lobster

Gotcha. OK, I can confirm that the Chilling Embrace lack of damage vs. sleeping enemies appears to be working correctly in standard scenarios. I'm just wondering if this is the right kind of fix, because it makes it different from all the other damage auras. For a sense of...I dunno, things working like you expect, I would prefer a solution that either involves the aura not doing damage, so it doesn't have to be this other edge case where one power works differently than expected, or just make it a damage aura and those of us who are frustrated by this change either won't play that combo anymore or will use CE differently? I'll admit, I don't actually want option 2, but I would accept it if you guys feel that's the best place for damage to reside in the set - although I will say that I didn't notice a huge damage issue with icy in the non-bleeding edge build area. Sure, it wasn't the highest, but it didn't feel weak. With the buffs it's already gotten with this patch, it's only gotten better. Those changes, plus the size increase and -dmg debuff in CE are really good overall and it might be worth just letting that sit to see how it does. EDIT: Random debuff idea : what about a reverse power boost debuff? So targets affected by it are affected by other debuffs at an increased rate? Or maybe even an increased endurance usage debuff (reverse conserve power)? It seems like both those might already be functional with the existing system, leaving some nice design space? EDIT2: Energy focus mode on /energy assault does not appear to be working at all. TF wasn't auto-triggering it, and it didn't seem to trigger off disorient hits like it was before. EDIT4: The TF auto-focus is definitely broken. But I am seeing it pop-up occasionally elsewhere when hitting a disoriented target. When Power Burst is used in focus mode, I am not seeing a difference in the damage. I was able to get TF to trigger it once by using it on an already stunned target. I will say that without the auto-trigger from TF, the mechanic is a lot less engaging, as it's fairly uncommon.

Putting together an elec/ice to test now. 64 bit client * There are no damage numbers for /icy [edit: or any other set] - Clarification, there are no numbers below the line under 'effect area', above that there are the damage/activation/time etc. Below that are a bunch of ValueTypeForDurationTarget/unresistable * HUGE BUG. When I mouse over enhancements, instead of showing what they do it shows "string". * When I sign out it says "disconnecting in TIME seconds" * When I look at my character list it says : Slots used : USED/TOTAL - tested on 64bit/classic/safe mode - it's there in all of them, so I'm guessing the other failed variable expansions are there as well. * Player names are showing as PlayerName above their heads, but correctly in the targeting window.

Hmm. Power, solo, vaguely objective: Primaries: A : Plant A-: Everything else Fun, solo, 100% subjective: A: Everything Else B: Mind (Needs a pet. Maybe make confuse a weak AOE like plant's (or use the 'jumping mechanic'?) and make the l32 a permanent "domination" that makes a non-boss npc a pet) Secondaries: Power: A: Martial, Psi, Fiery B: Earth, Energy, Savage, Icy B-: Dark, Thorns, Rad, (completely playable, but could use minor tweaks, and I agree that Rad needs an identity) C+: Elec Note that on Justin, the secondaries are much closer together. Fun: A: Everything else B: Elec Yes, I love most of the sets, warts and all!

What about an Envenomed Blades style buff that is based on the number of targets in range of the aura? This would put the damage load onto the aura without breaking sleep ,etc. 5% cold damage per target up to a max of 40% or something? Confirmed. Also happens with Power Burst triggered during Whirling Hands. However, sometimes the rings would go away then pop back up, and I couldn't do it 100% of the time, so maybe it was Whirling Hands re-triggering the buff? [edit: To be clear, the double dipping into the buff is what I was able to repeat with Power Burst, only Bone Smasher seems to have the extra text spam). Edit 2: I can't seem to trigger Energy Focus from WH, so that doesn't seem to be the issue. I have been able to get to Focus hits in a row in multiple ways. In addition to queuing BS after Whirling, BS can also be queued after Power Burst, although this seems to be more sensitive than when doing it after Whirling. Maybe some time of brief time out needs to be added between Focus being able to proc its bonus damage? edit 3: It seems like Energy Focus can trigger off of misses too (on Power Blast at least), I was able to trigger it once after stunning someone with Whirling Hands, then missing a Power Blast. The wording of the power does not say "HIT", but it seems like it should require a hit? edit 4: What I *may* be seeing is Bone Smasher, when used in focus mode, itself triggering focus mode again vs. a disoriented target, then expending that focus. Trying to figure out how to sort out log windows to figure it out. That being said, it seems to happen much more often than that would. edit5: The combat logs show "P10201211" instead of showing the new proc damage when it goes off. Note : For testing purposes it would be super handy if we had a "rez at full life" (does this already exist and I just don't know? I'm not super familiar with the temp powers) temp power - lots of running back from the hospital to my mission to test power interactions :P.

