tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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W.r.t. announcing "I see ___ in the wild". I get why folks might do it (excitement! rewards?) but I no longer bother unless I explicitly feel like fighting the Giant Monster and I feel like (or require) teaming (so the announcement includes a "want to team?" component. The GMs are on a regular cycle, and as long as the extras are cleaned up (for those that require it) the GMs will respawn.
I used to be a LOT more "inviting" about Giant Monster fights... but between players not willing to stick around to cleanup (seriously, the Grim Vale fight couldn't make it more obvious that it *isn't* over) and players asking for 5+ minutes to "get there" and then showing up with a character that can't meaningfully help I now just shrug and take out the monster myself (on a GM hunter) or let it be. It's no big deal if my new PUGforce can't defeat the GM, but it is a little weird to recruit a team and then have to drop to get a different character because the PUG ends up as no match for the GM.
WARNING: what comes next is pure AITA fodder! Spoilers: I'm ok with "yes" being the answer.
The "last straws" for me was trivial: My solo GM-hunting character has a pretty well-established pace for all the GMs, and I'm comfortable "dialing back" so that whatever GM takes about 5 minutes... which is about as long as I'll wait for someone to zone in... I realize we all get caught in certain missions, but 5 minutes doesn't seem too short for me to get to wherever. Anyway, I had a couple of consecutive GM fights where I'd announced, dragged out the fight for as long as possible (~8 minutes) for someone who said they were coming, and when that character and I finished off the GM, someone else zoned in and started publicly berating us for "not waiting". I guess teh answer to AITA was "yes"?
Another AITA GM circumstance... I'm in a mission and see someone announce that they want to stop the Grim Vale fight. I make a note to fly by after I finish themission I just started... after finishing I decide to check out the Grim Vale (>10 minutes later, I keep timestamps active on my characters, I didn't see the "normal activity resumed" so I assumed the vale needed cleanup) and the fight is still going, with no one engaging the monsters. I ask what is happening and I'm told "we are waiting for ____" so I announce "I'm going to soften them up, can they get here in 5 minutes?" and I'm called every nasty name in the book for being selfish about XP (of all things). Big secret: the XP for clearing up a couple of straggler bosses is going to be greater than the XP from the two monsters that have been pummeling each other. After I start softening, the two "waiters" drop their Lores and call me the bad guy. Like I noted: I'm pretty good at pacing GM defeats, especially without someone else's Lores in play. The vale fight is probably one of the least important fights to use Lores, so I get the feeling that this was just two incompatible approaches to GMs. I don't think the other player was an a-hole, but I think they have a very narrow view of how a 2-hour cycle GM fight can go.
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1 hour ago, Maelwys said:
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!)
For me it is four racks of enhancements, one for things like catalysts. I make every character buy its own boosters!
My enhancement racks ended up being mostly full... for a while I was doing a good job pulling/replenishing(*1) the typical sorts of enhancements I use, but...
...for me the real space hog are the attuned PVP pieces. I use them while leveling, but at 50 if they aren't swapped for purples (or whatever) they are swapped for level 50s that can be boosted. Even converting them into pieces that are on as attuned, I have too many of those things. On the vary rare occasion that I have an unslotted 50+5 purple or pvp... if it looks like it won't get used I just reroll into something that will be used.... typically such PVPs become a Shield Wall or Gladiator's Armor, Purples can become almost any Damage or Damage/Endurance piece. I follow a similar practice for superior Winters and ATOs.
(*1)Part of my own replensihment is that the level 50 respec grabs certain pricey (on the secondary market) pieces that are not attuned and swapping them to be attuned. LotG, some globals, etc. which makes the (old, previously) attuned pieces for the next character.
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1 hour ago, mistagoat said:
The sets that start at 30 are the ones that annoy me most, feels like I have to wait forever to slot those dam Oblits! Oh and the Snipe set that starts at 35!!! C'mon Gitdafukouttaherewitdatbullshi!
I find the Snipe sets to be (on balance) poor enough (because of level ranges) that when I am actually slotting a Snipe set I always opt for Experienced Marksman. Typically I want the Fast Snipe anyway, but MMV.
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I occasionally boost common IOs for use with other enhancement sets: this typically happens on powers with two distinct attributes, such as defense/healing/EndMod.. one of those attributes gets a set, the other gets an IO. I've also used Defense or Resistance IOs boosted when I've already gotten the set bonus I want but I want MOAR defense/resistance.
