same origin but different style/type (Street Thug t1 to Army Soldier t2/3). The utility (gang war, repairbot, etc) would be a much smaller pool(3-4 options) based on origin. It lets you mix and match, has a bonus for sticking to a theme (instead of most OP from each category), let's you forgo a pet tier to have a strong direct attack (2-pet MMs, I see you). Has several balance vectors if certain builds got out of control, instead of nerfing one pet into oblivion because it is broken on one specific combo. So there is my mechanicaly unfeasible wacky idea. Always fun to brainstorm ideas.