I'd be fine with either of those! I like it much better as a debuff than a damage power. -fly or a chance to immobilize or sleep or other stuff that goes along with the slow/ice mechanic, any of that would be fine as well!. That would be pretty cool if it was me. I know I've talked up how much fun elec/icy was a few times 🙂 I enjoyed that playstyle and will probably re-make him someday after I get through all these new ones... ---- Energy Assault : I just put in a bit of time putting together a mind/energy dom (something I've never played before) on Justin and, while I can't speak to the numeric balance of the energy changes without sitting down, I can say that the the new mechanic did feel FUN (and I didn't notice anything buggy). It gave me something else to think about while playing (which attack to use to capitalize on the buff) and made me heavily prioritize using total focus to trigger the reliable buff.

I would support this over damage on it. If it needs more buffs beyond the aoe size, I prefer increasing debuffs to adding damage. One of my main doms on live was ice/elec - it's a great combo for the reasons you mention!

Well crap, now I need to set up an energy dom over there and test the new energy stuff 🙂. It sounds interesting at first glance, but also like a pretty big change to be added this close to going live. The addition of damage to chilling embrace should indeed make it able to take pbaoe damage sets like all the other toggles. However, I don't think it needed damage. It's fine with it...but being able to use it around sleeping targets was an interesting side effect/bonus of the set. With damage, it won't be quite as good a pairing with that limited subset of playstyles (primarily elec using Static Field, but mind to a lesser extent..and maybe people take the sleep in plant??). Without them saying, hard to guess at intent. It sounds like they want the MA attacks to be just plain fast, which means less damage to keep them balanced. I'm not sure why the change to Fling Thorns. It sounds like they have some goals for the sets that we aren't aware of, and making that faster was part of that?

I have a couple so far:

Charge Mastery - shifting it over to a more defensive set. Static Discharge -> Power Sink : elec based epics almost always have this, and it's a super useful utility power, offensively and defensively. Adjust numbers to be weak enough for an epic pool, etc. Surge of Power -> Charged Armor : stock resist armor. Thunder Strike -> Voltaic Sentinel : exactly the kind of epic power MMs should get - MORE PETS 😉. Chill Mastery - this is one of the better sets already, only the attack doesn't really fit (I'm restructuring some of the sets to be more attack oriented, so players that want that can find it). Ice Blast -> Shiver : a nice soft control option. Plus, "Chill" Mastery should be able to CHILL things. Renaming it "chilling blast" and adding a small knockback too it would be nice as well, but might overlap too much with Gale. A fun alternate might be a pbaoe knockback+slow using the same animation as Atom Smasher or Hand Clap. Basically a "get off of me and come back to me slowly" power. Field Mastery - this set really wanted to be the offensive set for Blasterminds, let's make it that. Power Blast -> Double the damage - makes it roughly equal to a defender T2. Temp Invulnerability -> Kinetic Shield (S/L/E DEFENSE) : We need more defense armor options, and being able to softcap s/l pairs very well with an offensive mastermind playstyle (I'm here for you petless blasterminds! 😉 ). Energy Torrent -> Bump it up to 45-50 damage : it should be AT LEAST as good as the cone in the primary. Explosive Blast -> Energy Cloak (stealth + minor defense) : We just gave them 2 very good attacks, a third might be overkill, so let's go with utility and more defense. Force of Nature-> Entropic Aura : status protection, but half the mag strength and double the end cost of the brute version. /Son, /FF & /Traps already have status protection, it wouldn't be the end of the world if others had access to it. An additional or alternate option, would be a self damage buff of some sort, to help offset the MM damage penalty, something like Envenomed Blades in the Martial Assault set - use the build up animation and add say 40% (scale off base, not total) energy damage to each attack (but NOT to pet attacks). Heat Mastery - This set is solid. It's a hybrid utility/combat set currently, and fire is typically associated with "damage", so we'll leave it be. Just bump the damage numbers up to defender level or higher. Heat, Field, Leviathan and Soul will be the sets you take if you want damage or a mix of damage/utility. Giving these pools a focus lets us free up other pools for me utility. I don't see a reason for putting an attack in every set other than that's how someone wanted it to be for ease of work and design. Leviathan Mastery - redside equivalent to Field mastery, it wants to be a damage set, let's do that! School of Sharks - cut the immob duration in half, shorten + widen the cone. Bile Spray -> Arctic Breath (basically just add -def & -res), cut the recharge 20-30% : adds utility if you don't want to play up the damage aspect. Also cut the range and widen the cone so it feels better in melee since you'll also be using … KO Blow -> MOAR DAMAGE : no it doesn't have to hit like a scrapper, but it should hit for more than a wet noodle, especially on a 40s recharge. Shark Skin : is fine as is, but adding KB protection, or a minor defense component (3-5% def all) to it would be a nice bonus since we'll be in melee, and potentially allow additional IO slotting options. Spirit Shark Jaws -> PET or leave as is, or convert into a medium range, heavy damage blast. Shark bites should hurt! Mace Mastery - This set is amazing already. The only change I'd make is to add more utility to Mace Beam Volley and remove the damage aspect, since we've handled those elsewhere. Mace Beam Volley -> PET or convert into a control power : remove the damage, add a stun component, boost the recharge. Mu Mastery - I like the idea of making it into a ranged counterpart to Charge Mastery - so charge has the stronger melee power sink and Mu gets a ranged version. We also need another DEFENSE armor option, ideally on villain side. It would fit in any of them, but Field Mastery would now provide a melee option, so I'd place it in Mu over Leviathan or Soul, both of which would be more melee focused. Static Discharge -> Static Transfer : Keep the animation and convert into a 30% strength Power Sink, boost recharge to compensate & balance. Charged Armor -> Static Shield : Either solid RANGE def and minor AOE def, or solid E/N def and minor S/L, plus moderate energy resist and endurance drain resist. Thunder Strike -> PET or weak version of Static Field (80s recharge, 2s sleep duration?). Soul Mastery - since this set wants you to be in melee so bad, why all the ranged cones? No thank you! Night Fall -> Midnight Grasp (at a decent damage level) : would play the Soul Storm hold animation. Probably just use the same numbers from the boosted KO blow. Dark Embrace : is fine Soul Tentacles -> Doom Stomp (or Soul Stomp) : Pbaoe high damage + immob+ -tohit. Use the foot stomp animation but it makes the tendrils instead of knock up/down. Slot it for damage, debuff or immob. Soul Storm -> PET or Soul Transfer -> As much as I love this power and animation, it exists for other ATS, and I feel the set would be better served by another melee/utility power - and I added Midnight Grasp to basically take its place already.