There are a handful of non-purple/non-pvp pieces I have boosted that aren't slotted... but those are quite few and they do get recycled (things like Accuracy/Damage for Brawl, or Accuracy/Endurance for %damage attacks)
The boosted purples/PVP not being used... I just convert those into another piece I want. The boosters are pretty cheap (5 merits each), it's not worth sweating IMO.
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And what is a solo level 4 bringing to Echo Dark Astoria to help with Adamastor? And why would the solo level 4 be the one to summon it?
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Based on the very limited amount of information in the OP, I'm not sure how I feel about this instance.
Even so: I really can't imagine a solo level 4 having a reason to spawn Adamastor... level 4 characters can bare get through Ouroboros to Echo: DA anyway. (I know it is 'trivial' but I feel like I spend so little time below level 8 I can't imagine how Adamastor became a priority for a solo level 4 player!)
As for the missing pieces of information... normally there is some amount of in zone broadcast and/or tells after such an announcement... before summoning... even if it is just "please wait", so if none of this happened... everyone was salty.
TBH: the only thing I see (in recent times) about the Admastor summons that I find annoying is the player(s) who camp their multiple alts there, and resummon it every hour just to multiibox it with 3+ Lore pets. I don't care if they "politiely announce" their intention to resummon... its the Nx16 merits they want, a courtesy announcement isn't absolving the greed.
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I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, especially if they are right... yet I want to comment on one well-written, detailed post
On 11/14/2025 at 9:31 PM, Ukase said:Dominators - I made a mistake and played a Mind/psi dominator maybe 5 years ago. I learned that 1) you reach domination quicker with a team. So, since I solo a lot, that's a strike against it. 2)The end usage is nuts. And just getting domination really doesn't help that much. This combo made me swear off them completely.
There was a player, I forget their name...maybe it was Rial Vestro, maybe someone else that told me I didn't need to sweat domination, and different sets would play a lot different than that combo. They were right. I have a nice couple of dominators in my stable, but I just don't enjoy playing them because of domination. Domination is a set that lends itself to the pursuit of recharge for perma-dom. So, you'd put that on auto-fire. And I have to manually trigger hasten. Not really a fan of having to do that. I'm getting used to it with other sets that also require hasten to be done manually, like martial assault on a blaster. So, I after having sworn to never play a dom again, I have played some dominators to 50 - but they're just not that much fun. The whole domination mechanic is oversold in my mind. It's just not worth that much to me.My Dominators have avoided having Hasten to guarantee permaDom, but I agree that building to achieve permaDom limits my build approaches such that I feel like that the end result (character) is narrowly: really good at certain controls and really hard to be controlled... which feels niche to me. I do like that Domination refills the blue bar... one more thing to micro-manage via build/play choices. I sometimes love living on that knife's edge... but it is otherwise not that enjoyable for me.
I feel like my personal distaste for "narrow build choices to achieve permaDom" was a large contribution to why I almost universally avoid including Hasten on Homecoming builds. To me it represents a narrow approach to both play and character design.... especially when "permaHasten" becomes a goal in and of itself. I turned off autoHasten on a character I felt really needed it... and I noticed no significant experience in game play, and I haven't really looked backwards.
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1 hour ago, Uun said:
I'm not sure what the orignal devs were thinking in creating multiple tiers of IOs. Having sets cap at lvl 30 is bad too.
The only rationale I was ever able to imagine was one motivated by (some) low-level sets not having many pieces (presumably because low-level characters have fewer slots) and a limited sort of desire to encourage character progression through "gear".
I'm far less bothered by (some of) the sets having different min/max level caps than I am that several types of enhancement sets lack the sort of attribute combinations that I'd find useful. (ehem: Threat, Fear and to a lesser extent Accurate ____). I certainly would have thought that Threat would have gotten at least two new sets considering the (smart) improvements made by Homecoming... there are threat powers that can benefit from Endurance reduction, and there are plenty that can use Accuracy.
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2 hours ago, MsSmart said:
Please explain, if you would, why others can't avoid what they perceive as tedium? If you dislike the QoL so much, there is a simple way to deal with it: Don't use it, no one is forcing you after all.
Nothing is stopping players who find the game boring or tedious from trying out whatever on Brainstorm... so why do so many avoid it?
