Redlynne

Street Justice/Super Reflexes/Body Mastery. You want that satisfying SMACK/CRACK sound set in Street Justice over the animations and sounds used in Martial Arts. Plus there's that knee to the midsection move ...

Resistance shoulders can already be done with asymmetric as an option ...

Do NOT do this! The "children" will NEVER shut up or stop screaming! Have you considered pairing an Electric Affinity/Beam Rifle Defender with an Electric/Kinetics Controller? I'm thinking that combo ought to play out with a rather interesting dynamic if you're wanting to try something off the beaten (to defeat) path.

"We fire the WHOLE bullet!" "That's 66% More Bullet Per Bullet!" Cave Johnson, we're done here.

And here I was hoping your suggestion would be to change the Summon powers to give Mercenaries DOUBLE the number of Pets as all the other Mastermind primaries. 4 Soldiers. 2 Medics. 4 Spec Ops. 2 Commandos. Including the Mastermind, that's a 13 man squad+fire team. Sad that it would take doubling the quantity of Pets to bring Mercenaries up to PAR with other Mastermind primaries ... but it would also be a kind of inverse to Gang War in that you'd "permanently" have double Pets out, instead of only occasionally like Gang War (assuming you don't have Gang War recharge on perma with Thugs). Actually, now that the idea has been broached, I'm seriously thinking that a permanent 12 Pets summons for Mercenaries might be the simplest, easiest and dev time "cheapest" solution to the problems with Mercernaries underperforming. Why? Because ... Quantity has a Quality all of its own ... With Mercenaries, it's not about the INDIVIDUAL soldier ... it's about the TEAM ... and how the teamwork WORKS ...

CAN it be rebuilt? Sure. SHOULD it be rebuilt? That's a purely subjective question that depends on your priorities as a Player. Just because the builds are nearly identical (as you've mentioned) doesn't mean the same build will hit the same balance points when ported over to different Archetypes. Ideally speaking, the excess mitigation you're talking about CAN be exchanged for investment in other priorities, rebalancing the build to the specific "virtues" and strengths of each Archetype.

Dunno. Dual Pistols doesn't include a Snipe power in the set, and none of the other builds I've made has included a Snipe power (just like this one does not). So I really wouldn't be a good source for the answer to that question. Recommend you cross-post your question over HERE.

Most of the auction houses I walk into have at least 3 NPCs controlling the prices ...

I actually like the Level 24 split implementation the way it is ... because we can use alternate builds for the alternate path on the same character (Bane+Crab specs on the same character, for example).

There's a statue of Praetor Tilman in Nova Praetoria that uses the body of Aurora Borealis.

Jack Emmert was prone to fanatically believing things that were objectively untrue too ...

Single target Hold powers (melee or ranged) are the best places to put Dam/Mez HOs (although the Blistering Cold set will tend to be more expensive for melee powers). They're also good for Pets that apply more than one mez status effect (Hold, Immobilize, etc.), since the HO will boost the duration on all of those various effects, not just a single type. That's why I like using it for Singularity, which does both Hold and Immobilize attacks. So Dam/Mez HOs are my "go to" frankenslotting option for any single target Hold power that does damage. Hold powers that don't do damage often times get 4 slots of Basilisk's Gaze. The counterpart Acc/Mez HO can be useful as a One Slot Wonder™ option for mez powers that only get a single slot, or for powers that you want to proc monster which can apply different mez effects. Suppressive Fire will natively deal either a Stun effect (Standard Ammo) or a Hold effect (Cryogenic, Incendiary or Chemical Ammo) ... so the only way to enhance both Stun AND Hold durations in a single enhancement is to use either an Acc/Mez HO or a Dam/Mez HO. Also, just in case you hadn't noticed, HOs can be combined just like SOs up to +2 above their base Level (hence the notation on the above linked builds).