See my guide to MM epics here for background info and my thoughts on the current state of things: The recent dominator and snipe changes on the beta have given me hope for interesting balance changes going forward. I'm not sure how sweeping they'll be, but who knows! So I thought it was worth putting out my thoughts on these pools, after having spent ….way too many hours on too many masterminds on live and now. In my previous post I laid out what I thought each set should bring, so here are my proposed reworks. Keep in mind that these suggestions are intended to take the minimum amount of work to implement. So no new powers beyond what can be made by swapping damage types and effects on existing powers. Also note that I've always found it frustrating that masterminds - THE pet class - didn't get at least one pet option in the epic pools. Yes, yes I know they can "already do that" but I dunno, I appeal to the "rule of cool" (often invoked in D&D) - it would be FUN. People play masterminds (usually) because they love pets, why not give them another? Plus, with the patron pets as they are now, they are super hard to perma anyway (which is a subject for another thread…). Not mention that controllers, dominators & SoA get more pets. Point being here is that just swapping in a pet for one of the less interesting powers in the patron pools would be great BUT I provide a non-pet option for the patrol pools below in case that's a bridge too far. The one place where I'm really breaking with original design #s (although, I would argue, not with the design intent) is changing the damage formula (increasing it) on mm epics - I think that change should be part of the epic itself, since MMs can't normally deal good damage, providing that is sort of in line with the epic philosophy of giving ATs access to something new. [Also, honestly I'm tired of trying to talk myself out of mace mastery on most of my mms 😉 ]. So, here are my proposed changes to the mastermind epic pools to make each one unique, desirable, and worth taking as well as making power choices tougher and more meaningful. One major thing I want to address is that only 2 of the 8 sets have a defense based shield (compared to 4 resist sets).

Couple thoughts: * You went black scorpion but skipped Power Boost, one of the best epic powers available to mms. You can use that+farsight to softcap yourself without Weave, for example. Plus it gives that defense to your pets and teammates too, where tough/weave is entirely selfish. Swapping Weave for PB would be about 1% defense gain and one less toggle to run, plus give you the boost on your debuffs as well. You can keep tough for the IO muling if you need it. Not to mention giving you all those slots in weave back. * stacking holds Time Stop + Web Cocoon (esp with power boost) can also be strong - gives you a way to lock down a boss. Plus another 7.% global recharge from another Basilisk's Gaze 4 slotted. * You can recover a slot from boxing (if you really want the +2.5 recovery, putting a Miracle Heal in health is a better option), and likely one from Stamina as well (by +5ing the two +end perf shifters, not the proc), which would let you put an extra endmod in the pet buffs, which I find helps, or in anything else you want. How about this? It gets you the other ATIO proc, more global recharge, capped S/L/E/N/F/C/Ranged/AOE and 38% melee, 33% psi, Keep in mind there will be an extra 6% or so global defense from Farsight than what shows in mids (and if you toggle powerboost on it will be inaccurate because it shows it boosting weave/man/hover/etc.) because you fire off Power Boost before using it. I figured you probably don't need the 6th slot in slowed response unless you really want you melee def that high...which at that point was only helping you against attacks tagged both 'psychic' and 'melee', which isn't a ton, so I took that as well: Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Pink People Eater: Level 50 Magic Mastermind Primary Power Set: Demon Summoning Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Summon Demonlings (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Endurance/Pet +Resist +Regen (3) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (3) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage (5) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance (5) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Recharge/Pet +AoE Defense Aura (7) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus Level 1: Time Crawl (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance Level 2: Temporal Mending (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (7) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (9) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (9) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (11) Panacea - Heal Level 4: Time's Juncture (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff (11) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge (13) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance (13) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance Level 6: Enchant Demon (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 8: Fly (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range (37) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (40) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 10: Temporal Selection (A) Healing IO Level 12: Summon Demons (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage (15) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance (15) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance (17) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (17) Blood Mandate - Accuracy (19) Blood Mandate - Damage Level 14: Assault (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 16: Distortion Field (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold (19) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold (21) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold (21) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold (23) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold Level 18: Hell on Earth (A) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (45) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets (45) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets (46) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus (46) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (37) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge Level 20: Time Stop (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold (29) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold (29) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold (31) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold Level 22: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 24: Hover (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range (25) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (25) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 26: Summon Demon Prince (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage (31) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy (34) Blood Mandate - Damage Level 28: Farsight (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 30: Boxing (A) Stupefy - Accuracy/Endurance Level 32: Abyssal Empowerment (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 35: Slowed Response (A) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff (36) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Defense Debuff (36) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Recharge (36) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge (37) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge Level 38: Chrono Shift (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod (39) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge (39) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge (39) Efficacy Adaptor - Accuracy/Recharge (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance Level 41: Tough (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (42) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (43) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance (46) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (48) Aegis - Resistance Level 44: Scorpion Shield (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 47: Power Boost (A) Recharge Reduction IO (48) Recharge Reduction IO Level 49: Web Cocoon (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold (50) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge (50) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold (50) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Empty Level 1: Supremacy Level 2: Rest Ideally I'd want to get the blood mandates out of your T2 & T3 pets because it's just not that efficient of a set, and you could put in the slow damage proc in T3 for example, but if you really want all that defense I didn't see a clear way to make up the lost defense.

