[Insta-kill protection for henchmen]

Protection from dying in a single hit wouldn't prevent pet deaths in bodyguard mode, as that's two separate hits when you and the pet are both targeted by the same AoE.

[Need input on how to make this Beast/Nature build better.]

On 9/10/2019 at 9:16 AM, SmalltalkJava said:

For Call Ravens I ended up going with the second slotting option 3 Anni, 2 Lady Gray, 1 Frozen blast.   I made a couple example videos to show the build in action.   Please keep in mind that this is just to show an example fight and take into account that I don't have the flow down quite yet and that I'm not particularity blessed when it comes to hand-eye coordination.   You will see bad play, but at least it gives some context of how the build works.   This is also against +3x8 mobs in the PI portal mission.   I am not incarnate level shifted so this should be fairly equivalent of level shifted fighting +4x8, except for the lack of incarnate powers.

 

I do lose pets on occasion. But I think it has more to do with me playing and not the actual build.

 

The answer to your thoughts...  YES.  I am not a good player.

 

 

 

 

 

My only comment on the videos is that coming from Bots/Time that looks just horrifyingly slow. I have a Council Empire AE farm map, and playing it on +4/x8 I can take out 3-4 full spawns in less time than it takes your beasts to handle one...

[Necro/Storm viable?]

4 hours ago, Elthenar said:

I did that with my ninja/cold and it just seemed redundant with Freezing Rain. With the KD spam already inherent to storm, its a waste. I'd go either Scorpion for the shield and maybe powerboost (powerboosted KD's and debuffs) or my current fav, Soul for the resist shield and Oppressive Gloom. Between Oppressive Gloom, all the KD's and the Lich's CC's, you will literally CC the entire pack so nothing can do much to your undead.  Storm will also help make up for the low damage on the LIch.  You won't be soloing AV's as well as other specs, but it will have power.

Freezing Rain/Sleet has a very very low chance of knockdown. The fast ticking helps, but it still doesn't knockdown very reliably. Bonfire on the other hand is guaranteed, 100% chance of knockdown (Once you apply Sudden Acceleration or Overwhelming Force obviously), and will just dribble the enemies, never letting them get a chance to attack, so they're pretty different.

 

If anything creates redundancy between Bonfire and Storm it's Tornado (Again, with KB->KD converter applied), but to me that's just part of the fun. I've got a Thugs/Storm I'm planning to go /Heat with for Tornado + Bonfire lulz. At least if I actually get around to playing the game again any time soon... stupid school and work.

[Crysys's Bots/Time Capped Defense build.]

2 hours ago, SmalltalkJava said:

Lol.  For some reason I read it as he was using Force Field 

Ah, makes sense.

 

I've had times where I joined teams on a Time toon and they were like "We still need a healer" and I was just like O.o

 

Admittedly I was playing a Mastermind or a Controller all the times that happened, but I was like, "Guys, I'm a healer, I promise. I promise you will be safer with me along than you've ever been, just about. Time is ludicrously good at keeping teams alive."

 

And even when I'm playing MM, I'm focusing almost wholly on support. Especially with /Time, sometimes I realize after a spawn gets finished off that my bots haven't been participating because they were on bodyguard and I/they never got attacked, because I was busy throwing Distortion Field and Time Crawl and Time Stop and positioning for maximum effect with Time's Juncture, and throwing Mending and Chrono Shift and Farsight on cooldown. Maybe people aren't used to an MM who actually provides useful team support, I dunno 😄

 

For me, MM is a Defender that trades a small amount of support effectiveness for having a built in team when you want to solo 😄

 

[Crysys's Bots/Time Capped Defense build.]

15 hours ago, Neiska said:

Bit late, but after reading the thread I was inspired to try out the build Crysis put up. And I hate to say it, but the results are... disappointing. Shes more or less a fresh 50, with most of the IO's listed. All but the 25m/slot ones. Her defense is around 55%. But its not her defense thats the issue, or the support. Its her damage. Her damage is so low that she struggles on +1/8, and I am struggling to figure out how to get past this point. I have all the IOs for support and defenses, and I am working on the ones for my assault bot at the moment. 

 

Playstyle - I usually leave my pets on BG mode, unless I see priority targets then I put command the assualt and battle bots to focus them down. I keep Powered Farsight up, haste, chrono shift. I also keep down distortion fields and slowed responses, and use Chrono Shift as necessary. 

 

But I think I have the style down, but is this just not a solo friendly setup? Because Ive left to make a cup of coffee before and returned, and my bots are still fighting the same group of mobs. Ive had farsight and so on come off cooldown.