Nemesis Staff from the P2W vendor. At Levels 1-5, Quantums are just PAINFUL to deal with ... because you don't have Nova form yet at Level 6. Once you do have Nova form at Level 6+ you open with the Nemesis Staff (for the Knockback to prevent the Quantum attacking you in retaliation). You then shift to Nova form, charge in to use the Cone and Target AoE attacks and spike blast damage into the Quantum so they can only get off 0-2 potshots at you before folding. At Level 8, Warshades can pick Starless Step, which I use to pull Quantums out of groups and deal with 1 on 1 using the above strategy, except teleporting them into a corner away from their group. At Level 12, Peacebringers can pick Inner Light (their build up power), which I use prior to doing the whole Nemesis Staff and switch to Nova for the Cone and Target AoE attacks that tend to MELT entire spawn groups in pretty short order. But before Level 7 ... the solution is Nemesis Staff before switching to Nova form. Before Level 6 ... he who fights and runs away lives to faceplant some other day! The classic phrase is "don't be a hero!" but the point is, there is no shame in making hit and run attacks where you retreat to Take A Knee (a lot) after fighting $Targets in the 1-5 Level range. Play in a Careful Coward fashion, rather than like an invulnerable steamroller (because that comes later than 1-5), and you'll do alright.

My favorite thing to do is to pick Auras that are visible FX while the Shadow Cloak is toggled on (using M06 as the color of choice since that's a bright saturated purple). Celestial Aura that includes Eyes will cause your Eyes to glow more brightly with Shadow Cloak on (it's pretty cool ... in a slightly creepy kind of way). Sparkles Body Heavy will produced a cloud of glittering sparkles in the "empty volume" of the Shadow Cloak that is just downright inspiring to see. I use both of the above auras on different costume slots and set them up as Combat auras, so they aren't always on (but I can activate them at any time if I feel like doing a little light RP) so that they can be more of an "on demand" kind of aura effect. I'm sure there are other auras that can interact with Shadow Cloak in creative ways ... and I only just recently found out that the Radiant part of Ascension Gloves doesn't get suppressed by Shadow Cloak on female models, so there's definitely some edge case weirdness interactions going on with what Shadow Cloak does to your avatar's appearance.

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I'm just saying it's safer and presumably easier to edit parameters that don't mess with animations. Yes, Homecoming has demonstrated that they CAN alter animation times ... but I don't take that as evidence that the effort to do so is negligible, cheap and/or as easy as lowering recharge values on powers in the database. If anything, I start with a baseline expectation that animation time changes are "expensive/intensive" to do (until informed otherwise), which I feel like is a pretty safe assumption (and if I'm wrong, boo hoo!).

Tweaking the animation times for Mercenary Pet attacks is a potentially labor intensive change. Tweaking the recharge times for Mercenary Pet attacks is DIRT SIMPLE and can be done in less than 10 minutes. I would honestly think that it would be easier/cheaper/more reliable to TRY tweaking the recharge times FIRST as a low hanging fruit (practically resting on the ground, really) that would consume next to no Dev Time to implement. Would it be a permanent solution for EVERYTHING that ails the Mercenaries powerset? Of course not! Lowering excessively long recharge times on Pet attacks is not an all encompassing solution for all of their problems. But ... it would be an EASY FIRST STEP in the right direction(!) ... and given that up until now there have been NO STEPS taken in the right direction on this, I for one wouldn't turn my nose up at an even PARTIAL solution to what's wrong with Mercenaries. SOME progress is better than NO progress at all in this case. Especially when that SOME progress can be implemented quickly with a minimum of fuss and hassle. Don't let the Perfect be the enemy of A Good Enough Start on the problem(s) that Mercenaries have as a powerset. I mean, good grief ... if I can come up with what I posted in less than half an hour, how HARD would it be to edit the game's database to do what I've specified? So I repeat. Tweaking the animation times for Mercenary Pet attacks is a potentially labor intensive change. Tweaking the recharge times for Mercenary Pet attacks is DIRT SIMPLE and can be done in less than 10 minutes.