I would be fine with this kind of implementation. I'm not seeing "new graphics" as a thing we'll be getting much of, so I'd be happy just to see the mechanics in game.

I think one of the best things about CoH is how playable pretty much every combination is. There is no MM combo you can't take to full incarnate, solo or teamed. Nothing is unplayable (although I found merc/ff reeeally boring it was still playable). However, raw power wise, I do think that, all things being equal, Bots=thugs > demons > ninja=beast=necro > merc. With certain slotting or secondaries those can be flipped, or sub par sets made very good (I think /storm is one of the strongest pairings for /mercs imho), however in general a merc/dark is going to be "weaker" (slower at clearing, basically, but still fine!!) than bots/dark. Ranking secondaries depends on the primary paired with and whether you are primarily a team or solo player. However, I would put /dark, /time, /cold and /traps near the top of the power spectrum. Personally, I can't stand playing anything /emp, /son or /ff. Not a fain of /pain either, but it's more interesting than empathy (which I don't think MMs needed but no harm done for the sake of proliferation parity). This is because I primarily solo and I find those really boring solo.

I don't think so. These are buffs to both the melee attacks (over the previous patch, which was a bigger nerf, which overall winds up as a slight nerf in damage, but the DPA on these attacks is still very good), and it looks like a damage boost to the T1. Envenomed Blades is crazy good, this will just make it slightly less so - but it's still going to be up most of the time, giving you that extra damage (and tohit, which will boost insta-snipe!). Keep in mind that this is happening in parallel with the insta-snipe change, which is just a flat out buff to every set with a snipe (including MA). As far as EB specifically, my understanding was that the proc amount was based off the attacks total damage, now it will just be based off of the base. Still a solid amount of extra damage, just not as overboard. EB is very strong. When I started playing on HC and looking at this I couldn't figure out how it went live as is...Embrace of Fire is 30s duration with 180s recharge and NO tohit buff, EB is 40s duration, 160s recharge WITH a tohit buff. It looked like someone's fantasy power that hadn't been properly balanced. This is doing some of that balance.

I never understood the rational for the patron pet duration + recharge numbers. I get that patron/epic pools are supposed to be "less" than a primary power, but there are other ways to do that - and none of them are powerful enough to make much of a difference at all to late game players, what's the harm in letting them be permanent without obscene levels of recharge? Is this something that could be looked at adjusting in the future? Making them last until death like most other pets would be ideal (then the long recharge is OK), but even just as far as making them permanent with 2 rech IOs (360-400s recharge, unstackable - new summons override) would go a long way to making them more usable. Pushing the end cost up to 40-50 would be an acceptable trade off to me (and encourage end red slotting).

Yes, that's why I mentioned another power would need to change to offset that. It's probably overkill and as I don't know how much work you guys are wanting to put into each subset as you go through the powers...it would probably be more effort than the return anyway. I was just trying to think of how to make it a good power worth slotting without upsetting the balance, and my thought was "well, replace it with one of those powers and make that power something more optional". I like where you are going with this. What about being able to be used while mezzed like the blaster primary/secondary (except in this case it would be *only* the secondary T1)? This would help a bunch pre-permadom. Like the trigger for those bonuses is "has less than 5 end OR CC'd", so it couldn't be taken advantage of in non-dire situations. I know having something usable when a sapper hits you and you have no blues, etc. would be nice and I'd probably even slot it, at least for leveling up. ...or what about each hit with it gives you a couple seconds of low mag CC protection, so if you somehow manage to get 2-3 of them to connect you could temporarily "break free" of weaker control effects or something (max of mag 2-3?) This could be tied to that condition or not and could be an interesting way to give dominators practice with a mini permadom?

