ScarySai

That's another thing I forgot to mention. They still have the punch, but if you want them to melee you gotta move them to melee. It's better than having a good formation ruined by your assault bot deciding he's going to melee the war wolf across the map instead of blasting it. Besides, most enemies - especially low level ones - will come to you, anyway.

Assuming it can be addressed, at least it ends up better in the end.

Only before your first protector, really. Having your bot run ahead will more often than not lead to it's untimely dismantling. More offensively capable secondaries will manage without the melee attacks, defensive sets like FF will notice a very marginal damage difference, but a much higher chance of survival with a lower chance of your pet running off and overpulling. Overcomplicating things with a pre-32 melee behavior on predominantly ranged pets would be a bad way to handle it. The pros outweigh any con.

All I want for Christmas, are these changes~ Small thing I've noticed lately, though - after a bit more testing. Thug's T1 minions have a habit of stutter-stepping towards their target instead of staying put, enforcers are pretty well behaved, but the melee centric brute tends to run off way too far at times, still. Bots are VERY well behaved, it's astonishing how much of a difference it is. Demons also appear to be behave, though I fear the demonlings aren't living up to their potential since they don't run into melee as often. Ember's AI should be more aggressive, so he hangs with your pets for the AOE heal and resist aura, as well as his breath weapon. No comment on ninjas, beasts or undead, I don't really play them.

The fact pineapple is polling so high is very, very upsetting to me, and I'm going to kill hundreds of council as a response to this information.

For a thread that's supposed to be about focused feedback regarding these specific pet & AI changes, we're sure derailing it with a lot of completely unrelated PVP garbage. So make another thread for the PVP mastermind suggestions, this isn't the place for it. My praise for the changes still stand. Have yet to encounter much issue with bots or thugs.

Just a quick request - I was curious if it was off the table for /Traps to get the trip mine buff that devices had a good bit ago, as it would help the power's reliability quite a bit. Though, I would understand if it doesn't happen. Traps is a pretty insane set relative to devices. A recharge reduction on detonator would be nice, as well.

I'm fully in support of increasing the pet level. Just saying it'll be interesting to see what would happen if they did it.

For something like bots or thugs mixed with something like Time or Traps though, it would just be a straight ticket to godhood. Not that it's a problem, I'd support it - but those can perform insane feats with just SOs. I just fear that they would nerf a few things to compensate for the levels being adjusted.

Removing the level handicap on t1 and t2 pets would certainly have some interesting results, by itself, it would make masterminds much stronger and they are already fairly powerful when built right.

So, any chance we'll get this awesomeness before January?

After EXTENSIVE testing to decide on if I wanted to roll thugs/storm or bots/storm, rest assured - he will still typically be the first to die. 😛 My only issues so far are with demonlings and ember demon on my demon/cold, otherwise this is basically just a straight QoL boost to all masterminds.

Do leave the singularity as a melee pet, though. I rather like it acting as a living bonfire.

Got two builds ready, Thug uses mace mastery, bot one uses mu (Since the protector bot fills in the defense hole VERY nicely.) I figure the thug one will at least be better until the AI changes, bots running into melee is the worst. Also, got all of the most offending storm powers a -kd IO, so no worries there. Turns the annoying into the amazing.

Order your assault bot to attack a target near the center of a dense pack, its incendiary missiles are insane. You'll get an immobilize from your epic pools later on, this will help leverage the burn patches better.

I see Thugs/Storm is generally touted as some of the best damage a mastermind can put out, but how is it when paired with bots? Bot's main weakness seems to be single target damage, which storm summoning seems to handle just fine.

Quirks related to demons aside, this is absolutely huge for bot masterminds, and I want it badly. To echo Micro's post, warshade essences may need a bit of a look too, as they still tend to divebomb into deathzones. Granted, it's not as bad as it used to be, but still.

It's good, anything with /bio is, really. That being said, with Street Justice in particular I would roll it as a stalker. It's a weird case where you don't sacrifice anything noteworthy, plus the rotation is a lot smoother due to how AS works for STJ.

That wouldn't bother me as much as being ineffective. Were the buffs sufficient, or is it still kind-of a weird secondary?

Hey, returning after a bit of a break. Moving on from my warshade and fire/mental, I'm thinking about giving water blast a go. Right now I'm torn between /fire, /devices and /atomic, but I'm not sure what will be the best combination from a purely min/max perspective. Any insight is welcome. 🙂

You are forced to delete every character forever except one. The survivor is usually your main. 🙂

How does everyone feel these two sets compare? I went with storm on my gravity controller because it seems like a stronger soloing set, but I've been curious about /Time for a good while.

Either beam or AR. DP wouldn't synergize as well with the whole 'killzone' thing, plus it doesn't have a proper snipe to take advantage of the drone with.

My fire/mental has 32.5 defenses to everything, enough damage to quickly solo a GM, and massive regen/resists/recharge on top of it all. I'm pretty sure it's the strongest blaster combo.

My bad, Widower! I should have checked the notes first.