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I understand the caution, but with crummier ToHit over most of the content range, I don't know how anyone could believe MMs would come to dominate any content. It's not as if the damage dealing 'nukes' have inherently lower base accuracies to prevent those ATs from dominating. From memory, it is pretty much only the AoE controls that tend to get worse base accuracies.

Some more testing, Beta v. Live Heather Townshend's Dark Astoria Arc, at +3 (so net +0, given the Incarnate Shift. Defeat All. No Lore pets used. M1: I had different maps. Beta 11 minutes, Live 9 minutes. I got killed on Beta, but I was answering someone in chat... so hard to take anything from this one M2: Beta 9 mins, live 7 mins. Spawns were slightly moved but same total number. The last two maps are always the same (modulo clicky placement) so those should give a few more data points.

Yeah I see that... but I play a LOT against level-less giant monsters, which you recognize is not accounted for in the math. I should add... I don't question the "supremacy below level 22/23/24", I question why ABOVE level 22/23/24 there is a base ToHit decrease. Yes I know about level differences, so I am testing some Incarnate content time differences right now.

About ^this^.... Because that first upgrade power comes at level 6, and two of the three tiers of henchmen come after level 6, I long ago proposed: 1) Alter the core powers of the T1, T2, T3 summons to include the effects of the Level 6 power. City of Data pretty much shows how they are coded.... just drop the "grant" powers and bake in the powers granted. I can't imagine anyone playing with all three tiers NOT taking that power. The difference between Level 1 and Level 6 is so miniscule that no one should worry about "game balance" by boosting the T1 "for free" Applying the first upgrade is about as literal a "going through the motions" power as can be imagined. 2) Replace the level 6 upgrade with a thematic (for primary) summonable, recharge-intensive pet (not a henchman) that can accept those globals that otherwise restrict henchmen & pet slotting options provides a slight buff (while alive, can vary by primary) to the henchmen... think +ToHit, +Absorb, whatever... This way, the power sort-of does what it always was intended to do... but can also free up slots in the henchmen (or similar powers, like Gang War) so that we have more options for Henchmen slotting. I think it is completely reasonable to require the second upgrade, since there is a big difference in game balance between level 6 and level 26. However: I want to note that some of the rationale presented for the Beta ultimate ToHit nerf kicking in at level 22 is because "the game is hard for MMs below level 22 but not hard for MMs after that"... despite the HUGE amount of experience required to get from level 22 to 50 compared to the XP to get from 1 to 22.

In my experience: ATs don't begin to feel different from each other until level 10+ A slightly more difficult issue for me to judge (since I pretty much always level up by playing content) is if the level 50 build (using better enhancement pieces, and re-ordering powers) will have a big impact on my appreciation for the character. For example: I have a War Mace scrapper that I kinda like... but without the Global Recharge available at level 50, I found it really hard to enjoy.

I'm not as sour on the proposed changes, and I'm sensitive that TPTB are focusing on some balance areas... but my general sense is that the parts of the game that are being considered exhibiting tunnel vision. In particular, there are some rationales tossed about "but better for MMs below level 22, and btw can we get some pylon tests or +5 content tests?" I'm not surprised about the tunnel vision, we had a crazy amount of rethink/rejiggering of Tanks because solo 50+ Tankers could finish some x8 content on average ~10 seconds faster than a Brute could finish. Heaven help us if a MM posted times close to those! A simple example (hypothetical on my part)... Thesis: Eliminate the level shift for (multiple) henchmen Outcomes: Henchmen are not as easily hit by the level foes being faced by the MM, and they no longer have -ToHit adjustments due to level shift Simple adjustment 1: reduce henchmen HP. Unintended consequence 1: This was recognized as being somewhat out of alignment with how players actually USE henchmen, which is primarily in Bodyguard mode. Simple adjustment 2: reduce henchmen base ToHit and damage Unintended Consequence 2: Against level-less it is a big loss, against up to +3, toHit is something of a wash, but when the henches do hit they do less.... so obvious performance hit. I understand... TPTB don't want MMs cakewalking through certain content, even if it is well recognized that some other ATs can do exactly that. Writing only for myself: despite playing a MM every day, I don't think I'll ever roll up another MM. Most of it has to do with a general lack of variety when it comes to character theme. How many more Master/Mistress/Boss of _____ does the game need? When the Clowns are released... sure that would be funny, but I'd still have to play it, and MMs can be tedious to play, and not because of the "level shift". There is a small part of my mind that looks at new secondaries and wonders how OP I could make them... but again, I'd have to PLAY them and having/measuring OP characters doesn't really appeal to me.

Honestly, this is the best strategy. My personal assessment of the fraction of things folks complain about (for MMs) are 80% addressable by choices (power selection, slotting, playstyles),, 19% by adjusting expectations, with 1% (or less) in the category of something that absolutely effects performance, but at a near-trivial level. I don't think anyone cares if my level 50 MM takes 20% longer to finished a x8 mission on Beta, because the changes are motivated by a hypothetical concern about MM players suffering in +3 (or higher) content. MM's already can play Incarnate content at +3 with no henchmen level shift, so it is a legitimate head-scratcher why eliminating the level shift in non-Incarnate content was seen requiring henchmen nerfs. The set bonuses for henchs... that's nice, but it feels like being offered a kiss on the cheek after a slap to the face. At least offer a little bit of tongue!