Lobster's (Rambling) Guide to Mastermind Epic Pools (I'll be editing this to fix formatting and update as time permits, apologies for any errors in the initial post!) Background info: This is in part a guide to the mastermind epic pools, it's also prep for another post I'll make with suggestions for improvement, hopefully providing good examples as to why they are semi-terrible and, in my opinion, the worst collection of epic+patron powers (compared to the other ATs). Incarnate 50s on live: Bots/dark, Nec/dark, Nec/pain, Demon/pois, Merc/storm, Nin/Time, Beast/traps Non 50s on live : 30 level 30+ of varying combos. Current MMs: 50 Thug/cold, 50 beast/time, 38 nec/nature: 20s-mid 30s: Merc/rad, Demons/dark, merc/storm, demon/kin. What do *I* think an epic/patron (hereafter I'll just say "epic" for both) pool should provide? At least one of the following: It should give the AT access to something they can't typically do that affects how they can play and what they can do: for example blasters getting armors, controls and debuffs, scrappers getting ranged attacks, debuffs and controls, etc. It should provide a compelling and distinct reason to pick a given set over another. There is a marked difference between choosing Body Mastery (conserve power, focused accuracy, physical perfection) or Leviathan Mastery (snipe, ranged attacks, hold, pets) on a scrapper, or Ice Mastery vs. Leviathan master on a dominator, for example. What should it NOT do? Give the AT worse versions of what they already have (most attacks in the MM pools). Give the AT access to something they can't typically do in a sub-par fashion that doesn't let them do anything they couldn't do before : the attacks in the MM epics also fall in this category for me. Give them things that archetype doesn't want or need (more taunts for tanks, armor "nukes" for masterminds) Be basically the same as another epic pool but with a damage/element type shift. Mechanical background : MM attacks, ROUGH stats: T1 blast : ~30/3-4s/5.5-6.5 end T2 blast: ~50/6-8s/9.5-10.5 end Cone: ~45/14s/17 end Aoe: ~27/16s/19 end Energy Defender ROUGH stats for comparison. Note that other other than the sort of weird higher cone damage (For more end and more recharge), defenders do more damage across the board, and are a low damage AT. T1 blast: 36/4s/5end T2 blast: 60/8s/8.5end cone: 35/12s/12end aoe: 33/16s/15end The pools So, what does each having going for them? Charge Cone: 28/12s/15 1T HOLD 66% duration godmode (31% uptime with 155% global recharge) Melee (with minor pbaoe): 60/36s/12.7 Aoe hold (EMP: comes with penalties, huge recharge) Chill Range: 31/8s/10.6 Aoe sleep Long timer dull pain [25s downtime with 175% rech) ARMOR: S/L defense, C/F res Hibernate Field Range: 31/8s/10.6 ARMOR: S/L res Cone: 29/24s/14.8 Aoe: 27.5/16s/19 66% duration godmode (31% uptime with 155% global recharge) Heat Bonfire Range: 40/8s/6.5 Aoe: 38/32s/19 1t HOLD Self Res Leviathan Cone immob Cone: 36/32s/19 Melee: 109/40s/23 (for comparison, tanker KO Blow s 158/25s/18.5, and they can pair it with Rage) ARMOR: S/L/C res 1T Hold Mace Aoe immob ARMOR: S/L/E defense, tox res Aoe: 30/32s/19 POWER BOOST 1T hold Mu Cone: 30/32s/19 ARMOR: S/L/E res Aoe immob with -KB Melee: 60/36s/12.7 1T HOLD Soul Cone: 33/20s/16.4 ARMOR: S/L/N/T res Oppressive Gloom Cone immob 1T HOLD You'll note that I bolded some powers. These powers are the powers *I* label as the defining powers in a set - the powers (or power in some cases) that make that set unique and worth taking. These are the powers that either bring something new or unique to the table or are just plain good or fun. Digression: I DO NOT CONSIDER "DAMAGE VIA ATTACKS" as a thing for masterminds. I know some people like to use the attacks, or play crazy petless MMS, but I would argue that those people are playing against type (which is fine, but don't expect special consideration for it, it would be like a tank trying to play without their armors and focusing on soft controls or something). Therefore, if an epic pool is going to have attacks in it, it should provide them in a way that do significant damage, letting us do something we wouldn't normally do. A good comparison is the single target holds in the scrapper epics : they are pretty usable if you want to take them and, while worse than controller/dominator holds, when slotted they are very good at what they do. I would argue that all the attacks in the mastermind epics are garbage in the sense that while they do provide that attack, they don't provide it at a significant level to be relevant. I would be totally fine with an epic pool that had 2-3 attacks, mean for MMs who really want to attack, that were significantly stronger than the base mastermind attacks (in the same way that pool attacks - I've heard - are better than you would think because they don't suffer the mastermind damage penalties). The powers Armors: The resist armors are "fine" - and if you are taking a set with the armors and have room there's no reason not to take them, but they're not letting you do things you couldn't before. You were already tanky if you make the best use of bodyguard. They just make you a bit better at that. The defense armors (of which there are only TWO for 8 sets, we'll come back to that) however, are great, because they can let you hit the defcap for smashing and lethal, which is a new thing and can have a noticeable effect on play. Aoe immobilizes : There are a lot of them, so I don't consider most of them as set defining (except for Mu's, which has -KB which can be amazing to counter your pets knockback and keep enemies in bot burn patches for example), but they do give most sets access to a new, useful tool and are worth taking. Single target holds: These are sort of a middle ground in the sense that they do let some sets do things they couldn't, and make others much better at locking down bosses. However, they are present in many sets (like resist armors) so I don't rate them as set defining. However, I definitely recommend taking those whenever you have one available. The godmodes I have rated as unique and set defining but I personally view them as a waste except as set mules, but I understand others might disagree so I highlighted them in case that's your thing. Probably more relevant to tankermind builds who don't mind having the right inspirations available to offset the annoying crashes. AOE controls: the sleep from chill and EMP from charge : limited though these are, they are still aoe controls - something most secondaries lack - so they can be useful. That being said, I have never felt a need to take EMP (or the energy pool in general…), but I have use the sleep on occasion to aid with split pulling or to keep a second spawn from aggroing. Not much use in mid to late game teaming, basically a soloing aide. Hibernate & Rise of the Phoenix are unique and if you like them, worth taking the pool for. Power boost is amazing for many secondaries (goes great with /time's Farsight!). Strange that it is missing from the Energy pool, as it was a signature power in the blaster energy secondary to start…. It's also frustrating that it's only in a set that was already very good. KO Blow : I have never taken it because 23 end for an attack that does less damage than a Scrapper T1 (to give you an idea of how much of an enemy's life% you will hit for) is silly to me, no matter how cool the animation is. E very set has a terrible damage cone power, and some also have terrible damage blasts or single target attacks (yes, TF looks huge compared to our other attacks, but it's less than a scrapper T1). Tl;ndr: Why pick one pool over another? Charge - Pick it if you want EMP. For me, I can't think of a non-thematic reason why I would pick this pool - I don't think EMP is good enough to be worth the drawbacks and recharge. Also, as I said above, I don't think the attacks or godmodes - as they are - are good mechanical options for masterminds. Chill - pick it if you want to cap S/L defense and don't want mace. Dull pain and hibernate are also solid and more like the kind of long recharge defensive power I would want on an MM (compared to the godmodes), so overall it's a solid defensive set. Field - Don't pick this set? The only thing it has going for it is a godmode… It looks like it wants to be the ranged attack set, but the #s on these attacks are so bad I can't recommend them. This set should have had at least power boost or boost range going for it. Heat - Pick this for Bonfire. The attacks are crap, luckily you can skip them and grab Char (and Rise of the Phoenix if you really want a self rez). Bonfire was good before, now with the kb->kd proc it's an amazing control for MMs, with some damage (probably more if you run a bunch of procs). Leviathan - Take it for theme? I dunno, unless you want to throw sharks or spit vomit, I don't see anything special about this set. KO blow would be cool, except for the whole "less that T1 scrapper damage". Shame we didn't get the Arctic Breath option from brutes, that at least has -def and -res debuffs. One thing you can do with this set is use KB blow for the hold and get two holds from the set…I mean, that's something? Mace - pick this for Power Boost AND capping S/L defense. It also has a solid aoe immob and a hold - oh and a random skippable cone (same damage as your existing aoe but double the recharge!). If there's a "best" set for raw power, this is it. Mu - Pick this for Electrifying Fences (what??). Seriously. It's the only aoe immob we have access to that has -kb on it. Meaning that it will hold enemies in your Bots burn patch instead of letting them get knocked out of it by all the other blasts. It's also good to a lesser degree with mercs and thugs/ for the same reason. If you don't want to spend precious slots slotting KB->KD procs, and you're bots/, and none of the other epics scream out at you, grab the armor (b/c you have to and it's not bad), the aoe immob and the single target hold. Attacks are garbage. Soul Mastery - Pick this for Oppressive Gloom. If you're going to be in melee all the time (/time, /nature, etc.) having a permanent pbaoe stun aura is great! It only takes out minions, but that's still a decent amount of damage negated and can mag stack with other stuns (/storm's Thunderclap is the main one that comes to mind, but some pets have stunning attacks as well). Thoughts and hopes for the future I'm not happy with where the MM pools are right now, compared to other AT's pool options, but it is what it is - and there are some solid options in there! The recent dominator and snipe changes on the beta have given me hope for interesting balance changes going forward. I'm not sure how sweeping they'll be, but who knows! So I thought it was worth putting out my thoughts on these pools, after having spent ….way too many hours on too many masterminds on live and now. With this in mind, I'm working on a suggestion post for later tonight or tomorrow. EDIT: I finally got around to putting together and formatting my overhaul suggestions, which are here.