 

Anyway, any insight to this please? Suggested Incarnates? Is this more or less a group only build or will it be able to solo harder content later on? I am just concerned about sinking any more infamy into this build without confirmation that it will be able to run with the big boys later on.

 

Thanks bunches.

 

I haven't tried out Crysis' build, but you could try mine. I've had no problem with it at all solo. In fact it solos well enough to be a farmer. Not quite as much inf/minute as a Brute, but it's not bad (About 2/3 of an optiminzed Brute farmer's speed, I estimate).

 

I've soloed AVs (On +4/x8) and GMs and even an entire TF (Again on +4/x8) with it too.

Click for build!

12 hours ago, SmalltalkJava said:

For this build. I suggest grouping 99% of the time.  It will be strong with a healer.   The problem with MM secondaries that can’t heal is the inherent 5% chance that you or the bots will get hit.  You can’t get around that.  Compound that with the +4x8 content is that there are more mobs and they will hit harder.   So the 5% will happen more often due to more attacks coming in, and they will hit harder.     The best soloing secondaries are the ones with heals and Storm.   + Storm due to the insane damage and cc that the secondary supplies. 

 

Having a heal secondary allows you to reset the pets health AFTER and during each battle so you are fresh for the next fight.    The most reliable and smooth secondaries combine some layered combos of defenses,resists,cc, absorb, heals.    Pure defense and even combined with -tohit will never get past the 5% get hit streak breaker rule.  You need another layer, preferably 2.     That is why /Time and /Nature are so nice.  They add multiple layers of mitigation and also heal.

 

 

 

Errr... what?

 

Time is a healer secondary. It has the widest area PBAoE heal in the game, and the amount it heals for is better than any other set's AoE heal other than maybe Dark, if you count the HoT component. Granted it takes 6 seconds to fully apply all that healing, but that just means you can stack it, and use it pre-emptively.

[Necro/Storm viable?]

And then go Heat Mastery for Bonfire 😉

[Demons/Nature?]

6 hours ago, Dr Causality said:

 

 

Nature is very underestimated for MM and it's the Absorb SmalltalkJava mentions that makes it perform much better than people are imagining.   Far from needing to be paired with sturdy pets, Nature actually makes pets sturdy.    Slotted Nature gives you a 650 HP aoe Absorb Shield plus a bonus 17% Resistance.  That's a massive EHP increase, especially for the tier 1 and even tier 2 pets.  Tier 1 pets have just 575 HP, so Nature's Absorb Shield fully slotted is more than the pets entire base HP.  Meaning Nature more than doubles your tier 1 pets EHP:    650 HP Absorb** + 575 base HP.  Except it's actually more because if I understand correctly Absorb functions like temporary HP, so the Resistance you have decreases incoming damage first.  That means the 650 Absorb is effectively buffed when Nature's 17% resistance reduces the incoming dmg making the Absorb equal to around 783 EHP  with the base HP similarly buffed to 692 EHP.   Putting them together you're tier 1 pets go from 575 HP to 1475 EHP.     Except it's actually better because of course you're going to use the two +10% Resistance IO procs.   So actually the that 650 HP Absorb shield is buffed by a 37% Resistance up to 970 EHP!   Combined with base HP similarly buffed from 575 HP to 858 HP, for a whopping total of 1828 EHP.    And it's even better on Demon's because they have Ember Demon Shield for 10-13% Resistance and plus one of the highest base Resistance of all the MM pets.  

 

Another way of thinking about this is that because the Absorb shield is greater than the pets entire base HP pool, it effectively doubles the value of any resistance the pets have.  So the 20% Res from pet IOs, the 17% from Nature, the 10  - 13% from Ember Demons, base resistances etc. are all effectively doubled in value.     This helps illustrate an important point:  the Absorb most benefits pets and characters with high resistance.  So having high base resistance like Demons, maximizes the EHP from the Absorb shield.  

 

 

All these buffs apply to your Incarnate pets and of course your MM's EHP too.    So it makes sense why we'd see these on iTrials.      Nature's big struggle is the Absorb power has a high 240s Rech, with a duration of just 60s.  Normal slotting only gets it to around 68s cool down, so not even up 100%.   But you'd like it up far more often that.  So probably pairs best with Teams that have Destiny Ageless,  Kins, Time, or Radiation  for +Rech buffs.   