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1 minute ago, ShardWarrior said:
They can be part of it, sure. I never suggested they were the one and only tedious activity for alts if that is what you are attempting to infer.
There is a wide variety of content that I've seen described as "tedious", and such an accusation always lands wrong with me. This is a game after all, and usually the thing accused of being tedious is both:
- Not required to play the game
- In the way of someone having the most awesome level 50+++/Incarnate character ever, because that is the only way they want to play the game.
The tedious accusation might peeve me less if the game didn't already make it pretty simple to achieve the second bullet point, even if it isn't "on demand".
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1 hour ago, Neiska said:
I quite regularly solo at +4 on some of my MMs. So "neigh unplayable" is a bit of a stretch. But I do agree with the idea that it takes a certain build/style to do, not all pets and secondaries are capable of it. But I also think that would be fair to say about any AT.
So tough? Sure. Have to plan ahead. Mainly the EA, Time, and Marine secondaries, but my Robot/Dark can also perform at that difficulty solo.
But unplayable? Not quite.
1 hour ago, BRADICAL said:Yeah—MMs are played so differently by so many people, and are very subjective in terms of powerset combos, builds, and individual playstyles more than any other AT, where you can absolutely perform magnitudes worse than someone who's going for the maximum sweaty gamer performance using full proc bomb builds, non-stop attack chains and a stash full of team insps to cover up any flaws (I'm one of those people, but I understand how the AT caters to more than just that one specific thing and in an ideal world, it should be able to perform anywhere without having to rely on so many crutches to make it work).
54 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:Honestly, people grossly over-inflate the issues with Masterminds. Do they have issues? Oh yes. But mostly their issues are due to jank and speed, not "lack of damage," and Page 3 deals with the survivability issue.
Of these three recent posts, the only part I take some issue with is (sideways, perhaps?) reference to adapting playstyle (and if necessary, an alt-build) of a MM as a "crutch". MMs cannot be played exactly the same through all content, unlike almost all other ATs... and I'm not referring to swapping out Incarnate powers. I absolutely understand players getting frustrated with MMs if they are used to something like a Blaster/Scrapper/Brute/Tanker... and I've been in circumstances when I've taken a well-tuned MM into content that it was *not* tuned for... writing only for myself, the mental load can be enormous!
@Lunar Ronin comment about gross over-inflation of MM issues resonates with me. I've experienced the blue-bar issues. I've experienced some henches getting clobbered before they can get an upgrade. I've experienced bad pathing, and peculiar AI... but these aren't even close to be AT-killers, because they can all be addressed, through build choices (including power picks and slotting choices) and playstyle choices.
Personally... I don't even think the T1/T2 less-than-even-level (currently on Live) is that big of a deal... because I can slot and make build choices to augment ToHit and Accuracy... and lets not pretend there aren't some proc-heavy other AT that struggle to hit enemies at +3... yet I can understand if the devs want +7 content they don't want solo MMs to feel left out.. Like @Paradox Fate wrote... are players clamoring to take their MMs solo through such content?
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50 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:
The character is controlled by the player who may have already unlocked and crafted T4 incarnates on dozens, if not hundreds, of characters. At some point, that does get old and is more tedium for tedium's sake.
So... it's the T4 unlocks that are causing the tedium?
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1 hour ago, Snarky said:
Again, and i cannot emphasize this enough, just pick a low slot power at 49. There are usually 3+ powers in any build that require zero added slots. Maybe 7 on average that take less than 4 total slots? Why not just wait and take one of those powers at 49?
Even if a non-EAT took every power from the Primary and Secondary, I think they could still pick all five of the Epic/Patron powers by 47.... so maybe the cool kids are doing that, plus a travel power, which is delaying a pick until 49?
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This suggestion has all the feels of "have some incarnates on one character; want incarnates on another character, now" thread.
11 hours ago, MsSmart said:I know you can convert salvage into threads and buy inspirations and then sell for inf, my intent is not to have more inf from salvage or emps in fact. I just want to have a pool of emps for new alts so they can fully T4 their incarnate abilities with several variations of choices (Destiny - Ageless/Barrier/Clarion, etc) or have the means to assemble a T4 prior to a stat TF to best provide group support for example.