Agreed. /fiery was great on live. Changing snipe to be a viable attack in the chain (and now, without the tohit requirements) seems like a huge enough buff already. I haven't felt a need to play a /fiery yet in this new era because I played the hell out of it before, and it was solid. Re : buffing T1s : this would be great as well. It was a long term frustration I had on live with the number of offensive secondaries where the T1 did not fit into mid to late game play. However, for the reasons you stated I can see why leaving it locked makes sense. For some ATs, designing a secondary offensive T1 is much easier (blasters), I think dominators are one of the more difficult ATs to find the right balance on an attack power everyone is forced to take. I'm not even sure if I can disagree with the choice of making them all ranged, even though 90% of the dominators I play and would play spend most of their time in melee. In all the characters and builds I've done so far (except one of my /fierys on live, on which I forced myself to use flares for some reason), I leave the t1 as a useless, empty attack, but I get that others might not and why you wouldn't want to put a melee attack or even the mid recharge blast in that spot. However, that's the only real idea I have at the moment - making the T1 an ~8s attack and changing the set's existing ~8s ranged attack to something else (maybe filling in something else that's lacking OR putting the T1 there with debuffs attached?) - but that could make things frustrating for new players.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. I agree, if it's that solid it will be a pretty tough choice, as we really don't need all those attacks, but they are all good options. I'll just play it out and see how it feels. One of the other servers implemented being able to choose either of your first two secondaries, I'm hoping we get that eventually. Having dead powers is annoying. I have a fire/thorn I'm working on and was planning on skipping either Skewer or Impale, pre-patch changes. Now I'm just not sure. Typically I consider skipping the cone, but the dimensions of Fling Thorns just make it so usable...Ripper and Thorn Burst are both clunky on live, but good enough that I generally take them anyway, and now Ripper is getting even better. Thorns is looking really competitive when this goes live.