+0% Recharge enhancement for 5s and 0s animation times: 83.33% chance to proc = 2 * ((20 / ( 1 + 0.00 / 100 )) + 5) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 30,000))) 66.67% chance to proc = 2 * ((20 / ( 1 + 0.00 / 100 )) + 0) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 30,000))) So an 83.33% proc chance with a 5s animation and a 66.67% proc chance with a 0s animation. That's a difference of rolling 1-5 on 1d6 and rolling 1-4 on 1d6 ... which I personally would consider a somewhat significant hit to proc reliability. Does it reduce the proc chance to something as low as 50%? No ... but then you'd need to reduce the base recharge (or slot recharge into the power) in order to do that. 20s Base Recharge with +33.33% Recharge enhancement: 50.00% chance to proc = 2 * ((20 / ( 1 + 33.33 / 100 )) + 0) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 30,000))) 15s Base Recharge with +0% Recharge enhancement: 50% chance to proc = 2 * ((15 / ( 1 + 0.00 / 100 )) + 0) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 30,000))) So the obvious answer to the point you've raised is to either prevent Knockback slotting in Traps Trip Mines ... or ... to take the proposal I made and reduce the base recharge time on Traps Trip Mines to be 15s instead of the 30s that Devices Trip Mines are currently set for (as @Tater Todd so kindly provided above). If the objective is to keep Traps Trip Mines from being Too Reliable a way to proc a Force Feedback proc, then working to lower the maximum proc chance to 50% or below ought to be adequate to the task. I'm willing to go along with a 15s base recharge time for Traps Trip Mines (which would then wind up being exactly half the base recharge of Devices Trip Mines, further differentiating the two powersets, which I would consider a positive rather than a negative). How about you? Now let's cross-check what happened to the Devices version of Trip Mine. 90% (Pre-clamp: 109.23%) chance to proc = 2 * ((30 / ( 1 + 0.00 / 100 )) + 2.77) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 30,000))) So what you're objecting to has already been made "objectively possible" for Devices Trip Mines. What we're talking about here is Traps Trip Mines. CAN it be done? Sure. It's a Clever Use Of Game Mechanics™. Will it cost you NOTHING to do that? Oh hell no! 13 endurance cost every 5s can start getting prohibitive in a hurry. Even at 13 endurance every 6s you're looking at an endurance cost of -2.17/s. If you manage to fit +95% endurance reduction into the power, that would still be 6.67 endurance every 6s ... meaning that you're looking at an endurance cost of -1.11/s ... which is in the ballpark of all three Leadership toggles (-0.39/s each) COMBINED. I have sincere doubts that there are all that many builds which would be able to put Traps Trip Mines on autofire and NOT have the drain on endurance impact their performance in other very important ways. In other words ... No Free Lunch. And if the base recharge for Traps Trip Mines were lowered from 20s to 15s, the endurance drain of putting Trip Mines on autofire to go fishing for Force Feedback procs would become even more ruinous ... since you could use the power more often (increasing the endurance cost over time) while the endurance cost per use of the power would remain the same at 13 ... and the chance to proc Force Feedback would fall from 66.67% down to 50% per cast. As far as I'm concerned, that would be more than adequate incentive to NOT put Traps Trip Mines on autofire for the reasons you're worried about ... but as always, your mileage may vary.