I can't really get behind making it easier to get Incarnates:
- It's really not that hard, in game now... except that there is some content that is impractical to run for Incarnate effort
- This sort of suggestion would IMO unbalance things such that there would be specific content that was better at accumulating Incarnates
- Incarnate characters are explicitly supposed to be "taking the slow path" to Incarnate power
YMMV on just how necessary it is to ihave T4s (instead of T3s)... or to even have T3s... instantly or otherwise... but for me, I get there eventually... and often by the time I join Incarnate content and find I am missing level shifts, I craft up the ones I need from the Incarnate salvage tab.
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I read the quote: I'm not loving the "do 25% less damage against level, because if you play against +3 you now do 30% more (than you would have, but only against +3s)."
I get it... there is a perception that MMs were lagging in damage (of all things) against +3s... but my lvl 50 Masterminds were happiest at even levels solo(*1). When my MMs joined +3 content, I never felt like they needed to be providing MOAR DAMAGE... And I'm one of the crazies that has run Penny Yin and Synapse TFs at +3,
I ran a test at -1x8 (because I forgot to account for/remove alpha shift) of the Vigilante Mission "Shattered Jar of Flesh", same maps, same strategies, same attack cadence. This was a full-kit MM running Tactics. The only difference between test and live was the placement of objectives and final spawns. Did a defeat all on each. 13 minutes on test, 11 minutes on live. I has slightly more runners to deal with on live, but that is hard to judge. Somewhat inconclusive, as I had intended to do an even level test.
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11 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:
And then back to the to hit issue. Still no reason to nerf that, especially if they're not getting full set bonuses/kismet bonus from globals as well, or even with that, every other AT can already still do this with their IOs thus MM pets reliably hitting their target like every other AT can't possibly be game breaking. Not to mention the limited slotting issues in the pet itself to try to get its damage maxed, end reduction, enough accuracy, enhancing the special pet powers like holds or slows, not even getting to procs.
Not a lot of T7+ damaging attacks have base Accuracy < 1.0 (let alone ToHit). Control AoE will have base Accuracy below 1.0 (again, not ToHit), and it isn't as if those three Brawling Fire Imps have base ToHit values decreased.
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11 minutes ago, Rudra said:
Or how about how the OP states that level 50s are already OP, but wants three more enhancement slots anyway?
I was expecting a better springboard from @Ghost suggestion, maybe something like "I don't use those slots in prestige sprints (or Fitness *gasp*), how about I get the chance to move them to other powers I do use?"... sort of "I'm only optimizing slots I already have, I'm not asking for more slots'
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I see things VERY differently than this:
23 minutes ago, Nathic69 said:MMs really need pets to have a speed buff and a teleport to player power or a resummon/desummon power this will solve many issues
Please consider giving MMs the same HP values as corruptor, As well as corruptor support set modifiers
Please remove the end tax MMs have
Please give MM pets 80% AOE defense
🙏
The travel/path behavior becomes an issue mostly limited to speed-running towards whatever. After that, there are some common 'stuck on geometry' things that happen with Group Flight, but from my experience if it isn't the MM outpacing the henchmen, it's poor control of the henchmen.
MM HP values are fine, with the (Live, and now reverted) Bodyguard. Bodyguard is a tradeoff for more aggressive henchmen stances.
The endurance tax is a PITA, but it is not insurmountable. Players that can't figure out how to slot their powers to deal with the extra Endurance cost need to figure out to not run every toggle and/or continually spam Endurance-heavy powers. Welcome to the game!
Your henchmen don't already have 80% AoE Defense? /s
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26 minutes ago, cohRock said:
As I said, the level 49 power restriction was a very minor issue. My main point is the owning of three more slots on 50+3 characters.
So why lead with "I'm irritated my lvl 49 power can never have 6 slots"? Are there any other parts of the argument we aren't supposed to believe, like maybe "avoiding power creep"?
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42 minutes ago, Dispari said:
Overall feedback: You should be able to see how little the set bonuses actually provide at 40%. 50% wouldn't be much higher. 🥺
I'm slightly curious why 100% isn't on the table...
Folks who chase +Recharge, no effect (for stated reasons)
Folks who chase +Accuracy, easy to do with purples... and AFAIK these are the "largest" enhancement set boosts and would immediately address concerns about Henchmen hitting whatever...