 

In sum Nature is a top tier MM set in terms of pet survivability.   Probably strongest when paired with Thugs, or Bots (and maybe Beast.)   Since they all  have okay base resistances, but most importantly get +Def bufffs that the Nature set lacks.    A high Defense means pets are less likely to get hit, so less likely to deplete the Absorb shield and get hit a 2nd time before the Absorb is off cooldown again...   But also very good on Demons since they have the top overall pet Resistance, maximizing the Absorb shield EHP buff.   Whereas Ninjas having 0 base Resistance, except for Oni's 52% fire, means Nature won't buff them as much as the other set's pets are buffed.  (Sadly, nothing short of Dev rebalancing is going to make Ninja's as sturdy as other set's pets.)

 

 

**Edit** Wanted to mention that this number is pulled from Mid's and I have been unable to verify it from in game data.   From looking at the grey Absorb graphic bar it actually appears the Absorb is only slightly below 1/2 of the Tier 1 Pet HP and about 1/3 of the MM HP....assuming it's to scale...   That would still be a major EHP buff, but significantly less than Mid's displays...  Beyond the gray bar ontop of the HP bar, the only in game number I can find show 25% Absorb which if correct would mean it does not get enhanced by IO's or Alpha Incarnate. 

Bastion is indeed a 25% Absorb, but it *is* affected by enhancements. With say, a full set of Preventative Medicine, it reaches 51.36% absorb. What that means is it scales to the max HP of the target. So if your tier 1 pet has 575 max hp, Bastion will give it a 295.32 hp absorb shield. This isn't bad, but it's not the 650 you initially wrote about. If you were using old Mid's for your numbers, it was probably showing you what 51.36% of YOUR hp (As in, the actual Mastermind you're building) was.

 

My copy of Mid's Reborn shows 25%, and it gets better with healing IOs.

[Allow Wormhole to work on lvl 54 Bosses]

It'd sure be nice if we could get an admin post about whether this is likely to be fixed.

[Mid's Reborn: Hero Designer]

Is there any chance of getting the shift+click on pet summon power showing the pet's powers back?

[Allow Wormhole to work on lvl 54 Bosses]

22 hours ago, pwntoon said:

This happens if the team runs the LGTF below the +2 level difficulty. Hami spawns as an Elite Boss, so Wormhole can work on it if it's within the level requirement and an accuracy check passes.

 

Just to clarify: it's only a level disparity check. The video I posted (https://forums.homecomingservers.com/uploads/monthly_2019_09/585267662_UltimateInspirationWorks.webm.3eb16ed82f19248b322ab178ec0368b2.webm) demonstrates this. At 30 seconds in I use an Ultimate Inspiration and successfully TP the boss.

 

Those Ultimate inspirations are Super Inspiration rewards for incarnate trials. They can also be acquired on the ah, or you can trade Incarnate Threads for them in ouro. I typically carry a few around with me to work around this annoying mechanic, but it's really expensive to use them for every lvl 54 mob I come across, in MSRs, ITFs, Tin, Apex, Mission teams, etc. 

 

 

Mobs that are higher level than you get a knockback mag reduction. I suspect they probably also get a teleport mag reduction. So by the time you're dealing with +3 or +4 bosses, the effective teleport mag is reduced against them below the level of their protection.

 

This would mean that, yes, Ultimate Insps would fix the problem, but it's still not an explicit level check. It's an effect of the level difference giving them mag resistance.

[Tankermind still viable in 2019?]

Pets are mobs/critters, and therefore have a 90% resistance cap.

[The mastermind population at level 50, first four months]

No Beasts/Traps doesn't surprise me. It's a thematic issue. Your wild animal pets are not going to be thrilled about a master who's a trapper!

[How to improve Mercs?]

7 hours ago, biostem said:

Well, regarding thugs getting leadership and mercs not, I look at it like this:  As the gang leader, you rely upon your enforcers to backup your regular thugs and the bruiser.  As the leader of a group of mercenaries, you are the squad leader, and just order them around more directly.  I realize that a lot has to do with thugs coming later, and I certainly agree that mercs need some love, but both sets function quite differently...

No... As the Mastermind, I'm the Mercenaries' employer. I'm not part of their squad. I just pay them to do my bidding.

 

Also, only the Medic has an SMG. The regular soldiers have assault rifles. And the Spec-Ops guys are special forces types, they are snipers who also have some (Really awfully bad) CC grenades and backup guns.

 

[Allow Wormhole to work on lvl 54 Bosses]

8 hours ago, RubberDougie said:

fun and useful in lower content that isn't at set past +1!! 