Actually, I'll take it even further at this point. If the only parameters that could be changed for Mercenaries were the recharge times for the Mercs powers ... what ought those recharge times be changed TO in order to give them better attack rotations? Soldier Acc AT Rch End Rng Arc Rad Dmg Special Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 21.02 9.11 Assault Rifle Burst 1.1 2.2 4 5.2 80 19.26 -Def Assault Rifle Heavy Burst 1.1 2.67 8 8.53 80 31.86 -Def Assault Rifle Auto Fire 1.1 6 16 10.19 80 5 40.11 -Def Medic Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 21.02 5.20 Med Kit 1 3.17 20 5.2 25 0.00 Heal SMG Heavy Burst 1 2.67 6 4.37 70 26.88 -Def Stimulant 1 3.17 15 10.4 25 0.00 Mez Prot Frag Grenade 1 1.87 16 14 80 15 15.96 KB Spec Ops Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 25.69 12.08 SCAR Burst 1.15 2.2 3 4.37 100 21.78 -Def SCAR Heavy Burst 1.15 2.67 6 6.86 100 34.56 -Def Web Grenade 1 1.87 30 7.8 70 0.00 Immob, Slow SCAR Snipe 1.2 3.83 16 6.86 150 49.05 -Def Commando Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 30.36 20.59 Burst 1.05 2.2 4 5.2 80 33.04 -Def Slug 1.05 1.87 8 8.53 80 50.16 KB Buckshot 1.05 1.87 8 10.19 40 30 27.83 KB Full Auto 1.35 6 60 15.6 80 20 87.21 M30 Grenade 1.05 1.87 16 15.18 70 15 27.53 KB Flamethrower 1.1 3.5 20 15.6 40 40 59.20 LRM Rocket 1.05 3.83 240 18.2 150 15 76.16 KB Bear in mind that the recharge times assigned are the base recharge times that were used for PC powers where the expectation was that recharge enhancement (not to mention global recharge enhancement!) could reduce those times. Mastermind Pets are completely, totally and utterly immune to recharge buffing and debuffing, so the numbers locked in here are what they're stuck with. I'm thinking that if Mercenaries weren't saddled with so many long recharge powers their attack chains would necessarily improve somewhat dramatically. So ... THE CHALLENGE. By changing ONLY the recharge parameters in the above table of info pulled from HERE ... how much of a (necessary!) improvement can be made to the offensive performance of Mercenaries? Here is what *I* would do as a first order iteration pass to improve Mercenaries attack chains purely through twiddling the recharge parameters on their Pet powers. Edits to the above chart are highlighted in bold+italics. Soldier Acc AT Rch End Rng Arc Rad Dmg Special Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 21.02 9.11 Assault Rifle Burst 1.1 2.2 3 5.2 80 19.26 -Def Assault Rifle Heavy Burst 1.1 2.67 6 8.53 80 31.86 -Def Assault Rifle Auto Fire 1.1 6 12 10.19 80 20 40.11 -Def Medic Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 21.02 5.20 Med Kit 1 3.17 16 5.2 25 0.00 Heal SMG Heavy Burst 1 2.67 4 4.37 70 26.88 -Def Stimulant 1 3.17 12 10.4 25 0.00 Mez Prot Frag Grenade 1 1.87 12 14 80 15 15.96 KB Spec Ops Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 25.69 12.08 SCAR Burst 1.15 2.2 3 4.37 100 21.78 -Def SCAR Heavy Burst 1.15 2.67 5 6.86 100 34.56 -Def Web Grenade 1 1.87 10 7.8 70 0.00 Immob, Slow SCAR Snipe 1.2 3.83 16 6.86 150 49.05 -Def Commando Theoretical DPS Brawl 1 0.67 16 4.37 30.36 20.59 Burst 1.05 2.2 3 5.2 80 33.04 -Def Slug 1.05 1.87 6 8.53 80 50.16 KB Buckshot 1.05 1.87 8 10.19 40 30 27.83 KB Full Auto 1.35 6 20 15.6 80 20 87.21 M30 Grenade 1.05 1.87 12 15.18 70 15 27.53 KB Flamethrower 1.1 3.5 20 15.6 40 40 59.20 LRM Rocket 1.05 3.83 60 18.2 150 15 76.16 KB Mostly a tweak downwards by a second or few for the common attack powers, with the slower powers getting more of a boost (LRM needs to be seriously reduced to 60s). Only other change that I would want to make in this is to put the Soldier Assault Auto Rifle arc at 20º instead of the 5º I was seeing on the page I pulled the info from. Don't know if that's a typo or not, but if it's not it ought to be treated as a typo deserving of correction.

Change the existing Mercenaries powerset to beam rifle ... HARD NO. Copy/paste the Mercenaries powerset into a duplicate that uses minor alterations to produce a beam rifle version of Mercenaries (called something else) ... okay, I'm listening ... Add and extend, not repeal and replace.

It was lost before we even knew there was a battlefield to fight upon.

Those numbers for Mercenaries are just jaw dropping to the point of being PAINFUL. 1/2 ... 1/3 ... 1/4 ... the damage production of other primary powersets. That's just flat out gimptacular awful. Which then begs the question ... which secondaries (if any) leverage Mercenaries to advantage better than others, thanks to what the secondary brings to the mix?

I've never cared for relying on the heat death of the universe as a deadline ...

You're conflating two separate problems into a single problem and prescribing a One Size Fits All for both problems when only one of the problems IS a problem (maximum performance) when the other problem ISN'T a problem (minimum performance). That's kind of like saying ... the millionaires are earning too much money, so we need to lower the minimum wage! To which my reply is ... why are you trying to hurt the people at the bottom in order to apply a corrective to the people at the top? Especially when it's only the top end that needs that corrective, while the bottom end doesn't.