For my Robotics/Traps MM (which I use daily): I will probably only respec to change the order of certain powers... I have Tough and Weave that I almost never toggle on so I may as well move those to 47 and 49. My 3-bot build already includes more set bonuses than many others typically suggest... I don't rely on %damage in any of the MM attacks.... so I've got a number of set bonuses that other players may not have. I chose the set bonuses to improve the MM, so those bonuses generally transfer well to the henchmen (even at 40%). Each tier of henchmen is slotted somewhere north of +60% Accuracy, and I run Tactics... so the ToHit nerfs hit my full-kit less hard than other players may experience. My testing on Beta in (mostly) even-level content showed that content takes me roughly 20% (max) longer to complete, even if I don't lose henchmen. If the T1/T2 HP nerf continues to be eliminated I am less worried about survivability. I've done some testing on Live where I play typical content with only two of the three T1s, and my completion times are on the order of 20% longer... which I'm not sure is the intention of the Beta changes, but it does appear to be the outcome. I can't see that there is much I can do with my slotting to improve the performance of that MM: I considered adding Assault (for more henchmen damage) but I don't really have a power I am comfortable swapping out, especially with the ToHit penalties. If the ToHit nerf is reconsidered (and I don't think it will be, because it is a mathematical argument with limited consideration) I'd swap out Tactics for Assault. The MM ATO slotting changes have no effect on this build; Maintenance Drone is 6xPreventive Maintenance and thus it will ever be. If I ever franken-slot it I wouldn't be putting MM ATO pieces in it. There is a slight chance that opt for slotting a different set in one of my MM attacks. I don't have any +Accuracy bonuses from purples sets so if I end up believing that the henchmen need a little more +Accuracy, I might make such a change.

At the risk of revealing my own 'weird assumptions' The LotG set (and its precious global for +Recharge) is trivially easy IMO to find one-slot powers to use. The Concealment pool is chock full of such powers, and its Infiltration can be used to slot a couple of different nice globals from travel sets as well... unslotters are cheap. Hide certainly fits the bill, but I pretty much always first slot the Kismet +ToHit piece in Hide to improve leveling performance. By level 50, the extra ToHit is not always necessary (based on Accuracy slotting and set bonuses), but I rarely give it up if I'll be playing 'Hard' content. Stalkers can get a snipe, so extra +ToHit increases the damage of the (Fast) Snipe. Health? If there is no other candidate power for the Preventive Maintenance%Absrob, I guess it could go there... but because that piece doesn't need to be in an active power I almost never slot it there. I find the set bonuses from Panacea to be somewhat useful in powers that take Health sets. There is another piece of common wisdom about Health slotting that I almost never follow: Triple-slotting the Panacea, Miracle, and Numina global pieces in Health. By the time the Numina piece can be slotted, the character should probably have already addressed recovery/regeneration/endurance. The few times I slot the Numina's piece there, it is usually because I can use slightly more regeneration, so I slot it with the Numina Health/Absorb piece (and drop Miracle). This is rare for me, as MOAR Regeneration is typically not noticeable; I make exceptions on high HP characters and characters that primarily rely on resistances for survival (and the primary/secondary sets aren't already providing enough Regeneration).

The original (from Live) numpad binds are (in my judgement) much less necessary on Homecoming because of a variety of tweaks that have been implemented(*1). I think it was always the case that final performance (with/without) the numpad binds varied between primary and secondaries. It is possible to exhibit a LOT of control on henchmen with simple macros in the power tray(s), and/or the pet window. There can be certain powers (new HC Detonator in /Traps) than I see benefiting from rapid fingering of the numpad... but I don't use Detonator, and frankly my attention is usually focused on the MM and the MM's target... so while I do more than just follow/goto + Bodygaurd mode... that describes 99% of the henchmen's lives. (*1) The dominant HC change IMO is that the AH market and fungibility of drops makes it easier to improve henchmen MM/performance such that diminish the gains from more precise control of henchmen

I can't speak to this precise strategy, but I've only found a few cases where a Force Feedback %+Recharge was the 'best choice' for a slot... Masterminds typically don't fall into that limited category for me. MM spend more Blue on their powers, %+Recharge is somewhat unpredictable so +Global Recharge is more 'budget steady' MM attacks are relatively low damage anyway, better to support the henchmen/debuff enemies to maximize total damage Aside from this... the MM primary attacks are typically designed to help the henchmen. If this build is something like a one/no-henchmen build... those are a corner case that require a lot more consideration.

If you keep the 'pets' window open, and expand to see power icons, you can see which henchmen have which buffs applied to them.

The council updates are a good suspicion, but the last time I did the Kheldian arcs predated the Council changes AFAIK and I definitely recall seeing some absurdly high (for my difficulty settings) named enemies in that level range (30,35)... especially after they transformed. That arc was one of the very few solo times on HC where I had to use the classic strategy of "pick up specific inspirations on the way back from the hospital" to finish the fight.