* Earth : YESS to the mud pots range boost. My ice/earth will love this. * Elec : Looks like a solid buff to thunderstrike. I need to do some damage testing with Voltaic Sentinel and see if it makes the set worth it. * Icy : Double YESS the set now has a much more "signature" signature power. This and the previous changes I think make ice solid contender. Looking forward to rolling up a new ??/ice after the changes go live. * MA : Reasonable nerf to EB, it just felt way too strong. It's still keeping the duration and tohit though, which is going to keep the set a really strong performer. The melee changes are also solid. The DPA lovers are going to love this even more, and the rest of us won't complain either ;). * So what was the issue with the Savage changes? They seemed solid to me (and I've got a dark/savage @ 38 I'm working on 😉 :). Then again, the set is pretty close to solid on live, so leaving it as is isn't terrible. * Thorny : Not sure what's going on with Skewer here. I'd be more OK with its conversion to a fast attack if we had the option to choose either T1 or T2 secondary at creation. In the interim, I'll likely still keep skipping it. So, Impale now has the same damage as on live but a 2 second longer recharge? Seems like an error? The ripper changes I'm really going to have to play with a bit to inform my opinion. Thorn Barrage seems solid, it's now a very heavy hitter - the heaviest T9 range, I think. This seem fitting for the long cast time (which I am fine with! I don't think every attack should be super fast). Overall looks pretty solid and I look forward to taking some things for spins. EDIT: I Fired up a plant/elec on Justin and put in some time on /elec. The combination of the snipe changes and the animation speed boost [It feels nice and smooth too!] to thunderstrike make the set FEEL way better, just smoother to play. Whether or not a secondary has a snipe is now super relevant, the damage there (with tactics for +TOHIT boost) was really, really significant. I wonder if the "insta" animation time shouldn't be made a tiny bit longer? I need to go look at the numbers on them... REQUEST: Could we get the sentinel showing up in the pet window please (even the dominator fiery orb proc is in there!) so we can tell when we need to recast without looking around and trying to find it on a potentially crowded battlefield?

I wonder if it would be possible to just give them the choice of the 3 attacks and separate that choice from the primary itself? So you pick dp+demons or whips+bots or whatever. I don't see any balance issues with that. I've only taken an attack on one MM anyway, but I get that people want to...for reasons. I still think they shouldn't have given them attacks in the first place, as it gives players the wrong idea about what the set is about. HUH. OK. Now I'm on a roll here. Pull all the attacks out, make them separate little choice pools that every mm gets to pick, and they fill in the same levels, etc. BUT also, add a couple extra support mini-pools for those of us who dgaf about attacks. Mini buffs and controls that are thematic, etc. Quick ideas off the top of my head, not well thought out at all: One could be an improved presence pool, for those actually wanting to be Tankerminds : single target taunt, aoe taunt and a power that makes your targeted pet do a taunt. A military buff style set, similar to what you suggested - have a "bunker down" power that locks the pets in place (just forces them to play a specific emote, then roots them, no new gfx) and gives them some +def, but also debuffs their max range or something (so it doesn't become the flat out best option), maybe have a single target heal, and maybe move the merc serum power here, buff it, and give Mercs a real power. A magic style set, similar to sorcery. Can use the animations from the demon buffs, sorcery, etc. Give a minor all-pet resist buff, a minor aoe debuff (say, slow+-tohit or something), maybe a single target heal - would go great with a set like /FF.