Unfortunately that means no teams ever, since every team I've ever been on (Even at low levels) is running at +4

 

I too have scrapped a Grav/ Controller I'd been building over this. I drew up a full endgame build, and played him to around level 22 I think, and then saw this thread and shelved him. I'll not bother continuing to play him unless they make Wormhole work on +4 bosses.

[The Next Mastermind?]

15 hours ago, Tubalcain said:

Yeah /Cold is amazing. Particularly as an MM secondary. Those +defense buffs go a long way to keep pets alive. Benumb is an amazing debuff for use against AVs. Sleet has a powerful -resistance debuff that can be enhanced with both Annihilation and Achilles' Heel for a -res ranging from -30% to -70% which is a massive boost for both pets and the whole team. Heat Loss piles even MORE -res and resolves any and all endurance issues you, your pets, or your team mates have. No idea why more MMs don't take this.

Basically because if you're going for pure maximum defense, Force Field is better. And if you want strong Defense and also utility, Time can crank out just as much Defense as Cold can--arguably more because Farsight doesn't have any holes, and can be Power Boosted--and it can heal, and has -ToHit, and ludicrously strong -recharge, some -regen, and a little -resist.

 

The only compelling argument for Cold is that it does more -resist than any other secondary... But people considering it for that reason tend to end up going Storm instead because that gives you nearly as much -resist and a giant sized helping of damaging abilities and knockdowns on the side.

 

It's not that Cold is bad, it's just that it gets a bit outshone on everything, and people largely only pick sets with "THE MOST" of something. Which Cold does have, but -resist generally appeals to someone looking to do ALL THE DAMAGE, which Storm does better. And Storm also gets a heal. It's a shitty one, but it's more than Cold gets.

[Got complaints about being a mastermind in a group]

5 minutes ago, PaxArcana said:

.... which is precisely why I mentioned Area of Effect.

So, okay, you're softcapped and in BG.  I drop a 300-point AoE on you and the pets.

You may take only 75 (and then resist it down to very very little).  But each of your pets just took 338.  How many times can that happen, before you start losing pets ...?  At which point, the pet-killing snowballs (lose the Tier 1's, and you'll be taking 2 shares of 5, for 120; the pets will take 1 share of 5, plus full damage themselves, for 360 apiece).

 

Then, once your pets are all dead ... you just got a lot squishier.  🙂

Except that's never going to happen. I'm soft capped, and so are the pets. They only take bodyguard damage if I get hit, and they only take additional damage themselves if they also get hit. Generally speaking, no attack is going to hit more than one out of 7 of us at best, given there's only a 1 in 20 chance of hitting any of us.

 

And Time is a solid healer on top of all its other benefits.

 

There's a reason I deliberately take alphas even on 8 man teams, unless the enemies are super mez-happy (And even then it's just because I find being mezzed annoying).

[Got complaints about being a mastermind in a group]

14 hours ago, PaxArcana said:

Basically, any secondary that relies on Buffs, rather than Debuffs or Attacks.

/Empathy, absolutely can be played for no-personal-aggro.  So can /Pain and /Thermal.

 

/Nature and /Cold can be focused entirely on the buffs, avoiding things that might draw aggro, at least until level 20+ (when you have four or more pets out).

 

🙂

Also, if you just wait for your pets to get aggro (via damage) before throwing out the debuffs, you get attacked pretty rarely, IME.

I micromanage my Henchmen to within an inch of their "lives" ... 😄

... maybe after you get several Incarnate abilities under your belt, but before then ... MMs are kinda squishy w/o Bodyguard.  And even with, if the other guy brings strong AoE to the table. 😄

Waiting to throw debuffs sounds like a recipe for dead pets. I pride myself on how rarely I have to resummon.

 

I don't micro the pets because I don't like it, and I consider our tools for doing so to be quite lacking as there's no "Go here and STAY here and don't fucking leave that spot" command, which means generally if you want to keep them in a specific spot you have to just spam the goto command forever to make them keep coming back... and that disrupts their attack chains.

 

As for going toe to toe with Superman... Have you not played a /Time MM yet? Soft capped to ALL damage, and with 75% resistance as long as the pets are alive and in bodyguard. I'm god damn indestructible.

[I am a poor AT... No ones wants me :'(]

3 hours ago, PaxArcana said:

Allow me to explain, then:

 

The moment someone suggests changes, self-described as "mainly because of PvP", that will also affect PvE?  I am immediately, completely, and unswervingly opposed to it.