Folks who chase MaxEnd, EndDiscount, MaxHP, Regen, Recovery.... these boosts are small, and would actually make sense for Henchmen performance (see problems with blue bar burn in hecnhmen)
Resistance and Defense global boosts are often pretty small... and it's not that hard to cap Defense anyway, and while I've personally never worried much about henchmen resistances, the recent back-and-forth about "surviving" seemed to be focused more on getting hit (defense) not on taking damage anyway
Damage boosts.... here i can see an area for slight concern, but for many of the sets that offer bigger damage boosts:
- Getting multiple damage boosts from the same set means surrendering other useful boosts (like Recharge)
- Damage boosts aren't that common, and many of those are gated at 4+ slots... so "reasonable trade-off"
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The way primary/secondary powers are getting ported to just-about-every-AT, I find it easy to pass on characters that have mechanics I no longer feel like dealing with. So...
Dominators: I feel like I've more-or-less solved the "permaDom" equation, and because permaDom so radically improves their performance while simultaneously limiting my slotting creativity, I find it more fun to roll with a different AT.
Brutes: I find Fury to be a PITA, and frankly it reminds me to much of Domination (when not permaDom) so other ATs fit my concepts just as well.
Kheldians: They don't offer enough variety that makes me want to have more than one of each... because multiple builds are a thing, and other ATs get similar attacks. All I really need is a Benovo Labs costume for the non-human forms, and I could mimic Squids and Lobsters easily.
I generally don't roll with Corruptors, but that is because of when I want to pick certain powers, and a personal feel about buffs/debuffs/damage scales
After that everything is fair game... although I probably won't ever roll another Widow, and the Soldiers basically (now, for me) require a concept with a gun. I really enjoy both, but each falls into the "problem solved, limited concepts" category. Of course... I just thought of a potential Widow... need to investigate! BRB
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1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:
To reinforce this and add more clarity, if you use one of your five free respecs at level 50, you can slot that level 49 power all the way to 6 slots.
You don't even have to wait until level 50! The power simply has to be be picked prior to deciding how to assign slots.
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1 hour ago, Shin Magmus said:
I think the wider community in this game really still doesn't understand just how slow and frustrating MM gameplay actually is. Most people don't play them well, or don't have experience actually moving well and speedrunning content.
I deeply agree with this feel, although my own frustration (with MM gameplay) isn't rooted in the henchmen movement/pathing.
Attaboys to HC: The fast respawns, the global buffs, the useful slotting options for upgrades have all been GREAT!
Even though I play a MM almost every day, and have played a LOT of content with it (including non-BAF Incarnate Trials, FWIW) there is enough subtlety and variety of HOW I have to play MMs through different content that I'm unconvinced that there is a "one size fits most solution" to any of the different circumstances MMs "have trouble with"... because from my PoV most of the "trouble" is figuring out what the optimal approach is to the situation. Let's face it: players who gravitate to "same strategy, every time" or face-rolling keyboards don't want to invest extra effort into ALSO learning (more than one way) to play their MM.
I can believe that some fraction of players get frustrated with MMs and give up before level 22... but I doubt it was something like "henchmen missing attacks" that cracked the top ten list of hypothetical complaints. Henchmen need slots, and (especially at low levels) henchmen need support... and with power picks and slots at a premium below level 26, yeah... players gotta think about how to balance their choices (e.g. the player might just have to wait before getting Hasten/Kick/Tough/Weave)
I don't think players that PL to 50 are criminal, but the effect of skipped lessons (about slotting, about power picks) from lower level play are amplified for MMs in ways that don't really apply to most other ATs... so that it is easy to see criminally poorly played MM at 50+.
The reduction in base ToHit seems weirdly misplaced, as I'm not aware of any other AT that is getting hit with base reductions in ToHit (Accuracy changes in individual powers above level 22 would probably be more accurate) and if they were mentioned I didn't see any base decrease in the ToHit or Accuracy of Control/Dom/VEAT/Kheldian/Lore pets.
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1 hour ago, cohRock said:
It's always been a (very) minor irritation of mine that the power you choose at 49 can never be fully slotted.
In the words of the immortal Aretha Franklin: "R-E-S-P-E-C"
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Knockback Should it be changed?
in Suggestions & Feedback
Posted
The real villain in Knockback is the silent 'k', surely something can be done about it!
Also, all ATs should be changed to end in the letter 'r': so Bruters, Masterminders, Warshadiers, Widowers, and Sentinelpeppers.