This is tricky, and the final changes are subject to some more testing/consideration. For 80% of all players who try MMs... even level (multiple) T1 will probably be a big deal... but this will come with some cost (right now, their base ToHit is targeted to be reduced, even for Incarnate content where the henchmen are not subjected to a level shift).

Nothing improves character performance as much as +Recharge (especially Global Recharge), and since the LotG set includes a single piece that grants +7.5% Global Recharge, and be used 5 times) that is a common set choice. When I want the global recharge bonus, I will typically 2-slot (with Defense) or 3-slot (with Defense/---). I have a small number of characters where I have slotted the +Recharge and boosted 50+5 pieces, but that is only because the base Defense value of a power is really high so the extra defense is slightly noticeable. Personally: I am not a huge fan of the set bonuses from either LotG or Red Fortune (never slot it), 3-pieces of Shield Wall is superior to LotG (modulo Global Recharge), and the PVP pieces can be boosted while preserving the set bonuses. For click powers, I often consider 6xReactive Defenses. Extra recharge (from pieces) isn't usually wasted, and there are several set bonuses I like in it, including the scaling resistance piece. I think it is fair to say: for many Defensive powers, it isn't always a bad choice to minimize slotting and use IOs or HOs in them, giving up set bonuses completely, as long as those slots are being used to provide something else.

In addition to the "what is the henchmen doing?", the maximum range between a MM and a henchmen (for dropping inspirations on them) is not particularly great... this is also true of team inspirations. Single inspirations still work, it just that there are several things working against them. HC has tweaked the in-combat henchmen AI, so it is possible that the henchmen are now simply (on average) farther away from the MM than in previous eras. These are the sorts of things *I* (points to self) worry about when considering MM+henchmen performance... the hundreds of little things that other ATs never even have to think about to boost their performance. If other ATs had to worry about "scaling base ToHit rates" but still didn't have to worry about the things MMs deal with, there would be riots.

Pets/henchmen have a LOT of peculiar effects. I'm sure this is still the case, but it has been a few years: the equivalent "T1/T2" spiders for a Crabbermind all expire at the same time of the oldest one... even if new ones have been summoned to fill gaps in the crew. This isn't how MM henchmen work, how Kheldian pets work, or how Controller pets work.... and those don't all work the same either. I only mention this because "things be complicated".

@Maelwys explained the work-around. There is another inherent issue closely related to this: you cannot drop an inspiration on a henchmen that is in the middle of an unresolved animation... and the client-server ping can make it practically impossible to buff a henchmen this way (because the MM also has to be 'idling'). It is easiest seen on my T3 Assault Bot (when it is in combat), but I've seen this with Lore pets and other pet classes too. Team inspirations don't do an animation check, so this is one of those things I think could get fixed, but 'spaghetti code' is certainly going to stop it. The server-client resolution can result in henchmen being close enough to a MM to benefit from ____, but the server hasn't acknowledged this yet. This can also effect how bodyguard mode works! These types of issues are what annoy me most, and I am very tolerant of the sorts of issues other players commonly mention. I don't really expect that these things can be fixed (at some level, they are like race conditions) but since they cannot be fixed, I wish that the dev team was more sympathetic when it comes to abstractly applying nerfs, or limiting buffs. How hard I wish this is directly proportional to how much I wish that other players would recognize that some MM issues may be effectively too difficult to address.

Dual Pistols is the one set I've used (more than once) where both the dog and I find the noise (firecrackers) to be highly annoying. I recognize that most sets become audibly repetitive, but DP is the one that triggers me (sic).

I thought the Dual Pistol sound effects were supposed to be the cue to prepare another attack?

Wisdom: As @srmalloy noted, the university tutorial givens a 'free' recipe+ (I wait for the 25 one). the level 25/30 IO crafting badges offer a useful (to some) badge+bonus, and these levels happen to be when the IOs break-even/surpass non IOs. The sets are worth slotting but if you don't have the budget for attuned set pieces, 'common IOs' are usually very cheap on the AH, plus they drop. Useful attuned set pieces can also be somewhat inexpensive on the AH. If you play a level 50 for any amount of time, you should be accumulating lots of stuff to start equipping characters.

This sounds like a "driver, not car" issue. Five different S.T.A.R.T. enhancements can be slotted at level 1, so I am not even sure what the complaint is.

I've certainly played Defenders that are very good solo... and for Defenders I want to play solo I typically pick primary/secondary combinations (and powers from those sets *1) that will allow me to play solo. I'm confused why someone would pick a power set that focuses on allies, and then expect it to work on themselves. It isn't as if there is only one primary to pick (for non-Kheldians!). (*1) One thing I like about Defenders... if I pick a primary that is mostly team-focused, I can delay (or skip) certain powers to concentrate on the secondary. I've done similar things with Corruptors, focusing more on offense early and fitting in the team-friendly powers later. If I want a "blasty" character with self-protections and buffs... there are Sentinels.