Limit the scope of those changes only to PvP, and I would remain neutral (and disinterested).  But the moment you stick your chocolate in my peanut butter, well ...

Agree 100%. No general balance changes should ever be made based on PvP, unless they can be made to only affect PvP.

 

Because balancing around PvP is how good games die a horrible death through homogenization.

[Got complaints about being a mastermind in a group]

1 hour ago, PaxArcana said:

If you never get attacked, bodyguard mode is irrelevant.  😄

Only way that could happen would be if you were playing with an uber-passive secondary like FF or Sonic, and never using any attacks either. Which I could never do because I'd be too bored.

 

Besides, I'm a Darkseid style mastermind. Sure, I'm a planner and a commander, but I can also go one on one with Superman 😄

[Got complaints about being a mastermind in a group]

My goal is generally to be attacked so my pets will fight without me having to compromise my safety by turning off bodyguard mode.

[Got complaints about being a mastermind in a group]

22 hours ago, PaxArcana said:

I know the door.  And, funny thing?  I set my pets up twenty feet down the hallway, on aggressive/stay.

Then, I peek in just enough to tab-target a mob, before dashing back behind my pets.  If the mob(s) follow, great, it's laser-to-the-face time.

If not?  That's why that MM took Teleport Foe ... 😄

Willingly, unwillingly, the mob IS going to be in the hallway for some face-lasering.  😄

I just charge in and give my pets a Goto command to get them fully inside the room after I eat the alpha.

[Is Mace Mastery necessary for Robotics/FF?]

Yes, but he was asking about uniques like Miracle +recovery and the Gladiator Armor +3% defense IO and such, which don't give any enhancement value. As such there's no reason to ever boost them, and you're always best off getting those specific IOs as attuned or the lowest level they come in, as the level of the IO makes absolutely zero difference to what they do.

 

Other stuff it's down to whether you're more concerned about endgame power or exemplar performance. Personally I go with everything attuned except my purples, superiors, pvps, etc, because I expect to exemplar down quite a lot, generally. Also while lower level content may be easy enough that you don't need some of your set bonuses, I really hate it when I lose global +recharge and perma-hasten goes bye-bye.

[How to improve Mercs?]

7 hours ago, Redlynne said:

FINALLY.

Data I can WORK with ...

 

~~SNIP~~

 

There ... that should work, I reckon.

Jettison the lame/old animations for all their powers, reshuffle the Frag Grenade between the Medic (why!?!) and the Soldiers (duh!!) and just let Mercenaries "do their things faster" using the existing faster animations.  All we have to do is "repurpose" already existing assets inside the game and update the existing powers that Mercenaries use to reflect those changes (game mechanically) and they'll be on their way to being "fixed" as far as the end users (Mastermind Players) are concerned.

 

The mere fact that pretty much EVERY animation used by Mercenaries was obsolete when the powerset was built ought to be the first clue that these Pets are DESPERATELY in need of an overhaul by the Homecoming Dev team.

 

And yes ... part of the problem with Mercs (as is) is that they've got too few attacks each with absurdly long (obsolete!) animations and long recharge times that prevent any kind of attack chain "flow" from happening for them.  They basically get "caught" in the granularity of their own attack powers not flowing well over time, unlike Ninjas (or really any other Mastermind Pet set, really).

 

 

 

Any takers?

Good ideas, but we probably also want to switch them to the no-redraw animations. Redraw currently adds a significant amount of lag time into their attack chains. Also it looks silly because they often put the gun away and then redraw it even when they're going from one AR power to another.

[How to improve Mercs?]

10 minutes ago, esotericist said:

You don't need to redesign mercs entirely.

 

To fix the DPS problem, just adjust the DPA upwards a little closer to sane. Keep the same animations, increase the damage a bit, and that problem is solved. Doesn't even need to match the DPA of other sets just as long as the window is narrowed (and the below problems are tackled).

Can't really be done. The activation/animation on Full Auto is FOUR SECONDS. And the activation on LRM is even worse, at 5.87s.

 

Regardless, buffing their damage to make them even close to the DPA of other pets would require them to be absurdly strong, which would arguably make the Commando too powerful in terms of burst damage.

 

Especially when you factor in what the best damage dealing primaries can do with burn patches, which Mercs doesn't have.

[Please revert the Rage change.]

8 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

how is it weaker than Build-up?

 

Its more like "All the time Build-up"

Ah, so it is. I was thinking of Blaster Build-Up where they get a 100% damage boost (As compared to Brutes who only get 80%).