...can you elaborate? 🙂 I had this on my plant/poison, but switched it to Spirit Ward because it didn't seem to be doing much....but maybe with procs? Also the gale thing sounds hilarious, definitely trying. My favorite controller thing lately is entirely visual: Stacking Hot Feet+Entangling Aura+World of Confusion & color to taste. Primarily Entangling+WoC is just the right size to make a neat effect. I'm amused enough that I've held off on respeccing into a patron pet (which I almost always do on controllers, doms & veats). Also, I mean, it's solid synergy all around. Stuff you stand next to has problems :P.

Thanks! Re-purposing chunks of this for my own dominator calculations 🙂

First off: Could we get separate threads for the dominator and snipe changes please? These are significantly different things and the discussion is already getting muddled. Second, having just spent a bunch of time deep diving into dominator secondaries...I have opinions! 😉 For those of you wondering about the recharge time+damage changes: these are all straight buffs, 100%. Dominators run obscene levels of recharge and have very little use for quick recharging, low damage powers. Earth: I don't think earth need any buffs, but I'll happily take them - and the cast time reduction during tremor is likely going to be pretty noticable. One area that I wouldn't mind earth getting a buff on is the other signature piece (beyond single target damage) of the set: mud pots. Boosting the aoe SIZE a bit would be nice. The PB change is also significant. Energy : not much to see here, minor buffs. TF shortening will make for smoother chains...but I do love that animation, so we'll see how it feels going that much faster. Icy: Solid buffs, but same comment as above with respect to earth : the signature move of icy is chilling embrace, which has a radius of ten, getting that buffed to 15 or 20 would be great. Adding a -dmg component or something to that effect would help as well. Psionic : These will mostly be negligible to me, as when I play /psi I am not using either of these powers much (I don't slot the first attack on most doms) - generally on /psi you want to keep monsters clustered together so the KB from TK thrust is not ideal. However, I do use it sometimes as a 0-slotted 100% control power, so this will greatly increase it's functionality in that role. Rad : buffs to an already great set. However...these changes make dblow identical to seismic smash and contaminated identical to stone mallet. The set is now basically a slightly higher damage (due to the dot/contamination) /earth with -def debuffs and a snipe instead of an aura. I would like the set to have more than that to distinguish it. It needs a core unique power to build an identity around, which seems to so far be lacking. I forget, did the game every get knock-to (pull things toward you) physics? Maybe adding a pbaoe knock-to to atom smasher or radiation siphon? Just something that screams THIS SET IS UNIQUE.. Savage : seems OK. Nothing crazy. Will have to see how the unkindness change plays out, as right now it doesn't fit very well into the attack chain. Giving it a much wider arc (60+?) and shortening the range (if necessary) might help here, as this is a set that likes to be in melee. Martial : I thought the cone thing must have been intentional, glad to see it's not and they are cleaning up oddities like that. Trick shot is crazy good. I think this set should be renamed to 'Shuriken Assault" or someting, as it's NOT a good melee set as the word "martial" seems to suggest (aside from using your ranged attacks in melee range, which most dominators do) in the sense that the melee powers are both weak. However, it's a solid set all around and has 3 unique pieces: the special build-up (which makes the snipe even better), caltrops, and Trick shot. Thorny : I don't think Skewer needed to be made a faster attack (see above), as these aren't great for dominators. However, I've been skipping this attack on planned builds, and that will get even more relevant with the faster impale! The impale/barrage buffs are quality. tl;dnr: Great changes, but buff chilling embrace & mud pots and give rad a signature power and an identity.

I'd say that doms are one of the most complex (if not the most complex) classes to play, so it can take quite a while to find your groove. More than any other class except maybe blapper style blasters, a good dominator has to be aware of : positioning, recharge times on powers, durations on powers, how many applications of a power it takes to lock a particular monster down, and how many attacks it takes to defeat a given opponent class (min/lt/boss). It's a lot to juggle, and not for everyone. There's also the playstyle changes that come with perma-dom (which you should absolutely aim for as a dominator), which can be significant. If you really want a heal, you could try /savage or /psi secondary. In addition to what the others have said, since you are dark, when fighting hold resistant monsters, you could try dropping confuse, then shadow field from around the corner - if you get lucky it will tick on the boss or resistant monster and you can follow up with dark grasp, locking them down. Slotting fearsome stare for -tohit can help too. You can also stack 2 confuses on the resistant monster before engaging.